The other night a friend who was recuperating from an injury asked us to tell him a story as he fell asleep. A story, we wondered, h-mm-mm. Why not read a kid’s book for this exhausted, wounded grown-up. Looking through our library, an ancient copy of Kay Thompson’s Eloise jumped into our hands. As we…
Read Morewhat a messy desk really means
Robert Blinn of Core 77 posted an extensive and very interesting review of Living with Complexity by Donald Norman. He describes looking at a picture of Al Gore’s messy office, and issuing big judgements about a man who campaigns against our messing up of the environment, while not keeping his own space together. Messy spaces…
Read Mored-i-y flight (fueled by rubberbands and passion)
Wondrous, dragonfly-like model planes can float for up to half an hour under the power of one single-wound rubber band. This trailer Float is a view into the passionate world of model plane builders; it is mesmerizing and curiously relaxing, a weekend retreat. via BoingBoing
Read Morestylish (and suprising) finds on amazon
We are constantly amazed at the useful and stylish stuff that is available on Amazon – WAY beyond books, music and electronics. There are obvious design treasures like the fine bone china pitcher by Jasper Conran (a perfect wedding gift) or a cowhide rug (below) seen in so many chic interiors these days. But what we love most…
Read Moreinspiring space: brancusi’s studio
The great, eccentric MondoBloggo has decided to celebrate sculptor Constantin Brancusi’s 135 birthday by posting 30 gorgeous (unattributed) photos of the amazing artist, his work and his studio. The studio is a space we covet and dream of; we wonder how differently we’d think if we lived in a space like that…and then…is it possible…
Read Morepollock-esque paint-spattered floor
This picture on Wary Meyers’ site stopped us dead with desire. Writes Wary: “All kinds of awesomeness from Molly and Norman McGrath’s incredible 1978 book on interiors for kids, Children’s Spaces: 50 Architects and Designers Create Environments for the Young. Without a doubt the best book ever published about children’s design.” We see this fab paint-spattered…
Read Morerecession-inspired strategies for urban spaces
The Interventionist’s Toolkit, Mimi Zeiger’s long and illuminating essay in Design Observer, tracks the effect the recession has had on inspiring frugal, improvisational strategies for urban spaces around the world. When there’s no money for traditional architecture projects,” Provisional, Opportunistic, Ubiquitous, and Odd Tactics in Guerilla and DIY Practice and Urbanism” take root. We’ve excerpted the…
Read Moreembroidered plastic bag (garbage into art/fashion)
O-hh-hh-hhh! We just discovered that a plastic bag could be chic as hell…
Read Morecome along for a ride into space…
Objectified cinematographer Luke Geissbühler and his 5-year-old son Max made a homemade spacecraft out of a Thai food takeout container and a weather balloon, and outfitted it with an HD video camera and an iPhone. Last August, they sent it into space. “The mission was…was send it up into the upper stratosphere to film the…
Read More“guest” chair: a charming play on “guest book”
After reading our post on painting fabric-covered furniture, Stacey Harwood sent us an email about her great “guest” chair. “I knew a white chair would not stay white for long in my NYC apartment so I bought some fabric markers and I invite our guests to sign it. I’m happy to say that it has…
Read Morewhat would you do if…
We made this sign almost a year ago to accompany our post about making time to pursue what’s REALLY important to you; we can’t remember why we didn’t publish it. When we stumbled on it after all this time, it shook our head up a bit and put a few things in perspective, which we…
Read Moresnow fort guest house
It snowed AGAIN last night in New York City so we thought it fitting to post New York Magazine’ SWELL slideshow and story about the snow fort Steve Burns made in the courtyard of his chic-o apartment in Williamsburg, during the blizzard of a few weeks ago. Piling the snow took about three hours, digging it…
Read Moretolstoy’s big rule for living
The Happiness Project recently posted Tolstoy‘s Ten Rules of Life, found in Tolstoy, Henri Troyat’s biography of the great Russian writer. Among maxims like “Get up early” and “Keep away from women” is one that we found incredibly clarifying and focusing: “Have a goal for your whole life, a goal for one section of your…
Read Morerefreshment: nasa’s spiral galaxy zoom
“…a zoom into the majestic disk of stars and dust lanes in the NASA Hubble Space Telescope view of the spiral galaxy NGC 2841, which lies 46 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear).” via OpenCulture
Read Morefreeform chalkboards
We love this imperfect round of chalkboard painted on a wall. It made us think “Oh yeah….why not paint chalkboard paint in odd or organic freeform shapes on the wall, instead of the usual rectangle? Or perhaps a long thing strip/stripe across a whole wall…. You can buy chalkboard paint here. via Style Files Related…
Read Morenon-valentine’s day valentines
Since Valentine’s Day, we’ve gotten some wonderful emails of Valentine’s images and stories, so we thought we’d share a couple (and save the others for later). Maria Robledo made this improvised valentine for her husband, artist Holton Rower whose wondrous Pour Paintings we blogged last week. Since Holton uses clothes pins for his artwork made…
Read More‘juicy details of a culinary private life?’
William Morrow, the publisher, has been busy blogging, tweeting and facebooking about Sally Schneider’s The Improvisational Cook, newly launched in paperback. They recently blogged a “Conversation” with Sally, with questions like “What’s your Mantra”, and “If you could have dinner with three people, living or dead, who would they be?” They are tweeting it as the…
Read MoreWould You Like to Hang Out In This Room?
We’ve discovered that our email subscription service seems to be sending out our daily posts in the early afternoon rather than between 7 and 9 am. We’re hoping we’ve got it fixed. We intentionally sent one out late this afternoon to test it. But as a further test: If you subscribe by email and live…
Read Morebrilliant solutions in 200 sq feet
Living in New York City, we are obsessed with space: how much can we pack into not enough of it and still have it look clean and spare? Having 900 square feet, we imagine living in 450, to challenge our ingenuity. So we were smitten with last week’s New York Times article with slideshow that…
Read Morenew daily dance: staging possibility to shift your life
At Reference Library, we read about a unique service designed to change your life. New Daily Dance is “a service that choreographs personalized, contemporary rituals and happenings that bridge the gap between where you are now and your most desired future.” Their theory is that the secret to your most desirable future is hidden in…
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