Linda Varone | Nurturing Spaces Feng Shui

You are here: Home / Archives for lighting

Holiday Greetings: Let It Dough

by

Winter has truly arrived and part of the fun of this time of year is baking cookies. My family’s must-have cookie is my Grandmother’s Almond-flavored Spritz. My brother is our master spritz maker. His personal touch is to double the almond extract in the recipe and then add a little more. We pass around the bottle of almond extract, so each of us can get a whiff of that sublime elixir. While the cookies are baking the whole house smells divine.

Creative Whimsy by Christoph Niemann, The BEST Brownie Recipe – Ever, and Feng Shui Tips to Light Your Holiday Table

teddy bear playing with cookie cutters
Making cookies and other treats is fun.

While I can’t send each of you a batch of homemade spritz cookies, I can send you Holiday Whimsy by New York Times’ Christoph Niemann. With dough, cookie cutter and sprinkles he creates a delightful take on the world around us: Let It Dough.

For those of you who spell delicious c-h-o-c-o-l-a-t-e, here is a recipe for the simplest and best chocolate brownies ever.

To make your holiday table and the faces around it glow, check out this Feng Shui design tip.

Photo by ryochiji

Feng Shui Holidays, Or Can Money Buy Happiness? Yes and No

by

Walking past a coffee shop two days after Halloween I shuddered as I heard Christmas music on their sound system. You know, the really cheesy pop-rock Christmas music. The kind of music that is an insult to both the holiday and music. Like it or not the holiday shopping season is upon us. Time for Feng Shui Holidays

Feng Shui is about harmony and balance – how can you stay in balance during the most frenetic six weeks of the year?

In the spirit of the harmony and balance of Feng Shui holidays, here is a brief animated video “Can Money Buy Happiness” with the fascinating information from scientific studies about how human think of, related to and handle money.

Key Points

    Money can buy you happiness – up to a point.
    Buying experiences brings more happiness than buying things
    Giving to others brings more happiness than buying things for yourself.
    If you are saving for a big experience – a trip for example – don’t forget the everyday little treats that make life fun.

Money and Feng Shui Holiday Shopping

If you know what family and friends want, then the hard part is done. If you have family who don’t know what they want, or friends “who have everything,” then your work is cut-out for you.

How to Give Experiences and Interactive (non-electric) Toys

Think local, and I don’t mean the local mall. If your town is lucky enough to have a Main Street shopping district check it out. Find a local toy or craft store. Look in your newspaper for plays, concerts or museum exhibits that your giftee would enjoy and order tickets. A local sporting event – even on the college or minor league level can be great fun. Go together to a movie starring someone’s latest swoon.

One way is to step back from the commercial machine that the holidays has become.

Tips on How to Enjoy Feng Shui Holidays

How to Light the Holiday Table
How to Make a Merry Christmas – Plus the Recipe for Katherine Hepburn’s Deliciously Easy Brownies

Links for My Favorite Shopping Places:

Artbeat: The Creativity Store
Creative Adventure Kits – Sand art for all ages.
Ten Thousand Villages – handmade, original and exotic fair trade stocking stuffers and gift exchange gifts.

Don’t Aim For Perfection In Anything

Not the holiday meals, the decoration of your home, or the perfection of the gifts you give. Martha Stewart will NOT be making a personal inspection of your home and holiday preparations. It’s the mishaps that make the best memories. My family still laughs about the sweet little Christmas tree we got one year. Only to discover, once we got it home, its trunk was bent like a dog’s back leg. My mother simply tied the tree to the stair bannister and everything was fine.

Add A Little Feng Shui To Your Holidays

Help everyone handle the stress of the holidays in their own way. And make this time of year more enjoyable and meaningful. Think of Yin and Yang: Active and Quiet. They balance each other and are the guide to harmony. Balance out the activities of the holiday season with quiet time, either with your family or by yourself. After some active snowman building (the weather gods willing) gather together for hot chocolate, cookies and a quieter holiday video (Patrick Stewart’s A Christmas Carol), time for quiet play with new toys, or curl up with the book you received. Recognize that some family members may have more need to be active, while others have more need for quiet time (a little Five Element insight) and plan your activities accordingly.

Wishing you the Happiest of Holidays!

Holiday season or not, contact Linda for Feng Shui help and sanity.

Feng Shui, Romance And An Oscar-Winning Valentine Video

by

Feng Shui and Romance

Valentine’s Day draws our attention to gifts, events and simple gestures that say “I love you”. Feng Shui encourages you to build that romance into your home and into your daily life, not save it up for one special day a year.

 

vintage valentine with young boy and gilr
Feng Shui romance is more than campagne and chocolates.

Set up your bedroom to encourage romance, or add romance throughout your home.

Romantic lighting is not just for the bedroom. Light is a form of energy. When added to a space it adds energy, yang energy. When light is dimmed or turned down that encourages relaxing and romantic yin energy.  In your living room, place a lamp or two next to your favorite sofa or love seat. Ideally used lamps with a 3-way switch or dimmer. Set the lights on low. Dim or turn-off the other lights in the room. Add wine or decaf cappuccino. Play some soft music. This is great for after dinner-for-two or after the kids are down for the night.

Create the space and time for you as a couple.

If that special someone is not in your life, do an intention and visualize that special person and what you do together as a couple.

My valentine to you.

This charming video of an Oscar©-nominated [now Oscar©-winning] animation short by Disney is an object lesson in getting the love you want.

A strong intention includes:

  • Identifying your goal.  (Paperman was a bit slow on the uptake.)
  • Persistent effort (He was persistent and used more than one approach.)
  • Accepting help that comes your way. (Paperman’s help was magical, but sometimes the most magical things in our lives look very ordinary.)

vintage valentine photo by Mark Gstohl

 

Feng Shui Lighting: Going Green Shouldn’t Leave You Looking Green

by

The right compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) can make the difference between a warm, welcoming room and a home that looks like a cheap discount store.  A number of my green conscious clients complain their CFL’s make a stark unattractive light. They miss the warmth of incandescent (Edison) light bulbs. (I admit that I exaggerated a little – no one looks green, but the wrong CFL’s will make you look a bit pale and sickly.)

compact fluroescnet light bulb
The right compact fluorescent light bulb makes your home or workplace warm and welcoming

The remedy to this is “warm white” or “soft white” CFL’s with a color temperature between 2700 K to 3000 K, which approximates the warm light of 2400K incandescent light bulbs.

“Bright white” CFL’s have a color temperature of 3500 K. These are best for situations where you need bright light – such as craft work. Please note that CFL’s labeled “sunlight” or “daylight” are cool white fluorescent and only suitable for precision work areas.

Unfortunately light bulb manufacturers do not offer color temperature or Kelvin information on their packaging. You will either have to trust the “warm white” or “soft white” labels or go online and double check the color temperature ratings of specific bulbs.  Sparsam™ CFL’s (available only at IKEA stores) provide the warm light of incandescent bulbs.

Hint: I find that I need more wattage than the conversion factor listed on the label. If you want to get 75 watts of illumination you will do better with an 18 watt CFL than a 15 Watt CFL. 

Update: Warm Lighting is Now Widely Available – If You Know What to Look For

Light bulb manufacturers have listened to consumers and warm CFL bulbs are easy to find.

The newer LED light bulbs are more energy efficient than CFLs, and after years of development can be found in a warm formulation. (Unaltered, LED bulbs have a distinctly cool blue light.)

Standard light bulb information label.
Standard lightbulb information label.

Light bulbs now have standardized information labels similar to nutrition labels. These list: lux, lumens and lifespan. There is also a horizontal scale line that tells you how warm or cool the bulbs light is, in degrees Kelvin. You want to choose light bulbs where the arrow on the scale is near the left end of the scale – 2700 degrees Kelvin.This is the warm CFL or LED you want to buy.

Another hint: CFL’s contain mercury, so dispose of them at special recycling places, or see if your retailer will accept them for safe disposal.

Take a look around your home and see if you have lighting in the right places and if your light bulbs give you the warmth that makes your space inviting, relaxing and user-friendly.

Feng Shui Ecology: Going Green Shouldn’t Leave You Looking Green – with updates

by

The right compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) can make the difference between a warm, welcoming room and a home that looks like a cheap discount store. A number of my green conscious clients complain their new CFL’s make a stark unattractive light. They miss the warmth of incandescent (Edison) light bulbs. (I admit that I exaggerate a little – no one looks green, but the wrong CFL’s will make you look pale and sickly.)

compact fluorescent bulb
Choose the right kind of compact fluorescent

The remedy to this is “warm white” or “soft white” CFL’s with a color temperature between 2700 K to 3000 K, which approximates the warm light of 2400K incandescent light bulbs.

“Bright white” CFL’s have a color temperature of 3500 K. These are best for situations where you need bright light – such as craft work. Please note that CFL’s labeled “sunlight” or “daylight” are cool white fluorescent and only suitable for precision work areas.

Unfortunately light bulb manufacturers do not offer color temperature or Kelvin information on their packaging. You will either have to trust the “warm white” or “soft white” labels or go online and double check the color temperature ratings of specific bulbs.  Sparsam™ CFL’s (available only at IKEA stores) provide the warm light of incandescent bulbs.

Update #1: Since I first wrote this blog there have been changes in the manufacturing and labeling of light bulbs. A new label “Lighting Facts”, which looks similar to the nutrition facts labels on food, will list brightness – in lumens, estimated yearly cost to use the bulb, estimated life of a bulb, “light appearance” using a “warm/cool” scale and degrees Kelvin.

Hint #1 : I find that I need more wattage than the conversion factor listed on the label. If you want to get 75 watts of illumination you will do better with an 18 watt CFL than a 15 Watt CFL.  I honestly don’t know why this is.  If anyone knows, please contact me.

Hint #2 : CFL’s contain mercury, so dispose of them as a toxic material at special recycling places, or see if your retailer will accept them for safe disposal.

Update #2: CFL’s now contain 60-75% LESS mercury than previously. Continue to dispose of the carefully.

Update #3: To get the full estimated life expectancy from a compact fluorescent bulb, they should have as little on/off activity as possible. Also they need to be in a vented fixture. This means a lamp should have some air vents or heat outlets, rather than in a fixture with a solid metal or plastic covering. Similarly, CFLs in recessed ceiling fixtures need to have heat vents in the fixtures.

Take a look around your home and see if you have lighting in the right places and if your light bulbs give you the warmth that makes your space inviting, relaxing and user-friendly.