For some time now, we’ve been mulling the idea of pop-up, temporary “rooms” that we could put in place easily in a smallish apartment. The idea started with wanting to provide out-of-town friends camping in our living room with privacy, and evolved when we were trying to figure out a way to separate our sleeping…
Read Moresally on splendid table (with miso-glazed fish recipe)
This weekend, Sally will be on The Splendid Table talking with Lynne Rosetto Kasper about Miso, and all the things you DIDN’T know you could do with it. You’ll also find Sally’s recipe for Grilled Miso Glazed Fish Filets and Steaks, just in time for grilling season (though it’s great done under the broiler as well).…
Read Moreour book giveaway winner!
We just ran all 85 entries to our The Improvisational Cook giveaway through Randomizer and came up with a winner. Her name is Katie and here’s the kitchen improvisation she sent in: This recipe is a riff on The Splendid Table’s Lynn Rossetto Kasper’s Sweet Sicilian Sauce recipe, found at this link. I make this…
Read Morethe power of uncertainty -> ‘delicious ambiguity’
99% recently published a compelling post called the Power of Uncertainty. The gist (though it’s worth reading the whole thing): Projects fail all the time because we unwittingly bake the end solution into our initial objective. Rather than enduring an uncomfortable (but highly necessary) period of ambiguity, we fall into the trap of limiting our…
Read Morestealing and tailoring ideas
We were interested to see Ikea’s blog Livet Hemma‘s recent take on an idea we posted months ago: clipping boxes together with big binder clips to make somewhat freeform and sculptural shelving. We looked at their iteration of the idea, wondering if they’d seen our post, or if they’d just thought it up themselves. We…
Read Morejim jarmusch: ‘steal from everywhere’
We clipped this great design of Jim Jarmusch‘s famous quote years ago, not knowing who created it. If anyone knows, please let us know; it’s too good to go uncredited. We’ve just learned it’s by Mark Malazarte. And the quote is too good not to post.
Read Morelaurie anderson’s big question
We stumbled on this lovely 3 minutes with Laurie Anderson, and found it calmed us and made us THINK. (We also loved seeing her cooled out, very real space). It was made by Dropping Knowledge.org, a website that “invites you to question yourself and the world around you. Every time you ask yourself a question,…
Read Morealt plastic food bag solutions: re-usable cloth, mesh, or freeform…?
For some time now, we’ve struggled with the plastic bag problem. Not shopping bags – we’ve got that figured – we just carry a cute fold-up bag in our everyday bag. We’re talking plastic food bags. What is a really feasible bag for collecting messy things like bunches of grapes, piles of cherries or loose…
Read Morechef head (andrew carmellini)
Every since we saw the video Andrew Carmellini, mastermind of the great Locanda Verde, made to build buzz in his soon-to-open NYC restaurant, Dutch, we’ve been FEELING the restaurant as it comes together in the crazed couple of weeks before opening. Maybe that’s because Sally actually worked nearby at the old Soho Charcuterie on Sullivan…
Read Morevoyeur: apartments of nyc artists + others
A recent issue of New York Magazine featured The New York City Apartment: A Biography, a trove of slideshows and features about the inside of living in New York. We especially love the slideshow called “The Perpetual Garret”, the apartments of some once-not-so-famous artists. Flavorwire took the idea and ran with it, to include the…
Read Morelast chance: ‘the improvisational cook’ giveaway
The Improvisational Cook free giveaway ends Thursday at midnight so you’ve got a couple of days left if you haven’t entered. Click here for the super-easy entry requirements and to find out about Sally’s award-winning cookbook. Scroll down to the Comments to read some truly inspired improvisations. We’ll announce the winner on Friday afternoon. Related…
Read Morebusiness card stamp
We recently saw a business card after our own hearts. Dave Hakkins made a stamp the same size as a normal business card so that he could stamp it on ANYTHING. He cuts out card size rectangles of paper, cloth, cereal boxes and then just stamps them: each one is a surprise. By this method,…
Read Moremaking it up as we go along (an interview)
Liz Massey of Creative Liberty blog featured an interview called with Sally in her April e-newsletter. Check it out here to learn how ‘the improvised life’ came about, and Sally’s rant-ette on the creative process, how cooking relates to improvising, and the benefits of adopting an improvisational frame of mind… Here’s an excerpt: What advice…
Read Moredesign flaw? bigger-than-the-mattress platforms for beds
Design blogs and magazines love to feature chic beds where the platform base is quite a bit bigger than the mattress, making them look wonderfully architectural and modern. We discovered that the REALITY of these beds is that when we get in or out of them (or on or off), we scrape our shins on…
Read Moreimprovising as “listening”
MANY years ago, when we barely knew who Anni Albers was, we clipped a quote of hers from a magazine, and have had it on our fridge ever since. It is faded and yellowed, but resonates as strongly as ever: “Being creative is not so much the desire to do something as the listening to…
Read Moreweekend tv break: jonathan winters improvises w stick
Jonathan Winters was known for his astonishing ability to improvise with anything anyone handed him. We are amazed at the 4 inspiring minutes he did with a stick on the Jack Paar Show. Total LOL. We thought we’d find out a little more about him and found this nugget in his Wikipedia entry: His career…
Read Morefiguring out paint colors (from a master)
Usually when we’ve wanted to figure out the right color to paint a room, we’ve bought samples and painted swatches right on the wall. This method works pretty well if you are only choosing ONE color. But what if you want to use several or many colors in a room or throughout the house? We…
Read Moreartichokes = spring is here! (revised) with recipe
Our friend Maria Robledo sent this wonderful photo with the message ‘Thinking of u’. It is one of the many messages we’ve gotten during the past week from friends and strangers who knew we’d lost dear ones recently, and traveled last weekend for a memorial service in the West Virginia Appalachians. Using dial-up internet connection,…
Read Moredigital memory archive (photograph stuff then give it away)
Although we’ve always thought of ourselves as rather minimalist, we’ve been realizing that we have attachments to things that we don’t really want or need anymore, and have a hard time letting them go. What we are really attached to are the memories and associations the object spurs, afraid we’d lose the memory if we…
Read Moreikea hack: modernist flower pot
On the lookout for flower pots with sleek modern lines, we love this one made from a hacked Ikea lamp. Says creative hackeress Heloisa Fiasco of Raleigh, NC: “I bought this ceiling lamp at the AS IS section of Ikea. When I saw it I thought it would be the perfect modern flower pot that is…
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