Photographer William Abranowitc has been in love with Greece for as long as we can remember, constantly making time to go there to do his personal work amidst amidst his busy schedule as a lifestyle/landscape/still-life photographer. Hellas, his second book of photographs of Greece has just been published: 160 pages in full color. Most of…
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In the wee hours of Tuesday morning, December 21st on the East Coast (late Monday evening of the 20th on the West Coast) there will be a total lunar eclipse. The Earth will line up exactly between the Sun and Moon, blocking the sun’s rays from striking the moon and causing an eclipse; there’ll be…
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We are big fans of d-i-y gift wrapping made of found, free, repurposed or cheap materials. Why spend the money on bought wrap when there’s so much good stuff just lying around. We really like Joel Henriques’ idea (of the ever-inspiring blog Made by Joel): use torn out pages from old art magazines… or design magazines……
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This weekend, Sally’ will be talking about Homemade Holiday Food Gifts on public radio’s The Splendid Table. Learn how to make a Lemon-Scented Olive Oil with much of the flavor and a fraction of the price of classic Limonato – olive oil pressed with lemons – from Italy. Her Tuscan Herb Salt can be endlessly…
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William Abranowicz sent us an email this morning that contained a big gift: a link to Pates’ Tapes, hours of cool mixed tapes to listen to free online. They are the masterwork of Charles Pates, the Creative Director at Garnet Hill who, since 1977, has been creating mixes from his remarkable collection of vinyl records.…
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If we were going to make a gingerbread house, we’d forego the Victorian thing and go modernist, living out our architectural fantasies. We typed “modernist gingerbread houses” into Google Images and found a trove. Our favorite is Kristina Hahn’s wondrous creation, The Cake Study House. The list of Special Features evoke stunning possibilities: banana succulents almond cacti…
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The past couple of years, quite a few people we know lost their jobs and were faced, suddenly, with a big life change. Most discovered that losing their job actually brought all sorts of good things into their life, even as it meant financial uncertainty. They started doing the things they loved and hadn’t had…
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Even though we mostly give charity donations as our holiday gifts, we DO like giving a few more tangible gifts as well, ones that are not too pricey and give a big bang for the buck. So we’ve compiled our eclectic list of favorite things to give…and get. In addition, on Friday we’ll be talking…
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The holidays, winter and too much work are making our head spin; why don’t we take a little break?… Music = Candy Shoppe via The Emeralds from the album Does It Look Like I’m Here Video = an anonymous edit of Dziga Vertov’s Man With Movie Camera (1929) via BoingBoing
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In our imaginary Best D-I-Y Christmas Tree Contest, this one wins hands-down. from The New Yorker Magazine
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Just what we were thinking: making our holiday tree right on a wall – or window or door – using some colored masking tape. We thought right away of using Japanese washi tape, which comes in gorgeous colors and patterns. Also from the Dutch magazine Vtwonen: a tree made on a sheet of plywood in…
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We’ve been seeing a lot of great alt-Christmas trees around, but our favorites so far are architect/salvage artist Daniel Hale’s constructions at his home in Napa Valley, featured on his Holiday Home Tour blog post. He made several holiday trees – all very different – starting with the one in the entryway, made of “cut-offs…
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The New York Times T Magazine recently published a teeny piece about ink being the new IT accessory for making temporary tattoos and asked four artists to create a design. We especially love Maria Abramovic’s. It echoes our posts last summer about drawing a heart in the palm of your hand, and using your hand…
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We are smitten with artist Heike Weber‘s work. Dig this polka dot fireplace made with self-adhesive labels…. !!!!
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Although we’ve mostly exempted ourselves from the gift buying frenzy – we give money to a charity in our friends’ names and send out custom-designed e-cards to the giftees – we DO like to give something extra that will afford more tangible – even hedonistic – pleasures, that they can’t get anywhere else. That means,…
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When Ellen Silverman was over photographing Prunes in Armagnac for our holiday food gift post, we were hunting through our collection of tablecloths to use as a background. Nothing seemed right. It was the end of the day and the light was waning. In desperation, she threw a big linen apron of Sally’s onto the…
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Don’t have the $$ to buy art? You can barter for it at ArtBarter, a 3-day exhibition at NP Contemporary Art Centre in New York City, where all the art displayed is for non-money sale. You submit a secret postcard which will be given to the artist whose work you covet. Then he/she will decide from their…
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We been slow in adding essential information to the ‘the improvised life’s homepage (that will be there permanently one day): that we we’re tweeting the great quick improvisations we find, like this unbelievably beautiful Bauhaus cloth print designed on a typewriter, and this fabulous ‘do’ from Alexander McQueen
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Note: although there are three videos in this post, watching the first two for just a minute or so tell so will give the gist; the third one is short and to the point. Signmark is a Finnish rapper who is deaf: he uses American Sign Language to rap his poetry, often in tandem with hip-hop…
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…excerpted from the blog of Nick Ward, screen writer and tinkerer: One of the questions I get asked the most is ‘where do your ideas come from?’ Usually I simply say: ‘I steal them from other people.’ But the truth is I have no real idea at all. Many years ago I remember hearing a…
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