In this quiet, yet curiously fast-moving 7-minute video portrait, Chudrun explains what led her away from a life of celebrity, drugs and materialism at the host of BBC’s Top Gear to one of reflection, compassion and ritual as a Buddhist nun. Her leap onto what might seem an opposite path and the willingness to change is at the very heart of improvising.
Read MoreDIY Gifts: Dried Fruit in Fragrant Syrup (Boozy or Not)
Every year, I make big batches of Prunes in Armagnac, Cherries in Red Wine Syrup and Apricot in Cardamom Syrup to give as gifts, packed into pretty jars, with handwritten tags listing their possibilities. I also rely on them for my own entertaining, to serve as fab instant desserts. They are all made by the same basic approach. Here it is, with some recipes to illustrate.
Read MoreCool D-I-Y Rope and Stacked Block Shelves
We’ve long admired this wonderful stacked block shelf we clipped years ago. It is made of scrap wood (salvaged from a lumbar yards garbage bin) that was bored, threaded and secured with thick rope, and hung from hooks anchored in the wall. Then we wondered: What if you didn’t bother with the rope part and…
Read More7 Empowering Quotes from Nelson Mandela
Artist Kadir Nelson who painted the New Yorker cover of young Nelson Mandela said that creating Nelson’s portraint maid him feel “empowered and proud like the man himself.”
That’s how seeing the cover makes us feel. As do Mandela’s empowering words.
Paper Packaging for Homemade Holiday Gifts
We hadn’t thought much about packaging suggestions for homemade food gifts until our friend David Saltman was casting about for bags to pack his home-roasted coffee beans in. We had a dwindling stash of white metal tie coffee bags we’d bought years ago by begging the coffee guy at our local gourmet store to sell…
Read MoreLight-Diffusing Shutters Made from Plexiglass
Such a good, surprising idea: light-diffusing shutters made from frosted Plexiglass. They cost a fortune from a fabricator, but we’re wondering if they are make-able (knowing nothing about handling plexi). We envision buying large 4 x 8″ sheets of Plexi, cutting them to size, boring holes and applying hinges… Maybe not so easy, but we’re…
Read MoreAlternate Realities: Jimmy Nelson’s ‘Before They Pass Away’
British Photographer Jimmy Nelson spent three years traveling to some of the most remote places on earth to document unique, endangered tribal cultures with his 4 x 5 view camera. The result is Before They Pass Away, a 12-pound, 400-page coffee table book as well as a stunning interactive website.
Read MoreWilliam Coperthwaite’s Inspired Yurt Compound
We never really understood the possibilities in yurts, the round nomadic shelter until we saw images of William Coperthwaite’s Yurt on the Blue Hill Peninsula of Maine. Windows all around, on 3 levels.
Read MoreDIY Gift or Hors d’Oeuvre: Tapas Bar Roasted Almonds
Here’s a favorite homemade food that I can give as gifts AND serve to guests who come by for cocktails or dinner, or a bash. It evokes the sublime combo I first had in Spain many years ago: chilled bone-dry Manzanilla sherry with roasted Marcona almonds. I devised a “parallel” almond that has many of the same qualities for little work or cost.
Read MoreSnow as Transformation, via Mary Oliver + Susan Dworski
Watching the evening news and the huge white swirl bearing down on the Eastern seaboard, we inhabitants of the West coast’s eternal green dream of the joy of a new snowfall and the ways it can reconfigure our lives.
Read MoreSally’s Holiday Gift Ideas on The Splendid Table
Sally shares her favorite holiday gifts on public radio’s great The Splendid Table. All are charming, unexpected and inexpensive, and many can be homemade or bought. They will be appreciated by a wide range of folks whether they’re serious cooks or not. A sheaf of poems is just one.
Read More70-year-old desert shack re-envisioned as transformative artwork
Artist/architect Phillip K. Smith re-envisioned and transformed a 70-year-old weatherbeaten shack at Joshua Tree, Californita into an artwork he calls Lucid Stead. It is “about slowing down and coming to the desert to tap into that pace of change and about stopping and being quiet so you can truly see and listen“. Watch the video, below,…
Read MoreMore Vegetable Table Decorations
Although we’ve tried out hand at herb bouquets and vegetable decorations for the holiday table, we realized there are LOTS of possible improvisations on those themes when we saw these swell ones from iiiinspired. We love that they’re composed of everyday vegetables. The trick:
Read MoreFavorite Gift to Give and Get: $10 French Paring Knife
We came across L’Econome’s perfect paring knife years ago in a kitchen ware store and have been in love ever since. They’re inexpensive – about $10 each – feel good in the hand, sharpen easily, AND look good, even as they age and weather. Since EVERYBODY needs a good paring knife, we’d buy them in…
Read MoreMake or See Art on the Moon via Ai WeiWei + Olafur Eliasson
It took us abandoning Safari and loading Firefox. iPads won’t run it altogether. But it is worth getting yourself to Ai Weiwei and Olafur Eliasson’s wondrous website Moon. At first you see a shimmering globe, then the sign, above, which distills in one fell swoop everything we believe and love: Ideas, wind, and air no…
Read MoreA Cool Moveable Bed Suspended from the Ceiling?
In his tiny 580 sq. ft cabin, Vincent Kartheiser (of Mad Men fame) installed a suspended bed from the ceiling with a serious of pulleys and weights that allow him to raise and lower it easily. A totally new take on “Murphy”.
Read MoreEntertaining Tip: Write Guest’s Names On Their Wine Glass
A couple of years ago, we posted about wine and spirits writer Anthony Giglio’s inspired practice of writing the name of each guest on his/her wine glass to cut down on “lost” glasses (and the attendant OMG-there-aren’t-enough-glasses stress). Anthony uses a china marker, a wax or grease pencil that writes perfectly on glass or china…
Read MoreInspired, Inspiring Humans of New York, and Elsewhere
Even though we live in New York, we are smitten with Humans of New York, a blog which documents just that, that incredbly varied iterations of human-ness one finds on the streets of New York, all with a story. It doesn’t stop at New York either. Photographer Brandon Stanton posts images of strangers he’s met elsewhere,…
Read Morerustic wood shelf with ingenious chain support
We’re putting this image into our ever-growing file of shelving ideas. A chain is a fine solution for when you don’t have an end wall to hold up a wooden shelf. You get the support without the feeling of the space being blocked or hemmed in. Simple and ingenious. We can imagine interpreting it in…
Read MorePaint Dipped Wooden Spoons to DIY or Buy
Over the past few months, we’ve seen a spate of paint-dipped wooden spoons, with instructions to diy or just buy, like these Etsy ones from Living Embellished. Wanting them for ourselves, we realize that they’d make great inexpensive gifts. Here is all you need to know to diy or buy.
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