how to be a guerrilla gardener

There’s been a lot on the internet lately about guerrilla gardeners, people from all walks dedicated to stealthily transforming blighted, barren or plain ugly urban spots into planted oasis’s.  These are often ordinary, middle-class souls fed up with the lack of nature and beauty in their urban landscape, and willing to break the law,  shell…

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essential Ikea: stacking stool

Among Ikea‘s constantly updating home furnishings offerings, are a handful of constants that represent perfect, enduring, truly practical design at a really good price, and that don’t scream Ikea. My favorite is the Frosta stool***, a $12.99 birch veneer version of Alvar Aalto’s classic mid-century stool.  I have four in my office and they are…

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bedroom office strategy: room (cocoon) bed

For years, my office was a corner of my 20-x-17-foot bedroom. I managed to write a 700 page book there, and numerous articles, as well as pay bills. The problem was that I really never left my work; it was always in view, always calling me to do more. For an urban freelance person, having…

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a kids’ drawing program for adults

Bob Staake, creator of the charming children’s book Donut Chef and dozens of New Yorker cartoons, draws with a mouse using an ancient version of Photoshop. This video speaks volumes about the virtues, and humanity, of computer-generated art, and how fluid the process can be, once you loosen your head up (which this video will do).…

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