This Vancouver house carved out of stumps in the early 1900’s is our idea of swell, the perfect eccentric, elemental, minimalist retreat: “…3 rooms.The lower stump on right was the kitchen, the lower part of the highter stump on the left was the living room. The bedroom, doorless, was reached by a ladder removed in…
Read Morea doctor’s improv rx: jive aces ‘bring me sunshine’
Recently I took an ancient friend to visit her doctor. He’s famously late keeping appointments because he famously spends A LOT of time with each patient, whatever he feels is necessary to really hear and address their concerns, which, as we all know, is pretty unusual these days. His patients are happy to wait. At…
Read Morewhy not half a mustache?
We LOVE Sofia Rower’s half a mustache!!! We want one! It makes us wonder why we never see men sporting half a mustache…what a surprise that would be. (Sofia was in Peru this summer with 100 clowns from all over the world. They were painting murals in poor villages and working/transforming the vibe in clinics.…
Read Moreberries served in big spoons + strawberry vinegar recipe
Lush, fragrant summer strawberries are in their last week or two at farm stands. We bought some home and were inspired to serve them in the giant horn spoon Maria Robledo had given us, for an unexpected presentation. We ate them right off the stems, no powdered sugar necessary. It reminded us that there are…
Read Morereader’s improv: dig this fab d-i-y pallet bed
While we were away, we got a very succinct, very cool email from reader Gorden Ammermann, with photos of the wonderful shipping pallet bed he made: hi, maybe i´ve something for your site. be free to post it: my new diy-pallet-bed 🙂 greetz gorden We not only love the white painted bed, but the deliciously…
Read More‘the improvised life’s last-week-of-summer schedule
Since it’s the last week of summer and most folks are off frolicking, and since we’re still not quite up-to-snuff, we’ll be posting once a day (or so) on ‘the improvised life’ through Labor Day. In addition, you’ll find 5 short, illuminating posts daily on our Facebook page, like this great quote from artist Alina…
Read Morewe’re back, dancing to the whammies
(Video link here.) We returned from a pretty difficult time away to a pretty difficult time coming back: a serious health issue, jet-lag, a computer with a kaput hard drive, and the discovery that the trusted carpenter we had working on the Laboratory while we were away decided to “go rogue”, doing the opposite of…
Read Morefind ‘improvised life’ posts on facebook while we’re away
We’re taking some unscheduled, unexpected time off due to a family matter. Although we hope to back by August 20th or SOONER, we’re not exactly sure how long we’ll be gone due to many unknowns. For sure we won’t have the where-with-all to write our regular extensive posts. Instead, we’re going to try an experiment:…
Read More2 minute vacation: a virtual trip to paris
It’s August and in real time the city of Paris is virtually deserted; everyone is away. But that doesn’t stop us from taking a virtual tour of Paris in our heads, and reveling in that magic city, and refreshing our overworked brains. Researchers are now saying downtime is ESSENTIAL to creativity (which we knew all…
Read Morechelsea hotel’s fab graffiti’d fire extinguishers (d-i-y?)
We recently found some photos that we took in the fabled Chelsea Hotel’s a few months before anyone knew it would be closing. (Click here to listen to Leonard Cohen singing Chelsea Hotel,which he wrote for Janis Joplin, while you read on). We’d been to artist John Wellington’s birthday party in one of the rooms there, and…
Read Morereno planning: bust holes in walls to find out what’s there!
I recently wrote that the first step in planning our renovation was to hang out in the space and dream. That’s not quite true. That step ran concurrently with friends coming over to give their 2-cents and help us explore how exactly the place was made. By explore I mean busting holes in ceiling and…
Read Moreglacier point: wonder and daring
This is how we feel sometime, mulling the vast wild creation all around…wondering where we fit in. And this is another mood, when we dance right on the edge:
Read Morestrangely chic water crate garbage can + the garbage bag question
Recently, quite out-of-the-blue, we contrived a surprisingly chic garbage can. In the course of moving apartments, we had found 6-gallon bottle of “emergency” water stowed away in the back of a closet. It was housed in a rectangular black plastic crate . When we pulled the bottle out, the box suddenly looked wonderfully Bauhausian, a perfectly-designed…
Read More‘who’s afraid of ai weiwei?’ (essential)
We often post videos,profiles or quotes of artists because of the courage they exhibit in producing work that breaks from the norm, and that many would consider dangerous. Their example helps us to have a bit more courage in our own life and work, in whatever small matter terrifies us. Among the most poweful is…
Read More2 great end-of-the-season cherry recipes
We were thrilled to see the play that the video of Sally making herb salt on Splendid Table got, including a big fat mention on Apartment Therapy’s The Kitchn. From that post we discovered that a year ago during cherry season, they’d riffed on Sally’s improvised cherry vinegar from The Improvisational Cookand did a lovely photo of…
Read More‘strength’: robert ray’s amazing photo, colorado 7/2012
Readers often remark what a relief it is to read ‘the improvised life’s daily email each morning, and find positive stories rather than the dire straits constantly reported in the news. We’re very aware of the fact that we write what we need to read and remember: the huge reservoir of creativity and good that…
Read Mored-i-y adjustable shoulder strap for your boat bags
One of the people we miss most since we left our old digs is paper artist extraordinaire Matthew Sporzynski, also known as the Couturier de Carboard. (Check out some of his wonderful paper constructions here.) It seems that whenever we ran into him in the elevator or on the street, we’d learn something illuminating. Matthew is…
Read More‘jump!’ (the movie)
(Video link here.) We continue to be AMAZED at our readers: at who they are, what they’re making and saying and thinking about. Today we got a note from filmmaker Helen Hood Scheer, who told us about Jump! her award-winning documentary about competitive jump rope. She wrote: I love your site. I’ve delighted in your leaping…
Read Moreharlem reno: first hang out in the raw space + dream
When I finally got the space in Harlem – blessedly empty of the previous owner’s massive furniture – the first thing I did was haul up my trusty lightweight, reclinable French beach chair so I could hang out and just mull. I’d wander the rooms, feeling the space, able to envision its possibilities better now that the…
Read Mored-i-y i-phone camera lens protector
Artist Holton Rower, of 3,000,000+ YouTube hits fame, (not to mention inventor of fabulous leather door pulls) takes all his tools very seriously, including the camera on his phone. It has a lens that is precision, easily damagable glass, just like any other good camera. You wouldn’t put a camera in your bag without its…
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