This image of musician Amanda Palmer in Brain Pickings reminded us how beautiful walls intentionally painted in a rough “unfinished” line can be. But the real gift was this little video of Amanda Palmer talking about why it is so difficult—and can be so healing — to ask for help, which is the subject of…
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… … via Patakk
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The forts and bunkers of his childhood inspired Czech designer Michael Tomalik to design a wire frame chair that is “a place of convenience, comfort and personal repose“. His monkey-bar-ish construction is a kind of grownup fort, made comfortable with giant pillows and outfitted with books, plants, and a light (to which we’d add a shade and…
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(Video link HERE.) We know nothing of how Turkish musician, Görkem Şen came to create the Yaybahar, his rather magical acoustic instrument made of fretted strings, coiled springs and frame drums. He plays it with a bow or a wrapped mallet or just his fingers, switching between them like a dancer to create hypnotic, crazy-beautiful and unexpected sounds. It’s…
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(Video link HERE.) We find this video of a tiny apartment* in which each piece of furniture transforms into something else strangely compelling, all the while feeling that having to transform EVERYTHING in our place would drive us mad. It did give us some ideas, one in particular that solves a design problem we been struggling…
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We use Kraft paper all the time for jobs around the house — as a big page to block out ideas, a drawable tablecloth, decoratable wrapping paper, table protection when doing messy projects, and desk blotter/notepad. Right now, we have the roll standing upright in our tool closet. When we need paper, we have to unroll…
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Note to Self: Starting NOW, practice noticing what I notice. What am I tuned into? Through what filter am I viewing things? What’s of real interest, gives true pleasure?
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(Video link HERE.) It’s about time someone devised Waterfall Swing. Perfect for warm weather refreshment. We thought. When we read the fine print we discovered that this whole rig of water jets is computerized to predict the action of the rider. The computer creates a “hole” in the wall of water, to allow the rider to…
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Wandering around Artists and Craftsmen the other day, we came across jigsaw puzzle blanks meant to be painted or printed on to make a custom jigsaw puzzle. We saw the jigsaw pattern as an interesting possibility for a ….floor, no doubt inspired by our white-painted plywood floors with their geometric grid of seams. From the beginning, we’ve thought…
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A new favorite way to start or end the day is a visit to Planet, As you scroll down, you see astonishing, full screen vistas taken taken from the International Space Station as it orbits the Earth in 93 minutes at an altitude of around 400 km. The notations on the screen help orient. It feels as…
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My favorite rescue for leftover roasted or grilled meat or poultry is hash, by which I mean a mess of skillet-cooked onion, potatoes and/or root vegetables into which I toss the diced leftovers. Last night’s hash was rare steak tossed it into a caramelized braise of diced onions, turnips and celery root, brightened with thyme and slivers of lemon zest. I
When my friend saw photo of my hash, and then asked how to make it, I took it as a sign to publish the method on Improvised Life.
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At Carnegie Mellon University’s yearly Lunar Gala Fashion Show, Industrial Designer Miriam Buchwald showcased COCOON, her line of dresses made totally of hot glue. She didn’t hot glue fabric. She MADE the textiles out of hot-glue, which has expanded our view of hot glue’s possibility greatly, way beyond crafty Martha Stewart.
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Our friend Pamela Hovland is an extraordinary designer who helped us create the original look for Improvised Life. Our first year in business, we wrote about her clever use of ripped-out pages from magazines as her envelopes. Recently she sent us this beauty with the message “this wrapper had your name all over it“. Indeed…
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We’ve come upon this passage about saying grace before a meal many times while flipping through The Gary Snyder Reader and each time have thought, We need to do that, to at least think it if not say it aloud. Snyder’s view is just right. He puts eating in a bigger context that we find deeply connecting and comforting. His grace is about taking a moment to think about our food and to express gratitude for the hugely creative force behind it.
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(Video link HERE.) We’ve been working hard. Let’s chill and go surfing in slo-mo…a lovely meditation on motion, nature, challenge, the rewards of practice and risk… …and the joy of flying…. …by the amazing how-does-he-catch-that? Chris Bryan via Kottke
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Being very sensitive to spaces, we have long been big on tailoring hotel rooms to our own sensibility and personal feng shui. Photos of the newly renovated Hôtel Baume in Paris made us think of the many strategies we’ve developed over years of traveling to shift the feeling of not-quite-right, often OVER-decorated hotel rooms and make them more comfortable. Here are our tricks and tips, with examples:
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For the past couple of months, we’ve been participating in Essex Farm’s innovative CSA experiment. Curious about its origins, we’ve been reading The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love, ex-journalist/city girl Kristin Kimball’s tale of her unexpected transformation into a farmer and partner of Mark Kimball, whose vision drove Essex from the start. He is a man after our own hearts (and hers, after some wild adventures)…
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I saw this old dhow (wooden boat) in the harbor at Lamu in 1988 and took a quick shot of the transom. It was a lousy photo and I always regretted not getting a better shot. Then I found this one of the very same boat in Bibi Jordan’s book, Swahili Chic: The Feng Shui of…
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(Video link HERE.) Barclay Moore is a woodworker who was fed up with broken sawhorses. So he designed is own and knocked prototypes out of plywood. Then he created a Kickstarter to raise money to sell his invention. The project, he says, developed out of necessity (as many great inventions do). What interests us most are all the constraints…
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Maira Kalman’s strange little book My Favorite Things is an enduring beauty on our morning reading pile, a meditation really, on the ways rooms, hats, shoes, things of all sorts, resonate in our lives, inside and out.
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