Really big bags are essential for all sorts of projects, like hauling food home from the farmers market, or a brick or two or a piece of pipe from a construction site, or [rocks] from out of town. I’ve had a variety of bags over the years, some which are still with me, though pretty…
Read Moremagazine pages as envelopes
Pamela Hovland, the extraordinary designer who has been so essential to the design for The Improvised Life, often uses pages from magazines as her envelopes. Periodically, she culls compelling images from magazines, cuts them out with an Exacto knife and straight edge (or just rips them out, leaving a pleasingly rough edge), and folds each…
Read Morenecklace as plug chain
Here’s simple, pretty solution to those ugly generic plug chains. There’s infinite possibilities for stringing beads (waterproof) or using other materials like waxed string,which often comes in beautiful colors. (The friend that sent this to me didn’t remember where she found it. So we’re unable, yet, to give credit.)
Read Morereal-life interiors
A pleasurable antidote to the nothing-out-of-place, perfect fabulousness of mainstream interiors magazines is The Selby which blogs photographs (by Todd Selby) of creative people and their spaces, sometimes with a brief, handwritten interview attached. It is a relief to see real, un-styled totally personal spaces. Scroll down the page of notated images of people in their…
Read Moreperfect kid’s book: donut chef
I’m always on the lookout for great children’s books to give as gifts to my friend’s kids; books are inexpensive, and can be enjoyed over and over again, not to mention inspiring who-knows-what? in those young brains and imaginations. BoingBoing‘s recommendation of Donut Chef, written and illustrated the brilliant Bob Staake, is dead-on. It’s the…
Read Morediy patchwork headboard
I love the idea of this patchwork headboard from Lockwood Design. There are endless possibilities for combining cool fabrics and textures and it’s definitely a do-able project. I can imagine using all sorts of vintage fabrics, which can be found at flea markets and on Ebay. Or buying 1/2 yard of several fabrics from…
Read Morecopy this: wood block toothbrush holder
Cut a length from a block of some nice looking hard wood… Bore holes in the end (big enough to hold toothbrushes) with a thick drill bit… Sand if necessary. Or, just buy them in oak at the wonderful Bailey’s Home and Garden.
Read Morerethinking business cards
Shouldn’t a business card reflect/echo/transmit a sense of the business or person it’s representing? If you’re in thinking of (re)designing your card, check out the outside-the-box business card that [Re]Encoded.com compiled. They are FUN and make your expectations shift instantly.
Read Morebig think illuminates
(Video Link Here) Sometimes I indulge in really wrong-headed notions about how other people work and live. It goes like this: THEY do things easily, neatly, brilliantly all the time; and I’m really untogether and slow, and waste time and am weak and undisciplined because I take naps and … Big judgments. This way of…
Read Morealt candleholders
You’re camping in a borrowed summer house and have candles but no holders.Or you’re just tired of your usual candle holders. A photo of pencil candles in a galvanized bucked of sand, seen at Dee Puddy, a U.K. garden and interiors store, provides a great gist of a solution for improvising on.
Read Moremarcel breuer: sun and shadow, the philosophy of an architect
A wordless, pictures-only post on Reference Library tipped me off to Marcel Breuer: Sun and Shadow, The Philosophy of an Architect, that Breuer wrote in the fifties. I found it on Ebay for a good price, through a “buy it now” dealer of out-of-print mid-century and design books. It’s a treasure, in part because of…
Read Moresylvie corbelin’s lost/found jewelry
From her small shop in the vast Clignancourt flea market in Paris, Silvie Corbelin sells extraordinary jewelry that she has created from the damaged, odd or incomplete bits of antique jewelry she scouts: an ancient Persian turquoise fashioned into an deco-ish gold ring with tiny rubies; a classical cameo entwined in a gold serpent;…
Read Morehotel room oven-ette
This image from Emma’s Blog reminds me of the usefulness of radiators when traveling in the winter. A hot radiator is a good place to warm bread you’ve swiped from a room service delivery, bought at a local store or have leftover from takeout. Same with cheeses, saved or bought: you can warm some…
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