Laneways of Oak Bay and Fairfield, Summer 2010. 
(Laneways are narrow alleys behind buildings common in British Columbia, Canada.)

Photographs by Victoria (British Columbia, Canada) artist Ali Bosworth.
-http://www.alibosworth.com/

June 23, 2011

Above: DIY wooden toy car

Above: DIY scarecrow

Above: DIY sleds

Above: DIY bird feeder

Above: DIY stool

Above: DIY bench

-DIY Russia on folkforms

June 21, 2011

Great way to save space and reuse/store old magazines:

- http://www.njustudio.com/index.php?/project/hockenheimer/

June 15, 2011

Above: Rhododendrons blooming everywhere.

Above: Blueberries.  Not yet ripened

Carless days. Catching a train from New York City,  Penn Station to Sloatsburg then hiking to Harriman State Park(Upstate New York)

June 11, 2011

Fresh poppy seeds - delicious! Beautiful photography by Inmost Light

Above:  Inmost Light

June 08, 2011

Avoska, translated as “just in case” is a Russian net bag.  Avoska collapses to fit inside your fist and expands to hold 12 grapefruits. It is easy to wash and boxes edges do not rip it’s threads. Best of all, it prevents plastic bags from gathering in your kitchen corner or the world’s landfills.  With the popularization of plastic bags after the 90’s (after the fall of Soviet Union) avoska bags gradually went into disuse in Russia.

Above: Russia 1959. People carrying avoska bags. Photo: Carl Mydans.

Contemporary Russian folklore:  Once upon a time in Russia there lived a simple little net bag - Avoska. Everyone loved her.  People took her with them everywhere - to the store, farmers market and even birthdays. But then….plastic bags came and people forgot about Avoska.  To see what happens next watch this really adorable 3 minute film on Youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/avoska

Above: Boy hugging avoska bag from short “Avoska” film (See above)

Read blog dedicated to Avoski:  http://avoski.livejournal.com/

June 07, 2011

Rainbow Gatherings are temporary intentional communities usually held in outdoor settings, and espousing and practicing ideals of peace, love, harmony, freedom and community, as a consciously expressed alternative to mainstream popular culture, consumerism, capitalism and mass media…Rainbow Gatherings are an expression of a Utopian impulse, combined with bohemianism, hipster and hippie culture, with roots clearly traceable to the 1960’s counterculture. Mainstream society is commonly referred to and viewed as “Babylon”, connoting the participants’ widely held belief that modern lifestyles and systems of government are unhealthy, unsustainable, exploitative and out of harmony with the natural systems of the planet….The first Rainbow Gathering, a four-day event in Colorado in July 1972, was organized by youth counterculture “tribes” based in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. - wiki

- Rainbow Gathering album on flickr by photographer Benoit Paillé

June 01, 2011

Space saving invisible bookshelves.  Minimal and simple! Book on the bottom acts as support for every other book on top. 

May 21, 2011

Image above: http://www.bloom-magazine.eu

Place flower between 2 sheets of paper to protect the pages of the book. Leave at least 1/8” of pages between pressings, weigh the book down and wait a couple of weeks.

May 15, 2011

-http://treehugger.com

May 13, 2011

Above:  Tree says hi.

Photos by Israel based photographer Ella Sverdlov

May 12, 2011

Jar lamp by UpCycle.  This lamp is made from re-using Avoca glass jar. A hole is drilled in the cap and a lamp fitting is offered through.

May 11, 2011

“Desire to Disappear” is a film by Minnesota based artist Alec Soth.  Alec Soth traveled across America looking for people who’ve retreated from society.  Below are some of Alec’s photographs and quotes from his film. 

“This is Alec Soth.  So I am a photographer and the project I am doing deals with the subject of retreating from the world.  That can involve everything from hermits to monks.”

“I think it is something in the culture right now and is, in some ways, preparation for the decline of the American empire.”

“A part of it is a fantasy of having retreat”

“It is not really about running away. It is about the desire to run away.”

Preview: http://www.somewheretodisappearthefilm.com/

May 07, 2011

Book shelves made of plumbing pipes:

http://www.the-brick-house.com/2009/09/shelving-unit.html

May 02, 2011

All I need is a thermos and a tin/aluminum lunch box.

“Today, lunch boxes are generally made of vinyl, with foam insulation, and an aluminum/vinyl interior. As a result, they’re usually much better at retaining their temperature but are less rigid and protective.  Health concerns came to light in August 2002, when the Center for Environmental Health discovered that many popular vinyl lunch boxes contained dangerously high levels of lead..”.- from Wikipedia

Ready to say goodbye to plastic bags and other plastic food containers???
Stainless steel “Eco Lunch Box”:

May 01, 2011

April 27, 2011

“Захотелось вернуться в васильковое лето,
когда от зноя плавится воздух, от тишины звенит в ушах” - Х.Росс

В чистом поле, у реки
Распустились васильки.
Синенькие крапинки,
Словно неба капельки...

April 24, 2011

Above: Joni Mitchell, hair undyed.

Above: Joni Mitchell among wild grasses.

April 16, 2011

DIY Panton Chair by Peter Jakubik incites users to make their own original fake famous chair designed by Verner Panton. All what you need is a picture of Panton chair, found log, DIY tools and passion for designer classics.

April 12, 2011

Great blog from Vancouver, BC - http://www.old-chum.com/

Wild fields, abandoned fields, nobody’s fields, everybody’s fields….{Does anyone know a large to medium size field near New York City area anyone
can walk on?  )

April 09, 2011

REVISITED is an independent design collective based in Brooklyn, New York City.
Revisited makes pillow cases from old shirts found mostly in thrift stores.“While seeing those hundreds of shirts waiting to be tried on we knew we wanted to make something out of them, something new. Many of them were too big or simply had an outdated shape. We selected the best fabrics, interesting structures in natural blends and were ready to rework them” - R

-http://www.revisitedmatters.com

April 06, 2011

Audrey Hepburn on a bike

April 03, 2011

Green streets in my neighborhood Moscow, Russia(Москва, район Ленинского проспекта и ул. Обручева).  One thing I miss about growing up during Communism - the overgrowth.  Photograph by Dmitriy Chistoprudov. 

http://chistoprudov.ru/portfolio/

March 29, 2011

Watch a video about it: http://hudsonvalley.ynn.com/content/all_news/535445/a-cool-pad/

March 15, 2011

“The project deals with giving new life to damaged, out-of-use furniture. over the past year, I practiced furniture-healing through design. The cultural and personal history of each piece of damaged furniture served as a starting point for the treatment, which attempted to preserve each one of their stories. the intention was to explore with joy, the multiple personalities, and the defects that exist in old products, and to create a human and hybrid aesthetic language[...] I started exploring a visual language that deals with imperfections, and giving objects human-like gestures.” - Noam Tabenkin

Read more about noam Tabenkin’s furniture on Visual Syntex

February 22, 2011

I love this extra shabby, homemade wardrobe. Found on http://www.kabinettandkammer.com/

February 09, 2011

“A picture of a house is taken before its demolition. A sofa is built from the building rubble of the house. The sofa is a portrait of the house in design and colours. The framed photo is hanging above the sofa” - Michael Sailstorfer

February 05, 2011