Diamond-Cut Life

More Joy, Less Stuff

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Entries Tagged as 'home & garden'

Feverish With Spring Planting

April 7th, 2013 · 4 Comments · home & garden, sustainability

I love the written word, as you probably know. (And did you know I’m giving away a copy of my novel, Revelle? You can enter the drawing by subscribing to my weekly blog posts, to your right. Easy to unsubscribe with a click any time). But this week’s post is a nod to the fact that sometimes [...]

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Tips For Living Happily With Others

March 17th, 2013 · 6 Comments · community, home & garden, relationships

When I googled “tips on living with others” just now, my posts from 2008 and 2009 on that topic were the first two things that came up. Given that folks seem to be coming to me for this advice, plus the fact that most of us will live with one or more others for a [...]

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Do Pets Raise Our Quality Of Life? Part 1 of 3

December 20th, 2012 · 12 Comments · home & garden, lifestyle

Diamond-Cut Life is about having a rich quality of life — different from ‘standard of living’, which is defined by income. Today’s topic, part 1 of a three-parter that will go into January, was suggested by friend and DCL reader Dana. Dana feels so strongly that pets improve our quality of life, he is challenging [...]

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How Readers Break The Rules At Christmas

December 9th, 2012 · 6 Comments · food & drink, home & garden, lifestyle, simplicity

Diamond-Cut Life is about more joy and less stuff. It’s written by a mostly joyful person (me) who feeds her happiness by putting people, nature and God ahead of buying more stuff. That’s a fairly subversive thing to do and promote these days. It breaks the culture’s unspoken rules that we’ve got to consume a [...]

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How To Slash Your Heating Bill

October 25th, 2012 · 2 Comments · energy, home & garden, money

This post has gotten thousands of views since I originally put it up in December 2008. It’s definitely the time of year to review how to conserve energy and the money we spend on it.   The main principle  in slashing home heating bills is to keep people warm, when they are in the house, rather than keeping unoccupied space warm. It’s [...]

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Portlandia On Mount Tabor

August 10th, 2012 · 2 Comments · home & garden, lifestyle, Oregon

For my readers outside the U.S., Portlandia is a comedy TV show that makes fun of

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From Gardening To The Grand Canyon

April 9th, 2012 · No Comments · community, energy, global warming and climate change, home & garden

We planted our pathway garden over the  gloriously sunny Easter weekend with our friend Scott Schreiner. He’s a former housemate, the second of  three good people in our lives who have worked for rent. Scott drove his truck across the Cascade range from Bend, where he lives, first finding a carpool partner from Craigslist who [...]

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The Best Things In Life: Part II

October 25th, 2011 · No Comments · home & garden, nature, simplicity

This is a guest post by my friend Allison Hamilton.  Allison lives in the country and skillfully grows an amazing variety of vegetables and fruit trees, when she isn’t creating award-winning solar energy projects. She calls me Ali. I love the way she’s deepened the conversation on the best things in life. I love this [...]

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We Found A Housemate!

October 11th, 2011 · 5 Comments · home & garden, lifestyle, relationships

Just a brief post to note that we finally found a housemate to help us fill up our house and practice community.

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What To Do With An Autumn Equinox?

September 20th, 2011 · 4 Comments · home & garden, nature

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