I was driving back from a home schooling swim meet up and listening to Judy Collins. She really takes me back to my child hood. I was looking at the clouds and though about all the happy hippie homes I went through in my childhood. Then I wondered, what is your all's ideal when you think of the perfect happy hippie home.

One thing I strongly remember in one home is that nothing matched. The chairs, the dishes, none of it was identical. It was all beautiful and very well maintained. the furniture had been stripped and restored. Often times, the music system was the best, most recent and central to one room if not all rooms of the home. Lots of prisms, lots of windows that were often open. If there were kids, there were lots of them. Somewhere in the house there was a toddler, in a diaper and it needed to have it's nose wiped. There were dishes often in need of washing, compost to be taken out and "weird stuff" to eat :D

Meditation and yoga were parts of the happy hippie home, too. No cigarettes, ever. Most stuff was bought at thrift stores or rummage sales. Very often the homes were a hodgepodge of fixed up. There was often something in the process of being fixed or constructed. Very, very strong women ran the homes sometimes alone sometimes with a mate. All the homes were Christian but I think that had more to do with the people being friends of my parents then anything.

There were books. Lots, and lots, and LOTS of books. You'd be hard pressed to find a best seller in the house, aside from "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance".

Oh, and there was love. Lots and lots of love :D

I grew up in a very non-hippie (although Unitarian) home...

Just wanted to tell you that you write magically!!

I grew up in a very non-hippie home...

Just wanted to tell you that you write magically!!

Couldn't have said it better myself. My house is somewhat like you described and everyday it gets closer. That is what I strive for and I imagine that someday my children and maybe even grandchildren will look back and have fond memories of my "happy hippie home"

Now see. these weren't homes i grew up in these were homes of friends of my parents. My own home was ver standard lower middle class with a hippie edge. I think the only reason we had the hippie edge is because my Mom is a native Californian and my Dad loved folk music.

I think the only unsuual thing about my home as a child is that we had no alchol in the house. My parents just didn't drink.

Thank you for saying I write well! I try hard and often wonder if my words match what's in my head. Now I know they do :D

That reminds me a lot of the home I grew up in and my home now. :) The furniture part was especially funny to me since scattered around my home are many thrift store pieces of furniture in various states of repair and in various phases of refinishing. Currently our "entry table" that we put our keys, mail, etc. on is an antique desk that I found at a thrift shop and have stripped only the top of so far. So it's in limbo and has a pretty piece of fabric draped over it and some eclectic pieces on it to decorate. :)

I was driving back from a home schooling swim meet up and listening to Judy Collins. She really takes me back to my child hood. I was looking at the clouds and though about all the happy hippie homes I went through in my childhood. Then I wondered, what is your all's ideal when you think of the perfect happy hippie home.

One thing I strongly remember in one home is that nothing matched. The chairs, the dishes, none of it was identical. It was all beautiful and very well maintained. the furniture had been stripped and restored. Often times, the music system was the best, most recent and central to one room if not all rooms of the home. Lots of prisms, lots of windows that were often open. If there were kids, there were lots of them. Somewhere in the house there was a toddler, in a diaper and it needed to have it's nose wiped. There were dishes often in need of washing, compost to be taken out and "weird stuff" to eat :D

Meditation and yoga were parts of the happy hippie home, too. No cigarettes, ever. Most stuff was bought at thrift stores or rummage sales. Very often the homes were a hodgepodge of fixed up. There was often something in the process of being fixed or constructed. Very, very strong women ran the homes sometimes alone sometimes with a mate. All the homes were Christian but I think that had more to do with the people being friends of my parents then anything.

There were books. Lots, and lots, and LOTS of books. You'd be hard pressed to find a best seller in the house, aside from "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance".

Oh, and there was love. Lots and lots of love :D


You just described my childhood home perfectly. Aside from the Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. And the Christian aspect. My mom had astrology books and scripture books everywhere, and we follow the Vaisnava path to God. Which makes us Christian in the true sense of the word, in that we are basing our lives around being pleasing to God, and following the instructions of Lord Jesus Christ, but we don't do the "Christian" way of life.

Our house doesn't look like a happy hippie home right now, cause dh is not like that, but we still have a huge shelf of natural supplements and rememdies, meditation and yoga are still a big part of our life, and wierd things to eat are very common!

I miss the easy, comfy old way, though I like this way, too. I was just thinking the other day about how our dishes when I was a kid never matched, and I liked it that way. I miss the music in every room, too. My dad used to buy old 8 track systems, and record over them with spiritual music, and jerry-rig speakers in every room of the house, so it was playing constantly, everywhere you went. I miss that so much. Dh isn't like that, and I can't do it, so we just have one player in one romm playing loudish to hear from other rooms.

Anyway, I have been thinking about this lately, and then you post such a spot-on description of my childhood. Makes me go all sentimental! LOL

Murali

Well, my parents might have been called hippies by some, but the houses were not homes and they were not like that!
Well, my dads had the exterior things- mis matched furniture & lots of projects, great stereo, kids that needed their nose wiped and in diapers, windows open, quilts, big garden, dogs, prisms, weird stuf to eat, and dirty dishes -
I owned that book and he owned motorcycles.
But no one was meditating except me! ;)

To me, a happy hippie home or a happy any home is just where there is a lot of love but I like your description fine! :)

Hope

...and the volkswagon parked in the gravel drive!

That sounds lovely. I'm gradually getting the happy hippie home. I'm already there with the books, books and more books, but you'll find a few best sellers in there ;) (gotta read my Harry Potter books, LOL). I think the whole house stereo thing is a GREAT idea, might have to see about rigging something like that up as long as I can take the boys rooms off the loop at night and we can still listen.

Thanks for sharing.

...and the volkswagon parked in the gravel drive!
Well, yeah! The veedubya bus was a fixture! Everyone had one of THOSE! LOL


Murali

It sounds beautiful...I also love your writing, Elizabeth! -- and it does sound like my home somewhat. Except we are very minimalist. I knew no hippies growing up. My parents were solid, middle-class, teetotalers. Mom, teacher; dad, electrician. My images come from my young adulthood -- my friend's mom's cottage in Longboat Key, FL. Beautiful brightly colored Mexican Indian art on the walls, a lovely tropical feeling, Satillo tile, jalousied windows open and ceiling fans spinning, wicker couches and Mexican blankets on the furniture. And then my hippie friends in various places, whose homes are very much like you describe. Lots of Eastern area rugs. A tapestry over the TV if there is one.

My house has a huge, open great room with cathedral ceilings and skylights and lots of windows, cream-colored walls and honey-colored wood floors. But our walls just have a few pictures on them; nothing is as colorfully decorated as some of the other hippie homes I have been in. We have children's art on the walls. A shoe rack to put your shoes on when you come in either door. Bamboo blinds and unbleached cotton curtains. Purple, dark rose and blue batik curtains in the bedroom. Children's hand and foot print paintings in their bedroom. Our stereo speakers were a major investment.

Oh yes and a Family Bedroom - our bedroom has one king-sized bed and one double futon in it. At this time, with our 6 and 4 yo, sleeping configurations vary nightly. We have the requisite '68 Volkswagen Microbus, but ours is in the garage in the middle of being restored.

:wah: My toddler whose nose needs wiping is now a young child of 4 who is potty trained.

Hye, my Dad has a VW bug! I do think some old VW was required for membership in the Hippie Nations! LOL!

Hye, my Dad has a VW bug! I do think some old VW was required for membership in the Hippie Nations! LOL!

No VW, but how 'bout an old van SPRAY PAINTED fluorescent blue inside and out with homemade curtains in the windows??? :hahaha: That was our classy family vehicle! Oh, and it had the back row of seats ripped out and an old mattress thrown in. Also headphones hooked up above the seats so we could listen to plenty of Bob Dylan, John Denver and James Taylor on road trips!

This thread needs pics :happy:

We're def on the hippie side of life. LOL Much to my very mainstream, middle class family's (parents and sister) horror. We don't have a bug, though my dd is obsessed with them. We do have a Prius. Maybe that is the modern hippie's car?

here's a pic ;)

No VW, but how 'bout an old van SPRAY PAINTED fluorescent blue inside and out with homemade curtains in the windows??? :hahaha: That was our classy family vehicle! Oh, and it had the back row of seats ripped out and an old mattress thrown in. Also headphones hooked up above the seats so we could listen to plenty of Bob Dylan, John Denver and James Taylor on road trips!

Oh, yeah, we had something like that, too! LOL At one point, we moved from I can't remember where, but I think it was somewhere in Texas, but we didn't move anywhere in particular, we moved into our big Chevy van, so they built this huge platform in the back, put all our belongings underneath, and we had a bed on top. I thought it was fun, but then I was only 5, I think, LOL!

Murali

I did NOT grow up in a hippy home at all......but you did bring back a great memory. After my Mom died when I was 9 we had a nanny. She watched us before and after school. She was an artist and loved garage sales. Anyway, she took us trick-or-treating to a friend's house once and they were such a HAPPY HIPPY HOME and I did NOT want to leave!

It was just so homey and warm and well.....crunchy.....I just felt at home. Maybe that's why I am like I am now. ;)

i didn't grow up w/ those things around me (at the beach in redondo), but was witness to that lifestyle when i was in my early 20s & had relocated to n. cal (after finally ditching out on hollywood..lol) and knew it was for me.

i have a dear friend who is as natural & hippie as they come. she went from professional mountain biker on the circuit, to wandering mama & semi settled down.

she had some friends & their home is what i recall most vividly. 4 boys all w/ elemental names. lived off the grid, wooden floors, throw rugs everywhere, big iron cook stove in their kitchen, aloe & spider plants in abundance around the house, always the faint smell of goat cheese & incense lingering..lol, pillows on the floor, benches lined w/ books. the mom always wore long flowing skirts & had gorgeous long red hair ~ she was a WM & HS the boys, they all wore hiking boots, dad had a full & rough beard. those were the sweet days...long, hot & free :heart:

once i went w/ that family & my friend (and my X) to a place they all were a part of ~ it's called Black Bear. kind of commune-ish i 'spose you can say. there are several small cabins on the property, a main house w/ kitchen, great room, books, toys, etc... a pond, a Wikiup ( this was my frist time going nude in a sweat lodge w/ people..lol, the kids were in to - talk about the most natural nonjudgemental enviro.) a garden, and 1 big ol outhouse..lol a big cabin w/ like 10 toilet seats. so you sit, do your biz & sometimes just may partake in conversation if someone else is there too..lol! people walk around nude if they feel like it. very cool place. they'd live there for weeks, then go back to their real homes~ which were still totally natural/hippie.

those are the places that i recall the sights & sounds.. where i saw those 4 boys grow up ( i was just a visitor/outside observer, kiwm?) they were always so happy & adjusted.

i hope my home conveys some of what i experienced & learned during that time in my life, i hold it dear to my heart.

I remember all the sunlight coming in through every window in the house and lots and lots of plants. Some of my fondest memories are laying on the floor in front of the warm sunshiny window. I also remember the smell of herbs and homemade lye soap. My best friends mom used to make lye soap. She used to teach everyone how to make the soap and how to can. I miss her alot!!!

That term brings such a feeling of contentment I had to put it in my sig line.

For me the " happy hippie home" is about smell. The smell of lavender in the bedrooms. the smell of the bread in the oven or the spicey beans & rice for dinner. the smell of really clean floors, that home made soap and wood smell that you get from not using chemicals to clean with. The smell of the compost and the dirt from the garden stuck under you fingers. The natural smell we all get while running around in the sun for a day. The smell of fresh cold air right after a rain on a hot day.

Chole

For me the " happy hippie home" is about smell. The smell of lavender in the bedrooms. the smell of the bread in the oven or the spicey beans & rice for dinner. the smell of really clean floors, that home made soap and wood smell that you get from not using chemicals to clean with. The smell of the compost and the dirt from the garden stuck under you fingers. The natural smell we all get while running around in the sun for a day. The smell of fresh cold air right after a rain on a hot day.

Chole

The smell of incense, and chinese herbs on the stove, with strange, exotic foods cooking...

I just picked up the newest copy of Mother Earth News. Flipping through it I thought of more stuff...

tomatos with flavor, cut thick with a little sea salt on it MMMMMMM
tapestry bedspreads hung on the walls

I just picked up the newest copy of Mother Earth News. Flipping through it I thought of more stuff...

tomatos with flavor, cut thick with a little sea salt on it MMMMMMM
tapestry bedspreads hung on the walls


Oh, geez, til this thread, I never realized how textbook hippie we were! LOL

We always had the garden, so fresh tomatoes, eaten raw with salt, or maybe a little Spike or dressing, was a fave. My kids think I am nuts.

And we always had the Indian Madras spreads everywhere..on walls, on couches, as bedspreads, picnic cloths...


Yeesh!
LOL

Murali

When I was about 15 I started babysitting for this girl Kerry. She and her boyfriend were major hippies.
I used to love looking at her clothes in the closet. She had so many velvety things, embroidered silks, etc. (just looking mind you not trying on or stealing lol)
As her daughter got older I still babysat for her, and I really looked up to Kerry.
She took me to my first Dead show, and was even at my oldest daughter's birth, the only person I allowed there besides my midwife, her assistant, and my at-the-time husband.

Her house was my hippie inspiration.
She always had such a laid back attitude, good personality, and her house always smelled good, like exotic spices, and faint patchouli, sometimes like dog hair, but always earthy and happy.
Wood floors, all natural cleaners, hardly any prepared food packages, in fact, so little, I never knew what to make to eat so I went hungry, cause I didnt know how to cook, lol, which is what I hear now when people come to my house "Im starving! What do you eat? there is like nothing here!" when the cabinets are filled with beans, rice, pasta, a few snack foods, and a basket of potatoes, bowl of fruit, etc.

Her house was sunny, clean but not TOO clean, and her daughter had really cool handmade clothes. And she always had a ton of tea to drink. Yum!

The other house that I admired for its hippiness was in Santa Cruz. The lady who lived there I never met because she allowed her nephew, my friend to stay there while she was gone, so we had free range of the house to ourselves. She had a TEA SHELF! So many to choose from I think I drank about 10 cups in 2 days lol. I had to try them all.
Her bathroom was all green tile, like a dull grass green color, tub and shower tiled top to bottom, and she had scrubby homemade soap.
her house reeked of incense that was just euphoric.
How I heart hippie homes!

How could I forget the smell of nag champa? :hippy:

I fit into enough of it. Our life is becoming truly crunchy here, and def. happier. :cloud9: Much happier than several years ago when it was mainstream. Patchouli, books, music, mismatched... everything. :lol: We don't have a VW though, too much pollution. I want something veggie powered. ;)

Great thread. :)

Dang, this thread brought a lot of smiles to my face. I still remember that day when i was driving and looking at the clouds. It's been almost two years since we all made this beautiful thread. We really birthed something beautiful, IMO :D

How about a sprinkler on the roof to keep the heat out? And a big shaggy dog taking a nap with the snot nosed toodler? Yep... that was my life growing up. Although we were more fringer than hippie.

We have that life now too. Although my kids are clean and well maintained (I couldn't stand being dirty even as a kid, so that has passed down I guess) and our house is a rental, and my van is a 2003 with a lotus flower pendant hanging from the mirror and "Buy Local" sticker in back... but it fits the profile pretty well. Lots of music. Lots of wood. Lots of dirt out back to play in, and home grown garden goodness. Drift wood, broken taracotta pots for frogs to live in, and large rocks are my 'garden gnomes'. Would rather have a big yard than a big house. The walls are colorful with art of friends and family on it for the most part (black and white photographs of my bio dads, my brothers, and mine mostly). Tea pot always on the stove, usually hot with loose leaf tea in tins along the side. Silverware, and most serving spoons in a crock next to the stove. No coffee, cigarettes, or alcohol anywhere around. (but occasionally there is a Monster in the fridge via Don.) Books, lots of GOOD books everywhere. Homemade clothes or clothes from the thrift stores. Prayer flags along my patio. Swings attached to the beam that holds that patio roof up. A comfortable rocking chair to watch the kiddies when we are outside.

Honestly, I relish this life. I relish the hodgepodge life that Don and I have created out of our two sets of values coming in here. He was very mainstream, very christan, and I was not. We blended very well (being both air signs we are wonderful communicators together) and have made a clean, well presented hippie life out of our home. Prisims in the windows, fresh baked goods, lots of loud music, but yet matching towels. ;)

Val

ETA I didn't realise this was so old. :D What a beautiful thread. I remember this topic going around but I missed this one I think. Beautiful. :D Currently listening to Cat Stevens and John Mayer is on quege. lol...

There was always a guitar or two around. I'd sit on the floor leaned up against the half-rough wood of a refinished chair while the grownups played guitar and sang folk songs, old protest songs, cowboy songs and songs about trains and dead heroes. Getting sleepier and sleepier, with the fronds of a spider plant tickling my shoulder but determined to stay awake because right at the end, just before they put the guitars away they'd start playing songs like 'Kisses Sweeter than Wine' and 'All my Trials', songs I barely understood the lyrics to but could just barely sense the beauty and sadness in them.

The taste of Good Earth tea, so spicy it made your tongue feel numb and puckered, but the flavor was so complicated that it felt grown-up and special to be drinking it. Hot out of a hand-thrown mug with a lopsided handle or over ice in a tall glass canning jar, the grooves of screw-top thread pressing against your bottom lip.

Big friendly dogs with coarse coats, and lean wary cats with one ragged ear, coming and going like members of the family and even though I was scared of dogs I was never scared of those dogs, thumping their tails against the braided rag rugs hard enough to send dust motes into the air where they'd hang like mica in the sunbeams.

Always a copy of 'The Prophet' somewhere close at hand, and a cheerful jumble of every book in the world on the bookshelves--the Moosewood cookbook, biographies, children's books, slim volumes of poetry, fat paperback novels with lurid unapologetic covers.

What a wonderful thread to bump! It put a smile on my face but a sad one too to see a few mommas I love who no longer post!

I'm gonna add some pics of my happy hippie home from my childhood when I get 'em scanned in.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/Bethanydear/microbus.jpg?t=1174417521

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/Bethanydear/IMG_0453.jpg?t=1174417746

I think of windchimes and shell chimes. Aloe and spider plants. Pillows and headphones on the floor. Homemade pasta hanging over the kitchen table chairs, drying. Eating half an avocado for a snack. Mom throwing pottery or making stained glass. Dad out in the garden or pickling cucs. Lps on boards with cinder block ends. The noise the bug and the bus made. The men all had beards and the moms all had long hair.

Eating half an avocado for a snack.

My kids do this all the time. I remember it too... :)

I also remember eating raw oatmeal by the handful and the sound of my moms juicer making everything from carrot/apple/wheatgrass to beet/rasberry/celery juice.

*lol* Guess what Kaya, Luna and I just shared for a snack. Yup, an avocado.

I didn't grow up in a hippie home, and I think the first time I ever met a "hippie" (my boyfriend's olded sister) I just loved so many things about her. She was a huge influence on me and she showed me a path I really had little experience with.

Bethany, I love the pics!

neat thread....

My mom has a memory of looking for me one evening when I was about 4 and finding me in the tub with candles lit and incense burning - she still loves telling that story - :D

I also remember climbing up to the top of the fridge to eat the "little round seeds" out of the bottom of the pottery bowl :hahaha:

LOL reading this thread!

Lots of hippies smoked cigarettes, smoked misc. other plant life and drank alchohol and lots were from jewish families.

Anyway.

I think of hippie homes as having lots of barefeet, and misc. other bare body parts, long hair for all, friendliness to strangers, good music.

Love this thread! We used to live on a big property with three houses. We shared a house with one family, two other families lived in another house, and then the owners lived in the largest house. We had a huge garden that we all worked on together and there were cement steps in the back yard that went down a big hill and led to a local park complete with a huge pond and lots of ducks. Every Sunday night we all had dinner together and a few of the guys played music afterwards. I loved that place so much! We moved when I was in 8th grade and I was sooo bummed out.

As I was washing dishes tonight I realized a major thing we missed - macramé. Macramé EVERYTHING! Oh, and the beaded curtain. There was normally one beaded curtain somewhere.

There were lots of windows, and almost no curtains. I've wondered for years where I have this need for big clean windows and no curtains but now I know.

I am doing my best to create a happy hippie home for my family, no matter where we live.
I too prefer a big yard to a big house...more play/garden area, less indoor cleaning lol.

Nag Champa is our staple incense here. I have my share of essential oils and herbs and TEA for home remedy/holistic medicine.

We have plenty of books, in fact, our small livingroom has a nice long bookshelf, and I even designated the Papisan chair as our "reading chair". The tv is hardly on (only movies, no channels), the stereo is on a lot, (um, usually reggae) the kids and I dance and sing a lot, shoe shelf by the front door, mismatched cloth napkins,
MY 7 YEAR OLD BROUGHT HOME A NEWSPAPER ARTICLE ABOUT CODEPINK FROM SCHOOL,
so we do discuss a little bit of current events, rainbow stuff EVERYWHERE, in fact, my kids' room theme is rainbow tiedye, lots of homecooked foods, trying to get the garden started, a little bit of yoga, recycling is a family project, when my dd takes a cold lunch to school it is normal for her to have a recycled yogurt cup with lid, real silverware and a cloth napkin in her lunch (plus a note saying how much I love her!), accessible books on the developing stages of a fetus, plus color birthing pics, more holistic healing books than novels, the only mags I collect are MOTHER EARTH NEWS (my inspiration), VEGWEB and Yoga Journal....
as many plants as we can squish indoors and out, crystals, shells or river rocks on near every windowsill, clay pots left upside down with water for the frogs to hang out, daddylong legs spiders left alone or moved outdoors....
crunchy clothes in the summer months from drying outside....here is a biggie for me: the girls are used to my mooncycle cloth menstrual pads.

im forgetting a lot but this is our basics. I am very determined to have a natural happy home for my kids.

I forgot:

djembe drums!
The kids and I play on them once in awhile but the 3 I have (small and a medium) are mostly what is decorating the top of my bookshelf! Plus framed pics of the kids and 2 are of flowers I snapped pics of.
A "celebrate breastfeeding" pic in a frame.

area rugs everywhere! Batiked art on the wall.

wait, i have pics of my livingroom all clean....

and one of my 4 year old in their messy room.

I also remember climbing up to the top of the fridge to eat the "little round seeds" out of the bottom of the pottery bowl


FUNNY!

My kids and I were visiting a friend whose company was smoking pot, and my daughter says "something smells funny" and I just said "yeah that incense is stinky huh?" she left it at that.

growing up i lived in several different homes, with several different types of people. my fondest memories though are times with the "hippies or back to basics" types of people. i loved the animals, the garden, the dirt!!

It is so interesting how we try to emulate the good we have experianced, even if it was only a visit at someones cottage. I am so thankful I had the chance to see how many lived so that I knew more of what I want and didn't want when it was my turn!

I am the dumpster diva and my hubby although growing up in a very hippy home is really getting into this material world. The struggle!! I see that although my hubby grew up in a home that looks like what i want there wasn't the love conected to it to make him want that for himself. I on the other hand had the love, so that is what i really want.

It will be interesting to see the comprimises we will make during this journey together.

I'm gonna add some pics of my happy hippie home from my childhood when I get 'em scanned in.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/Bethanydear/microbus.jpg?t=1174417521

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/Bethanydear/IMG_0453.jpg?t=1174417746

bethany this first picture is priceless. beautiful :)

clutter

I don't mean that in a bad way it's just something I've noticed recently while at my friends very obviously "hippie" house (it's actually a geodesic dome). There are little things everywhere, on window sills, on book shelves, on the mantle. I noticed it at my house too. To others it might look messy and random but those things *belong* in their random spots. I'd know instantly if one of my findings was missing from the window sill in the kitchen. It's so different than other houses where the nicknacks are all relegated to one spot.

Chole

Do you think the house needs to be "old" to look good ~dirty-ish~?
I find when I am in a old house- it does not matter what state it is in, it still seems comfortable and welcoming. I do not get that from new houses that are cluttered- THey just seem cluttered or dirty.
This thread makes me teary- longing for something so simple yet so hard to obtain.

[QUOTE=Shifra;2481794This thread makes me teary- longing for something so simple yet so hard to obtain.[/QUOTE]

yep, I agree....


my apartment is soooo cookie cutter and uninteresting. stuff that is falling apart just looks junky, not full of character.

do you think though that others might just see your house the way you see others homes?

Our own space will never feel as romantic as someone elses. We know what work went into it, who gave it to us, etc. In someone elses house you just see the big picture and you can imagine the stories that go along with it.

I wish I could get others honest opinions on my space. I guess if I could figure out how to put pictures on here I could.

clutter

I don't mean that in a bad way it's just something I've noticed recently while at my friends very obviously "hippie" house (it's actually a geodesic dome). There are little things everywhere, on window sills, on book shelves, on the mantle. I noticed it at my house too. To others it might look messy and random but those things *belong* in their random spots. I'd know instantly if one of my findings was missing from the window sill in the kitchen. It's so different than other houses where the nicknacks are all relegated to one spot.

Chole

I have this too. I have little figurines around. One of Budda on my windowsill, another of a mama holding a baby up in the sky, and another of a woman and man kissing, and yet another of a tree that holds a small candle. All are artsy, not defined, and very elegant.

Alters too... places where people can gather rocks and candles and flowers. Lots of little flower vases everywhere instead of one huge boquet. Nature things, like rocks, used as decorations. Stained glass hung in the windows. Bright colors in little places. Things like this always make me think of the more comfortable hippie homes than the one I grew up in.

Bells... I have two chains of bells and chimes in my livingroom. I have bells and crystals hanging from my childrens rooms.

Cool paper crafts (like the crain mobiles) hanging from places so they look like they go there.

Good art.

They are usually small too. I mean the houses are small... or very old and then large. But I have seen a warm hippie house made out of a double wide. lol... so it can be anywhere.

Gardens. Gardens are a must in my mind. Even if it is just a bunch of pots on a patio (which I have done before for years) it is important to have a garden of growing things.

Well that was great. I just got done reading everything and it was such a good feeling. I'm working right now so I don't have time to say much because I'm reading everything and not doing my work. LOL Thanks. :hbeat: It makes me really think.

This is seriously my favorite thread - I even printed it out.