We found this image at The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things. The commentary said it all: ….they are not merely ignoring the art on the walls, but literally looking beyond those walls….This is intense, curious looking… The square grid-like vent seems congruous with the canvasses of the modern art gallery, and the children are inspired…
Read MoreWe LOVE New York-based creative alissia melka-teichroew‘s series of ballpoint pen wallpaper designs, part of rollout‘s artist series. The made us want to got right up into a corner and start doodling, and drawing stripes…
Read MoreWe were reading a packed-full-of-revelations1992 interview with poet Gary Snyder when we came across this amazing, of-the-cuff line. What a concept! The context is his answer to the question about whether he’d work as Secretary of the Interior or other political post if asked: I’ve never thought seriously about that question. Probably not, although I am foolish…
Read MoreRecently, we were enticed to buy a travel-size-two-fer of Les Floralies Sniff Boxes: one to encourage sleep, the other “focus”. Sniff boxes are little vials of “aroma beads” infused with various mixes of essential oils designed to assist well-being. We enjoyed Les Floralies‘ scents and charming packaging — and found that opening a sniff box did…
Read MoreWe didin’t realize how much Meg Ryan’s soliloquy from Nora Ephron’s “When Harry Met Sally” is the epitomy of YES, JOY, BEING IN THE MOMENT until we saw artist Rachel Perry Welty‘s wonderful sign. Using letters cut from Ephron’s obituary, she transformed a sad passing into a its much bigger view. via The New York Times’…
Read MoreRecently, we stumbled on an article about StoryCorps, a nonprofit organization that records personal stories, airs some of them on NPR, and archives them at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. It’s a way to preserve personal histories as well as histories of the time, and of cultures. We imagined using it…
Read MoreLike many people, we’re always trying to find ways to increase productivity without stressing ourselves out. We’ve discovered that along with the idea of being more productive and in control comes the pressure to accomplish things. I can have the effect of making us “look over the fence at other people’s greener grass” and be…
Read MoreWith Thanksgiving soon upon us, the debate about whether to brine or not-to-brine the turkey before roasting rages on. We’ve long been a fan of brining, having found it the foolproof method for insuring a moist, well-seasoned bird. Until recently, when two things made us question our belief. Yesterday, on Serious Eats’ Food Lab we…
Read MoreWe have come to terms with the fact that we won’t be able to not stay up late to find out the results of this crazy election. Neither will just about everyone else. So we’ll resume posting tomorrow afternoon (though if you’re really hungry, we’ll have some new facebook postings, including a woman with fab…
Read MoreLast Friday, after 5 days of living without power, ‘the improvised life’s assistant Dese’Rae L. Stage sent us this email: I don’t think I even realized it until yesterday, when I had to jump through 10 hoops just to get ice and dinner. I was like, “god, I’m exhausted,” and it took me a second…
Read More(Video link here.) In this astonishing time-lapse video of Hurricane Sandy hitting New York City, you get to see her force grow before your very eyes. Although she’s gone, the effects of that immense storm are very immediate: lots of people around the New York area still don’t have power — no computers, tv, phone,…
Read MoreWe were so intrigued by Charlotte’s Web author E.B. White’s utterly simple, focused work space, that we browsed some of his essays. We were heartened to read of White’s eloquent struggle with “stuff” in “Goodbye to Forty-eighth Street”:
Read MoreWe found this sign on French by Design last week and have been mulling it ever since. It’s a quote by graphic designer Jessica Hische, whose work if full of inventive and often very generous ideas (Check out the site, Mom, This is How Twitter Works. Also, click the heart at the top right of her…
Read MoreWe’re loving How to Be an Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum, illustrator Keri Smith’s 59 ideas for how to creatively “shift” and wake your mind by engaging with your surroundings in new and interesting ways. As Brain Pickings noted recently: “…they’re potent training for what Buddhism would call “living from presence” and inhabiting your life more fully.”…
Read MoreSince we started renovating ‘the improvised life’s space’ we’ve had our eyes peeled for solutions to various design problems. We’re finding that once we have a question in our head, inspiration and ideas can come from the most unlikely places. Desperately needing a proper desk to work on, we hurredly devised one out of hollow…
Read More(Video link here.) A writer we know confessed her method to us: when she was blocked, she just lay down and read something completely unrelated until she fell asleep. It’s like shutting down a computer. When she woke up, she’d usually be able to continue her work. OMG, we do that too! We were SO…
Read MoreOne of the things we love the most here at The Improvised Life is the sense of community we feel with our readers. We get some amazing feedback, and what we hear more often than not is that you love to wake up to the little tidbits of inspiration we post here bright and early…
Read MoreIt was raining late this afternoon as we sat writing in ‘the improvised life’s laboratory‘ with the terrace door open. Suddenly we heard the joyous sound of a full-on gospel choir coming through the trees of the Harlem park we look out on. We went out onto the terrace to see who was singing. Instead…
Read MoreSince moving, our space has gone from mess to order many times, as we unpack, settle, organize, in stages. Today, just as we thought we were through the worst of it, that is, AFTER we put the pots back on the finally-finished pot racks, all hell broke loose. Everything went wrong that could, as we…
Read MoreWe love this chair by monocomplex design studio because it illustrates an essential lesson about cardboard: when sheets of it are glued together they become an incredibly strong material, a homemade laminate that can be used like wood. Here, the designer glued together 127 pieces of cardboard (recycled boxes, not pristine sheets) until he had a big roughly-arm-chair-size…
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