We’ve watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s many times and never noticed the very makeshift decor of Holly Golightly’s apartment: the crate coffee table…luggage storage bins…and…the wonderful clawfoot tub sofa. THAT set us on the hunt…
Read MoreLife Edited Can Be Just So Much Bullsh*t
Lately we’ve come across two compelling photographers whose images boldly portray an essential message about Instagram: the pretty picture you see is not the WHOLE picture. They show the unpleasantly real context from which the pretty photo was plucked, to become an aspirational ideal that messes with our heads. They help to antidote social media’s portrayal of the perfect lives we don’t have.
Read MoreA Family Home Full of Heart and Good Ideas
“Something boldly improvisational and cheery going on in this house in Australia” wrote Susan Dworski in an email as she described the home Ruth Bruten, writer of Gourmet Girlfriend blog, shares with her husband and five boys. It is delightfully REAL and colorful, and packed with ideas. Here are Susan’s favorites, and ours:
Read MoreHow to Trigger Summer All Year Long
On Labor Day it was like a cosmic switch was flipped: suddenly we could smell fall and a chill crept into the air. We’re totally down with Thoreau and thinking of ways to spark summer’s lovely feeling even in the dark days of winter.
Read MoreThe Magical Physics of Popcorn + 6 Popcorn Recipes
(Video link here.) The Kids Should See This is a site full of wonders for kids AND adults. Dig this beautiful short video of what ACTUALLY happens when a kernel of corn POPS. I had no idea the stuff I threw into my trusty Presto PopLite Hot Air Popper is so magical. I’m thinking that browsing through The Kids Should See This‘ awesome videos while eating…
Read MoreCrepe Paper Streamers + Painter’s Tape Party Decorations
At a birthday celebration at our friends’ house, we were delighted by the festive streamers festooning the living room, made even more FAB by the bold use of painter’s tape to stick them up.
Read MoreCloud Therapy via the Cloud Appreciation Society
(Video link here.) We found this lovely video at The Cloud Appreciation Society’s website. We’ve long been a fan of Cloudreporter, where people post wondrous sightings of clouds from all over the world. Who knew there was a SOCIETY, with a very wise and useful Manifesto?:
Read MoreA Cheap Instant Moveable Lego-ish Standing Desk
Day after day of sitting and writing at my computer made my body crave standing. Knowing that standing is much healthier than chronic sitting, I’d rigged standing desks in the past but none of them ever seemed quite right. In desperation, I plunked the EverBlock library steps on a terrace table and perched my old 17″ MacBook on it.
Read MoreThe Waiting Wall + Public Platforms for Emotion
Inspired by Alain de Botton’s idea that Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall be adapted in new ways for modern times, digital storytellers Alan Donohoe and Steven Parker created “The Waiting Wall” in a busy English train station during the Brighton Digital Festival. The huge display projected the deepest fears and most personal confessions of travelers who submitted them anonymously for…
Read MoreClever Shipping Pallet Barbeque + Rotisserie Station
While we were researching Arlene Gottfried’s work, we stumbled on this photograph she took of a barbeque in a then-Puerto Rican neighborhood of Crown Heights, Brooklyn. When we looked closely, we realized that shipping pallets had been cleverly employed, not only to help anchor the spit, but to provide seating for two kids hanging out while the…
Read MorePatti Smith: “If You’re Positive, You Expand”
Sixty-eight-year-old author and singer, 70’s Punk star Patti Smith is one of the subjects of the 2015 Pirelli calendar — considered fashion’s sexiest – celebrating female achievement. With her hair grown out gray, no makeup or face lift, and her singular uniform, she presents a very different kind of role model then the usual Pirelli pin-up. New…
Read MoreOptical Illusion Interiors Out of Paint or Tape
Could it be that the great Mexican architect Luis Barrigan created a study with an unexpected, roughly-painted rather expressionistic trompe l’oeil window to brighten a windowless space? It LOOKS that way in this image we found at Aqqindex. It got us casting about for abstract optical illusions we might employ at home, the opposite of the usual trompe l’oeil that…
Read MoreArlene Gottfried on the Benefits of Wandering
For over forty years, Arlene Gottfried has photographed the people she meets in her journeys around New York City, revealing its diversity and heart through her extraordinary images. The very personal moments she captures call to mind Diane Arbus and Viviane Maier. The roots of her work, which includes assignments for The New York Times Magazine and Life Magazine, lie in her…
Read MoreSlow-Roast Tomatoes for Hors d’Oeuvres, Sauces, Tarts, Jam…
A farmer friend of mind asked my advice on preserving the luscious tomatoes that are abundance in the last, dazzling burst of summer produce. “Do you can tomatoes?” he asked. “No”, I replied, “I roast them.” Slow-roasting tomatoes in a low oven, evaporates their juices, and renders them dense, creamy and melting, with a concentrated tomato flavor that is at once tart, sweet and savory. They last for a couple of weeks in the fridge and they freeze beautifully. They can be improvised with endlessly…
Read More1001 Pallet’s Trove of Ideas and Info
Over the years, we fed ours and reader’s passion for practical things made of shipping pallets, with examples of the very best, most stylish versions we could find of pallet beds, sofas, side tables, steps, even a version of Le Corbusier’s iconic club chair. Gradually, novel ideas for pallet began to drop off as the diy-universe reached a saturation point,…
Read MorePES’ New/Old Animation: Paper + A Dream
(Video link here.) When Honda engaged the ever-inventive filmmaker known as PES to make a short video about the company’s long history of innovation, he devised a NEW wildly labor-intensive form of animation. Not stop-motion, not flip-book, it is made by hand and paper, and shot by a camera, so has a quality of being from-scratch and…
Read MoreYogi Berra’s Brilliant Advice
Yes. TAKE IT! Thanks for your crazy wisdom, Yogi.
Read MoreA One-Year-Old’s Brilliant Improvisation
MANY improvisations are inspired by mistakes that accidentally afford a new view of something we take for granted. After Mira Keras‘ one-year-old knocked a chair over, she immediately saw the possibilities in the situation.
Read MoreAn Important Message in a Spider’s Web
We haven’t seen such a powerful message in a spider’s web since we read the enduringly great — ESPECIALLY for grownups — Charlotte’s Web…
Read MoreA Mindshift for When You’re Feeling Overwhelmed and Lost
At illustrator Monica Ramos‘ website, we stumbled on a section called 🙁 “Sometimes I want to fall off the face of the Earth” A solo show about about feeling overwhelmed and lost. Overwhelmed and lost is a feeling we know well, and hear about frequently from friends. Ramos’ image vividly describes the dual nature of…
Read More