(Video link here.) This video of Josef Albers‘ paintings from his series “Homage to the Square” is from a show opening at the Centre Pompidou in February. We find it a delight: refreshing and illuminating at the end of a long day. It wakes our eye to color AND gives us endless practical inspiration for…
Read Morepainted stones for home a la max ernst
We’ve long been a fan of keeping found rocks and stones around the house. They make visually wonderful “sculptures” and they have many impromptu practical purposes, to keep a door from blowing closed, act as bookend, smash garlic or spices or weight a butterflied chicken cooking in a skillet… Images of Max Ernst’s painted stones…
Read Morethe coffee improvisations (pt 1) + oscarina’s old brazil brewing method
I am a fanatic. Or at least I thought I was, until my fanaticism led me to meet some real fanatics. Luckily for the rest of the world, I’m not a fanatic about big things, like, say, Hitler was. I’m crazy for a tiny joy that makes me feel great every single day: coffee. (Click on the link to…
Read Moremiyake’s air sculpture + a great floor painting idea
(Video link here.) We love this installation at one of Issy Miyake’s stores: computer-controlled electric fans sending little gusts and sculpting an ethereal fabric. We wish we could translate the idea to home but think it’s beyond our reach. BUT we could take the idea of the etched-looking floor that we saw early on in…
Read Mored-i-y shower curtain clips: easily removable
We had just been mulling how much we HATE the design of shower curtain rings, that make it so difficult to remove the shower curtain for washing. Then we thought: how nice it would be to have shower curtain rings with clips instead of closed loops, so we could just clip up a big swath…
Read Morebarney rosset: a risktaker’s legacy
We just read about the passing of Barney Rosset, founder of Grove Press. Founded in 1951, Grove became infamous for publishing controversial, avant-garde, and “obscene” works by writers like Samuel Beckett, William Burroughs, Jean Genet, Jack Kerouac, D.H. Lawrence, and Henry Miller. Rosset’s risk-taking as a publisher was admirable, even if it was sometimes off-the-cuff;…
Read Morehelp ‘improvised life’ win a homey award!!
The yearly Homie Awards recognize the best home design and cooking sites, selected by popular vote. Although we are often told ‘improvised life’ defies categories (on Remodelista’s Newstand we’re listed under ‘D-I-Y and Renovators’; in The Say100, we’re in ‘Shelter’), we invite you to VOTE for ‘improvised life’ in the Homie’s Home Design and How-to categories. Just…
Read Moreskateboard in style! (1974)
We love this guy dressed in a suit, tie shoes and hat, skateboarding his way…where?!!!! What a chic way to travel (if you can manage it)…as liberating as our favorite “leap” pictures:
Read Morehow-to find affordable and/or rare books online
After reading two recent post referring to out-of-print books like Calder at Home and How to Construct Reitveld Furniture, a long-time reader emailed us a great strategy for finding affordable books online using “favorite searches” on ABE books. Check out her message below to hear how it works. We are going to try setting up…
Read Morepablo neruda’s poetic houses (+ his ‘ode to the present’)
Last October, we wrote about our friend’s advice to start the day reading something uplifting or illuminating rather than jumping online; since then, we’ve put the idea into practice. More often than not we read poetry, often out loud, and lately have found ourselves totally smitten with the odes of Pablo Neruda, which express a zen-like awareness…
Read More‘this is my home’ will blow you away!
(Video link here.) The story behind this extraordinary video is brief and understated: On an unseasonably warm November night in Manhattan on our way to get ice cream, we stumbled upon what appeared to be a vintage shop, brightly lit display window and all. As we began to walk in, a man sitting out front warned…
Read Morelife lessons from the olive harvest
In last month’s Atlantic, Sara Jenkins tells the story of her family’s annual olive harvest in Tuscany, which is, ultimately about taking risks and learning as you go. The Jenkins family has a rich history in food–Sara runs Porchetta and Porsena in New York City, and her mother Nancy Harmon Jenkins is the author of six…
Read Morecheap, great ikea find: smarta bowl
A recent CHEAP, GREAT Ikea find: the Smarta bowl. We bought the 8″ one for $6.99 and then went back and bought the 10″one ($12.99), great for big salads. They’ve got a lovely, very modern shape and looks much more expensive than they are. We’ve found a million uses for them, like plunking in hyacinth…
Read More‘fail better’ (samuel beckett)
We just discovered there’s an entire Wikiquotes page on FAILURE, something we write about a lot because it’s such an essential part of improvising, discovering, living…
Read Morealexander calder’s inspired bathroom improvisations
…a bit of inspiration from one of our favorite books, Calder at Home: The Joyous Environment of Alexander Calder, by Pedro Guerrero. The book documents the artist’s amazing way with the most ordinary household objects, including le toilet. Who else would think to paint the underside of a toilet seat and make a visual SURPRISE, or a…
Read Morefor stylish d-i-y shipping pallet furniture: paint it black!
We’ve checked out A LOT of d-i-y shipping pallet furniture, and have been contemplating possibilities for plywood shelving with unfinished edges. Today we realized the simple key to keeping these recycled wood creations from bordering on “granola” and making them more stylish: paint them. White is always reliable (dig this white-painted coffee table), but black…
Read More‘seeing’ is a practice (look what’s hidden in plain sight)
We are big fans of the blog Mondoblogo, where we find long, beautiful, mostly visual posts that almost always expand our vision. There’s a strong leaning toward art and mid-century design, but also just the pure joy of seeing as evidenced by the category “Walks”. Scroll through and you’ll find photographic riffs of walks through…
Read Morecuriously chic duct tape safety glasses
We love these curiously chic duct-tape safety glasses and assumed they were made by duct taping an existing pair of glasses, until we found the how-to and list of ingredients: duct tape, a hanger, a beer bottle and two plastic furniture caster cups. Will wonders never cease??!!! Related posts: zebra duct tape!! duct tape: potato…
Read Morelol street sign “like this…post’
…reminds us of the one Pamela Hovland sent us a while back… via Half Letter Press Related posts: lol if god had a blog (lol) keep calm and carry on, now panic and freak out! weekend tv break: jonathan winters improvises w stick
Read Moreed emberley’s drawing book: make a world
A friend once told us that when she was young, she learned to draw from Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book: Make a World. We recently checked it out, and loved how Emberley breaks down a drawing: using simple shapes as building blocks, you create objects and faces one piece at a time. Even those of us…
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