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Category Archives: Happy Home
Simply Imperfect.
Wabi-Sabi Weekend: The Benefits of Downsizing
On Wabi-Sabi Weekends, I post excerpts from my book, Simply Imperfect: Revisiting the Wabi-Sabi House.
“I want to spend the time I have doing things that make my heart rage.” — Buck Howard
Letting go of commitments we’re not fully committed to and stuff we don’t care about (but have to take care of) is a gift greater than gold—and an ability worth cultivating.
My first taste of simplicity’s promise came from Duane Elgin’s 1981 bestseller, Voluntary Simplicity. … Continue reading
Posted in Happy Home, Wabi-Sabi
Tagged downsizing, Duane Elgin, simple home, simple living, tiny homes, Voluntary Simplicity, wabi-sabi simplicity
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Wabi-Sabi Weekend: William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Revolution
On Wabi-Sabi Weekends, I post excerpts from my book, Simply Imperfect: Revisiting the Wabi-Sabi House.
“It is common now to hear people say of such and such a piece of country or suburb: ‘Ah! It was so beautiful a year or so ago, but it has been quite spoilt by the building.’ Forty years back the building would have been looked on as a vast improvement; now we have grown conscious of the hideousness we are creating, and we … Continue reading
Wabi-Sabi Weekend: Shibui and Mid-Century Modern
On Wabi-Sabi Weekends, I post excerpts from my book, Simply Imperfect: Revisiting the Wabi-Sabi House.
In the 1960s, the crisp, understated (Shaker-like) Danish furniture made by Hans Wegner, Borge Mogensen, and Arne Jacobsen delighted the design world. Danish modern furniture,, finished only with a sandpaper rubdown or linseed oil and embellished sparingly with natural materials such as leather, cotton and linen, was a breath of fresh air in an environment cluttered with all the new plastics … Continue reading
Wabi-Sabi Weekend: A Quiet Home is a Peaceful Home
On Wabi-Sabi Weekends, I post excerpts from my book, Simply Imperfect: Revisiting the Wabi-Sabi House.
“O Great Spirit, help me always … to remember the peace that may be found in silence.”—Cherokee prayer
In describing his days at Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau writes of summer mornings spent sitting in his sunny doorway, “in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sang amid or flittered noiseless through the house, until by the sun falling in at my west window, … Continue reading
Wabi-Sabi Weekend: Perfection is Boring
On Wabi-Sabi Weekends, I post excerpts from my book, Simply Imperfect: Revisiting the Wabi-Sabi House.
“Today, thank goodness, we are more concerned with the personal than with perfection.”—Billy Baldwin
Super-lush interior design magazines make me neurotic. I’m drawn to them like an addict for a fix—into lush, seductive page after page of stylish, expensive, perfect rooms that I could never in a million years afford. Everything, down to the Andy Goldsworthy books on the tufted … Continue reading
Posted in Happy Home, Wabi-Sabi
Tagged wabi-sabi decorating, wabi-sabi design, wabi-sabi home
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Wabi-Sabi Weekend: Clear the Clutter
On Wabi-Sabi Weekends, I post excerpts from my book, Simply Imperfect: Revisiting the Wabi-Sabi House.
“Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is a void to receive it.”—Simone Weil
A couple years ago I gave a workshop called “Making Your Home Your Sanctuary” in New York City. Before we got under way, each of us talked about what we loved—and hated—about our homes. Almost every participant mentioned clutter as his or her number one obstacle … Continue reading
Posted in Happy Home, Wabi-Sabi
Tagged decluttering tips, get rid of clutter, how to declutter, uncluttering, uncluttering advice
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On the Wall
Cree’s shot of my wall
Got fifty Instagram likes
This made us both smile
Snowy Monday
Cree makes some Cree Tea
Perfect for a winter day
Now it is snowing
Wabi-Sabi Weekend: Finding a New Lens
On Wabi-Sabi Weekends, I post excerpts from my book, Simply Imperfect: Revisiting the Wabi-Sabi House.
“The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” —Marcel Proust
I landed at Kate NaDeau’s sweet, rustic stone house on a hillside near Belfast, Maine, while scouting houses and gardens to feature in Natural Home magazine. I had gone to see Kate’s gardens, bountiful with vegetables, flowers and herbs that she sells at the farmers’ market under … Continue reading
Posted in Happy Home, Wabi-Sabi
Tagged Leonard Koren, Scott and Helen Nearing, Stone Soup Farm, wabi-sabi, wabi-sabi house
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Wabi-Sabi Weekend: Slow Design
“The parking lots and aisles of discount stores may be where the restless dead of a commodity civilization will tread out their numberless days.”—Lewis Hyde
Since it was founded in 1986, Slow Food has inspired a Slow movement. Carlo Petrini founded Slow Food, an international organization that links food’s pleasures with community and the environment, to fight the corporate banality that was destroying the culinary experience. In the past decade, Slow Food has spawned a Slow movement that includes Slow … Continue reading