A room-by-room guide to creating domestic bliss. Home—it’s the place where we can let down our hair, loosen our clothes, put our feet up. It’s where those we love most share in the ordinariness and extraordinariness of our days. It’s where many of us spend lifetimes trying to get back to. As the proverb goes, it’s where our hearts are. Simple Pleasures of the Home is for everyone who has the nesting impulse—from passionate and accomplished home decorators to anyone who simply enjoys domestic downtime. Organized room by room, the book includes dozens of: Simple activities for bringing the family together Creative ideas for pampering yourself and loved ones Easy-to-follow instructions for making aromatherapy products Tips for candlemaking Comfort-food recipes, and more

What are the little things that make life worth living? A walk in the countryside, perhaps; a log fire; a letter from a friend. In Simple Pleasures, some of the UK's best-loved writers and public figures ponder this conundrum and come up with their own answers, sharing their thoughts on, among other things, the joys of picking up litter, whittling sticks, reading aloud, and devouring a good cheese sandwich. With contributions from A. C. Grayling, Robert McCrum, Prue Leith, Sebastian Faulks and Ann Widdecombe, to name just a few, Simple Pleasures is perfect reading for anyone who appreciates - or aspires to - the finer, simpler things in life.

In iSimple Pleasures of the Home, Susannah Seton urges readers to nurture the place that nurtures them. For anyone with the desire to enhance their surroundings - from accomplished decorators to those who simply enjoy a little domestic downtime - this book celebrates the ordinary and extraordinary moments of everyday life at home. Organized room by room, the book includes illustrations, dozens of simple activities for bringing the family together, creative ideas for pampering oneself and loved ones, easy-to-follow instructions for making aromatherapy products, tips on candlemaking, and recipes for comfort foods such as biscuits, apple pie, and chocolate pudding.

The Art of Positive Thinking All Year Round “Simple Pleasures has become my go-to book for remembering to slow down and enjoy the little things in life.”—Becca Anderson, bestselling author of Badass Affirmations and The Book of Awesome Women #1 New Release in Soups & Stews, Container Gardening, and Flowers An abundant sourcebook of ideas, encouraging quotes, recipes, and activities, Simple Pleasures shows you how to appreciate the simple things that make up your daily life. Learn new secrets to happiness. Rediscover the pleasures our grandparents knew when life was quieter and slower. A time when pleasures were made, not bought, and enjoyed all the more because of it. Organized seasonally and full of touching stories, practical tips, and dozens of satisfying crafts, Simple Pleasures is both a guide to and a celebration of the art of living well. Make your self-care easy. Sometimes positive thinking can be hard, but it doesn’t have to be. From the recipe for a homemade herbal bath to quick and easy recommendations for an instant room makeover, the suggestions collected in this book offer a new appreciation for the everyday activities that nurture and comfort you. Inside Simple Pleasures, find motivational tips and learn how to: Make your own perfume and body lotion Create old fashioned sachets Bake the world’s best cookies If you enjoyed other books in the Simple Pleasures series by Susannah Seton such as Simple Pleasures of the Home or Simple Pleasures for the Holidays—or books like A Year Of Positive Thinking, Declutter Your Mind, or 365 Days of Positive Affirmations—you’ll love Simple Pleasures.

The author of "Simple Pleasures for Holidays" now offers over 200 seasonal ways to experience the joys of gardening.

In the best tradition of Tessa Hadley, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Ann Patchett—an astonishing, keenly observed period piece about an ordinary British woman in the 1950s whose dutiful life takes a sudden turn into a pitched battle between propriety and unexpected passion. "With wit and dry humor...quietly affecting in unexpected ways. Chambers' language is beautiful, achieving what only the most skilled writers can: big pleasure wrought from small details."--The New York Times LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 1957: Jean Swinney is a feature writer on a local paper in the southeast suburbs of London. Clever but with limited career opportunities and on the brink of forty, Jean lives a dreary existence that includes caring for her demanding widowed mother, who rarely leaves the house. It’s a small life with little joy and no likelihood of escape. That all changes when a young woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth. Jean seizes onto the bizarre story and sets out to discover whether Gretchen is a miracle or a fraud. But the more Jean investigates, the more her life becomes strangely (and not unpleasantly) intertwined with that of the Tilburys, including Gretchen’s gentle and thoughtful husband Howard, who mostly believes his wife, and their quirky and charming daughter Margaret, who becomes a sort of surrogate child for Jean. Gretchen, too, becomes a much-needed friend in an otherwise empty social life. Jean cannot bring herself to discard what seems like her one chance at happiness, even as the story that she is researching starts to send dark ripples across all their lives…with unimaginable consequences. Both a mystery and a love story, Small Pleasures is a literary tour-de-force in the style of The Remains of the Day, about conflict between personal fulfillment and duty; a novel that celebrates the beauty and potential for joy in all things plain and unfashionable.

Simple Pleasures presents the first major critical assessment of works by the artist Doris Lee (1904-1983). Lee was one of the most recognized artists in America during the 1930s and 40s, and was a leading figure in the Woodstock Artist's Colony. Her oeuvre reveals a remarkable ability to merge the reduction of abstraction with the appeal of the everyday. In so doing, she offers one of the very rare examples of a coherent visual identity that successfully bridged the various artistic "camps" that formed with the shift in the art world in the post-World War II era. Doris Lee exploded onto the national scene in 1935 when her painting Thanksgiving was awarded the Art Institute of Chicago's Logan Prize and instigated the Sanity in Art movement in protest. Two years later, her painting Catastrophe was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Simple Pleasures explores this initial national recognition in the 1930s within the context of American Scene painting, and traces the artist's thematic interest in the simple objects and scenes of the everyday through her career. It also examines the influence of the rise in abstraction during the late 1940s and 1950s, and the particular way in which this abstraction found resonance with Lee's long-held interest in, and collections of, folk and non-western art. During this post-war period, Lee, like many of her American Scene colleagues, found lucrative work in the heyday of commercial advertising. Lee's commercial commissions for patrons such as American Tobacco Company, Life magazine, Abbott Laboratories, and Associated American Artists are especially compelling in both their populist accessibility and in their deceptively sophisticated abstraction. Sixty-five works by the artist span the 1930s through the 1960s and are comprised of paintings, drawings, prints, and commissioned commercial designs in fabric and pottery. Included are advertisements by companies that commissioned images from Lee, and photographs that contextualize the artist's work within the Woodstock artist's community.