Saying goodbye to 2015 with a good book

What better way to say goodbye to the year than by settling down with a nice book? I spent the morning in the garden, checking that all was well; bird feeders full, bird baths topped up, gave my chooks clean water and filled their bowls with some extra snacks, cleaned the wildlife pond's pump and filter, saw to it that the patio was clean and washed, the pathways neat and free from debris and that all the pot plants had enough water.

I've prepared a light meal and some snacks for hubby and I for tonight, and now I'm looking forward to settling down with that good book, a cold glass of Rosé, some snacks nearby and soothing back-ground music. Although that might be trumped by hubby wanting to watch some TV. That's also OK.

No noisy party or get-together this year - in fact, we have not attended noisy parties or get-togethers for quite a few years now (and it's not an age thing!) Smile! I've always been partial to quiet evenings at home on New Year's Eve, even as a youngster. Sometimes I stay up to greet the new year at midnight, yelling "Happy New Year!" to all the garden birds, much to their consternation! Then it's time for a midnight snack and off to bed.

However you spend your New Year's Eve, here's wishing that you enjoy it immensely and that your new year is filled with abundance, peace and lots of good books.

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right!

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Merry Christmas 2015!

Here's wishing you a good book and a cup of coffee this Christmas day! May this festive season be filled with LOVE, JOY, INSPIRATION and lots of reading!

My pet peeve - a dog ear

One of my pet peeves is the dog-earing of books! And yes, underlining and highlighting passages, scribbling in the margins and crumpling dustcovers! When I get a new book, I spend several minutes caressing it, gazing lovingly upon it, and eventually hugging it to my chest in unabashed glee and just the thought that someone could desecrate it by folding pages or scribbling in it has driven me crazy for years.

Why would one want to dog-ear a book? I know it's meant to mark a section or phrase in a book that one finds to be important or of personal meaning, but why harm the page? There are so many innovative ideas of marking a place or keeping your place when you stop reading for a while. This shops are full of beautiful book markers. Anything from metal markers with beautiful dangling silver charms to fabric corner bookmarks that you slip over the corner to plasticized cardstock with magnets.

 

Narrow sheet of paper with inspirational words and laminated for durability

And the sky's the limit if you use your imagination for making your own bookmarks. There's so much you can do, from tearing a piece of notepaper to place at the page (and you can scribble on it!), crochet something, cut out magazine pictures or creating something something unique like inspirational words on a long narrow piece of paper and laminating it. I'm always making some like the one above and below, not only is it sturdy but it also gives me a daily dose of some really inspirational thoughts.

I think books are sacred. Well, you know, not really sacred - The intrinsic worth of a book belongs to its content. Most books aren’t sacred in and of themselves. A book is only sacred for what you get out of it. And then, of course, there is the beautiful printing. Anything in printed form can highly excite me, from a magazine to a lady's journal to beautiful greeting cards and, of course, books. Hard cover books, with or without a dust jacket - they feel so firm and heavy in your hands...

But now, here's the thing. I also have trouble throwing away books. Even 'rubbish' ones like cheap soft covers or promotional or advertising booklets. However, those I have found a use for! Those destined for the dustbin, I now keep on a special shelf and often use them for sketching and painting in, like the image above - the words behind the painting lends a certain charm and these little books can become artwork in themselves.

However, whether you dog-ear or not, love your books. Allow them to look loved by adorning them with beautiful silver charms and always cherish them, not for what they are, but for what they say.

 Image credit

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Do what you love - curl up with a good book!

Nothing is of more importance than our mental and physical health - if you're not well, you are of no use to those around you. In fact, you might be a burden.

I have this special little corner set up in my dining room where I can disappear into my own little world, doing the things I love - journalling, sketching, making notes of new birds visiting my garden and where I keep some seeds ready for sowing. Here I often also plan my week, it seems to bring order to my life and reminds me to not fill my day with too many things and to leave some moments for just being quiet...

A corner in the lounge where I curl up with one of my favourite books

Another favourite is my reading nook (actually, I can read anywhere!), but nothing beats a comfy sofa or daybed for curling up with your favourite book, a cup of steaming tea and maybe a snack or two.

My reading corner in the lounge before I got the comfy yellow sofa.

A daybed in my bedroom where, in winter, I often snuggle up under a throw to enjoy a good book. Originally built as a spare bed in my bedroom for when my 3-year old grand-daughter came to visit (she was scared to sleep in her own room), it is now used as a daybed to read.

Doing what you love is one of the most important steps to mental and physical health. It has been proven scientifically that people that feel passionate about, and enjoy, what they're doing, live a longer, happier and healthier life than someone who struggles to get up in the morning because they hate their job, or what they're doing.

Put a spring in your walk, get your skin glowing and exude vibrancy - by doing what you love! And if you want to make a difference in the world, the single most important thing you can do is consciously and deliberately choose to do work that you are passionate about.

 Isn’t this just the most inspiring reading nook with a view?!

When you follow your bliss, it seems like the rest of the world orchestrates things so that your life is easy. It becomes effortless. 

 

A niche to dream in

"Plain shelves filled with good editions in good bindings are more truly decorative than ornate bookcases lined with tawdry books."
- Edith Wharton, 1902



Adults love inviting nooks just as children do; such spaces seem protective, made for the imagination. A place apart, where you can gather notes, thoughts and plans. It's simply the idea of a silence in one's self that allows one to think or to feel. Creating a corner where that silence can happen - even in the busiest of households - calls for beauty like the shelf above.

Setting up a reading nook or dreaming niche for yourself is as exciting as building a new house! Lovingly storing your favourite books and stationery in one place where you can relax with a cup of coffee, snuggling under a warm throw, is one of life's blissful pleasures.

Reading is one of the great pleasures of life and an important part of nurturing our soul, gaining knowledge and finding pleasure in fiction. As such, we must make special time for ourselves to pursue our pleasures and make it high on our list of priorities.

Whether you are lucky enough to have a library filled with books and comfortable couches or choose to use a bay window area, filled with light, or a special corner in your bedroom, your reading nook will be YOUR private hide-out where no-one is allowed in except by invitation.



Your first consideration should be a comfortable chair or chaise lounge embellished with all the luxuries like cushions and throws. A coffee or side table will come in handy for a reading lamp, tea pot, some fresh flowers, reading glasses and some extra books.

Incorporating some shelves or a bookshelf for storage of your books and favourite collections is next on the list. Be creative and innovative with your bookshelf - fill blank spaces on the shelves with candles (in case the electricity goes off!) and some of your favourite photo frames. Fill a vintage jug with some pens and pencils for making notes and have a dictionary at hand for reference.

Some extras like a footstool and magazine rack always come in handy and a soft rug underfoot adds a luxurious touch. Also give some attention to the wall colour - find a soothing theme and hang some of your favourite paintings and artwork as a finishing touch.


A corner in the living room used as a reading nook.


A bookshelf and a comfortable chair on one side of the dining room denotes this as someone's dream corner.


Storage for some favourite books


A perfect reading nook
- image from decor8

So settle in with a creamy cup of coffee, your favourite book or your daily journal and enjoy the simple pleasures of life - don't get to the end of your life and find that you have just lived the length of it. You want to have lived the width of it as well.

 

The pleasures of life!

A cup of coffee and one of my Nature Journals – two of the great pleasures of life! I’ve been journaling since child-hood, when I wrote about and sketched little things I found in the garden, about my pets, and important dates like friends’ birthdays and little poems I would add to birthday cards I made for them. When I became a teenager, my journals were my solace for broken hearts, my miseries and joys and ‘important’ happenings in my life, always accompanied by sketches, collages and leaves and grasses I found in nature.

In later life my Nature Journal recorded dates and sketches of my animals, the plants and insects in my garden and any interesting info I learnt along the way. I found the coffee to be important during ‘thinking’ spells, always reaching out for the cup when I paused in thought. And oh! how many times don’t I put my paint brush in my coffee in stead of the water bowl, adding a bit of interest to the sketches!

In the noisy confusion of life...

… keep peace in your soul

It’s been so long since I’ve taken the time to just sit and read.
Curl op on the sofa with a nice cup of tea and just read.
I’ve realised that it’s a choice I made and that I now have the choice to rectify this.
Just another gift to be grateful for.

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Wishing you a week filled with time to read.

Is a bookshelf just a bookshefl?

Beware of the person of one book. 

–Thomas Aquinas

Is your bookshelf “just a bookshelf”? Somewhere for your books to be shoved into together with some other odds and ends you don’t have place for?

How about beautifying your bookshelf? Books are objects of beauty and look great displayed with some of your favourite objects. It doesn't matter what sort of bookshelf you've got, it doesn't have to be an expensive wall-to-wall creation, but what does matter is what it looks like. Newly married in the early 70's and with not much money, a large, fancy bookshelf was out of the question, but my books needed a home. They were suffocating in the boxes. A few wooden shelves and some bricks solved the problem and also provided space for some of my treasures that I'd collected as a young girl.

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Show off the things you love and a plant goes a long way to enhancing the look of your bookshelf. And something green and living gives your books someone to talk to! lol! (Just remember to put a holder under the plant so that no water leaks onto your shelf!) A few well-placed baskets with lids look beautiful on the shelves and also solves the problem of all the stuff we need to put down somewhere until it can get sorted out.

Books are a thing of beauty, almost sacred in my eyes, and shoving them around is similar to crumpling up money in your pocket or purse - how can the Universe supply if you have such disregard?

Are paper books a thing of the past?

Now they say that the book is threatened, to be replaced by e-readers and morphed into multi-media presentations. So, what am I to do? Am I a dinosaur? Am I crippled by nostalgia? Does my wish that the book remain intact and strong take me down the road to irrelevancy? Should I adapt and become more media savvy? Should I blog and create miniature films for Youtube? Should I give up the life I have led, making a living and making sense of my life by books?

One problem I have with e-books is that they are not books. They only look like books. Dictionaries say that the word "book" goes back to the word "beech," the wood first used for writing down ancient runes. A traditionalist like me would say that you need paper or another wood product to have a book.

In our modern way of thinking, we believe we can separate the contents of a book from the material it's written on and bound with. We think of a book as information. But anyone who loves books knows that the book is what you hold in your hand and put on a shelf. A library honours a book and easily turns into a sacred place, somewhere where you can pick and choose a book, be entranced by its leather-bound cover and feel the weight in your hands.

I hope libraries don't become museums for the old technologies of the book. I don't think they have to be. I hope we keep producing books. I think they can co-exist with e-readers because they are not just about information. They're like pianos and antiques and oil paintings - revered, collectable - superseded in some ways by new technologies, but not obliterated. I hope that bookstores will discover how to honour books and continue to sell them. Maybe our pragmatic use of the e-reader, easier to travel with and fun to play with for its media potential, will shift, and soon we'll realize what is so precious about a book. Maybe a book is easier to ensoul than a piece of electronic technology.

The power of reading

Curling up with a book and a cup of hot coffee on a cold winter night may not sound like fun to some people out there, but those of us who are addicted to reading know just how wonderful it feels to lose yourself into a whole new world. I was exposed to books at a very young age, when my father would clutter this cupboards and every available space with books ranging in subject anywhere from gardening to history to science to law and dozens of encyclopaedias. It was therefore only natural that I grew up loving the printed matter and as a child I read just about anything from comics and newspapers to books to magazines.

Reading offers both pleasure and information and benefits will always come to those who read, whether they are consciously aware of it or not. Reading always works its magic, regardless of who you are and what is it that you are reading.

The most wonderful thing that reading offers is a peep into another world. when you pick up a book and lose yourself into it, its like you have transcended your present situation. This temporary escape from our routine life is of great significance when it comes to your mental health. We all have day-to-days tasks to take care of, and many a times we go to bed all tense and frustrated and sometimes just downright bored with life. This is when reading comes to our rescue and we should welcome it with open arms if we truly want to be happy and alive.

Reading is a great imagination booster and it helps develop a sense of creativity in you. It was after reading Jonathan Livingstone Seagull that I was inspired to paint seagulls, amazing birds that I have always watched with glee when I go to the coast. Reading is also educational - many a time I’ve come across a word I’ve never heard which ensued in looking it up in the dictionary or on Google - I’ve learnt some amazing stuff!

Reading offers us a chance to see the world from someone else's eyes, thus broadening our horizons and opening our minds to new possibilities. Don't ever forget the words of Sir Richard Steele, who said, "Reading is to mind what exercise is to the body".

Simple living - what does it mean?

Is the measure of a simple life how small your home is? Whether or not you have a yard? Whether or not you have money?

Living a simple life doesn't mean giving up all or any of your luxuries. It doesn't mean you have to live like a pauper and not enjoy art, books and travel or living in a beautiful, big home. It doesn't mean living in a small, cramped space. It doesn't mean that, if you have money, you must give it all away in order to "live the simple life."

Living simply is a state of mind. To me living a simple life simply means not having UNNECESSARY, not-beautiful or not-useful stuff in my life. It means cutting out useless, time-consuming activities that serve no purpose.

It doesn't mean doing nothing. It could even mean taking on extra activities, like planting your own vegetable garden, free of hormones, insecticides and pesticides and reducing your carbon footprint on our planet. Living simply means living with purpose, on purpose and being passionate about life.

Any time that is not spent on loving what you're doing is waste.

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Simplicity

“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

~ William Morris

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