Susannah Seton - Simple Pleasures of the Home: Comforts and Crafts for Living Well

Copyright 1999 by Susannah Seton

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.

For information, contact Conari Press, an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC, P.O. Box 612, York Beach, ME 03910-0612.

ISBN 1-57324-854-1

Cover photograph: Photonica, Johner

Cover and book design: Suzanne Albertson

Interior diagrams: Joan Carol

Interior illustrations: Rea Ecklund

The author wishes to gratefully acknowledge excerpts from: Hanging Out the Wash by Adair Lara, 1994 by Adair Lara, reprinted by permission of Conari Press; Aromatherapy through the Seasons by Judith Fitzsimmons and Paula Bousquet, 1999 by Judith Fitzsimmons and Paula Bousquet, reprinted by permission of Conari Press; Romancing the Stove by Margie Lapanja, 1998 by Margie Lapanja, reprinted by permission of Conari Press.

This book has been previously cataloged by the Library of Congress under this title

Seton, Susannah. 1952

Simple pleasures of the home: cozy comforts and old-fashioned crafts for every room in the house / Susannah Seton.

p. cm.

ISBN 1-57324-174-1

1. Handicraft. 2. Cookery. I. Title.

TT157.S4159 1999

745.5dc21

99-16034

CIP

Printed in Canada

02 03 04 05 TC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

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Simple Pleasures: Soothing Suggestions & Small Comforts for Living Well Year Round

Simple Pleasures of the Garden: Stories, Recipies, and Crafts from the Abundant Earth

Simple Pleasures for the Holidays: A Treasury of Stories and Suggestions for Creating Meaningful Celebrations

365 Simple Pleasures: Daily Suggestions for Comfort and Joy

There's no place like home.

Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz

THE KITCHEN

THE BEDROOM

THE BETHROOM

THE LIVING AND DINING ROOMS

THE FAMILY ROOM

OUTDOOR SPACES

Simple Pleasures of the Home is made up of a variety of voices who have generously shared their thoughts, feelings, and suggestions for making a house a home: Alicia Alvres, Ame Beanland, Yvonne and Bonnie Clark, Robin Demers, Heather Dever, Bill Edelstein, Cris Evatt, Shelly Glennon, Will Glennon, Nina Lesowitz, Ana Li, Laura Marceau, Nancy Margolis, Donald Mcllraith, Barbara Parmet, Matthew Quincy, Mary Jane Ryan, Claudia Schaab, and Claudia Smelser. Thanks also to all the folks who work for Conari Press who made this book possible, both those mentioned above as well as Suzanne Albertson, Brenda Knight, Sharon Donovan, Everton Lopez, Annette Madden, Tom King, Pam Suwinsky, Marianne Dresser, and Teresa Coronado.

Ah! There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.

JANE AUSTEN

Home . There are few words that carry such potent feelings. It's the place where we can let down our hair, loosen our clothes, put up our feet. It's where, often, those we love most share in the ordinariness and extraordinariness of our daysthe birthdays and holidays, the blue Mondays and black Fridays, the everyday commonplace days. It's the place many of us long to run from, and others spent lifetimes trying to get back to. As the proverb goes, it's where our hearts are.

I love being at home. In fact, it's hard to blast me out of the house. Looking back at my life as a whole now that I'm in my forties, I realize I was bitten young by the domestic bug.

When I was a kid, I remember my brother and sister laughing at me because I didn't like to play outside like other kids. My homebodyness so concerned my mother that she'd occasionally lock me outside the house so I would get some fresh air and exercise. Often, particularly on snowy winter afternoons, I would sit at the front door, crying, until the time was up and I could come in again.

Mostly I wanted to be home so I could read, but reading wasn't my only home pleasure. I distinctly remember by age ten or so delighting in coming home to an empty house after schoolmother off on errands, brother and sister not yet back from school. The solitude! The coziness of getting whatever I wanted to eat out of the fridge (usually lettuce with Wishbone Italian dressingyes, I guess I was a bit of an odd bird) and then sitting at the dining room table or on the couch curled up in an afghan. Utter bliss.

I was the kind of kid who was at home learning from my mother how to make spaghetti sauce when the other kids were playing baseball. I loved making homemade cards for Christmas, birthdays, and other special occasions. I even liked cleaning the bathrooms and dusting as my chores (but I never did see the pleasure in vacuuming).

When I went away to college, I only spent a year in the dorms, quickly setting up the '70s equivalent of wedded bliss with a young man who enjoyed the domestic arts as much as I did. We loved to do laundry together during study breaks. Our idea of a good time was to concoct new ways to use Hamburger HelperI recall a disastrous meal when we confused powered ginger with gingerroot. Unfortunately, we had to eat it for days on end because our food budget for the week had been used up. We used to grow our own sprouts and make our own yogurt. We potted plants and tended gardens. Cleaning up our room was always a great distraction from studying. We even illegally smuggled a kitten into student housing to make it feel more like home.

My instincts for creating a comfortable nest and sitting in it contentedly never left me. Not for me were wild nights on the town, months-long travels (I once lived for two months in a tent and that did it for meI just wanted a place I could stand up in!), or a life of TV dinners on the run. No matter what my life circumstances have beenand they have varied wildly, from dirt poor to outright affluentI've settled in with dozens of houseplants, thrown up a few pieces of artwork, and proceeded to needlepoint pillows, burn incense, and cook dinners from scratch every night. Even now, often I don't leave the house for days on end.

Don't get me wrongI'm no Martha Stewart. I can't be bothered with visual perfection (which is fortunate since I have terrible fine motor coordination and can't wrap my fingers around half of the craft projects she dreams up), and I don't believe in making too much of a big deal about anything. I just love the basics of making and keeping a homethe cooking, cleaning, tidying, arranging, beautifying routine of it all.