When her spirits were flagging, or she just needed a little vacation from everyday life, my mother would take me to a Greek restaurant near the theatre district in New York City. We would always order a rustic dish that is a classic in Greek cuisine: cold sliced beets with a garlic sauce known as…
Read Moreknow hope
why not paint the sidewalk (or any outdoor floor?)
I was passing by the Kate Spade store on Fifth Avenue on my way to the farmer’s market the other day, and found myself walking on beautiful colored stripes painted on the sidewalk; they seemed to stream out of the store’s stripey interior – a great, simple idea. Why not paint a sidewalk, or any…
Read Mored-i-y: pallet chair (and stool and lamp…)
I’ve come across a number of posts about furniture made of pallets, those flat rectangles of rough hammered-together wood platforms commonly used to move bundled goods around by a fork lift. This lounge chair by Studiomama is a particularly good one; it has clean lines and looks like it would be comfortable – perfect at…
Read Moremaking it up as you go along (seth godin + jackson pollock)
This morning in my Inbox I found a post called “Making it up as you go along” from Seth Godin’s blog. It was one line long: “Just wondering: Is there any other way to make it up?” I had to read it twice to get Godin’s teeny Zen post. Making it up – improvising – is about…
Read Morehelping people
grouped “rounds” as modern wall art
Over the past few months, I’ve found myself clipping pictures of walls decorated with groupings of simple, often primitive round or oval objects that make for a clean, unexpectedly modern design. Repetitions of baskets, plates, wooden bowls become a great deal more than the sum of their parts: abstract patterns made of “storied” elements.
Read Morekind, true, necessary?
(re)thinking fax cover sheets
Designer Abby Clawson, creator of interesting Hi & Low blog, devised a series of playful, big-relief-from-the-usual- fax cover sheets. She made them in response to an exhibit called “FAX” that she saw at the Drawing Center in New York City; artists, designers, thinkers, film makers were asked to conceive of the fax machine as a…
Read Moremake it do!
Essential Chocolate Cake for Improvising (recipe)
One of the best things about encouraging people to improvise in the kitchen is to hear how they monkeyed with one of my recipes.“Wow”, I think, “I never thought of that!” Like my friend Ellen using an herb sea salt, fragrant with dried rosemary, thyme and lavender, instead of kosher salt in a chocolate cake…
Read Morerepair manifesto is a force!
Platform21calls themselves a design platform (“curiously exploring”, “strangely optimistic”) but other people call them change agents, and that definitely describes them. Witness their latest project, Repair Manifesto. In eloquent, energizing statements, it expounds the coolness of repair. (Check out #5 and #7.) It has hit a nerve, racing through the internet like wildfire.
Read Morecraigslist strategy for finding treasures
The N.Y.Times recently ran a story about a couple who bought a house in Upstate New York for $95,000 and fixed it up, beautifully, for $10,000, using pure elbow grease and a eye for scavenged and second-hand stuff. The best nugget of info, to me, was about how to score serious finds on Craigslist: “Using Craigslist…
Read Moreare you a secret lighting designer?
I was just imagining how my friend Matthew, who is a gifted paper artist, might design a light out of a paper shade and hanging bulb were he given the challenge, when I came across some free, origami-like down-loadable plans on the internet. They are the “gift” of Arash and Kelly, an industrial design studio…
Read Morewhat would you draw in the sand?
I saw a photograph of one of Jim Denevan’s sand drawings and my head changed: every notion about sand and beach and drawing and playing shifted and opened up. I’d never thought about drawing in sand this way. Then I read the story behind his paintings, which I stumbled on on the artist’s website, and…
Read More‘1000 awesome things’
1000 Awesome Things is a great site to check into for a quick reminder of the tiny, daily experiences that are so swell, but that we forget when we’re moving too fast. The Toronto Star nailed it: “It’s less about awesome things than it is about seeing the awesomeness of the everyday.” I see it is as…
Read Morerocks as doorstop (sculpture)
I’m a big fan of rocks, which I haul home from the beach or country to use in various ways around my apartment, for Chicken Under a Brick Rock, or keep the air conditioner from rattling. They make beautiful, rather elemental doorstops. They’re also wonderul to look at with no use at all, piled up…
Read Moreandy warhol’s time capsules
Over the course of thirty years, Andy Warhol filled over 600 cardboard boxes with objects from his daily life, from photographs and newspaper clippings to artworks and telephone messages. He used a marker to write the date or contents on the outside, then sent the boxes to storage rooms. The array of boxes, which are…
Read Morefried egg formula for a satisfying breakfast (or lunch or dinner)
My personal Breakfast of Champions is a fried egg on a handful of raw greens – say arugula, dandelion, baby spinach, watercress or even mesclun – lightly dressed with extra-virgin olive oil and a few drops of sherry vinegar, salt and pepper, maybe some snipped chives. It is a play on a classic rustic…
Read Moreremodelista, expanded (in beta)!
I’ve been smitten with Remodelista for years, checking in regularly to the interior design blog for ideas and inspiration. The editors made sure to include ample amounts of the resourceful and inexpensive amidst the architect-designed spaces and high-end hardware. The only problem with the site was that it was difficult to navigate its archives and…
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