The other day a friend called to say he’d made the apple crumble from A New Way to Cook. He was thrilled that it was so easy, yet offered many of the satisfactions of a pie (which he was afraid to make) with much less work. I’d forgotten how easy and delicious crumbles are, nothing more…
Read MoreHow to Carry Anything (It’s all About Balance)
Balance will handle just about anything.
Read MorePlywood Cube Room with Sliding Doors
We’ve known a number of people who have built small rooms within an existing space, but we have never seen one quite so appealing as this plywood cube. Bookshelves and storage along one side afford some sound proofing. And painted sliding doors make for an appealing wall in the main room.
Read MoreSheetrock or Plywood Walls With Shapes Cut Out
This installation by American artist Scott Carter is making us view walls as sculpture. Carter cuts out shapes from walls and formed them into furniture, like some living, human-sized puzzle. But we can’t stop mulling the idea of cutting out shapes from plywood, to give interest to walls or partitions.
Read MoreTree Cloud: What Might We See if We Were Really Looking
Our friend Christopher Eldredge emailed us this image on the very morning that we read this passage from Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Sun My Heart. And IT reminded us of Maria Robledo’s perfect image.
Read MoreChill with Birdsong Radio
Our friend Josh Eisen alerted us to the great birdsong.fm, a site that streams only birdsong (you can also download its app or mp3):
Read More70’s Fab Ink Pad Porn via Tomi Ungerer
Continueing our unplanned homage to ’70’s design: illustrator Tomi Ungerer‘s fab frolicing orgy created by combining rubber stamps of various body parts and shapes.
Read MoreA Magnetic Wall to Display Art, Photos, Anything!
Holton Rower designed a iron-clad magnetic wall painted to look like the adjacent walls. It allows Holton and his family to easily display and remove artwork, photographs, notes —anything that can be held up with magnets — as they wish. Here’s how he did it.
Read MorePete Seeger’s Unique Machine of Transformation
Our goodbye with deepest thanks to Pete Seeger, with one of his best songs.
Read MoreRethinking the Cardboard Box: Rapid Packing Container
Two engineering students rethink the cardboard box, and come up with a truly innovative design.
Read More70’s Free-Style Painting on Walls
At An Ambitious Project Collapsing, we found this beauty of a photo, part of the New York Public Library’s HUGE free digital archive. It is just one of Dinanda H Nooney’s images from 1970’s Brooklyn homes: Fran Orans. 4715 Surf Ave., Coney Island, Brooklyn, August 5, 1978.
Read MoreFrancois Halard’s Big Book of Interiors
Among the very effete and interesting spaces of famous artists, designers and tastemakers in Francois Halard, a retrospective collection of the famed interiors photographer’s work are images that are VERY Improvised Life.
Read MoreWhat is the Opposite of Lack, Self-Criticism, Wishful Thinking?
Eagle-eyed Maria Robledo sent us this fab art work (sadly unattributed). We wonder who the wise person/artist is who so clearly expressed the sense of LACK we all so often feel, that goes with self-criticism and imagining perfect worlds that don’t exist. We wonder:
Read MoreMore Fab Dirty Pink Walls: Kitchen in the Veneto
Maria Robledo, who advised us to paint a bedroom wall “dirty pink”, sent us a great example of the subtle, muted, every changing hue of pink.
Read More30 Ways to Stay Creative
We spotted this great sign at A City that Endures, our friend Vanessa Hock’s tumblr. To the 29 Ways to Stay Creative, she’s added a great #30: Stop thinking about it and just do it. In our experience, taking an action — however small —and then another and another, IS the key to making. Thanks…
Read MorePaintable Aalto-esque Bent Ply Stools + Where to Buy Them
These shiny black Alvar Aalto stools reminded us of just how great and versatile these simple classic stools are. In the open air Kauppatori food market in Helsinki, where Aalto was from, the stools provide seating at just about every coffee stand. Before we knew who Aalto was, we were buying Ikea’s knock-off, the Frosta — which…
Read MoreBeyond Broken Resolutions: What the New Year Offers Us
Birds have been much on my mind since revisiting Anne Lamotts’ inspirational book, Bird by Bird, on Improvised Life, especially now that the New Year has come and gone, scattering in its wake a litter of broken resolutions. How is it possible that so many thoughtfully-strategized good intentions have fled my newly-reordered spiritual house already, and the year yet a month old?
Read MoreRecipe/Method: Herb-Scented Tuscan Pork Roast
Herb-Scented Tuscan Pork Roast has been one of my most popular recipes over the years. I learned it while hanging out with my friend Peggy Markel during one of the Culinary Adventures she regularly leads in Tuscany. Peggy learned the recipe from chef Piero Ferrini (and so it goes, recipes passed on from cook to cook, making…
Read MoreElite Bag Maker Shows How to Rip Off His Bag
Fantasize about making your own perfect tote or knapsack? David Munson, CEO of Saddleback Leather’s video in which he deconstructs his famously-well-made bags and tells the logic involved so you know EXACTLY how to do it.
Read MoreInspired Experiment: An Art Lending Library
In response to our post about a library that lends people, Maureen Rolla, recently alerted us to another great iteration of the lending library: art. Check some out with your library card and live with it a while.
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