Modern House Minimalist Design

I recently read somewhere online that people in western Europe own 10'000 things on average. If you think about it, that really isn't very much. (You could also compare it to a developing country in African where some people can count their belongings on ten fingers.) We should all strive to own less. I wrote a post last week about my experience with minimalism and how it has been the best stress reliever that I have discovered yet. Own less, experience life more...that is my new motto! Here's how you can do it too: 1.  Throw away the half used lotions, shampoos, and soaps that you don't use in your bathroom. ( You can also do this with pens, pencils, dog toys, kids toys...etc. ) 2.  Burn your candles, don't save them for special occasions. 3.   Put DVD and CD contents onto a hard-drive and give away the hard copies. 4.   Limit sentimental things to 1 box. 5.   Stop stocking up on stuff, only buy what you need. 6.   Keep your two best ...

This picture is of our bedroom. Yes, we have a dresser and a closet, but this is basically it. I have had a few small bouts of living a minimalist lifestyle, like living in a 200 square foot studio apartment in South Korea, but not until this year have I purposely wanted to live that lifestyle. Since getting married, (about 3 years ago) Andy and I have moved apartments or houses roughly 10 times. That means that on average, we have moved about every 4 months for the last 3 years. What can I say, we like to keep things interesting! After Andy and I eloped for our marriage, we had a wedding party for all of our friends and family to help us celebrate. When we invited people we specifically said 'no gifts', we didn't want to acquire more things. It was a simple start to a marriage with plenty of kitchen utensils and not much else. That was how we liked it though. I mean, what else do you need in life?! With each move that we made, we acquired more "stuff". Building ...

Last week was a crazy and busy week. Andy was hired by a California solar company a few months ago and has been working remotely with them until we had a chance to move. The holidays gave us a nice large time gap where Andy wasn't working, so we did the big move! Here is a quick rundown of our move from Virginia to California through Instagram pictures. Our moving truck all loaded up in Virginia. You can't see our car attached to a toeing hitch on the back, but it's there. Our speed topped out at about a whopping 60mph!  Our first bout of traffic around Pennsylvania. Holiday traffic was horrible.  Mr. Buckles did so well, he was a trooper. He worked nicely as a lap warmer too. Andy was also a trooper, though you can't tell in this picture. :)  Mmm, breakfast on the road!  Christmas morning. I wasn't too thrilled to be on the road, but I was happy to be making progress. Yeah, I drink coffee through a straw...I'm cool.  This was our Christmas dinner on the road. W...

   ******** Text and photo heavy.....have another cup of coffee****** PART 1-  (written a few days ago very early am) Hello.....wow I must admit I had a few moments (or hours) not long ago when I started to think I might never get my energy back or enough time to put together a post I could be proud of. But alas here I am. Now lest you be thinking that I am so together, so organized that I am already back to my blogging schedule translates to endless hours of being footloose and fancy free on my comp .  I feel obliged to tell you you are wrong. Way wrong. For here I sit in my small but cozy office  which at the moment, is a complete and utter mess amidst heaps of bags, boxes, books, pictures, torn out pages from design mags, fabric and paper swatches,etc..... But we all know you need to know when to listen to your body and when its time to put everything down, and just take a deep breath and do something for yourself. Hence my being here right now. Trust me, me ...