Functional life without flair, style and flowers?
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I do agree with some chapters of the book like getting rid of useless clutter and stop buying things we don't really need. But if I'd just black suits and white shirts, it wouldn't be very uplifting. If I'd reduce my plants (in order to avoid mess), get rid of cute things (that could get dusty) stop having a convenient, stylish or fancy handbag, wearing black (in order not to see the dirt on my clothes) my life would be rather "cold" and functional. I like decorating my home in order to live cozy and charming. Life is also a question of HOW. My life shall have atmosphere. Finaly I wonder why the book has no suggestion of having can-food an getting rid of pets. It will save lot of time and money. :-)
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Flowers are very nice, the eaves true to nature. I cut out the butterflies - totally unnecessary in the arrangement!
4289603
This is a quick and easy read, but I'm not sure I walked away with anything more than another reminder to simplify and lead an intentional life. Mundane descriptions of a family's life masquerade as some sort of advice handbook. Maybe I already live the life Tsh aspires to -- cooking & eating well, loving, simplicity, respect -- her notes and goals seem very elementary.

Basically this is a 30-something writing a simple reminder to "stop and smell the roses."
p.s. doing more with less should also include having fewer kids....sorry, but it's true.
3157371
If you're like most people (especially those new or newish to ecohomes) you may wonder, if only subconsciously, that green homes have to be drab or boring looking. After all, healthy food doesn't taste as good as treats loaded with sugar and fat and safe cars tend to be boxy and unsexy. Well, New Green Home Solutions helps put the notion that green = dull to rest. It's filled with lots of high quality photos showing handsome ecofriendly homes. There is also advice among the photos, but you shouldn't buy this as a how-to book. But more for ideas: the big thesis being that you can create a house that feels as good to live in as it is good for the environment.
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Ms. Kondo's  method of tidying is simple, practical, and easy enough to follow if you live alone. Some of the advice and reasoning veers towards perfectionism, which I caution against as this does not lead to happiness. In addition, while being surrounded by things you love will not itself make you happy (objects do not tend to be the source of lasting joy), the ability to discern the important and enjoyable things in your life and make decisions about what to keep (including your career, people in your life, etc.) will certainly have an impact on your well-being. I am curious if her next book delves into the topic of tidying in a shared household with people who do not seek out tidying and seem content to live in an untidy space. How can someone who seeks a tidy space properly motivate the people she lives with?
406309
Her main audience for this book is the Fashionista with a stuffed closet that can never find anything to wear that wants to winnow down her wardrobe. That is definitely not me. I am a Fashion Disaster these days. Like many Stay at Home Moms I have fallen into the trap of putting myself last. No one cares what I look like anyway, right? I just want to be comfortable. I don't have time to coordinate an outfit in the morning plus get the kid ready. Etc.

But, as Louderback points out, feeling confident in your clothes improves your mood. And the Capsule Wardrobe concept makes it just as effortless to wear a confidence building yet comfortable outfit as it is to throw on yoga pants and a baggy t-shirt (my normal attire).

Unlike many books and articles about capsule wardrobes she doesn't give you a bunch of rules (have this many pieces in your wardrobe, wear this color or style). Instead she helps you analyze what you do like: colors, styles, accessories. Then she helps you visualize how that can all work together.

By following her tips for choosing colors and styles I like and feel good in, I feel more confident when I go into a store to choose new clothes. By adding a few pieces at a time (even from thrift stores or my beloved clearance rack) I can build a mix and match wardrobe that is just as simple for me as jeans and a t-shirt.
4881051
If all you want is pretty, flowery poems you won't find them here. What you will find is true to life poems, about true life and true feelings. Just like the title say it's about the HUMAN CONDITION.
Read THE HUMAN CONDITION by Damion Hamilton. You will be glad you did.
2423768
Love this book! Minimal reading and effort with big ideas that aren't intimidating and don't make your feel like you have to get rid of your treasures. I'm a "keep everything" kind of person and when you do that you don't really enjoy or find the things you kept, time to clear up, donate and enjoy the things that mean something to me. Thank you for not making it scary!
4368429
Not wild about the fabric flowers.  Haven't worn them.  Maybe someday.
65146
a modern story of a woman who misses her home culture after living  in reasonable success abroad...but in search of male companion...hubby.....so Nature takes its course......
460151
I happened upon Francine Googling Minimalism. Her book is great but her Blog is Awesome!!
The look is minimal and clean. The words, inspiring!! Before this I had studied and tried to
apply Feng Shui to my life and surroundings. But being a Christian the Buddhist element of Feng Shug
just never felt right.  Minimalism, is just minimalism.  It's clutter clearing, and organizing
without having to conjure up good fortune with things you'd rather not put your faith in.
I wish I had known years ago how much could be gained by being a Minimalist.
It fits perfectly with a Christian life.
Gods Blessings to you all!!
4867293
It's not my style at all. I guess whether you like it is dependent on what you like for style but I thought it was kind of blah and lacking anything to make it fun like zippers or buttons etc. Fabric  is comfortable, color is nice tho
1387452
Feeling at Home, Defining Who You are And How You want to Live, Morrow, 1999.

Tags: Conduct of Life, Identify (Psychology), Home-Psychological Aspects

Something has happened to the magazine racks at US drug stores and grocery stores, and even bookstores, such as Walden and Barnes and Nobel. Public affairs magazines are missing. Life Magazine is gone, even Playboy is relegated to the highest shelf in a plastic wrapper. I have been remodeling my home and discovered that I could find several dozen magazines devoted to decorating and remodeling. There were specialized issues that focused only on baths, kitchens, "country" homes, apartments and even magazines that offered a focused on "outdoor" living.

However, with all of these selections when I examined the floor plans closely there were few choices. Bathrooms may now include bidets, unusual for an American home, if not urinals, but in the end there is a simple choice: toilet, tub and shower, sink and medicine cabinet. Kitchens only offer stove, refrigerator, dishwasher, possibly a disposal and microwave. When I think of my grandmother's Thor, purchased early in the century, appliances that enabled the user to swap out parts and use as either a dishwasher or clothes washer, I wonder to what extent we have changed.

Amid all of these choices I have recently found one book that speaks to my own needs

Feeling at Home, Defining Who You are and How You Want to Live by Alexandra Stoddard, published by William Morrow, 1999. Chapter 2 is a delightful dialogue called "Shaping Your Home" in which a husband and wife are interviewed by a decorator the questions deal with how the couple actually lives. The decorator commands the couple

"Site on your side of the bed. Now sit on John's side. How does it feel?" The discussion is almost like couples therapy.

The author emphasizes the role of light on the house. She explains that reflection, that can mean more light, can come from many places, including mirrors and shiny surfaces. She also frees the reader to embrace color, the colors that the person occupying the house really likes. If you like purple, red, and bright yellow use them. She includes items not usually thought have as part of the decorating task as essential:  telephones, the multiple roles of the kitchen table, windows in relationship to the views they display.

The ultimate goal of the book is to make the individual or the family looks at their own needs, which may be unconventional and design living spaces according to these needs, not some preconceived plan.

So, back to the home I am renovating. It is a house I have owned for 47 years sand lived in with a husband and two children, with a teenager and adult daughter with ideas of her own, a strange period when I shared it with a brother, ex-husband, daughter and a daughter who returned home after a divorce. I have rented the house to strangers while helping a daughter with grandchildren, while I was in the Peace Corps, while living in a downtown condo. I will be returning home now, planning yet another use of space, sharing with short-term renters.

I plan to reread the Stoddard book with a notebook, examining as she suggests what "feeling at home" means to me, using the house as a focus for "designing my life". I look forward to purchasing my notebook, to including a history of my earlier lives at the home, including information about the street, the neighborhood, and hope that when I return to this subject in a year I will be living in my home happily, more happily than every before.
1227362
How many of us would love to follow around a favorite aunt in her home who happens to be one of the U.S.'s premier interior designers--like Bunny--while she drops her design pearls of wisdom for us to catch and record? That's what the experience of reading this book feels like. Since Bunny can't adopt all of us, she compiled the precious design insights that over 30 years of designing and living in beautiful rooms has taught her.

In SCRAPBOOK FOR LIVING, Bunny's emphasis is on living: how to create rooms that are beautiful AND livable.  If you've seen rooms decorated by Bunny Williams--especially her own homes--you know they combine style with livability. They're homey.  They're rooms where dogs are allowed on the furniture--but they still look great in magazines. Bunny shares the inside details of how she accomplishes this.

Bunny stresses function in this book--how to make rooms work in an attractive way. There's tips for every room--from mudrooms, to living rooms and libraries, to project rooms, to bedrooms and baths. Covering A to Z design topics such as selecting chairs to bringing a home to life with flowers, scents, art and fireplaces, Bunny teaches the essentials of comfort. It's the gems she shares along the way--any place you want a window and don't have one, put a mirror--that make this book invaluable. Another favorite tip is take a camera with you and photograph what you love for your own design scrapbooks.  It's intriguing to read what inspires Bunny, including her nine favorite design books and design resources. Bunny says when she sees a home full of books, she knows the owners are likely to be interesting. This book's pictures are MORE about illustrating the ideas in it--less about seeing all the beautiful rooms she has decorated.

What I loved about this book is it provides a personal look at how a top designer, savvy entrepreneur, wife, mother, dog-lover who loves to travel, entertain, read, and learn lives in her homes.  What are her priorities in combining beauty and function?

In writing classes, you learn the ABCD elements of fiction books: Action, Background, Character and Dialogue.  There's a fifth element in books, I've realized, and that's the personality/character of the author which can't help but leak through. Likable, nice authors write likable books which touch your heart. You hear people who have met Bunny say how darn likable she is; reading her books is heart-warming. You can almost hear her: "honey, after polishing the silver, keep it in an airtight bag...my favorite fragrances for rooms are....you can use the seating fabric in a room to create a matching dog-bed the dogs will want to be on...." Priceless and personal tidbits for well-lived and well-loved lives & homes fill this scrapbook for living.
1645300
Living a grateful and uncluttered life is the message that pervades this book.  The backstory of what led the author to her expertise is fascinating - I found the imagery of her sorting and organizing her family's belongings from a very young quite entertaining.  The author's daily routine of thanking her items for their usefulness was quite touching.  What I found disheartening was the lack of emphasis on donating or repurposing the items - placing them in plastic bags and discarding them.  The shift in consciousness from the instant gratification lifestyle of "cheap and disposable" back to "quality and sustainable" is slow but forthcoming.  Hopefully if there is a subsequent edition or follow up to this book, practical options for avoiding items going to landfills will be included.  Everyone can start by avoiding plastic, using reusable shopping bags, recycling and repurposing!  As every worthwhile organizing book conveys, one's inner peace is dictation by one's physical surroundings - clutter free is harmony!
4367772
"Slow Flowers" was published in early 2013 and has an interesting premise for a book: The author, a west coast garden design expert, wondered if she could make a bouquet from locally-grown flowers every week of the year.

She didn't grow everything herself, but she avoided blooms imported from other countries, although she did buy them from local growers, some of whom used greenhouses during the winter.

Obviously, since she lives in the Seattle area, she was able to "arrange locally" more easily than many of us who live in the midwest or the northeast. But even though she is from a warmer climate, her book is still useful to the rest of us. In the back of the book, she included a list of all the plants in her bouquets, and the majority of them would grow here in the midwest, either as perennials or as common summer annuals.

And many of the bouquets included branches with leaves and berries in the fall, forced bulbs and flowering branches brought inside to bloom early in spring. These are all materials that are available to colder-climate gardeners, if not during all 52 weeks of the year.

Since I started my own cutting garden last year, I have been interested in suggestions for flowers to grow, and this book did provide me with many ideas. It also has a number of sidebars containing practical information for cut flower bouquets: how to make hellebore flowers last inside, how to use flower frogs to help flowers stay upright, etc.

"Slow Flowers" is altogether a useful book, and one well-worth reading several times over.

But even though her autumn and winter arrangements were attractive (especially the ones that relied on greenhouse-grown flowers), nothing can compare to the breathtaking freshness of daffodils and tulips in spring, a bowl of just-cut peonies in May, full-blown roses in June and great big dahlias in July. These flowers signify the fleeting nature of youth, the fragility of all life, and their beauty fills the human soul with awe for the transience of all things.

Does bringing in fading leaves and denuded branches -- signs of senescence, withering, death -- really delight the soul in the same way? Does it make us happy to plunk anything in a vase simply to have an arrangement? Or should we not even try to match the joy of spring and summer and simply look forward to the first blooms of spring (perhaps accelerating them with some early forced bulbs or branches) and perhaps buy a couple of supermarket bouquets to tide us over until then?

Is it really so terrible to support local growers in season and support growers in developing countries during winter, or worse for the environment to transport flowers than to heat a greenhouse in the north? None of these questions have easy answers, but I do feel richer for having read "Slow Flowers," which has increased my options for both the abundant seasons and the slower months.

(For a more detailed review, including photos, please visit my blog: gardenfancy.blogspot)
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Surrounded by ever-changing and increasing technology, it is a challenge to emerge as an independent, growing and unique individual dependent, not on this technology, but ourselves to create a fulfilling quality of life.  Jennifer Joy Madden offers us an opportunity to step out of this box and fulfill our human potential.  She offers helpful advice on designing your true self so that your environment, mind set, senses and lifestyle is conducive to bringing out the best in you.  This unique book and approach will help you find the uniqueness in you and living life to the fullest.  Pat Britz