When everything seems off balance, eat Strawberries.
I have this magical place in my mind that is calming and vintage. I am doing my best to make that place real. It will not happen today nor tomorrow and I have been working on this for quite awhile.
I have found that what stands in the way is clutter. Not only solid clutter but mental clutter. It gets easier when that clutter can be removed.
In my Magical place is Soap. Above is bath soap, laundry soap, shaving soap and shampoo.
The five bars in the back are laundry bars, the two on the left middle are bath soap, the round one is a shaving soap and the greenish right middle is a shampoo bar. All of these are goat milk soap. Real soap cost more than synthetic soap but with real soap we don't get the chemicals that are found in synthetic soap.
My husband knows that I am not in to shoes, jewelry, clothing, shopping. Just real soap.
Another good soap, in my opinion, is Dr. Bronners soap. It says all in one soap. There are many uses for the single bar of Dr. Bronners.
Some of you might have figured out by now I like Vintage, romantic and whimsical. Our Vintarian life has all three.
The center of the picture is one of my vintage soft boiled egg warmers on top of a bottle of homemade chocolate mint tea. There is no chocolate in chocolate mint tea even though it taste like a chocolate mint patty.
I simply grow the chocolate mint in our backyard and go out and pick a small amount, bring it in and wash it and put it in a small pot and pour filtered water over it and bring it to a boil. Turn off the heat and put a lid over it and let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes. If you want to make a stronger mint tea just simmer it a bit longer. The amount of mint I use depends on how much I want to make. This is a judgement thing and just go by taste. I add nothing to my chocolate mint tea.
What is truly nice about this Vintarian life filled with smells of homemade food and a feeling of love, is that it is not found in a book or a movie theater or someplace else. It is right here in our home.
Anyone that visits our home can see that we have a simple small house. Nothing grand at all. Just a house that we made a home. You can do this too with slowly moving in that direction.
We can transform a table from plain to whimsical or romantic by using a tablecloth or fabric or by layering fabric. The food can be most anything and by being creative we can make it so much more. Most of the things you see in our home was never purchased new. I find most of our extras in thrift stores or make them myself.
Your magical place doesn't have to be vintage nor romantic nor whimsical, it can be what you want it to be.
What is surprising is that when we remove all the clutter we can find that this place was here all the while, we just could not see it.
It starts with the motion of planting a seed or cleaning out a closet. If our home is not functional then we have most likely spent a ridiculous amount of money on just stuff with no real purpose.
We feel our garden is a bit magical with the added whimsical touches. Nothing expensive at all just creative.
Our little secret garden has provided us with many vegetables this summer. We just cannot get our fill of eggplant. We have found that we like it baked or grilled. We simple soak the slices for 15 to 30 minutes in salt water, rinse and drain then coat it with olive oil, salt and pepper and bake it or grill it. We bake it at 375 until done. I am going to miss our fresh eggplants when it is time for them to stop producing.
I hope you have found some inspiration in this post because I truly want for you to find your magical place that is very real. Grandma Donna
