If you’re as behind the curve as we are in getting our heads around the holidays, here are two much-appreciated gifts you don’t have to shop for:
Read More
If you’re as behind the curve as we are in getting our heads around the holidays, here are two much-appreciated gifts you don’t have to shop for:
Read MoreWe invite you to ask this question when editing your life down to what is really important, including where you spend your time —and money— online.
Read MoreIf you’re looking for an instant, inexpensive, totally unique last-minute gift that is full of wonders, give your brilliant someone a subscription to Improvised Life: a month —$1.99— or a year —$18— of view-shifting tools and ideas…
Read MoreWhen long-time blogger Tina Bray described the looming probability of a mall-like internet, it hit home HARD. There’s a simple, inexpensive way to stem the tide….
Read MoreWe found this cartoon while we were leafing through The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker, perfect, relaxing bedtime reading. Drawn in 1966 by Charles E. Martin, it’s even more timely today.
Read MorePaper artist Matthew Sporzynski has expanded our view for years with his mightily innovative thinking. His stretch money resonates particuarly strongly now.
Read Moreactress Hari Neff said hers was a pineapple a schoolmate gave her many years ago. There’s nothing worse than a bad gift you don’t know what to do with that and you just throw out. You can’t throw out a pineapple. We heartily recommend this inexpensive gift for friends and family (or even yourself), that is way better than Neff’s luscious pineapple…
Read MoreWebsites that don’t take ads or promote branded content are a rare breed. We’re one. We have an unusual philosophy of “stuff” and how we survive. It’s definitely an experiment in a certain kind of possibility thinking.
Read MoreIn conversation, I never call Improvised Life a blog. The Blogging world is an ubiquitous, saturated and aspirational one; most bloggers put their true opinions aside to survive. We are trying to do something different.
Read MoreRecently, a reader left us a query in Tinypass, our membership platform, and included this comment: “I paid for a subscription to support the writer and I think she has enough support at this point so she doesn’t really need mine.” Yikes!
Read MoreImprovised Life is a space that celebrates creative living to the fullest degree. We work hard to collect great ideas from artists; inspiring thoughts from poets; stylish, useful home upgrades; and yummy recipes…and present them with thoughtful commentary and unexpected leaps and associations. A tribe is a community with a similar mindset for living, and we want you in…
Read MoreYesterday, 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 MoreAt But Does it Float, we were struck by this the title of a photography exhibition (not by the photographs). “How you see is what you get” is one of Improvised Life’s essential principles. NOT in the magical thinking way, that we will get everything we want if we just think a certain way. But in…
Read MoreSometimes we work SO hard that our health suffers with ailments like back pain or fatigue…Then we employ these tactics, and take a cue from William S. Burroughs…
Read MoreAmong Improvised Life’s many categories and themes is “Materials for Making“. We love finding surprising uses for materials and showing you how you can use them. The other day as we were mulling our Friends with Benefits subscription program, we realized that money is a Material for Making as well.
Read MoreAfter our recent plea ‘er “invitation” to support Improvised Life by subscribing to Friends with Benefits, several subscribers wrote to ask: How would I increase the amount of my Friends With Benefits contribution? Is there a place on the site I can log in to change the amount? Hmmm. We hadn’t thought of that and consulted with…
Read MoreWe would happily give every Improvised Life article away for free —all 3000 of them— as we did for nearly five years with great pleasure… …if we could.
Read MoreSince posting the sudden announcement a week ago that I would be taking a break due to a confluence of big life events, I’ve received the most generous response from Improvised Life’s readers: notes of sympathy, gratitude, understanding, support, all affirming that family is to be found in places we don’t often imagine.
Read MoreOne of our readers, Carol E., wrote to us, In the morning it’s The Improvised Life with my coffee and then the morning paper. I have described you as a little jewel of a magazine that I read online every morning. Many thanks!’ We love the image of Improvised Life as a “jewel”—it rings true because for the…
Read MoreSince we launched our Friends with Benefits subscription service, we’ve thankfully had few glitches. Occasionally, however, a subscriber writes to say that they get the KnockKnock curtain telling them they’ve used up their five free reads for the month and can’t access more unless they subscribe. But they ARE subscribed. What to do?
Read More