January 2014 - Page 2 of 3 - Improvised Life

Matisse’s Mockup of the ‘Negress’ Inspires Our Own

Matisse-inspirec cut paper collages can make for an instead change in a small or large space.

The Improvisational Possibilities of Mallomars

Not only is the Mallomar a seasonal food, it inspires endless improvisations on how to eat it. Here are 7 to start.

Maurizio Cattelan on Being a Loser + a Revolutionary

Ever since Holton Rower gave us an issue of Maurizio Cattelan’s magazine-book Toilet Paper, we’ve been following the artist’s work. Recently, we started hunting Cattelan’s words and found much about living and making that resonated.

Print All Over Me’s Custom Printing Service

Have a swell unique design you’d like to fashion into a one-of-a-kind gift? Print All Over Me will print your custom design — drawings, collages, photographs, signs — onto white tee-shirts, baseball hats, tote bags, pillows, scarfs or sweatpants. Print All Over Me also offers seasonal editions of different objects for you to print all over. In addition…

DO.

This bright yellow sign, which appears to have pasted over an outdoor billboard, is a nice variation of Ai Weiwei’s “My favorite word. It’s ACT”.

Cool Idea from an Upscale Water Tower Reno: Cat Hidaway

Although we enjoyed the virtual tour of this upscale renovation of an abandoned water tower in Belgium, there was only one idea we took away to use: a lucky cat’s lair with a charming entranceway.

The Appeal and Life Lessons Behind Popular Cheeseball Art

I was tidying up my countertop of holiday clutter, but was unwilling to toss a sparkling, butterfly birthday card illustrated by Laurel Burch. Call it cheeseball commercial art or not, there’s something eternally endearing about flowers, butterflies and cats that manages to do an end run around even the most righteous, post-modernist’s, spartan aesthetic. Burch was an iconic, wildly…

The Human Library: Check Out People Instead of Books

With libraries quickly reformulating their mission statements to survive, this innovative library believes stories are much better shared when they come from the source. At the Human Library, you actually borrow a person who has stories to tell gathered from a unique life experience. “For half an hour, you can sit down with a prostitute,…

Why You Need Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

Our post about trying to figure out how to clean a thick wool rug ourselves reminded us our favorite reference book about anything to do with keeping a home: Cheryl Mendelson’s Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House. The fact is, there IS science behind all the things you might want to know about…

Test: Dyson’s Zorb Cleans Rugs with an ORDINARY Vac

When we discovered that a glorious thick, Luis Barragan-esque wool rug had a few less-than-pristine-spots we wondered: How DO you clean a rug at home? We wondered if Dyson’s proprietary Zorb Carpet Maintenance Powder would work with our cheap, noisy, trusty, Mighty Mite. So we tried it.

The Health Benefits of Having Your Mind Blown

The Dish recently posted an excerpt of Cayte Bosler’s study showing “the residual health benefits of having your mind blown”. The gist: experiencing awe makes you feel like you have MORE time, makes you LESS impatient and MORE willing to help other people. And our favorite: it makes you more strongly prefer experience to material…

Martin Luther King Day 2014 Redux

On the day that celebrates his life, Martin Luther King’s words resonate as strongly as ever, casting light, dispelling darkness.

Monday Morning Magic: Real Life Levitation

(Video link HERE.) David Saltman over at The Houdini File recently posted this wondrous example of real-life levitation created by sound waves. (Since the waves are ultra-sonic, they actually make no sound whatsover; turn the music off to see what that would be like). With or without music, it’s the perfect mix of science and magic,…

The Sound of Taste, A Video of Explosive Culinary Possibilities

(Video link HERE.) From Susan Dworski: OK, it’s an ad. but it’s kinda fun. in a whacko way. It IS fun even more so WITHOUT the sound. It reminds us of the sometimes explosive process of improvising in the kitchen, with flavors, scents, association, all bursting forth unexpectedly as we taste, combine, try, free-associate. via The…

Annals of Bad Design: Extra Deep ‘Luxe’ Sofas

The trend of the past several years to make sofas deeper so that they appear more luxurious is bad design in the name of the illusion of affluence and style. Here’s our thinking…

How to Make An Archival Picture Frame

We’ve long wondered what the process of archival framing is, and if we could do it ourselves. We came across a huge trove of information at Bark Frameworks, an archival picture framing company who not only offers its services, but seems happy to tell you how to frame-it-yourself and will sell you supplies.

How to Hang Pictures via Henri Matisse

We stumbled on this picture of Henri Matisse chilling. We can’t remember when we’ve seen a more comfortable-looking room. We love his picture hanging technique, with the line of faces placed up near the ceiling… Via the great GH tumblr via Photographs of Matisse

Martin Luther King, Jr’s Birthday

“unarmed truth” and “unconditional love”: words of a unconventional warrior who changed our world. via the great King Center online archive

Bed Desk Solutions for Working in Bed (and What to Avoid)

Flavorwire’s recents 10 Design Solutions for Working in Bed has me both intrigued and concerned. From a design perspective, I was interested to see what some designers came up with for bed/desk solutions, because who doesn’t like to work in bed at some point? Ikea’s MALM occasional table (above) is an accessible solution; it has casters so you can roll…

Painted Geometry (Triangle) Transforms a Flight of Stairs

On the heels of the yellow tape beam-of-light illusion, a simple yellow triangle painted on a flight of stairs transforms it from utterly ordinary to quietly surprising and wonderful. What is it about a simple yellow triangle?

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