I was looking for a small hand grinder for my home coffee setup and had almost settled on the Hario Skerton when my buddy Jaime at Stumptown suggested the Camano Coffee Mill from Red Rooster. He told me that he owned both and liked this one better because of its build quality. After using it for a few weeks, I’m inclined to agree.

The Camano coffee mill is a good looking grinder – I like the walnut accents and the little bronzed door that opens up so you can put the beans into the hopper. It’s got an adjustable conical burr grinder that will pretty much last forever, and will give you consistent grinds so that you don’t have uneven extraction when brewing your coffee.

One major advantage of this grinder over the Skerton is the fact that you can adjust the coarseness of the grind with a simple twist of an easily accessible nut on the top. The Skerton takes a little bit more work. I can go from a super coarse grind for my french press (pictured above) to something finer for filter prep very easily.

My custom makeup Viberg Service Boots arrived just in time for Christmas. They took two months to make and I’m very happy with how they turned out; Brett and the rest of the Viberg team were very accomodating in allowing me to choose every detail to make it my own. I started out with their 1950′s Service Boot last with a brogued cap toe; then I chose a brown harness leather that exhibits lots of pull-up characteristics and paired it with brass eyelets and a contrast black tongue. Lastly, I went for practicality and chose a dainite sole to keep the boot from being too slippery in the rain and snow.

Viberg is a family-owned bootmaker based in Victoria, British Columbia. Everything is crafted in small batches with great attention to detail. This is the first pair that I’ve had the pleasure of owning and the craftsmanship is apparent from end to end. The welt stitching is immaculate.

Thanks to the good folks at Viberg for making a pair of boots for me that I hope to be wearing for a long time.

Last week I got to grab lunch and catch up with my old intern Shimon. After his stint at 3sixteen, he went on to intern at Unis and is now working at Nepenthes NY. I remember when I first brought him in for an interview; he shared that he  had graduated from college and got a job at an ad agency, only to find that it was not something he was not excited about. He decided to leave the ad world behind and try to gain some experience in fashion to see if it could work out for him. Two years later, I’d say that he made the right choice. Many of our interns really inspire me with the risks that they take to pursue their passions and Shimon is no exception.

Being that I haven’t seen him since I had my son Logan, Shimon came bearing gifts. One of them was a small box of cigars. During his internship, we had taken more than a few afternoon cigar breaks on the red benches at Allen & Stanton to decompress, and so he thought to bring something that would let me take a few “forced breaks” as I like to call them.  These particular cigars are dubbed “The Old Man and the C” – the single cigar is the old man, and there’s a strange bundle of three intertwined cigars to form the sea. I wonder how the bent cigars will smoke, but they came recommended from a customer of his at Nepenthes so I’m sure they’ll be good.

The other gift is a candle from Nepenthes to help burn off any lingering cigar smoke smells. Very thoughtful.

Last week I got a haircut at Freemans; while the cut and the experience were less than stellar, I did get introduced to a new pomade from Japan called Cool Grease.

Up until now, I’ve been using Dax Wave & Groom; while the hold is super strong, I really can’t stand the perpetual film it leaves on my hands and the total inability to wash it out (plus, Dirbab was right… it smells like old man). Cool Grease is a water-based pomade, which means that it washes off my hands and hair with great ease. I don’t think I’ll ever be going back to the petroleum stuff. It also has great sheen and smells much better than most other pomades I’ve tried. I think we have a winner.

A gift from Thomas.

Jazzlife.

My good friends Wilson and Carol returned from their honeymoon recently with this generous gift for Logan. It’s a child-sized replica of the walnut Eames LCW that already resides in our living room… as soon as they saw it, they knew it’d be perfect for us.

There are a few design adjustments to make it more kid-friendly… most notably, the angle of the seat itself: the child-sized chair doesn’t angle down as much to promote better posture. It also doesn’t use rubber shock mounts on the seat or the backing, which results in the seat having less give. Otherwise, the construction and shape look to be just as nice as our existing one.

While it’ll still be at least a year or two before Logan is able to sit in this chair comfortably, it’s such a nice looking addition to our living room that I’m happy to leave it out until he’s ready for it.

A good friend of mine at Converse sent over a pair of Mackintosh x Converse Jack Purcells for me. The waterproof uppers are same fabric Mackintosh uses for their famous raincoats; I like their matte finish. The shoes come with a lime green sole and lining, as well as a second set of shoelaces in the same color  (I’ll be sticking with the navy ones, though).

3sixteen Tan Double Wrap Bracelet.
1 year.

We had this bench made up for the shop last week. I’ve since taken two meetings on it, so it’s already come in handy. With the warmer weather, it’s good to find any excuse to get outdoors every day (even if it’s just for a little bit) so I am looking forward to putting it to good use: lunch breaks, afternoon smokes…

The bench is made of reclaimed barn rafters from upstate NY. The wood was planed down and refinished with a protective wax, hence the lighter color.

It’s been less than a week and indigo stains are already starting to show. You kind of have to expect that when you’re putting a bench outside a raw denim shop. By the end of summer, I’m guessing it will look completely different.

At our SELA grand opening party last fall, YMFY told me about Timbuk2′s custom bag program, where they manufacture one-off bags at their San Francisco headquarters. He generously offered to make one for me outside of the realm of their usual (but still vast) design constraints. A few months passed and as Logan’s due date approached, I realized that there were no diaper bags on the market that I would use – I found most to be either extremely feminine or “duded out” (see here for prime examples). I asked Bin if he’d be willing to work on a bag for me with a few modifications, and he graciously obliged.

First up was choosing a unique fabric for the body. We went with deadstock Pendleton wool that was provided by my good friend Sam at Tanner Goods, who dug this out of their archives.

Timbuk2 bags are extremely well organized to begin with, but in order for it to function as a diaper bag, I asked Bin to add a few bottle holders to the interior.  It turns out that they’re also very useful for storing spare diapers, clothes, etc.

I love these zipper pulls.

This denim changing pad was a gift from Kiya and Demitra. The red tab is still intact on it…

Thanks guys!