(Video link HERE.) Cody Townsend skiing down a sheer face in a space between two rock walls no wider than a supermarket aisle reminded us of the narrow path that we all, at times, have to navigate (whether by choice or circumstance)… …which made us think of Oku no Hosomichi, “The Narrow Path to/of the Interior” by Japanese poet…
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(Video link here.) Viewed one way, artist Bernard Pras assembled a random scattering of STUFF —chairs, stools, dolls, a tub, a violin…—at the Palais du Facteur Cheval in Hauterives, France. But viewed another, it becomes something totally OTHER. (…after our own hearts.) via Jody Lotito Levine. Thanks Jody!
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Wood apple boxes come in graduated sizes and have a handle routed out at one end, making them easy to move around. A staple of photo studios, they would be a great piece of multi-purpose “furniture” for home, to use as step stool, sitting stool, small table, ledge or stand for books or objects…We’ve discovered that you can buy them or make them.
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We recently reread the New York Times’ tribute to Meredith Monk, who celebrates 50+ years as an avant garde performance artist, vocalist composer, vocalist, dancer, choreographer, director and filmmaker. Fifty years!!! “I’ve been in fashion, out of fashion. I just keep trucking along. It’s an inner necessity to work, and that’s not going to change. I…
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In Not Red But Green, Trondheim-based installation artist Per Kristian Nygård crammed mini hills and valleys of turf into one room of Oslo’s NoPlace Gallery. The unlikely landscape which explores “the limitations and possibilities of space” is “an antithesis to the organised architectural environment.” That’s for sure!
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Looking for something new to decorate the holidays this year, I’ve become smitten with origami decorations for the tree, to hang in the window, or place on the table. Or even to give as a small gift. I learned of the idea from my friend Peta Rimington, who had a gourmet food store and cafe called…
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In light of our posts on decluttering houses and work spaces, and our consideration of THINGS and what we need to live well and freely, we found Italo Calvino’s thoughts incredibly clarifying. The possibility that … everything can be constantly shuffled and reordered in every way conceivable… is at the heart of living an improvised…
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In our new favorite cookbook, The Cuban Table: A Celebration of Food, Flavors, and History by Ellen Silverman and Ana Sofia Peláez, Peláez writes evocatively about ventanitas, the street-front windows out of which Cuban bakeries and cafe’s often operate “like beehives scattered across the Miami landscape”. The recipe for el pecado (below), which layers three kinds of milk…
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At a crossroads in her life, Ellen Silverman traveled to Cuba where she fell in love with its unique culture. That trip catalyzed many returns and ultimately a rich and many-layered cookbook that would truly showcase the Cuban spirit and culture as expressed through its food: The Cuban Table. Here’s a start of our ongoing series on our favorite new cookbook.
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(Video link HERE.) Swiss theater troupe Mummenschanz have been performing their surreal mask-and-prop-oriented style for over forty years. Its subtle choreography mixes the clever use of light and shadow with everyday items like paper towels, toilet paper, giant bags, balloons and fabric to create charming and mind-shifting visions.
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The Floyd Shelf Bracket is a clever tool that allows you create a shelf from any flat surface by simply installing the brackets on a wall and clamping them to the material. With them, you can turn all sorts of interesting materials into shelving and switch out surfaces whenever you find something neat and new (or old).
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I am a big proponent of facing your past vices and wrongdoings, weaknesses and mental illnesses, and using them as propellants to move forward. Here are some embroidery threads that I spent months collecting, obsessing over, and re-arranging in boxes until I finally lost interest and stowed them away in storage for several years. They…
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Throughout the day, we’ve been shifting our mood by listening to this astonishing find we stumbled on at Internet Archive: the complete rehearsals for the summer ’87 tour when Bob Dylan sang with the Grateful Dead. It’s full of gems. Click here to choose what you want to hear on the Archives playlist. Or just…
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We don’t like seeing labels on things we have around the house — there’s enough advertising in our world; we don’t need it at home — so we routinely peel them off. At the kitchen sink, we fill plain, unmarked bottles with dish soap and hand soap. Even when we had two very differently-shaped bottles,…
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(Video link HERE.) A few days ago, we wrote a post asking ourselves just how we view the universe we live in: friend or foe. We’ve come to realize that there are so many dark things going on in the news and our world, not to mention our own internal fears, that viewing the universe…
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When we saw this photo of Mae West’s shoes, our mind got boggled. Were these wild sculptures meant to be stylish OR were they a strange solution to the impossibility of walking in the lower, steeply-angled silver shoe — a less fearsome, more wearable shoe added right on top? It turns out something of both:…
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On the continuing theme of the viability and ‘how-to’ of white-painted floors —sparked by a reader’s question —we asked designer Laura Handler how she painted the parquet floors of her 1950’s coop white. Here’s what she wrote:
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When contemplating a life change, what’s better: scared or sensible? How does one choose? And why? After wrestling for several grueling weeks with making a radical, lock-stock-and-barrel move, I’ve decided to stay put and work on making a meaningful internal geographic instead. In many ways this kind of psychological change is a much tougher adventure, in…
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When we’re looking to buy a fitness tracker, pair of headphones, a TV, or even a spatula, Consumer Reports and Amazon don’t always cut it. Our favorite resource these days is The Wirecutter, a site that seriously researches, vets and tests all sorts of essential items. Recently we followed their lead (well, their companion site Sweethome)…
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On design sites recently, we’ve been noticing quite a few interesting iterations of industrial storage cabinets —new and vintage—as furniture, like the classic Bisley 10-drawer steel storage cabinet, above. We’ve relied on the trusty Ikea lacquered metal Helmer drawer cabinets ($39) for years,
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