In the world right now, I have three heroes – they are Vandana Shiva, Thich Nhat Hanh and Jay Shafer. I feel proud and honoured to be breathing the air, walking the earth, in the same generation as these luminous souls.
Jay Shafer began the Tiny House movement (though of course people did live in tiny houses all over the world since forever). I am so grateful to Kirsten Dirksen for the wonderful videos of Tiny Houses that she has posted on YouTube as she charted her exploration through this inspiring territory.
The video embedded here today is not a short one – it lasts for just over an hour and twenty minutes, so you need a time when you can hole up with a hot drink and a cookie and settle into enjoying this absolute smörgåsbord of gloriful tiny houseness.
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This was my diary at the beginning of the year, but it was too big. The Badger had a much smaller one for Christmas, but as he uses his Filofax (that’s a kind of diary made from pastry), the gift was surplus to his requirements. So I snaffled it and the one in the picture here became kindling. I felt on reflection I was not cut out for world domination.
This tube contained a cosmetic product for turning my hair into barbed wire, just as it says on the pack. I purchased it in a moment of blind inexcusable folly. This year, one of the things I have worked on is simplifying right down the toiletries in my daily routine. This is the resulting list:
I have 2 shampoo bars on the go from Lush (one in the shower, one in the Garret). These are veggie, earth-friendly, zero-packaging and smell fab. They work for soap as well as hair, and I wash my clothes with them too. I have worked out some new life routines to keep things simple and earth-friendly, and I’ll post about those another day. Alice and I share a big bottle of Lush Veganese hair conditioner, and I add a little to rinsing water as fabric conditioner too.
I have some essential oils – rosemary, rose maroc, frankincense, lavender and patchouli. I put on the lavender under my arms as a deodorant. For moisturiser (face and body) I buy a big pot of aqueous cream for £1.99 from the local chemist, and fragrance it with the essential oils.
I brush my teeth with Lush Toothytabs – saves on packaging, water, dodgy chemicals and money. Very travel-friendly.
I have no other cosmetic products except a small stash of make-up that I rarely wear (a few lipsticks, 2 blushers). I do still dry my hair with a (small, travel, folding) hairdryer. We export to the national Grid way more electricity than we get through ourselves, so it’s a luxury I allow myself, and it means my hair looks the way I like it. The barbed-wire look did not add much, I felt.
This was a fun mirror I had as a gift – absolutely loved it and enjoyed it so much. I passed it on as a gift myself, to extend the joy
:0)