simple living in a complex world
A simple summer dress ready for the beach (or backyard!) with just a few stitches and chunky braid as decoration, sewn by hand in under an hour. Here it is for a toddler, you could try it in your own size too! The yellow comes from a goldenrod dye bath of dried flowers and stems [...]
We have long embraced a passionate love for cob art, self expression through the wonderfully moldable natural medium what cob is: this simple yet sophisticated blend of clay, sand and water. In fact, seven years ago, Cheryl and I arrived to our farmstead with this passion in our hearts, only waiting for the right opportunities [...]
Trains can be fun for children, train stations have their charm too, it all depends on your attitude and attention as a parent to make the experience a wonderfully unforgettable one. If your journey happens to start in Budapest, the Hungarian railway agent Máv-Start offers international tickets at a convenient price, just remember to buy [...]
Walking on the side of the road and glimpsing at some of the wildflower bounty nature offers at any moment of the growing season – even if otherwise hurried to catch a bus – might well become the inspiration for a fun creative project. So did Muscari neglectum (Common grape hyacinth), this gracious lady with [...]
Do you know the basics of how to spin? or knit? or sew by hand?? If so, then you are already on your way to having the skills needed to create your own natural wardrobe. In the midst of rampant consumerism it is time to slow our cloth and get back to the handiwork that [...]
Other good two months have gone by since my first report on the rope sole shoe project I embarked, a self-taught and self-made endeavor to finally – at the age of 36 – slide my feet in all natural footwear they had deserved, but had been deprived of since birth. Doesn’t this sound familiar to [...]
Eating gluten-free on your own turf is a learning process with the occasional ups and downs (mislabeling), traveling gluten-free is another story indeed.We must travel, we must eat, we must learn to balance and choose our food wisely. The first rule of traveling is to always carry a spoon, the rest of the trip will [...]
With a journey shaping up in our plans, the first one in these “conscious times”, but hoping for many to follow, we thought it would make a great addition to our handcrafted backpack to have a drinking cup that is both light weight and durable, yet made of genuine material. Something we could even pass [...]
A needle has but one eye yet in it’s working life it has the ability to produce thousands of individual stitches that are able to see the world; travelling on your back, or shoe, or protecting your head from the rain and freezing snow of winter. Do you see the simple beauty in this? Those [...]
What does it mean to live simply? The question might well be, what does it mean to have one Earth? Are we here only for our lifetimes, or are we responsible for future generations? To each of us the answers may be slightly different, that makes us human, but collectively I think we all know [...]