When I saw this adorable knitted record player on All The Beautiful Things I Want, I realized that my son Oliver will never know what a record player is. Or a cassette tape. Or even a compact disk for that matter. It got me thinking of other passé technology that he’ll never know and how I can introduce it to him in a toy version. Just trying to keep the nostalgia alive.

And then there’s the rotary phone. Or honestly, just a phone with a cord will be foreign to him! You can make your own with Caffa Knitted’s Rotary Dial Telephone knitting pattern.

Oh, and the typewriter. No screen. No backspace. No iTunes. Felt typewriter found on Double Takes.

Oliver will never see a dude walking down the street with a 15-pound boom box on his shoulder. This felt boombox by Sewn by Blythe is really a work of art.

Just a little crafty thought as you head into a night of boozin’…here are some lovely uses for your wine bottles, saving them from the recycling bin.

Happy New Year from The Violet Hours! xxoo

How gorgeous are these wine bottle torches? Find the how-to on Design Sponge.

I love this frosted look, like these bottles have been sitting out in the snow. Found on Style Files.

Turn a wine bottle into a mini terrarium. Here’s a how-to on cutting the bottle. Love the fiddlehead ferns! Found on Wedding Bee.

How’s this for an amazing reuse? Instead of buying those blown glass balls to automatically water your plants, use a wine bottle! Found on Chica and Jo.

And of course, the bottle chandelier. For sale on Pottery Barn.

You’d have to be a brave soul to load this shelf up. Found on DeTnk.

And the corks? Well that’s a post for next year. Here’s to safe, happy, and healthy New Year!

My standard baby gift for years has been Ida Pearle’s name print (see below). The world of personalized prints has expanded before my very eyes. Here are my current faves…

When I saw these prints, I had one of those “why didn’t I think of that” moments. Brilliant idea No. 1:  numbers mark the child’s birthday. Brilliant idea No. 2: the intersecting circles have mom and dad on top and bottom with baby in the middle. By Ruka-Ruka. Found via All the Beautiful Things I Want.

The primary colors in this alphabet print spell out the child’s name. So crisp and graphic. By Made by Girl.

English Muffin Shop‘s name prints are punctuated with cute little animals. So sweet.

And of course here are Ida Pearle‘s name prints. A classic in my household.

I used to look forward to buying a new calendar at the end of every year. I’m sad that this tradition died with the efficiency of the computer calendar. But it’s undeniable…the digital record can’t be beat. Thank goodness for people still making creative calendars…like these.

This perpetual calendar/journal from Design Sponge is my fave of the season. The idea is very simple — flip to the current date and at the end of the day, write down something that happened. Some days it is big things like “Annie took her first steps.” Other days it is small, like “needed more than one cup of coffee this morning.”

Instead of recording an event per day, this calendar from Brigada Creativa allows you to record your mood by drawing an emoticon on a yellow circle. How do you draw brilliant?

I love the Twenty Eleven calendar from The Moustache. No page flipping required.

I love the detail that went into this perpetual calendar by Chelsea Nordstom.

This calendar allows the user to arrange the year as one sees fit. Are the days ordered in a strict chronological fashion or does it appear more like a blur? Does winter feel longer that summer and so on. The individual dates are held in place by magnets, so each day can be moved around. The different days can also be used to hold in place theater tickets or reminders. By StokkeAustad.

You know those tear-off calendars with a word-of-the-day? Or a Cathy cartoon? Well here’s font of the day. For the love of fonts. Check out Typografie.

We had record snow fall here in New York the last few days, so in honor of the gorgeous, thick white blanket covering the city, here are the most fabulous snow globes ever!

Found via Black Eiffel. You can see the full collection of globes here.