In the past month, two dear friends from the tiny hamlet of Helvetia in the West Virginia Appalachians passed away. With them goes a great deal of memory and wisdom and beauty. We’re heading down there to pay our respects, and… just be for a while…in Appalachia’s astonishing spring, as we remember their wild, rich,…
Read Moreto-do list tattoo
As we’ve been struggling to modify hack Omnifocus,our overly complicated task management software and tailor it to our needs, we came across this fab to-do list tattoo. Just fill it out with a pen daily and wash it off at night. It reminded us of our more primitive – and less permanent – solution: of making…
Read More1 good idea: freeform bent-pipe faucet
We have a thing for faucets made of artfully bent pipe. We love this bare-bones beauty we spotted on Bloesem. Photo: Marjon Hoogervorst aka Vorstin Related post: sculptural faucets of pipe (and shovel)…
Read Morereminder: ‘the improvisational cook’ book giveaway
We been KNOCKED OUT by the responses we’ve gotten to our teeny, easy contest to win a free, inscribed copy of Sally’s The Improvisational Cook. Check out the Comments following last week’s bookgivaway announcement to read some of the great, imaginative improvs reader’s have done in the kitchen. The deadline for entry is Thursday, April…
Read Morelaurie anderson reprise: jerry-rigging
We’ve been listening to Homeland, Laurie Anderson‘s great-to-work-to album. The track “Only an Expert” (short version below) reminded us of one of our favorite videos, Jerry-Rigging, reprised from an early, experimental, now-defunct section of ‘the improvised life’.
Read Morethe secret of white painted floors
We’ve always loved the white painted floors that are especially prominent on Scandinavian design blogs and magazines, like these from the home of Danish stylist Sidsel Zachariassen. We wondered what the secret is to making them both pristine and durable. We found the answer in a Dwell slideshow about the smart, frugal renovation of a…
Read Moredivine inspiration: design via butterfly
We find the natural world is a good source of design inspiration…like this Eighty-Eight Butterfly (Diaethria neglecta) from Brazil’s Pantanal with it’s a sensational design of lines and dots. Take a nature walk at National Geographic’s slideshow of extraordinary butterflies or at Encyclopedia of Life’s butterfly collection. via Neatorama
Read Moreswell rigged kitchen island on sawhorses
Faced with the possibility of camping in a kitchenless space, we’ve been thinking about ways to forge a makeshift kitchen. Lately, we’ve come across a number of kitchen islands made out of sawhorses and a slab of wood. Although they have a pleasingly ad hoc feeling, sawhorses naturally seem to possess a low-key architectural aesthetic,…
Read Morestripping things to their essence (le corbusier)
We stumbled on this image of the great architect Le Corbusier painting a fresco in the nude. in Le Corbusier: A Life. He was staying at legendary architect Eileen Gray‘s Villa E-1027 in St. Tropez, in 1927. You can almost feel the Mediterranean breezes. To us, it is a reminder of “flow”, of following ideas spontaneously…
Read Morestout + ice cream floats (for grownups)
The other day we were browsing through Leite’s Culinaria and stumbled on Coleman Andrew’s “recipe” for an ice cream float made with Guinness Stout. It fits fine within the “ice cream with flavorful alcohol” theme we are partial to, vanilla being a perfect foil for the chocolatey/spicy/bitter/maltiness of stout. (Our Amontillado Milkshake walks a similar…
Read Morecool finds + good value, for home
Over the past week, we’ve stumbled on some very cool housewares with all the qualities we value: simple, well-designed, enduring, and good value. Our favorite is a charming geometric textile made of pieced Tyvek by Woodnotes that can be used as curtains, partitions, and table decorations.“Flake consists of snow flake like pieces which are joined…
Read Morehanging shelf = art + practicality
We stumbled on this wonderful hanging shelf on You Have Been Here Sometime, but when we went back to look it was gone! It’s from an exhibition by Ian McDonald called Wearing. In our minds it’s art = a shelf = art = a shelf = wonderful to look at = practical = odd =art…
Read More‘self-confidence produces fine results’ (sagmeister’s banana wall)
…a fab sign made of bananas by Austrian graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister’. It’s part of his new exhibit of his commercial/commissioned work at the Mudac Museum in Switzerland. via DesignBoom
Read Morenoguchi: ceramics, ikibana + space
Cherry, apple blossoms and dogwood will soon be making their appearance, so Spring is a fine time to practice ikebana, the minimalist art of flower arranging that originated in Japan. As with wabi-sabi, although it looks simple, it has complex philosophical, even spiritual underpinnings. Ikebana” is from the Japanese ikeru (生ける?, “to place, to arrange,…
Read Morebook giveaway: ‘the improvisational cook’
We’re giving away a free copy of Sally Schneider’s award-winning cookbook The Improvisational Cook (inscribed by the author if you like), widely viewed as THE book about improvising in the kitchen. “Schneider gives cooks the know-how to embellish, adapt, change, alter, modify and experiment in their cooking with plenty of encouragement and helpful information. Here…
Read Morejapan’s dark spring via the new yorker
This week’s New Yorker, with heart-breaking cover by Christoph Niemann also has illuminating (and heartbreaking) coverage about Japan.
Read Moreinspiration journals: walls, books, software…
Annaleena’s Hem recently published a whimsical “inspiration” wall, a styled visualization of a very practical process. She taped up clipped-from-magazine images of ideas for redecorating, and called it “Collect Your Dreams”. Says Annaleena: Something I often say to…those who are renovating is to tear out pictures as you like, it can be inspirational images of…
Read Morehow to remember anything
There’s been a lot of press lately about journalist Joshua Foer’s book Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. We’re sure that’s because forgetfulness is the curse of our age. Foer thinks it’s NOT because our brains are overloaded, but because we’re not really paying attention. The book outlines methods you can…
Read Morespring!
“We remembered how to grow fast, and it became Spring.” –Anne Herbert, Peace and Love and Noticing the Details
Read Morealt flower arrangement: a little vase of herbs
We love this alt-flower arrangement spotted in Remodelista’s post about Sitka & Spruce, a restaurant in Seattle: herbs – here, thyme and rosemary – in a little vase. (A pretty glass would do.) This would be especially great in high summer when herbs are abundant, fragrant and often in flower. We found this nice looking set…
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