Insert Frowny Face Emoticon Here

I just found out that Cottage Living and House & Garden magazines are no more. I love love love magazines and home magazines are my favorite. Dang, I just sent in a subscription not long ago for Cottage Living. I suppose they will offer me a subscription to Southern Living or maybe Coastal Living. Which coincidentally, I just mailed off a subscription to on Saturday. I haven't taken it in a long time but it was offered dirt cheap and thought I'd give it another try -- they'd done too many articles on the grand beach mansions and not the little cozy beach cottages which are closer to my small cabin. That's why I was going to give Cottage Living another go, too. Maybe the cycle had come around again to the smaller spaces.

Maybe they'll send me Cooking Light which is another of their magazines. That wouldn't be bad since I have just recently started cooking with some regularity. Started the new year trying not to eat out so much and save some money. So dusted off some recipes. Gene was a great cook and did the cooking. Well, I never cooked much before we got together either so almost fifteen years of being cooked for was not a bad deal. Yep, he'd even fix my plate and bring it to me. What a great guy. Seriously, he was a fantastic cook.

So spent the last three years eating out and munching for the most part. Cooking for one never did appeal, but cooking to bring my lunch to work with leftovers to eat at home is working out pretty well this time.

Ah magazines -- my weakness. I have cut down but thought I'd add a couple as a couple ran out. I've been taking Metropolitan Home (big-city dwellers get creative living in their small spaces) and Traditional Home. A friend gifted me with More. And the other subscription is Fast Company so as to at least have a brush with new technology and business. Four's not too many, right?

But I'll read just about any magazine. I've picked up industry journals like the one that discussed the finer points of coin-operated washing machines and dryers. I'll even pick up most Annual Reports I come across, just to see if someone managed to make it somewhat visually interesting. Right now, I've got an issue of Campus Technology on my desk, you know, "Empowering the World of Higher Education" waiting to be read.

And by the time I make it through the medical journals that I get from my doctor relative and all my routine online reading -- who's got time to read books?

I saw the following on a magazine blog and would link to it, but that one's gone defunct, too. (Domino.) The article was basically a list of things to do when moving/living in/decorating a place. And number four sounded pretty catchy to me.

4. Assess your collections every five years--if they look like dead branches on the tree of your life, clip them. Hell, give them to someone else to grow.

Reminds me of friend, Judy, who talked about getting the nematodes, be they people or things, out of her life so things could grow freely.

I used to have so many collections. I'm trying to remember all the stuff I collected. I had an extensive, and I mean extensive, collection of hats at one time (anyone remember The Hat Party?). Then there was vintage clothing, fans, gloves, and who knows what else. Those have gone by the wayside. Lord knows there's plenty of stuff to deal with without those collections. I'm just way too sentimental. And also if you're the one left standing, what do you do when you inherit your spouse's collections, too?

Oh well, baby steps -- baby steps. I was joking with Martha last weekend that someone would be cussing me if I left all this stuff for someone else to deal with someday. We had a good chuckle out of that one. (And by the way, we were on the way back from the Goodwill where I'd just donated a trunk-load of stuff, thank you very much!)

I know my culture requires me to be much more tidy than I am, so I will persevere. But truth be told, often all that stuff doesn't bother me a bit. I just walk right by it and it doesn't register if I'm not thinking about it. It could be in another room by the way my mind perceives it. Or rather doesn't.

Is it kind of like living in a parallel universe?

I will leave you with one of my favorite cartoons I picked up along the way. It most reminds me of two of my favorite people who have carried their desire for simplification to an art form. You know what I mean, right? You feel compelled to check and make sure it is an approved gift item before handing it over so it doesn't head directly to the donate pile? I really do admire their passion to keep it simple and they both laughed at this cartoon.


"Well, I see the plan to simplify your life is going better than expected, Dear..."