Artist Donald Judd’s austere, organic, ultra-simple furniture has been inspiration for lots of knockoff’s and diy’s and straight-out ripoffs. His iconic sofa, below, inspired the $6,000 Maple sofa, above, a collaboration of Brooklyn-based industrial designer Farrah Sit and textile designer Rebecca Atwood. Sit and Atwood have made improvments on Judd’s design, from a practical comfort point-of-view. The sofa is definitely DIY-able.
Read MoreGratitude Where You Don’t Expect It
Leaving Manhattan on the commuter train the other evening, we were surpised to see a billboard towering above the South Bronx amidst the bleak industrial landscape. It says simply “GRATTITUDE.” This teeny video —best viewed with chirpy music OFF — captures the expected and somehow remarkable experience. (Video link HERE.):
Read MoreOven Dried Tomato Candy
Recently we received a trove of small plum tomatoes which are in abundance right now. Since we don’t have the energy or space to can the tomatoes, we experimented with drying them in our ancient restaurant stove whose pilot lit oven is a constant 150′. We often dry our kale chips this way, and in the past have done sliced apples and pears. Why not tomatoes? Our experiments were a success. Here’s what we did.
Read MoreTiny-Vacation: Cosmic Flower Unfolding
(Video link HERE.) Though we”ve had our “official” vacation, we’re still feeling the need for escape. Ben Ridgeway’s Cosmic Flower Unfolding is a constant flow of emerging and dissolving oceanic, futuristic, and mandala forms: two minutes that takes us AWAY.
Read MoreLego-like Bricks for Building REAL Structures
(Video link HERE.) In addition to plastic snap together grownup legos we could make real things out of, we’ve long dreamed of big concrete Lego-like bricks we could build serious structures out of. So we were thrilled to find this video of Kite Bricks, a patent-pending, production-imminent component brick that is very much like big…
Read MoreGIF of the Week: LEGO Wave
via 31media.tumblr Thanks Holton!
Read MoreReorganization as Soul Cleanse
A 48-hour disappearance into the depths of my studio was finally interrupted late yesterday by a well-meaning friend. He peered in to find me on hands and knees wiping out the lowest shelves with damp paper towels. “Jeez. Still at it?” I swiveled and growled like a rabid dog, sweat pouring down, hair plastered, eyes raccooned…
Read MoreThe Tree with Ladders: Tree Climbing for Adults
Wishing we could climb the ancient trees across the way, we wonder, WHY NOT put a ladder up to one to give our creaky selves a boost up. Then we saw The Tree with Ladders, an installation by François Méchain.
Read MorePlaying with a Mashup of Modernist and Classical
We found ourselves curiously relieved when we came across this very modern space whose design was “broken” by classical antiques, a far cry from many of today’s sterile mid-century-esque interiors. But we weren’t crazy about the fussy chandeliers that festoons the place, so we photoshopped one out TO SEE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN.
Read MoreInspiring Signs Written on a Random Wall
Photographer Ellen Silverman has a particularly fine eye for inspriational adhoc street signs. We love this wall she sent recently, whose messages resonate deeply with where we are right NOW. They are at once like stripped-down haiku, meditations and essential reminders…
Read MoreTiny Pink Cupcake ATM is Brilliant Lateral Thinking
This little pink ATM in NYC is restocked with yummy cupcakes every night offering 24/7 access to cupcakes. We love the application of the essential idea of an “ATM” to something completely unexpected: cupcakes instead of cash. Why not?
Read MoreHuge Linen Shirt Becomes a TeaTowel
Marella Consolini sent us her inspired transformation of a gorgeous linen shirt bought on eBay for pennies, that turned out to be SO big, it languished in a drawer, waiting for something to be done with it. “Finally it dawned on me: the back was big enough to turn into an oversized linen tea towel”. Here’s how she did it.
Read MoreRe-entry…What We Learned On Our Summer Stay-cation
Monday evening of Labor Day, we could positively FEEL the shift of air and energy as the entire country grabbed every last BIT before the official end of summer. We spent the day hanging on the terrace reflecting on our three-week stay-cation that turned out way different than we had imagined, and would yield an essential lesson.
Read MoreA Vacation Note to Our Friends with Benefits
While we take much needed time off this August, we want to make sure our Friends with Benefits get full value for their subscriptions. We’d planned to simply add an extra month to all subscriptions, but have encountered unexpected technical difficulties. We hope you’ll bear with us during our hiatus and know that we’re working on a solution.…
Read MoreTime to Take a Break…We’ll Be Back in September
If we had to sum up the past few months with a single image, it would be this one. We’ve been roping a wild horse — life — and trying our best to go with it as we launched our Friends with Benefits subscription service and Improvised Life’s Store, saw a dear friend through a major health…
Read MoreSave Your Wishbones for the Wishbone Project
Recently, several readers wrote to say they’d saved a pile of wishbones to send to Holton Rower for his monumental art work made of thousands — maybe hundreds of thousands— wishbones. Since we first announced it, our crowd-sourced Wishbone Project has yielded Holton a lot of wishbones. In return, the errant wishbone collectors/donaters receive a…
Read MoreStreet Entrepeneur Crab Man Mike + Our Faux Aioli Recipe
While on our NYC stay cation, we’ll get a hit of the Maryland shore by stopping by legendary Crab Man Mike’s stand in Harlem, where he cooks up crabs and other shellfish on his rigged propane cooker. We love Mike’s seafood room temperature, dunked in our Faux Aioli (garlic mayonnaise), for an American South/French fusion.
Read MoreLanyards are for Summer…DIY in Plastic, String or Leather
Susan Dworski’s post about her granddaughter’s lanyard reminded us of our own lanyard-making pleasures in summers long ago. Somehow we’d learned a number of patterns from braids to boxes and make all sorts of useful things out of them. But what we remember especially, is the dreamy hours spent making them. That, of course, got…
Read MoreLife Lesson from a Simple Kid’s Lanyard
Recently, I discovered a forgotten neon pink plastic lanyard at the bottom of a basket of cat toys. Made at summer camp two years ago, it was a gift from a small person, presented with a shy smile “I made it, just for you.”
When I read this poem by poet Billy Collins, I suddenly felt saddened that I had been so cavalier in discounting its importance. Finding it again felt huge––like a redemption.
Read MoreCedar Planked Salmon for the Grill
Our friend Holton Rower has been learning about cooking salmon on a cedar plank on his Weber grill through trial-and-error, a method we totally endorse. His first go wasn’t completely successful but it was clear that the cedary smoke is a perfect marriage with salmon. If you don’t have wood coals to cook over, cedar…
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