My super easy turkey-roasting method is one of the many tried-and-true recipes larding Improvised Life’s vast archive, from cocktails to desserts. You’ll find an array of recipe ideas, strategies for making grand make-shift tables and settings, even toasts, poems and blessings… Not to mention these Thanksgiving favorites.
Read MoreInspired by designer Pamela Hovland‘s hand-drawn place settings, we’ve just ordered a 48″ x 200′ roll of kraft paper ($26!) for the holidays. Pamela unrolls a long swath of paper to act as a tablecloth, then draws each persons place setting, with their name, right on it (taking care of seating arrangements in one fell swoop).…
Read MoreWhen we first saw French artist Sarah Espeute’s embroidered table linens, we thought they were drawn-on with indelible markers, something we might be able to do. Then ideas and memories began to connect and flow.
Read MoreWhen the mid-century wood table I set up for dining and work took a hit from a spilled glass of water, I cast about for a protective everyday solution that wouldn’t look like plastic. I found it in old-fashioned oilcloth…
Read MoreBuried in a photo series about C-Mine design center in Genk, Belgium at Vosges Paris is an image of someone rubber stamping what we thought at first were paper placemats or cloths. Wonderful idea!
Read MoreThe table settings at an Anthology Magazine dinner echoed many of our own cheap, chic ideas.
Read MoreStarting this evening, The Splendid Table will feature Sally talking to Lynne Rosetto Kasper about the holiday table: how to make makeshift tables and seating for a once-a-year crowd, as well as dandy ways to decorate it. Go to Splendid Table’s site for info on when the show airs in your area, or to download…
Read More(Video link here.) We were happy to see clever Snoopy pulling out a folding ping-pong table for his Thanksgiving crowd (along with an assortment of mismatched chairs). Covered with a cloth or kraft paper, nobody would know the difference. He isn’t the only one cobbling together a table. It’s a yearly scramble for many people…
Read MoreWhen brilliant chronicler of American history David McCullough died recently, two people sent me excerpts from obituaries, so apt was his wisdom for Improvised Life. Here’s his brilliant advice for becoming a good storyteller and why he used a 1940 typewriter to write his award-winning books.
Read MoreDo you ever wonder why we humans tend to feel good in nature? Annie Murphy Paul’s scholarly The Extended Mind: the Power of Thinking Outside the Brain gives the simple, obvious gist. It’s message is surprisingly echoed in art…
Read MoreKraft paper is so wildly useful that if I had the room in my city apartment, I’d keep a roll on a wall to have easy access when the mood/need hits.
Read MoreIf you’re still wrapping your head around pulling Thanksgiving dinner together, here is our toolkit of Improvised Life’s best ideas from Thanksgivings past.
Read MoreThe holidays have us thinking about ways to remember all those folks — some who traveled FAR — with whom we visited or shared a meal, celebrating and counting blessings. So compiled our collection of traditional and not-so-traditional forms of “guest books”.
Read MoreWe 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…
Read MoreEvery year, we celebrate the theme of alternative, stres-reducing ways to experience the holidays. If you’ve got a chalkboard painted wall OR slab of wood, or a huge sheet of paper (we’re thinking our big roll of Kraft paper we keep on hand) you can draw a tree or ANYTHING in chalk or pastels. Here’s some inspiration.
Read MoreEvery since we wrote about artist Dieter Roth’s work tables, which he covered with sheets of thick artist’s paper so that they would capture the processes of whatever he was working on, as well as notes and scribblings, we’ve loved the idea and have used it. Recently, we stumbled on a clever iteration: use a…
Read MoreWe stumbled on some compelling photo placemats done as a public art project for Atlanta Celebrates Photography: photos printed onto large size paper, perfect IF you have a big color printer. The standard size of a placemat is 12″ x 18″, bigger we can print, although we suppose, we could have them done at Kinko’s. The…
Read MoreWe’re not sure what Cara de Silva was doing reading Garden and Gun, but we love the story she spotted on wreaths made in the South. There’s a beauty made with tobacco leaves and a few sprigs of red berries, and another made from cotton plants: materials sourced from fields. It reminded us that a holiday…
Read MoreYears ago, we used to scour flea markets for oversize damask napkins that were once a mainstay of early 20th century tables. They’d range anywhere from 20-to-36-inches square. Putting one across your lap at table felt incredibly luxurious: like being tucked into bed while sitting at a wonderful feast. Over the years, the look of…
Read More