"bling" news and stories

For those of you swooning over Nicole's recent post about kitchen bling, maybe you can do a bit of penance here with this Pope John Paul II bottle opener ... a.k.a. "The Popener."

When my old roommate came back from a bit of work in Rome, she brought me a John Paul II bottle opener, straight from the Vatican. At the time, I was not happy. What kind of girlfriend brings a bottle opener back from Italy?

While I would have preferred something I could wear or eat or sell at a vast profit on eBay, I came to love this bottle opener with time. Every Sierra Nevada I cracked after a long day at the office became holy. Every Brooklyn Brown Ale became the equivalent of 20 "Hail Marys."

If you want one, you had better get cracking. While they're currently on sale at romegiftshop.com for $14.99 (free St. Peter postcard included!), can a Pope Benedict XVI bottle opener be that far off?

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Gorenje is already one of the leading European appliance manufacturers, but they are aiming to become the most innovative, as well. The company is releasing two lines of Swarovski crystal-encrusted refrigerator/freezers. The first is known as "the Eye-Catcher" and features 7,000 hand-embedded crystals in a high-gloss, black background. Only 10 of this model will be produced. For the slightly less outrageously inclined, the alternative to the Eye-Catcher is Gorenje's commercial line crystal fridge, which only has 3,500 crystals in a black and silver refrigerator/freezer.

Getting past their very unique look, the 2-meter high fridges are controlled with a touch screen mounted on the door, allowing the user to control settings and the appliance temperature very easily. From the same screen, users can access a built-in radio, recipe book and a voice memo recorder/player. Both models will be available exclusively at Harrod's, in England, later this month.

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