Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up

I figure by now that there are few of you, at least those of you who have de-cluttering on your radar, who don’t know that Marie Kondo, author of Tidying Up, has a new book: Spark Joy. We’ve been shamelessly selling it in our margins here on the blog for a good while, but I’m just now getting around to reviewing it. Of course, we wrote extensively about our journey with Tidying Up here last year. If you’ve read Tiding Up, your first question woul...

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A Great New Resource for Preserving Your Analog and Digital Memories

...entral Library. Library card holders can book a 2 hour session once per week. Jump on this opportunity early as I suspect it’s going to be popular. If you’re not near one of the cities with a memory lab, I’d suggest having a conversation with your local librarian to help you get started dealing with that mountain of photos you’re hiding somewhere....

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The Blue Bear

...nd Halvard followed her in 1977, and all I have of her are my genes, those memory fragments and the bear. I don’t even remember her voice. Which leads me to musing on what we leave behind, on the ephemeral nature of memory and experience. Some families are big on family lore and stories and those get passed down and repeated over the generations. As I’ve said, my family is not like that, on either side. But I don’t think my family is atypical in o...

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An Awareness of What is Missing

...hought of these four counter-cultural skills: 1. Memory I’ve written about memory before. The important thing to note about it is that memory is a creative act, not a boring rote skill. It’s a way of expanding your mind’s creativity. And it’s relatively easy to learn. It’s also, of course, atrophying under our constant access to “the cloud.” 2. Wayfinding GPS, and mobile technology are raising a generation that will no longer know how to get aroun...

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By Hand and Eye

...rabbit hole, in addition to By Hand & Eye I’d suggest the following web resources: By Hand and Eye website Jim Toplin’s blog Lost Art Press Blog (the publisher of By Hand & Eye) Lost Art Press publisher Christopher Schwartz’s posts at Popular Woodworking But you have been warned. Walker’s not kidding about the side effects....

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