If 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 MoreRocks and Stones Make Endlessly Useful Tools and Beautiful Objets
A personal compendium of the pleasures and uses for rocks and stones, with John Cage and Mary Oliver…
Read MoreCourage in a Bottle and Elsewhere…
Furnace Creek Farms clever elixer seems a fine way to get a dose of courage, which we need daily these days. If you can drink it, there are other ways to be reminded of the strength within.
Read MoreMetallic Makeup Becomes Ephemeral Jewelry
What a curious pleasure it would be to spot a slick of gold on someone’s ear…or face or…
Read MoreAnnals of Everyday Invention: Magnet Pin Cushion Sculpture
Sometimes tiny inventions happen by seeing the possible solution out of the corner of your eye.
Read MoreScraps, Wilt & Leaves: Sublime Trash Cooking with a Michelin Chef
I am inspired and smitten with Scraps, Wilt & Weeds: Turning Wasted Food into Plenty. Michelin star chef Mads Refslund weaves a powerful philosophy of ecology into his cooking that has led him to create gorgeous, do-able dishes out of the foods we routinely throw in the trash.
Read MoreHi/Low: Round Porthole Mirrors for a Haiku-like View
You have only to search MIRROR on Improvised Life to find evidence of an obsession. Not to look at one’s self. But to angle them in such a way as to SEE a bigger view. Take these port-hole mirrors, for example…and Basho’s haiku…
Read MoreApparel for Living: Roz Chast’s Survivalist Cargo Pajamas
We totally relate to this perfect Roz Chast cartoon in this week’s New Yorker.
Read MoreThe Value of Objects I Can’t Afford
One of the most curious, charming and compelling blogs I’ve come across lately is Objects I Can’t Afford. The title page says “Welcome to my on-going wish list of things that are juuust out of my budget”…It’s an amazingly clarifying head trip.
Read MoreSolar Eclipse: How to Experience the Awesomeness + Free Safety Glasses
What’s all the hubbub about next Monday’s solar eclipse about? We’ve put together a succinct guide, from where and how to view it wherever you are, to readings from art, philosophy, poetry, to where to find free eclipse glasses.
Read MoreHow to Live Wisely With Your Phone
School of Life’s How to Live More Wisely with Our Phones is a remarkable essay about how we can gently balance our relationship to our smart phones. Here are the most useful and view-shifting hunks.
Read MoreA Cheap Chic Black Bag to Rival Ikea’s and Balenciaga’s Tote
After the designers at fashion house Balanciaga knocked off Ikea’s iconic big blue 99-cent tote (in leather for $2,145), frequent contributor Susan Dworski jumped into the fray with a chic, cheap black bag that we hacked to perfection.
Read MoreThe FlexiSpot Sit Stand Desk Changed My Life
After 2 months of test-driving a Flexispot Sit Stand Desk, I’m smitten, fitter and thinner. Here’s my honest review, with pros, cons and what to look out for.
Read MoreWe’re Not Advertising Anything, Damn It!
We 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 MoreCatalogue of Possibilities and Very Cool Tools
We’ve found that reading catalogues not only relaxing, but makes our brains sparkle with unexpected ways to use materials. Our favorite catalogue of all is Cool Tools, a catalogue of possibilities that EXPANDS our view mightily.
Read MoreEssential for Powerful Emergency Fixes, Plumbing + Otherwise
After a friend proudly showed us unique patch she’d done underneath her sink a few months before, we had to know the story AND the material ahe used. It’s become an essential tool in our arsenal.
Read MoreFind: Red Steel Bookends (via FIT)
The bright red bookends we saw at FIT’s library totally transform the common bookend into something both graphic and stylish…and practical. We wondered if we could find them.
Read MoreSize Matters: Jumbo Paperclip as Liberating, Minimalist “Purse”
My collection of under- and over-sized things often yields surprising improvisations and pleasures.
Read MoreTasting Spoons: Essential Kitchen Tool and Welcome Gift
A tasting spoon is an essential kitchen tool, allowing you to add flavor experiments directly to the “taste” to see if you like them. Over the years I’ve collected —and given — quite a few tasting spoons. They make great, unexpected gifts. Here’s a roundup:
Read MoreRipped Linen Room Divider, Tablecloth, Napkins…
Leafing through a file of good ideas, I found this image of a ripped linen room divider by Ellen Silverman. Ripped linen is so beautiful, there’s no need to hem it…witness this tablecloth and napkins…
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