Two astonishing time-lapse videos and a couple of haikus remind us of the fleeing moment that is cherry blossom time. It only takes a moment to STOP and take it the fabulous colors as we walk by a blossoming tree.
Read MoreStage a Rooftop Party with Modest Means
When Ikea’s Livet Hemma posted this compelling image of rooftop party preparations, we ran the Swedish description through our language translator to discover that Ikea’s copywriters left out the best parts for DIYing a rooftop space.
Read MoreLook UP: An Artist and A Poet Expand Our View of Clouds
89 Clouds is collaboration of Pulitzer-winning poet Mark Strand and artist Wendy Mark: 89 beautiful paintings of clouds with Strand’s one-line zennish poems. Unable to afford the now-rare book, we excerpted 16 of Strand’s poems and Mark’s sensational images. We now view clouds differently as we wander through the world.
Read MoreNilla Wafer Phases of the Moon…Party?
In Yummy Moon, artist Yona Lee uses 450 partially eaten Nilla Wafers to depict the different phases of the Moon. She turned one of the most ordinary of commercial cookies into…something rather beautiful and cosmic.
Read MoreSpot-Lit Calder Sculptures Become Wondrous Shadow Sculptures
(Video link here.) On the heels or our article about Room-Size Shadow Boxes, images from an illuminating 2014 exhibition at New York’s Venus Over Manhattan gallery has expanded our view of the great Alexander Calder‘s work AND sparked ideas for abstract room shadow sculptures. In ‘Calder Shadows’, eleven works by Alexander Calder, from 1929 to 1974, are ingeniously spot-lit so…
Read MoreRole Model: Mr. Clean Enough (Roz Chast)
The great Roz Chast’s recent New Yorker cartoon really hits home. Having once been quite a serious neat-o-phile, I’ve learned over the years that the principle of “enough” can be quite liberating. It’s a variation of a philosophy I first learned from a therapist friend…
Read MoreHaving Trouble Logging In? Here are fixes and an update…
Yesterday morning, Improvised Life’s blog platform went wildly wonky —planetary influences? We heard from a few members who had trouble getting Tinypass to recognize their login info. Others sign in and see the notice on the sidebar that says “0 free reads left”. If you did have a problem, here’s a couple of fixes, while we try to solve the problem:
Read MorePopUp Hotel Rooms Inspire Cabin Thinking
Last October, 22 temporary hotel rooms popped up around Mannheim, Germany, as part of the Hotel Shabby Shabby event for the city’s Theater der Welt festival. Designers were invited to build temporary cabins in unexpected locations using found or recylable materials, for a strict 250 pounds (less than $400) budget. It yielded a many ideas for building…
Read MoreHow a Computer Crash Yielded a Vacation with Rumi
My recent week-long hiatus sans computer proved to be tremendously healing, slowing things down in the studio…while giving me permission to…become deliciously – literally – powerless..
Read MoreAn Inexpensive Joy-Sparking Gift for Women, Men, Kids
I’m always on the lookout for gifts I can stockpile for unexpected occasions, that have a wide reach in terms of “giveability” to different kinds of people. My trove includes a number of items in our shop, from books to the great knives. Recently, I stumbled on another goody: stylish temporary tattoos.
Read MoreDive into A Flower for the Meaning of Life (Pollan)
After we found this intimate image of blossoms by Maria Robledo, we came across this extraordinary passage from Michael Pollan’s The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World. He describes what we are seeing when we look deep into the blossom of a flower. It has deepened our view mightily of even the most ordinary…
Read MoreThe Wonder of Room-Size Shadow Boxes
Our friend Susan Dworski recently email us a link to artist Anila Quayyum Agha‘s room-size shadow box with this note: Sally – this is pretty fabulous. So simple a concept, so detailed the craft, so profoundly spiritual the effect. And she is right. ‘Intersections’ is large-scale shadow box composed of Moorish patterns suspended in the middle of…
Read MorePeace Practice: Viewing the Glass as ‘Already Broken’
At Zen Habits recently, Leo Babauta shows ways to apply a compelling daily practice from Achaan Chah, the Thai meditation master, described by Mark Epstein in Thoughts Without A Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective:
Read MoreReal “Jell-O” in Endless Flavors
It was a revelation when I tried making a homemade “Jell-O”: it had a beautiful color, with a flavor that was intense, vivid and REAL. It was so simple to make I wondered why there was instant; it’s little more than fruit juice jelled with unflavored gelatin, has very little sugar and no additives or colorings. I’ve found it has as much appeal to adults as to children; I serve it for dessert at dinner parties. Here’s the basic formula and three favorite iterations.
Read MoreBirthday Wishes for a Beloved Improvised Life Contributor
Today is photographer Maria Robledo’s birthday. We have been secretly celebrating her birth all day, counting our blessings that we got to know her and enjoy all the beauty she finds and sends so generously our way, like the wondrous riff of instragrams we published a few days ago. In her honor, we send her this fabulous, little virtual…
Read MoreWhy Not Swing Indoors? (And Ways to Do It)
When we saw visitors to a Neoclassical palazzo in Milan playing on swings created by London designer Philippe Malouin, it reminded us of how lovely a swing can be, ESPECIALLY in an unexpected place, with a terrific view. It also revealed a simple way to have a swing indoors if you don’t have beams to securely hang them from:…
Read MoreWhat if We Stopped?
Yesterday, we stumbled on Seth Godin’s question “What if you stopped?“, and…. …we did stop for a minute to think about it. What if we stopped publishing Improvised Life?
Read MoreMax Lamb: 40 Inspired Chairs + His Philosophy of Making
(Video link here.) “Exercises in Seating” at the Salone del Mobile furniture fair in Milan, is an exhibit of 40 chairs British designer Max Lamb has made over the past 10 years, from elemental thrones in stone to boxy wooden chairs and and geometric stools cast in sand. It inspires serious chair lust and illumination into…
Read MoreMeditation in A Surprising Modernist Ozarks Chapel
For many years, we made a study of sanctuaries of various kinds — from the icon-rich imagery of a Franciscan Church to Buddhist monasteries. Ultimately we found that being in Nature was the best way to center ourselves, clear our head, connect with something bigger. But we had never experienced a chapel like ThornCrown, designed by a protégé of Frank Lloyd Wright, in the deep Ozark woods…the unlikely brainchild of a retired, rarely-churchgoing alcoholic schoolteacher.
Read MoreDesign Element? A Big Colored Triangle or Two (Issey Miyake)
We’re smitten with the vivid crimson aluminum triangles suspended in mid-air in the Issey Miyake store designed by Tokujin Yoshioka in Tokyo’s commercial Marunouchi district. WHAT IF we had a huge, light-weight, vividly-colored triangle to move around our space?
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