stylish (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…

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inspiring 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…

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recession-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…

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“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…

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freeform 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…

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non-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…

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‘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…

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Would 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…

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