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Our giveaway contest is over and our winner has been selected at random–Marti will be receiving the signed, first edition of A New Way to Cook! Congrats Marti. We hope you it comes in useful for the farmer’s market treasures you mentioned in your comment:
“Bring it. Today’s Farmer’s Market basket full of ruby red rhubarb, juicy Michigan strawberries, and a rainbow of chard. Would love that cookbook to lead me to the newness. Abundance reigns.”
06.21.12 |
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in community, food, inspiration books + zines, recipes, resources books + zines |
Time’s almost up for our current book giveaway! Tonight at midnight, we’ll be picking a commenter at random to receive a signed, first edition copy of Sally’s A New Way to Cook
. Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been posting seasonal recipes from the book, like Strawberries in Beaujolais Sauce, Classic Coleslaw, and three simple summer fruit desserts. But there’s more to be found buried away on ‘the improvised life’, over at The Splendid Table, and at Sally’s personal website. Below you’ll find a round-up of recipes to be had for free (just a fraction in the books 750+ pages.) Remember, all you need to do to enter the giveaway is leave a comment! Good luck! Here now, our recipe extravaganza: read more…
06.19.12 |
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in community, d-i-y, eating, entertaining, family + friends, food, recipes, resources books + zines |
photo: sally schneider
On Thursday evening, we published pictures of ‘the improvised life’s laboratory – our new space – after all hell had broken loose and we were struggling to get some perspective on a day where everything had gone awry. We did manage to, with the help also of some hilarious and generous Comments from readers. One couldn’t help laughing at the disparate array of chairs that pepper the place. (We’ve got a thing for odd 50′s chairs)…
…and others who basically said LOOK AT THE BIGGER PICTURE, read more…
06.18.12 |
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in community, cool spaces, inside, laboratory, paths + processes |
'crabcakes n' slaw' photo: maria robledo
Before picking the winner of our latest book giveaway on June 19 (a signed, first edition copy of Sally’s A New Way to Cook), we’ve been posting recipes from the book that fit the season. With summer fast approaching, slaws are the inevitable – and perfect – accompaniment to barbeques, picnics, and porch suppers. We serve this recipe for Classic Coleslaw all summer long. It rolls several Southern slaws into one, while fudging the overrich ingredients. read more…
06.13.12 |
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in community, eating, entertaining, family + friends, food, inspiration books + zines, recipes, resources books + zines |
3rdward.com
We’ve written before about the Fixer’s Collective, a group of improvisational fixers and menders based in Brooklyn, NY as well as Chris Hackett and the Madagascar Institute, who are devoted to facilitating “out there” creations – especially flamethrowers – for just about anyone who shows up. But lately we’ve been hearing about a number of similar projects coming out of NYC’s most forward-thinking borough–collectives of folks bonded together by a common purpose or interest, offering services at fairly low – or NO – cost.
But this isn’t about Brooklyn or the particular brand of young people associated with its DIY culture. It’s about a really compelling model of learning and service provision that could work anywhere there are willing people (and indeed, other cities have similar crops of great projects).
Take for example the Brooklyn Skillshare and their powerful mission statement: read more…
06.01.12 |
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in community, copy this!, d-i-y, how-to, learn, share |
In our hunt for material that resonates with ‘the improvised life’, we have decidedly subversive leanings. We love people who SEE the accepted order differently and put their mark on it, like this great, simple way designer Sebastrian Errazuriz transformed ordinary traffic lines into $$ signs, in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement.
If people feel impotent and cornered by how greed is transforming everything; I invite them to get a brush, a can of paint and go out and change their street lines into Dollar signs. People need to find new ways to remind others of the general discontent.
But then again, living improvisationally IS naturally rather guerilla-esque. It demands cultivating a more open lens with which to see the possibilities in the moment (like a $ sign in a street line) and a willingness to look for unexpected answers. read more…
05.29.12 |
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in art, community, copy this!, outside, paths + processes, people, principles, sightings |
hipgirlshome.com
We’ve come to the end of our most popular giveaway ever. Over 190 of you told us what projects you were intending to tackle over the summer in your home or garden in order to win a copy of Kate Payne’s fab The Hip Girl’s Guide to Homemaking
, with its trustworthy, no-nonsense information on everything from knot tying to fridge pickles to foraging. Needless to say, we were blown away by your creativity and spirit. If you haven’t yet, check out each of the four posts to see what other readers’s projects are.
But our randomly selected winner made our day with his plan. Timothy Foss wrote:
I have such a long list of hopefuls in this category, but my favorite is this: My grandfather invented a pickle grabber in the 50s that never made it to market. I have one of 3 prototypes. My hope is to launch a local line of garden made pickles from my grandmother’s pickle recipes and manufacture the pickle grabber to go with it. Wish me luck! read more…
05.24.12 |
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in community, d-i-y, entertaining, inspiration books + zines, recipes, resources, share, strategies |
The Internet and phone are turned off in our old place; we’re camping amidst boxes. Needless to say, posting has been erratic…we spent 15 hours yesterday at the new space wrangling electricians, Fios guys, handiman, rug delivery.
We’re both overwhelmed and excited by the impending move to new digs, ‘the improvised life’s ongoing work-in-progress, a move from pre-war to modern.
We’re going dark for a week or so while we get things organized…and our wit’s about us. See you soon.
And big thanks for all who wrote to wish us well on the new space.
Related posts: introducing ‘the improvised life’s new ‘laboratory’
sneak peek: improvised life’s new space + our cool optical illusion design solution
‘the improvised life’ in detroit, harlem and governors island
05.09.12 |
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in before + after, community, cool spaces, inspiration, reimagine, resources |
A few months ago, I bought a space in Harlem, soon to be home of ‘the improvised life’s new LABORATORY, in which to experiment with all sorts of ideas for home and daily living.
I had scoured New York City real estate listings for YEARS, traipsing from space to space in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan weighing the pros and cons of neighborhoods, commutes, space-for-the-money – a huge list – until I finally said YES to modest space with very good bones. It was a lucky find, fitting a VERY limited budget AND having the essentials I’d been looking for: proximity to great transportation, a real neighborhood, good security, and most important of all, a wonderful view that could never be obstructed. The architecture is nothing to speak of and the apartment itself needed serious work.
It has become a lesson in seeing through the superficial to the bones beneath, and envisioning possibilities. read more…
05.07.12 |
comments (2) |
in community, cool spaces, inside, inspiration, reimagine, resources, storage |
photo: Bob Carey
We couldn’t say what it is about this man in a tutu that we find so powerful. Like a lot of art, it seems to possess it’s own language and logic. The story behind it remains somewhat mysterious: Bob Carey first took a portrait of himself in a pink tutu in an effort to express himself after he and his wife, Linda, had moved to New York.
Why? Because even though the move was exciting, exhilarating, and inspiring, it was 180 degrees from what I knew. So I took the old, mixed it in with the new, and the kept the tutu handy.
Six months later he discovered his wife had breast cancer. The tutu portraits became a way to bring some laughter and joy to a dark situation, a symbol of solidarity, and ultimately, as The Tutu Project, a campaign to raise money for breast cancer research. read more…
04.04.12 |
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in art, community, identity, paths + processes, people, why not? |
We’ve been so impressed with Jim Denevan’s amazing sand and snow creations, that we forgot he’s also is the mastermind of a fantastic traveling food project. Outstanding in the Field is a “roving culinary adventure” meant to connect people to the land where their food originates and the people who work hard to produce it.
Outstanding in the Field creates pop-up food happenings at farms and ranches (and other scenic delights) across the country. They set up a long table that sits over 100 guests, and local chefs work their magic to prepare four-course meals using entirely local meat and produce. There is nothing like the experience of sitting down to eat on the land from which your food has come. Their 2012 schedule has just been announced, so you can check and see if they will be coming to a town near you. read more…
03.26.12 |
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in celebrations, community, entertaining, family + friends, food, nature |
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Earlier this week we asked our readers to cast their vote and help us win a Homie Award for best DIY and Home Design blog. We then realized that you have to jump through hoops to vote, going through a whole rigamarole to register on their website. Not to mention that we’re not exactly a Home Design site, nor a DIY site, were both and more…life design…maybe… or …what?…We’ve decided not to push the voting anymore, but THANKS SO MUCH to all of you who took the time to do it!
Just being nominated brought a lot of new people our way. One sent us this email
I just stumbled upon your blog and absolutely had to tell you how much I love every single thing about it! You guys are an amazing collective with fresh ideas! Bravo!
We figure we won after all.
PS: We’ve discovered that our sweet fan letter came from Tracy Metro and it turns out she found us on her own steam…didn’t even know about the Homies (:
Related posts: ‘the improvised life’ is one of ’100 voices that matter’
press/praise for ‘the improvised life’
thanks and wow! (friends w benefits)
03.01.12 |
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in community |
The yearly Homie Awards recognize the best home design and cooking sites, selected by popular vote. Although we are often told ‘improvised life’ defies categories (on Remodelista’s Newstand we’re listed under ‘D-I-Y and Renovators’; in The Say100, we’re in ‘Shelter’), we invite you to VOTE for ‘improvised life’ in the Homie’s Home Design and How-to categories.
Just being in the Homie Awards sends traffic our way and helps people find us, which is like fuel to a website. Winning a Homie Award would like being shot out of a cannon.
So we’re asking you to vote; it only takes a minute and will help support our efforts. The first deadline for voting, to get us on the Top 6 Nominees list in each category, is this Friday, March 2 (until midnight EST). We’d really appreciate your support.
Please note: we are listed as Improvised Life. AND WE’VE JUST DISCOVERED, YOU HAVE TO REGISTER OR LOGIN TO VOTE. (Sorry to all those folks who got snarled up…the Homie’s are proving to be very confusing and badly organized….But we’d like to win one anyway.)
Vote for ‘improvised life in the Home Design category
Vote for ‘improvised life’ in the D-I-Y category
If you need reminders why your support is so important, here’s some of our “best ofs”: read more…
02.27.12 |
comments (4) |
in community |
viki2win/Shutterstock
In last month’s Atlantic, Sara Jenkins tells the story of her family’s annual olive harvest in Tuscany, which is, ultimately about taking risks and learning as you go. The Jenkins family has a rich history in food–Sara runs Porchetta and Porsena in New York City, and her mother Nancy Harmon Jenkins is the author of six cookbooks. Nancy and I spent some time traveling together in Italy, and I remember her always being game to drive off check out a market she’d heard of or wander into new places in search of adventure. It’s not surprising to me that Nancy and her family would take on the task of growing and harvesting olive trees, an indisputable challenge. read more…
02.23.12 |
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in community, family + friends, food, nature, people, rules for living, travel |
