(Watch video HERE.) Watch this video with the sound off and you’d swear it was special effects made by Dreamworks or Hollywood. In fact, it was filmed in Norway, Finland and Sweden during autumn, winter and spring, the three seasons those countries have darkness. The “silent storms” referred to are the geomagnetic storms which takes place…
Read MoreStunned by sight of a scarlet phaleonopsis, I actually BOUGHT this PLASTIC orchid for $5.99 at TJ Max when I was shopping one day. Sure, it’s flat-out fake, but it radiates unfailing good cheer every day, winter or summer, day or night. And it serves as an essential reminder.
Read MoreThe big glass picture window door looks great at first, affording an expansive view of the garden. But think of the arc of that door as it opens — a good 5 feet at least! You couldn’t have any furniture or planters in the way, because a door needs unobstructed space to open. The door then dictates…
Read More(View video HERE.) Susan Dworski sent this as an antidote to “Blues”. Hamburg-based classical quartet Salut Salon perform “instrumental acrobatics” that push the limits of what violin, cello and piano are SUPPOSED to do. The inherent question that each new unexpected use of an instrument asks: WHY NOT?
Read MoreThis video called Crazy furniture reminded us that EXPLODING an idea — dismantling it and reconfiguring it in various ways — can really help to refresh the creative process. And it’s an especially good practice for re-envisioning a space.
Read MoreWe’ve written about the little free library movement before and continue to be delighted at where the idea is popping up. Here, a pay phone booth is repurposed as a tiny “take a book, leave a book” library in Houston, Texas, outside local coffee house Black Hole, with a laundromat next door. Perfect. It reminds us…
Read MoreConverse All Stars and other sneakers make great instant rubber stamps for floors and walls, not to mention wrapping paper.
Read MoreSome unusual Post-It notes written by kid’s express heartening views and strategies about living.
Read MoreI was intrigued by the Double Chocolate Rye/spelt muffins touted on Green Kitchen. Chocolate and rye!!!. Rye flour in the US is associated with heavy, gummy, serious breads––certainly not pastries. Doubters warned that they could be “brown rocks,” given the weightiness of the ingredients. But it seems that chocolate and rye are much loved taste combo in Denmark. And Green Kitchen said they were delish, so I decided to try them.
Read More(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.
Read More(Video link HERE.) Mickey Smith is a surf photographer from Cornwall, England whose six minute video of wave riding in the ominous North Sea is a stunning, nail biting, vicarious experience for urbanistas and land-locked couch potatoes. But diving beyond the hair-raising visuals, listening to Smith’s philosophy of life is what makes this clip intriguing. Smith says, “I never…
Read MoreThe record snowfalls across the country have brought with them hardship and heartening creativity. Here’s a small collection of spontaneous snow creations made in joyous defiance.
Read More(Video link HERE.) This beautiful little video about the culture of chocolate in Mexico, will give you a view of the origins of the delicious sweet we love to eat, unaware how the making of it can be an act of resistance and spirituality, as is true with many endangered foods. In 4 minutes, we got a big view of culture, ecology, economic forces and memory that goes way beyond chocolate.
Read MoreContinueing our unplanned homage to ’70’s design: illustrator Tomi Ungerer‘s fab frolicing orgy created by combining rubber stamps of various body parts and shapes.
Read MoreBirds have been much on my mind since revisiting Anne Lamotts’ inspirational book, Bird by Bird, on Improvised Life, especially now that the New Year has come and gone, scattering in its wake a litter of broken resolutions. How is it possible that so many thoughtfully-strategized good intentions have fled my newly-reordered spiritual house already, and the year yet a month old?
Read MoreMatisse-inspirec cut paper collages can make for an instead change in a small or large space.
Read MoreI was tidying up my countertop of holiday clutter, but was unwilling to toss a sparkling, butterfly birthday card illustrated by Laurel Burch. Call it cheeseball commercial art or not, there’s something eternally endearing about flowers, butterflies and cats that manages to do an end run around even the most righteous, post-modernist’s, spartan aesthetic. Burch was an iconic, wildly…
Read MoreThe Dish recently posted an excerpt of Cayte Bosler’s study showing “the residual health benefits of having your mind blown”. The gist: experiencing awe makes you feel like you have MORE time, makes you LESS impatient and MORE willing to help other people. And our favorite: it makes you more strongly prefer experience to material…
Read More(Video link HERE.) From Susan Dworski: OK, it’s an ad. but it’s kinda fun. in a whacko way. It IS fun even more so WITHOUT the sound. It reminds us of the sometimes explosive process of improvising in the kitchen, with flavors, scents, association, all bursting forth unexpectedly as we taste, combine, try, free-associate. via The…
Read MoreA quote from our friend Maria Robledo captures the wondrous imperfections in the daily world that make them so completely perfect, as do her photographs…
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