the improvised life

tree sculpture by enrique oliveira (what plywood can be)

enrique oliveira

Henrique Oliveira uses old plywood, fencing recycled from dumpsters and landfills from his home city, São Paulo, shaped around PVC forms.

Henrique’s breakthrough occurred when he was a student at the University of São Paulo, where for two years the view from his studio window was a wooden construction fence. Over time Oliveira began to see the deterioration of the wood and its separation into multiple layers and colors. One week before the final student show opened, the construction was finished and the worn out plywood fence was discarded. Oliveira collected the wood and used it in his first installation

More of his powerful work here.

via The Wondrous, with thanks for Michael Warren of Mike and Molly’s House

03.04.13 | comments (1) | in art, materials, paths + processes, people |

design solution: sliding mirror door

a sliding mirror door is a chic design solution

photo: jody kivort

We’ve just been mulling a wall in a bedroom that has an unfinished doorway, currently covered by a curtain. On the wall next to we temporarily propped a big mirror that gives great depth to the room and a bit of the view of the park across the way. The question: how to combine the mirror and a door with a minimal footprint (i.e. it doesn’t open into the smallish room.) We found an interesting solution at Desire to Inspire. Although we’re not crazy about the drab gray room itself, we like the idea of big sliding mirror that can act as a door when necessary.
read more…

03.04.13 | comments (3) | in copy this!, elements, materials |

how to make yourself powerful: fake it

(Video link here.) We were knocked out by this must-watch-all-of-it TED talk by Anne Cuddy, a professor and researcher at Harvard Business School, where she studies how nonverbal behavior and snap judgments affect people from the classroom to the boardroom.

The gist: everyone we meet is influenced by our nonverbals, our thoughts and our feelings and our body language and physiology; as we ourselves are. The talk is full of evidence that “power posing” – acting as “as if” — is not about being fake, but about practicing and accepting a new way of viewing yourself, that can become yourself. The most powerful example is Cuddy’s own extraordinary story of how she put it into action, starting at 15.40.

Though watching the whole talk is essential, the transcript itself is full of useful nuggets: read more…

03.04.13 | comments (7) | in how-to, inspiration blogs + sites, paths + processes, people, principles, quotes, video |

waxing + waning…we’ll be back in a few days

We found this beautiful gif on Krulwich Wonders some time ago, along with a quote that resonated deeply:

We wax, we wane. It’s the dance of life. Every living thing is a pulse. We quicken, then we fade.

There’s more to the quote, but the part we related to was principle of waxing and waning, the constant dance. As we find ourselves waning, dealing with winter’s flu and needing a few days rest to replenish and heal, we are reminded that it is the deal…Nature.

We’ve posted some links, below, that we thought you might enjoy in the meantime. You’ll also find an ongoing trove of cool and useful ideas on read more…

02.25.13 | comments (2) | in inspiration, inspiration blogs + sites, paths + processes, principles |

when was the last time you did something for the 1st time?

Perfect question, found on Fluxus’ fffound tumbler.

(So….what are you going to do this weekend?)

02.22.13 | comments (1) | in art, inspiration, inspiration blogs + sites, quotes, signs |

tammy duckworth + jessica cox: flying through obstacles

tannen maury / european pressphoto agency

We were knocked out by this fragment of an interview with Tammy Duckworth in the Sunday New York Time’s Magazine. She’s the United States Representative for Illinois’s 8th congressional district who lost both legs while a U.S. Army helicopter pilot in the Iraq War:

Question: When you wake up do you feel a sense of loss when you realize what happened to your legs?

Of course. But I have a different perspective for what my legs are now. Now they’re just tools, you know? If I still had my legs, I would be in line for a battalion command, and instead I’m flying a desk.

We were mulling Duckworth’s ability to shift her view in the face of daunting obstacles and find a way around them – to be SO resilient – when, as often happens, we found a similar idea resonating in our Inbox. A reader sent us this astonishing BBCvideo of Jessica Cox, who, born without arms, lives fully and richly —even flying a plane— using her feet as hands.

Both Duckworth and Cox figured out how to fly, despite all obstacles. read more…

02.22.13 | comments | in paths + processes, people, quotes, video |

clever kitchen renovation using new and original cabinets

Desire to Inspire recently posted a reader’s mid century-style renovation. The kitchen’s ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures were not side-by-side and we found ourselves moving the cursor up and down to really understand the clever transformation. Ahh, we get it: Beth, who’d masterminded the kitchen’s update, thought carefully about what REALLY needed to be taken out of the kitchen, and what could be revamped a bit to give it a new look.

She replaced the upper cabinets with sleek white modern ones, and replaced the doors on the far left cabinet to match them. She left the lower cornball-paneled oak cabinets in place, painting them a dark black/blue/gray and changing the hardware to make them virtually disappear. (These uniquitous cabinets are the bane of many a homeowner. It’s heartening to know that it is possible to shift their look.) Beth also replaced the counter and backsplash wall and, it seems, left the sink in place, swapping out the faucet to give it more modern look.

She saved a pile of money doing this and got and a great looking, functional kitchen to boot. A girl after our own heart: we used similar principles in the new Laboratory’s kitchen. Story to come soon.

02.21.13 | comments | in before + after, cheap + great, eating, inside, solutions |

‘ode to joy’ played on broken pottery

(Video link here.) A very clever guy named Mennyi or possibly Mátyás Wettl (we’re unclear who) made a video in which he performs “Ode to Joy” by kicking broken plates around under an overpass.

One of our favorite pieces of music…Lovely…Wonder what we could play on the porcelain Ted Muehling cup we broke a few weeks ago…

via BoingBoing

02.21.13 | comments | in music, outside, sightings, video |

silver leaf + clever paint transform a wardrobe or a wall

Looking through to the “bones” of this hutch by Amy Somerville London Ltd, we realize that is not that extraordinary. Its greatness lies in the clever surface pattern: blocks of color and what appears to be gold or silver leaf. Somerville’s website told the story ”satin-finished ebonised walnut…detailed in high-gloss red and green lacquer, white gold leaf and patinated brass…bespoke handles and solid brass hinges with a patinated finish.”

Ikea’s pine Hemnes wardrobe, already stained a dark black brown, might make a good base in which to color block high gloss paint (use oil-base for serious gloss; water-base can’t achieve it). But what about metal leaf? read more…

02.20.13 | comments (2) | in cheap + great, d-i-y, furniture, how-to, inside, materials, resources, resources blogs + sites |

sometimes good enough is fabulous

A friend of a friend who happens to be a therapist made this very wise statement in reference to his very long and loving marriage. As we’ve gotten older, we’ve come to find this philosophy both liberating and enabling of a great deal of joy.

It was perhaps the biggest lesson our perfectionist-selves learned during last year’s renovation of ‘the improvised life’s Laboratory. In the heat of the fray, with a huge to-do list and limited budget, we found ourselves letting go of a lot of our notions of was “right” or “supposed to be” and made peace with the solutions at hand…which, in fact, have proven to be just SWELL. Some of the details may be a bit “off”, but we got the most important parts of what we wanted: a lovely luminous space that is a pleasure to be in. And that allowed us to not get hung up agonizing over what was wrong, but to revel in what is right…and move on to other things we really wanted to put our attention on.

“Sometimes ‘good enough’ is fabulous.” We’d never heard it put quite so perfectly.

02.20.13 | comments | in paths + processes, principles, quotes |

dese’rae l. stage’s “live through this” kickstarter

In addition to helping out at ‘the improvised life’ every week, Dese’Rae L. Stage works two other jobs to support the website she started a couple of years ago. Live Through This is a collection of portraits and stories of suicide attempt survivors, as told by those survivors. The site is meant to give voice to the very taboo subject of suicide and in doing so, save lives. Says suicide prevention advocate and interviewee Kevin Hines:

…No person in a fight for their life is alone. There are millions of people out there fighting just as you are. Find that network. Talk about the issues.

Dese’Rae has created a Kickstarter to fund her travels across the country interviewing and photographing suicide survivors, to expand the presence and reach of Live Through This. read more…

02.20.13 | comments (2) | in community, family + friends, paths + processes, people, resources, resources blogs + sites |

cubist, mondrian-esque painted shipping pallet bed

Spotted in a the cube room, a concept room created by designer Fabian Gatermann for a design hostel in Cologne, Germany: a fab shipping pallet bed painted like one of Piet Mondrian‘s famous “Compositions” from 20′s and 30′s.

On close inspection, it appears that the bed was made to LOOK like it was made of pallets; it seems a bit too perfectly made, its wood a bit too smooth to be from real pallets.

Nevertheless, pallets provide great inspiration, and clever use of paint can take pallet furniture to a new level… read more…

02.19.13 | comments (1) | in cheap + great, copy this!, d-i-y, diy, furniture, inside, materials, resources, sleeping |

forest dwellings made of trees limbs, leaves, brush…whatever is there

ellie davies

When we walk through park or woods, we secretly imagine how we would surive there if we had to. What kind of shelter would we devise with what is there? It’s kid thinking, really: of forts and snug secret places, combined with our love of shelters of all kinds. Artist Elle Davies made that fantasy real in The Dwellings, a series of photographs of structures created “using a variety of traditional and improvised building techniques… from materials gathered from the forest floor.”

john wellington made his own ebook (so can you!)

john wellington

Our friend John Wellington is an artist whose controversial work has been called “classical, claustrophobic, fetishistic, beautiful, vulgar, architectural, humorous, morbid, decorative, and sexual.” He renders deeply personal imagery using Old Master techniques in unique ways and teaches his methods at the New York Academy of Art where he is an Adjunct Professor, and at his Manhattan studio.

For more than thirty years John created, copied, ruminated, lamented, critiqued, elucidated, explored and most importantly, drawn in sketchbooks. Recently, he created IDOLS DEMONS SAINTS, an iBook for iPads based on his sketchbooks. It is a kind of visual journal and art manual that offers insight into John’s creative process and the complex Old Master techniques he uses, from sketch to finished work.

IDOLS DEMONS SAINTS interests us for many reasons. First, we’ve learned a great deal from being able to see John’s process of painting; even though we are not painters, understanding his thinking helps us in our own work. The first page of the sketchbook, for example, lists principles useful in any creative endeavor.

Second, read more…

02.18.13 | comments (2) | in art, d-i-y, how-to, paths + processes, people, quotes, resources, resources blogs + sites, tools |

an elephant frolicking in the surf

(Video link here.) We don’t know when we’ve seen any living being taking delight so completely as this young elephant frolicking in the surf. Somehow, watching it makes us feel its uninhibited, wholehearted, in-the-moment refreshing pleasure in a simple thing — the sea. It’s a fine reminder for the first day of the week: go full-tilt with pleasure in whatever you are doing. As Bill Murray said: Grab this day by the neck and kiss it!”

from David Saltman via Value9.com India’s Facebook

Related posts: ’1000 awesome things’

a mantra from bill murray random acts of kindness
‘the pleasures and terrors of levitation’ (aaron siskind)
more bill murray: ‘being relaxed’ (+ how to get there)
‘ode to joy’ (wishing you joy starting right now!)
daily tonic: how to enjoy every moment

02.18.13 | comments (2) | in nature, outside, rules for living, sightings, video |