Photo © Inter IKEA Systems B.V. 2011 // Livet Hemma
Maybe this post should actually be called “April! Stuff I Tweeted”, because it appears that I can really only remember to assemble these round-ups on a semi-monthly basis. (And I love that I start each of these posts with an excuse. Heh.)
(Also: CAN YOU BELIEVE IT’S APRIL ALREADY?! Yeah, April. Craziness.)
Anyway, here are my favorite tweets from the past couple of weeks! Have fun clicking your way through…there’s some good stuff here:
+ I love this use of plywood PRÄNT boxes, as seen on IKEA’s Livet Hemma blog. They’ve been painted inside at random, then joined together with binder clips to create a modular shelving unit. Nice!
+ There’s a lot of awesome happening in this photo.
+ I enjoyed working on this book cover as much as you’re probably thinking I did.
+ This fall, Marimekko will open a flagship store in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway. Yay!
+ I keep trying to come up with a comment about this product, but I’m actually speechless.
+ Okay, I admit it, I’m jealous of everyone’s iPhones. Even though I really don’t need one and can’t afford one anyway.
+ Via Cornel West: This NPR funding fight = Republican insecurity in terms of the low-quality of argument & truncated quality of vision (Listen to the full discussion on Smiley & West)
+ A surprisingly respectful article from ABC News: Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson: Hollywood’s Odd Couple, Now Gone
+ Time Between Thing Being Amusing, Extremely Irritating Down To 4 Minutes. (“It’s precisely at this moment when the subject starts to experience an unshakable and overwhelming desire to punch anyone making further allusion to the phenomenon right in the face”)
+ Via mjolkshop: The story of how participation in Groupon almost destroyed a small business.
+ Remember when websites used to have guestbooks?
+ Pretty renovation blog discovery: süsk & banoo.
+ Check out what some of my neighbors are doing at the house right behind mine:
Video by Freamfilms, Inc.
20 Comments
Loved the blog recommendation.
And about the video, I’ve learned over the years that absolutely nothing beats having great neighbors!
Love your tweets! Thanks for this particular morning laugh: “Remember when websites used to have guestbooks?”
Thank you so much for posting the wonderful video about your neighbors. I was having a rather depressing morning until I saw that. Faith in humanity restored! (for now.)
I love that film about the house in Newburgh. I can think of a few places in Montreal that could use something like this. It really is a beautiful house. I can see why your neighbours got together to do something about it. I can’t wait to see it in a few months time.
Wow, what a cool idea and what a bonding experience for the neighbors in your community association! Though it’s definitely a feel-good piece, I’d imagine it’s a great business decision as well! So great – thanks for sharing!
Love the clip on the restoration. So, um, are you jealous the house is going to be done in only 4 months? *cough*
Haha, no, not really! The faster they can get the house on the market, the better—it’s been vacant for about four years now, and I’d LOVE to have an occupied house behind mine. 🙂
LOL 😛
Yeah, it must be a little odd/creepy/even unsafe(?) to have a vacant house out back. That said, maybe you can lure some of the contractors into your basement with vegan treats?
Oh gosh, there are HUNDREDS of vacant/abandoned/dilapidated houses in the City of Newburgh, and plenty of them are a stone’s throw from my house—it’s the norm here! It’s exciting every time one of them becomes habitable again. 🙂
(And believe me, if I thought I could pay contractors with cookies, I’d be baking my little heart out right now!!)
GOSH! That video made my beginning weekend. I wish we had initiatives like this in Zurich to preserve some of the nice houses and structures. Instead it all has to go for ugly “shoe carton” houses to make the most money out of it.
Have a nice weekend!
Fortunately much of the City of Newburgh is a designated historic district, so the structures are protected and can only be modified and renovation in accordance with local historic guidelines. In a once-booming city that has seen a lot of disrepair over the past half-century, that kind of oversight is really essential!
Thats just not true. Many houses are protected in Switzerland by the Heimatschutz. Additionaly the Heimatschutz renovates old buildings and rents them as vacation homes (often the buildings are in regions, like the mountains, where it is almost impossible to find people who want to live there permanently, since there are no jobs).
Often the Heimatschutz goes almost too far with the protection in my opinion. Like, they will not allow you to install solar planels on your roof, if it is an old house, since they are somehow visible from the street, despite that they can be installed and removed without permanently altering the building.
The Heimatschutz also gives prices for especially nice private renovations- my parents got the price twice for their renovation of a Jugenstil/art nouveau multi-family house. That was like 27 years ago. Now the house is actually protected by the Heimatschutz and if they would want to change something (like adding a lift for their old age) they have to get the permession of the Heimatschutz which isn’t easy to get.
So Isabelle, you could join the Zurich Heimatschutz and help to protect the Buildings in Zurich. You could even propose to start an initiative like that in Zurich.
But it is just not true that old buildings just get teared down in Switzerland. Some, yes (and I am sure, that some get destroyed in Newbourgh or the USA in general too). But many are actually protected, especially the really historical or architectural important ones. There has been a lot of development in the last 40 years or so.
so happy about marimekko! it’s about time!
I’d like those boxes please! So great.
And so impressed with the renovation project… look forward to hearing more!
I don’t have an iphone or a BB either (actually, my old flip phone predates smartphones) and as a result I’m feeling like a cultural luddite. I barely tweet, don’t have a blog (but want to start one), don’t have cable and hate Wastebook (but, of course I keep my account so I can check out my friends’ photos.
I live in Canada where data plans are so expensive they border on extortion. And almost everyone I know who has a BB admit that if their employers weren’t footing the bill they wouldn’t be able to afford them either. But come this summer when they release the iphone 5 I will probably finally buy one and see what the fuss is about.
your neighbors’ project is so inspiring. my husband and I have dreamt of doing something similar in our brooklyn neighborhood. there’s a lot of houses being boarded up that could be saved. instead, they are getting trashed by neglect and graffiti. thanks for posting and I look forward to updates!
Wow, thank you for the link 🙂 Happy weekend Anna!
Wow. Loved that video. It’s inspiring and just…I want that man as my neighbor. His smile at the end of the video was so beautiful.
holy shit! <– literally said that out loud when i saw the awesomeness in that photo. patti + yoko + lou!
Hi Anna
You did it again for me. I need something stylish that I can put under our stairs to store some stuff on/in (craft items). Because its under the stairs its an odd shape but these Prant boxes from Ikea will do perfectly!. I checked and they are even for sale here in the UK!.
p.s we already have really dark gray walls in one room of our house as I was inspired by you and Jenna Lyons. I also now love sfgirlbybay due to your posts. Just wanted to say thanks for taking the time. Appreciate it.