HAPPY HOLIDAYS !!!

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Last year we didn't have a christmas tree. This year we thought it would be fun to have one, but didn't want to kill a tree or purchase anything new.
So here it is !!!
Our uplight transformed into a tree, using only stuff that was lying around the house:
- the structure is made of reed, jute string and white paper tape
- the ornaments are made mostly of draft paper and used giftwraps (tissue paper, cardboard & ribbons) that we have been keeping over the years; the ties are made with cotton thread from our sewing kit.
It was so much fun to make - pinterest was great to research origami and celtic knots tutorials.
The rest was just imagination, memories from childhood crafts, and making do with what was there.
Happy Holidays !!!

FRUIT & VEGGIES GROCERY BAGS

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Finally finally I took the step of purchasing small reusable bags for fruits and vegetables.
(found them at this store - they are supposed to be tool bags (?), according to the owner)

These are the bag-within-a-bag kind: they are replacing the thin plastic bags that are offered to pack fresh produce in the supermarket - we were getting absolutely overwhelmed with their number (as opposed to the thicker ones, which we had already managed to reduce by bringing in reusable shopping bags).

I got 5 of them to start with. They are 8 x 10 inches (20 x 25 cm), which comfortably fits 5-6 oranges / apples at the time - the amount I usually get when grocery shopping.
So excited about this.
However mine seem made of 100% cotton with a cotton string, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were imported from faraway (cost was around $2 each).

Advantages over plastic:
- no noise
- soft to the touch
- can be washed with all your other clothes in the laundry
- super strong
- lasts for years and years and years
- no pollution / waste during its use time

If you wish to have a really sustainable version of these, I recommend making your own out of hemp or linen muslin. Cotton is just too much of a pesticide and water intensive crop (unless you get it organic, from non-irrigated fields), whereas hemp is truly good (grows without any chemicals and cleans the soil naturally).

I was too lazy and impatient to make them myself, but that's really not an excuse (a lot of the ugly state of the environment today is directly linked to the fact that we're lazy and impatient). Apologies.

UPS will take your packing peanuts

Saturday, December 13, 2014

It seems that UPS stores will gladly take off your hands:

- packing peanuts 
- air-filled plastic pillows
- cardboard boxes

I just dropped off a bag full of polystyrene peanuts (which I couldn't have disposed of properly at all - polystyrene foam is a bitch, and even specialized recycling places will not take peanuts) and air-filled bags, along with the big cardboard box that contained them. They were all taken in with a smile.

I suppose they will get reused directly to pack things again. 

I heard of this tip while browsing the web,
made a quick phone call to the closest UPS store to confirm that was true,
et voila!

ps: do make that phone call beforehand though, to make sure your local store does that as well.

A Pattern Language

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

I cannot thank my friend Charlie enough for showing me this book.

It is THE BIBLE for anyone interested in real space-making, architecture design & urban planning (which is all one thing stretched at different scales).

By real, I mean with the principal purpose of creating a sense of place for human beings, as opposed to a lot of design nowadays which is preoccupied with other things (the market, fashionable gestures, editorial potential, expression of ego / money, etc.).

How does it work? Very simply, it's made of 253 chapters, each describing a pattern of human space-making that has been observed accross time & civilizations, occurring frequently enough that it seemed worthwhile saying: "hum, this has been working for hundreds of years, maybe it's a successful move worth learning about." A lot of them link back to human behavior and the human body - in terms of scale but also our 5 senses (makes sense, right?).
The 253 patterns are ordered from the biggest scale (metropolitan regions) to the smallest scale (your personal belongings), and rated with degrees of certainty (some patterns are unquestionnable, some are more tentative).
Each is illustrated with one or more photographs, as well as sketches.

It's not a book you read in one go, but more like a reference which you leaf through whenever you have a question (how long should I make my kitchen counters, what is successful outdoor seating, etc.)

It was written by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa & Murray Silverstein, and published in 1977. After all these years it is still the same treasure trove of knowledge and founding principles that will allow you to start your own thinking / experimenting. Its only drawback would be that the book is all black and white, and some photographs are pretty old - although what they illustrate isn't obsolete at all.

SO, as New Year gift to the good people of this world, The Bare Necessities has undertaken the task of creating A Pattern Language pinterest album illustrating all 253 patterns, with contemporary examples in full color. Under each photo you'll find a short quote summarizing the essence of the pattern.
Happy space-making!