Are you still trying to listen to your music at work with some pair of cheap Sony earbuds? How are you ever going to both enjoy all those tunes you’ve illegally downloaded on comapny time and also drown out the drone of your co-workers trying to “work?” Isn’t it time to move up to professional quality sound?

The Audio-Technica ATH-A900 have an aluminum housing and use the company’s Double Air Damping System to reproduce the music (or your gaming explosions) exactly as they were recorded. Want some deep bass? These will make you feel like you’re inside the drum. They’re also huge, so everyone will know that you’re not to be disturbed for anything except an emergency — like lunch.

$179.00 at AudioCubes.com

Some people collect spoons, some people collect Trolls, and some people have nothing but coffee mugs strewn about. They’re all cute and funny, I’m sure, but how many of them can you say are both surprising and complimentary at the same time?

Thorsten van Elten’s China Dog Mug hides the grinning be-tongued muzzle of a cartoon dog on the bottom, so when you’re guzzling your coffee, you’re also providing those around you with a grin and a strong case of mug envy.

$17.00 at Rose and Radish

Seems like everyone I know has either had a baby, is expecting a baby, or wants to start having babies ASAP. Me, I don’t get it. They’re nice and all, but what’s with all that wetness leaking out of them? If I got something home and it did that, I’d return it pronto.

Be that as it may be, here’s a little giftlet for those baby showers you’re invited to, but have no intention of ever having. Why spend hundreds of dollars on clothes that’ll be outsized in weeks when you can hand over this little Baby Foot Print box designed by Marlies con Soden? And there’s no rule saying it has to be foot depressions that are kept forever — think of the fun!

$35.00 at MoMA Store

Shoes! Can you ever have enough? The best thing about shoes is that your feet don’t get fat, so once you have a pair (or several) you can always wear them, even when your jeans no longer fit.

This is the Puma Bony Barrelroll. As you can see, there are several remarkable visual things about it, including a terraformed orange sole and a lovely herringbone material wrapping the foot on top. Then there’s the reason for its name — the rubber banding that crosses under the sole, rolling around the whole thing. Keen!

$70.00 at PUMA Store

If you’re cycling to work every day — or even if you only occasionally find yourself on a bike amidst the non-stop impatient hustle of traffic, I know you’ve fantasized about a bike that can handle what all those people who think they own the road (including the bike lanes). If so, have I got a T-shirt for you!

The Cycle of Violence T comes in basic black or bright blue. It’s printed on American Apparel stock so it’ll hug that righteous sexy biker’s body you worked so hard on, and when you’re not riding it’ll send a message to anyone who even thinks of opening their car door without looking first.

$25.00 at ELSEWARES

Sure, we don’t all have six grand lying about to be spent on a cabinet. On the other hand, this cabinet isn’t for just anyone.

The Crepax Kadhorna cabinet from Italian furniture maker Ennezero is a comic strip balck and white beauty you won’t want to push against a wall — this thing needs front and center placement to showcase the adornments of Guido Crepax that cover every inch, including the back.

Crepax was a graphic artist who influenced European comic art in the latter half of the 20th century. This cabinet features his most famous creation, Valentina, and incorporates the eroticism and dream-like psychdelica he was best known for.

$5,930.00 at moss

I am of the class of human that likes to lean back on the legs of a chair in an attempt to create a lounger out of anything. Apparently, I am not alone in this pastime, because at least one designer thinks that four legs on a single chair is simply not enough.

Paulius Vitkauskas’s Ku Dir Ka Rocking Chair looks like any other start-backed red wooden chair until you look underneath and find its ten individual legs looking back at you. The legs are positioned so that you can simply rock back and forth, point-to-point, and never worry about getting your toes caught under the rails.

$549.00 at Generate

Rugs are all the rage. Is it because everyone wants those bare wood floors and then they find out they’re both cold and hard, or is it because wall to wall carpeting is just so boring (unless you live in a movie theatre)? Whatever the reason, the available designs and color schemes are virtually unlimited.

Take, for example, Thomas Paul’s new line of 100% New Zealand wool rugs. Not content to create elaborate abstract designs, they are instead creating vibrant, simple but eye-catching designs that take familiar patterns and blow them up, so that their damask (shown above) is anything but subtle, even in such muted colors as ebony, cream and powder blue.

From $270.00 at Velocity Art And Design

You know what your place needs? A lamp created by a French designer made out of a recycled Electrolux cannister vacuum. Am I right or am I right?

Engele Riguidel has some time on her hands, and rather than being like you or me and sitting in front of a big screen TV playing Gears of War endlessly, she’s making what she calls “unidentified luminous objects” by inserting big fat lights into old vacuum cleaners, resulting in one of the most unique lighting options available. Want to have a conversation piece? This would be it. Comes in two colors.

$350.00 at Uncommon Goods

The name of the line itself gives you a clue to its intentions: I Hate Perfume by CB. CB being Christopher Brosius, founder of the Demeter line that brought us grass and dirt and laundry scents, and now debuting with his own line of like-minded anti-perfumes with titles like “In The Library” (leather bindings, worn cloth, wood polish), “Mr. Hulot’s Holiday” (driftwood, seaweed, salt breezes, leather luggage) and “In The Summer Kitchen” (home, herbs, vegetables, evening wind, old rafters).

Besides the unique smells lingering in CB’s bottles, they’re all oil & water-based, rather than being suffused in alcohol. Alcohol, explains Mr. Brosius, dries teh hair and skin and evaporates too quickly. Without it, every scent in the I Hate Perfume line smells exactly as CB intended.

From $55 at Lucky Scent

Lord knows I have little enough room in my kitchen for another specialty pot. My Revereware does triple duty and manages to make everything I don’t burn turn out exactly right, and my ultra heavy Le Creuset griller makes every steak a medium rare delight.

Now comes the Alessi Pasta Pot designed by chef Alain Ducasse, so it has a little something something going for it. Chef Ducasse says that the real way to make good pasta isn’t to boil the hell out of it and dump it into a colander before ladling sauce all over it. We’re supposed to cook the pasta in dry and saute it, then add the sauce ingredients to cook with the pasta, and finally the water or broth and cook it all together.

How this special pot helps that along is less clear, but it certainly looks good doing it! Comes with a spoon that sits in the handle, and a melamine trivet so you can present your newfound pasta perfection straight to the table.

$238.00 at Retromodern.com

I only have one little cat, and she’s not a lot of bother — other than the clawing of the Eames lounger and the clawing of teh Anglea Adams rug and the… general clawing of everything. Still, you gotta love anyone with that little furry face, no matter how much of a bitch she can be.

I’ve tried a bunch of different cat litters, and I have some simple criteria. It needs to clump, it needs to be easily flushable, and it should hurt the environment. Happily, S’wheat Scoop fulfills all the above and the cat seems to like it as well. It’s made of wheat, as if the title didn’t already tell you, and it doesn’t have any cloying scent to overpower the cat pee because it doesn’t need it — it’s got natural odor control and it’s 100% biodegradable.

From $8.99 at PetSmart

Apartment living means saving space where you can, and modern living means saving energy, and summer living means keeping the place cool so you don’t have to spent the bucks and the CO² on the A/C. This little oven from Dualit will help you accomplish all that, plus bake a pie so you can sit back with a cup of coffee to enjoy all your good deeds.

The oven is only 17½” wide and just under 10” tall, so it should fit on your limited counter space easily. It has a maximum temperature of 450º, a 2-hour timer and comes with a roasting pan and a non-stick baking tray custom fit to work perfectly inside its tiny, hot innards.

$250.00 at Unica Home

A big lamp isn’t always the answer for a dark corner. Frankly, a big lamp is rarely the answer for anything at all, unless you’re lighting a play or planning on a long winter in the Antarctic.

The Hip-Hop Lightchain from Germany’s Illu Stration is made up of 30 little red (or white) asterisks with low watt LED bulbs inside. It’s nearly 10 feet long and you can hang it, bunch it up, or even lay it on the floor and pretend you’re living in the coolest movie theatre ever!

$188.00 at Branch: Sustainable Design for Living

Even those of us who occasionally elect to grow out our chin pubes must trim around teh edges, so to speak. An unkempt beard isn’t a thing of beauty, gentlemen, it’s more like a monster that’s trying to take over your face.

Whether your face is bristly as Grizzly Adams or smooth as Grizzly Adams’s butt, using a good lubricating shave cream or gel is half the battle. Portugal’s Musgo Real has a whole line of amazing products that’ll make your shaving ritual much more pleasant no matter what state your face is in. You’ll get a closer shavem and the scent is “manly” without being too “Old Spice.” It’s also perfect for traveling since it comes in a convenient toothpaste tube rather than a huge, hard can.

$9.95 at Sesto Senso

If you’re a fan of Cocteau’s “Le Belle et la Bête,” you’ll probably want to grab (heh) one of these subtle but effective “Bestow” wall-mounted vase/candleholders designed by Harry Allen.

I’ve seen a slew of these hand-based usable sculptures before used as coat hooks and key holders, but this one seems particularly apt and charming. A hand and forearm juts out of your wall and grasps either a flower bud in a glass vase or a taper candle. One supposes you could also paint the polyester resin limb to match your wall for that added touch of weird perfection.

$95.00 at ELSEWARES