Hasta La Gadget!

Would you like to sit on top of a bunch of thick and jagged poles? Normally I wouldn’t, but if I knew it was furniture made by Annie Evelyn, then I probably would.

You see, Annie is a master of disguise when it comes to her creations. They still look like furniture, of course, but what she hides so well is the comfort that her pieces can provide.

Annie ‘upholstered’ her chairs with rigid-looking materials on top of foam to give them the illusion of discomfort. Those who take the risk and take a seat will find the experience to be surprisingly pleasant.

The entire process is pretty painstaking. Annie first reclaims the frames of the wooden chairs. She then lines the back and seat with foam before cutting small pieces of rigid materials and covering the foam with these pieces.

This technique lets Annie create chairs that look like they’ve got cracked cement, tiles, and wood tiles covering the seats. However, the foam underneath makes them actually conform to your body when you sit on the chairs. Clever, no?

[via Dornob]

There are a lot of drive-through places, but not many cater to cyclists. Sure, you can still go through the drive through on your bike, but it’s not the best experience in the world to be treated to the exhaust of other vehicles waiting in line – and some places expressly disallow bicyclists at their drive-throughs.

With the goal of providing cyclists with a better coffee experience when they’re on the go, urban authorities in Zurich teamed up with a team of designers to set up the Velokafi.

The Velokafi is essentially a bike-through coffee drive-in that is dedicated to serving cyclists. The highlight is perhaps the wooden tables with slits for the bike wheel that lets people have their coffee without getting off of their bike. To compensate cyclists for getting the word out about the coffee shop, baristas hand out free cups of coffee to cyclists who check in to Velokafi on sites like Facebook and Foursquare.

The Velokafi is part of Zurich’s strategy to improve their transportation infrastructure by 2025. Looks like things are going pretty well so far.

[via Pop Up City]

Have you heard of fiverr.com? It’s a site that provides interested users with “graphics, marketing, fun and more online services for $5.” All sorts of bizarre services are being offered on the site, from people offering to write messages for you using Indian spices to making soda tab bracelets that they’ll be happy to mail to your home.

In the mix is user givingpraise, who promises to pray for your request for five bucks.

Before you get irate at the fact that someone’s trying to make a few quick bucks off of someone’s faith, the listing adds that the money raised will be used to help others. How, we’re not sure, but we’re hoping they’ll donate it to charity or fund some local programs that’ll help people in need.

I find nothing wrong with wanting to raise money to help others, but it just seems like a roundabout way to pray and ask others to pray for you, doesn’t it? A trip to your local ministry would’ve sufficed – and it would definitely be more meaningful.

[via Bruce Cat]

I don’t know about you, but when I travel, I always ask for a window seat. There’s just something about glancing out of the window and seeing the whole world (well, part of it anyway) extending in all directions. That’s the same feeling I get when I spend time with friends and family or when I see the photos that we took from our last get-together.

And what better frame to house those precious memories than with the Air Frame?

It obviously looks familiar, because it was made to look like an airplane window, only instead of being a window to the world, it’s a window to your best and most meaningful memories – assuming you’ve got them printed out in 8″x10″s.

Tuck prized shots and family portraits into the Air Frame and glance out into the world that surrounds your heart when you need a break from the real world.

The Air Frame was designed by James Kim and retails for $59(USD) for one, or $119 for a set of three over at Generate, both of which are a whole lot cheaper than most airfares these days.

You can be a romantic by wanting to lay yourself down on a bed of roses, but I’d rather be comfortable and lie down on a bed of foam balls instead. Not just regular foam balls because they’ll clearly roll all over the place, leaving you to lie on nothing but the hard floor.

Rather, I mean the Feel Seating System Deluxe. While it can be used in the home, it’s also office chair, but it looks far from being a chair – and for the office, at that.

The entire thing is comprised of 120 fabric-covered balls that are linked together with elastic strands. You’re not limited to just having a chair with the Feel Seating System, since the buckles on the edges let the user reconfigure the shape. Push and move the balls around to come up with a recliner, or flatten it some more to make a cushy bed.

The Feel Seating System Deluxe costs $7,950(USD). It’s steep, I know, but where else can you find an office chair that’s as comfortable, versatile (and productivity eliminating) as this? Fortunately, there are smaller, significantly less expensive versions for kids and smaller adults.

[via Neatorama]