Curating a home of magic is all in the little things

Before I moved into my camper Stella full time, I lived in a cabin and made a little homestead. My husband and I rented a cabin in the woods completely immersed in nature, my cabinets stocked with jars of stored grains, beans and the like. The garden burst blotches of colorful happiness and I had several foraging projects underway — pine needle baskets, rock tumbling for necklaces, making homemade herb-drying wall hangers. We had four chickens who gave us eggs everyday, and enjoyed quiet evenings looking at the river on the porch.

And then just like that, life changed suddenly and we bought a camper to live in full time.

Leaving the cabin without moving into one of my own was a heartbreaking experience. The three years we lived there I prepared my life to live like that forever, and it just… ended.

Lately I’ve been feeling inspired to go back to the enchanted way I lived in the cabin, filled with whimsy and nature. Despite Stella being around 100 square feet of living space and being parked on top of a mesa, I’ve found ways to turn this teeny tiny life into one of magic.

For anyone that lives tiny — whether it’s an apartment, a tiny house, or an RV like me — know that there’s ways to add charm and whimsy into your lifestyle! Sometimes, it’s not a matter of the stuff we have, but the way we spend our time and the perspectives we hold in life. Here’s my suggestions that maybe you’d like to try out!

Practical Things

• Pick a theme — Find what realm suits you best — flower, herb, garden, desert, meadow, prairie, mushroom, moss, tree, mountain or a mix. This is your theme. Anytime you are looking to change your living space, remember your theme. At the thrift store looking for doo-dads? Pick out items in your theme!
  
  My theme is… retro wild garden. That’s the best way to describe it! The colors are aqua, pink, light blue, lavender, mauve, beige, sage. When we were looking for a camper I wanted one with some character and chose a Vintage Cruiser. It’s a new camper that’s designed to look like an old one, so the walls look “wooden” and the color inside is retro diner aqua. I’m still working on getting my theme to where I like it, but for now it works!

• Put all your food in clear containers — Glass is preferred but if you can’t have a lot of weight in your cabinets settle for BPA free plastic. See all the colors, textures, shapes as a way to create food art and be inspired in your kitchen! We recently made this switch. Before, our cabinets looked like a compressed garbage block — bags of crazy colored bags from the various brands trying to keep our attention, that tea that just sits in the back corner and never gets loved, those soba noodles I bought last year… Putting our food in clear containers made our two cabinets look neater, less chaotic with colors, and actually inspires me to cook.

• Add herbs to all your food — Not only are they filled with nutrition and healing properties, they are delicious and make food taste like it has more depth. Dried stinging nettles are my absolute favorite and are so easy to add to everything. Remember the different categories herbs can fall in — Southwest has cumin, chipotle, thyme and oregano. Savory is generally parsley, thyme, garlic powder, nettles (hehe), sage (super good with mushroom dishes). Mix your own spice mixes instead of buying premade ones! Taco seasoning is mostly chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, salt & pepper. A yummy garlic mix could be garlic powder, parsley, thyme, salt and pepper. Perhaps make a spice mix chart and tape it inside your cabinet!

• Have a few special cups, plates, bowls that you love and use them the most — For minimalists, get rid of anything you don’t use! For us, we use half a cabinet for dinnerware and everything is what we like or sentimental (but 100% usable). In a small space, every inch counts. We only have one cabinet for dishes/cookware, a drawer for silver ware, a drawer for utensils, and a drawer for towels. If we don’t use something weekly, it pretty much goes. Fill up your space with things you love and cannot live without. You’ll appreciate what you have more and treasure the moments with your special cups!

• Use things until they’re broken — You’ll buy less and appreciate what you have more! There’s a Japanese term — wabi-sabi — that describes the energy of non-perfect objects quite well. “The acceptance of imperfection and transience.” Some things are worth fixing too! Like that old pot with the broken handle? Why not find a way to make a new handle and screw it back on? Or if a shirt has a hole in it, mend the hole with some cute embroidery.
  
  Some things could get thrown out. For us lately, graniteware bowls with missing pieces or faded clothes that don’t fit anymore just gotta go. You can find ways to repurpose them (using old clothes for sewing projects, old dishes for garden planters).

• Make a library in your house to showcase your favorite books. There’s something so cozy about a collection of books, and what better way to enjoy them than creating a special area for them? Here’s another opportunity for going through your things to find what you absolutely love. If it’s not sparking joy, give it away as a gift or donate. To make a whimsical life, fill it with the things you find most joy and enchantment in. Add little trinkets you find darling, or bits you find from your nature excursions! It can break up the rigidness of a perfect bookshelf to have a huge pinecone resting between books.
  
  My space is super tiny, so I keep a stack next to the water filter and one on my nightstand. I read more in the winter, so there’s more books at that time. In summer I’m buzzing on creative projects!

• Set up spaces to ponder & create art — There’s only one place to sit in my camper and it’s at the dinette. To avoid boredom, we have a set of portable outdoor chairs that we move around everyday. We turn our dinette into a huge “day bed” that’s like lounging on a couch with pillows and blankets. Sometimes I’ll sit on the bed and work on a project.
  
  Find a few places you like to look at a view or concentrate on a project and set up a way to sit and rest. Darling wrought iron patio sets appear at antique shops everyday. A window can become a cozy reading nook with the help of a thrifted chaise lounge char. Or perhaps you have space for one of those wooden desks that the top rolls down.

Perspective Things

• Notice the small things — a colony of ants exploring a sunflower farming aphids. A spider making its home in the window frame. Teeny flowers growing in the cracks of the sidewalk. A feather blown on your path. Magic is everywhere. Noticing the small things around you can help appreciate the tiny things happening in your life too. It’s the little things that end up meaning the most in the end, through all life’s ups and downs. The little things will always be there.

• Notice the little gifts nature brings you and decorate your home with them. I especially love feathers and finding them is a spiritual thing for me. I put my favorite ones in bundles to hang in windows, in arrangements like flowers, and store in jars so I can see them.

• Learn about the plants and animals in your area, their behaviors and find the symbolism they are communicating with you when they cross your path. Learn their names so when you see them, it’s like seeing an old friend.
  
  Sometimes, nature randomly shows up in our lives like a sign. Last weekend, I found an owl feather sitting neatly in a gravel parking lot near our campsite. Finding an owl feather is rare, so I took it as a gift from nature to have me look within. Owls are symbolic of wisdom, catching prey (accomplishing a goal) with swiftness, careful calculation, and quiet. I had an idea to make a film before finding the feather and the message was perfect for how I could accomplish this project.

Lifestyle

• Grow a tiny garden — tending to plants is a meditative experience and aren’t they so cute?? I have a few pots with nasturtiums, basil, herbs, and flowers around my campsite. The last RV park I lived at had a small yard and a porch. You know what I did with that porch? I turned it into a trellis and had tomatoes, morning glories, and herbs hanging from it.
  
  It’s easy to create a patio garden, or even a windowsill garden. Visit your second hand shop and see what pots you can buy, or visit your local nursery and ask if they’re throwing any pots away (I’ve gotten some for free before). You can start your own seeds in recycled containers or egg cartons. Tomatoes, peppers, lettuces/greens, and herbs are happy in containers as long as you feed them every once in a while.

• Learn to forage — What better way to add whimsy to your life than to bring nature into your kitchen? If you’re new, start with easy plants to identify, like blackberries, raspberries, nettles, chickweed, garlic mustard, violets, roses. Easy mushrooms to find? Err… with practice and talking to experts you can easily tell the difference between golden oysters and poisonous jack-o-lantern mushrooms, though in the beginning it might not be so apparent.
  
  Always be 100% sure of what you’re foraging for if you’re a beginner — some plants (and especially mushrooms) are toxic and can kill you (I’m looking at you, Destroyer Angel Amanita ocreata…) It’s always best to carry a detailed guidebook with you while foraging.
  
  Even if your foraging is just a scavenger hunt where you don’t eat your treasures, you can still experience whimsy and awe. Think about how many plants you’ll get to know the names of! Or discovering the wild fungal network below your feet.. Going out to identify the organisms you share a space with is like having a family reunion.

• Make sun teas — Sun tea is so easy and refreshing. All it takes is a quart jar, water, a handful of flowers, herbs, and fruits, baking in the sun for a few hours, and chilling. Some of my favorite combinations are nettle, mint, chamomile; blueberry, tulsi, lemon (or sub out the tulsi for mint); lemon balm, lemon verbena, lemon and ginger; and hibiscus, rose, lavender. Make sure to strain your tea and refrigerate before drinking. I like to add a tablespoon of honey to it before refrigerating. The warm tea dissolves the honey perfectly. Give one a try and see which one is your new favorite!

• Make household things you’d normally buy: Coasters = crocheted granny squares. Thrift lace fabrics and turn them into curtains. Crochet a fun garland to hang up. Embroider your own clothes. Use an old pair of pants you’d normally throw out as fabric to create something new. Knit an afghan. Whittle your own kitchen utensils. Make homemade paper, and bind your own journal. The possibilities are endless, and you could go so far with this, like making your own buttons! There’s a special kind of feeling of homemade items, it seems they have more meaning from the time and energy spent creating them with intention.

• Display the cool rocks you find like they’re precious gemstones. They hold the memories of the day you found them, sort of like photos except they’re pretty much infinite. I line all the small ledges in my camper with rocks I find (or buy at the crystal store), and not a space goes un-decorated.

• Pick a wild bouquet — I like to save the tiny, colorful bottles from essential oils, tinctures, or drinks and reuse them. One way I do is making them into vases for tiny flower bouquets or vessels to root new plants. They’re so darling and look great on a window sill or table. In my camper, I’ll place them in the little nooks and crannies formed by stacks of books or the space between the windows on the sink counter.
  
  Wildflowers vary with the seasons, and will even give you beauty in the winter! If you live near a field or forest, look for the dried plants and make bouquets with them. Grasses, Queen Anne’s Lace, conifer branches. Or in spring, dandelions, violets, spring beauties. Again, so many possibilities for simple beauty to be had!

• Have an “Everything” notebook — Instead of writing digitally, have a pretty notebook to write your ideas, recipes, poems, diary entries, shopping lists etc in. Carry it with you everywhere like a companion. When you finish the book, go through it and look at all the creativity you put down!

• Pick one artsy hobby and master it. Then pick another. Create art and display it in your home like fine art. Pretty soon you’ll be learning how to draw folk flowers and will have painted every border & surface in your home. When we moved into Stella, I was pretty into crocheting so made my granny square coasters and some cute mushroom garland that hangs in the bathroom. When Aspen and I met eleven years ago, he painted me a daisy on a canvas and it hangs in our bedroom.

• Go on walks during liminal times of day. Dawn, dusk, midnight. Going on walks in general can increase your experiences for whimsy with nature operating in its own world. But dawn? Maybe you’ll see deer coming out of the forest for a dewy morning breakfast. Dusk? Witness the changing color pallet in the sky, and watch for night hawks swooping amidst the bats. Midnight? Catch a few shooting stars and hear the night peepers’ songs.

• Drink herbal teas — If you figured out foraging and gardening, chances are there’s tons of herbs you can harvest and dry for tea! Chamomile, nettle, bergamot, raspberry leaf, marshmallow root, rose. Research the different herbs and the healing properties they have and make sure they’re right for you. Some herbs can mess with you — like St. John’s Wort is great for uplifting you, but if you take any kind of pharmaceutical it will nullify your medication!

If you live in a small space like me, you might spend more time outdoors than indoors. This guide is filled with nature activities, perspectives, and practicalities you can bring into your own home to make it more whimsical.

Which one of these are you gonna try?

Thanks for reading!

Ashley