Following in the steps of Monty Python, the art collective Kreativiteket installed a “silly walk” traffic sign in the village of Ørje, Norway with the Mayor’s blessing. THAT’S one forward-thinking city! The sign really does incite and liberate people to silly walk, fun to do AND to watch, a complete, inspired surprise.
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Furniture and product shows like the upcoming ICFF teach some useful and unexpected lessons in buying products for your home.
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This kitchen is so stylish and inviting, we’re wondering if it’s in process and unfinished OR if it’s purposely as is. We’ve cooked in many a kitchen outfitted this way, with great pleasure, in part due to the constraints it imposes.
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At The DISH, we read part of an interview with the poet Christian Wiman, whose work often grapples with doubt and death. He turned his attention to joy and asked: Can one really just decide to be more joyful, though? Then he answered his very compelling question.
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This crazy-funny gif by Kirill Beerlove is great with or without the sound. It was made with Vine, an app for making looping videos. Serious possibilities there…
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We love this face of crochet bits that is peaking through the fence, that we think were done by Isabel Rower, who tends to embellish whatever is at hand. And as soon as we posted it, we found THIS image of a crochet-bombed benches at the San Francisco ferry building. Spring is here and it’s…
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Must Read for anyone looking for a new mattress: Jason Kottke’s Busting the Mattress Racket before. He tested out the inexpensive mattresses of two companies who are turning the mattress industry on its head, and found them to be as good as the expensive “deluxe” brands.
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As we turn our attention to getting our patio ready for hanging out, we’re inspired by this charming image we found on From Moon to Moon of a Moroccan-style garden ladened with brightly colored rugs. The rugs define and soften the space, and create an outdoor “room”, perfect for hanging out with friends. Creative use of colorful textiles, Moroccan-style, is a great strategy.
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Japanese-born photographer Shin Yahiro superimposes images of the 2011 tsunami disaster over photos of the subsequent recovery and rebuild in the Tōhoku region. The images have a curious effect in our view of disasters.
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Despite recent technical difficulties, we’re still posting away. Dig this big fat miracle of improvisation (or magic) from our friend Fast Forward.
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Great Things to People’s 3D pottery printer is not directly digital at all, but a fabulous rig that allows them to “work in the translation of computational logics and automations process in the material world” to make make their beautifully organic, assymetrical pottery.
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Designer Michael Anastassiades assymetrical copper mirror gave us two ideas: First, making a mirror of highly polished copper.
But even better: cutting mirrors in odd, assymetrical shapes to shake up a room with the unexpected.
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Thirteen-year-old Ashol Pan is one of the first females to learn eagle-hunting, a tradition among Kazakh eagle hunters that was the province of boys and men. We think the image at the joyful Pan is incredibly heartening, a perfect example of “Why not?”
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Binder/presentation clips are essential resources for quick emergecy fashion fixes like the cuff links Anthony Giglio improvised on his way from the gym to a luncheon. We rely on them for all sorts of fashion and home solutions.
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Design student Nicole Pannuzzo created this clever origami-inspired toothpaste packaging concept that collapses, accordion-like, as the toothpaste is used. We’d LOVE to walk into the bathroom and see that practical little sculpture. But what we love best was Pannuzzo’s window into the design process, with the many attempts it took to get it right:
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This compendium of sculptural, geometric fireplaces and stove hoods make us wonder why stay with plain old rectangles. The key is in figuring out how these odds hoods (or any hoods) will draw.
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Becky Cooper of Map Your Memories printed blank maps of Manhattan, gave them to New Yorkers and asked them to fill them out however they saw fit. What she got in return opened our eyes to the many levels on which we can perceive a place. And how illuminating it is to map where you live, wherever that may be.
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A SWELL Easter egg in the realm of graffiti…with Spring wishes from Improvised Life!
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Every April, I start thinking about ramps, the first wild food to peek through the cold ground in early Spring, and the focus of equally wild festivals throughout the Appalachian mountains. For decades, I’d travel down to West Virginia to the Helvetia Ramp Supper to get a transformative blast of ramps, both raw and cooked.…
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From Seth Godin: You can listen to what people say, sure. But you will be far more effective if
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