Over our many years of traveling to West Virginia, we’ve admired a number of eccentric, cozy dwellings, including a school bus with a giant stone hearth built onto it, nestled by a river. But this shack we spotted at Cabin Porn incites serious envy. A couple named Lilah and Nick built the Sunset House using lumber from…
Read Morea jar of happiness (or other treasures)
We found this today on the strange, great, illuminating Daily Fluxus Do It Yourself Instructions: Instructions: 1. Identify the happiest feeling of the day. 2. Put it in a jar. 3. Switch it if something happier happens. … We’re wondering if this happiness jar would work in a similar way as jars full of air captured in…
Read Moretree-vision: tree roots emerge from the ceiling
Our love of trees has led us to imagine many ways to use fallen trunks and limbs indoors. But we NEVER thought of this!
Read Morediy valentine card + life philosophy from fluxus
We’ve been admiring this Valentine for years. It’s by Fluxus, a collaborative whose philosophy resonates with our own: Erase the boundary between Art and Life… Fluxus is an attitude. It is not a movement or a style. Fluxus is intermedia. Fluxus creators like to see what happens when different media intersect. They use found and…
Read Morefollowing the path, wherever it leads (ellie davies)
We know quite a few people who are making major life changes these days, living with the question of what to do next, waiting for the path to become clear. So we were really struck, and curiously heartened, by this series of images by photographer Ellie Davies… … …more here. photos courtesy ellie davies
Read Morevirtual traveler: ‘a day in india’
A Day in India from The Perennial Plate on Vimeo. (Video link here.) Seeing this wonderful day in India makes us see our own day here a bit differently. (There’s a lot of seriously wonderful-looking food…
Read Moreleap! play!
Indian children play on the banks of the River Ganges in Allahabad, India, on Nov. 17. A reminder to leap and play, no matter what age you are! Need encouragement?
Read Moreenzo mari’s autoprogettazione for diy furniture designs
Autoprogettazione, roughly translated “self design,” was a project and book by the modernist artist and designer Enzo Mari that gives instructions for building easy-to-assemble furniture — tables, chairs, bookshelves, wardrobe — using rough boards and nails. Originally published in 1974, it has been reprinted many times. Mari created the project because he thought …if people were encouraged to…
Read Moreevolution of a matisse in 13 drawings
This sketch made by Henri Matisse January 7, 1940 is the first of thirteen he did in preparation for a wondrous painting The Dream completed in September 1940. Scroll down to see great artist’s process…as the painting emerges…
Read Morerelaks cafe’s fab cheap chic tile floor mashup
We are completely smitten with this jazzy floor at Relaks Cafe and Bike Repair Shop in Warsaw, Poland. Conceived of by Super super and Moko Architects as a low-budget flooring solution, it’s a modernist mosaic made out of scraps and offcuts of plywood, chipboard, mdf, maybe some cork and non slip rubber tiles…
Read More3 powerful principles for remembering + learning anything
Having an increasingly difficult time remembering things (and SO much to remember), we were very interested to read the Guardian’s How I learned a language in 22 hours about Joshua Foer‘s successfully learning an obscure language using a learning website called Memrise. Memrise bases their language courses on three essential principles, excerpted here from the very long and…
Read Morehow to wax cotton…jackets, jeans, anything!
(Video link here.) Last year we bought a waxed-cotton knapsack from Dargelos that we LOVE because it carries a huge amount of stuff without looking like it. Gradually the wax finish wore off and we began to look into rewaxing it. Dargelos recommends a solvent-free paste wax you can rub onto your fabric bag to refurbish…
Read More‘the rules are meant to be broken’ + thomas ashcraft
K “Rules are there to be broken” is one of our favorite operating principles. We’ve learned a HUGE amount from seeing what would happen if we “broke the rules” and did things differently from the norm. It’s a practice: questioning the rules with a big “WHY?” and then, when we have an idea, asking “Why…
Read Morecary grant gif inspiration: filng system
via Tara Mann via The B-Man Collective
Read Morediy paper placemat and napkin riff
We stumbled on some compelling photo placemats done as a public art project for Atlanta Celebrates Photography: photos printed onto large size paper, perfect IF you have a big color printer. The standard size of a placemat is 12″ x 18″, bigger we can print, although we suppose, we could have them done at Kinko’s. The…
Read Moreray bethells’ wondrous self-taught kite ballet
(Video link here.) A friend sent us this beautiful video of Ray Bethell, a multi sport-kite flyer from Canada of unknown age (we hear he’s in his 80’s): His skin is like leather as he normally flies with his shirt off. He is deaf, so when he flies people hold their hands up and wave them…
Read Morezero gravity with sunita williams
(Video link here.) This video of Sunita “Sunny” Williams giving a tour of the International Space Station came via our new friend and prolific idea-generator Susan Dworski, with this note: Totally astonishing. Have no idea how to use. Polar opposite from chairs made of dowels. Maybe you could compare and contrast somehow? Every kid should see…
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