Check Out Our Instagram @whynot_improvise

We discover SO many TINY improvisations as we wander through our days that we decided to start tracking them on Instagram. You can see the latest in Improvised Life’s sidebar, though you won’t necessarily know what it is. You’ll find the bigger view of our Improvised Life, with commentary, at instagram.com/whynot_improvise…Like the 50-cent Lil Debbie Cake, above,

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Practice: Quiet

A friend recently told us about her practice of taking an occasional day of silence; she shuts down intrusive electronics like her computer, tv, phone, and goes through the day without uttering a word. The neighbors in her smallish town know that when she wears a button saying “Honoring Silence”, they need to do just…

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How Analog Notebooks can Enhance Productivity

In the New Yorker’s recent Why Startups Love Moleskines, David Sax describes the popularity of the spare notebook that many tech-savvy people find superior to digital task software. M.I.T. students, academics, artists and other high-achieving entrepreneurs prize Moleskine notebooks, which come in variety of shapes and sizes, for their simplicity and efficiency.

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Mail’s here!

Our newsletters are a love letter to our readers: A collection of what’s happening and what we’re up to. Subscribing sends us right into your your inbox so you’ll have our quirky, thoughtfully-crafted content to read with your morning coffee. We know what it’s like to be bombarded by the words “please subscribe”. We hear we are worth…

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Use A Typewriter to Tap Your Poetic Subconscious

A public typewriter is stationed at Tompkins Square Park for whoever wishes to write on. It is the brainchild of the The Poetry Society of New York who original introduced it at the NYC Poetry Festival on Governors Island: The Typewriter Project’s mission is to investigate, document, and preserve the poetic subconscious of the city while providing a fun…

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Strawberry Shortcakes (with our Foolproof Biscuit Recipe)

This Sunday is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year and we can’t think of anything more celebratory of the first day of summer than strawberry shortcake. So here’s our improvisation on a traditional shortcake recipe, made with a sublime, foolproof cream biscuits. Our friend Sarah brought them by one day after the classic butter-based biscuits she’d…

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A Rooftop Porch with Meadows in NYC (Green Roof Primer)

We were stunned by this image of David Puchkoff and Eileen Stukane’s porch and meadow on the roof of their six-story coop building in New York City. Puchkoff devised it as part of a plan to have the porch he always wanted, while creating a green roof. Plants insulate the building from heat in summer and cold in winter, and they reduce storm-water runoff by absorbing rain. The coziness and magic of a country porch IS possible in a city without having to keep a country house. Here’s how.

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7 Essential Items to Carry When You Travel

Having traveled A LOT over the years, I’ve honed a kit of essential items that see me through, both physically and spiritually, the unexpected events that are guaranteed to hit, sometimes hard. Since I have a seriously-sensitive constitution, I’ve learned the hard way that taking some fortifications is well worth the bit of thought and effort…

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