Offline IS the new luxury for sure and we need some of it. We’re going to take some for our annual two-week vacance: a one-week retreat AWAY from everything, and one -week of catching up with all the projects and people that get pushed aside by….LIFE and our commitment to Improvised Life. In the meantime,…
Read MorePlum and Cherry Tart with Thyme + other fast tart improvs
Ellen Silverman, who LOVES to improvise radically on my recipes, recently posted her iteration of my Improvisational Fresh Fruit Tart Formula on Instagram: a sensational Plum Cherry Tart with Thyme. She said it was a huge HIT at her dinner party. Made with lush summer fruits, freeform fruit tarts are the perfect summer dessert (though you can make it all year round). Here’s the simple formula:
Read MoreLaura Handler’s Checkered Duct Tape AC Surround
Designer Laura Handler, whose chic Montana cabin and cool teeny ‘everything’ vial we’ve featured, sent us images her latest brilliance. The Harlem building in which she recently renovated her apartment is having the bricks repointed, which is seriously messy work. To keep dust OUT, Laura first made a barrier of blue painter’s tape around her (very cool)…
Read MoreF*ck That: A Guided Meditation (Curiously Works!)
(Video link here.) Resistent to meditation? Jason Headley helps you let go of the realities of the world and relax with F*ck That: A Guided Meditation, a radical new reality-embraced, LOL-based technique… That…is….curiously….effective. via Laughing Squid
Read MoreRubber Stamp Brilliance: Yoko Ono’s Peace Map
We found this image on Yoko Ono’s instagram. “The hand is stamping “PEACE” on the map. Yes. We try. yoko” Wonderful words. Part of Ono’s Peace Maps, in which you… Stamping PEACE all over town would make lovely graffiti. via Yoko Ono’s Instagram; peace stamp image via Mikihiko Hori’s Flickr
Read MoreInspiration: Le Corbusier’s Envisions a Paris Rooftop Garden
In the 1920’s, Le Corbusier designed Carlos de Beistegui’s apartment in Paris. The rooftop garden, with a very grand rococo fireplace one would usually find indoors, turns the usual outdoor space on its head. Here, he elaborates on it, with a mirror, candlesticks and an ornate sideboard, on grass.
Read MoreInstant Gratitude Shift via a Powerful Data-Driven Song
(Video link here.) We are haunted by Brian Foo’s strange data-driven song and animated video. It was made by assigning sounds to the movement of refugees fleeing their homelands around the world, from 1975 to 2012, and then animating their paths of flight. Writes Foo: As the song progresses, more instruments are added and the…
Read MoreEasy-Peasy Flower Arrangement: Bowl of Floating Blossoms
A reminder we found on Maria Robledo’s instagram: for a fab flower arrangement just float little blossoms (you can pick a few your garden or in the park) in a shallow bowl of water.
Read MoreOptical Illusion Bay Window and Other Window/Mirror Tricks
Having created the illusion of an expansive corner window using smoke-and-mirrors in our Harlem space (below), we LOVE seeing other riffs on the theme of optical illusion windows. Granit Chartered Architects devised a brilliant faux bay window
Read MoreToolkit: Questions to Ask Before Giving Up
We were stunned by Everything Is Awful and I’m Not Okay: questions to ask before giving up, published on Eponis last March. The sixteen questions are SPOT ON for the drawing awareness to the kinds of everyday log-jams we all get into. It is an instant, brilliant perspective-shifter that makes us wonder “Who is this wise…
Read MoreThe Pleasures of Making + Receiving Handmade Letters
Every time I receive a hand-written letter in the mail, I feel like I am about to open a very special gift. Given their rarity, hand-written letters ARE a gift. Uniqueness is built-in and its effect is usually WAY more than the effort it took to make it, both personally and professionally. Here’s some inspiration that makes the making fun.
Read MoreMusic for Starting or Refreshing Your Day:Tears of Unicorn
(Video link here.) Experimental vibraphonist Masayoshi Fujita‘s Tears of Unicorn seems like perfect music for starting the morning, or refreshing the day. Somehow watching him play in that big loft makes us feel like he is playing for US. Fujita’s process is compelling:
Read MoreSkillet-Blistered Peas and Grilled Fava Beans (NO Shelling!)
Although we had a lovely time shelling and eating fresh peas recently, we know that some people just don’t have the time or wherewithall to shell. So we offer up two great strategies from Improvised Life’s Archives (they both make great hors d’ouevres):
Read MoreThe Unexpected Pleasures of Shelling Spring Peas and Summer Beans
At twilight recently, I sat on the terrace with a friend shelling a huge bag of fresh peas. Our conversation meandered as we worked. We could have been sitting on a porch in the country. I wondered if THIS was what peas and shell beans were really made to do: bring friends and family together over a calming task that would yield something truly special.
Read MorePink Inspiration, Erotic and Otherwise
At the ever-inspiring Aqqindex the other day, I came across this sublime pink sleeping nook in Tunisia and thought WANT! I know the influence of pink because of the pink wall in my bedroom: in the three years I’ve slept there, I’ve not grown tired of the hopeful, serene-yet-jazzy vibe it sends me. Then I found…
Read MoreFather/Daughter Beatbox Competition Makes for Inspired Rhythms
(Video link here.) This loving competition between St. Louis-based beatboxer Nicole Paris and her dad, who taught her the basics — between mentor and apprentice —is filled with wonder and beauty,
Read More573 Essential Words about Gun Violence (Charlie Allenson + Yoko Ono)
A few years ago, Yoko Ono tweeted a photo of John Lennon’s bloodied glasses. The image, taken not long after his murder — an artist’s way of healing — would become part of a powerful control campaign. Charlie Allenson took his own step toward healing by writing about the murder of his beloved niece in Huffington Post. ‘The Car in the Lot’ is a potent 573 words worth of essential reading.
Read MoreHome Design in New Guinea Yields Inspiring Ideas
Survival tells us to build shelter, but human nature tells us to make it interesting. The people of New Guinea have been making beautiful homes high in the trees for many years. The tree houses, explored by photographer George Steinmetz are set in open spaces in the forests of Indonesian New Guinea lowlands. Though the…
Read MoreOcean Vuong Thinks You are Perfect
In a recent New Yorker, we found ourselves moved and boggled by the poem Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong, as though its language were working on us like a painting or a subtle medicine. We looked up the poet Ocean Vuong. His bio reads: Born in Saigon, Vietnam, he currently resides in New York City. He thinks you’re…
Read MoreSpots and Spills on Fabric, Rugs, Clothes: If You Can’t Beat’em, Join’em
We love artist/designer Dominic Wilcox‘s fix for red wine spilled on the carpet (below): Don’t bother trying to get it out…paint a pattern around it. It gives us ideas for fixing clothes and table linens that have impossible-to-remove stains or spots. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em: transform them by emphasising the transgressions,
Read More