Really big bags are essential for all sorts of projects, like hauling food home from the farmers market, or a brick or two or a piece of pipe from a construction site, or [rocks] from out of town. I’ve had a variety of bags over the years, some which are still with me, though pretty down at heals (including really dirty looking – despite washing – classic white canvas satchels. Lately, I’ve been looking for a big black bag to add a little style to the huge bag category. Here’s a bargain, designed by Andy at Reference Library and sold through Kiosk. $60 and handsome. There are some nice testimonials on his site, including a guy who hauled home 4 gallons of paint.
Pamela Hovland, the extraordinary designer who has been so essential to the design for The Improvised Life, often uses pages from magazines as her envelopes. Periodically, she culls compelling images from magazines, cuts them out with an Exacto knife and straight edge (or just rips them out, leaving a pleasingly rough edge), and folds each one into thirds to make an “envelope”. She inserts her letter inside and seals the edges with a bit of tape, or an adhesive seal. A self-stick address label provides a white space for the address. read more…
Here’s simple, pretty solution to those ugly generic plug chains. There’s infinite possibilities for stringing beads (waterproof) or using other materials like waxed string,which often comes in beautiful colors.
(The friend that sent this to me didn’t remember where she found it. So we’re unable, yet, to give credit.)
A pleasurable antidote to the nothing-out-of-place, perfect fabulousness of mainstream interiors magazines is The Selby which blogs photographs (by Todd Selby) of creative people and their spaces, sometimes with a brief, handwritten interview attached. It is a relief to see real, un-styled totally personal spaces. Scroll down the page of notated images of people in their space; when you see one that interest you, click on the image for lots more. read more…
I’m always on the lookout for great children’s books to give as gifts to my friend’s kids; books are inexpensive, and can be enjoyed over and over again, not to mention inspiring who-knows-what? in those young brains and imaginations. BoingBoing‘s recommendation of Donut Chef, written and illustrated the brilliant Bob Staake, is dead-on. It’s the story a chef whose donut shop becomes a big success, only to be threatened by a rival around the corner, who sparks a competition to create increasingly fabulous donuts. There’s a great fun riff on improvising and the messes and revelations that invariably occur.
I love the idea of this patchwork headboard from Lockwood Design. There are endless possibilities for combining cool fabrics and textures and it’s definitely a do-able project. I can imagine using all sorts of vintage fabrics, which can be found at flea markets and on Ebay. Or buying 1/2 yard of several fabrics from a great fabric store.
It’s basically an elaboration of a basic upholstered headboard like this one made from a tablecloth. (Tablecloths are often made of wonderful hard-to-find fabric. So why not use them like fabric?) Charming tea towels and linen place mats would make great patchwork panels.
via Designer's Library
There’s lots of info on the internet about how to make an upholstered headboard; I recommend reading a few to figure out your strategy. Here’s a start:
Cut a length from a block of some nice looking hard wood…
Bore holes in the end (big enough to hold toothbrushes) with a thick drill bit…
Sand if necessary.
Shouldn’t a business card reflect/echo/transmit a sense of the business or person it’s representing?
If you’re in thinking of (re)designing your card, check out the outside-the-box business card that [Re]Encoded.com compiled. They are FUN and make your expectations shift instantly. read more…
Sometimes I indulge in really wrong-headed notions about how other people work and live. It goes like this: THEY do things easily, neatly, brilliantly all the time; and I’m really untogether and slow, and waste time and am weak and undisciplined because I take naps and … Big judgments. This way of thinking wastes time and can put the kibosh on the creative process (and is practiced by half the world).
The antidote is to hear the real inside truth about how creative people do what they do when they make a piece of music or create a beautiful space or find a solution to something. read more…
You’re camping in a borrowed summer house and have candles but no holders.Or you’re just tired of your usual candle holders. A photo of pencil candles in a galvanized bucked of sand, seen at Dee Puddy, a U.K. garden and interiors store, provides a great gist of a solution for improvising on. read more…
A wordless, pictures-only post on Reference Library tipped me off to Marcel Breuer: Sun and Shadow, The Philosophy of an Architect, that Breuer wrote in the fifties. I found it on Ebay for a good price, through a “buy it now” dealer of out-of-print mid-century and design books. It’s a treasure, in part because of Alexi Brodovitch’s unique design: You holds the book sideways, turning the pages like a calendar, so each section is a double-page spread of drawings, photographs, plans, elevations.
But what is most amazing is to read the thought processes and logic behind Breuer’s designs. read more…
From her small shop in the vast Clignancourt flea market in Paris, Silvie Corbelin sells extraordinary jewelry that she has created from the damaged, odd or incomplete bits of antique jewelry she scouts: an ancient Persian turquoise fashioned into an deco-ish gold ring with tiny rubies; a classical cameo entwined in a gold serpent; a “space voyage” ring: a chunk of meteorite and a diamond set in rough-hewn gold (all can be found in her websites virtual book). “I love to give unloved elements new life”, she told me the day a friend took me to see her work. Corbelin’s thoughts on jewelry making (and life) are as compelling as the pieces themselves.
This image from Emma’s Blog reminds me of the usefulness of radiators when traveling in the winter. A hot radiator is a good place to warm bread you’ve swiped from a room service delivery, bought at a local store or have leftover from takeout. Same with cheeses, saved or bought: you can warm some goat cheese, or a slice of cheddar or brie to melting to spread on that warm bread. Just leave it on the paper it came wrapped in or place on a plate you’ve swiped from room service. Those little chocolates the maids leave around can be melted on the radiator and paired with some warm bread to make a lovely improvised pain-au-chocolate. And of course, you can warm any take-out sandwich or bowl of soup.
