While looking at images of Taliesin West for our string light post, we came across this sign of Frank Lloyd Wright’s “The Organic Commandment”. We’re not sure if it’s one or four, or ‘commandment’ rather than principles, but we find it worth mulling… Related posts: string lights as everyday indoor lighting a dance lesson from…
Read Morestring lights as everyday indoor lighting
photo: blog.ounodesign.com The great blog Ouno recently documented a visit to Taliesin West, Frank Lloyds Wright’s winter home and the main campus of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. A photo of the “dinner cabaret room” caught our eye: strings of tiny lights glowe3d on the ceiling. We don’t know if this is a Wrightian…
Read Morejim denevan and the possibilities of snow
(Video link here.) It’s been an eerily snow-less winter in New York City. With the exception of a single January snowfall there has been nothing—and we kind of miss it. This post is in honor of the snow we think may be on its way…and the possibilities it brings with it. We wrote a couple…
Read Morea reader’s gift
We received this letter via snail mail recently with a generous check enclosed and have been flying high off it ever since. Not only is the admiration flattering, but the knowledge that all the work that goes into this blog is meaningful to people sustains us in a big way. A true gift. This little…
Read More65 modern art books online…for free!
Recently we wrote about the ins and outs of selling your books online; one comment inquired about our collection of old art books and whether or not we would sell them directly to readers. While we can’t delve into the world of online sales right now, we DO want to point you to this great FREE…
Read More‘ordinary people, extraordinary lives’
Every year, New York Times’ publishes a special issue of the Sunday magazine called The Lives They Lived, usually famous people who passed away the year before. The 2011 issue was subtitled “These American Lives: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Stories.”. We read the stunning issue cover-to-cover, deeply moved, often in tears, haunted by what we read.…
Read Morebrown sugar butter cookies with thyme-rosemary-lavender salt
Just before Christmas, I posted my best-ever butter cookie recipe: Ethereal Brown Sugar Butter Cookies, along with many variations. The versatile cookie dough recently inspired yet another improvisation on the basic theme. Actually, it’s an improvisation on my Tuscan Herb Salt Recipe, that I then used on the butter cookies, to make a double-improvisation: Brown…
Read More‘vintage’ photo generator will transform your photos, free
We recently stumbled on a cool Japanese site that will instantly transmute any photo you upload to an aged version “like over 100 to 150 years old.” On the upper right corner of the site you can ‘English’ to see a translation. You choose the file where it says to, and then click the blue…
Read Morecheap, chic, useful: anthropologie’s ephemera clip
A satisfying find from the recently-redesigned Remodelista: Anthropologie’s Ephemera Clip. Made of distressed iron (wonder if it will rust…then it might get REALLY beautiful), with a hole in one handle so you can hang it, it is like a little sculpture…Endlessly useful for clipping together receipts, papers, closing food bags… Related posts: holiday gifts: cheap…
Read Moretwo mind-shifting quotes to start the day
Two recent bits of brilliance by the mysterious Anne Herbert of Peace and Love and Noticing the Details. Related posts: xanne herbert’s wise + teeny meditations going from “can’t” to “can” fling and be flung (jackson pollock) ann herbert: unaccumulateann herbert: unaccumulate insoluable problem -> interesting solution a reminder, via anne herbert (open doors!)
Read Morethe unexpected stylishness of walls of stacked logs
The image of a Khan market storefront in Delhi spotted on Ouno got us thinking about strangely beautiful walls of stacked logs can be. We’ve blogged some in the past, but recently found some new iterations of the great, elemental and possibly practical idea. Check out this chic wall in Alpenstueck restaurant in Berlin:
Read Morethe creative possibilities for being ‘on hold’ via christophe neimann
A revelation from last weekend’s New York Times’ Magazine: the great Christophe Niemann doodle made while he was ‘on hold’ forever, waiting for a person to pick up, listening to Clair de Lune. Click to listen while you follow the amazing path Niemann wandered and the many discoveries he made… (Our strategy for being “on…
Read Morethree keys to a long life
(Video link here.) A reader sent us this lovely little video her friend Julia Warr made. It is about 95-year-old Maia Helles, a former Russian ballet dancer who she met on a plane four years ago. Warr became convinced that Maia “remains resolutely independent, healthy as a forty year old…through the benefits of her daily exercise…
Read Moremind shift: the great bell chant
This video came from a CD/book called Graceful Passages: A Companion for Living and Dying. It’s read by Thich Nath Hanh and chanted by brother Phap Niem. Whether you’re Buddhist or Not, it’s full of riches. Watch full screen…or just listen (here). Thanks Maria!! Related posts: reminder: shooting stars all around us (gif) insta-perspective: this is where we are travel…
Read Morehow to sell your books online
Like everyone we know, we have a growing pile of books that we’ve been wanting to sell, to cut down on clutter and make a few bucks in the process. We recently discovered BookScouter, a website that tells you how much your used books are worth to a variety of online retailers. The best part…
Read Morewe test drive the pomodoro time management technique
A few weeks ago we wrote about the concept of “pulsing and resting,” throughout the work day; actually taking breaks from work in order to get more done (and do better work!). One of our readers introduced us to the Pomodoro Technique, (names after a tomato-shaped timer) which is based on this very idea and…
Read Morea poster to inspire your new year’s intention
This evening marks the start of Chinese New Year – the Year of the Dragon. We think this poster from Singapore design firm pupilpeople would make a fine, fluid set of reminders for the year: glow-in-the-dark, too, for about $24.
Read Morewine bottles as chic, cheap water decanters
At dinner parties these days, everybody seems to be drinking lots of water, in addition to or instead of wine. Rather than plunking a pitcher of water on the table that will undoubtedly need several refills, we’ve found another solution. We decant filtered water into great-looking wine bottles whose labels we’ve soaked off. We keep…
Read Morequick homemade tropical ice creams (banana..mango…)
For all the wonderful ice creams that are commercially available, I find myself turning to a simple approach I devised years ago for whipping up vividly-flavored tropical fruit ice creams with much less cream and sugar than usual. When pureed, ripe bananas, papayas and/or mangos achieve the creamy silky texture that quantities of cream and…
Read Moregeometrically painted walls and doors
Last week Mondoblogo posted two photos taken at Art Basel of wonderful geometrically-painted walls with doors (they are part of the blog’s illuminating challenge to identify what is actual “art” and what is not). The top is “Final Cut” by artist Ernst Caramelle. The second “a random door”… We’re putting them in our file of…
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