Creating a hygge mood

2 Comments

I don’t know about where you live, but here it’s freakin’ cold outside. 

And that calls for some severe hygge measures, my friends. 

We’ve been working on our hygge mastery for a few years now, and I gotta say we’re kinda talented. 

I chronicled our first Super Hygge Evening back in 2017, and we’ve been perfecting the art ever since. 

If you’re also experiencing below-zero windchill, here are some hygge tips that can provide comfort in this cold world.

Cozy mood

Pile on the essentials: candles, hot beverages, decadent desserts, comfy blankets, and hanging out with your most favorite creatures (human, feline, canine, hamster… whoever you like most).

Cozy books

If you want to have a cozy day/evening of reading, find yourself some good comfort reading. If you’ve got the latest book by your favorite author, save it for your hygge time. Or try one of these books whose stories you can completely sink into…

So, my fellow cozy readers… What are your favorite cozy hygge tips?

Creating a home library

2 Comments

Creating a home library is one of the most fun home improvement projects ever. When we moved into our new house, we decided pretty fast that the second largest bedroom would become a home library. 

Library 1.0

We moved in the mismatched bookcases that came with us from our old homes, and we put books on the shelves. And we knew that we were not yet done…

Deciding on bookcases...

Then we spent months and months settling in (all those cabinets and drawers to organize!) and the books were accessible, so there wasn’t a sense of urgency. 

Then, once we were all settled, urgency. 

Actually, just: now we have a clear runway… 

So we began considering options for the home library. After exploring custom built-ins and discovering that was outside our budget, we decided to go basic.

We headed to IKEA.

When we were visiting Nashville, we went to The Book Shop, where the owner told us that she’d bought IKEA Hemnes shelves for her (beautiful) shop.

So when the time came for us to choose shelves, we went with the Hemnes shelves in white. And the cool thing is that they’re available in two sizes, so we could mix and match to fit our space. 

We went with two 35-inch shelves and one 19-inch shelf. 

There then ensued a weekend of IKEA shelf building… and that super fun extra trip to the IKEA returns department to pick up the one little piece missing from the box.

Successful shelving!

But we got it done, and it was a valiant team effort. (That ability to canoe without bickering also transfers to furniture assembly. We know we’re blessed.)

Before attaching the shelves to the wall, the Dear Man had the excellent idea of attaching the shelves to each other so they’d stay aligned. So we headed to Home Depot to get some brackets that we attached to the top and back of the shelves to hold them in place. Then the Dear Man drilled holes and attached the shelves to the wall. 

Shelving the books...

And then the fun began. 

Putting books on shelves is one of my favorite projects in the world, and it’s a gift that keeps on giving. I mean, who among us hasn’t decided to rearrange the bookcases just for sport? 

So the current book arrangement is certainly not final, but it’s satisfying. 

And now I’m on the lookout for bookends and other items that will help style the shelves. Styling the shelves is gonna be one of my 20 for 2020 goals, and I’m excited about it.  

Before and After

Advice? Stories?

So, my bookish friends…

Please share your suggestions for styling the bookshelves.

And please tell your stories of book arranging on your shelves… 

Home organization books… asking the expert

29 Comments

On today’s episode of Nonfiction November, we’re talking about Expertise.

Be The Expert/Ask the Expert/Become the Expert, hosted by Katie at Doing Dewey: Three ways to join in this week! You can either share 3 or more books on a single topic that you have read and can recommend (be the expert), you can put the call out for good nonfiction on a specific topic that you have been dying to read (ask the expert), or you can create your own list of books on a topic that you’d like to read (become the expert).

 

Anyone else completely hooked on home organization books? If so, let’s talk!

Last spring, I posted a list of my favorite books about home organization, and I’m always looking for more ideas.

Here are some examples of books I’ve read, loved, and lived…

My fellow organizing wonders… I’d love to hear which home organization books are your favorites! Please share your suggestions in the Comments… I’m all ears.

Love Where You Live: Next Level

4 Comments

When I first read This Is Where You Belong: The Art and Science of Loving the Place You Live by Melody Warnick, I tested out some of the recommendations in the book and found that they boosted my happiness with my home.

 

Now, in our first year in our new home, we’ve taken it to the next level. I re-read the book and marked so many pages, and we took some serious action. Here’s what we’ve accomplished so far…

 

We’ve walked to the farmers market several times and bought fresh produce (corn grown 20 miles from our home!) and flowers

 

 

We walked to a great restaurant downtown (1 mile away) and ate on their patio on a beautiful late summer evening

We’re exploring all the local pizza places

 

 

We’ve attended lectures with friends at a large local venue

 

 

I greet everyone I see on the running path (and sometimes we recognize each other)

 

We’ve taken family and friends for walks along the riverwalk in our town

 

We researched the history of our house

 

We bought vintage and handcrafted home goods from a wonderful local boutique

  • I’ve walked to work 
  • We’ve gone to several local craft markets
  • We stroll our historic neighborhood
  • We’ve explored the cemetery nearest to our house and found the names of old local families
  • We’ve visited the local history museum 
  • We stop and chat with neighbors 
  • We strolled around downtown during Second Fridays — when local businesses are open late 
  • We bought locally roasted coffee
  • We bought and are reading books about our city’s history

All of these things have deepened our connection to our new town. It’s truly a boost to happiness, to the point that sometimes I just hum with joy.

As the Dear Man often says, with such warm fondness, “You love this town.” And I respond, “I love this town.” And then we smile. It’s like a civic commercial without an audience.

 

I’m grateful to Melody Warnick for providing such a fine road map to “love where you live” happiness.

What activities make you love the place you live?

My 19 for 2019 list: mid-year update

19 goals for 2019 — it doesn’t seem so very ambitious. But almost half the year’s zoomed by, and guess what? So much still to do! But there’s been some progress…

Here’s my goal status tally at the midpoint of the year:

Completed: 7

In progress: 6

Not yet: 6

So it could be worse.

In March, I’d made some progress, and today we’ve got an update on what’s happened since then.

Newly completed

Perfect my Caesar salad

If you don’t expect homemade Caesar dressing (and I don’t), I’ve got this one nailed.

Here’s my formula:

  • Organic romaine
  • Shaved Parmesan
  • Marie’s Caesar Dressing (based on this review)
  • Croutons: the crouton part of this recipe from Bon Apetit; I like to use Lucky 7 Grain & Seed Batard from Trader Joe’s

via GIPHY

Style our kitchen island seasonally

We’ve now been in our new house for all four seasons, and we’ve styled the island for each of them. Here’s our summer look…

Figure out the layout of the den

We have a sweet little den in our house, and it’s my upstairs lair. It looks like this except for when I swap out the typewriter for the laptop…

Get the TVs set up

OK, so we got one TV set up. And the other one went into storage, since we don’t need a TV upstairs. (Seriously: we hardly even watch the one in the living room.) We hired an electrician, he added an outlet in the floor (it’s all hidden!) and now we’re all set. (And the most exciting part about hiring the electrician was actually that now I can run on the treadmill in the basement. I love that.)

Research the history of our (school)house

While this will be ongoing (probably for years), at this point I’ve tracked down some of the major information and have seen historic photos of our place. As a yearly goal, I think we can say it’s been achieved.

In progress

  • Learn Instagram Stories with the Dear Man
  • Spend some serious quality time with our sisters
  • Learn & use 12 new techniques on the blog  
  • Go on at least 3 history geek trips with the Dear Man
  • Have dinner twice monthly with a good friend
  • Maximize the use of our new Instant Pot

What I haven’t even started yet

  • Find out if my vintage typewriter actually works… and if so, use it
  • Write a series of blog posts
  • Actually go through all those boxes in the basement
  • Do at least 3 of the activities in This Is Where You Belong
  • Fix formatting on all blog posts
  • Go on a field trip with a good friend

As mid-year approaches, how’s your year looking? Any re-tooling of your goals for the year? (I love this stuff.)

Organizing the spice drawer

2 Comments

I meant to write about spring goals and new growth. Instead I’m writing about organizing our spices. Because that’s where I am right now, and it sure feels like growth.

When I read Carson Tate’s post about balancing your life like the four seasons, I was immediately captivated by the idea. And also relieved, because this framework allows us to tackle only one aspect at a time. And that’s such an easing of a burden.

I tend to overload myself with ambitious projects, and then I just get tired. So one season at a time? I got this…

For springtime, she suggests:

  • New ideas
  • New beginnings
  • Decluttering
  • Letting go of the past

As I see it, there are two phases here, which kind of line up with Marie Kondo’s thinking: let go of the past to open up possibilities for the future.

One of my “19 for 2019” goals is to go through all the boxes in the basement, which contain I’ve-forgotten-what. So that project is saying “spring” to me. (But will I get to it before winter? I have my doubts.)

Meanwhile, what I have done is to tidy up the spice rack. It’s actually the spice drawer, and it was pretty horrid. We both got frustrated trying to find the oregano. And really, people shouldn’t have to live like that.

So, inspired by The Home Edit, I bought:

…and we had ourselves some results.

Before:

During:

After:

It’s a small step, growth-wise, but it sure makes cooking more pleasant. Plus, every time I open the doors of the pantry, I get a little ping of joy.

So, along with walking along the river to see the spring flowers, that’s part of my springtime celebration.

What’re you doing to celebrate spring?

Favorite home organization books

1 Comment

It’s springtime, and that’s supposed to mean spring cleaning. But I’ve always been better at organizing than cleaning, so today we’re talking spring organizing.

Here are my favorite books about organizing the home.


The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

3 words: rigorous, inspiring, neat

Remember how I KonMari’d my librarian cardigans?

Here in the new house, they’re once again in that happy state,and I’m still on the KonMari bandwagon.


I loved Tidying Up when I first read it, and also when I second-read it. And it continues to spark joy.

Give this book a whirl if you like… decluttering, minimalism, simplicity, structure

Outer Order, Inner Calm: Declutter & Organize to Make More Room for Happiness by Gretchen Rubin

3 words: practical, positive, approachable

I’m an every-episode listener to the podcast Happier with Gretchen Rubin, so many of the recommendations in this book (but not all — there were some surprises here) were familiar. And still, I found myself marking pages. Here are some of the ideas I captured:

  • Watch your language. “Instead of telling yourself, ‘I need to go through my photos and discard the bad ones,’ you could tell yourself, ‘I’m going to curate my photo collection.’” (p. 182)
  • Include a fragment of nature (p. 193)
  • Every room should hold a bit of surprise or whimsy (p. 197)

And the Dear Man installed my pretty hooks for clothes I’ve only barely worn. (Find a place for items that are neither dirty nor clean, p. 82)

Give this book a whirl if you like… quick, browseable books; decluttering; a wide range of tips; bite-size ideas

The Home Edit: A Guide to Organizing and Realizing Your House Goals by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin

3 words: cheerful, beautiful, concrete

Oh my goodness. This is the book that inspired me to purchase spice containers and cute labels. Because these ladies label everything and it looks fabulous. This book made me woozy with delight. We’re talking famous people’s closets and pantries and craft rooms, and real-life, actually do-able steps to achieve something beautiful in one’s own home.

Give this book a whirl if you like… organizing in a beautiful way, labeling absolutely everything, a conversational and encouraging tone, celebrity closets and pantries

Beautifully Organized: A Guide to Function and Style in Your Home by Nikki Boyd

3 words: enthusiastic, elegant, lovely

I’ll admit it: I binge-read this book one evening when I could’ve been cooking dinner. But I think this book will deliver long-term dividends, because it seriously inspired me to tend to some untidy areas of our home that are usually hidden from view… but we know they’re there. Not for long! I gathered some lovely ideas for our pantry and drawers.

Give this book a whirl if you like… beautiful books about home organization, adding a touch of style to orderliness, practical and inspiring tips for organizing your home

The Organized Home: Simple, Stylish Storage Ideas for All Over the House by Julie Carlson and Margot Guralnick

3 words: pictorial, scannable, simple

My takeaways from this book are clean lines, environmentally-friendly cleaning processes, and a really cute way to store a toilet plunger (in a clay pot: genius).

Give this book a whirl if you like… inspiration for household organizing, simple living, green products, pretty books

The Complete Book of Home Organization by Toni Hammersley

3 words: browseable, beautifully illustrated, clean

This book is on my bedside table for pre-sleep perusal at the moment, and it’s a treat to open its pages because it’s just plain pretty. Bright color photos of tidy, perfectly organized spaces… with a lovely plant to add another pop of color to the scene. Beautiful book. Also: a little bit challenging, because there are cleaning recommendations here that seem a little bit beyond what I’m ever gonna do. (Cleaning the kitchen sink daily? I don’t think so.) But I’ve marked several pages that offer solutions for organizing the pantry. And I’m finding pleasure in simply looking through this book for decorating ideas. It’s lovely.

Give this book a whirl if you like… a wide array of organizing ideas for all areas of the home, cleaning recommendations, easy storage solutions

Simple Organizing Wisdom: 500+ Quick & Easy Clutter Cures edited by Laurie Jennings

3 words: neat, pretty, practical

When this book showed up in my mailbox, I silently squealed with joy and immediately sought out someone who shares my organizing obsession so I could tell her about it. People, this book is pretty.

Give this book a whirl if you like… bite-sized, scannable, practical tips, pretty storage solutions

Cozy Minimalist Home: More Style, Less Stuff by Myquillyn Smith

3 words: chatty, encouraging, practical

I really liked Myquillyn Smith’s first book, The Nesting Place: It Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect to Be Beautiful. My most important takeaway from that book: don’t apologize for your home’s flaws or shortcomings; instead, focus on making your guest comfortable. And if someone compliments your home, accept the compliment gracefully.

In Cozy Minimalist Home, she suggests using larger statement pieces as decor, and removing the extras. It’s an approach I really like. I also like her idea of “quieting” a room seasonally by removing all decor and then adding pieces only where needed.

Give this book a whirl if you like… creating a comfortable home, decluttering without losing coziness, not worrying about having a “style,” focusing on people and their comfort

I know I’m not the only one who reads this stuff for fun… What are your favorite home organization books?

19 for 2019: the first update

We’re 1/4 of the way through the year, and I’m feeling a little bit concerned about my (lack of) progress on those wonderful 19 for 2019 goals I set.

The only thing that’s been definitively completed is this one:

Decide whether to catalog our home library

Given my slow progress on all those other goals, the decision on that one is: Ain’t gonna do it.
And that’s OK.

Meanwhile, there’s been headway on several of the goals that are ongoing in nature. They’re a-going…

Here’s what’s been happening…

Learn & use 12 new techniques on the blog

I’ve done 4 new things, including creating a content calendar and expanding the use of menus. This one’s right on course, and I’m excited about the next steps.

Set a twice-a-month grocery shopping rotation and stick with it

This goal’s firmly in place, and I’d say it’s a set habit, to the point that I’m calling it Completed. Every two weeks, I plan menus for the next two weeks, write the grocery list, and shop. Then the Dear Man picks up perishables during week 2. It’s pretty fabulous. Here’s something we cooked…

Have dinner twice monthly with a good friend

One of my happiest traditions!

Maximize the use of our new Instant Pot

This is also underway, and I’m making this amazing red lentil soup later this week. No photos available, because mainly we’ve been making non-photogenic but wonderful soups. And also a couple of things We’re Never Making Again (including that one thing I threw directly down the garbage disposal).

Style our kitchen island seasonally

Our kitchen island styling started out in fall and then the Christmas season, which were relatively easy. As the Dear Man says, Christmas always looks good. After Epiphany, we removed the Christmas-y touches and just went with a simplified evergreen and white motif. And then we faced springtime. We went Easter-y because it just turned out that way.

Dear Man and the Krazy Glue to the rescue, because I managed to drop the rabbit on my way into the house. But he glued on the broken ear so smoothly I can barely see the crack. And now I love that rabbit even more, because less than a minute after the break, the Dear Man was hard at work on the remedy.

Here we’ve also got an heirloom pitcher from my Dad’s Swedish-American ancestors and one of my favorite lidded containers made by my favorite potter. And the Dear Man’s dear mom’s vintage cookbook on the scale. All of these things make me wicked happy.

Research the history of our (school)house

I love research (librarian!!) so I’m undaunted by the obstacles we’ve been facing, including The Mystery of the Missing Schoolhouse Dedication. I’ve searched microfilm of two local newspapers, have been granted access to historical records from multiple local agencies, and still the search continues. There are more newspapers to explore, so onward…

But (big news) we discovered the name of our school’s architect, and we found a book he wrote about schoolhouses, which contains our floorplan, and I ordered a copy via Abebooks. I’m only a little bit impatient for its arrival.

So that’s the situation here.

I still have a Caesar salad to perfect, nearly a thousand blog posts to reformat, some history geek traveling to plan (woohoo!), and a vintage typewriter to decode. Plus KonMari-ing the basement boxes.

How’re your 2019 goals progressing?

At home with books: refreshing the blog

6 Comments
in the den, with the laptop

When I sat down two weekends ago in our sunny little den, I didn’t expect that when I left the room a couple of hours later, I would have changed the focus of the blog.

That was not at all the plan.

It looked all innocent: coffee in one of my favorite mugs… the laptop and iPhone and a legal pad on the library table. Me, all comfy in leggings and a big sweater and my favorite plaid scarf.

this scarf

The scene was set for cozy, not for transformation.  

I’d been seduced by Amy Porterfield’s Online Marketing Made Easy podcast episode about creating a content calendar cuz I adore structure.

And I was settling in to listen and take notes. (It was extra delighting me that I was being a student here in our schoolhouse.)

And then it happened.  

I listened to the episode, took 7 pages of notes, and created that content calendar.  

And in the process, I realized I’d like to expand the scope of the blog.

So I’m gonna.

Here’s what to expect in the months ahead…

A continuation of…

  • Bookish commentary
  • Posts about self-improvement

More…

  • Notes on home life: the domestic pleasures and blunders
  • Notes on travel: the delights and mishaps
  • Lists of my favorite stuff
  • A focus on living a good life
  • Main menu expansion: Books & Reading, The Good Life, Favorite Stuff

So join me here for talk of books. And living the best possible life. And coffee. And pizza. And the floundering ongoing search for the perfect vintage home decor items*…

So, my fellow bloggers… How have you changed your blog over the years? What changes made you and your readers the happiest?

*current quest: a wooden ladder to lean against the wall**, and the perfect barrel — we’ll know it when we see it

**update from summer 2019: got that ladder!


Currently: polar vortex & all that snow

2 Comments

Reading | I just finished reading Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, and I can’t get over it. I’m sad I finished it, I’m sad I’ll never get to read it again for the first time, and I’m sad that she’s no longer living. Her love for life springs off the pages and infects the reader, and I was overjoyed by her words and then so sad there won’t be more of them.

Reading online | When I saw this post by Carson Tate, I immediately rearranged my weekend. By which I mean, I cancelled half the things on my to-do list and gave myself some margin and some time to just be. While she says “Balance does not exist,” she also offers alternative ways to view the situation, and I really like that.


Listening | In my car, The World’s Greatest Love Story by Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman has been keeping me entertained during my brief spurts of driving. The audiobook version is fabulous — two actors reading their own material is gold. And it’s more like listening to a really great podcast, cuz often it’s like they’re having a conversation.

Watching | We’ve been watching Tidying Up with Marie Kondo and finding it delightful. Although the Dear Man isn’t a KonMari devotee like I am (though he is a declutterer by nature), we find plenty to discuss during and after each episode. Who knew decluttering could be so entertaining?  

Learning | We’re delving deep into the history of our schoolhouse and are so grateful to our local historical museum for the great research assistance they provided. Is it true that I burst into applause when we saw a photo of first graders in the 1910s standing alongside our schoolhouse with their teacher? Yes, that is true.

Loving | The kitchen rug: it’s new, it’s pretty, and the cat even likes it. (She popped up and out of frame after lounging there near the heat vent.)

Cooking | During the polar vortex, we made soup in the Instant Pot and I baked these cookies. When it hits -25, soup and cookies: pretty much mandatory.

Pizza eating | Here are our recent discoveries… Aliano’s Express Chicago style pizza and Aurelio’s thin crust. So good.

Celebrating | During the recent snowstorms, we conquered the snowblower and liked it.

So, are you too experiencing deep winter? How’re you making it bearable?