The Simple Things

Taking time to live well
  • Home
  • Subscribe
  • SHOP
  • Newsletter
  • About
  • Work with us
  • Home
  • Subscribe
  • SHOP
  • Newsletter
  • About
  • Work with us

Blog

Taking Time to Live Well

  • All
  • Chalkboard
  • Christmas
  • Competition
  • could do
  • Eating
  • Escape
  • Escaping
  • Fresh
  • Fun
  • gardening
  • Gathered
  • Gathering
  • Growing
  • Haikus
  • Interview
  • Living
  • Looking back
  • Magazine
  • magical creatures
  • Making
  • Miscellany
  • My Neighbourhood
  • Nature
  • Nest
  • Nesting
  • outing
  • playlist
  • Reader event
  • Reader offer
  • Shop
  • Sponsored post
  • Sunday Best
  • Think
  • Uncategorized
  • Wellbeing
  • Wisdom
[Made+Good] Stoneware everyday-pasta-budha bowls (lifestyle), £38.png

The Comfort of Things | Handmade home

Lottie Storey September 7, 2018

My eldest son has started pottery classes at school, which he enjoys and which is to be applauded, etc. However, I now have a shelf laden with misshapen bowls, approximately rendered plates and several lumpy things beyond description. I would rather replace these with lovely handmade ceramics made by proper craftspeople but I don’t want to upset him. How should I go about it?

Answer in brief: select a single piece to display, then chuck the rest. Although the artistic soul is a sensitive thing and needs to be tended to carefully, you don’t want to give your son a false sense of his own genius if it’s not deserved. Does he, actually, show any real promise? If so, select one of his better pieces and display it prominently: on a side table, say, with an anglepoise directed at it in the manner of a gallery. Then sweep the rest into a box and put under a bed. He will be so thrilled with the attention given to one of his works, he won’t notice. If he doesn’t show any real promise, just chuck the lot out. It’s a tough world out there and he’d better get used to it.

Turn to page 114 of September's The Simple Things for more on how to make a handmade home.

  Buy ,  download  or  subscribe   See the sample of our latest issue  here   Buy a copy of our latest anthology:  A Year of Celebrations   Buy a copy of  Flourish 2 , our wellbeing bookazine  Listen to  our podcast  - Small Ways to Live Well

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here

 

More home ideas:

Featured
@homeinthehemlocks front door.jpg
Oct 1, 2024
Rituals | Closing the Front Door
Oct 1, 2024
Oct 1, 2024
My Neighbourhood Island.jpg
Sep 17, 2024
10 Reasons | To Live on an Island
Sep 17, 2024
Sep 17, 2024
All purpose cleaner and wipes.jpg
Feb 18, 2023
Make | Homemade Cleaning Wonders
Feb 18, 2023
Feb 18, 2023

More from the September issue:

Featured
happy mail.png
Sep 25, 2018
Happy mail | 5 newsletters to subscribe to
Sep 25, 2018
Sep 25, 2018
SIM75.NEST_DSC_0236.png
Sep 24, 2018
Nest | Hydrangeas
Sep 24, 2018
Sep 24, 2018
SIM75.OUTING_E4GKJK.png
Sep 23, 2018
Old railway tracks
Sep 23, 2018
Sep 23, 2018
InNest Tagsthe comfort of things, interiors, handmade, home quandaries, issue 75, september
  • Blog
  • Older
  • Newer
Featured
  Buy ,  download  or  subscribe   See the sample of our latest issue  here   Buy a copy of our latest anthology:  A Year of Celebrations   Buy a copy of  Flourish 2 , our wellbeing bookazine  Listen to  our podcast  - Small Ways to Live Well
Feb 27, 2025
Feb 27, 2025

Buy, download or subscribe

See the sample of our latest issue here

Buy a copy of our latest anthology: A Year of Celebrations

Buy a copy of Flourish 2, our wellbeing bookazine

Listen to our podcast - Small Ways to Live Well

Feb 27, 2025
Join our Newsletter
Name
Email *

We respect your privacy and won't share your data.

email marketing by activecampaign
facebook-unauth twitter pinterest spotify instagram
  • Subscriber Login
  • Stockists
  • Advertise
  • Contact

The Simple Things is published by Iceberg Press

The Simple Things

Taking time to live well

We celebrate slowing down, enjoying what you have, making the most of where you live, enjoying the company of of friends and family, and feeding them well. We like to grow some of our own vegetables, visit local markets, rummage for vintage finds, and decorate our home with the plunder. We love being outdoors and enjoy the satisfaction that comes with a job well done.

facebook-unauth twitter pinterest spotify instagram