All through the summer, I make a weekly trip on my bike to the Union Square Green Market. I always stop at Keith Stewart’s stand to buy his amazing garlic, tomatoes, lettuces and herbs. Just about every week, there are new offerings, so that I can gauge the progression of the season well into fall,…
Read Morecopy this: hinged, folding/expanding table top
We spotted this great table at MC&Co, a Brooklyn-based company that makes furniture and household accessories (including copies of a Donal Judd daybed and a Rietveld outdoor chair)…It’s a hinged rectangular laminate top set on ash saw horses. To expand the table, you lift the top, open it like a book and set it back…
Read Morekeith stewart’s ‘it’s a long road to a tomato’ (farming = improvising))
I keep a stack of books by my bed for “daily” wind-down reading. They are meant to do various things: cool me out, give me hope and/or inspiration, help me think about pressing matters, entertain. One of them is Keith Stewart’s It’s a Long Road to a Tomato: Tales of an Organic Farmer Who Quit the…
Read Morenotebooks for graphing the past and future
As much as we’re fans of smart phones, we can’t live without blank notebooks for writing down some interesting thing we saw or need to remember, or notes for helping us organize our day. We’re always on the lookout for cheap, well-designed notebooks that are a pleasure to use AND shift our thinking slightly. We…
Read More‘the world is full of interesting things’ on the massively creative internet and google
“The World Is Full of Interesting Things“, an online slideshow created by Google’s Creative Labs, gives you a compelling glimpse of the imaginative ways technology and the internet are being used (much of it in collaboration with Google technology). There are revelations in the realms of Audio, Movies, Vizual, Art, Physical, Light, Tech, Sport, Books,…
Read Morewhat’s the perfect desk (for you)?
Aaron Trindar of Film:Motion:Music made this wonderful video about desks of creative people and how they think about them, and what sort of desk makes them work best? Some, like Designer Massimo Vignelli‘s remain an austere clean slate, others like Einstein’s, a wild jumble of papers and notes. This video made us reflect on our…
Read Moreindoor swings (+ hammocks + daybeds) for kids and grown-ups
We recently came across our SWINGS file that lay forgotten on our computer. There we found all manner of swings hung INSIDE the house, mostly in the living room, where they become a thing of delight for both children and grown-ups: a kinetic sculpture-of-a-seat that gives the pleasure of being rocked, of air, and somehow,…
Read More2-second video from thomas ashcraft (look up!)
We love this teeny, potent 2-second video from our friend Thomas Ashcraft at Heliotown, an artist/radio astronomer/”electroreceptor” who spends his time monitoring the heavens for interesting activity, like this unbelievable ‘fireball‘, a deluxe shooting star. We see Tom’s videos as reminders of things that are going on all around us as we live our lives,…
Read More‘the improvised life’ guest post on remodelista!
Remodelista, the great home-design website, recently invited ‘the improvised life’ to do a guest post about the The Furniture Doctor, classic repair manual that we mentioned a couple of weeks back. We are thrilled. The post is up on Remodelista now, with gorgeous photos by Ellen Silverman, and the tale of that essential book. Thanks Remodelista! Related…
Read Moretask lights suspended from the ceiling
We came across this picture on Emma’s blog and thought Brilliant! Floor lights suspended from the ceiling! It’s a play on one of our favorite themes: Using things in unexpected ways, turning them upside-down… These flexible task lights have a wonderfully sculptural look and allow you to adjust the lighting to your…task: perfect over a…
Read Morecloth + pen + stones = homemade checkers set
Perfect! via An Ambitious Project Collapsing
Read Morekevin kelly’s tools for technological literacy
Internet visionary Kevin Kelly homeschooled his 8th grade son for a year and wrote about it recently for The New York Times Magazine. He tried to teach his son the kind of tools that would help him navigate the pace of technology which is accelerating so fast “his eventual adult career does not exist yet.…
Read Morechic concrete block sink
Could this beautiful sink stand, spotted in tiny photo story about interior designer Abigail Ahern‘s neo-baroque chandelier, REALLY be made of concrete block, one of our favorite building materials? Imagine…For less than the cost of a fiber-board-and-veneer Ikea sink stand, you can fashion one out of block, planning the placement of the blocks like a…
Read Morethe adjacent possible: birds as musical notes…
Nina Saltman sent us an email in response to our post about John Cage: “Regarding the ‘what if’ to music. You must look at this video! Jarbas Agnelli, a Brazilian musician and film director saw these birds on electric wires that reminded him of the music staff, and wrote a song based on their configuration.…
Read Morethe scoop on safe shipping pallets (shipping pallets 101)
Yesterday, a reader alerted us to the possible dangers of wooden shipping pallets, especially found ones that are so great for d-i-y projects. When we read that even new wood pallets could be subject to chemical treatments, we did some research to figure out how we can happily keep making things out of wood pallets,…
Read Morewhere do you go for a clear space?
via Rolu
Read Morejohn cage applying ‘what would happen’ if to music
There’s a beautiful piece by Alex Ross in this week’s New Yorker this week about avant garde artist John Cage, who had a profound influence on our understanding of what music can be. Here’s a chunk that knocked us out: “One a simpler level, Cage had an itch to try new things. What would happen…
Read Moreps: some possible dangers of wood shipping pallets
This morning a reader alerted us to the possible dangers of some wood shipping pallets, of toxic chemicals leaching from treated woods (required by law to prevent insect infestations, although not all treatments involve chemicals), or of contamination by e-coli and other pathogens (a bi-product of being used to transport food or being exposed to…
Read Morebrilliant d-i-y pallet desks, table, stairs
When we pass cast-off wooded shipping pallets on the street, we find ourselves imagining ideas we’ve collected in our “pallets” file, and trying them out in our minds. We are especially inspired by the visionary open offices Dutch firm Most Architecture designed as a temporary space for the company Brandbase. The client asked that the…
Read Morestefan sagemeister on ‘serious failure’ and training the mind
Last March, we wrote about legendary graphic designer Stefan Sagemeister, who shutters his design studio every seven years to take a sabbatical, and explore new ideas. He recently spoke at Levi’s traveling print and design workshop; this video is a recap. The audio is not great but some terrific chunks come through. Here are some we love:…
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