As is our nature, we started to deconstruct this strangely beautiful fly swatter, thinking it could easily be made with a piece of hardwood and a bit of leather. Then we thought: why bother? It only costs $12.80 + $5 shipping at Kaufman Mercantile. We figure it would make a great, slightly odd, original and…
Read Mored-i-y instant head wraps for bad-hair days
Maria Robledo sent us a link to Under the Sun, Roy Arden’s brilliant visual blog, which we are fans of but hadn’t looked at in some time; there’s ALWAYS something compelling there. This time, we found a picture of women wearing wondrous head dresses made of wrapped fabric. ‘We need to be able to do…
Read Mored-i-y post-it table
Cynthia Caldwell sent us a link to this Post-It table she spotted at Design Taxi with this note: “Love this idea-post it size desk pad. Couldn’t find where you can actually buy one but I think I need it NOW for my son Russell.” It appears the table is one of those tantelizing design one-offs that would cost…
Read Morenora ephron: ‘what I will miss’ (we miss her already)
We were stunned at the news of Nora Ephon‘s passing, wondering how could it be? It seemed like she would always be here. As columnist Liz Smith wrote: “What the hell will we do without you?” Ephron told few people of her dire illness, but, we see now, aluded to it in her biography I Remember…
Read Moreinvesting in an improvised life
We’ve Believe that we can learn just about anything we put our mind to… eventually ….sometimes with a lot of help and concentration. Finances is one of the areas we find ourselves – and a lot of creative people we know – weakest at. So we’ve taken delight in a New York Times blog called…
Read Mored-i-y asymmetrical plank bench
We love this d-i-y bench posted recently on You Are the River for many reasons: -it has a wonderful simplicity made more compelling by being assymetrical -it is made from only 3 pieces of reclaimed wood and some countersunk bolts -it made us think “we can do that”.
Read Morejames dyson on ‘why failure doesn’t suck’
Fast Company recently published Failure Does Not Suck, an interview with Sir James Dyson, who spent 15 years inventing the world’s best-selling vacuum cleaner, among other paradigm-altering housewares. Here’s a potent snippet: You once described the inventor’s life as “one of failure.” How so? I made 5,127 prototypes of my vacuum before I got it…
Read Morepianist derek paravacini: ‘good comes out of bad’
(Video link here.) David Saltman sent us this video with the message “YOU HAVE TO WATCH THIS”. And he was right, despite its 13 minutes, which is long for us. This 60 Minute profile tells the story of pianist Derek Paravicini who is blind, with disabilities so severe, he can’t tell his right hand from his…
Read Morecustomizable upright holders for storing…just about everything
A couple of weeks after we posted the versatile tinkertoy plate holder we’d bought at Crate and Barrel and hacked…er…tailored it to suit our big platters, we discovered that Crate and Barrel had done some hacking as well. They added an edge and painted them rustic white, and are using them throughout the store to…
Read Morezigzag paint floors + the zigzag path of the creative
The harsh reality of white-painted floors like the ones in our ‘laboratory’ is that they are prone to scratching and losing their pristine look FAST. Since our plywood floors were painted a beautiful oyster shell white (THAT story to come in a later post), it has been our personal challenge to GET OVER the fact…
Read Moretaking an unplanned ‘moment’
It was raining late this afternoon as we sat writing in ‘the improvised life’s laboratory‘ with the terrace door open. Suddenly we heard the joyous sound of a full-on gospel choir coming through the trees of the Harlem park we look out on. We went out onto the terrace to see who was singing. Instead…
Read Mored-i-y glass and mirror ‘whiteboards’ (write right on ’em)
After we posted about clear white board paint, which would allow you to write/and erase any wood or painted surface, Diary of a Tomato alerted us to the very cool alt-whiteboards spotted at Noma Foodlab, an ambitious restaurant and food “experimentarium” in Copenhagen. In the huge high-design loft space, big slabs of glass are afixed to the walls to display…
Read Moreunlikely inspiration: tom sach’s futurist cinder block
We often post ideas on ‘the improvised life’ that we might never make, like the futurist cinder block artist Tom Sachs displayed at recent exhibition Space Program Mars. There is a simple, practical logic to this: these creations remind us of do-able possibilities that, had we the time or wherewithall, we COULD make ourselves. Sach’s…
Read Morefort magic (pop-up rooms indoors and out)
Having no hidden rooms in our apartments, we have written a number of posts mulling ways to make an “instant”, impermanent guest room in our space. They are usually along the lines of something a kid would make, since secretly, we love the feeling of forts, teepees, treehouses. We are always on the lookout for…
Read Moreclear ideapaint for ‘whiteboard’ surfaces ANYWHERE
Some time ago we wrote about IdeaPaint, special paint that can turn any surface into a dry erase “white board”. You can write all your brilliant ideas on it with markers, then wipe them off when you don’t need them anymore. Now the IdeaPaint people have come out with a great variation on the theme:…
Read Moreharlem nyc 98 degrees: beating the heat
In Harlem, the response to NYC’s recent heatwave has been highly improvisational; rigged umbrellas are everywhere, lashed to fence posts, tree trunks and baby carriages. Hats of all kinds have been configured, lots of chairs arranged under trees. We saw some folks who set up a giant open air cabana on the street so they…
Read MoreA New Way to Cook giveaway winner
Our giveaway contest is over and our winner has been selected at random–Marti will be receiving the signed, first edition of A New Way to Cook! Congrats Marti. We hope you it comes in useful for the farmer’s market treasures you mentioned in your comment: “Bring it. Today’s Farmer’s Market basket full of ruby red…
Read Moretom sach’s plywood fridge + a brilliant lesson in color
After we posted Tom Sach’s wonderful ‘love letter to plywood‘, and mentioned our idea to clad our ancient fridge in plywood, a reader sent us the results of her hungry search for MORE Tom Sachs. Somewhere along the line she stumbled on Sach’s video COLOR, about the strict paint color code he uses in his studio.…
Read More‘give happenings time to find themselves’ (anne herbert)
…from the alarmingly wise Anne Herbert of Peace and Love and Noticing the Miracles. Related posts: two mind-shifting quotes to start the day ‘don’t say yes. be yes.’ insoluable problem -> interesting solution a reminder, via anne herbert (open doors!) ann herbert: unaccumulate anne herbert’s wise + teeny meditations
Read Morethe joys of unorthodox tableclothes
Like all things, tableclothes come with a notion that there is a right way to use them: ironed, placed symmetrically, covering the whole table PROPERLY. We found these pictures of alt-clothed tables secretly liberating: tableclothes all used with defiant and beautiful little shifts on the norm, the vision of stylist Hans Blomquist. We love the unironed…
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