In response to our many LEAP photos, and the recent one of a woman wading in (a slow leap) – a definite obsession – reader Maia Tabet emailed us this adage…with her tiny comment.
It’s perfect – charmingly old-fashioned, almost children’s rhyme-ish – and speaks to the practice we work to cultivate, of having faith in the process of doing something new and perhaps frightening, that a “net” or answer will appear. (The quote is by John Burroughs, a nineteenth century author and naturalist who also said: “A somebody was once a nobody who wanted to and did.”
The other swell piece of the exchange was learning about one of our readers, whom we’ve never met… read more…
This makeshift pull’s austere beauty comes from having been made from Gorilla Tape, a super strong opaque black tape made by the Gorilla glue people. Our friend chose it because the pull had to be able to open a door held closed by strong magnets (which he’s using to gradually “train” the 8-foot warped plywood door to straighten out…which it is.)
We love the pull so much, and think it looks SO good, we might just leave it… read more…
Last week we posted a recipe for Strawberries in Beaujolais Sauce from Sally’s A New Way to Cook, and thought: what better way to kick-off the summer than to give the book away?! And a signed first-edition copy at that. These hardcover editions with the jazzy stripe-ed covers are now out of print and hard to find.
When A New Way to Cook was first published in 2001, it completely turned the idea of “healthy eating,” on its head. Instead of telling you what you can and can’t eat, and what foods are “good” and “bad,” the book explores how to use “taboo” ingredients like butter, oil, and animal fats in often radical new ways to make healthy and satisfying dishes. It’s also the book where Sally started to play with improvising in the kitchen, years before The Improvisational Cook hit the shelves. In 2009, A New Way to Cook was voted one of the best food books of the decade by the Guardian. We know a lot of people who use it as their “basic” cookbook. read more…
As a tribute to the 80th anniversary of Alvar Aalto’s famous stool “60″, Artek commissioned Mike Meirè to make a fresh interpretation of that icon of Finnish design. Here, the artist painstakingly handpaints the simple elements of the stool: 3 bent-ply legs, one round seat (showing just how difficult it is to paint a straight edge). It gave us new ideas for transforming the fabulously versatile stool (which we’ve blogged about at great length), copies of which are available at Ikeas in Europe and on Amazon (prime them before painting as the wood has a sealer on it).
The video is also a curiously relaxing, mesmerizing 2+ minutes mediation on paint and process, with lovely music… read more…
We love pictures of people leaping – taking the leap – and publish them frequently. Then we came across this image of a woman tentatively wading in. We realized that sometimes going slowly, taking little step by little step, getting used to the territory is also taking a leap – an act of daring and beginning.
(Click here to listen while you read.) We are always looking for music we can work – and write – to. So we were thrilled to learn of a free, open-source Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach, from the newly-released recording by Kimiko Ishizaka, performed on a Bösendorfer 290 Imperial piano in Berlin.
The Variations are the quintessence of improvisation. A conversation with pianist Jeremy Denk on NPR describes the piece as beginning “with an initial melody, the Aria, followed by 30 short but brilliant variations built on eight notes that Bach appears to have borrowed from Handel.” Says Denk: ”One of the most beautiful thing about the Goldbergs is that Bach uses it as a canvas in which to draw this seemingly infinite world of possibility.”
Click here, to download or stream the entire work.
We love the surprising “flower arrangements” created by Sania Pell, author of Homemade Home for Children. Carrots, radishes, herbs and other market treasures give earthy charm to a glass vase of flowers. Great!
In our hunt for material that resonates with ‘the improvised life’, we have decidedly subversive leanings. We love people who SEE the accepted order differently and put their mark on it, like this great, simple way designer Sebastrian Errazuriz transformed ordinary traffic lines into $$ signs, in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement.
If people feel impotent and cornered by how greed is transforming everything; I invite them to get a brush, a can of paint and go out and change their street lines into Dollar signs. People need to find new ways to remind others of the general discontent.
But then again, living improvisationally IS naturally rather guerilla-esque. It demands cultivating a more open lens with which to see the possibilities in the moment (like a $ sign in a street line) and a willingness to look for unexpected answers. read more…
May offers a brief window when the markets are flush with fragrant local strawberries. We’ve been given a couple of cartons by friends who actually had time to get to the greenmarket: sublime little sweet bites perfect as is. But we were reminded of a recipe for Strawberries in Beaujolais Sauce from Sally’s A New Way to Cook that would be the perfect way to use up what remains of the spring’s strawberry harvest.
It’s a versatile sauce/stew that can be served hot or cold, and alongside or over any number of plain cakes and desserts, as well pancakes, french toast, and especially a fine vanilla ice cream. (We like to eat it by the spoonful as a midnight snack). It’s simple to make, and the flavors of beaujolais (or other fruity young red wines) and strawberries marry beautifully; it’s an excellent way to use up an open bottle of wine. read more…
(Video link here.) When we checked in on Pascal Anson’s YouTube Channel and saw a video called “The Present”, we thought we’d see Anson demonstrating a clever way of BEING present. Well, we did, sort of: Pascal Anson’s inimitable way of…giving real presents/presence.
We’ve come to the end of our most popular giveaway ever. Over 190 of you told us what projects you were intending to tackle over the summer in your home or garden in order to win a copy of Kate Payne’s fab The Hip Girl’s Guide to Homemaking, with its trustworthy, no-nonsense information on everything from knot tying to fridge pickles to foraging. Needless to say, we were blown away by your creativity and spirit. If you haven’t yet, check out each ofthefourposts to see what other readers’s projects are.
But our randomly selected winner made our day with his plan. Timothy Foss wrote:
I have such a long list of hopefuls in this category, but my favorite is this: My grandfather invented a pickle grabber in the 50s that never made it to market. I have one of 3 prototypes. My hope is to launch a local line of garden made pickles from my grandmother’s pickle recipes and manufacture the pickle grabber to go with it. Wish me luck! read more…
This photo of members of the Seattle Tubing Society in full float made us WANT to be invited to a tubing party. If we were near a river or lake, we’d give one ourselves…What could be more delightful than lazily bobbing along with friends on a warm summer day? It seems that tubing parties were quite a thing in the forties and fifties…
, a super strong opaque black tape made by the Gorilla glue people. Our friend chose it because the pull had to be able to open a door held closed by strong magnets (which he’s using to gradually “train” the 8-foot warped plywood door to straighten out…which it is.)
, and thought: what better way to kick-off the summer than to give the book away?! And a signed first-edition copy at that. These hardcover editions with the jazzy stripe-ed covers are now out of print and hard to find.
hit the shelves. In 2009, A New Way to Cook was 
. Carrots, radishes, herbs and other market treasures give earthy charm to a glass vase of flowers. Great!
, with its trustworthy, no-nonsense information on everything from 
