Dig this brilliance from E.B. White, author of the great Charlotte’s Web. He starts his day plan with a Principle — “…change the world and have one hell of a good time” — instead of a schedule, and knocks all the day-planning strategies and productivity experts on their heads. Yay! via French by Design what happens…
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The New Yorker routinely assigns a cartoon artist to draw a cartoon based on the day’s events. Christopher Weyant managed to express what is in everyone’s hearts…in a CARTOON! Related posts: stephen colbert on boston’s fierce spirit and grit boston: spirit and bravery as antidote for boston (redux)
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We’re smitten with the Quad Trivet a cool Indegogo project. It consists of 16 wooden cubes — oiled walnut or maple — connected by a flexible, durable, heat-resistant silicone strip inserted in the underside of the cubes. This structure allows various configurations and different applications ranging from a compact squares and rectangles to a widespread circular…
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White steel Ikea PS cabinets ($99 each) lined up side-by-side, and stacked high with books, become curiously chic. via Desire to Inspire; photo by Sabrina Rothe Related posts: xhackism: the infinite diy possibilities of ikea’s LÖBBO shadex 16 REALLY clever uses for binder clips found: frosta/alvar aalto stool knock-off!!! an artist hacks ikea’s ‘billy’ bookcase cool…
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(Video link here.) Wingsuit pilot Alexander Polli saw a hole in a mountain’s rocky outcropping and just had to try flying through it. He practiced aiming and controlling his flight over and over until he just went ahead and…flew…right…..THROUGH… …at 155 miles per hour. Polli “hopes his success will inspire others not only to ‘climb…
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When we saw this image featured under Bedrooms on a design blog, we instantly thought: what a great solution for jazzing up a place, like the drab walls of a rental studio a friend is struggling to make into a home, however temporary. We started looking into services that make wall murals, imagining cool images…
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(Video link here.) In the annals of self-helpism, doubt is considered something to overcome, to find ways around, to MASTER. We’ve discovered time and again that that is easier said than done. Doubt seems to come with territory of being creative, and most of the people we know just find ways to soldier through…or be…
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We were very sorry to hear that singer Richie Havens passed away. He was born in Bedford Stuyvasant, Brooklyn and we used to see him in Greenwich Village in the old days, around the time his intense improvised opening of the Woodstock festival which made him famous (see video below). Here’s one of our favorite songs: Follow (Words…
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When we first saw the yellow freehand painted two-tone wall at Style-Files (below), we were of two minds: good idea but something held us back. Then we came started to come across an iteration Remodelista found at the Norwegian company Lady Premium Paint & Colors blog that made us think it held lots of possibilities. Out-of-the-blue we spotted the freehand-by-brush…
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When we were first planning ‘the improvised life’, we were inspired by this now-famous set of rules by Sister Corita Kent, artist and renown educator. They speak directly to the process of creating…ANYTHING. Here are our favorite essential rules: Find a place you trust and then try trusting it for a while. Consider everything as…
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(Video link here.) Above, a trailer for Deceptive Practice, the new documentary about brilliant sleight-of-hand master Ricky Jay. For a totaly entertaining read, check out this 1993 New Yorker profile of Jay by Mark Singer. For those of us haunted by the instantaneous life changes that occurred to so many wounded in the Boston bombing, The Times’ heartening…
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Recently we’ve been noodling around with the idea of with making a Murphy Bed with a lift-system of bungee cords. We haven’t heard of such a thing, but having seen the realm of industrial bungees available, thought it might be possible. Then, with the simultaneity we’ve come to expect when we have an idea, we…
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Somehow Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report managed a combination of deep respect and humor in his commentary on the Boston bombing: And when those bombs went off, there were runners who, after finishing a marathon, kept running for another two miles to the hospital to donate blood. So here’s what I know. These maniacs may have…
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Just as we posted about the many possibilities for using plywood as a wall covering, we learned of this brilliant play on the idea: moveable MAGNETIC silkscreened tiles made out of plywood. They are the brainchild of Giovanna and Matt Taylor, a couple who had never designed before. Remembering the blue-and-white ceramic tiles of her Italian childhood,…
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Yesterday’s New York Times ran a story about Jeff Bauman, the young man in the iconic photograph from the Boston bombing. Grievously wounded, he survived because of the heroic actions of a stranger in a cowboy hat: The Baumans [Jeff’s parents] knew how lucky Jeff had been. “The man in the cowboy hat — he saved Jeff’s…
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Mindfulness practice – learning to be present in each moment– is something many people are embracing these days. Business are incorporating it and classes abound. Perhaps the most often-recommended “exercise” is washing dishes mindfully, although we know few people who really do it. Recently, we heard of one that did, truly. No surprise, it is…
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We’ve looked for quotes about violence and about terrorism that would shed some light on what happened in Boston yesterday… find some good, make us feel better. The only thing we could think to do is bear witness, hold those who were so gravely hurt in our hearts, keep a vigil…which we will today. This…
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On Sprinkles and Springs, we came across this diy striped tee inspired by the modish tee-shirt Marc Jacobs recently featured in his chic, stripey collection. It is a great example of I COULD MAKE THAT thinking that has infiltrated many a clever head. Sprinkles and Springs saw it and figured out how using a plain…
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(Video link here.) One of our favorite films has long been My Dinner with Andre, which is, on the surface, a conversation between two friends during dinner in a French restaurant in New York City. Andre Gregory vividly describes his revelatory, new-ageish, risk-taking experiences in experimental theatre while his modest less-adventurous friend Wally Shawn listens and…
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We really love Flavorwire’s recent The Craziest Advice from Famous People which includes some wild stuff from cultural icons like Courteney Love, William Burroughs and Frank Zappa. We couldn’t help thinking that Jack Kerouac’s Belief & Technique for Modern Prose is a very curiously syncopated Beat poem full of jazzy wisdom about the creative process and…
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