Taking a virtual house tour of designer Maira Kalman’s apartment “laboratory” gave us some great ideas, including a way to discover our dream house.
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We are now SIGNLABORATORY on instagram!
We LOVE signs so figured why not create a SIGN LABORATORY on Instagram? Check out inspiring/mind-shifiting signs we find and forage and that folks send us…as well the as ones we MAKE:
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About Improvised Life’s Laboratory
Improvised Life’s LABORATORY is a space where we experiment with all sorts of ideas for home and daily living. It’s transformation from homely, vin ordinaire apartment to a clean-lined loft-like space has been a lesson in seeing through the surface to the bones beneath, and envisioning possibilities. It started with a renovation and carried over into problem-solving…
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introducing ‘the improvised life’s new ‘laboratory’
A few months ago, I bought a space in Harlem, soon to be home of ‘the improvised life’s new LABORATORY, in which to experiment with all sorts of ideas for home and daily living. I had scoured New York City real estate listings for YEARS, traipsing from space to space in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and…
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Advice for An Anxiety Situation (Maira Kalman)
Maria Kalman recently arrived in our Inbox with an invitation to buy a signed and numbered edition she created. It’s called “Don’t Think too Much” and it has much to say on the subject and how not to… (think too much)
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More Reasons for Optimism in 2023: Possibility Thinking Made Tangible
All year long, Andrew Ross Sorkin has diligently and carefully reported on the wild and often dispiriting going- on in world through an financial and economic lens. We were heartened by his recent round-up of the most promising developments of the year, possibility-thinking made tangible.
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What “Being Like a River” Really Means (Rebecca Solnit)
Ever-incisive Rebecca Solnit shifted our view of the much-abused metaphor of rivers by describing how rivers REALLY act. And that gave us much deeper understanding of how change often happens, historically and personally.
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Thomas Ashcraft’s Hopeful Reminder in Fearful Times
Over the years, artist-scientist Thomas Ashcraft has made artful iterations of a message that we’ve found deeply heartening. Especially so now, in this anxious time…
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The Pleasures of Unframed Artwork Directly on the Wall, Naked
Experiencing Rondinone’s massive painting nailed directly to the wall got us thinking about enjoyable and…intimate…an experience unframed art can be. Along with a simple way to hang it.
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The Bathroom As Incubator of Ideas
The bathroom is the one place where I find mindfulness overrated. It is a lovely place to read, write, draw. Look at all the way it can be an incubator of ideas.
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We Edited Our Instagram to Be a Tool of Illumination and Found Wild Poetry
Realizing we disliked Instagram for the “junkfood” feeling it gave us, we embarked upon a rigorous edit. Our criteria: whatever we follow must illuminate.
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Bring a Little Piece of Nature Into the Home, Heart, Day (Yoko Ono, Max Lamb)
It usually takes just a shift of orientation, or your usual route to work or the store, to work some living trees into your day and heart. Here’s some inspiration from Yoko Ono and Max Lamb…
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Life Lesson on The Ordinary State of Affairs
During my recent week off to recover from moving house and getting repairs underway to my leak-damaged home, I continued the work of embracing a big life lesson…
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Why Walking Helps Us Think (Rilke + Ferris Jabr)
Science has proven what painting, poetry, and our own experience know: walking helps us think, and be.
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Bathrooms Designed for Our Intellectual and Creative Selves
In their visionary bathroom, friends purposefully accommodate what most bathrooms do in an ad hoc way: reading material, a laptop, and art for their ever-creative selves.
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Timelapse Wonder of a Seed Sprouting: ‘Each Beginning Is the End of Waiting’ (Hope Jahrens)
‘Miraculous’ is what we think as watch a bean valiantly push through the soil to bloom into a full-grown plant in this lovely video. This revelatory hunk we found in Hope Jahren’s Lab Girl is a perfect accompaniment.
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Annals of Bad Design: Fitting Room Mirror Stenciled with Busy Signage
How nice to have a sign in a fitting room that says: If you don’t find what you are looking for, we can order it online. UNLESS that sign is printed in bold right in the center of the mirror you’re trying to see yourself in.. That is what I found at Zara, a store…
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Anthophilous? Explode a Big Bouquet into MANY Joys
Whenever I receive a flower arrangement, I use this trick to expand its effect throughout my space. Its a great way to deal with not-great bouquets as well, whether from a florist or deli.
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Dept of Unintended Purposes: Soapstone Tile as Flame Tamer
In a moment of random small-stakes invention that occurs often around here, the soapstone sample that I ordered when considering the material for countertops proved the perfect flame tamer/heat diffuser.
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Jessamyn Stanley’s Liberation Yoga: ‘Fuck Comparison’
In a short demo session, body-loving yoga master Jessamyn Stanley undid my shame about not being perfect AND set me straight why we NEED yoga. She is a force of nature, who is making yoga accessible.
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