This is the “Underfull” tablecloth, designed by Kristine Bjaadal. If the sight of red wine near a white tablecloth makes you want to cringe (like it does for me), then you will be pleasantly surprised to see the results of a MAJOR SPILL.

OMG IT’S BEEEYOOOOOTIFUL!

Talk about inventive design. Kristine has devised a way to turn a host’s worst nightmare into a beautiful surprise for everyone including the embarrassed guest that knocked the glass over.

Check out Kristine’s website to see equally beautiful stains made by coffee and orange juice.

(all images borrowed from http://kristinebjaadal.wordpress.com/)

Introducing my niece to the surprising world of mazes.

My niece is five-years-old and loves surprising others. The thing is, she doesn’t really get surprise. For example, every time my sister takes her to her grandmother’s house, she walks in the door yelling, “Surprise!” After the first handful of times, this stopped being surprising. I would venture to say it’s now a tradition rather than a surprise.

If I stay over at her house, she’ll say to me, “Auntie Hannah, I’m going to surprise you in the morning, so don’t get out of bed, ok?” I’ve tried to explain to her that it would be more effective if she didn’t give me advance notice of the pending surprise, but she sticks by it. I think she’s protecting her surprise by telling me about it, so that I won’t get up too early and ruin it (I did that once, and she cried).

It’s nearly impossible for me to not at least feign a look of surprise when she makes these efforts. After all, it’s clear that my look of shock is her reward. Thinking about all of this has made me wonder why we like to surprise others so much. I would guess that more people like to be the supriser than the surprisee (though I don’t have any data to back that up – LeeAnn? Tania?).

For me, this is certainly true. I get a lot of joy out of planning a surprise for someone else, and I tend to want to recount the moment of surprise many times after the fact. Why is this? Is it just that we get great joy in making others happy, and surprise is a great happiness producer? Is it that pulling off a successful surprise feels like an accomplishment, and we want to relive it, much like we’d want to relive an Olympic victory (if we, um, had one to relive)?

From a young age, we get pleasure from causing that look of surprise in someone else’s eyes. This extends into adulthood, though our surprises may become more thoughtful and elaborate (think carefully executed surprise wedding proposal, rather than yelling, “Boo!”).

Why do you think we love to surprise others?

Is this not the most epic basketball court? In this day of modern architecture it’s wonderful to see someone who can appreciate the quirky combination of old and new and chooses to preserve what was there before while redesigning the space.

The theater below was converted into a retail space but chose to maintain the original ceilings and columns. Which reminds me…

images borrowed from Flavorwire.com

…for the locals; there is a Rite Aid at 783 Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn that also used to be a movie palace. In fact, they still have a giant disco ball (from it’s years as a roller rink) hanging above the circular floor plan. I recommend checking it out if you want to go on an adventure, but be quick with the camera, they are suuuuper cranky about people taking pictures inside.

For the non-locals, this webpage describes the history of the location wonderfully and has loads of great pictures! Are there any buildings like this where you live?

Based on my research over the past couple hours (it’s amazing how addictive these videos are!), surprise marriage proposals often fall into a few categories:

The Reverse Surprise
We actually covered this in an earlier entry, but the marriage proposal version of a reverse surprise usually involves the proposer carefully orchestrating an event where the proposee thinks they are the one doing the surprising.

Here’s a good example.  And another one.

The Flash Mob
This is a popular way to propose these days, at least according to my super scientific survey of YouTube videos. Getting a group of people to bust out into a choreographed dance in a public place ain’t just for the cast of Glee.

There are many videos of this on the interwebs, but this one is especially uh-may-zing.

The Surprise Video Insert
There are a couple variations on this theme, but the basic idea is the proposee thinks they’re watching a boring movie or presentation of some kind, but it turns out it’s a video of the proposal. I think these two are particularly cute.

The Elaborate Surprise
Some people go all out, coordinating with parents, friends, and bosses to plan extra special and sometimes multi-day surprise events. This guy directed an entire staged concert, and this guy surprised his girlfriend at work and took her away on a five-day trip.

The High Tech Surprise
I had to include this short little video because it is full of awesome.

My faves?
It’s hard to pick a favorite, because there are so many great videos out there, but I think this one is especially well made (seen below), and this one is full of heart.

p.s. You gotta love a guy in a box.

We walked in to the bathroom and found the TV remote on the counter.  “What does this do?” I wondered. It didn’t turn on the TV in the main room and there was no TV in the bathroom… or was there?

Surprise TV in the mirror! No signs to let you know, just a remote, temptingly out of place. We brushed our teeth for 10 minutes straight.  The following days offered surprises that were less flashy but just as useful, if not more. Water, fruit, and snacks left on the bed around 2:30pm, headphones for the main television, sleep masks and earplugs in the drawers.  They even provided interesting books in the desk for the non-media folk.

None of these things were advertised with the room, and for that reason (regardless of the price) we ended up feeling delightfully spoiled.  Verdict? Surprises are important in the service industry.

1. Scavenger hunt. This part isn’t required but it certainly amps up the fun factor. My sweet husband had used an incredibly fun and thoughtful scavenger hunt as a lead up to his proposal and I’d been dying to return the experience.

I had this shirt made for him.

2. Appointed meeting place. This is why the scavenger hunt is convenient, it gets the target person to the target place without too many questions, they’re on a hunt after all! I chose a local bar for him to meet me at as the final destination of his hunt.

3. Have all your guests start to arrive 20-30 min after the Birthday Person and act like it’s just some great coincidence that they picked the same place to hang out. Of course, after 3 or 4 of your friends “coincidentally” show up at the same place the jig will be up. But by then the Birthday Person is already relaxed, surrounded by friends and having a good time. SURPRISE, you’re at a party. Yours!

At the risk of sounding like a total micromanager, you might want to stagger your guests arrival if you know them to all be especially prompt people. Our friends trickled in perfectly and I don’t think the effect would have been quite the same if say, 4 or 5 of them had shown up at the same time.

Looking for other surprise party techniques? See our post on how to plan a Reverse Surprise Party!

I was surprised by a lot of what I felt during the evening. Here are some of my personal highlights and takeaways:

• Eating food in the dark is challenging! I wanted to use a fork, but since I didn’t know what to aim for, I had to use my fingers to aid in the process. Eventually I got a handle on what was on the table, but my first efforts to physically reach out to the center of the table were scary. I was sure I was going to knock something over! Also, my tablemates and I were never able to find the salad dressing.
• Listening to music in the dark is wonderful! We learned during the evening that it’s a myth that losing one sense will automatically strengthen other senses. However, I found I was able to focus much more acutely on the music without any visual distractions. My favorite part was when we were asked to sing along, and I could tell that people around me were less inhibited than they would normally be.
• Talking to strangers in the dark is fun! My tablemates and I had a blast sharing insights about the experience, and passing objects around the table to see who could figure out what they were. We also made guesses about what the others looked like. Some people just sound like they have a handlebar moustache.
• Spending a few hours in the dark is exhilarating and exhausting. It was refreshing to feel completely unself-conscious. I knew no one could see me, so I experimented with making silly faces. On the other hand, my tolerance for not being able to see was lower than I would have expected. After a couple of hours, I was anxious to have the lights turned back on.

All in all, I found the experience to be, ahem, enlightening. I highly recommend it. Find out if there’s one near you.

If you’re like me, you cruise interior design blogs on the regular and pin pretty pictures of people’s interiors to your pinterest boards. However, when you look around your own apartment, you can’t help but throw up your hands.

All these cute projects require shopping (which I loathe), a modest output of money and in most cases, space. I can tell you that spray-painting a bureau in my New York apartment is probably a sure fire way to asphyxiate myself, my husband and both of our cats. NOTHANX.

The good news is that there is a surprising tool out there, that you probably already have at least 3 of, that you can use to transform a wall or space. Behold, the humble sharpie!

That first picture of the bathroom is sharpie wall paper! Quick, efficient and completely cost effective. There are actually a number of sharpie decor ideas and tutorials online. And don’t worry, they cover a variety of methods for getting the image you want on your wall, no art degree required. Here are some of my favorites, just click the image to be taken to their respective pages.

One creative guy named Charlie Kratzer even transformed his whole basement! Click here to learn more and watch a video panorama of the space.

Sharpie image borrowed from here.

Addendum: It has been brought to my attention that it takes more than a quick slap of paint to cover your sharpie canvas for another project. To save you the time of having to google things yourself (the horror) please find the solutions I found below.

Before you repaint, you must:

1. dilute the sharpie marks with alcohol
2. sand down the sharpied areas
3. cover it with oil-based primer

The internet recommends any of these techniques or a combination of all three (in this order).