Jane Cumberbatch Inspiration

image via barnesandnoble.com

Many years a go I stumbled across the book, Pure Style Living, by Jane Cumberbatch. This book helped change my life. The ideas that she presents are so simple, but so meaningful when it comes to a living a simple yet meaningful life. My local library would proabably appreciate it if I bought the book one of these days as I've checked it out so many times.

Some of the chapter names are: Eat, Work, Garden, Rest, Play, Wash, Sleep.

Ms. Cumberbatch talks about the importance of good food, working in the soil, a comfortable bed with good quality sheets and other great things like that. She also talks about the importance of Nature, Smell, Texture, Architecture, Function, Order, Fabric and Colour. (Which reminds me, Why do Americans not use the "U" when spelling "Color"? It seems so nice with the "U".)

Anyway, I think Americans many times have traded quality for quantity and it hasn't done us any good. We have given up healthy, savory food for fast, easy and often tastless food. We are overweight for eating food that maybe wasn't even worth it. We live in big crazy houses filled with lots of things that really aren't paid for. We buy more plastic totes to store things in without really considering if we love the things we put in them.

Less is truly so often more. The quality of the blankets we sleep under maybe is what really matters, not so much the number of blankets we have stored in the hall closet.

Imagine my total delight when I found out Jane Cumberbatch has a youtube web channel?
It's like she's giving me my own personal design and living tips! It looks like she's just getting started, but I'll be tuning in for future video posts!

I think I'll have to go to the library and check out her book again soon - maybe it's time for a refresher course on PureStyle Living.

Inspiring Lists

I love to make lists.
I love to read lists.
I print cool lists I find in books and on the internet and then carry them around with me to read when I'm bored or uninspired. Putting the lists of ideas into action is sometimes a little tricky for me, but I often find them so inspiring. I recently ran across a list of ten little things that I've been thinking a lot about lately. The new cool list comes from Martha Stewart's body + soul magazine. They call it
10 Tenets of Whole Living and I think they make a lot of sense.

Ten Tenets of Whole Living
1. Happiness is a choice. Make that choice today and every day.
2. Good health isn't a gift; it's a habit you cultivate.
3. A healthy, fit body is not enough--true fitness engages the spirit.
4. Think more about what you should eat than what you shouldn't.
5. Laugh at yourself. You're funny.
6. Nurture your spirit. It's your source of strength.
7. Stay connected to the natural world. It will feed your soul.
8. Believe in yourself. Your intuition is rarely wrong.
9. It's never too late to take the first step toward your aspirations.
10. What you pay attention to will thrive.

I'm feeling a bit more inspired after reading these ideas and might try to ponder some of these things a little deeper and maybe try to put some of them into practice.

Raspberries!

A couple of weeks a go our little family drove about thirty minutes north of town to do some raspberry, apple and peach picking.

It was a gorgeous day for a drive to the country and the fruit was gorgeous.

Our oldest son seems to be the perfect height for picking rasberries. He did a great job picking the plump berries and ploping them gently into his bucket. We even managed to see a huge garden spider nestled in one of the bushes. Our youngest son ate as many berries as he could and then managed to somehow dump out his dad's full bucket of berries to all of our dismay.

We also picked some wonderful Gala apples and some peaches that we were able to enjoy for quite some time. I'm thinking we need to go back again soon. I heard the peaches were done for the year, but there are still raspberries and now the Braeburn apples are ready. Maybe we should try for some raspberry jam for this winter?

Goldenrod gone crazy

Last spring I was at a wonderful plant sale. There were probably thousands of plants to choose from. I picked some nice perennial grasses and some geraniums. For some reason I saw some goldenrod that seemed so cute. I thought of the delightful yellow that could withstand hot, dry summers. I thought of the bees that would visit for late summer snacking.

Well, the goldenrod was planted in the little mess of perennials we have in our backyard. I didn't do much to plant it or take care of it, but here we are, the beginning of September and the cute little plant I brought home in the spring has taken over. It's reaching almost three feet high and has to have a little belt around it's waist to support it from toppling over. A beautiful cheerful yellow it is indeed, but it is like a wild child that has taken over. The bees came in droves to partake of its tasty nectar.

I'm left really wondering what was going through my mind last spring. Why did I think bringing this gangly girl home was a good idea?

I'm now feeling guilty that I can't wait to find a better home for this wild child. I've thought about chopping the whole thing down right now so the grasses and geraniums that have gotten lost underneath could have some breathing room, but have hesitated because the bees are still visiting. I'll give it a bit more time to enjoy it's first year of crazy rebellion and then I'm off to find a better home for this wild child. I hope she'll forgive me.