Two more examples of small space living to check out today.
Think adding a guest house is expensive? Think again and this is NOT April Fools, but it is April fun!
See what Derek Diedricksen did that was creative and innovative and only $200. Derek was featured in the Sunday New York Times (Feb. 27, 2011). He used recycled materials and old junk to create playful tiny houses. He has four of them so far.
You can look at all of them in a slideshow here and read all about it in the article here.
Another interesting article on thoughtful, reflective, yet still beautiful small space living can be seen at “Diana’s Innermost House” here. This tiny house was built for the expressed purpose as Diana says, “. . . to make possible a simple life of reflection and conversation.”
A previous post considered what it would be like to live in a tree house. But many of us dream of living on a boat. Here’s a 42 ft. boat that may fit your dream. Living on a boat would make the entire globe “local.” Like a turtle, your home goes with you, wherever you are.
Actually, because our true home is within us – our home actually does go with us wherever we are!
While most of us may not be able to actually live on a boat like this – we can look for the great ideas of boat-life living that make good use of small spaces.
Clean lines, comfortable fabrics, sky lights, dual purpose furnishings and multi-level storage are the order of the day here. Although, it seems to me that the cabinet knobs would be intrusive or poking. However, I don’t live on a boat, so maybe the knobs work better. Of course, the amount of stuff is kept to a bare minimum. How much stuff do we really need?
Have you ever lived out of a backpack or small pilot bag for an extended period of time? I have. You realize how little you really need to live comfortably day to day. Author Rita Golden Gelman lived out of a backpack for fifteen years and wrote about her experience in her fascinating book, Tales of a Female Nomad. Experiences and relationships filled her life rather than stuff and shopping.
Engage your creativity. What will move us out into the world? Living on a boat is fun to imagine, think about, dream about. Ahoy!
Next post: a fun but quirky example of small space living, micro houses!
My younger daughter used to make delicious apple pies when she was about nine or ten years old.
Into a large bowl she sliced six apples. Then added a handful of flour, brown sugar and sprinkled a little cinnamon. Using her hands she mixed the apples, flour, sugar and cinnamon together. Then she dumped the bowl of coated apple slices into a pie plate prepared with a ready-to-bake crust. She covered the filling with a second crust. We baked it in the oven at 425 degrees for one hour and Mmmmm! Out came a great apple pie. However, she only liked to make the pies – she rarely ate a piece. It was always surprising to me that she didn’t like eating them herself.
The other night I watched the movie Waitress for the second time and enjoyed it yet again. The idea that the pies become a mirror for the interior emotional life of waitress Jenna is an interesting idea. Jenna’s creative pies become the vehicle for her own transformation and resurrection into a new life. We are already familiar with this idea of expressing our interior through art, writing, music. In this case, pies are the medium. Here are just a few of her pies –
Kick In The Pants Pie
Cinnamon spice custard
I Hate My Husband Pie
“You take bittersweet chocolate and don’t sweeten it. You make it into a pudding and drown it in caramel…”
Baby Screaming It’s Head Off In The Middle Of The Night And Ruining My Life Pie New York style cheesecake, brandy brushed, pecans and nutmeg…
The following recipes appeared on Waitress promotional cards
Marshmallow Mermaid Pie
9 graham crackers
1/2 C. sweetened, flaked coconut, toasted
5 Tbs. butter or margarine, melted
34 lg. marshmallows (8 oz.)
1/2 C. whole milk
1 1/2 C. heavy or whipping cream
1 oz. unsweetened chocolate, grated
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine coconut and graham crackers in food processor until coarse crumbs form.
2. Combine crumbs and butter with fork. Press to bottom and side of 9-inch pie plate. Bake 10 minutes and cool on wire rack.
3. Heat marshmallows and milk in 3-qt. saucepan over low heat until smooth, stirring constantly. Remove saucepan from heat. Cool completely (30 minutes.)
4. In large bowl with mixer at medium speed, beat cream until stiff peaks form. Fold marshmallow mixture into whipped cream with grated chocolate. Spoon filling into cooled crust. Refrigerate pie at least 3 hours or overnight.
5. Top with mini marshmallows, maraschino cherries and rainbow sprinkles. Serves 8.
Falling in Love Chocolate Mousse Pie
9-inch baked pastry shell
1 14-oz. can condensed milk (not evaporated)
2/3 C. water
1 (4 serving) pkg. chocolate pudding mix (not instant)
1 1-oz. square unsweetened chocolate
2 C. (1 pt.) whipping cream, stiffly whipped
In large saucepan, combine condensed milk, water and pudding mix; mix well. Add chocolate. Over medium heat, cook and stir rapidly until chocolate melts and mixture thickens. Remove from heat; beat until smooth. Cool. Chill thoroughly; stir. Fold in whipped cream. Pour into prepared pastry shell. Chill 4 hours until set. Serves 8.
Baby Screamin’ Its Head Off In The Middle of the Night & Ruinin’ My Life Pie
4 8-oz. cream cheese, softened
1 C. unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 C. sour cream
1/2 C heavy whipping cream
1 3/4 C. white sugar
1/8 . cornstarch
1 fl. oz. amaretto liqueur
1 tsp. vanilla extract
5 eggs
1 egg yolk
1 C. chopped pecans
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1. Bring all ingredients to room temperature. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Wrap outside of 9-inch springform pan with foil. Generously butter inside of pan.
2. In large bowl,beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Mix in sugar and cornstarch. Blend in sour cream and whipping cream. Add amaretto and vanilla. Stir in eggs and egg yolk one at a time, mixing thoroughly between each addition.
3. Pour batter into pan. Place pan in another pan at least 1 inch wider and add water to outside pan (prevents cracks). Bake on center rack for 70 minutes.
4. Turn oven off and let cool with door open for 1 hour. Remove cake from water and chill at least 3 hours before removing cake from pan. Top with crushed pecans and dust with nutmeg. Serves 8.
If you visit Duluth, Minnesota you can always head up Hwy 61 and visit Betty’s Pies just north of Two Harbors. This restaurant will remind you of “Joe’s Pies,” converted to “Lulu’s Pies” restaurant in the movie. Many incredible, “world fabulous” pies on the menu. Five-Layer Raspberry Pie is my favorite.
Better yet, perhaps today I will bake a steaming apple pie, top it with vanilla ice cream and drizzle it with caramel in memory of my daughter’s apple pies 🙂
Not too long ago our economy was primarily agricultural. Then we moved to an industrial economy. In the early part of the last century we became a manufacturing economy creating consumer goods. Within the past thirty years we have moved to a service economy to support selling consumer goods and services. Most of these goods are now manufactured elsewhere on the globe. Within the past decade, many of the services were moved off-shore as well. The advent of the Great Depression/Recession in 2008 demonstrated that service jobs will not provide the economic engine we need to move our economy forward.
Our economy is stuck. We need a new vision. A new idea about what will use our talents and resources to fulfill a need. Our biggest resource is people and their talents. The world’s biggest need is to solve poverty. Two thirds of the world’s people live in extreme poverty.
So how will we marry our resources with our world’s need to eliminate poverty? Non-profit organizations have been doing this for a long time. Perhaps it is time for the U.S. to move to a non-profit economy.
This would focus the talents we have on those who need it most, while providing employment. Just as we have seen growth in environmental businesses we are beginning to see interest and growth in the work of non-profits. Witness the meteoric rise of micro-ending as an example of this. This is not about charity. Charity cares for the symptoms of poverty without removing the causes.
The problem of poverty is complex. Poverty can be situational, generational as well as systemic. So a real increase in our efforts to solve the causes of poverty would require many creative, effective solutions. Effective solutions involve careful listening to those who are struggling as well as creativity and imagination.
An example are the ESPERA Funds or community lending funds of Mary’s Pence, the women’s group receiving an ESPERA fund determines what interest rate works for them and decisions are made locally for loans within the fund. Ideally they will use the funds repaid to begin another ESPERA Fund. In other words the fund is not only sustainable, it has the possibility of being paid forward. “Local solutions” for “long-term change” work best.
I think it’s a pretty powerful idea and one that will move us forward – as a nation and as a global family.
You may already know that my word for the year is romance. I’ve been watching for romance in my life, in the lives of others and in the world in general. Life or reality seeks to connect with us. There is a depth to reality that wants to reveal itself to us. Life continually tries to romance us. We can do the same. When we bring more romance into the world we bring depth to our lives, joy to others and more enjoyment to our own existence.
There are many ways to bring romance to life. But one of the easiest is to simply add a little romance to your surroundings. I have already done this in our bedroom and dining area. Now why not a room we use everyday – the bathroom? It makes life a tiny bit more luxurious. This is our ONLY bathroom, so any changes have a big impact. Just like the re-dos of the other rooms, I decided to use mainly what we already had elsewhere in our townhouse. This is not about replacing the perfectly good cabinet, sink top, lights, tile flooring or tub surround, even though I might want to. 😉
This room hadn’t seen any decorating attention for at least seven years. A more luxurious look was in order. I opted for a higher contrast ivory/cocoa/tangerine color combination. Our bathroom is adjacent to the bedroom so I wanted to use colors that wouldn’t conflict with the bedroom. These same colors are already present in the bedroom, but with less intensity. Another plus was that my existing bath towels (ivory and various turqoise shades) which are nice & soft and in good condition would still look good with the new color scheme. Afterall, I didn’t want to purchase all new towels.
As you know, luxury is a matter of choices – not of money. The glass vase with tropical flowers and a small print were moved from elsewhere in the house. French soaps and incense were placed in a bowl. The only new items were the satin finish paint ($16.99 on sale at Sears), the ivory jacquard shower curtain ($10 TJ Max) and the ivory cotton loop rug ($9 IKEA).
Post Script 3-22-11: Over the years, I’ve always used Sears Easy Living paint in every home I’ve had. It covers almost always in one coat. It’s durable, scrubable, inexpensive and doesn’t fade. They custom mix to match anything AND hurray – it’s also very low VOC at 32g/liter, well below Consumer Report’s limit of 50 for a low VOC designation.
Here’s the ho hum before –
Here’s the more romantic and inviting after –
Photo R. Meshar
What do you think? Candles, French soap and a long, hot soak – here we come.
