Flowers & Creative Journals
October 7, 2007
Two daily essentials to living the simple and creative life are filling rooms with fresh-cut flowers in winter while the potager garden sleeps and infusing the spirit with the inspirational words and art of authentic people. Some people are very inspirational by the very nature of being themselves and daring to chose a life that is rich in expression and meaning.
Here are some of the people who inspire me:
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10 big style tips to decorating small rooms
October 7, 2007
HGTV Small Space, Big Style small space consultant Libby Langdon states there are many ways to maximize a small space and to do so with a great deal of style. HGTV Small Space, Big Style features ten tips to how to make the most of small spaces.
Some of the tips and tricks to creating the best use of small spaces include using color, arrangement, reflection, division of space, how to show off collectibles without clutter, unique storage solutions, and the art of illusion.
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Tumbleweed Tiny House Co., Katrina Cottage & Small House Society
October 7, 2007
In addition to our featured posts Blue Ridge Log Cabins: modular log home and Small House Society: McMansion Alternatives, here is a round up of past posts featuring the trend to smaller homes:
Blue Ridge Log Cabins: modular log homes
October 7, 2007
HGTV’s The Amazing Log Home Special recently featured the modular log home company Blue Ridge Log Cabins.
The factory built log homes come in a variety home sizes, beginning under 1,000 square feet and continuing to over 2,000 square feet, and a nice choice of floor plans.
Small House Society: McMansion alternatives
October 7, 2007
Small. Simple. Sustainable. The Small House Society is inspiring!
The Small House Society acts as a voice for the small house movement and advocates for less by maintaining a website of extensive resources for those interested in smaller homes; publishing a monthly email newsletter; hosting a discussion forum; promoting small house designers and builders to national media; maintaining booths at events such as Earth Expo and SEED Iowa; hosting events such as Resources for Life Green Festival 2006; producing videos; and participating in Iowa Energy Summit.
MONEY: 100 Best Places in America to live
October 7, 2007
MONEY magazine has released its annual list of America’s Best Places to Live based on a town’s economic vitality; employment opportunities; community safety; how a resident fairs healthwise; the amount of ethnic and racial diversity; cultural amenities offered; green space and other quality-of-life criteria.
With data on towns with populations between 7,500 and 50,000, and the assistance of Bestplaces.net, MONEY editors evaluated 2,876 towns to determine the top 100 towns and best places to live for this year’s MONEY Best Places to Live list.
Of the 100 best towns to live in, which towns made the top ten?
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Tiny Tumbleweed House: New designs
October 7, 2007
How much living space do we need to live comfortably?
Not as much as we think, as Jay Shafer is proof positive comfort can be found in a tiny hand-built home.
The growing popularity in his designs of tiny hand-built homes is a testament that others find this an appealing and affordable alternative in housing.
Ranging from 40-square feet to 600-square feet, the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company offers both the option of having a house built and delivered, or the option of purchasing a set of house plans for the more ambitious do-it-yourselfer.
Shafer, who estimates he uses three dollars of energy a month living in his tiny home, explains that,
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Ed Begley: Living with Ed 10 green tips
October 7, 2007
Living with Ed, HGTV’s new reality television show chronicling the life of the Begley family, is as much about green living as it is a voyeuristic view in learning how opposites manage to come together in a marriage without it turning into an uncompromising War of the Roses.
While Ed complains loudly about how loud his wife turns up the answering machine volume, Rachelle rolls her eyes at her husband planning his birthday party by choosing to bake tofu brownies and slurping his solar oven-cooked lentil and vegetable soup at his birthday dinner celebration.
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Katrina Cottages: Tiny cottage gains popularity
October 7, 2007
The Katrina Cottage, a permanent 308 square foot cottage engineered to withstand at least 140 mph winds, was first meant as an attractive alternative to the FEMA trailer being offered to Gulf Coast residents left homeless in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.
First shown at the 2006 International Builders Show, Katrina Cottage 1, the charming cottage designed by Marianne Cusato of Cusato Cottages, has gone on to win the Cooper-Hewitt People’s Design Award and capture the attention of the American public interested in affordable housing and the simple life.
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Treehouse: magical whimsy for adults
October 7, 2007
There are, nestled in trees around the globe, the stuff of childhood imagination and fancy. As luck would have it, even though long-ago children have become adult, the magical whimsy of treehouses has grown up with them.
Improvements in building technology are allowing the present day young at heart of any age a haven to simplier times. A space above the terra firma where a person can hear the melodious sounds cradled in the silence of quiet; contemplate the inner landscape of unlimited possibilities; and remember the potential of their dreams.
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