bluetree/self improvement

This renowned decorator shows readers how to be more visually aware. Open Your Eyes teaches the principles of proportion, scale, composition, and more, providing a foundation for true beauty through design. From asking you to take another look at the colors in a sunset, a glass of water, and in soap bubbles to examining the form of a statue, person, or an apple, this book will truly help you "open your eyes" as you see your surroundings in a new way.
Library Journal

The much-published interior designer Stoddard gives her view on how to design a comfortable, beautiful home. She covers the basic areas that designers consider when planning interiors: scale, balance, pattern, and composition. As she discusses each, she gives specific tips on how to look at the home and remedy troublesome areas. Although this book gives practical decorating information, there are not enough pictures to illustrate her advice, so sometimes her message gets lost. Purchase if there is a demand for her books. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 8/98.]

Chapter One
Rituals

To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition,
the end to which every enterprise and tlabour tends...

Samuel Johnson
The Rambler, November 10, 1750

Creating daily rituals-making daily tasks into times of enrichment through planning and special personal details-is a way to live a richer, more satisfying life. It may seem an obvious point-yet it is so easy to do! But in my work as an interior designer, I have found that many people need advice about redesigning the small details of everyday living: they need this much more than they need advice about how to design a brandnew living room.

Samuel Johnson is a hero of mine. His life was not an easy journey, yet he lived day by day with a sense of urgency, reverence and passion. "The process," he insisted, "I's the reality." As I've worked in the decorative arts over these past twenty-five years, I've become convinced that only by paying careful attention to the simple details of daily tasks and to our immediate surroundings can we live vitally and beautifully all the days of our lives. It takes a commitment to enjoy each day fully. And it takes respect for the significance of grace.

" Rituals" is my term for patterns you create in your everyday living that uplift the way you do ordinary things, so that a simple task rises to the level of something special, ceremonial, ritualistic.Rituals can elevate the way you feel about yourself, your life, and make you more peaceful and more free, more useful to others.

The difference between feeling bored and feeling alive, I believe, lies in astimulating daily life that is elevated into a fuller experience through pleasing details.

When these small moments are handled lovingly and with thought and care, they become life-enhancing and make you capable of doing more with the rest of your time.

I've observed inmy communications with people all over the world the tendency so many of us have to concentrate our energies on things that are for special occasions rather than on things we do, or use, every day. In design terms, this translates into working to get the living room just right, instead of concentrating on the rooms we spend the most time in, day after day-the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom. This 5-percent rule translates into a tendency to save up a sense of the special for a few outstanding events each year-for a particular party, anniversary or birthday celebration, a vacation. Such events comprise at the most 5 percent of our living time, and the remaining 95 percent is often merely walked through, in wistful anticipation of some later Joy. But what we all really want to do, I think, is live in the present, really enjoy every day, not put our lives on hold for that special 5 percent. We want to enjoy all the days of our lives, and especially the time spent in the sanctuary of home. Life is not a dress rehearsal.

Instead of rushing through our lives to get somewhere-instead of saving up real living for later--I think it's important to remember that each single day is all we have. Single days experienced fully add up to a lifetime lived deeply and well. Today is your life-not yesterday and not tomorrow. If we have tomorrow, it will be a gift, but what we do today, right now, will have an accumulated effect on all our tomorrows. If we make short shrift of our day-to-day lives, even if we live to experience "later," I don't believe we will know fully how to appreciate what we have. Living well is a habit, and rituals improve and reinforce good life habits.

That nimble writer of aphorisms Logan Pearsall Smith, in his book All Trivi,said: "There are two things to aim at in life: first,to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest ofmankind achieve the

With her 25th book, lifestyle philosopher Alexandra Stoddard offers simple steps for taking charge of your life--your way. In brief essays filled with useful examples and optimism, she reveals 50 choices you can make to live joyfully in pursuit of what is true, good, and beautiful. Her essays help us trust ourselves ("Intuition is your guiding light"), stay steady in a storm ("Your choices count most in a crisis"), embrace the new ("Accept opportunity"), address unfinished business ("Have as few regrets as possible"), surround ourselves with delights ("Redefine what is beautiful"), and remember to have fun ("Cheap thrills are thrilling").

As a pioneering writer and lecturer on personal happiness for the past twenty years, Alexandra has inspired millions to break the "rules" and pursue fulfillment. Now, as scientists have begun to discover the benefits of living a happy life, Alexandra provides practical ways to live happily every day. She puts us in charge of our choices, reminding us that we always have a choice about what we think, feel, and do. When we are true to ourselves, we can fly above stress and conflict, contented and confident that we are the right path.

Every choice you make is an opportunity to delight in life. You Are Your Choices offers insight and companionship each step of the way.
Deborah Bigelow - Library Journal

Stoddard's (Living a Beautiful Life) guide, which invites readers to live a good, beautiful, and true life, fits right in with people's desire to live life differently in the new year. In 50 short essays, Stoddard incorporates the thoughts of great philosophers and leaders into commonsense ideas for daily application. She invites readers to embrace variety, e.g., by tasting a new flavor of ice cream or learning to identify constellations. Similarly, she encourages the celebration of simple rituals by using a special bar of soap or a beautiful towel for hand washing. Everyone will undoubtedly find something of value in this gem of a book for most public libraries.