Awesome Living

Forgot a Christmas gift for someone? Looking for something useful but inexpensive? Look no further than Everyday Carry for their list of 15 great little gifts that cost less than 15 bucks. We were surprised to find some great little flashlights, knives, organizers, and even a watch on the list.

Aidy Bryant created this trainwreck of a salad in a ridiculous SNL sketch earlier in 2020. Now Binging with Babish is here to close out the year with his interpretation of this mayo-, raisin-, and root-beer-filled nightmare meal. Can he remake it into something that’s actually edible?

Carpenter David Lundell enjoys making furniture that incorporates hidden storage compartments. Each one works like a puzzle box, requiring a specific sequence of actions in order to access its contents. Here’s another version he built for hiding away guns, booze, and a poker set.

Machinist Brian Howey of Automog designs and fabricates these smooth metal writing instruments. Available in brass, copper, or aluminum, the pens feature a satisfyingly clicky mechanism. Options include a cleanly-integrated pocket clip, a textured grip, and a custom leather pen case from UpState Handmade.

Keep your desk neat and tidy with Umbra’s modern steel and fabric organizer. Its three hammock-like sections can be used to store a variety of items, from phones to glasses to mail to sticky notes. It can also be hung on the wall.

This compact coffee maker makes delicious espresso-based drinks with ease. It can brew coffee and froth milk at the same time, and automatically controls brew time, pressure, and temperature for the perfect cup. It works with both ground coffee and coffee pods for added versatility. Ships starting in January 2021.

Glow sticks can add a splash of color and light to nighttime festivities. But they’re also filled with hazardous chemicals and only last a short time. Nite Ize’s version uses LEDs instead, and lasts for up to 8.5h per charge. It offers multiple colors to choose from, is IPX7-rated waterproof, and includes an S-biner clip for attachment.

Nemo’s Switchback sleeping pad offers the perfect combination of comfort and convenience. It features a dual-layer foam construction with both firm and soft layers. It also has a metalized insulating lining to keep you warm. Its accordion-fold design makes it easy to pack and deploy in seconds.

Thanks to their rectangular shape, Memobottles fit more efficiently inside of bags, and also won’t roll around. They’re made from BPA-free Tritan plastic and are safe to use with hot water, in the freezer, or in the dishwasher. Available in 6oz., 12oz., 15oz., and 25oz. sizes.

Most big coffee manufacturers can’t trace their beans to their farmers. Nobletree Coffee takes a farm-to-cup approach by sourcing exclusively from family-owned crops. The result is an award-winning line of 100% Arabica coffees: sustainably farmed, milled, exported, then small-batch roasted in Brooklyn.

This snowflake-shaped tool manages to pack in 20 features on your keychain. It’s made from stainless steel and includes multiple screwdrivers, hex wrenches, Allen wrenches, a bike wrench, box cutter, bottle opener, and more. Available in a natural or black finish.

A durable variant of the ubiquitous sticky note. 3M’s Post-It Extreme Notes will stay whole and stick even when they get hot, cold or wet. Use them in the kitchen, the garage and more. They just won’t stick to surfaces that are already wet.

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Standard Proof’s specialty rye whiskeys are infused with natural ingredients for a big and bold taste. Flavors include an eye-opening Arabica coffee, a sweet honeysuckle wildflower, a zesty ginger root, along with pecan, mint, and pineapple. Sold in 750ml bottles and great for making cocktails.

Keep your digits from drying out this winter with Seattle Sundries‘ solid lotions. Each puck is made from a blend of beeswax, shea butter, moisturizing oils, and essential oils. This set of four tins includes herbal lemon, citrus mint, summer flowers, and sweet almond scents. We also dig their black-walnut Sasquatch soap.

Brooklyn’s Bushwick Kitchen makes four unique kinds of honey to complement sweet or savory dishes or to bring oomph to a blank canvas like toasted bread. Flavors include spicy habanero honey, a zingy Meyer lemon honey, a balanced sea salt honey, and original wildflower honey. They also sell a three-jar gift pack.

This stainless steel bookmark not only saves your place, it provides useful shapes for detailing your ideas. The sturdy stencil incorporates a protractor, compass, t-square, circle, square, and triangle bullets, isometric guides, and metric and imperial rulers. The expansion card adds letters, numbers, and a few other shapes.

Thanks to The Mandalorian, Boba Fett is back in our lives once more. And thanks to Burned by Design, the badass bounty hunter can be a permanent fixture in your backyard. This handmade wood burning fire pit will help keep you as toasty as a Tatooine afternoon and is perfect for roasting marshmallows.

Laser measuring devices can really come in handy when you need to measure a large space and don’t have someone to hold the other end of the tape. Magpie Tech’s laser measuring tool can project beams in both directions, so you can measure space by standing in the middle of it. It’s great for measuring heights too.

Renowned for their exceptional, hand-forged hunting and EDC knives, Benchmade’s craftsmen have designed a set of knives to deftly cut grilled meats at the dinner table. The premium Table Knife Set includes four forward-serrated knives with G10 handles, set into in a red birchwood case by H. Arnold Wood Turning.

There’s something so comforting about staying in a tiny house. Everything just seems more manageable. Latvian firm Brette Haus shows of their design for a prefabricated house that arrives partially assembled, then unfolds from its box shape to reveal its structure. Prices for the homes start at €22000 (~$26,700 USD).

This unique waffle maker is ideal for kids and adults who love their wheels. Instead of cranking out ordinary waffle-shaped waffles, it makes seven edible cars, trucks, and buses. We can’t quite figure out their makes and models, but they’re all just as delicious as they crash into your mouth.

The producer of America’s highest-rated Single Malt, Westward, introduces an elegant ode to Oregon’s premier grape varietal. Finished for two years in Pinot Noir barrels from Willamette Valley wineries, Single Malt Pinot Noir Cask Whiskey joins their Single Malt and Single Malt Stout Cask on the top shelf.

Books and fire are a terrible combination (except as the premise of Fahrenheit 451), but reading and candles are perfect partners. Digital reading service, Scribd, teamed with Dorothy B & Co. on a fragrant candle scented with teak, sandalwood, patchouli, amyris, and dark musk. Includes a 3-month Scribd subscription.