Home by Ellen S. Fisher

Home: The Foundations of Enduring Spaces by Ellen S. Fisher . A new to me book about Home Design. This book is of interest to me due to its comprehensive scope. When you live in a home or any kind it can be an ongoing project that waxes and wanes through the years. While I love a beautiful and artful home and space of any kind - I recognize that this is not afforded to most people. By this I mean that many of us are just trying to get by in the world and having the desire to pay attention to our living spaces in any meaningful way can be a challenge. This book is unique in that it offers up a wide scope of comprehensive ideas if you are trying to build, adjust, renovate, dream about, plan, discuss, undo any spaces. Since the book is coming out of The New York School of Interior Design, you can be confident that it covers the standard home interior design codes and needs in a current home of today in the United States.

I live in an old home built in the early 1700’s. I have lived here for 38 years now. When we bought this place back in the day - we completely gutted it it to the outside old frame. There was nothing left to save in the old homestead. So, it is an original post and beam frame that was then dressed in a more modern way to comply with current codes here in the U.S. The house itself is an ongoing project. What this means is that is is basically never finished. Things are done - redone - worn out - updated again - changed around - tended to. Mind you modern is a relative term. My house does not look modern - it is just more modern than it was in the 1700’s.

The reason that we are able to constantly update or redo things here is that my husband is a builder, carpenter, woodworker and man of all trades. He can fix or make just about anything. I think that adds to a lifestyle that allows one to imagine all sorts of things - all the time. Where as if you do not have those skills in your own skillset - you do not imagine things like - can’t we just rip out this kitchen next weekend? Can you redo the trim in here next month? The house needs a new wood roof - so you just put that thing on there by yourself. These projects would cost a fortune. That is how he makes a livelihood - people pay him to build or fix their houses. This involves custom woodworking - redoing kitchens - entire houses - you get the idea. So, many, projects he’s built over the years. A friend even had him build a beautiful plain wooden coffin for his grandfather when he died. Building is in our lexicon of thinking and I don’t think that will ever go away.

This book Home: The Foundations of Enduring Spaces is really useful. It was published in 2018 and I have only now just obtained a copy. It was a gift. We are renovating a bathroom currently. This book in the chapter of bathrooms has a great checklist of things to think about that maybe you might not have in your planning stages. We have mostly done a fly by the seat of your pants approach to this house in some ways. At least it feels that way to me. We obtained a good price on a bunch of ash wood flooring long ago and so that is why we put the ash in here. We are often driven by cost in decision making. I suppose most people are. We look for nicer quality things that will endure and then try to find a way to get that. Like the flooring example. I think my husband might have some other things to say about this - it might just be how I perceive these projects.

The current project has involved a good find on some tile and a marketplace sink that I stumbled across. I think official interior designers would cringe at our approach. However, I think a person’s personality and budget and lifestyle are of course what dictates ones approach to designing a home. What I see in the over culture places of home design or home tending are generally not offered up for a frugal or budget friendly home projects. What some of these places display are cheap quality materials that usually just end up in the landfill because they are so poorly made. It has been our experience to find vintage pieces made of quality wood over cheaper pieces made of particle board. At least that is our aesthetic. This generally involves keeping an eye out for home pieces in your looking.

I used to have an Etsy shop as well as a brick and mortar shop that sold vintage goods. I would attend local antique and vintage auctions and try to outbid people with large pockets. It usually went that I would go after the unique piece and not necessarily what would be worth something to resell. Somehow I had a movie house purchase from me some beautiful luggage that was used in a period piece that lasted a number of seasons. How exciting! The amount of things to keep on hand to have a shop is overwhelming. As I was getting rid of things in my own life this lifestyle didn’t appeal to me anymore. So, one day I called the auction house and they came and picked everything up and gave me a check. I was relieved to have it over with. I sill do like to look in vintage shops. It is an exercise in artistic finding, appreciating, sometimes purchasing and finally walking out of the shop often with nothing in hand. Maybe it’s a little like going to a vintage museum for me. All in the span of half an hour, I can assemble things in my creative mind, disassemble them from any attachment to the idea of owning them and walk out in a free and open way. It’s entertaining. It’s artistic. We can use our minds this way. We can use the templates of our home in this way.

Exercise: Clear your mind of expectations. Maybe close your eyes for a little thinking of what is exciting you in this moment. Come up with a theme in your head about this time and moment. Is it softness? Perhaps it’s a winter theme. Whatever it is, that’s what is what you are needing and feeling right now. You could make a vision board or a collage about this idea. Or you could go find a junk shop and walk around envisioning a little story to entertain you. Let me know if this is interesting to you and what you might come up with. Hunt with pleasure.

Pre Raphaelite Tarot Valeria Menozzi Artwork by Giuliana Costa

The Pre Raphaelite Tarot Deck. From The Little White Book: The art and life of the Pre-Raphaelite painters were wholly devoted to the pursuit of beauty in the sense of the divine essence intrinsic in every aspect of creation. With their ability to transport us to distant worlds and through their symbolic language, these incredible artists still manage, even today, to fascinate us, arouse profound emotions within us and put us in touch with our intuitive side.

Pre Raphaelite Tarot

Pre Raphaelite Tarot

Archetypal Life Cards

Archetypal Tarot by Mary Greer : What Your Birth Card Reveals About Your Personality, Path and Potential. From the Back Cover: Who are you in the tarot? The tarot cards associated with your birthdate and name form a pattern of personal destiny. They describe the theme of your life - the challenges and the gifts. In Archetypal Tarot, tarot scholar and teacher Mary K. Greer connects astrology and numerology to the tarot to create an in-depth personality profile that can be used for self-realization and personal harmony. Archetypal Tarot is a valuable tool to learn how to use the tarot to interpret your strengths and challenges. This is a fascinating book that allows you to go into a deeper study of how the tarot can be used for further exploration.

Vintage Finds

At this time of year often we are evaluating things about our lives. A new year can bring a sense of wanting some changes made in different areas of everyday living. A fresh slate before us can be exciting! Offerings are advertised to us. There are new classes to take - trainings to sign up for - decluttering ideas along with how to reorganize nearly everything - lifestyle habit changes are offered - starting new journals - healthy living programs - new ways to eat - the list goes on. Because we are surrounded by messages telling us we need to start whipping ourselves into some kind of shape - it can feel a bit overwhelming. At least, that is how I feel.

I am not a fan of suddenly setting up expectations for myself just because it is a new calendar year. The winter time in New England does not feel to me like a new beginning. New beginnings to me feel more like a springtime happening. The winter feels more like a hibernating time. It is useful to look into what works for you as an individual rather than following the crowd of culture that dictates how we might direct our own lives. This seems like something to look at during this time of year. We have just come through a holiday season and perhaps looking at how that time was valuable to you is worth writing about in a journal.

Something I do here is evaluate how things are for myself. How are things going for me? What do I wish and hope for? Is there anything I might shift in how I am carrying out routines? Where am I at creatively? Your list of questions to ask yourself will most likely be different. I think taking the time in these first few weeks of this new calendar year to just simply sit and ask yourself questions is a useful practice. It brings to the forefront what is on your mind. I gives you a window into what feels most important to you right now.

Exploring in the beginning of a year is a creative way to review your biography. Of course you can do this at any time. I do think that because the energy of the culture is looking into what it hopeful or expectant - one can ride on this energy a bit and search out ways that life is needing a bit of a review. I recommend getting out a piece of paper - nothing fancy. Fancy puts too much pressure on you. Just begin to write down random thoughts that come to mind regarding a life review. Let’s call this an evaluation epistolary. This is for your eyes only.

Create a bit of writing for yourself that begins with maybe just of one thing your were pleased with that went well this year. It can be as big or as small as you like. You are not trying to impress yourself. Maybe you are happy that you were kinder this year. Perhaps you followed through with something important to you. Or - you were less hard on yourself this year. You pick what is the first thing that comes to mind for yourself in your relaxed wandering mind. I think this gets you started.

Your writing can - your list - will bring you to surprising places. Stick with it. You could also begin to write a bit - take a break - come back to your writing later on that day. The point is - find the places where your mind is landing right now. Not in a future place in the year. Or sometime five years down the road. Land just here in this moment and see what your heart and mind are sharing with you. It is worth listening to. Let me know what you find out.

Nature Altar - Daughters Home

A walk through the moments I am living through. A new year upon us on this day. The creatures are stirring in the brambles. It has been a year of slow moving and wide wondering. I wonder why we are all trying to make our lives more. More busy - more scheduled - more striving. There is something to a slow way of living. If the opportunity to reflect upon our lives is something we are given - then perhaps we might look into what things matter the most to us. I think for me - it is a self-study of self. This is always present. Will I get it right or understand? More often than not - no, not so much. The everyday of living is such a rich opportunity for reflection and deep study. What will I study this year…

Shaker Firewood Box

Home Ways. Home is my place. A sacred place of becoming each day. I am more myself as the years go by. I am more the brightness that lives inside of me. Is it perfect - there is no such place. I think though - that all of the many imperfections allow a more natural and comfortable way of living at Home. This Shaker Firebox settles in here. The lovely ash floors hold it up - laid down by my husband. Look at all the work there is to do in putting new oil down to protect the floors. It is hard to fit all of it in. Home is not a museum of keeping. It is a tableau of living out the moods and ways of our ever evolving humanity and personal development. Are the floors not finished? It might just mean that I am not finished.

Wood Haus

Helping. Here is Rand helping Pat with building of a Firewood Haus. There are always things to build in our lives. Building a life means the activities are generally the making and creating of things. Projects - structures - repairs - redoing - a life of making is in our own hands. Do we do everything for ourselves or do we help one another? If we build together in all the ways - the Hand Built Ways are stronger on the handmade foundation of togetherness. I am glad filled that we make many of our living ways.

Cultural Emergence Design Deck - Looby Macnamara

Design Ways. As we make our way through the days - designing with intention with our hearts and our minds gives us a creative way of moving through the world. This new Cultural Emergence Design Deck by Looby Macnamara is an offering to help us create in imaginative ways. I like that designing can be interesting and shaped by layers of understanding and openness. It makes our Living Ways feels so much more intentional to focus into Design Ways that have been developed over years of study and exploring. Feeling stuck - in need of a new framework - taking a moment for reflection, joy and creativity - brings about a whole new perspective. It is there for our taking. An offering of beauty and flexible opportunity is a blessing that we can take up - leave behind stale thinking. Designing into the New Year feels like an exciting story to be looking into.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy - Oxford World’s Classics

War and Peace Ways. I read War and Peace last year with Benjamin McEvoy and The Hardcore Literature Book Club. There isn’t another Book Club like it. Ben is a wonderful guide and mentor in the works of classic literature. I am joining in again this year with the wide variety of books that will be read. You can find more about it here in The Hardcore Literature Book Club. I am reading War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy - this time with Simon Haisell of Footnotes and Tangents in his slow read with people all around the world. We read just one chapter a day for the entire year. He ran this last year and this is the second time he’s hosting it. If War and Peace feels too big a task to take on all at once then perhaps a chapter a day slow read is the ticket you need. My entire family is reading it this year. I highly recommend this book! Until you discover it you do not know what you are missing out on. It’s all of life in one incredible story.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

I am ending this year with Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. It is a good mood read with a fascinating cast of characters. Here is Ben McEvoy speaking about it.

Freight Train

Finally - here is a freight train coming through this week while I was out driving. Trains coming through seem filled with significance, romance, hard work, story, travel and mostly the picture of going from here to there. It seems a good final image to share with you as the year is moving into the next calendar year. It can feel suddenly expectant and exciting - like a party inside of a longing for change. To me - this train feels like a moving forward in a solid way. Life feels like it can be similar in the day to day - and yet - wrapped in the continuous journey of walking forward in the best way that we can.

I wish for you the best beginning of this New Year of 2024. The movement holds you in its arms. I hope you feel wrapped and surrounded by a sense of grounded belonging. We need you here in all the ways. I am sending you tender care. May all good things find you.

Sending All the Love Your Way…

Woodstove Ways

Hearth

Life surrounds fireside - eclipse worldly time
Slow light enters corners - cobwebs need not be swept away
Dust of life lingers against hard edged granite -
Dry air cause heat fluctuations - measure the room -
Imagined mountain flakes off into baked brick -
As I look upon material gained - a world is seen past -
Hauled by most likely a man - inside - outside toil -
Reward not seen immediate - held together by hope -
Infused particulate - stone - wood - metal - elements molecular -
Wind past the forest whisper of - fell the trees - warmth stands tall -
Is it simplicity - work of matter and muster it up -
As seasonal light transforms hardened worry - glow exists -
Edge of granite quarried - hard enough to know better -
Sharp sees along a geometric encounter of - pattern -
Hang clothing cut from material somewhere grown -
Field of wearing ripples in a wind song - howl of winter -
Everyday sound - feet on wood - clothes on wooden hanger -
Creak the door open - creak the bones that grown worn as years go by -
It is a task of keep - the fire going - the warmth arising -
Gaze into a woodstove window - recollection ancient ancestors - carry out -
As moon rides a curl of sky stars - arc of star asters shine into my eyes -
Walk past iron stove - holding heat - feel warmth of comfort -
Safety comes in panels unfolded - is the work sufficient -
Meaning found in a study of wood - wood work - present day -
See into growth of tree - heart of labor - an etched life -
Winter light casts a hope of glimmer seen - back through all the years -
Solstice ways found in the slant of sun - revealed tale eternal -

By Linden of The Bone Lines

Otto and the Secret Light of Christmas by Nora & Pirkko - Liisa Surojegin

Children of the Northern Lights by Ingri & Edgar Farin D’Aulaire

The Christmas Eve Tree by Delia Huddy illustrate by Emily Sutton

Here are three lovely children’s books for you to track down at your library or in a bookshop. I am a great lover of children’s books. I have saved some books over the years from my daughter’s growing up days. However, I still do occasionally purchase children’s book because they are beautiful. These three books are magical and you might enjoy sitting down in a quiet moment to read them this week. I hope you love them!