Rustic: a practice in imperfection

In writing about simplicity, I want to be mindful of how I approach these subjects. Often I find myself focusing on the negative, i.e. what we shouldn't do, as opposed to what we can say yes to while living in the same way. In the future, I hope that I can present my ideas in a positive light, not pushing right vs. wrong ways of living on people, but rather sharing my own values. 

_________________________________________

That said, I have tended toward perfection in my life, and eventually I realized it has been more trouble to my mental health than it is worth. There is freedom in letting perfection go and embracing imperfection. Please don't read this as "letting things go" and therefore, apathy. I still believe in quality. It just doesn't need to be perfect. Releasing myself from the intense pressure of perfection has been a soulful and spiritual act, one that I still find myself embracing over and over.

When I was creating for the Market, every once in awhile I would view my work with a critically perfectionistic eye and wonder if anyone in the world would want what I was making ... and then I would remind myself that quality, not perfection, was the goal. I seriously considered making a sign that said "rustic: a practice in imperfection" and shoo-ing away anyone that wanted factory-made perfection. I didn't, but the idea stuck with me.

Then, very recently, when I was reading about Simplicity, I came upon the Japanese idea of "wabi-sabi" - and this is just what I appreciate about the lasting quality of rustic, vintage, and beautiful things.

"Wabi-sabi is imperfect: a beloved chipped vase or a scarred wooden table. This getting-away-from-perfect is one of the wabi-sabi's most appealing facets. It means you can keep the tablecloth even though it's fraying on the edges and admire the rug as it fades from brilliant red to pale rose. You can let things be."
Less is More (pg 160)

source

source

"Pared down to its barest essence, wabi-sabi is the Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature, of accepting the natural cycle of growth, decay, and death. It's simple, slow and uncluttered - and it reveres authenticity above all. Wabi-sabi is flea markets, not warehouse stores; aged wood, net Pergo; rice paper, not glass. It celebrates cracks and crevices and all the other marks that time, weather, and loving use leave behind. It reminds us that we are all but transient beings on this planet - that our bodies as well as the material world around us are in the process of returning to the dust from which we came. Through wabi-sabi, we learn to embrace liver spots, rust and frayed edges and the march of time they represent." (You can read this and more about wabi-sabi here or just Google it.) 

source

source

This is what I find to be beautiful, you may not and that's okay. There are many different kinds of beautiful things and in that, I rejoice. The main draw for me is reclaiming items instead of buying new and continuing in the culture of brand-new, perfection-based consumerism. This also perpetuates the Haitian saying, "De ga je" - using what you have and the creativity that comes.

International Upcycling: Carolina in Costa Rica

A good friend from Haiti visited Kansas City last summer and while I was talking with him about transitioning my third world perspective to first world living, he told me of a Costa Rican friend who upcycles plastic bottles into flower accessories. Of course, I was intrigued (another country? upcycling? two of my favorite topics!), so I got the whole story recently to share with you. 

Here's the scoop: Carolina Leon Castro is a Costa Rican who studied pharmacy, and makes upcycled accessories from plastic bottles. How does she do it? After retrieving an old plastic bottle (the bumpy bottom kind), she cuts off the base, forms "petals" in the plastic and then melts it into shape with a candle. Then she paints it, glues on the details/hardware and voilà! Something pretty - from trash, no less.

She sold some of these "upcycled" jewelry treasures that she made in order to go on a medical mission trip to Haiti with some other Latino doctors and my friend, Brendan, in August 2010. She's featured them in some art shows, was interviewed on a local television show and helped teach a little workshop to some kids in the barrio where Brendan lives. Here are a couple of photos from a workshop.

Brendan also told me that Costa Rica, incidentally, has a "culture" of "upcycling"/recycling stuff you throw away to do neat little crafts and home-made solutions. It's a very common practice, and kids learn to do it early on in school. It's about being resourcefulness and caring for their environment, because they're very proud of their country's natural beauty. To not be environmentally conscious in Costa Rica would be equivalent to being careless and wasteful with your money in the States.

story and photos courtesy of Brendan Blowers (San José, Costa Rica) and Carolina's facebook page

*free* necklace hanger DIY

I've been working on decluttering again (I feel like I was just doing a big sweep, but the need comes around so quickly!) ... this time, visually. My craft/vanity side of the bedroom is probably the most cluttered area of my house and it has gotten to the point of driving me crazy. Here's a good peek at how it's been for quite awhile. My scarves were getting out of control.

Here's a little snippet of my progress! A DIY necklace hanger made from a leftover piece of pine 1x2 and some picture hangers.

Inspiration came from this post over at Little Green Notebook. (Have you checked out her blog? It's amazing. She's totally a professional interior designer, and has some incredible stuff going on, but she's also down-to-earth with some pretty doable DIYs. Check. her. out.) I even went right out and bought those little mug hangers.

And then I remembered a TON of picture hangers I had from a freebie my mom scored at her local hardware store. Those hangers, along with a free sample of Valspar and a leftover 1x2 ... a free necklace hanger for me!

Mint and gold anyone?!

 I first tried laying them out at about 1/2" apart and then realized that it was too squished. So I marked little dots at 3/4" apart with a measuring tape and started pounding them in.

As you can see, they aren't perfect. At first, I thought it was my less-than-perfect hammer wielding skills combined with the odd nail angle of picture hangers, but then I compared several and realized they aren't even uniformly made. So, I tossed perfection out the door and just did the best I could. I had to use a few bigger ones to fill the space, so each of my pretties would have a hook, and I'm so pleased!

Can it get any better than less clutter and free?! I think not! :-)

eat seasonally, valentine ...

Valentine's day is this Friday. (Happy heart day!) I'm not a huge celebrator of this holiday of Love, but I do remember candy hearts and making valentine bags for collecting cards/candy in elementary school. It was definitely not the day to be sick at school! One year, my best friend bought me a surprise carnation and I was so happy. I ran up the stairs to show my mom and tripped up one of the last steps ... the flower snapped off right at the blossom! Ugh ... I was seriously devastated.

(This klutz still trips up the stairs, but you didn't hear that from me.)

All of that to say, holidays are high time for eating. And, most likely, not seasonally. For instance, I literally just saw a local advertisement for a pound of strawberries at $1.88 this week.

Um, it's February.

There is snow on the ground.

No Kansas strawberries in sight. 

strawberries from our garden, last June

Oh, they're in Kansas, all right. Waiting patiently at the grocery store. For all of us loves to come, buy and consume with chocolate.

Personally, I'm not buying strawberries this year. Not only because they are on the "dirty" list, but mostly because they aren't in season.

I love this quote from an essay in Less is More,

As Helen (Nearing) put it, "There is something extravagant and irresponsible about eating strawberries in January." When I first heard this comment, I was a bit put off: I found it quote ascetic and demanding. But now, although my own gardening and eating practices are never quote as pure, I understand more fully what she means. Eating in line with the season is eating on nature's time, not on culture's consumptive clock. No wonder that the kale we harvested from our garden this week tastes so sweet. We ate in step with the heartiness of kale in autumn, in step with the November frosts that kiss the bitterness off of the leaves.

There is something so right about eating seasonally. But it is so difficult- especially in the winter and when growing in Kansas is very difficult. Almost anything and everything is available in grocery stores year-round ... we are so spoiled. Spoiled to the point of not even knowing, much less caring, about eating with the seasons. Mostly, I fall into this category.

I don't have the chance to grow and/or store a ton of food. So, what are your tips for eating seasonally? Help!

Montessori kitchen help: peeling carrots

I love that Montessori activities are geared toward a lot of practical activities. First, because they teach kids to do every day things, and then, because it's not a long, drawn out, have-to-prepare-lots-in-advance-for thing. This Mama likes that.

Take peeling carrots for example. We needed more carrots to munch on - I buy the larger carrots because they are cheaper and dip sticks better to them than packaged baby carrots (or so my husband says). But, we do have to peel and cut those guys and my daughter can help! (Even in her "wedding" dress.)

One of the books I read suggested letting eighteen month olds do that. Um, no thanks (that blade is sharp, even if I'm standing right there!), but I'll let my three-year-old do it. (What?! Would you let a baby have a vegetable peeler??)

Other safe kitchen activities:

- peeling carrots, duh
- measuring ingredients (baked goods are great!)
- cutting up a banana with a blunt knife for a snack
- spreading peanut butter/jelly on a sandwich
- pouring a drink for themselves


Any other kitchen ideas (for preschoolers) I've not covered?

$10 Kitchen Update

There is a reason I've not shown you my kitchen before.

Well, at least this side of my kitchen. (Here's the other side.)

It's UGLY, honeys. And hardly has any counter space. And we're not allowed to touch it ... even thought it would look about a million times better with a nice coat of white paint and new hardware. 

So, I've been working on living well in my space, brainstorming ideas of how I can better enjoy my space. (On a very limited budget, mind you.) Last week I came across some DIYs of rented kitchens and started to look up different cupboard transformation ideas. Contact paper comes up a lot, but it supposedly leaves residue. Yuck.

There are $99 rolls of removeable vinyl/contact paper stuff, $50 rolls of Sherwin Williams removeable wallpaper ... or ...

wait for it (!)...



The ever baffling $3 washi tape. I still don't have the slightest clue why it's so popular, but I have found a use for washi tape after all!!

 Mindblowing, right?

Okay, not so much, but for $10 and 3 rolls of green faux woodgrain washi tape, my kitchen feels fresher and more fun.

You'll see that I left it off the lower cupboards. I have a 3 year old who just decimated the $40 wall vinyl I quite lovingly stood at 38 weeks pregnant and hung after 11 weeks of bedrest ...

That's why.

Our cupboards are flat, so I just outlined them with four pieces of tape. They aren't perfect (and neither are the cupboards - case in point above!) but you can't tell from a distance. I considered measuring and putting the squares in a little bit, but yeah right!? How's a 20 minute project compared to a 2-3 hour one? The first, please!

Last question - should I twine the hardware or not? Vote in the comments - please! I need your opinion. :-) 

:-)

on saying no

We've had to say no several times lately.

I promised my husband that I'd strip my schedule down to almost nothing in order to attempt to get us through this last hairy semester - and I've done it. The days are mine, but my hope is that weeding out the unneccessaries in my schedule will at least lower my stress level ... in hopes to better balance out his. (?)

(Of course, this said after a full week of sick, whiny child - stressful to say the least ... but I digress.)


But I hate saying no. I'm a helper and a doer and, dang it, I like saying yes!

When I say no, I feel all sorts of silly things like guilty and "what are they thinking of me?" and "wouldn't I want them to help me?"

FALSE.

Why does such a small word - one so easily blurted a million times out of a toddler's mouth - become so hard for some of us to say? Even for our own good and for the health of our family?

Granted, I think it has to do often with personality. My husband has no problem saying no to things and he doesn't care one whit what someone else thinks. This has helped me fight my natural inclination to 1) say yes and 2) feel bad for saying no.

But honestly? It's just not possible for me to live my life simply unless I say no. Over-commitment, busy schedules, running here and there and there and here ... it's just really common for Americans. I suppose it makes us feel worthy and successful and like we're not just sitting on our hands waiting for something to come to us. Carpe diem, right?

Lately, the busyness of some lives has blown me away and I. don't. want. it.

But this requires saying no.

To good things.

A lot.

source

But you know what I've seen in just the last month of practicing this? I've been able to say yes more during my day and it has been freeing. See a friend, cuddle a newborn, make cookies and lick beaters with my little.

(Just like decluttering my home gives space for things that I really love.) 

Open schedules = lives open to opportunity. Opportunity unseen without space in my life. May God allow me to see beyond myself (and what I want to fill my freer days with!) and fill it with His abundance.

shop updates (Jan)

I've been working hard to update my shop (yay!) finally, after all of the Market/holiday/catch-up-my-lifeness of the last few months. I've put tons of patterns on ... gotten several new kiddo pieces and put a few things on that have been sitting around for ages. Discipline, people.

I told myself I couldn't go thrifting, not even for a second, until everything was listed. IT'S DONE! (And yes, I've gone thrifting.)

Check out the shops to see any of the items below and more! (vintage baby/kid, handmade/vintage housewares)

:-)

DIY kitchen pegboard

SUPPLIES:
1 painted pegboard (2'x4')
1 assorted pack of pegboard hooks (including screws and plastic spacers) 

TOOLS:
drill & bits
stud finder
measuring tape

Side note: I'm taking this time to show off my finally completed table makeover. Chairs! A very exciting Christmas present from my in-laws.

I wanted to do mis-matched antique and vintage chairs but looked all last summer and had no luck. I'm really loving industrial lately, so I went for some metal bistro chairs. Delight!

Back to the pegboard.

First I found the middle of the wall, the middle of the pegboard and found the studs. In our house, this is easy ... you just look for the pattern of nail bulges up the wall (yuck). Otherwise, use a stud-finder.

The pegboard holes are exact inches apart, so make sure you are on a perfect inch when you drill into the studs and it should line up just right! (If you want to hang very heavy items - like cast iron skillets - you may need to build a frame and secure the pegboard better. For my little vintage items, this way is fine.)

Then, I slipped the spacer between the wall and the pegboard on the screw and drilled the screw in.

Side note: my studs didn't line up with the middle of the wall, so my pegboard is centered but one set of screws are 10 pegs in and the other is 7. No big deal. After everything is up, you don't really notice anyway.

Now it's time to hang 'til your heart's content! I LOVE vintage utensils and several were just hanging out in my cupboards waiting for a good idea and then BAM!

Pegboard.

And the "EAT" sign I grabbed from above my kitchen sink, hung it with a plastic anchor I shoved in one of the holes and I love it about 1000x more here. 

Cheers!