The Improvised Life

solar-powered moon lanterns for summer nights

Sally — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 18:36:08 +0000

Installing hardwired, outdoor lighting can be a big, expensive, all-too-often unaesthetic hassle, forcing you to put lights where you really don’t want them, and use commercially produced fixtures that are less than enchanting. One elegant, inexpensive solution is solar lanterns.

My favorites are faux Japanese shoji solar lanterns from Allsop available in a rainbow of lightweight polyester that mimics silk. Hang them anywhere outdoors where they receive at least 6 hours of sunlight on the small solar cells located on the top. They begin to glow as soon as dusk falls, and continue until around 4:00 am, when they slowly wink out, one by one.

I like the gentle glow of the robin’s egg blue ones which I bought for a Blue Moon party* four years ago. Amazingly, they’re still glowing, despite having been left outdoors since then. (Note: we do not have hard, snowy winters.)

susan dworski

…

susan dworki

I wish I had a photo of my friend’s back yard in Taos in January, buried in snow, barren trees, with a swinging line of bright red lanterns reflecting like glowing red cherries on the ghostly lawn.

*On the rare occasion of a blue moon, I like to give an evening lawn party with a blue moon theme. Food, costumes, moony madness. Your imagination can fill in the blanks.

—Susan Dworski

surrounded by love

Sally — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 08:19:02 +0000

photo: sally schneider

Found recently, a powerful reminder:

We are surrounded by so MUCH: possibility.

We just have to look.

il reader julie houston’s brooklyn renovation

Sally — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:28:54 +0000

julie houston

We are always thrilled to hear (and see) how ‘improvised life’ resonates in our readers lives. Sometimes it’s a “shift” of mindset, sometimes it’s a daring diy. In Julie Houston’s case, it was a major renonovation of the back parlor of her Brooklyn brownstone, transformed into kitchen/dining area.

When children and pets leave — as is nature’s way, aka “the empty nest” — the house goes silent. The element of surprise, embedded in their activities, is gone.

After a few long-delayed home improvement projects (too busy to do them for decades), it dawned on me that I was merely trying to make my own noise, create my own element of surprise around here.

Our favorite bit: Julie’s take on an idea she’d bookmarked from ‘improvised life’ in 2009: Margot Wellington’s long shallow stainless steel sink that doubles as a work surface. (that’s 4 years of fermenting an idea!)

Margot Wellington’s Stainless Sink Lives on — in Brooklyn kitchen renovation! We have done very little to alter the 19th Century “footprint” here, but that installing that sink has been an incredible experience, using it as a work surface. We got the sink custom made at Bowery Restaurant Supply, 2 Delancey Street,(212) 254-9720, owner Peter Chang did a fab and meticulous and economical job. Not to be mixed up with the place in the Chelsea Market — terrible!!!

julie houston

Julie did a number of hand-done projects herself like…

…Decoupaged fish from wrapping paper; used wheat paste.

…Hallway isn’t really to nowhere, it’s to the cellar. (Did a massive, Collier Brothers clean up)…

photo: julie houston

…Bar Stools beyond sanding down, so I stencilled them…

…

photo: julie houston

…Steady hand meditation for color bands on legs….

photo: julie houston

We’ve been in our brownstone since 1978; in Brooklyn since 1969 (I grew up in Manhattan). It was “love it or leave it” when we moved out here, at the height of the Vietnam War.

It’s clearly become ‘love’.

…

There’s something curiously satisfying about seeing this.

Thanks Julie!

the question to ask when you make a mistake

Sally — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 08:26:20 +0000

paul noth for the new yorker

This cartoon was the subject of the New Yorker’s great cartoon caption contest, where readers are invited to submit their caption for the cartoonists drawing. Our favorite caption (that didn’t win) was:

Mistakes were made.

We make so many mistakes daily that it was heartening to see this image of Noah’s miscalculation.

Although we don’t know what we’d do with a surplus of giraffes, we are firm believers that mistakes usually yield gold, if only in the lesson they teach. But often they yield,or lead us to, unexpected solutions.. We love the way Edward de Bono frames it in the great Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step (Perennial Library).

Rather than take the attitude ‘This won’t work, let’s throw it out’…

…ASK

This is not going to work but what does it lead us to?

It is the one of the most productive strategies we know of when a mistake has been made. De Bono’s book is full of smart, easy tools like that.

While we’re on the subject of mistakes, we thought we’d leave you with The Oh Hello’s song I Have Made Mistakes, for your listening pleasure.

I have made mistakes, I continue to make them
the promises I’ve made, I continue to break them
and all the doubts I’ve faced, I continue to face them
but nothing is a waste if you learn from it

and the sun, it does not cause us to grow
it is the rain that will strengthen your soul
and it will make you whole

we have lived in fear, and our fear has betrayed us
but we will overcome the apathy that has made us
because we are not alone in the dark with our demons
and we have made mistakes
but we’ve learned from them

and the sun, it does not cause us to grow
it is the rain that will strengthen your soul
and it will make you whole

and oh my heart, how can I face you now?
when we both know how badly I have let you down
and I am afraid of all that I’ve built
fading away

It’s from their album Through the Deep, Dark Valley

richard woods’ fab colorful wood-pattern floors

Sally — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 17:30:53 +0000

richard woods and the alan cristea gallery

When we stumbled on images of artist/designer Richard Woods‘ show D.I.Y at the Alan Cristea Gallery in London, we literally gasped. LOOK at those floors!. They turn out to be Woods’ trademark vibrantly-coloured and exaggerated wood-grain motif.

…deceptively simple in form, these bold images are produced using traditional block-printing techniques and installed as parquetry (inlaying wood in geometric patterns)…

We’re always on the lookout for cool ways to paint our plywood floors, currently a neutral oyster color, when it starts to wear, or when we want to shift our view…

richard woods and the alan cristea gallery

Woods has devised floor patterns based on offcuts in a range of patterns and colors.

richard woods

Anyone know how he does it?

via Design Boom

muhammad ali: ‘the rent we pay for our room on earth’

Sally — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 08:00:05 +0000

Laura Handler

Designer Laura Handler of Interesting Found Objects spotted this scrawled sign in the window of a Manhattan dry cleaner. The owners identified something they have that would be useful to someone looking for work: a clean set of clothes. They also stated their simple philosophy. Beautiful. Generous.

It reminded us reminded us of Mohammed Ali’s fierce and brilliant rant against the word ‘impossible:

how to: crispy kale chips (slow + fast methods)

Sally — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 08:37:34 +0000

Sally Schneider

My local market sells a 2.5 ounce box of mediocre kale chips, seasoned with weird stuff like cashews and brewer’s yeast, for $7. Why don’t I just try making my own? I thought, remembering how well my pilot-light-warmed oven dried out paper-thin cross-sections of pear and apple until they became like crispy botanical drawings. So I winged it and it worked first time out (see method below). Kale chips won’t substitute for potato chips if that’s what you are hankering for. But they are curiously satisfying in a crispy vegetal way. They’re easy to make and I have friends who DEMAND that I bring them over when I come.

Since the first try, I’ve experimented with flatish Lacinato (Tuscan) kale and the curly kind (I recommend the Lacinato, which dries with more heft, and flavor), and a number of flavorings. Other toughish leafy greens like collards will work too. I’m still checking them out…wondering what Treviso radicchio might yield. So far kale is best. I also tried a Fast Method which produces chips in 25 minutes or so, and actually may be a tad more flavorful if you don’t let them brown.

The gist:

Using the Slow Method, 2 bunchs of lacinato (Tuscan) kale will cover a large sheet pan using the Slow Method. Using the Fast Method, only 1 bunch of kale can be done at a time.

-into a large bowl pour a few tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil. Smash a garlic clove and smush it around in the oil. Let sit while you get the kale ready.

-strip the leaves off the ribs: hold the stem in one hand and clamp your thumb and forefinger around the base with the other. Pull your fingers along the rib from stem to tip, stripping the leaves off as you go. Tear them into biggish bite-size pieces and toss them into bowl.

-when all the kale is ready, take a pastry brush, dunk it in the oil and brush and toss the kale so each leaf is lightly coated. If you need more oil, drizzle some over as you brush and toss.

-sprinkle a little kosher salt over as you toss. OR mix some kosher salt with a flavoring like curry powder or smoky sweet paprika and sprinkle it on the kale. (Come to think of it, you could go Asian-ish in flavorings and use roasted sesame oil steeped with ginger and garlic, maybe 5-spice powder with salt…)

-place two cooling racks on a large sheet pan and arrange the kale over it, in one layer if possible. Discard the garlic.

Slow Method: place in the warm oven (about 150′-200′) overnight or about 6 hours until the kale is dry and crisp.

Fast Method: Roast the kale at 300′ for 15 to 20 minutes, rotating the pan frequently. Since the kale absolutely has to be laid out in one layer, only one bunch of kale will fit on a sheet pan (not two as in the slow method which can tolerate overlap). The pieces on the pan edges get crisp first (after 12 minutes or so) so I remove them from the pan (to keep them from overbrowning), rearrange the others slightly, and kept those cooking, removing crisp one every 4 minutes, until they the whole batch was done. Total cooking time: 20 minutes.

-eh voila, 4 or 5 times the amount of store-bought chips, and much better!

Sally Schneider

The lessons in all this is: trying out your idea often leads swell results +

a pilot-lit oven can do just about anything an electric dehydrators does +

once you have the basic method(s), endless flavorings can be applied…

and lots of possibilities for trying other greens, thinly sliced fruits…I’m going to try whole sage leaves, which are delicious fried, so might be swell oven roasted.

weekend fun: parcour and inner peace

Sally — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 07:31:05 +0000

(Video link here.) Long-time ‘improvised life’ reader Sahana sent this hour-long documentary about Parcour (also known as free-running) with this note:

“leaping and turning obstacles into stepping stones - …almost like dancing . a philosophy of movement .”

There’s LOTS of beautiful parcour as well as illuminating glimpses into the inside of the practice that is very much the creative process:

It’s all about progression. Every big move starts small.

…

He had the vision to see what he wanted to do. He understood each component part and kept at it until he landed it perfectly. This model that Paul uses can be used by anyone to accomplish nearly anything.( at about 17:30)

…

Parcour is about being in the moment.

If you’re not into watching it all at once, you can get a lot by taking little chunks at a time, or even JUMPING around.

Thanks Sahana!

improvised stacked stone benches and a secret circle

Sally — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 23:21:06 +0000

Pat Brodie

Landscape Designer Pat Brodie recently sent us pictures of her very cool stacked stone bench inspired by a passing vision:

I was at the stone yard with my client looking at stones for her garden when we saw stones randomly stacked on a pallet and I noticed that it was suggestive of a sofa. We purchased the pallet but of course when we got it to the site we had to reinvent the stacking and came up with this very comfortable seat. It makes me laugh.

We LOVE the massive, primal, very inviting bench (with foot rest!) AND the way it came about.

Brodie also devised a clever seat built into a retaining wall. (When we wander around in nature, we’d love to find spots like these to lounge on and take everything in. Brodie is clearly a kindred spirit).

Pat Brodie

She also devised a rather druidic circle, hidden in a glade….

Pat Brodie

You can see more of Brodie’s work at Houzz.

Thanks Pat!

d-i-y bench made of stump, slab, stone

marble tables with a rough, unfinished edge

painted stones for home a la max ernst

alt-flowers: carrot bouquet for summer entertaining

Sally — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 08:34:11 +0000

Tessa Traeger

We stumbled on this fab carrot bouquet in photographer Tessa Traeger’s still life portfolio. We’ve made vegetable “flower” bouquets before but not with quite so much panache. As we wander the farmer’s market, we’re seeing carrots in a new light.

everyday improv: how to carry an umbrella

Sally — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 07:35:11 +0000

photo: sally schneider

We steer clear of old-fashioned umbrellas with a curved handle because we can’t stand carrying one more thing in our hands; we opt for a big pop-out folding Totes Golf Size umbrella.

THEN we saw this elegant man strolling in lower Manhattan the other day, his big classic umbrella hooked on his back between vest and shirt: secure and out-of-the-way.

A small bit of brilliance we love.

cool concrete table with a built-in vase

Sally — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 17:18:58 +0000

photo: natalie weiss

At Remodelista house tour recently, we spotted this this wonderful detail in the Paris home/studio of architect Nicolas Soulier and artist Cécile Daladier: A table made of a custom molded slab of concrete on steel tubing base, with a charming Ikebana-inspired vase inset for Cécile’s flowers. Ingenious, unexpected and charming.

photo: natalie weiss

No doubt, a vase could be embedded in a table or worksurface made of other materials as well. It’s a design idea we’ll file in our heads for the next table iteration.

photo: natalie weiss

via Remodelista; photos courtesy Natalie Weiss

laziness and handwritten recipes in the digital age

Sally — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 08:41:48 +0000

photo: susan dworski

Rainy days always slow me down and tuck me in, seducing me to perform unnecessary housekeeping chores unimaginable in bright sun. When my ancient, duct-taped, binder of recipes tumbled off the top of the fridge in a splat of disorganization, I remanded it to the top of the clothes dryer. Now, a few drops of rain have induced guilt and curiosity. As Japanese poet Ryokan wrote:

Too lazy to be ambitious,

I let the world take care of itself.

Ten days worth of rice in my bag;

a bundle of twigs by the fireplace.

Why chatter about disillusionment and enlightenment:

Listening to the rain on my roof,

I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out.

I sift through the pages. Fifty years of recipes slip through my fingers, many handwritten in spindly, old fashioned, cursive handwriting by women who have passed from this earth long ago, leaving behind their grease-spattered, thumbed, much loved meals handed down through generations.

A neighbor who harbors illegal, obstreperous, white ducks under her back porch scribbled this Pound Cake recipe when she gave me a clutch of delicious, shit-smattered eggs. (The image is a page cut from her recipe book which she glued onto a page and then, apparently when she copied it, part of it was illegible, so she wrote the recipe in red over the part you can’t read. I know it’s weird and impossible to explain.)

photo: susan dworski

A Moroccan Chicken recipe commands joyfully: Use LOTS of cinnamon. But the swooping, enthusiastic cursive script familiar for over 45 years is a poignant reminder that the cook is now unable to navigate stairs and is living skint in Section 8 housing.

photo: susan dworski

Beth’s mustachioed chef’s Sour Cream Cake (at top) remains a cholesterol slam dunk for weddings and anniversaries.

Sorting through the pages I wonder, what will happen to our food history, family history, cultural history, human history when cursive writing is no longer taught, used, or read? Will these clumsy, butter-smeared, annotated artifacts called recipe books disappear into dumpsters along with last year’s cell phones and disposable diapers? Will any of our children and grandchildren be able to deciper these heiroglyphic, culinary texts?

The rain drums. Dusk has fallen. It’s time to leave off shagging these sad matters and tune into to my growling stomach. As Brother Lawrence put it, “It is not necessary to have great things to do. I turn my little omelet in the pan for the love of God.”

–Susan Dworski

the unexpected beauty of tin can vessels (labels off!)

Sally — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 18:08:43 +0000

Magdalena Björnsdotter for Elle Decoration

This image from Elle Decoration reminded us of the wonderful design of the ubiquitous tin can once it’s label is torn off. They really do make great vessels.

Tin cans must be in the wind. Yesterday, we came across these zinc chic-ed up can vessels for sale at Anthropolgie.

But then sculptor Alexander Calder saw their possibilities eons ago. Dig these ashtrays!

Courtesy of The Calder Foundation

And this just in, spotted at Design Boom: Dutch artist Willem Heeffer’s up-cycled Heinz bean can chandeliers in a Helsink restaurant:

via French by Design; Photos: Magdalena Björnsdotter for Elle Decoration

the origins of ‘random kindness and senselss acts of beauty’

Sally — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 08:23:15 +0000

Three years ago, we posted about Anne Herbert, the mysterious writer of Peace and Love and Noticing the Details, a blog that presented haiku-like shifts of view of the the most ordinary things. Herbert is also known for having come up with the brilliant, radical philosophy: ‘Practice Random Kindness & Senseless Acts of Beauty‘, which eventually became a book (it is out of print but available used for a penny plus $3.99 shipping at Amazon).

Although we quoted Herbert frequently, often making signs of her spare wisdom (‘Simpler ‘is a favorite), we were unable to find out anything about her since her work in the early ’80′s at CoEvolution Quarterly, the companion magazine to Whole Earth Catalog. Then in June of 2012, she abruptly stopped posting.

Recently, Paloma Pavel of Earth House Center wrote us also looking to connect with Anne. She told us the process behind the creation of ‘random kindness and senseless acts of beauty’:

Anne herbert and I were responding to our despair at accelerating systemic violence, specifically domestic Rodney king incident of racial violence and police brutality and the international drum beat to war in the Persian gulf that was engulfing the nighttime news. We wanted to stop the wars… To create a spell that would shatter the trance . So we took the phrase “random violence and senseless acts of cruelty” and created a “reversal”(to use feminist philosopher mary daly’s strategy). It was not too tough to find kindness for violence. Not wimpy kindness but tough Dalai Lama never give up kindness.” Beauty” for “cruelty ” was the radical innovation.

Profound fun to recall this her-story over 20 years ago. And an expression of life improvisation between two activists.

We just ordered Random Kindness & Senseless Acts of Beauty, hoping to explore the roots of this transformative statement.

For more of Anne Herbert’s unique view, check out:

anne herbert’s wise + teeny meditations
anne herbert: unaccumulate
fling and be flung (jackson pollock)
going from “can’t” to “can”
healing worry (via anne herbert)
a reminder, via anne herbert (open doors!)