Thriving Office
trickery

When you work at home, sometimes it’s hard to get respect from business contacts who are picturing you in your underwear. Use the Thriving Office CD to replicate the sounds of a bustling work place in a cunning attempt to trick your judgmental clients into thinking your company is more than you and your cat. The disk has two 39-minute tracks, “Busy” and “Very Busy,” so you can obfuscate as much as your career requires.

$13, thrivingoffice.com

This Year's New Faces
typography

Since the movie Helvetica blew up at Sundance this year, you’ll need some new fonts to stay ahead of the curve. Here are three new typefaces released in 2007—a serif, a sans serif, and a totally goofy—to perk up your amateur typesetting.

$123, typotheque.com
$55, ourtype.be
$50, houseind.com

Flip Video
so 2007

As a way to capture your memories, pictures are so 2006: It’s all about video these days. So that you don’t break the bank, try Flip Video, a simple reusable digital video recorder that saves up to an hour of precious memories—from a loved one’s graduations to the time you covered your sleeping friend’s face in shaving cream. Consider it a YouTube enabler.

From $120, theflip.com

Omlet Eglu
animal husbandry

You try to support local farmers—but why not become one? Now you can join the ranks of your pastoral brethren, even though you don’t have a farm. With an Eglu, you can easily keep two chickens in your backyard. Available in six Apple-esque colors, your new chicken house will provide you with fresh, tasty eggs, and even has a fox- and badger-proof enclosure to allow your fowl to roam semi-free. Sadly, the Eglu is currently only available in the U.K.; Keep calling, and soon we’ll all have farm-fresh eggs whenever we want.

$680, omlet.co.uk

Orikaso Fold Flat Tableware
convenience

All your cups and bowls and plates are three-dimensional. Wouldn’t it be easier if they could unfold into flat sheets? Sometimes a visionary company solves a problem you didn’t know you had. Orikaso’s picnic-friendly tableware, all of which can be stored flat before you use your origami skills to construct it, is made from a magic polymer that gets stronger the more you fold it. A new fun dinner game: Race your friends to see who can construct their table setting first. Winner gets to eat.

$15/set, orikaso.com

Duraflame Natural Log
incendiary device

Duraflame logs have long been the embarrassing end to failed attempts at lighting a real fire. But now you can mask your lack of woodsy skills with an environmental argument: A new generation of Duraflame logs release 75 percent fewer emissions than burning wood, and the recycled bio-wax they are made from is a far more renewable resource than trees.

$3, duraflame.com

Vintage Belt Floor Mat
house

For this recycling thing to work, we’ve got to expand beyond just our bottles and cans. How about belts? This individually crafted, two-foot-diameter circle of stitched-together recycled belts would make an excellent addition to your floor. Although leather doesn’t top the list of problem materials at any landfill, there’s something to be said for desirable decorative arts that celebrate sustainability and ideas of reuse.

$648, branchhome.com

Skins Footwear
weird shoes

Combining the comfort of a custom made shoe with footwear freedom of choice, Skins new shoes offer an exciting take on the idea of shoe buying. You purchase a custom inner sleeve that is designed just for your foot, and then can buy a range of outer shells that allow you to go out in any style you want. Suddenly, every shoe you own is your most comfortable.

From $110, skinsfootwear.com