Three Tweaks

1. Salad Days

My vinaigrette and I love each other very, very much. But after fifteen years together, the thrill is gone. Garlic mashed with salt, a grind of pepper, some lemon juice, coarse Dijon, red wine vinegar, and olive oil: they’re good on everything. Yet played out. Enter: Worcestershire sauce. Who knew this beef-centric condiment could rock my baco-vegetarian world? There’s no telling what’s in the dark elixir, but color me umami!

For a sexy salad makeover, take the vinaigrette ingredients above, substitute dry mustard for the Dijon, and canola oil for the olive oil. Then shake in a dash or two of Worcestershire. Just a tad. This tip courtesy of Meg, Step-mom of the Coconut Girl.

2. IKEA, I hardly know ya!

There are two ways to shop at Ikea. Eternally, or surgically. After many trips to the Swedish retailer, I’ve learned to skip the endless room displays and go straight to a few preselected items. No more testing mattresses or staring at the mechanical arm banging cabinet doors shut. Now it’s just park, grab the Kluckaa drawer pulls, and bolt!

Nevertheless I sometimes get ambushed by an unexpected shot of beauty, like SY, an Ikea-produced tome about textiles. Last November I paratrooped into the store’s office section to get some desk accessories. Next to a stack of inboxes was a single copy of SY. Was it destiny? Or was it abandoned by a Mom suddenly summoned to get her kid from Smalland?  I’m not sure, but for $9.99, I was sold. One of the book’s pages shows a curtain hanging from a tree. ‘Drape fabric from a branch where there’s a breeze,’ the caption says. So this past Sunday, when Spring arrived on our street, that’s just what I did. Neighborhood kids came out of the woodwork to investigate. It’s a sail! A curtain! A wall! A stage! A karate pad! Yes, it’s all of these, and more. You can do it, too. Just grab a couple of clothespins and some fabric. A spare curtain or twin sheet will do.

3. Trace

When people think of architects, they usually think of blueprints. But long before designs are ready for the printer, architects use semi-transparent trace paper to sketch out different schemes. Trace is rolled out over an existing drawing, which allows for quick design studies without marring the original document. The paper reproduces well on a copier, making it useful for client meetings in the early design phases.

But trace has applications in the thee-dimensional world, too. I’ve used it to wrap presents, and make wall hangings. My favorite real-world use of trace was a project I did with some kindergartners in 2010. I was teaching them how small design changes can make a place feel completely different. We wrapped layers of trace around their school sandbox and created a semi-enclosed room. We purposefully left gaps between the courses to frame views in and out. The best part, though, was seeing how the new walls caught light and shadow from the surrounding trees and trellis. Twenty minutes to transformation…no blueprints necessary.