Ever since we learned to drive, we wondered why sideview mirrors couldn’t be adjusted to avoid the blind spot that causes so many accidents, and kept us awkwardly looking over our shoulder to see if any cars were hiding in it. We never actually tried seeing if we could adjust the mirror, testing out possible…
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From National Geographic’s 2010 Photography Contest. Perfect for now. We like remembering Christmas trees in the wild as we see them all spruced up around town. via The Big Picture
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On the Selby’s latest photo story, we fell in love with the vivid color tiled bathrooms at illustrator Christoph Niemann (famous for imaginative his New York Times’ blog) and art historian Lisa Zeitz’s home in Berlin. They make what would be rather ordinary bathrooms dazzling. It takes quite an eye for color to put together tiles in…
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(Video link here.) In his riff on being broke, comedian Louis C.K. vividly echoes the Russian proverb: “A rich man in his fur coat cannot understand why a poor man feels cold”, as he addresses the many people he knows – a whole nation, in fact – who are broke. Being broke is, in fact, an age-old…
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We are curiously attracted to this loud, happy neon pink and orange graffitied doorway, patched together with an ill-fitting plywood floor. Could anyone have contrived such perfection, or could it only have evolved organically? via Reference Library
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(Video link here.) Last year around this time, we wondered “WHY NOT make a modernist gingerbread house, rather than the usual Victorian style?” Making gingerbread houses and structures allows you to act out your architectural and sweet-tooth fantasies, and are a perfect holiday activity to do with friends or kids; they invite collaboration and the…
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We don’t know what we’d do without Cara de Silva, who almost daily sends us something moving and interesting. Even if we don’t post it, we feel like she threw a gift our way: something we would have otherwise missed. This weekend she alerted us to a stunning piece in the New York Times written…
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(Video link here.) We were very late in posting today…and have been, here and there, for the past couple of weeks. We feel like the white rabbit, RUNNING, as we juggle and handle and make decisions…running ‘the improvised life’ while we work on a mind-boggling project (which we hope to start blogging soon.) And all…
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After we posted a series of pictures of people leaping and flying – one of our favorite images and ‘the improvised life’s mascot – illustrator/motivational speaker Trevor Romain sent us this image for our collection. He took a picture of a father throwing his son into the air in shallow water in Hawaii and realized…
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We’ve loved Canal House Cooking since it launched in 2009. Created and self-published by two home chefs, each book in this cookbook series is made with care, beautifully presented with unique (and do-able) recipes. We treasure our copies, but we also like to give subscriptions as gifts–new books are released three times a year, but…
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On Dargelos’ Tumblr, we found this picture with a mysterious caption: “Leaf art found in Prospect Park.” It seemed too simple to be true. This leaf sculpture was so beautiful, we wanted to know more of the story. So we emailed Dargelos and asked. Right away, we got an answer: “We were literally just walking through…
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Found in Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts, and Other Artists’ Enumerations from the Collections of the Smithsonian Museum: “Sculptor and designer Harry Bertoia was just 15 when he moved from Italy to the United States. Two years later, struggling to assimilate in school, he made this list of personal attributes as part of a class…
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Over many years of sifting through flea-markets and junk stores, one of our happiest and most inexpensive finds have been single plates, bowls and cups of fine china. Drinking tea out of Limoge cup, with its perfect proportions and translucency, gave us pleasure during many years of writing. One chipped, shallow soup bowl of unknown…
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These two images, with their amazing statement, are from a series of twenty posted on the blog Rolu recently, in which the late fashion designer Yves St. Laurent gives an unexpectedly candid speech announcing his retirement. In a few words, the famously private man reveals the impetus for his immense creativity – his “fatal lineage” and…
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via dargelosny.tumblr.com Related posts: signs on walls: ‘how to work better’ ‘what’s not wrong?’ and other ways to start your day reminder: a wrong choice can take you to the right place ‘don’t say yes. be yes”
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The other day, we stumbled on Dargelos, an online store with stylish, thoughtfully-designed products for bicycle riders (some are great for NON bikers as well). We originally went to the site to check out their Lighting Vest, a hand-netted safety vest made from a specially-developed reflective 3M material that will make you highly visible to…
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Of all the brilliant artists we feature on ‘the improvised life’, Alexander Calder holds a special place in our hearts. In addition to his monumental artworks and legendary mobiles, he was a prolific creator of household objects for everyday use. If he or his wife Louisa or a friend needed something utilitarian, he would devise…
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This artwork by Marlo Pascual reminded us how great a big rock can be to display stuff, especially this carefully balanced photograph. Perfect. It called to mind the boulders Russel Wright used to prop up a red-painted sideboard
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We recently came across a compelling blog post about letters sent home by Russian soldiers during World War II. Without access to envelopes and postcards, the soldiers folded up triangular letters that were their own package–”letter and envelope in one.” The folded format was necessary since mail needed to be reviewed by censors and couldn’t…
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The other day on on Constant Siege, we found this clip of a young Steve Jobs stating one simple, transformative fact that is curiously easy to overlook: “When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and you’re life is just to live your life inside the world. Try…
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