While we take much needed time off this August, we want to make sure our Friends with Benefits get full value for their subscriptions. We’d planned to simply add an extra month to all subscriptions, but have encountered unexpected technical difficulties. We hope you’ll bear with us during our hiatus and know that we’re working on a solution.…
Read MoreTime to Take a Break…We’ll Be Back in September
If we had to sum up the past few months with a single image, it would be this one. We’ve been roping a wild horse — life — and trying our best to go with it as we launched our Friends with Benefits subscription service and Improvised Life’s Store, saw a dear friend through a major health…
Read MoreSave Your Wishbones for the Wishbone Project
Recently, several readers wrote to say they’d saved a pile of wishbones to send to Holton Rower for his monumental art work made of thousands — maybe hundreds of thousands— wishbones. Since we first announced it, our crowd-sourced Wishbone Project has yielded Holton a lot of wishbones. In return, the errant wishbone collectors/donaters receive a…
Read MoreStreet Entrepeneur Crab Man Mike + Our Faux Aioli Recipe
While on our NYC stay cation, we’ll get a hit of the Maryland shore by stopping by legendary Crab Man Mike’s stand in Harlem, where he cooks up crabs and other shellfish on his rigged propane cooker. We love Mike’s seafood room temperature, dunked in our Faux Aioli (garlic mayonnaise), for an American South/French fusion.
Read MoreLanyards are for Summer…DIY in Plastic, String or Leather
Susan Dworski’s post about her granddaughter’s lanyard reminded us of our own lanyard-making pleasures in summers long ago. Somehow we’d learned a number of patterns from braids to boxes and make all sorts of useful things out of them. But what we remember especially, is the dreamy hours spent making them. That, of course, got…
Read MoreLife Lesson from a Simple Kid’s Lanyard
Recently, I discovered a forgotten neon pink plastic lanyard at the bottom of a basket of cat toys. Made at summer camp two years ago, it was a gift from a small person, presented with a shy smile “I made it, just for you.”
When I read this poem by poet Billy Collins, I suddenly felt saddened that I had been so cavalier in discounting its importance. Finding it again felt huge––like a redemption.
Read MoreCedar Planked Salmon for the Grill
Our friend Holton Rower has been learning about cooking salmon on a cedar plank on his Weber grill through trial-and-error, a method we totally endorse. His first go wasn’t completely successful but it was clear that the cedary smoke is a perfect marriage with salmon. If you don’t have wood coals to cook over, cedar…
Read MoreWhy Not Sleep on the Roof in a…Sky Parlour?
We recently read that President Taft had a sleeping porch built (below) on the roof of the White House in the 20’s. On hot summer nights, the first family could sleep up there to cool off. It allowed the President retreat up there to chill and look out over Washington. We love sleeping outdoors too.
We’re always on the lookout for cool impermanent shacks— “sky parlors” — that can be erected on a roof, a yard, even indoors as a rustic office or private space.
An Embroidered Fix for Torn, Treasured Fabric
We recently received another inspiring fabric fix from Virginia del Giudice, photographer and co-owner of La Percalina, a fine vintage clothing shop in Buenos Aires.
Read MoreTrees Growing Through Obstacles (Like Us)
Our friend Cara De Silva sent us a link to images of trees growing through concrete, with these words. …I was startled and grateful when I looked at these beautiful and inspiring photographs. But not only for the usual reasons. For months now I have been seeing such trees as a metaphor,
Read MoreDIY Twig and Branch Fence
New York City’s Madison Avenue in the 70”s is among the toniest areas in the city. We were wandering there when we suddenly noticed this unlikely fence made of branches and twigs: a beautiful, unexpected DIY right dab in the middle of luxe (and a relief from the usual iron fencing! Look close and you…
Read MorePlywood Swirls via Jigsaw Make Surprising Tables and…
We stumbled on this lovely side table at the ever-illuminating Aqqindex. “Paint and parchment side table” was the only info. We instantly envisioned plywood, one of our favorite materials for its possibility and accessibility. You could make a table like this with three rectangles and two flat sides cut with whimsical swirls.
Read MoreTo Be Able To Say Yes, You Need to Be Able To Say No
We’ve come to love the word YES, and post it often as a reminder to embrace the opportunities that come along, and go with them. But we realize that there is a very important other side to YES, and that is being able to say NO.
Read MoreAnnals of Bad Design: Swing Day Bed + Wilcox’s GREAT Swing Chair
Years ago, we clipped this image from a design blog thinking: How lovely that looks, in its minimalist setting. Then we imagined lying on a swinging bed hung in a nook so near to a wall and could feel how jarring it would be if/when the suspended bed actually hit the wall. Much better it be…
Read MoreOrnithology Wall Mural: Proseck’s Practice of Seeing
(Video link HERE.) There is something enchantingly low-tech and intimate about artist James Proseck‘s painstaking process of making this wonderful, public wall mural: painting bird silhouettes a la Field Guide series of nature books. His technique is very interesting and could easily be applied to the walls of any interior or exterior space – bedroom, dining…
Read MoreThe Time is Now…Stefan Sagmeister on Happiness
When uber-designer Stefan Sagmeister was asked “If you were to give advice on happiness—and I acknowledge that this is a tough question—is there one thing you’d suggest?” Write down 3 things that worked for you each evening, things you might be thankful for. I started an ical calendar that contains this and I just spend…
Read MoreWhy Not Really WIDE Moldings?
Found on the great Aqqindex, which almost fetishizes design from the 70’s and 80’s: a vew of Ettore Sottsass and Aldo Cibic’s design of the Munari Apartment, from 1983. Dig thos wide, spare moulding around the door, the opposite in moderne uber-minimalist, and very exprensive none-at all moldings. Rather then the usual 2-inch wide compromise,…
Read MoreIntuitive Method for Organizing Stuff
(Video link HERE.) I LOVE this video! Filmmaker/designer Casey Neistat describes his great Intuitive Categorization Method for organizing his tools and little stuff. I’m loving it especially because it showed up right on time, in time, this morning.
Read MoreMusic for Monday Morning (Jun Miyake)
(Video link HERE.) …perfect music for getting going on a Monday morning, as well as people dancing, leaping and gliding around in the most wonderful way (until the dark end). You can jump in anywhere to get a hit of LEAP energy. Not content to just click one link, we can’t help but follow trails. The…
Read MoreA Song for a Summer Weekend
We know a number of people taking “stay-cations”, enjoying the city as though they were visiting it anew, filling themselves up with wonderful art, food, happenings, and not dealing with traveling for one reason for another. We’re going to do the same in a week or so, just so we can WANDER, without a…
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