True Minimslism

Houzz had an amazing article this past week about minimalism. The author had been through a home fore that took most of her possessions. I'll link to it later but this quote really stuck out for me:

"It’s a peculiar experience to have sorted through all my possessions, to have gotten down to what I thought I could not live without, only to lose everything and find I was able to live without it all."

Small Living - Beautiful Butterfly

These structures are some of the most beautiful examples of small living and ecological and humanitarian design I've seen.  Featured in the book, "Design like you give a Damn" they house orphans in Thailand. 

Designed by TYIN Tegnestue

They are beautifully designed with local materials and building techniques.  They use prefabrication and I could see them easily mass producing these.  Could these be a design usable for emergency shelter for natural disasters?

Simple Beauty - Eyeliner from Eyeshadow

I've cut down on the number of beauty products I use by doubling up on my liner and dark eyes hadow.  I take a small angled brush and dip in water then gently brush it across a dark eye shadow and apply like a liquid eye liner.  It probably doesn't have the staying power that long lasting eyeliner does but I rarely notice that it has faded significantly and it doesn't run or smudge. 

When I saw this product I wondered about needing one item to replace another but if you are wrry about just using water to transform your eyes hadow to eyeliner this might make the transition easier. 
What I love is that it is so easy to match the color and blend in the liner because it is the same exact color. 

http://mannakadarcosmetics.com/store/products/transfix/

Book Review: The Happiness Project

Gretchen Rubin tackles 12 resolutions to help infuse more fun and happiness into her life. 
I love resolutions so I was excited about this book.  Its fun to follow someone else's inner thoughts through their struggles and victories as they tackle their own resolutions.

Gretchen starts out not with the resolutions themselves but with "Twelve Commandments" and some funny "Secrets of Adulthood."  She then breaks her resolutions into an overall goal for each month and centers her individual resolutions around that theme.

January was a focus on vitality, which makes a lot of sense to me.  If you can create habits early in the year and stick with them you have a better chance of sticking out the resolutions that happen later.  Some of her ideas I like were the standard new year's resolution:  to get more sleep, exercise more, and get organized.  The one I found most interesting was the last:   Act more energetic.  This ties into one of her commandments to act the way you feel; the idea is that if you act happy - you will actually start to feel happier.  If you act more energetic - you will actually start to have more energy. 

February, fittingly enough, was around her marriage and love in general.  I think everyone has their own relationship issues and I think every one's resolutions around this area would be quite different. 

March focused on work and had the most interesting and challenging resolution of the book: "enjoy the fun of failure!"  I wish I could embrace this more, it is so difficult for me to accept failure but I know that it is important to reach beyond what you know what you can do.  She used a mantra of repeating "Ii enjoy the fun of failure" even at time what it didn't feel so fun at the time. 

April had tips on her quest to be a better parent.  Although  this wasn't relevant for me it was interesting to see her perspective.  My favorite story was how her daughter recalls one of her favorite traditions was how her mother would sing to her as she wakes up, which shocks Gretchen because she realizes that she has done this only a few times.  It helps her remember to create wonderful memories for her children and explains her resolution to "sing in the morning."

May focused on fun and leisure; June targeted friendship and July talked about money.  We all make resolutions on money but she had a really interesting approach.  Spend money.  Yes - not budget, not pay off debt, not spend less;  Spend money to "buy happiness."  And we know that the traditional knowledge is that we can't buy happiness, but money is money, nothing more and we can utilize money to help our progress towards being more happy.  If you are in dept, you will most likely be happier when you start reducing that debt and loosening that noose.  But if you live within your means indulging in a splurge or buying things that will contribute toward your goals can increase your happiness. 

August pursued spirituality and September talked about pursuing a passion.  I think everyone has their own challenges and interests in these arenas but it is interesting to hear the inner dialog of someone else. 

October spoke to me the most.  She focused on mindfulness meditation.  This is something I struggle with extensively and many of her steps are something that I have been trying to incorporate into my own resolutions.  What I really took away from this chapter was: write your own rules!

November was an attitude shift and she focused on laughing and having good manners and she wrapped up the year by re-focusing on each of the previous resolutions.

A really interesting read - especially if you need some nudging or motivations with your own resolutions. 

Check out her blog too:  http://www.happiness-project.com/

Here are my favorite quotes and tidbits from the book:

• Try a virtual move
• Between the age of twenty and forty we are engaged in the process of discovery who we are
• Remember friends birthdays (there are so many tools for this now we shouldn't have an excuse)
•  One of the best ways to make yourself happy is t make other people happy; one of the best ways to make other people happy is the be happy yourself. 
• You manage what you measure (measure your resolutions! - She has a great tool on her website that she shares to track what you are focused on)

Some of her commandments:

• Enjoy the process
• Lighten up

Some of her "Secrets of Adulthood;"

• It's ok to ask for help
• It's important to be nice to everyone
• Soap and water remove most stains (I like this because it is so minimalist)
• What you do everyday matters more than what you do once in a while
• You don't have to be good at everything
• Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good

Small Kitchen Idea - Nesting Bowls

I think these are a great idea for a small kitchen:

You have several large bowls, a collander, measuring cups and spoons all withing the space of the largest bowl.

Depending on you design aesthetic you may love the colorful combination or wish for something with a little less pop.  Either way these could be a colorful solution to minimal storage space. 

Travel Quote

He who must travel happily must travel light. 

 ~ Antoine De Saint-Exupery

Minimalist Travel

A friend of mine who I've been sharing my minimalist habit with lately had a 4 day trip coming up.  She said that she would usually have a checked bag and a full sized carry on.  We've chatted about capsule wardrobes, basic colors, mixing and matching, etc. in the context of work clothing but I got this email and caption:



So impressive to be able to shrink your baggage by a third! 
Truly freeing and so much easier to enjoy your trip without having to schlep around so much weight!