Here’s what 5 world renowned people you may or may not know said about Simplicity:

John Maeda – Graphic Designer, artist and Computer Scientist at MIT – “Simplicity is knowing when less is too little and more is too much.”

Sara Berman – Fashion Designer – “Simplicity is the basis of good design.”

Ken Okuyama – Creative Director for auto/transportation design, professor – “Simplicity involves two major processes: eliminating redundant elements and integrating things to make them flow.”

Gary Chang – Architect – “Simplicity requires focusing on the similarities between entities, not the differences.”

Peggy Fritzsche – Radiologist, professor – “Simplicity means products of the best quality displaying essential elements, but without additional ornamentation or clutter.”

And of course I have to put in my two cents. 

Cecilia – “Simplicity is streamlined yet comfortable and easy.”

What would your line be? How would you describe Simplicity?

Playing with my new iPhone 6s, iPad mini, FitBit and mini speaker!! Crazy learning curve done years ago when I first got my MacBook and went to Apple One on One classes. I love Apple. They were very, very forward thinking and generous back in the day when they gave a personal computer to every classroom and educated lucky instructors. My first program was Print Shop by Broderbund and it was super user friendly. Before that, I failed every single computer class I attended in and after college. As Always, I remain teachable although when it came to MsDos I was a complete blockhead.

Honor the past, Imagine the future but Live in the present.

Acceptance does not mean approval.

I didn’t cause it, I can’t control it and I can’t cure it = Knowing when it is not my monkey, not my circus.

Realize you have your own agenda and you have choices to make today.

Sometimes we assume that everyone must know “that” too so we just presuppose it is general knowledge. As an example, I told someone today in conversation who is gluten, meat and dairy free but still eats eggs about what they do to male chicks as soon as they hatch. She was shocked and disgusted and saddened to say the least. When we chatted on about industrial slaughterhouses, she had no idea beef and dairy lobbies even existed, that you cannot under any circumstance visit one and big government finances “conventional” farming and rallies to make it very difficult for organic growers to get their certifications (it takes at least seven years and lots of paperwork and hoops to jump through).

Or, that when you eat meat, or dead flesh, half the time you are eating a sickened animal, always they are shot up with hormones and antibiotics and you are ingesting GMO’s too because that’s what the livestock eat. You are what you eat, literally.

Also, if we didn’t breed all these animals to kill for our appetites, we wouldn’t be running out of rain forests for grazing, we’d be able to feed more people (because right now most crops are used to feed animals), we would save water and clean up the air. In fact, if everyone gave up meat – we could clean up the atmosphere free of methane gas in ten years. On the other hand, if everything ran without fossil fuel tomorrow it would take 50 years to clean up the air.

Did you know that “conventional” is a word big agra lobbied to use so it sounded less frightening and even acceptable rather than “produce sprayed with chemicals”?

I know I must have blown a few minds with this post but here is the thing –  every time someone says to me they don’t want to hear it – they believe it is so horrendous and would rather stick their head in the sand (and I know because I have been guilty of this as well) and believe it is too vile to contemplate, then, why do they support it? Food for thought.

Maybe tomorrow I will open your eyes about the dairy industry, I, who have adored cheese!!!

We make choices every day.

Bad things usually happen because someone has exerted their free will on another or a situation and they have made a bad choice.

Being honest and admitting our mistakes, humbles us. We are only humans on a learning curve.

Today is our youngest’s 20th. No more teenagers and twenty on the twentieth! Hip Hip Hooray!

When your children grow and leave, there’s an empty swell in your heart that nothing else can fill. You can try to get a dog, make a geographic move, take up golf, get new friends/hobbies or shop until you drop – but nothing fills that space again, quite like it again.

At least, that’s my experience.

Happy Birthday to our little sunshine.

Gratitude inspires me. I am happiest when I see all my blessings which allows me to see all my possibilities. I realize there is a gift or valuable lesson I can squirm out of every unpleasant moment or ….decorating challenge.

Since gratitude is a form of grace, I become more motivated, disciplined and emotionally charged from it. So it is a great place for me to be in; an attitude of gratitude.

I am encouraged and even energized with much stimuli to choose from and much to do around here. The biggest money output are the floors and also the point of departure for our new style. Hence the interminable back and forth.

At last, after doing much soul searching, I am driven by my heart and first gut choice. It isn’t the most practical or conventional, but it is the new authentic selves as new empty nesters. Old colors, old ideas, old hardware, lighting and floors have to go. Not all of it has to go. And some of it just needs to get a facelift in order to bring it into this decade. But the floor was the foundation, literally and figuratively.

I really bucked this idea. I thought I wanted what I saw in new model homes and some clever magazines. Yet, as the sleepless nights passed and inner processes of questions, releases and innovations inspired my scattered dreams, I had to admit what I was attracted to seemed silly and frivolous at my age, but perhaps that is exactly why I found it so divine. The look is ethereal, easy and laid back.

We are lighter now.  We are softer than ever towards each other and we are comfortable, cozy and like two love cats. Cream for dinner?

I am eliminating dated views, unearthing who we are and envisioning the space we want to live in now. I am listening to my heart, going with the flow and taking all the help and encouragement anyone wants to give me. I am continuously researching, rifling through DIY and Home Design internet sites and blogs, understanding my priorities, dislikes and new style.

After getting a few more maintenance items installed and repaired, more items donated, boxed or trashed, we will proceed with the matter of the structural grounding energy, aka, the floors and then we can move along to paint, lighting and hardware. Ending with a classical oomph of rugs, window coverings, furniture and accessories, our task should take around one year, to do it right and do it economically.

Tomorrow: Inspiration photos that helped me clarify and narrow down our new outlook.