Trees for rent

​A free tree for the holidays... wha-what!?!? And it's art? One of those bad boys would normally set you back at least $50, for a small one. And then they die (well, really they're already dying the moment they're cut down for your yuletide pleasure -- it's kind of sick when you think about it that way...). And they make a mess and you have to haul it out of your house in time for the city-sanctioned pick-up. The exhibition "Ever Green" at Monte Vista Projects in Highland Park attempts to solve this problem for you, served up as some bangin' art.

"Ever Green," going on now through December 18, is a collaborative exhibition with works from The Portable Forest, Bianca D'Amico, Nicole Antebi, and Amy Blount Lay. While The Portable Forest's contribution, Portable Forest Tree Library, is the attention-grabber in this show (did I mention a free tree for the holidays? oh, I did...), works by D'Amico, Antebi and Blount Lay complement and boost up The Portable Forest's tree rental service as a full program of art chock-full of environmental goodness.

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It's a house shaped like an egg. For chickens. Who knew chicken farming was so design-minded? I certainly did not. The house is called The Nogg. Says the creator, "The Nogg transcends ideas of what a chicken house usually looks like. It is designed to encourage domestic farming while adding a touch of playful elegance."

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The three Artigas siblings Alejandro, Tere, and Gabriela have a warm, stylish, welcoming home, where everything--every stick of furniture, every piece of clothing--is for sale. Well, almost everything. They call their place the House on Genesee. Check out my full article on them in this week's CandyLand column.

Here are some photos of the house. The contents of the house are always changing, depending on who's bought what.

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That's a casket dolly table.

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Check out this bathroom sink planter. Saw it on the sidewalk in Culver City next to Royal/T cafe in front of someone's...apartment? Office? Did someone just not know what to do with their old sink? To see it for yourself, go to the back, where the parking lot is. Kinda hilarious. Though, it makes perfect sense: it's eco-friendly, it's the perfect watering height, and there's a built-in drain hole. Guerilla gardening at its finest.

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Check out these adorable little cactus planter spacemen thingies by designer Matteo Cibic. They are called Domsai. They're a bit on the pricey side (a hundred Euros is around $136 US dollars), but so cute. Cibic thinks of them as "desk tamagotchis." If you are crafty, you could probably DIY a version with a lightbulb. Though, not sure how you'd make the feet. How great would it be if there were a drain hole at each spaceman's crotch and Cibic's Domsai pees when you water the plant? That would almost be worth the hundred Euros.

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This guy and his father in law built a hobbit house in Wales. They say they built it to be mindful of the environment and to live closer to nature, but obviously they built it in order to live more like hobbits in Lord of the Rings.

The house is nestled into a hillside. Stone and mud (and magic) were the basic construction materials. Water pipes in by gravity feed from a nearby spring. They use a compost toilet--so that's how hobbits do their business. Their refrigerator is cooled by air coming in from the underground foundations. While that sort of thing works in Wales, and probably in Hobbiton, it probably doesn't in Southern California.

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photo courtesy of Machine Project

​If you're looking for something fun(gi) ((Oh god, did I actually make that joke?!)) to do this coming Saturday night, you could do worse than the launch of Machine Project's almost-weeklong FungiFest 2010. Event starts at 8 p.m. with a mushroom collecting tutorial, some mushroom-themed film shorts, mushroom gelato from Scoops, slime mold racing and mushroom cocktails.

If you've never been to a Machine event before, this might be a nice one to start out with. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own mushroom specimens, "whether you find them growing in your yard, behind your toilet or in the woods."

Photo of Mexican wild mushrooms by Alejandro Linares Garcia

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All photos via DesignSponge "Sneak Peeks" gallery. This one is a close up of artist Sophie Blackall's, um, baby doll parts and stuff.

​Grace Bonney is the 28-year old Brooklyn-based blogger behind DesignSponge. The "Sneak Peeks" section on her blog is one of the web's most popular places to lurk for a glimpse into peoples' homes.

Alyson Fox's studio

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Why do people like to take "sneak peeks" into other peoples houses so much? What is that urge about?

I think the success of the sneak peeks is two fold: people love to learn how to decorate their home through examples, and the peeks give people a chance to indulge in the guilty pleasure of peeking into someone else's personal space and seeing how they live.

Morgan Satterfield

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Seems like every hipster within a 30 mile radius was at Unique LA's shopping event this weekend at the California Market Center in downtown Los Angeles. These were friendly, craft-loving hipsters for the most part. In case you missed it, here are some photos of stuff that was available. There was a lot of it. A lot. People were shopping like it was the end of the world.

​These are Cat Balls. They have big flat tails like platypuses.

​This is Stefan Bucher, drawer of monsters. He said that five monsters came out of him on Sunday. He drew the monsters for whoever brought their sketchbook to him.

​Don't mess with Slayer bear! He will cut you.

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Jimmy Robertson, 37, of Stockholm Sweden blogs about cat ladders. You have to wonder: um, why?

How did you become interested in cat ladders? Do you really like cats? Ladders?

It started when I was unemployed a couple of years ago. I had the time to take long walks and then I discovered that there was a lot of cat-ladders in my neighborhood. One day I took pictures. When I came home I started this blog and then it has just kept on going. Nowadays I always bring my camera and when I see a ladder I take a photo of it. People all over the world sends pictures of their own ladders or of ladders they have seen.

Do you yourself own a cat?

No no, I'm allergic as hell to cats.

I had no idea that there were so many types of cat ladders. Your blog really opens my eyes to the whole phenomenon. Do you think that the cats really NEED ladders? Historically, it seems like cats have managed fairly well without them. Or maybe not?

If you live on the third floor in a suburb and have a cat you need a ladder. I don't think that the cat should be standing outside your door and have to wait that you let them in. The cats should be free and that's why I think a ladder is necessary.

You post pictures of ladders from all over the world. From what you've seen, which nation has the most cat ladders?

Three countries dominated. Germany, Switzerland and of course Sweden.

Have you ever seen a cat fall off a cat ladder? Some of those photos look like the cat is walking the plank! Some are dangerously high.

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