H A P P Y E A S T E R!!! H A P P Y S P R I N G !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! F R O M ‘ I M P R O V I S E D L I F E’ (We’ll be back Tuesday…) “The Swiss Avant Garde” via the great Mondoblogo
Read Moresplatter-painted easter eggs and other last minute ideas
Suddenly realizing that Easter is just a couple of days away, we started thinking Easter eggs, the symbol of the day both Christian and pagan. Immediately, photographer Tessa Traeger’s egg series came to mind. All eggs collected from various birds, they provide inspiration for egg decorating from Nature. Witness Livet Hamma’s diy spatter-painted eggs below.…
Read Moresalty-sweet chocolate chip cookie for easter and…
I met New York City Baker Katherine Yang at a book party for Canal House Cooks Every Day, one of our favorite cookbooks. Co-author Christopher Hirscheimer described Katherine as having created one of the best chocolate chip cookies EVER: crisp, at once salty and sweet. Katherine is the creator of Gigi Blue a by-order seriously bakery, where…
Read Morediy pallet furniture: essential steps, reality sandwiches
Reclaimed shipping pallets continue to be a material that inspires design-afficionados and diy-ers alike. Over the years we’ve posted many clever iterations of pallet sofas, beds, planters, wine racks, flat files (just type “shipping pallets” into our Search box)…As well as some serious research and info on the safety of pallets, what to look for,…
Read Morebrian eno on surrendering, noticing, imperfection
(Video link here.) This video of artist and musician Brian Eno is full of interesting ideas about the creative process. The best, to us, is right up front in the first 1:44 minutes: I think one of the things art offers you is the chance to surrender, the chance to not be in control…
Read Morediy or buy: ladder shelves
Spotted in Design Milk’s recent story about Rua Confettora, unconventional, international design shop in Brescia, Italy: a white-painted ladder used as the support for glass shelves: instant, rustic/modern chic, made from ordinary materials. When we hunted around, we discovered that Lab::Istanbul’s had created a line of shelving based on the idea:
Read Morefab cardboard prom dress
We SO love the crazy-imaginative prom dresses industrious students make to antidote and poke fun at over-the-top prom-ism. We’re adding this curiously-girlie-though-made-of-cardboard one to our collection that includes the divine… duct tape and phone book dress m&m wrapper dress (garbage is opportunity) fishs eddy’s spoon dress metal washer and attic insulation dress vision break: a…
Read Morechimero: ‘everyone is just making it up as they go along’
99% recently published highlights of designer Frank Chimero’s “everything he knows about design“. We went to the original and culled our own. As usual, we see them being about LIFE, not just design. If you can’t draw as well as someone, or use the software as well, or if you do not have as much…
Read Morethe surprising power of diy virtual bouquets
In the past month or so, two readers of ‘improvised life’ sent beautiful virtual bouquets in the form of emailed jpgs. You might think that a cyber bouquet would have little of the power or effect of a real one, but we’ve got to say, NOT SO. Part of the reason they were each so…
Read Moresimon beck’s snow art + dworski on why we improvise
As a spring snow storm sweeps through the midwest, it seems fitting to post these wondrous snow paintings by artist Simon Beck along the frozen lakes of Savoie, France. He creates the beautiful geometric patterns, some as large as 3 soccer fields, by plodding through the snow in snowshoes for hours at a time. How long the…
Read Morehouse tour: clever expansive 240 sq ft apt ‘cabin’
Recently Dwell featured a slideshow of Brooklyn architect Tim Seggerman’s design to renovate a dismal brownstone studio with a sleeping loft. He was inspired by legendary furniture designer George Nakashima to “create an enveloping cabin of blond woods”. He managed to make a tiny 240 square foot space seem expansive by using the blond wood panels to…
Read Moregiant leaf umbrella, diy umbrella dome + our fave
This wonderful image got us thinking about umbrellas: the brilliance of the IDEA and the brilliance of the actual creation. Somehow, that led us to this beautiful glowing dome made out red umbrellas that seemed to appear suddenly out of nowhere around a lamp post in the centre of Rotterdam.
Read Morewhat would happen if…you skydived with an umbrella?
(Video link here.) Professional skydiver Erik Roner asked himself a question he’d wondered for a long time: what would happen if he sky-dived with an umbrella? Then he tried it, just to see what would happen. A man after our own improvisational hearts. Question the “rule(s)”… …ask “What would happen if…? …and then TRY YOUR IDEA OUT!…
Read Moremax lamb’s DIM shelving built from hardware store finds
Ever since seeing designer Max Lamb‘s polystyrene bookcases, we’ve been huge fans of his work. He loves making things and lends an artist’s eye to fine craftman’s projects, documenting each step of his process to share on his website. We’ve learned a huge amount from looking at Lamb’s projects, many of which are do-able by…
Read Moreai weiwei instagram: ‘imagine one day…’
‘Imagine one day the hateful world around you collapses. And it is your attitude, words, and actions that put an end to it.’ Just imagine. via the great Ai Weiwei’s Instagram
Read Moredaring nyc subway rescue: improvise and try everything!
Nearly 100 feet below Second Avenue in Manhattan, workers have been blasting into bedrock to build a new subway line in New York City, slogging through mud and muck daily. Yesterday, when a worker lost his footing, a frigid mud akin to quicksand began to swallow him up, creating an extraordinary rescue challenge and daring…
Read Morearen’t we all somehow astronauts? (revised + reposted)
Ed White of Gemeini 4 (1965!) during the first American EVA i.e. extra-vehicular activity, done by an astronaut outside of a spacecraft beyond the Earth’s appreciable atmosphere. The term most commonly applies to a spacewalk. This is what we’re really all doing in some way, right? … …Soon after we first posted this, we found The Future is Space in The…
Read Moregarden in the shower + a moss bathmat
At Unconsumption, we came across this picture with commentary from a couple of different sites: the first via A Harsh Light: craigslist houseshare ad: “i have a garden growing in my shower so you have to use eco-friendly hair products. you will see worms and other insects, and you will occasionally see a spider too but they all…
Read Moremister rogers’ 10-second meditation
(Video link here will take you to exactly the right point.) We love Fred Rogers’ —the famed Mister Rogers’ — perfect, illuminating acceptance speech for the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 24th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards. Rogers presents a simple 10-second practice that will shift your view, and provide you with a tool you can carry around throughout…
Read Moreclever shelving configured for bicycle storage
Spotted on Ikea’s Swedish website LivetHemma: a bunch of cabinet boxes afixed to the wall, with space to store a bike. It’s a graphic solution to storing a bike when you have no outside bike storage, and want to get it off the floor. Of course, bikes are beautiful hung directly on the wall, horizontally
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