ReadyMade: Instructions for everyday life

Editors' Notes
Archive for the ‘ReadyMade News’ Category

Hail to the New

In case you hadn’t noticed, this week we welcome three new blogs and six new bloggers to ReadyMade. Lily Kane and Erin Loechner are covering design at our blog Design Binder; Carmela Ciuraru and Melissa Goldstein are all over culture at Media Diet; and Helen Jupiter and Keith Mulvihill are writing about travel and places at Escape Hatch.

Please pay them a visit and catch their self-introductions here, here, here, here, here, and here. Think about sending Keith some of your best “travel porn.

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Also later this week, Megan Jeyifo of Urban Casita is going to be making her debut on our home ‘n’ garden blog, Inside, Out.

So as you can see, we’ve been pretty busy around these parts. Now that we’ve got our eight-count-’em-eight blogs in place, we’re looking forward to rolling up our sleeves and getting down to the business of bringing you all the DIY ideas, decorating tips, design news, small-spaces hints, book/music/art notes, craft projects, fashion and style news, armchair travel destinations, real travel destinations, ‘how did you get that f*&%ing awesome job’ interviews, and visual and mental candy that we can.

As always, the ReadyMade blogs are a work in progress; if you have feedback or there’s something that you’d like to see here, feel free to leave a comment or email me.

And the Winner of the Corinne Grant Hand-Hammered Bracelet Is…

It’s official…the winner of the fetching gold bracelet in our ‘ReadyMade Wants to Be Your Sweetheart‘ giveaway on Twitter, as chosen from all you entrants by Random.org, is….

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…@ennuigo!

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Also, if you can believe it, there were exactly 69 entrants in our Valentine’s-themed contest. I think that’s gotta be auspicious, or lucky, or something. Thank you for playing, thank you for reading, and most of all, thank you for being awesome. Happy Valentine’s, sweethearts!

xo,

Team ReadyMade

Society Pages: RM February/March Launch Party at Jonathan Adler in SOHO

Everyone loves them, everyone hates them, and everyone wants to be in them. Since we will most likely never make the pages of Vanity Fair, we have taken matters into our own hands. As part of our ongoing Society Pages, we present you with…ReadyMade’s February/March Launch Party at Jonathan Adler’s SOHO Outpost.

Great people, good drinks, and falling snow made this a night for the books.

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Click here to check out the full HDYGTFAJ story featuring Jonathan Adler.

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RM’s editor in chief Andrew Wagner and Jonathan Adler.

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Homemade Tabletop Letterpress in Action

I love getting notes from readers, particularly when they’re showing off things they’ve made. Not long ago, reader Samantha Barsky got in touch to say that she had created one of our most popular projects (and a technically daunting one, if I say so myself): the tabletop letterpress printer from Issue 32.

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Here’s what Samantha had to say about her project (and after the jump, a print she created on her homemade press).

Hi Katherine,
I live in San Francisco, so we have the fabulous San Francisco Center for the Book, and I had taken an intro to letterpress printing class there.  I design note cards, gift tags and invites, but I really love doing gift tags, so I thought it would be fun to get a tabletop press.  About that time is when I read the Readymade article on the DIY Tabletop Press.  I got really excited about it, but didn’t do anything with it for a while.  My dad is really good at building things, making things, etc., so I showed him the article and he said it would be easy.  So we made a plan to do the project together.

We went out, bought the supplies, and made the press.  We ran into a few issues, and we had to make some modifications, but it works!  Of course now I just need a bigger space, can you do an article on making my tiny little craft closet into a space where I can fit a big work table? Anyway, I love letterpress and wish I could do more of it, but in the meantime, I do little projects on my homemade press.  The barn print I sent you was an original photograph of mine that I got made into a plate from Boxcar Press.  I like to take my photos and turn them into plates, I have done it with some flowers too.  Let me know if you want to know more.

Thank you,
Samantha
www.noteify.com

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Meet Us In New York (On Feb. 2, at the Launch Party for Our Feb/March Issue)

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In the February/March issue of ReadyMade, we bring the old “How Did You Get That F*&%ing Awesome Job” column back to life in print. Our first victim—er—profilee is Jonathan Adler, potter, businessman, and decorative muse extraordinaire. We’re going to be throwing a little party at Jonathan’s Soho store, at 47 Greene Street in New York, from 6 to 9 pm next Tuesday, February 2. Do come by and join us if you’re in the neighborhood!

ReadyMade and GOOD Teach You How to Take It Easy

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We at ReadyMade are proud to announce that we’ve teamed up with our friends at GOOD to coauthor a special section of GOOD’s Winter 2010 issue. The theme of the issue is “Slow Down: Perspectives on a smarter, better, and slower future.” Now, we ReadyMakers may be industrious, we also love nothing more than a good relax, so we were more than happy to pitch in with instructions and encouragement on ten techniques designed to help you take it easy.

You can read the entire “GOOD (and ReadyMade) Guide To Slowing Down” online at GOOD’s site.

Some of the projects in the package had their beginnings right here on this blog If you care to dig a little deeper, here are links to the original musings that led to some of the slowing-down projects in GOOD.

1. Eliminate Something (”A Week Without Plastic“)
2. Build an Indoor Stoop (”Still Dreaming of an Interior Stoop“)
3. Take Time to Still Your Mind (”Get High Now Officially Available“)
4. Build a Backyard Dumpster Pool (”Dumpster Diving“)
8. Watch Your Garden Grow (”Crowdsourcing the Cottage Garden“)
9. Make Yourself a Place to Escape (”Weekend Warriors: Mexican Swinging Bed Thing“)

Read happily, and not too fast. Remember: it’s quality over quantity.

We Have New Blogs!

I’m really happy to be able to announce today that ReadyMade has four new blogs and eight new bloggers, to bring you ever more coverage of the wonderful things and DIY possibilities going on in the worlds of home, food, craft, and fashion.

Please take a moment to explore them for yourself, via the navigational buttons on the right. At Inside, Out, Chris Gardner, Garth Johnson and Claire Joyce cover all things home and garden; at Feast, Marc Matsumoto of No Recipes and Jeannette Ordas of Everybody Likes Sandwiches will blog about food and entertaining; Marc is kicking things off with a series of indispensable kitchen tips. At Make Nice, SF-based crafter extraordinaire Polly Conway will be writing about what’s striking her fancy in the craft world, and at Off the Rack, Tricia Royal of bits + bobbins and Jane Flanagan of Ill Seen, Ill Said will share what’s most new and interesting in fashion and style. I couldn’t be happier to welcome all these talented writers and tasteful souls to the ReadyMade family.

We’ll be adding RSS feeds from the new blogs to ReadyMade’s Twitter account, so one good way to keep tabs on what’s new is to follow us on Twitter; we’re @readymadetweets.

Over the next couple months, we’ll be rolling out even more new blogs and adding new bloggers, so stay tuned. And in the meantime, please help our newest contributors feel at home by visiting their spots on ReadyMade and leaving them a comment to say hello.

Planet Green, ReadyMade and Summer Rayne Oakes Take On New Holiday Traditions

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Last month I got to spend a full 12 hour day shooting segments with Summer Rayne Oakes for Planet Green. We here at ReadyMade are big fans of the network (and their partner site TreeHugger) so we were more than happy to work together to come up with a few ways to spread some holiday cheer. That’s us above, about to spend some quality time making chocolate covered fruit cake truffles, the ultimate in edible re-gifting. (And yes, I was pretty excited to be in a kitchen that resembled the one Giada de Laurentis uses to tape her show. Apparently I have inner yearning to be a food network star.) Here’s the story on the segments:

Planet Green encourages everyone to stop and smell the mistletoe with “New Traditions”. Ed Begley, Jr. and Rachelle Carson Begley, Philippe Cousteau and Alexandra Cousteau, Bill Nye, SuChin Pak, Summer Rayne Oakes, The Fabulous Beekman Boys Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge, the editors of ReadyMade magazine and others will help set the mood for a meaningful holiday season.  From fire house care packages to caroling via video chat, it’s all about looking forward and giving back.

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Mason Jennings, A ReadyMade Concert Series

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A nondescript overcast day in Des Moines turned out to be something else entirely for our inaugural ReadyMade Concert Series. We took over the second floor lounge, set up an old project as a backdrop, and let Mason Jennings make it a much, much brighter day for everyone.

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Mason Jennings playing Sunlight.

On tour in support of his latest effort Blood of Man, Mason Jennings and his band dropped by the RM offices to sing some ditties and color outside the lines. (Literally, they were a half hour late to sound check due to the impromptu art session during the interview—check out the video at the bottom of the post for the full story.) After playing three tracks from the album, he and his mates headed to our conference room to talk shop.

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Falloween: Just Another Day at the Office

Amy (our deputy editor), Adam (our senior graphic designer), and I just returned from a festive fall party one floor above us: Better Homes and Gardens Falloween. Not only were there beverages and all kinds of treats, but also gourd bowling and pumpkin ring toss.

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Amy threw first, and tossing that hula hoop was much harder than it seemed. She didn’t reach the free ticket pumpkin, but she did get some candy out of it…which is just as satisfying.

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Adam definitely wins the “RM Gourd Bowler of the Year” award. We found that kicking the ball off the wall results in more pins down, but also increases the noise to an obnoxious level.

After all, we were in an office building.

Found: Robot

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If you were wondering who made the adorable robot that Nilea P. Alexander had in her Brooklyn home (August/September 2009), look no further. Thanks to Janine, who was kind enough to email us, we now know it was Erika Kern of My Imaginary Boyfriend!

Catch ReadyMade on Etsy’s Shop Live, This Wednesday

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At 4pm Eastern time this Wednesday, October 7, I’m going to be appearing in the Etsy Virtual Labs for a Halloween installment of their “Shop Live” series, broadcast in real time from Etsy HQ in Brooklyn. I’ve been combing the Etsy website in search of the most evocative, inspiring, ghastly, wonderful items for DIY Halloween costumes and celebrations, and I’ll be sharing them with the first 150 comers at the interactive online meeting space.

Get all the info right here on Etsy’s blog, The Storque, and stop by and say Hi (or, you know, Boo or whatever) on Wednesday!

How Small Were Our Spaces

In the projects section of our October/November Small Spaces issue, we included bite-sized stories about the tiniest habitations you’ve ever hung your hats in. We solicited the stories over Facebook, Twitter, and at this blog. Here’s an expanded version of what RM readers had to say about livin’ small.

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“I lived in a camper for about a year and a half while I traveled with the Big Apple Circus. If I stood up straight, my head touched the ceiling; my arm-span allowed me to touch both walls; the head-clearance while in bed was a mere five inches. I didn’t always have running water or electricity, but having people close by (~125 of them), really helps out in nearly ANY situation. Having to pack and unpack many, many times per year really reduces your need to acquire things, but also maximizes your creativity in such a cramped environment. Astroturf on the steps leading out made it “front-yardy” and plastic flowers that over-winter made it even more homey. I used the TINY toilet/bathroom as a storage for kites, rain-gear, etc., but otherwise mostly lived OUTSIDE rather than in!”—Ryan Gray, Cambridge, MA

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Society Pages: October/November Issue Release at the Ace Hotel in NYC

Everyone loves them, everyone hates them, and everyone wants to be in them. Since we will most likely never make the pages of Vanity Fair, we have taken matters into our own hands. As part of our ongoing Society Pages, we present you with…An Evening at the Ace Hotel in New York City.

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The ReadyMade crew was out in full force on Thursday night at the brand new Ace Hotel in New York City, taking over the lobby and bar area for two hours (or maybe a little more…), drinking PorkSlap and causing a general ruckus.

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Notice the pigs high-fiving. It’s that good.

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Re-Re-Fashion

Anna Rusk from Lawrence, Michigan, sent in some rad photos of her take on two of August/September’s (RE)FASHION projects. Riffing off of the button front mini and drawstring skirts, she made two adorable pieces to flirt around in during the remaining days of summer! Hooray Anna!
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Anna writes:

Although almost every project in your magazine goes on my “to try
someday” list, the (RE)fashion section of the August/September issue
actually prompted me to get busy. I headed down to the Goodwill and
picked up two men’s shirts, which I turned into cute, casual skirts
per your instructions. They’re my new favorites in these last hot days
of summer!

Do you have photos of any projects that completed straight from, or inspired by, the pages of ReadyMade? Go ahead and send them our way, we would love to see ‘em!