Good fortune
I admit it: I save the fortunes from fortune cookies—but only the ones I like. Sometimes I find them inspirational, but mostly I find them funny (in bed). But what can you do you do with them?
Join Our Mailing List!
Stay connected with the ReadyMade community with updates and announcements.
Blogger: Kevin Kelley
Bio: Kevin is a DIY junkie who lives and works in Silicon Valley. He likes to design, cook, and garden in his spare time, and he aspires to be reincarnated as his own dog.
Email: kevin@mothersruin.com
Ideas from the SF Garden Show
I spent this weekend at the San Francisco Garden Show, where I saw some great ReadyMade-style ideas. All the exhibits were really wonderful, but there was one that truly stood apart from the rest—
Hoop it up
I don’t sew, but I do admire the beautiful graphics of many fabrics. Unfortunately, I’ve never come up with a way to use fabric without picking up a needle and thread—that us, until I came across these gorgeous swatch portraits, made by New York fabric shop the Purl Bee.
The concept is simple: use embroidery hoops as frames and fabric as art. After following the Purl Bee’s how-to tutorial, hang several
Seed, seal, deliver
Ah, the onset of spring. The sun is shining, birds are chirping, and members of the Seed Savers Exchange are starting to receive seed requests from fellow seed savers. My first request came in this week.
This presented both a challenge and an opportunity: design an easy-to-fold seed packet that will not only hold the seeds, but protect them in the mail as they travel to their new home.
Picture Perfect
I’ve never been good at hanging pictures. I can never get them positioned right, and then when I finally commit to where I want them to go, I cannot execute the design. Usually I end up calling over a friend who “stages” houses for a real estate company. He finally taught me the tricks of the trade. Here’s how the pro’s hang pictures:
Boxed set
People send me postcards all the time. My refrigerator is like a museum of other peoples’ vacations — allowing me to travel to exotic locations vicariously. I keep them not only for the scenic vistas, but sometimes there is a design aspect that I like for my own work: color combinations, placement of the subject matter, or unusual typefaces. The problem is that I run out of refrigerator display space way before I run out of postcards.
Archives
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
Categories
- Books
- Design IQ
- DIY Projects
- DIYF
- Events
- Ideas We Wish We’d Thought Of
- Raw Materials
- Reinventing X
- Stuff We Love
- Sustainable living
- Tools
Links
Bloggers
- Adam Marshall
- Alex Sheehan
- Amanda McCorquodale
- April Kilcrease
- Cat Morley
- Claire Robertson
- Claire Donato
- Darci Andresen
- Derek Fagerstrom
- Damien Scogin
- Gayla Trail
- Ilana Diamond
- Jen Trolio
- Jocelyn McAuley
- Josh Brown
- Julia Cosgrove
- Kelley Lugea
- Kevin Kelley
- Maggie Mason
- Megan Reardon
- Mia Jones
- Mike Senese
- Mike Chino
- Shoshana Berger
- Timothy Dahl