d-i-y music: trees, almonds and other found instruments + ‘the beat goes on’

(Video link here.) Dig this video made by composer Diego Stocco in conjunction with Burt’s Bees. Stocco creates a great beat, simply by shaking tree branches, flicking orange peels, banging on coconuts, mashing his hands through cooked rice, and sifting his hands through almonds – all amplified. Even the buzz of bees make an appearance. Just…

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‘tiny homes: simple shelter’

The other day BoingBoing posted a ‘photo gallery’ from the newly-released  Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter by Lloyd Kahn, a book of the possibilities for small space living of all kinds, from Colin Doane’s sauna, above, in Queen Charlotte Islands with green whale jawbones lashed to the front rafters to this spectacular little cabin in Montana’s mountains…

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a perfect spring outfit: flowers and leaves

At Anonymous Works we found this photo of a man happily covered in flowers and leaves. We wonder what the story is behind that image made in 1918. What a way to dress for spring: head-to-toe in flowers and leaves….!! And as with the Tutu Project, there’s something even more amazing about it being a…

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ruth asawa: adversity allowed time for art

When Mondoblogo published a post of Ruth Asawa’s extraordinary crocheted wire sculptures – with hardly any commentary – our first thought was: we want a house filled with that work, those forms hanging above. Then we looked her up. At RuthAsawa.com we learned: When Ruth was 16, she and her family were interned along with…

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a perfect set of wheels for making furniture mobile + a great sapien bookcase hack

When Design Within Reach launched the Sapien bookcase, it seemed like a brilliant idea: a bookshelf that allows books to be stacked vertically over five feet high, to form a neat stack from which you could easily remove any book. CB2 promptly knocked off the rectangular-pillar-with-removable-shelves-design. We bought one, then rued the day. The problem…

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d-i-y pattern-painted sofa (and bed and table) legs

We knew that changing the shape of a sofa’s or bed’s legs can be a simple way of jazzing up lines and look AND that there are lot of options around for unfinished wooden legs of all shapes and sizes. And we’ve written before about mask-painting one or all the legs of a table or…

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houdini’s mantra: “my brain is the key that sets me free”

‘improvised life’ editor-at-large David Saltman has just finished writing a historical novel starring Harry Houdini. From David we’ve learned about the amazing achievements of this real life superhero that go way beyond his well-known escapes from straightjackets and handcuffs. We’ve come to know a little of ‘the inside’ of the great magician. Houdini trained his…

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book giveaway: the hip girl’s guide to homemaking

Now that spring has officially sprung, we find ourselves ready for new projects, around our houses and outside. We keep coming back to our friend Kate Payne’s The Hip Girl’s Guide to Homemaking, an all-purpose guide to doing-it-yourself in your home (and having fun, too) – for ANYONE, whether hip girl or not. (We think…

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