(Video link at Heliotown) Two days before New Year’s, we came across this passage from Mark Halprin’s Winter’s Tale, describing the moment the old year turned into new: Then the hands of the clock started to race like the tortoise and the hare, and both reached midnight at the same time. The clock struck along with…
Read Morereflecting on 2012: the lists, images, video
This has been QUITE a year and we’re taking this week to reflect and look back (while we look forward). We start with this image of Nik Wallenda walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls from The Big Picture’s The 45 Most Powerful Images Of 2012; we often feel like that, in our own small way. We love Google’s…
Read Moremerry christmas and a happy new year (james brown)
(Video link here.) The inimitable James Brown perfectly expresses our gratitude and holiday wishes! Thank you for being part of ‘the improvised life’, for reading us, commenting, emailing ideas… And special thanks to our Friends with Benefits; your support has been a tonic (and essential). Related posts: roy arden’s blog: james brown’s dance lessons and…
Read Morehappy holidays from ‘the improvised life’
(Listen to music* while you watch the gif.) We’re wishing you a WONDROUS holiday, and hoping you’ll get to do some serious, lazy-dog hanging out between Christmas and New Years’. We’ll be posting intermittently, while we work on a new idea (we’ll be listening to WKCR’s weeklong Bach festival, streamable here.) We’ll be back full-tilt…
Read Morelast minute holiday gift(s)
Although we’ve definitely disengaged from the holiday gift buying mania, we DO love the pleasure of giving gifts. Our favorite solution, do-able even at the very last minute, are charity donations. You can give money to a charity like the Robin Hood Foundation or Doctors Without Borders and then send out e-cards in your loved one’s…
Read More‘ode to joy’ (wishing you joy starting right now!)
(Video link here.) This was a “Christmas email”sent by a friend. Perfect. It brought a big dose of JOY right into our day. So we hope it will do the same for you. And if you feel the need for ANOTHER, even wilder, and possibly more joyous Ode to Joy, click here.
Read Moresally talks holiday table diy’s on ‘the splendid table’ +
Starting this evening, The Splendid Table will feature Sally talking to Lynne Rosetto Kasper about the holiday table: how to make makeshift tables and seating for a once-a-year crowd, as well as dandy ways to decorate it. Go to Splendid Table’s site for info on when the show airs in your area, or to download…
Read Morediy stamped gift wrap (from erasers + potatoes)
A few weeks ago, after Susan Dworski mentioned that she carved stamps out of erasers, we started thinking about all the things you could do with home-made stamps. Why not stamp a pattern on sheets or rolls of paper to make your own fab holiday wrapping paper? (It’s easy, you just get yourself some Staedtler…
Read Moregeorge lois and the cowardly lion on ‘courage’
CreativeMornings Short: George Lois on Courage from CreativeMornings on Vimeo. (Video link here.) In this short, great clip from design legend George Lois‘ CreativeMornings talk, he gives what he considers to be his most essential piece of advice for creatives — for anyone — : “be courageous!“. And suddenly we realized that Lois is curiously reminiscent of the Cowardly…
Read Morereminder: you don’t have to iron or hem linen cloths
Two images in a recent Remodelista post illustrate an essential principal that just might let you off-the-hook over the holidays: linen table cloths don’t need to be ironed to be beautiful, nor do they even have to be hemmed. We offer proof below, in the lovely tables set ‘au natural’. But if prefer an ironed…
Read Morebrightly-painted logs and branches
“Wake” by Michael McGillis is a 95-foot long pathway enclosed on both sides by brightly-painted cut logs; it’s on display at the Franconia Sculpture Park in Minnesota. Although the installation is apparently a commentary on humanity’s disruption of nature, for us (barbarians!) it’s an idea for embellishing the logs we hauled home after Hurricane Sandy, or still have our…
Read Moregif-imagination: one voluptuous fire hydrant!
We LOVE gifs, and are amazed that a little bit of code that can animate an image, making it live. Lately, we’ve noticed gif artists applying the process to create new visions of things, like this fire hydrant that a gif-artist “saw” as voluptuous statuary. Here’s a whole Tumblr-full of gifs from Moving the Still,…
Read Moretabletop decor idea: vintage toy truck candleholder
While we were poking around floral designer Emily Thompson’s website, we came across this swell little tabletop decoration: pillar candles arranged on the bed of a vintage toy pickup truck (all sorts available at Ebay.) Related posts: fab bird’s nest wreath (+ other found holiday decor ideas) diy holiday wreaths (out of just about anything) alt christmas…
Read Moreblind, a photographer reinvents himself
(Video link here.) When commercial photographer John Dugdale lost most of his sight almost twenty years ago, he did not give up photography as one would have imagined. Instead, he started photographing in a new way, using a huge view camera and employing 19th century forms and processes. Life forced him to “see in a…
Read Morefab bird’s nest wreath (+ other found holiday decor ideas)
After we posted about making wreaths of “just about anything“, Maria Robledo sent us a picture of a wreath that pushes that idea in the most wonderful and surprising way: a real bird’s nest nestled into winter branches whose leaves have dropped. It was a gift from inspired floral designer Emily Thompson, who even left bits…
Read More‘there are still so many helpers’…(for newtown)
Charlotte, Daniel, Olivia, Josephine, Ana, Dylan, Madeline, Catherine, Chase, Jesse, James, Grace, Emilie, Jack, Noah, Caroline, Jessica, Benjamin, Avielle, Allison… When President Obama said those names aloud today during his moving speech at Newtown, our hearts broke, again. We found ourselves comforted by the words-gone-viral of kindly old Fred Rogers —Mr. Rogers — advocate and true friend of children for eons. It is our experience that there are…
Read Moregift: diy color-block wooden spoons + baskets
‘the improvised life’s former assistant Sarah M alerted us to this easy-to-make gift for the holidays: color block wooden spoons, along with a link to A Cozy Kitchen showing how-to. It could not be easier: buy some wooden spoons (they’re cheap), use painter’s tape to mask-off a striped design, then paint the spaces left and allow…
Read Morewhat happens if you throw with your other hand?
(Video link here.) We find this video of guys throwing balls with their “other hand” is both hilarious and curiously illuminating. It’s really funny how cockeyed throwing with the other hand makes these guys, and how off their aim. But intentionally switching handedness — or any practice we do routinely — can be a kind…
Read Morediy holiday wreaths (out of just about anything)
We’re not sure what Cara de Silva was doing reading Garden and Gun, but we love the story she spotted on wreaths made in the South. There’s a beauty made with tobacco leaves and a few sprigs of red berries, and another made from cotton plants: materials sourced from fields. It reminded us that a holiday…
Read More‘a new way to cook’ (gift idea + a trove of recipes)
Some time ago, Michael Druzinsky, an acquaintance of mine who is a composer, emailed his friend Mark Bernstein, who created the idea-mapping softwear Tinderbox, to ask if he’d mind talking to me about his very interesting software. Michael forwarded Mark’s reply: “Sally Schneider’s book, A New Way to Cook, changed my life. I’ve given it to lots…
Read More