tammy duckworth + jessica cox: flying through obstacles

We were knocked out by this fragment of an interview with Tammy Duckworth in the Sunday New York Time’s Magazine. She’s the United States Representative for Illinois’s 8th congressional district who lost both legs while a U.S. Army helicopter pilot in the Iraq War: Question: When you wake up do you feel a sense of loss when you realize what…

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clever kitchen renovation using new and original cabinets

Desire to Inspire recently posted a reader’s mid century-style renovation. The kitchen’s ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures were not side-by-side and we found ourselves moving the cursor up and down to really understand the clever transformation.  Ahh, we get it: Beth, who’d masterminded the kitchen’s update, thought carefully about what REALLY needed to be taken out…

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‘ode to joy’ played on broken pottery

(Video link here.) A very clever guy named Mennyi or possibly Mátyás Wettl (we’re unclear who) made a video in which he performs “Ode to Joy” by kicking broken plates around under an overpass. One of our favorite pieces of music…Lovely…Wonder what we could play on the porcelain Ted Muehling cup we broke a few weeks ago… via…

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silver leaf + clever paint transform a wardrobe or a wall

Looking through to the “bones” of this hutch by Amy Somerville London Ltd, we realize that is not that extraordinary. Its greatness lies in the clever surface pattern: blocks of color and what appears to be gold or silver leaf. Somerville’s website told the story “satin-finished ebonised walnut…detailed in high-gloss red and green lacquer, white gold…

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dese’rae l. stage’s “live through this” kickstarter

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/deseraestage/live-through-this-life-on-the-other-side-of-suicid In addition to helping out at ‘the improvised life’ every week, Dese’Rae L. Stage works two other jobs to support the website she started a couple of years ago. Live Through This is a collection of portraits and stories of suicide attempt survivors, as told by those survivors. The site is meant to give…

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forest dwellings made of trees limbs, leaves, brush…whatever is there

When we walk through park or woods, we secretly  imagine how we would surive there if we had to. What kind of shelter would we devise with what is there? It’s kid thinking, really: of forts and snug secret places, combined with our love of shelters of all kinds. Artist Elle Davies made that fantasy real…

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john wellington made his own ebook (so can you!)

Our friend John Wellington is an artist whose controversial work has been called “classical, claustrophobic, fetishistic, beautiful, vulgar, architectural, humorous, morbid, decorative, and sexual.” He renders deeply personal imagery using Old Master techniques in unique ways and teaches his methods at the New York Academy of Art where he is an Adjunct Professor, and at his…

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an elephant frolicking in the surf

(Video link here.) We don’t know when we’ve seen any living being taking delight so completely as this young elephant frolicking in the surf. Somehow, watching it makes us feel its uninhibited, wholehearted, in-the-moment refreshing pleasure in a simple thing — the sea. It’s a fine reminder for the first day of the week: go…

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