New framing point installer

One of my hobbies is building photo and picture frames out of reclaimed lumber.  I've been using a pretty great framing point installer for the past couple years, but I am really coveting this one offered through Lee Valley.  They have free shipping for the next few days, perhaps I'll order one.

a pizza cutter

Over the past few months, we have started making a fair amount of homemade pizza.   One item we have never owned was a pizza cutter, something that Martha suggested to our families as a potential Christmas gift.  Its amazing how hard it is to cut pizza on our good baking sheets with just a standard knife.

 I had a vague recollection of this, and while searching out for another gift, I came across a link to a usa-made pizza cutter on Amazon.  I did a little research and the cutter is made by Rada, a manufacturer of cutlery out of Iowa.  I hade never heard of them before, but they have been in business for over 60 years and they seem to make good products.

Martha got the pizza cutter for Christmas, and although we haven't cut a pie with it yet, it appears to be pretty solid.  We look forward to using it.  I'm now considering switching over to this brand for our kitchen knives instead of the german made Wusthoff knives we currently are collecting.

One less desk?

I'm not completely sold on this yet, but its a pretty great concept. Perhaps, if we upgrade our sagging desk soon, we might give this a try:

http://www.hecklerdesign.com/onelessoffice/

Made in Arizona

Stanley Furniture

A few months ago we were shopping for a crib for an upcoming arrival. After months of searching on craigslist and other sources of used furniture, we weren't finding much that would work in the nursery. We started to look at new furniture and most of what was available in our price range was made in China. However, at one furniture store we learned about the Young America line by Stanley Furniture which, according to the salesperson was "Made in America". Excited by this, and given there was a 50% off sale, we ordered one immediately--this was a new style and not yet available.

We should have done some more research as when the crib arrived a few months later, there was a sticker on the bottom that read "made in China". It seems that everything in this line except for the cribs was US made. Not having many other options and a baby on the way soon, we kept the crib (and it is truly an awesome crib-design wise). However, it still bugs me that we made a rash decision and didn't do the research.

However, this past fall we got a sales flyer from one of the local baby stores we now frequent announcing that Stanley was returning all production back to the US. So in some way, I hope the email I sent to them had some sort of an effect. Recent reports indicate that Stanley is cutting jobs in response to the economic downturn, but they seem to still be committed to US production. Perhaps its time to get that matching dresser?

Anthropologie actually has a lot of USA made stuff

While browsing the Anthropologie website today I noticed that they actually have a fair amount of USA made items. Many of them are pretty much outside the price range of most people, but still its pretty cool to see so much (435 items!) available across nearly their full line.