The practice of making a retreat – taking oneself OUT of everyday life to withdraw and reflect – has been around for eons. It is part of many spiritual traditions, and to our thinking, should be a requirement for everyone (and paid for by insurance – ha) , so filled as our lives are with…
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Our favorite column at the very cerebral blog Design Observer is John Foster’s Accidental Mysteries, compilations of photographs around a theme. This week’s post focuses on the Japanese tradition of kintsugi — the artful repairing of damaged objects, and illustrates the beauty of broken and repaired things. This 18th century carved wooden bowl being sold at David Bell antiques is being described…
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We’re adding this to our collection of “leap and fly” photos that we see as so emblematic of the willingness to “take a leap”, risk, try new things. We love this one because the dancer is so game, and looks like an ordinary person doing what she loves, maybe not brilliantly, but wonderful all the…
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Every since it burst on the scene, we’ve been in love with washi tape masking tape, using it for all sorts of decorative purposes, from wrapping gifts to tacking images or making signs on walls; we’ve posted about it a number of times. Then, over a year ago, we stumbled on a post about washi tape…
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We were knocked out when we saw this picture of sculptor Giuseppe Penone‘s sapling within a tree that he says is about “the hidden life within.” We thought of many things at once, many of them corny, but true nevertheless…of the origins and emergence of ideas, and the little kid that remains within each of…
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We love checking in to Cabin Porn a site which provides “inspiration for your quiet place somewhere”, which right now, is in our heads. Recently, we became smitten with this hut overlooking Lake Bonney in the southeast of South Australia. All we know is that “it was built over 5 years with salvaged materials”; no other details…
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When we first saw this stack of books-stripped-bare of their covers to reveal neutral color and graphic texture, we thought: what a cool material for doing all sorts of things. Stack em to make stools, displays and ad hoc tables, or supports for low shelves. Books as bricks. Then we wondered: Could we really justify…
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We’ve recently discovered a new series of photographs by Amy Friend called Dare alla Luce: Through small deliberate interventions, I altered these vintage images, allowing light to pass through them. (After all, photographs are made possible with light.) In a literal and somewhat playful manner, I aimed to give the photographs back to the light, hence…
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In this Sunday’s NY Times T magazine, we were happy to see the cover story on John Derian’s East Village apartment photographed by our old friend Bill Abranowicz (whose beauty of a book on Greece we featured some time ago.)It starts with a photo of the naked, as-is space, rife with possibilities. We realized we were…
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Le Cabanon by Le Corbusier – Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France Being weak (but learning) in the interior color department, we’ve loved Flavorwire’s recent round-up of the Surprisingly Colorful Homes of 10 Famous Architects. Although we’ve actually been inside Le Corbusier’s Le Cabanon in the south of France, we hadn’t quite realized just how much color he’d incorporated…
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A while back, we accidentally ordered a book of poems by the great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. We love his poetry, especially his odes, but weren’t crazy about the selections in this particular book. Or so we thought. We’ve discovered that opening it randomly often yields treasures we could have sworn weren’t there when we first…
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(Video link here.) Ever since we saw this 3 minute bit from comedian Louis C.K.’s amazing tv series Louie we’ve been looking for a video clip to post; we FINALLY found one. As Louie drives his daughters to visit their ancient aunt in the country, The Who‘s “Who are You?” comes on the CD player. The valiant, crazy vision…
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A perfect impromtu side table, made from worn stacked boxes, each worn in a unique way as to contribute to a striped, graphical design. This is the kind of thing that salvage places are perfect for… via Japanese Trash Related posts: d-i-y vintage-box furniture (and obsession) dreaming of a rietveld crate desk cardboard, crates +…
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There’s a movement afoot to change Columbus Day to Explorer’s Day. First, because Columbus didn’t really discover America (it was explored by MANY before him). And second because America has always been about exploring; it is a country of explorers. Maggie Koerth-Baker at Boing-Boing says it eloquently: ….exploration is inclusive. The ancestors of Native Hawaiians were…
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We are smitten with Tinybop, a site of books, apps, videos, toys for kids. The curating is GREAT here. Many of their suggestions will help your child-in-mind (or you) to bloom. We’ve found a ton of stuff that WE want. Dig these cool apps:
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We are big fans of Junot Diaz, whose novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was so original, we didn’t want to give it away (as we usually do with fiction we’ve read); we knew we’d go back to it to dive back into its wild language. With the release of Diaz’ latest book This…
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We were AMAZED when we stumbled on this picture taken from a Sydney, Australia real estate listing : a porch with clunky, hard-to-move chaises all facing inside the house, away from the view. via desire to inspire Related posts: annals of bad design: mirrored credenza? annals of bad design?: sculptural bathtub annals of bad design:…
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Some time ago, when we posted about uses we had improvised for binder clips, we got a rash of reader responses telling their improvisations with the ubiquitous tool that just keeps on providing solutions to life’s little problems. Check out Treehugger‘s recent 16 Clever Uses for Binder Clips (we love ’em in Steel). Here are…
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We were knocked out by the insanely colorful streetscape made by a Lebanese team of artists/designers, known as dihzahyners, in Beirut. We imagined how the the worst and bleakest urban neighborhoods we’ve traveled through would be TRANSFORMED by color. All it takes is paint, vision, collective effort:
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We are big fans of tattoos — permanent or impermanent — as a tool for living, and have posted quite a bit about them: to-do lists, uplifting signs, reminders of one sort or another. We recently tweeted about an 81 year-old woman who tattooed “Do Not Resuscitate” on her chest, so concerned was she about…
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