March 2014 - Page 3 of 3 - Improvised Life

Why Movement is THE Best Productivity App

The latest in neurocognitive research that finds MOVING YOUR BODY is a great productivity app, confirming what we’ve discovered ourselves as we sit for hours writing Improvised Life every day…

Arm-Knitting (No Needles Necessary)

Of all the examples of stripping away the unnecessary, arm-knitting has to be among the coolest and most sensual. Needles gone, YOU become the tool for making.

How to Label Storage Boxes with Images, Polaroid or Otherwise

Of all the ways to label a box, we like this the best: IMAGES of what’s inside rather than the usual ugly scrawl. We became a fan of this method when we stumbled on Virginia Sin’s black-and-white photo of her version in 2009; she catalogued her shoes by pasting a Polaroid image of the shoe right…

Improvised Life’s Unfolding Path (+ Principles)

I found this image from the great Miranda July in the early archives I created when the idea for Improvised Life was just forming. It’s from an installation called The Hallway that July made in Tokyo in 2008: a 125-foot hallway lined with 50 hand-painted wooden signs that act as an internal voice. The signs…

Carlo Mollino’s Sexy Cut-Out Wall for Adults

When we saw this 1936 image by the fantastic architect/designer/inventor/photographer Carlo Mollino, we thought: What a beautiful cut-out wall creating a sensual window into another room. Then we looked even closer.

Cut-Out Walls for Kids Rooms

Lately, we’ve been seeing some swell cut-out walls in kid’s rooms. The clever cut-outs act as doorways and objects of play. The also define the room as being a place for invention and outside-the-box thinking.

View Shift: Watch a Live Eagle Cam Throughout Your Day

At any time of day or night, you can watch a live eagle in its nest. We find it to be an instant shift of view. Within minutes of watching we saw the mother eagle shift to reveal her baby and two eggs.

Fantasy Face-Lift

At a photo shoot at Maria’s studio, Suzanne Shaker and I played “face lift”, standing behind each other and gently “lifting” each other’s face. It was a funny, weird, grown-up girls’ game played by women who’d never actually get a face lift. We’re game to go where our faces take us…For a moment, we found a way to improvise younger selves.

Stress-Busting Video Transporter to Yosemite

(Video link HERE.) We just found this note from Susan Dworski: when you need a touch of the celestial to offset some practical DIY. music’s a tad OTT, I’d turn it off, but the visuals are superb.

Vintage Columns as Bed Posts

Archtectural columns can be afixed to a bed frame to make a wonderful two or four-poster….

Fab: An Old Shearling Coat Turned Inside-Out

Interior Designer Suzanne Shaker gave an old shearling coat new life to by turning it inside out, transforming it completely. She said people are constantly stopping her to ask where she bought it. We asked her to send pictures and how she did it. Here’s what she wrote:

James Brown’s Wakeup Call: Get Up and Do Your Thing

The magnificient James Brown’s soulful groovin’ mantra, I WANT TO GET UP AND DO MY THING! seems like the perfect way to get going on a Monday (or any) morning.

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