Cozy Minimalist Home: More Style, Less Stuff by Myquillen Smith

Cozy Minimalist Home: More Style, Less Stuff

By Myquillen Smith

Read by Lisa Wright

3 hours, 50 minutes

Published October 2018 by Zondervan

Publisher's Summary: 

Writing for the hands-on woman who'd rather move her own furniture than hire a designer, Myquillyn Smith—author of the The Nesting Place—helps you think through every room in your house, one purposeful design decision at a time. With people, priorities, and purpose in mind, you can create a warm, inviting, and timeless home that transcends the latest trends and centers around your personal style.

You'll have the tools to create a home you're proud of in a way that honors your unique priorities, budget, and taste. And best of all, you can completely transform your home starting with furniture and décor that you already have!

In Cozy Minimalist Home, Smith helps you:

• Recognize your role as the curator of your home who makes smart, style-impacting design choices
• Know what to focus on and what not to worry about
• Discover the real secret to finding your unique style
• Find a sofa you won't hate tomorrow
• Deconstruct each room and re-create it step by step
• Create a pretty home with more style and less stuff
• Make your home look the way you've always hoped so you can use it the way you've always dreamed 
• Fall in love with the space you've created

Discover how creating a cozy minimalist home goes beyond pretty and sets the stage for the true connection, relationship, and rest that you deserve.

My Thoughts: 

Confession: I actually own this book in print (and, in my defense, I have actually read it), but I choose to listen to it to complement the work I've been doing around the house with the Cozy Minimalist community this year. I could have pulled it off of the shelf; but, at the time, I felt more confident that I'd get through it this way. Lesson I learned: a lot of what Smith has to say comes across just fine in an audiobook, but I missed the visual part of a book like this. 

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure that I am a cozy minimalist. I love the homes that have layers and layers of things that tell a story, where you can really learn who someone is by the things they choose to display in their homes. My heart is drawn to that. But my brain knows two things about me that stop my heart from having it's way: 1) I know I'm not going to dust all of that stuff regularly and I HATE knowing my house is dusty; and 2) my mood is much better if my brain is not overwhelmed by stuff. Maybe that makes me a super cozy minimalist? Someone who needs more cozy than the regular cozy minimalist, but who also doesn't want to have as much stuff as she does now? 

So I'm refreshing myself with the idea of cozy minimalism - having just the right amount of "stuff" to make your home work for you, feel comfortable, and look lovely; but doing it in a way that's very intentional so that everything works together. Smith is very adamant that when you're working on redecorating a room, you do it in the right order and make very deliberate choices. About room arrangement. About the size of rugs and decorative pieces. And about NOT choosing a paint color until AFTER you've decided on your big pieces of furniture and rugs. Why? Because there are thousands of paint colors to choose from and it's going to be easier to match your paint to the other things you've chosen, rather than trying to find a rug to match the color you've painted on the walls.  

Smith (or Nester, as she's known to those who follow her teachings) uses her own homes to teach her community these lessons. It's a style that's all her own, and it wouldn't be for me. But I recognize that by using her techniques, she's made a room that is lovely, cozy, and works for her family. And I'm confident that those same techniques will work for any of us. 

Life: It Goes On - February 16

Happy Sunday! Well, I let that week get away from me - I had books to review and just didn't get around to it. May end up doing mini-reviews before I forget what I've read. Because, people, I've been reading! And by reading, I mean actually picking up a books and turning the pages, not just listening to books as I drive. 

It's truly been winter here this week and we have at least another week of it to "look forward to." We got snow on Wednesday, sleet on Friday, more snow on Saturday AND today it's stupid cold. As you know, I'm not a fan; but maybe just wanting to hide inside and curl up actually be put me in the mood to read. It's so cold that, because the windows I'm usually looking out of when I type this are on the north side of the house, I haven't even opened the blinds today. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I finished Erasure by Percival Everett and started The Hunter by Tana French. 

Watched: The Voice, the Super Bowl (spectacularly un-super), a couple of episodes of Only Murders In The Building, and Emilia Perez on Netflix. It's a movie that refuses to be put in any one genre, has some terrific acting, and tackles some big themes. 

Read: I finished Alison Espach's The Wedding People and started L. Frank Baum's beloved The Wizard of Oz, which is my book club's classic book for this year.

Made: Hamburger soup, steaks and baked potatoes for Valentine's Day, and right now I'm cooking some rice pudding and I'm about to start a loaf of Outback bread. I planned to make some sourdough bread but cannot get my starter to reactivate. Too cold in my house, I think. 

Enjoyed: My nephew and his wife were in Nebraska this weekend, visiting all of their grandparents, and we got to join them for lunch and drinks yesterday, along with Mini-me and Miss C. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: There's not a lot on the calendar this week, although Miss H will be staying with us this weekend while she's in town for a convention. I'm behind on my Go Simplified calendar for February so I'll probably try to catch up with that. The Big Guy will be so cranky as he watches me get rid of more and more! 

Thinking About: I've been trying to avoid the news while also staying informed, which means that I'm still constantly thinking about politics and what's happening in our country. 

Feeling: Unmotivated. After I quieted our bathroom almost two weeks ago, I decided I wanted to paint before I put everything back. But I have yet to get to that, which means there's a big painting I brought up for that room that's living in the bathtub, a basket of towels in our closet, and a towel rack leaning against the wall. Must. Paint. Today. 

Looking forward to: Book club on Tuesday, even if it does mean going out in the cold again. 

Question of the week: What are your favorite soups to make? I'm all about having a pot of soup simmering on the stove all day on these cold days! 

Life: It Goes On - February 9

Happy Sunday! I'm finally sitting down to the computer after returning home midafternoon from a trip to K.C. exhausted. Splurged on a really nice hotel while we were there (and it really is a lovely place), but the bed was so uncomfortable for a woman with a bad back. It was really the only low point of an otherwise great weekend. 

I've gotten bored watching the Super Bowl, which is something you'll rarely hear me say, even when I don't care who wins the game. You know how much I love football and I usually watch to the bitter end, savoring every last minute of the last game of the season. Did you watch and did you care who won? 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: Myquillen Smith's Cozy Minimalist Home and Percival Everett's Erasure. I'm afraid that one's going to expire before I get it finished, though. Next up is Tana French's The Hunter. 

Watched: Some college basketball, some professional women's volleyball, and The Voice. 

Read: Thrity Umrigar's The Museum of Failure. Last night I started The Wedding People, by Alison Espach. 

Made: Creamy shrimp pasta with roasted tomatoes and spinach; the viral ditalini pasta recipe; and chipped beef on toast (one of the comfort foods we both grew up with). 

Enjoyed: To celebrate the Big Guy's milestone birthday, Mini-him, BG and I headed to K.C. for a celebratory weekend. Started with a brunch that Miss H made at her place (this is my girl who used to be a disaster in a kitchen!). Then we headed out - first stop was for coffee at The Roasterie, then on to Prospero's for some book shopping (all four of us left with at least one book), followed by chocolates at Christopher Elbow Chocolate, and then some record store shopping. Cleaned up for dinner at Third Street Social (delicious!) and then BG and I spent the night at The Raphael. This morning we met friends for brunch before heading home. It was a whirlwind but we had so much fun, so many laughs, and BG was completely surprised by it all.                                                                                                                                                        

This Week I’m:  

Planning: Last week's Cozy Minimalist community's room hushing was a bathroom. I did our primary bathroom (well, as much as I could without moving any of BG's things!); as has happened every time, this has resulted in me wanting to make some changes. This time I need to paint before I can make most of the changes I want to make. So that's up for this week first. 

Thinking About: How blessed I am. 

Feeling: So tired. 

Looking forward to: We do not go out to celebrate Valentine's Day. Instead we have a really good candlelit dinner at home and I pull out the china and the crystal. Haven't decided on the menu yet. 

Question of the week: The halftime show of the Super Bowl made me realize that while I am familiar with who Kendrick Lamar is, I don't know any of his music. That being the case, I have no opinion about the show. But, predictably, a lot of people who don't know his music did which brings to mind the old adage "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." There's no way to please everyone. If you got to make the decision about who should perform the halftime show, who would you choose? 

Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

Read by Andy Arndt

8 hours, 56 minutes

Published January 2024 by Farrar, Straus, Giroux

Publisher's Summary: 

At the moment when Voyager 1 is launched into space carrying its famous golden record, a baby of unusual perception is born to a single mother in Philadelphia. Adina Giorno is tiny and jaundiced, but she reaches for warmth and light. As a child, she recognizes that she is different: She possesses knowledge of a faraway planet. The arrival of a fax machine enables her to contact her extraterrestrial relatives, beings who have sent her to report on the oddities of Earthlings. 

For years, as she moves through the world and makes a life for herself among humans, she dispatches transmissions on the terrors and surprising joys of their existence. Then, at a precarious moment, a beloved friend urges Adina to share her messages with the world. Is there a chance she is not alone?

Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a novel of startling originality about the fragility and resilience of life on our Earth and in our universe. It is a remarkable evocation of the feeling of being in exile at home, and it introduces a gentle, unforgettable alien for our times.

My Thoughts: 

One of the best parts of being part of a family of readers is that they make another great source of book recommendations. In this case, Beautyland was recommended to me by Mini-me. As much as I like to think of myself as reading somewhat diversely, Mini-me puts me to shame. They read everything manga, sci-fi, fantasy, nonfiction, literary fiction. Beautyland is billed as science fiction, what with Adina being an alien communicating with her home planet. But this book can't be so narrowly defined; it reads much more like literary fiction to me. 

Adina "activates" when she is four-years-old, at the moment her head hits the concrete after she is pushed by the father she won't see again until she is an adult. That night she "wakes up" in a classroom with otherworldly teachers who tell her that her mission is to find out if Earth is a planet where others from her planet can survive when their dying planet is no longer viable. When her mother brings home a fax machine from a neighbor's trash and puts it in Adina's room, Adina discovers that if she sends a fax, she will get a reply she believes is coming from her handlers. She begins regularly sending them her impressions of our planet, the humans who inhabit it, and her own life. 

"I require speech lessons and corrective lenses and most likely teeth braces. I am an expensive extra­terrestrial."

‘‘The ego of the human male is by far the most dangerous aspect of human society.’’ 

 ‘‘Death’s biggest surprise is that it does not end the conversation.’’ 

Her observations are often spot on, often touching, and frequently amusing. Often equally amusing are the responses she receives.  

Adina is young, but wise enough never to mention the nightly lessons she will have in the coming years or that fact that she is from another planet that can't be seen. Still others can plainly see that Adina is unusual. It's that very fact that makes her a character that will stay with me for a very long time. While almost all reviewers refer to this as a work of science-fiction, I'm still unsure. Was Adina an alien being or a woman whose brain was rewired by trauma that left her with a unique life experience and take on the world around her? Beautyland works either way, and maybe the fact that I was left wondering made it all that much more impressive.