You don’t always have to be traveling to meet up with RV friends.
Sometimes they decide to tour your home state and you can meet up for a meal. We spent a most pleasant two hours reminiscing about RVing with Jerry and Janice on Monday. What a wonderful happening! And how fortunate that they called when I was having a good day!
TTYL,
Linda
TTYL,
Linda
This is Dave’s piano keyboard and stand that traveled with us in our RV. The keyboard stand and the music stand both fold up to be stashed when not in use. They sit out full time now that our house no longer moves.
The chair is a current dining chair that moves into position when Dave decides to play.
The cabinet on the left holds his head phones and music collection although, as you may have noticed, his headphones are sitting out at the moment.
The lamp moves onto the piano to better light the music.
The little black thing on the floor at the corner of the music cabinet is not part of the system. It belongs to the Roomba vacuum to tell it not to go under the piano.
The candle on the music cabinet is also not part of the system. That is one of our emergency candles that will burn for 90 hours in a power outage.
The other thing minimalist about this piano is how often Dave plays it. But, he does enjoy doing so when he decides it is time again.
TTYL,
Linda
This minimalist fireplace is built in across one corner of our living room.
The framing is less than one inch deep so there is no temptation to fill the top edge with nick nacks.
In keeping with the minimalist idea that you should decorate only with things that have meaning for you, the photos above the fireplace are part of Dave’s college photography class final. He took many black and white photos, developed them (in the only bathroom we had at that time), chose the ten best, and mounted them. He, of course, got an A on his final.
These three are of railroad tracks. If you know Dave at all you know trains have been an interest of his ever since he was old enough to ride his bike down to the nearby tracks.
Part of that interest, for several years, included participating in model railroad conventions. The middle picture above, the abandoned track by the old Burma Shave building, was submitted to a photo contest at a Thousand Lakes Region of the National Model Railroad Association convention. It took first place. (We won’t mention that this was the only black & white photo submitted that year.) As the winner, with the advantage of being a vertical format picture, it was reprinted on the cover of the region’s next quarterly magazine.
The other minimalist thing about this fireplace is its operation. It is a gas fireplace with an electric ignition. So, instead of acquiring and storing wood, using tender and wood to build a fire, remembering to open the damper, and seeing how many matches it takes to light it; we flip a switch on the wall and the fire lights. Can’t get much more minimal than that.
TTYL,
Linda
I was just reminded that most people think minimalists live in places where all the walls are painted white and there is nothing to beautify the space; that minimalists have only the minimum number of things we need to survive. While that may be true of some, it is not true of me. As an example here is my bedside table.
It is actually a 3-drawer chest of drawers. I don’t own an official nightstand. This dresser serves that purpose just fine.
The wall behind the chest is a light tan. The building management painted the apartment that color before we moved in but it suits me well. I like it much better than plain white; it feels cozier to me.
The lamp is one I have saved through many moves including into and out of our RVs. It is a touch lamp; it turns on and off just by touching it anywhere so there is no fumbling in the dark for a switch. I have two of these; the other one is by my chair in the living room where I often sleep the first part of the night.
In the other corner is a candle which will burn for many hours in case of a power outage. If you look closely you will see I already used it for that purpose once. I also have a solar powered flashlight that lives on the window sill on the other side of the bed where it’s power gets refreshed every day.
In front of the lamp is a bag of cough drops. I had the flu in February; the one that makes you cough a lot. I still cough sometimes at night so these cough drops need to be in reach. If I ever stop coughing, they will go back into the medicine bin that lives in a bathroom cupboard.
In the front corner, looking like a flip phone, is my clock. I don’t like having a clock staring at me all night but I do like to be able to check the time. So this travel clock stays by my bed wherever that bed is. It has an alarm that starts beeping softly then gets louder if I don’t turn it off. With my reduced hearing it wakes up everyone else before it wakes me but I eventually hear it. If Dave didn’t already turn it off then shake me awake. 🙂
On the wall is a painting of a curved road leading to a covered bridge. It’s done all in browns. My Mom painted it. She gave me other paintings but this is the one I like best so I hung where I see it every day.
No, there’s no phone at my bedside. I sleep odd hours and prefer not to be awakened by sales calls. So my phone spends the night in the bathroom where I can easily get to it if a weather alert goes off.
The only other furniture, besides the bed, in this room is a chair I can sit on when getting dressed or when supervising whatever project Dave might be doing–like cleaning out the closet. Which needs doing again.
TTYL,
Linda
