On the eve of a New Year, we are thinking about how we’d like to enter 2015… …with a graceful, joyfully alive LEAP, like the beautiful Mary Wigman long ago… …even if only in spirit… Photo: Iwona Wojnicka
Read MoreOur Graffiti’d Holiday Message to You
Photographer Maria Robledo sent us this graffiti she captured LAST January: perfectly Improvised Life. We’ve saved it all this time to present as our holiday message to you…
Read MorePersonal Celebration: Vivid Colors for Hair, Face, Body (DIY)
During dark winter, I recommend using hits of brilliant color across bare skin and hair to brighten things up a bit, especially for holiday parties. I suppose you could call these beauty tips, but they’re also all about breaking the rules and trying out the unexpected. Unlike what maddening women’s magazines might tell you, there is…
Read MoreSeinfeld’s “Soulful Materialism”
(Video link HERE!) We are knocked out by Jerry Seinfeld’s radically truth-telling, funny —Is he kidding or what?— send up of advertising during his acceptance speech for a CLIO Awards, which honors creative advertising. I love advertising because I love lying…
Read MoreFestive Holiday Beards + Little Richard’s Inspired Do
Beard Baubles, tiny ornaments to festoon a holiday beard, have become such a rage, they’ve completely sold out! Who knew that beard decorations would become a sartorial expression. We’re thinking it may have been fueled by Will It Beard, a brilliant tumblr devoted to ingenious beard apparel. We’ve found a set 30 Small Glass Mini…
Read MoreKitchen Repertoire’s Homemade Marshmallows
If we wanted to knock off an easy and utterly charming holiday food gift tonight, we’d make the beautiful homemade marshmallows we saw featured on Kitchen Repertoire, our friends Francis Boswell and Dana Gallagher’s lovely food site. For kids or adults, there is nothing like homemade marshmallows,
Read MoreRethinking and De-stressing “Last Minute Holiday Gifts”
Yesterday while on the way to an appointment, we found ourselves in a frenzy of people shopping for gifts to meet the Christmas deadline. The tension in the air was palpable. Although we are not immune to the pressure —some people, like little kids need to get a gift on time — over the years…
Read MoreWith a LIttle Help from My Friends (Joe Cocker)
Ah shoot. We just heard that Joe Cocker died. Damn. As soon as we heard the news, his beautiful raspy voice came into our heads singing With a Little Help From My Friends. He turned the classic Beatles’ tune on it’s head and made everyone hear it differently…really hear it. He was wild to watch,
Read More15+ Quick Hors d’Oeuvres and Delish Snacks
Over the years, I’ve devised a number of hors d’oeuvres that I can throw together at the drop of a hat. All are made with readily-available ingredients and take little time to assemble. Some involve my hanging out at the stove of my open kitchen, pan-frying or assembling the little bites. I find that my…
Read MoreA Winter Solstice Reflection on Loss and Joy
Yesterday was the Winter Solstice, the shortest day —and longest night — of the year, when the sun pauses on its southward trajectory, then starts its cimb north, and the cycle begins once again. Some of us wait to begin rejuvenating our lives until New Year’s Eve when the glittering ball drops in Times Square. But…
Read MoreThe Cuban Table’s Divine Custard Recipe with Music
Just as we were getting ready to post another lovely recipe from The Cuban Table, our friend Ellen Silverman‘s brainchild created in league with Ana Sofia Pelaez, we heard the news that relations were getting warmer between Cuba and the US, that some of the embargo that’s hurt the country so terribly may be easing at last.…
Read MoreLOL: Eddie Izzard does Christmas
With all the Jingle Bells, frantic shopping and general freneticism, we need something LOL funny, and this is it.
Read MoreHandler’s Chic Multi-Purpose Vial for Tiny Essentials
Once, necessary functional objects were quiet tokens of personal style. Wrist watches, cigarette lighters, address books and compacts brought glamour and pleasure to everyday rituals. But they are fading away. To fill the void, Laura Handler designed something personal, portable and beautiful, that can’t be replaced by a cell phone or a plastic disposable. The…
Read More1 Minute Antidote to the Holiday Rush
Longtime reader and friend Sybille Palmer sent us this poem found in Writer’s Almanac, along with a photo of the newly fallen snow in Taos, New Mexico where she lives. It’s a fine example of Arthur C. Brooks principles for antidoting the holiday rush: embrace experience rather than things…stop for a minute and take in something…
Read MoreLooking for Holiday Gift Ideas? We’ve Got ‘Em
Lately, readers have been giving subscriptions to Improvised Life as gifts for friends and family. Just go to our subscribe page and select a year’s subscription to give 650 or so illuminating reads per year. We also recommend checking out Improvised Life’s Shop for a personally curated selection of compelling books, tools, housewares, and toys that…
Read MoreHoliday Wrapping Paper: Found, Made, Bought
One of our favorite times in the holidays is wrapping gifts, usually done last-minute before flying out to a party, with whatever is on hand. We have some closet space dedicated to found papers, ribbons, fat hunks of rope and interesting colored twines, a vast variety of colored tapes, salvaged boxes as well as Dollar Store shopping…
Read MoreHoliday Strategy?: Abundance Without Attachment
For those wondering how to navigate the lavishness and commercialization of Christmas, we recommend “Abundance without Attachment”, Arthur C. Brooks’ New York Times’ op-ed in which he tells of the three principles he’s learned for handling the painful contradictions of the season and of our aspirational era.
Read MoreHoliday Hair Do’s
Human invention and creativity applied to holiday hair-do’s. Pure wonder! via Chris Eldredge
Read MoreAn Intro to ‘Bird by Bird”s Brilliant Instructions on Life
A while ago, Brain Pickings posted on Anne LaMott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, for our money one of all time BEST books about the creative process. Although we’ve written about the book ourselves — including our crazy-favorite quote about being “flanged” — Brain Pickings offers a trove of excerpts that make a fine introduction if you’re…
Read MoreLEGO Gifts for Inventions Both Utilitarian & Playful
Chinese design studio KBme2 believes that there are simple ways to create housewares that could truly belong to the user. They tested their idea our using LEGO, the timeless building tool beloved by both children and adults.
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