The Little Things in Life

The Little Things in Life

Isn’t it amazing how seemingly unimportant things can sometimes make your day. Besides accomplishing goals and reaching targets, there are very often coincidences on the sideline that change everything. I remember sitting in school classes that would not end and there was this little bird outside the window sitting on a tree. My thoughts turned to the bird and how he enjoys his freedom and the time in class went by much faster.

Or did you ever eat the perfectly ripe Mango. Buying Mango is like playing the lottery. They often look good and smell good, but when you cut them open, they still taste sour and are chewy. Other times they are already turning brown inside and have that taste of fermentation. What a great day is it when your Mango turns out to be sweet and juicy.

I remember in college missing my train on those cold, wet, foggy days in Germany. While I was standing there on the tracks looking for the next connection the sun came out and I realized that I am an hour early anyway, because I forgot to change my watch from day-light-savings-time to winter time. What a great day!

In our busy lifes we often overlook the important things that have an impact on us. Last year I joined the Roanoke Valley Bird Club together with my son. Standing there in the quiet forest listening and watching the birds, it is amazing to realize what’s around you that you would never realize this otherwise.

With this experience in mind I started to pay more attention to the things on the sideline of my life. Now I see the world around me more mindful. During a yoga class outside in a park I was able to follow the hunt of a hawk for a smaller bird. Thankfully it did not end in bloodshed but to hear the shrieks of the hawk and see the two birds chasing each other in the sky was incredible. I was probably the only one in our yoga group who recognized this spectacle.

Try it out! Start paying attention to the things you normally don’t see. Sit in your living room and look around. Take a walk around your neighborhood. Turn off your phone and just enjoy the moment. You will be surprised about the world around you!

Art at Home

Art at Home

There are few things in your home that are less functional and practical than art. And still, it’s one of the most important elements of a home. It’s an easy way to express yourself in your home.

Art in a home is the personal bridge to the owner. Especially if your home is filled with artwork you love. It relates to memories and experiences as well as ambitions and feelings. Not many things reveal so much of somebody’s personality than the art in their home.

Art is often unhitched from the design of a room since it must not follow the style, colors and structures of a room. Art is just a very personal thing. The important thing is that it moves the owner of the home, independent from monetary value or the opinion of others.

Art is not only for art collectors. Think outside the box. Art for your home can include paintings, drawing, prints but also sculptures and the artwork of your kids. You don’t find it only in a gallery. It’s more about how it feels than what it looks like.

Here are a few unconventional ideas to make your home more artful:

Textiles

Find a favorite fabric and hang it on a wall. You can either hang it in square form like a picture or form the size to an artful sculpture.

Mirrors

Little mirrors of different sizes and shapes arranged on a wall lighten up the room and make it appear bigger.

This is especially effective for the entrance area of a home. A number of hooks and maybe little shelfs clean up hats, mittens, shawls and umbrellas.

Baskets

Baskets make nice little sculptures that can be placed anywhere in your home. Besides the artful effect, they are very functional since baskets can be used to collect all kinds of things.

Maps/ Menus/ Sheet Music

Depending on hobbies you can put a map of your favorite place on the wall, the menu of your favorite restaurant or sheet music of your classical piece.

Always remember that it is your home and it must serve you. The art in your home is there to make YOU feel better.

5 essentials of decorating

It is interesting to find out what makes interior design stand out.  You would think in a world where everything is possible and strict decorating rules seem not to be as important, decorating would be easy. There are thousands of different ways to get design inspiration just thinking of all the magazines, interior design shows on TV and design blogs.  Decorating is becoming easier and everyone can do it.  Every style has its own name, mixing and matching is in fashion and clear rules are disappearing.

But there are still differences in professional interior design and just decorating for fun.  It is interesting to see that the same principles of decorating that were important in the past are still essential today.  I highly appreciate the skills of professional decorators.  They understand what it takes to bring out emotions and feelings in a room.

Talking about all principles and elements of great decorating becomes overwhelming, especially for someone who is not a designer. Therefore, I am pointing out five decorating principles that I consider outstanding:

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Sustainable Living

There is a lot of talk about sustainability in the past years.  What is sustainable?  And how do we measure it?  Is it really only about nature and endangered species?

As a forester I am following the discussion about sustainable forestry for more than 15 years.

A core question is: How can you responsibly use wood for construction, woodworking, furniture and even paper products, without damaging or destroying valuable ecosystems?

Wood is one of the few building materials that can grow back providing beautiful forests (unlike concrete, steel, Aluminum, plastic). If used locally, it has one of the lowest carbon footprints. And finally, if wood is not treated with dangerous chemicals, it can be easily reused and recycled.

Independent from the question of how to provide a reliable system that guarantees sustainable forestry it’s interesting to note that most people in our society are not directly connected with this subject. It’s about wild animals, swamps, nice mountains but not about daily life. I want to discuss here, how sustainable living has an influence on most people every day, no matter if they live in the city or in the country.

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Inspired and Artful Living

The way we live is part of the key to our happiness.  By surrounding us with the people, color, and treasures that are meaningful to us we invent our own world.  We create happiness if we can see what we love.

A good start to this process is trying to look at things more closely than other people do. Make connections between different things and ideas. How can these connections help you solve the problems and challenges in your life?  Looking at things from different angles can transform old ideas to something totally new.

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