We’ve been a fan of the amazingly inventive artist/designer JooYoun Paek since we came across a picture of her pillowig a few months ago. We’re thinking we should just make a practice of stopping into her website periodically to see what she’s up to and GET OUR HEADS CHANGED in a flash. That happened when…
Read Morej.k. rowling on the fringe benefits of failure
One of the big fears (and realities) that can keep us from trying things out, taking them to the next step, or persevering with an idea, has to do with failure. We can judge ourselves like crazy for having failed at something in the past OR be terrified that we will fail in the future;…
Read Mored-i-y “masked” painted tables
Jon at Happy Mundane spotted these cool adaptable dining tables by Muuto (which means “new perspective” in Finnish) that can be ordered with different legs, tops, and colors. They reminded him of the possibilities for painting wooden tables in interesting ways by masking off parts with tape, something he did to wooden chairs a while…
Read More‘the improvised life’ in remodelista!
We were THRILLED to see ‘the improvised life’ blogged today in the renowned home design site Remodelista, as “a favorite recent blog discovery”. They featured our post A Mantle as Furniture (No Hearth). Boy, are we in good company! Thanks, Remodelista! Related posts: A Mantle as Furniture (No Hearth) Remodelista, Expanded (in Beta)
Read Morevacation for a minute
This picture is of the salt flats in the amazing Mojave desert in California. If you didn’t know it, you’d think it was a sparkling sea: a perfect visual antidote to March (which is going on way too long)…. It was taken by Morgan Satterfield, during a road trip/break from her blog The Brick House,…
Read Morejoshua allen harris’ subway air-fueled street art
New York Magazine sponsored this video about Joshua Allen Harris’ and his very cool street sculptures. He creates giant creatures out of taped-together plastic bags and positions them on subway grates; gusts of warm air from passing trains inflate them momentarily, animating them. He’s made a Loch Ness monster and an uncannily life-like polar bear,…
Read Morevaliant make-shift (and spirit) in haiti + a cool way to help
A couple of weeks ago in the New York Times, Lawrence Downes wrote a beautiful report from Haiti called The Kite Makers that painted a vivid picture of the devastated country in a few short paragraphs. He described the resourcefulness at play everywhere for those “with skills, strength and luck”. At the Petionville Club camp – donated tarps forged…
Read Moreduct tape and phone book dress
Jolis Paons beautiful, sublimely imaginative duct tape and phone book dress…. …has completely changed our view…
Read Moredesigning slow life
We wish there were a way to beam ourselves (a la Star Trek) to a conference taking place in Lahti, Finland on March 24 to 25, called “Designing Slow Life” “…international experts of design, service design and wellness talk about and develop services under the main theme of better, slower and more meaningful life…The Slow…
Read Mored-i-y folding screen (thinking out loud in cardboard)
Atlas Industries, who makes gorgeous, furniture-like, fiercely expensive shelving and storage, sent us an announcement of a new product: a folding screen. We are always on the look-out for folding screen options to divide rooms and hide the stuff we don’t want to look at in our small space. The screen costs $2400 and we’d…
Read Morezen monday
In a recent New Yorker Talk of the Town, we came across this surprising image: a Japanese ukiyo-e print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi made in 1842 (from a show at the Japan Society). It’s called “Haysuhana Prays Under a Waterfall”. The idea knocked us out: of praying, meditating, thinking… just plain sitting… under a waterfall, for a…
Read Moreumbrella spindle
via the late, great Platform 21’s “Remarkable Repairs” archive…
Read Morehermeto pascoal: music via lagoon, bottles, flutes, imagination
Brazilian musician Hermeto Pascoal is famous for making music with unconventional objects. (Miles Davis called him “the most impressive musician in the world.” ) Here’s Pascoals astonishing Musica de Lagoa, made in a lagoon…the lagoon made into a instrument… According to his bio, Pascoal is self-taught: “Fascinated by the sounds of nature since he was a little…
Read Morethe power of time off (stefan sagmeister)
Last December, Pam Hunter, the mastermind behind Studio 707, THE Public Relations firm in Napa Valley, closed its doors to take a sabbatical. On her website’s last post, she told the story of meeting two artists over the years whose practice of taking long sabbaticals from their work had impressed her deeply. Spain’s Fernan Adria, considered…
Read Moremeyer lemon’s fleeting season – is NOW! (with recipe)
The produce section of my local supermarket is so lackluster that it generally discourages me from buying of any fresh vegetable except onions or bananas. Wandering through on my way to buy ice cream yesterday, I spotted a trove of Meyer lemons – six for $2 – and knew that these fabulous citrus had finally…
Read Moresally on finland at the atlantic food blog
Aside from endless design ideas, last summer’s trip to Finland has yielded a several part series at Atlanic Onlines’ Food Blog, starting today. The Atlantic posts will be ongoing for the next few weeks and will be mostly food-centric – woven through with cool design – until we get to the home of a Finnish…
Read Morespring is coming (really)!
I was in Savonlinna, Finland last summer poking around at the ancient town where there is a huge opera festival each summer inside a castle that was built in 1475. I spotted this flower arrangement in the market… (If you think we’ve got a long winter…)
Read Moreblu dot’s clock widget (change reminder)
Blu Dot is offering a surprisingly compelling clock widget you can download to your computer. It is a one inch square that sits anywhere on your screen you like; with each new minute, a new number image appears. The effect is constant surprise and little jostles to your mind about change and possibilities. For free!…
Read Morechristoph niemann map: my (your) way
….One of Christoph Niemann’s oddly illuminating maps, from his Abstract City blog in the N.Y.Times.
Read Morekitchen cabinets as furniture
Twenty years ago or so, I designed a kitchen for a space I thought I’d be in forever. I had cabinets made in a Shaker style that I hoped could walk the line between classic and modern for a long time, and bought myself a restaurant stove. Ten years later, life changed, and I had…
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