Slow and Me

This blog began as a place to explore the slow movement: slow design, slow homes, slow fashion, slow craft, slow textiles, slow food, slow parenting, and slow living - and the Big Idea behind them that just might save the world. As I say in Ten Easy Ways To Take Life More Slowly, "incorporating the ideas of the Slow Movement into your everyday life could make it more beautiful, meaningful, sustainable, and connected to your community." I really do believe that we can solve many of the world's problems by living locally and sustainably.

Here are a few key introductory posts on slow design and slow craft, which are central to my own thinking about my practices and processes as a designer, dyer and rug hooker:
What Is Slow Design?
Slow Making, Slow Craft, and Slow Cloth
The ABCs of Slow Design
(S)low Tech
The Slow Movement and Privilege

My slow textile posts are primarily about my artistic practice using natural dyes, indigo, and rug hooking - and my #30DaysOfMaking personal challenge. (I'm currently behind on documenting this year's projects on anything other than my Instagram feed - I'll slow down and write the posts to go with those photos this winter.)

I also have keen interests in the slow fashion, slow home, and slow food movements.

The slow fashion movement is gaining awareness as the social and ecological impacts of the fast fashion model become clear. It has become a broad umbrella, including fashionistas who wear clothes by local designers alongside those who wear thrift-shop finds and those who champion fair trade and organic clothing. My slow fashion posts include a discussion of fashion diets - now called capsule wardrobes instead, which is probably easier to market than something that sounds like depriving yourself - and musings on my own wardrobe purge, thrifting adventures, stint doing Project 333, and DIY fashion projects. I also have strong interests in the personal uniform as an approach to slow fashion, and in local sourcing of textiles (like the linen project in London and the Fibershed folks in California are doing), so watch for posts on that coming soon.

The slow home movement applies the principles of slow design to the worlds of architecture, interior design, and decorating. My best posts on the topic and its implications for urban design and daily life are probably Slow In The Suburbs? and On the Slow Home Movement. My slow home and slow home case study posts mostly have to do with my efforts to apply the slow home principles to my own home (a typical builder-basic suburban move-up house).

The slow food movement puts its emphasis on the use of local ingredients and perservation of regional foods and food skills, in addition to its advocacy of 'good, clean & fair' food. My slow food posts explore old family recipes from the Canadian Maritime provinces, recipes using regional ingredients, my kitchen garden, and culinary skill-building classes I have taken.

My slow travel posts include posts about my own family's slow travel trips to the Maritimes and Japan, as well as a post about the trend toward bicycle-friendly hotels.

My slow news summary series - which I discontinued due to lack of time - rounded up months' worth of news from the various parts of the slow movement.