My family and I live rather simply (my mother jokingly described our home as “monastic” on one occasion – she was exaggerating, but not by much). My husband and I have embraced a minimal aesthetic for our home (and pretty much every area of our lives) because we find it reduces stress, and our kids have a lot more space to play in!

Unlike some minimalists, we haven’t reduced our possessions to a finite number (there are hardcore minimalists who feel uncomfortable owning more than 100 things), but we’re always looking for a chance to get rid of things we neither want nor use.

The other day I received a letter from a friend interested in minimalism. She was especially curious about how I managed to remain a minimalist while maintaining interest in the Pre-Raphaelites.

Her question surprised me, because I had supposed the answer was obvious. Pre-Raphaelite art might not seem minimalist to us today, but its practitioners were proto-minimalists in comparison with the rest of the Victorian art world. And William Morris was probably the first non-ascetic minimalist in the west. “Have nothing in your houses that you don’t know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful” is his most famous quote, and an inspiration to minimalists everywhere!

Morris never shied from criticizing what we might call conspicuous consumption:

“I have never been in any rich man’s house which would not have looked the better for having a bonfire made outside of it of nine-tenths of all that it held…as far as I can make out, what people usually mean by [luxury], is either a gathering of possessions which are sheer vexations to the owner, or a chain of pompous circumstance, which checks and annoys the rich man at every step.”

I was always fascinated that William Morris advocated painting your walls white and minimizing ornaments, especially since his company made lots of money selling wall coverings! For me, William Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites are an inspiration to embrace beauty, purity and simplicity. I don’t decorate my home in a Pre-Raphaelite or Arts and Crafts style, because it doesn’t reflect the time in which I live (and I’ve fully embraced technology, which Morris would abhor – but then, he’d never seen an iPad!). However, while my home might not look like it was designed by Morris, I like to think it’s still very much inspired by his work.

I recall one of the things that struck me most about reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs was the fact that it took Jobs ages to decorate his home, and even then, it remained nearly empty. Isaacson attributes this to Jobs’ perfectionism (which was likely a factor), but perhaps Jobs also recognized that having piles of meaningless stuff was not a necessary aspect of material success.

Ultimately, unlike Morris, I’m a happy capitalist. I freely admit to relishing some forms of conspicuous consumption. It’s rather utopian of me, but I hope that instead of reducing consumption we’ll change our patterns of consumption in ways that will improve quality of life and reduce waste (for example, fewer tchotchkes, smarter homes).

Excerpt From: Morris, William. “Hopes and Fears for Art.” iBooks (page 61, chapter four).

Check out this book on the iBookstore (it’s free!): https://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/hopes-and-fears-for-art/id501614906?mt=11

Chocolate chip cookies are a perpetual favorite in our house. I have tried many recipes, but I stopped when I got to this one.

I grew up with very hearty chocolate chip cookies – I think my mom uses at least 4 cups of oats! I still use oats in these cookies, and because nuts are a problem in our house, they add some delightful crunch.

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
Oven 375 degrees

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup butter
2 eggs

2 1/2 cups white flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt (use 1/2 teaspoon if using salted butter)
1 cup oats
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix wet ingredients
Add dry ingredients (except oats and chocolate chips)
Stir in oats
Stir in chocolate chips

Chill dough in refrigerator for minimum of ten minutes

Shape into 1 inch balls

Bake on parchment paper for 6-7 minutes. Cookies should be light golden brown on top.

Two of my favorite things on earth are art and investing. Truth be told, I may find investing just a wee bit more inspiring. But I’ve never seriously considered combining the two. Art is just too risky!

All joking aside, it seems that the intrepid folks behind the proposed Liquid Rarity Exchange have decided to do just that. They would like to create a Market where shares in artworks can be publicly traded.

Of course all sorts of questions arise – will there be options trading? ETFs? Sector ETFs? (imagine buying shares of the “Impressionists” fund!). Could I make a killing shorting ? Or bundle up a bunch of Thomas Kinkade calendar art and sell the derivatives to unsuspecting noobs?

In all seriousness, though, it’s kind of a bad idea. All you could do is speculate, because, art doesn’t actually produce anything, and it certainly can’t create more art. You certainly might want to own a bit for your portfolio, but probably not more than 5%.

Summly, probably best described as Cliffs Notes for the news, just launched its free iPhone app today on iTunes. Summly reduces news stories to 400 characters, allowing you to quickly and easily browse through the news and decide if a story is worth your time. You can double tap on the summaries to receive a more in-depth (approximately 700 characters) summary, or swipe down to read the full article. Sharing is also a breeze – if you hold down anywhere on the page, it automatically gives you the option to share via Twitter, Facebook, email, etc.

Initially I was a bit sceptical about whether I needed another news aggregator-type app. Currently I’m a heavy user and die-hard fan of Zite, which features a magazine-like format and searches for tailor-made content. I also use twitter to find articles that interest me. But the folks at Summly have won me over (of course it didn’t hurt that their launch video features Stephen Fry)

The Earthly Paradise has been on a bit of an unofficial hiatus for the past few months. I have changed a lot since I began writing this blog back in 2007. Over the past several years I’ve gotten married, finished grad school, had two amazing daughters and become a full time stay at home mom and wife. I love my life and I love blogging, but my interests have changed and expanded along the way.

A few years ago, I had a great conversation with a friend who spent much of his life as an architect and Cuba. We were discussing William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement. I was quite enamored with William Morris at the time, and at one point I confidently stated that the Arts and Crafts movement was the pinnacle of art and design. My friend merely smiled and encouraged me to continue pursuing my interests, but to remain open to the wealth of work that had been accomplished since that time.

My friend was right, of course. The Arts and Crafts movement is hugely important, but we live in a constantly changing world, and in order to live in the present, we have to let go of the notion of an idyllic past. To quote from William Morris, we shouldn’t be holding onto anything that we don’t “know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

A few months ago, I wrote my first “about” page for this blog. I acknowledge that this blog was inspired by my love for William Morris, the Pre-Raphaelites, and romantic literature and poetry. But I also emphasize the concept of creating an “Earthly Paradise” – not utopian, but deeply grounded in the utility of the truth and beauty that is a universal human need.

When I first started this blog, I was determined that Earthly Paradise would be a fairly narrowly focused site that would provide readers with in-depth discussions of art history and related themes. I wrote a great number of posts on topics relating to William Morris, the Pre-Raphaelites and the Arts and Crafts movement. Those topics still hold great interest for me, but (at least for the moment) it’s not where my heart is. And I think until I come to terms with the fact that I want to write about more divergent topics, I won’t be writing at all, which would be a shame (at least from my perspective!), since it’s something I really miss. I love interacting with the people that I’ve met though this blog, but I don’t think I’ll be comfortable doing so until I give myself permission to write about the things that really interest me in the here and now. So, since I miss this blog terribly, and I still have lots to say, I would like to beg your kind indulgence as I test the waters and explore what my own “earthly paradise” might be.