Furniture Design Blog | Maxine Snider | A portal to the design world

MAGIC CARPETS

Maxine — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:32:02 +0000

Featured today on Design Sponge, these “magic carpets,” made of every day objects, are playful but sophisticated. I can marvel at the materials or take a few steps back and lose sight of the clothespins, the paperclips, the thumb tacks…More carpets from We Make Carpets can be found here.

Dance: 2012 Resolution

Maxine — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:59:09 +0000

Girl Walk // All Day: Chapter 2 from Girl Walk // All Day on Vimeo.

One of our New Year’s Resolutions was to do a little more dancing. Here’s something to inspire you–Chapter 2 of a dance film called Girl Walk/All Day. Click here for more excerpts. Filmmakers Jacob Krupnick and Youngna Park.

BOOKSHELF PORN

Maxine — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:04:31 +0000

BOOKSHELF PORN, right here. Enabling you one shelf at a time.

GIFT

Maxine — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:12:33 +0000

I was never a huge fan of dolls, but then I found this. Dolls. For adults. Had I known I could have a Grandma Moses doll, or a Frida Khalo doll, I may have been converted a long time ago. Look at these beautiful works of art by UneekDoll Design.

Frida Khalo, Grandma Moses, and Shel Silverstein

TEMPORARY TATS

Maxine — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:47:00 +0000

Tina Eisenberg (aka “Swiss Miss”) is a leader in the design world, for her design work, as well as her gift for community-building and curating. One of her recent projects drew from a band of creatives, ‘design celebrities’ in the blog-world and beyond, to create a series of temporary tattoos, which she calls Tattly’s.

Tattly from Made by Hand on Vimeo.

DAYTRIP: Eames Shell Chairs

Maxine — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:07:15 +0000

Continuing our homage to all things Eames, we visit the factory where Eames shell chairs are made.

[Thanks to Swiss Miss]

SENSE: SOUND AND SILENCE, 2012

Maxine — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:22:57 +0000

Another beautiful film by The Selby.

Happy New Year! Resolutions

Maxine — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:19:14 +0000

Welcome to 2012. I’m so happy to see you here. I’m sure many of you have a nice plate of New Year’s Resolutions in front of you. I offer my faith, support, and this wonderful article on keeping those resolutions. Before the end of the week, why not fine tune that list?

“To tear ourselves away from the everyday, from habit, from mental laziness which hides from us the strangeness of reality, we must receive something like a real bludgeon blow,” wrote playwright Eugene Ionesco in 1959.

Ionesco’s metaphor may be violent, but with good reason. Breaking from our usual habits is difficult and often painful – requiring not just willpower and stamina but also the courage to take risks, to fail, and to pick ourselves up again.

The turn of the year presents a dangerous allure: That of the clean slate. We make big, bold resolutions as if starting from scratch. Didn’t accomplish those 2011 resolutions? Well then, it’s time to double-down for 2012!

Unfortunately, it’s not so simple. Most of us have existing commitments (jobs, relationships, etc) and a slew of bad habits (a Twitter-checking obsession, a weakness for mindless Netflix instant movies) that don’t go away at the end of the calendar year.

Now, before you think this post is going to depress you, my point is not that we should throw up our hands and do away with New Year’s resolutions. Rather, it’s that we should simplify our goals – fully recognizing our existing constraints, strengths, and weaknesses – so that we can actually achieve them.

Let’s choose quality over quantity this year. Let’s dispense with the resolutions list that’s a vague mishmash of broad ambitions and aspirational new habits in favor of a more targeted, more meaningful, more achievable list of goals.

As you consider a simplified approach to setting your resolutions for the New Year, here are a few guidelines and resources:

1. Reflect on what you have accomplished. I love Chris Guillebeau’s annual review approach, not least because it begins with an oft-overlooked activity: reflection. He starts by asking two questions: What went well last year? What didn’t go well last year? It’s a very simple but useful exercise that takes stock of where you’ve built new skills for success and where there’s room for improvement. After a clear-eyed assessment of what you’re capable of, you’ll be in good stead to set your goals for the year ahead.

2. Select 1-3 meaningful goals that will make an impact. When it comes to resolutions, research and experience show that you’re much more likely to be successful if you: (1) lay out a small list of very specific goals, (2) outline a clear plan of action to achieve them, and (3) plan for what will happen in case of setbacks, distractions, and interruptions. So consider this: What matters most to you in the coming year? What are you passionate about and well-equipped to achieve? Choose your battles wisely, and commit to them completely.

3. Remove the inessentials with a “stop doing” list. Chances are, you probably weren’t working at 80% capacity last year. In fact, I bet you felt too busy. So just where does the extra bandwidth to work on these new resolutions come from? That’s where bestselling author Jim Collins’ “Stop Doing List” comes in. To gain the time needed to enact these new goals, know that you’re going to have to give up something. It may be extra client work after you meet a certain monthly financial goal, or maybe it’s just sleeping in an extra hour. Identify what those elements are, and commit to NOT doing them.

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What’s Your Take?

How do you decide on your resolutions? What have you been meaning to do for awhile that you haven’t done?

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Jocelyn K. Glei is the Editor-in-Chief of the 99%. You can follow her intermittent tweets @jkglei.

[image and text via here]

ON TIME: CALENDARS, Part I

Maxine — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:27:14 +0000

It’s almost 2012, and a perfect time to stock up on your 2012 calendar. It’s hard to choose among the flood of attractive formats, but these make great gifts, too, if you want to buy them all:

Beginning with an oldie but goodie, the Stendig Calendar.

Here’s a much different take, for your desktop (your actual analog desktop, not your computer), Ryan McGinness’ to-do list calendar, with a drawing on each page:

For the more lunar-minded, how about this one?

Prefer more color? I like the Stars Kaleidoscope Calendar for the kitchen

ORGANIZATION

Maxine — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:10:50 +0000

To my favorite compulsive organizers out there, a new blog for you: Things Organized Neatly. When Martha Stewart Living doesn’t satisfy your need for order…

[via]