Tag Archives: Office

Getting to check out the Quips+Queries set by Russell+Hazel, it is a set of 100 cards in an acrylic box for jotting notes, numbers, your important brain blurbs, and whatever else just has to be written down RIGHT NOW!

Now if I would take the cards out of the acrylic holder and toss them away (which I wouldn’t of course!) I would be willing to say that this is a fantastic desk accessory.  The acrylic box is thick and clear (1/4 inch thick walls) and match many of the other great Russell+Hazel desk accessories available.  Once you’ve run out of the Quips+Queries cards, the box makes an excellent catch-all for business cards, paper clips or other desk necessities.  Or you can simply order refills of your Quips+Queries cards.

Now the set comes with your choice of cards, the one I happen to be looking at is the Luck set, which is lined in a gold tone and each card features an embossed “Lucky” symbol.  (Clover, Penny, Horseshoe, Slot 7′s, or wishing bone)  Then you have the other sets to choose from:

• Pink: French Sayings
  vis-à-vis (Face To Face)
  c’est la vie (Such is life)
  tête-à-tête (Between You & Me, If I’m translating right!)
  joie de vivre (The Joy of Living)
• Another Gold set featuring card suits
• Black: Magic 8 Ball Sayings
  It is Decidedly So
  Without a Doubt
  Outlook Not So Good
  My Sources Say No
  Concentrate & Ask Again

The individual cards are made of heavy 130lb cardstock and give you plenty of room to jot.  In an office setting, they offer a fantastic way to jot notes to colleagues, words of praise, or as was suggested by one on our team: a very unique and personalized contact card opportunity.  Rather then handing a perspective client a hammered out, mass produced business card that provides generic information readily available, why not take a beautiful card like this with a little meaning behind it, take a moment to hand-write your name and contact details, and perhaps a little note that includes why the client might want to call you?

This beautiful set available directly from Russell+Hazel.

Hiding quietly in the Russell+Hazel accessory catalog, the People+Places set is a wonderful diversion from the digital address books that have taken over the workplace.

At home in both the classy executive office and the busy home office, this set consists of a clear acrylic card holder, A-Z index tabs and 100 contact cards.  The most interesting part of this set is how it is put together.  Each of the contact cards features a place for the contacts Name, Address, Phone number and Email, while on the back you have ample space for notes.  Then, each card has die cut rounded corners to accommodate business cards.

Grab yours directly from Russell+Hazel.  You can also get a 50 piece card refill, which are sized to industry standard and can fit in most other card holders.

Think for just a second:  What do you do for a living?

Now think for just another second: Where were you the last time you wanted to jot yourself a note or reminder and a drawing surface was inconvenient?

Now take just a second and think of all the ways you can invent to have yourself a surface to write on.  Can you put that surface on your laptop, tablet or phone?  No?  Okay, try again.  Can you put that on the wall, stick it to your desk, filing cabinet, or refrigerator?

Okay, no more work.  I’ll get to the point.  Someone has created a whiteboard surface that (while originally intended for the backs of your electronics) can be stuck nearly anywhere, can be cut to nearly any size or shape, and creates a clean looking, easily accessible dry-erase space anywhere you need it.  (Putting them on people is not recommended, not only is there a potential for hair loss when the board is removed, your drawing space may wander away)

We got to play with a few different DrawTop sizes, and had far more fun then we could have expected.  Putting one on the back of your laptop offers limitless opportunity for communication and hijinks.  While sitting at a restaurant, jotting “Coffee Refill Please, no hurry!” while using your laptop is a great way to flag down your server for your next cup.  Fair warning, you may not want to use that technique if the server might take offense.  (Most won’t, but we usually tend to see people who are used to our shenanigans)

You can easily flip your laptop closed, your tablet or phone over and start a full scale (or miniature scale, when using a phone) tic-tac-toe war or brainstorming session, wipe it away, and start all over again.

Quality!  As always, we sacrificed ours to make sure we could tell you all about it.  The first thing you need to know about is size.  These are custom cut for your particular device.  If you have a 17″ laptop, let them know.  If your screen is just a bit strange or not of this world, jot the dimensions down in the “Laptop Info” section when you go to check out.  Make sure you are getting the right top for your device.

The adhesive sticking the DrawTop to your expensive tech-baby is tough enough to keep it from falling off on its own or bubbling, but soft enough to allow it to be removed without much work.  The drawing surface is a glossy and smooth and can take the damage that your average laptop bag will throw at it, but it will eventually scratch.  They tell you this to begin with, and make them easy and inexpensive to replace.  They even offer your replacement DrawTop at a discount if you plan ahead and buy it with the first.

Final thoughts: Why didn’t I think of that, and I wonder how much they would charge to cover my office walls in this stuff?  Check them out at TheDrawTop.com.

Ever gone nuts and sharpened a full 24 pack of pencils for no apparent reason?  Or decided that you needed to arbitrarily staple a whole stack of documents in no particular order that had no need to be joined to each other?  That second one, sums up my afternoon.

I got to play with the Stampler by SUCK.UK, which not only staples your papers, it stamps them with a “Have a Nice Day” smiley face message.  So what you get in the package is a Stampler unit, pre-loaded with a few staples to get you started.  It takes your average office staples, so replacements are easy to come by.

Okay, you might not want to staple your court documents, death announcements or otherwise super serious correspondence, but for your average interoffice memo, stacks of notes, or anything fun, you can “Stample” your heart out.  Yeay! New verbs & fun office equipment!

Available at Suck.Uk and Amazon.com.

Modular storage accessories are everywhere lately.  You can get solutions for your kitchen, bathroom, office, or even your doghouse if you look hard enough.  Deflect-O has created a truly customizable system for organizing small goods that can easily be changed to fit your needs.  These stack-able cubes are 6″ tall and 6″ deep, and clipped together with small metal clamps (included) which allow you to create an infinitely large storage unit to your own specifications.  They come with either clear or black cubes, shelves that match the cubes, and clear drawers that you can see through.

The first is called the double cube, and has a 12″ length, and is a great starting point for building your storage unit.  More of a shelf then an actual storage cube, it is perfect for stashing oddly shaped objects like notepads, measuring tools, and other office essentials.  Building a unit for your bathroom?  Place this in sideways with a small drawer or cup in the bottom to hold your brushes, combs and other things that like to wander away.

Available at Amazon.

The open cube (6″x6″x6″) is a base unit.   Inside, although it doesn’t come with any shelves, drawers or extras, you do get a rail so that if you choose to add a shelf, you can feel free.  These cubes fit all of the other accessories, and are great replacements if you’ve somehow damaged the outer cube of one of your units.

Available at Amazon.

The two drawer cube is great for craft supplies, cosmetics and odds and ends.  One drawer can fit a small battery charger and a whole collection of AAA & AA batteries, so instead of searching, you know exactly where to go to grab them.  These are also large enough for your cosmetic essentials, and each of the drawers bubble out at the top just a little bit to make it easier to fit those bizarrely shaped odds and ends.

Available at Amazon.

Then you get the four drawer cube.  This one is great for your smaller stuff.  In a bathroom unit, you can easily use one drawer for cotton swabs, one for cotton balls, one for make-up applicators, hair accessories and on and on.  In the office, you’ll stash your binder clips, paper clips, staple boxes, push pins, rubber bands, or glitter glue.  (Wait, I think that last one is just me!) and have everything within easy reach and visible.

Available at Amazon.

The X-Divider cube is among the least versatile, but is somehow still my favorite.   With two of these in my office unit, I have managed to sort colored pencils, markers, permanent markers, thin lined markers, pens, pencils, highlighters, gel pens with fancy ink, and drawing pencils.  Most people don’t realize this, but with markers and flowing ink pens, the best way to store them is horizontally to make sure the ink lasts longer.   Unlike your average pen cup, this unit encourages you to store your writing utensils on their bellies.

Available at Amazon.