If you’ve ever taken on a second home, gone through a breakup/divorce after having lived with someone for years, or had your home destroyed in a disaster, you’re going to have to have to re-buy some basics and then some. And since I’ve been in this boat a few times I’ve learned what really was worth the money, what wasn’t, what lasts and what doesn’t and what I really love having around in my home.

And while I sometimes brand hop when re-purchasing (still looking for the perfect bed, bedding, towels) I have been loyal to a few brand items because they just work.

And those things are:

• Dyson Animal Vacuum
• Williams Sonoma Brasserie® All-White Dinnerware Piece
• Williams Sonoma glass mixing bowls
• Williams Sonoma Kitchen stuff in general (it just lasts through all the hardships I put it through).
• All-Clad 7-piece set
• Chef’s Choice Electric Kettle
• Stainless Steel Shower Caddy
• simplehuman System Dishrack
• Huggable Hangers
• Pottery Barn Carlilse Drapes (an inexpensive godsend for an ugly room!).
• Ikea Lack side tables
• T-fal Ultraglide Diffusion Iron

I’m sure there’s a few more I’m forgetting at the moment (and will add as I can think of them). What are some home things that you love so much you’d buy all over again if you had to?

“Over the past 30 years, in survey after survey, this nation of five and a half million people, the land that produced Hans Christian Andersen, the people who consume herring by the ton, consistently beat the rest of the world in the happiness stakes.” Morley Safer in a Feb. 17 CBS News 60 Minutes story highlighting Denmark.

When I first heard that Danes were considered the happiest people in the world, I admit I was somewhat skeptical. Loving, kind, open, truthful, straight talkers, quirky, crazy, polite, innovative, intellectual - totally. But happiest? No, that’s not the first word I, or most Danes, would think to use to describe themselves (in fact, I know far more grumpy Danes than Pollyanna ones!).

However, during the 60 Minutes interview, one of the Danes cleared up my confusion by saying that it’s not that they are the happiest, but they are, perhaps, the most content. All Danes have all their basic needs covered from birth to death (good wages, health care provided, free education including university, one year government paid maternity leave and some of the best elder-care in the world to name a few). A word that describes how Danes feel with this life is tryghed which simply means “tucked in” – like a snug child looked after.

With basic needs met one doesn’t have to struggle for the day to day things so much (how will I get into school, how do I pay for the doctor, where do I go when I’m old), so one’s energy can go into family, friends and job pursuits. This sets up Danes for that feeling of being content. Feeling content then frees them feed other desires/pursuits which fuels a lot of young people’s ambitions.

But what also needs to be added to this equation is that Danes generally have very low expectations of life. This is not to say they are pessimists or Eeyore about everything, it’s just that they don’t expect that they will all grow up rich and famous, have a big mansion, drive the BMW, and wear more bling than their next-door’s mama and all by age 25.

If that or something else fabulous happens - great! Wonderful! Celebrate! But they just don’t go around with the expectation of extraordinary events occurring all the time; they are content with where they are and might stay at that place without a feeling of missing something. If they’re in a small home, they don’t feel shamed by this because that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re not ambitious or successful or happy - it simply means they want a small home.

In Denmark, one can enjoy being a homemaker, working in a grocery store, growing old with wrinkles, sitting for hours drinking coffee instead of jet-setting, because they’re not stressing out about providing the basics that aren’t really basics or about becoming rich/famous/skinny just because they could be (or as we sometimes tell each other in America, should be). Danish society supports everyone in making sure they live well yet, aside from the basics mentioned earlier, doesn’t dictate what that is. Each Dane gets to decide what it is that makes them content.

And thus, we call them happy because, well, doesn’t that sound happy? It certainly does to me.

• “Given a shovel, Americans Dig Deeper into Debt” sheds an interesting light on how the majority seem to be getting more into debt. Luckily, there’s a great site, Get Rich Slowly offers solid advice on how to get out of it. (via).
• If you’re a graphic designer and love fonts, you just might appreciate this video.
• Pino’s Aprons. You got to hand it to a donkey that can cultivate a following of pie bakers and apron makers. And the money goes to one of my favourite people and favourite causes.
• Just discovered Pioneer Woman and love her photography/Photoshop tips. I especially love the post about who your twenty-year younger self thought she’d grow up to be. I was doing a school sponsored twice weekly work/study at my local airport as an Air Traffic Controller and thought maybe I’d do that or perhaps own a flower shop or just maybe be a writer/photographer who travelled the world. I wouldn’t have thought the last one, which seemed the most impossible, would really be the only possible thing to come happen!
• Walkable cities; I’ve blogged about this before and how, living in Santa Monica CA I have access to amazing things within walking distance. Staying with my BFF in her Hollywood home it’s the same thing which goes against the notion that LA is only accessible by car. It isn’t - it’s just that most people choose to drive for status, conveinence or Air Conditioning!

Clotilde has a great little explanation of le 14 juillet so I would direct you there to find out more. My experience with this day is very similar to hers - no food celebrations but fireworks, fun, and a lot of reminiscing of the past (both of the country and our own).

As for me this year, it’s a quiet celebration. I was hoping to have gone to Santa Barbara to celebrate but couldn’t make it - next year perhaps. Instead I’ll crack a Crème Brûlée, watch Marie Antoinette and spend the entire day speaking French.

But should you wish to celebrate, here are some ideas:

• The Los Angeles Times has a list of celebrations going on.
• Apartment Therapy LA has a great list of French Films or films having to do with France.
• I have my own list along with French books and sites I adore.
• Susan Serra, the fabulous Kitchen Designer, has a great post of French Country Kitchens!

Every time my mother comes to visit me, she tells me I should get a cleaning lady. “Organization is your forte. Cleaning isn’t.” she’ll say. And she’s right.

My current flat is about 900 square feet, surrounded by gardens and the beach which means lots of dust, dirt and bugs - especially with dogs, cats and guests coming in and out. I’m also busy and just don’t have the time to keep up even though I feel I should be able to. And even before this flat I have, for years, debated about hiring someone to come in every three weeks to just give the place a good scrub down. But the guilt of not doing this myself, well, it’s stopped me.

But years ago I had a conversation with my friend Alicia who has a cleaning lady and she said to think of it hiring someone to clean not only helps you do what you do best, but helps someone else make a living. You contribute to someone else’s financial success so you have more time to concentrate on yours. I loved this way of thinking about it. Yet I still hesitated until last fall when I moved out of a very large flat and was stressed with all I had going on. I hired a couple to clean the place for the move out - the floors, the tiles, the oven, windows - everything. In two hours the made the place immaculate. Something I couldn’t have done and honestly, after moving 11 times in 7 years, I didn’t want to.

But I was convinced. They saved me so much time and energy and I helped their business. It was a win-win.

So now I’ll be looking into hiring someone to mostly scrub floors, washroom and kitchen once a month. The only thing is, I have no idea how to go about it (getting someone to clean an empty flat - easy peasy). I get nervous about someone having my key but then nervous about being home and in the way. Do I go through an agency, hire direct?

Who else has hired someone and what’s your advice?

Staying with my girlfriend, who has lived in the same roomy, beautiful flat for 12 years, I have become extraordinarily homesick for my own place. It hasn’t helped that we’ve been visiting with other friends with equally beautiful (and lived in) homes. And although spending half this year living in amazing hotel rooms had me ready to plunker down once again, it wasn’t until I started spending time in the homes of friends that it really hit that I haven’t had a place of my own to lay my head.

However, after weeks of looking at flat after flat that just won’t do (too dark, too small, too unsafe, too weird landlords, too smelly - oh yes been a lot of those for $1800!!) I’d felt a bit worn down and concerned that my vision of a flat wouldn’t manifest. I’d seen so clearly what I wanted thanks to friends and my own great home last year but I was feeling slightly defeated by everything and lack of hope.

So I took a break, drove up to Malibu and walked around; hesitating going into the Shabby Chic store. But, it’s so pretty in there and in I went. And that’s where I did something that was for me, slightly ridiculous. I’m not a shopper and generally not one to buy without purpose, but there was this beautiful pillowcase just sitting there and I am a smitten kitten for good linens. I picked it up, hesitated for a moment before I gave in to buying this solitary expensive pillowcase. Not a set, mind you, just a single, beautiful hand-embroidered crocheted linen pillowcase. It didn’t feel weird, actually, it feel really good even though at the moment I don’t have my own pillow to use it with.

But the extravagance was because I needed to feel like I had something that pertained to home whilst living out of two suitcases. Something to look forward to. Something to remind me that one day I’ll have use for it, I just need to be hopeful and keep trying.

Driving back down the coast I felt a bit more at ease, a bit more hopeful that I too, will one day find anther place that will feel like me. Before heading back to Hollywood I decided to stop in at Santa Monica and loook at just one more place.

And wouldn’t you know it, it was the one.

The feel of the photo is definitely more French than Chinese yet those images, and where they’re located in my room is strategically placed in my “Creative Area” because of my belief in Feng Shui. However, when you’re in my home, you’d probably never guess it because you wouldn’t see things traditionally associated with this practice like crystals, Asian decor, fountains, wind chimes, etc..

Feng Shui is a practice of arranging objects to help people achieve their goals. I use it as a way to be conscious of my entire life, make sure all my areas are balanced and most importantly, to help me decorate! Although it’s not really used for decorating purposes, that’s how I came to use it when, around 2000, I innocently picked up a book called, “Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life : How to Use Feng Shui to Get Love, Money, Respect and Happiness”. At the time I had just immigrated to America and, with very little money, took on my first American flat and decorated it with everything Ikea - wood, wood and some more wood. I knew I had a problem because when people would come visit the first thing they’d say is, “Oh, I got that at Ikea, too!” My home had zero personality, I had no idea how to make it my own, I owned things I didn’t know what to do with and personally I was overwhelmed at all the personal transitions I was going through (new country, new legal steps, new job, new man, new home). So this book seemed like the right read and it turned out to actually really change my life.

Although there’s much cheek to the book, it’s a very informative, easy read that really breaks down the areas of life (reputation, creativity, family, prosperity, helpful people/travel/health, career, knowledge) and helps you become conscious of them by really thinking about their placement in your home and the things you then put into each of these areas. It talks easily about materials that are good and colours that are bad. There’s a flow to it that just really spoke to me at the time (someone with no money, no decorating sense, and in need of some major uplifting!).

With help from the book, I sketched out my flat and placed the bagua (the “map” of the different life areas) on top of my drawing and then made notes about the good and bad things for each area. I then began to take away the bad and replace them with good things. If I couldn’t add things, I just thought about them until I could. Now, whether or not adding red to my reputation area helped me actually get a great reputation (which is what happened to me at the time with my company, Girl at Play), I can’t say. But what it did do was make me really think about this area. When I entered a room, an object would trigger a thought about creating positive cash flow. Or the colours blended from one room to the next instead of being a crazy, uncomfortable mishmash from before.

So although my style is very French/minimal/Shabby Chic/Boho modern, I practice Feng Shui and use it for every flat I move into (and have actually said no to a few when I saw the “Prosperity” area was in the washroom. I can’t afford to have money going down the drain!) Feng Shui has also just really helped me to connect with the energy and layout of a home, to keep colour working for me instead of against me, and from keeping impulse buying at bay. No use in buying that beautiful wooden table if wood is a bad object to have in a particular area, right? Well, perhaps I don’t go that far (I’d probably cover it up with a table cloth in the right colours just to be safe!) and that’s not to say I live 100% by it, but it’s just another useful tool, for me, in keeping my home feeling good and me from going crazy with decorating.

Another great example of using feng shui in this way is the book Feng Shui Your Life by Jayme Barrettt. Her book shows beautiful examples of feng shui homes that use a lot of the decor/colour schemes I love.

And here’s my new flat’s bagua: Read the rest of this entry »

I once wrote a post “For the Love of Guests” in which I shared some ideas of what I do when people stay. Giving people a wonderful experience is important because I understand how travelling can be stressful and tiring and expensive. So anything I can do to lesson that, great.

But I never really talked about being a guest because I don’t have great experience at this; I generally feel intrusive, a burden, and slightly uneasy no matter with whom I’m staying with. That’s why I almost always stay in hotels when visiting because I just don’t want to put anyone out and frankly, I like my privacy and quiet after a busy day out.

However, the past couple of months I’ve stayed with a couple of friends and currently, I’m staying with my BFF. Before I came I asked her to lay some ground rules (what she likes, doesn’t like, where things go, etc.) and then I gave her full-on permission to tell me to leave, pick up or move something or leave her alone. Her friendship is more important than a free night’s sleep so being honest about how we are and what we need set us up for visiting success!

The flowers above are from her; she went to the flower market, arranged them, picked the fern from her front yard and voila. She cooked a feast and had a dinner party last night and today, showed me her secret beauty room in which I sat and put on some make up. She, like me, loves to make things special and she, like me, loves to have guests. And that’s when I realised that if people agree to have me, it’s because they want me and that staying with people can actually bring you closer and can be a lot more fun (who wants privacy when there is 2AM Girltalk to be had?). So with that, I thought about how to be a great guest: Read the rest of this entry »

Beets have always played a huge part in Denmark; it’s one of two major crops (the other is potatoes) and it’s also harvested for sugar (there’s even a museum dedicated to it). There’s a 99% chance that if you are invited to lunch, nedlagte rødbeder or pickled beets, will be on the table for your smørrebrød (open faced sandwich).

This has always terrified me. Actually, most Danish food has terrified me (Liver Paste/Leverpostej?) ! And so despite having sat at countless tables with beets upon them, I just couldn’t ever bring myself to eat them. No matter how much “oohing” and “ahhing” my mum made over their taste.

However, recently my doctor suggested to me that I should juice some carrots, celery and yes, beets together to help with some health concerns. I’d heard of this tonic before (it’s been suggested as a great hangover drink) and how it helps the liver function. I’ve been an avid juicer but only with things green. I wasn’t sure I could add beets.

But I did.

Into my juicer went one large beet, three carrots, one lemon, half a stack of celery, a bit of ginger and a cucumber for good measure. I wasn’t sure I could drink it but in the name of health I did. And then I did some more. And some more. I couldn’t believe how sweet it was - I had fallen in love with… beets!

I don’t know if I’m into pickling or roasting yet (one step at a time) but juicing them has been tasty and easy. I’m not sure about all the health benefits yet but thankfully I’m now loving beets for their taste instead of doing it out of healing obligation.

My mum will be so proud.

Other beet ideas: Read the rest of this entry »

• Paper Clip Movie; a very inspiring documentary about how an idea in a middle school in small town Tennessee changed not only the students, but its community and all those who heard about it. And it was down with a paper clip. If you have children, watch this with them.
• For months I’ve been following the adventures of Mr Fox and Mrs Polar Bear on Flickr. Lovely stories, lovely photos.
• Gluten Free Day has the most amazing, easy, and gluten free recipes I’ve seen in a long, long time. It’s so simply laid out with helpful photos and it’s literally the first time I’ve starred almost every entry as something I want to make! Even if you can eat gluten, you won’t mind going without with these recipes.
• Ivoca Space Planner: Been playing with the free version a little bit to see if I really could do a studio. I do, after all, have a 6′ couch I adore and would have to fit in.