As featured at Milan's Design Week, I love these ALMA swings from No Picnic, a Swedish design consultancy.  Featuring high gloss, lacquered seats in bold colours I think they are a clever combination of sleek modernity and rustic charm.

Image: Urban Outfitters

When your toddler is ready to graduate to full-sized cutlery, why not maintain a bit of whimsy at mealtimes with this set of mismatched cutlery manufactured by a company in the Netherlands and available here.

I love an unusual watch. It doesn't necessarily have to be the most expensive watch out there, but it should be interesting and beautiful to look at.

A couple of years ago I discovered the Nooka line of watches and the Zub collection in particular. What I love most about them is that they take the telling of time to a whole different level.  Rather than treating time as the circular progression we are familiar with, the Zub depicts the passage of time visually in linear form. While it takes some getting used to initially, after a few days it was possible to tell the time accurately at a glance by the picture the dots and lines formed on the face of the watch.

It really is a different way to tell the time and the design is truly inspired: and instant classic.

Close ups of some of the watches after the jump. 

Image: Daniel King

Lacoste and Catherine Malandrino have collaborated with questionable success on a line of tennis-inspired sportswear and a first look at the results are above. The capsule collection, which includes a tie-dyed cotton tennis dress, harem pants and a floor-length white pointelle tennis dress, will hit Lacoste and Malandrino stores on April 20.

Images: Tea Collection

Tea Collection has long been a great resource for beautiful, well-made (but not overly cute) children's clothes, but surprisingly the line has never featured here before.  Each season, or in some instances several times in a particular season, different global cultures are highlighted and used as inspiration for the line.  

A few months ago, Tea Collection launched a line of clothes for women; mainly scarves, t-shirts and sweaters - all very sensible and practical.  It's a cautious segue into a new market, but while I love the kids' clothes but none of the adult designs have grabbed my attention yet.  I am happy to give them the benefit of the doubt and perhaps my opinion will change after a few more seasons.

More pictures of the women's line after the jump.

Oh, to be a kid again if it means getting to hang out in this really fantastical space!

These are pictures of a climbing net created by artist Toshiko Horiuchi Macadam which has been built within the Hakone Pavilion at the Hakone Open-Air Museum, Japan. The pavilion, itself is a beautiful architectural structure, is made of timber joined together using traditional wood joints in a random and haphazard manner and was built to provide young visitors to the museum with a safe and sheltered play area.   

I wrote about the "Musings" bowl here and it got me thinking about all the other things with hidden reveals I've been seeing recently.  Take these two above: Imm Living has produced three styles of teacup with a fox, an owl and a bear respectively which are slowly revealed as the beverage is consumed. The teapot by Esther Horchner is more subtle, an inside joke if you will, as the image of the woman is only apparent to the person brewing the tea.

You can find all three teacups from Imm Living here and see Esther Horchner's work here.

Image: agnès b.

In addition to recent retail forays by Alexander Wang and Isabel Marant, agnès b. today opens a concept store (branded a "gallery boutique") in New York's Soho neighbourhood two years after leaving the area.

The gallery-shop space will feature art exhibitions throughout the year, and to commemorate the groundbreaking, the French designer has collaborated with some of the artists that will be shown in the space on her latest Artist T-Shirt series, including Ryan McGinness, Ryan McGinley, José Parlá and Harmony Korine (whose design is pictured above).

This unique, handmade sideboard by Edward Johnson called the Volumptuous sideboard is made of oak and internally lined with cedar. The frame of the piece has been moulded to follow the form of each laminated panel, giving an undulating, almost topographical feel to the piece.