Small Living Journal
March 24, 2009 · Print This Article
I’m excited to announce the launch of a new bi-weekly webzine called the Small Living Journal: the focus is on the small home movement.
The brainchild of Stephanie Reiley of the Coming Unmoored blog and a group of small living advocates, designers, and bloggers. The initial writers are Stephanie Reiley, Greg Johnson, Michael Janzen, Tammy from RowdyKittens, Hillary from ThisTinyHouse, Amanda from Constructing a Simpler Life, and Kent Griswold.
The first issue is an introduction of the members and how they became interested in the tiny house movement. The next issue on April 8 will focus on downsizing.
Go and check this out. I think you will find this another useful resource in your quest for living small. Be sure and sign up to the RSS feed or join the email list so you don’t miss an issue.
Anyone know of a site that has luxury cottage/fairytale like homes 1000 sq ft or under?
If sso, please email me at maryccharest@yahoo.com
Thanks!
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Jay Shafer reply on March 31st, 2009 12:27 pm:
Click the resources link below. I hope it helps.
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HI Jay
I’ve been reading your blog/site for years and recently did a post and a page on my blog to let people know about all the great sites.
I put your site first and said ‘Jay Shafer is seen as one of the founding ideas/action people when it comes to small houses.’
I live in a small rural Irish town and there are so many people living here who are interested in sustainable building and living.
All the blogs and sites will be an inspiration for them.
Funny … in the generation just before the Irish boom nearly everyone lived in tiny homes … 3 room cottages with large families. And because they had very little money … everything was recycled and reused.
Slan
Liz
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Jay Shafer reply on March 31st, 2009 12:37 pm:
I’m flattered, Liz! Keep up the good work.
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Hi Folks,
The Small Living Journal also is looking for the occasional guest writer. It could be a good place to share your experience with an interested audience.
Jeff
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Hi Jeff,
From what I understand, the SLJ is really into Editing and Censorship. Anything that’s not considered “favorable” to the resident bloggers, they will label you a “Troll” and close down threads. I followed an interesting discussion there and I couldn’t believe how everyone there adopted a “Lord of the Flies” mentality on one person who expressed opinions about small homes.
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dana reply on April 10th, 2009 4:28 pm:
to be honest, i think this blog should have a LOT more censorship. but i also think some folks could use common sense when posting stuff on this blog. i find some of the comments here very offensive, mainly because they are more directed towards another person in a derogatory manner, rather than just a plain comment. i would consider some of the comments here more like bashing!! they like to see who can get the last word in without it being so bad that is gets cut. jay shouldn’t have to spend time being the referee here…its a blog, not a contest to see who can be the nastiest!! i only have one thing to say to those folks (and you know who you are!!) - “take it off THIS property line” as kerr so graciously calls it below!
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dana reply on April 10th, 2009 10:32 pm:
PS: i have just read the threat that got shut down on SLJ and discovered that a person with the same name was posting similar comments on this blog. most of the comments that person was making were more about bashing jay and his prices than about anything relevant to the thread…much the same kinds of comments that were made here. i think they had every right to shut the guy up to save space for more meaningful, less argumentative comments. personally, i thought it got totally burdensome way before it all ended, so i was glad it DID end!
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DF, censorship is something a government does, not something a blog community does. If you come into my house and start talking crap about my taste in furniture, I can throw you out. As soon as you’re off my property line, you can howl about the drapes all you want, but your freedom of speech does not compel me to give you a platform to mouth off.
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Rob in the Shire reply on March 31st, 2009 7:48 pm:
DF,
I agree with Kerr. This blog as well as others are the commercial property of their respective owners. They are, after all, another part of their respective corporate, capitalist, business machine. You can write to any newspaper or magazine may edit, omit and/or ignore your comments and opinions when they are not in keeping with their own particular message or mission. Every organization does it. Even the non-conformist must conform to the fashions of the Non-Conformist Movement or they will be bounced out for not wearing the right safety pin and chain in their nose.
Many in the blog community, including our beloved commercial blog owner Jay Shafer, practice comment moderation or “censorship”. Should they not? Of course they should! It is their own property, right? They are in business to make money. SLJ and Tumbleweed should cut the grass to whatever length they want to walk in. It’s their property.
Our Constitutional Rights to Free Speech and Freedom of the Press often requires you to own your own-printing press(blog). So… where is your press?
Kerr-Love the drapes!
Peace and Chocolate Milk!
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DF reply on April 1st, 2009 4:16 am:
Kerr,
I agree but there’s a distinction between “mouthing off” and making a cogent point.
So if resident blogger(s) disagree with your view no matter how intelligent it is, it’s considered “mouthing off” in your terms?
Salman Rushdie when asked what is the meaning of “freedom of expression”, he answered “freedom of expression is the freedom to offend, without it freedom doesn’t exist”.
Unless a Troll wanders into a blog forum and posts deragatory slurs against others, I just don’t agree with today’s PC culture. It’s a rather slippery slope and terribly dangerous.
Going back to the SLJ comment, I found no basis for their behavoir. One person wanted to talk about affordable options in the small homes. Others there disagreed and said it couldn’t be accomplished.
I mean, isn’t that the whole idea behind any forums or chat groups? To talk about issues relevant to the group?
As a neutral observer, reading through it left a really bad impression on that group because they were’n't equipped with the ability to think criticially or logically, they took out their frustrations but censoring the person.
Maybe its not censorship the way government would define it but its certainly an act of cowardice.
If all they want to discuss are herbal gardens, sunflowers and frosty sun sets involving small homes, they should say so and not pretend to be leading voices in small homes.
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Jay Shafer reply on April 9th, 2009 4:32 pm:
I’ve met some of the folks over at SLJ, and I can tell you that cowardice is not their motivation. Sometimes you’ve just got to redirect the conversation in a more positive direction.
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i am not really much of a blog person, mainly because i think they are a waste of time. one person voices their opinion, then another person voices an opposite opinion on that and they are suddenly off onto some tangent defending their comments to a ridiculous level!! but, i really love the small living journal. i find the writers there to be very knowledgeable about their topic and i find it a pleasant atmosphere to be in. a person who does a little more in the censoring department is not being a coward, at least not from my point of view. i think it shows they are just keeping negative comments under their control. its their place and they have a right to what they let become published.
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The name Stephanie Reiley sounds familiar …
Oh yeah, she sent out a reminder about the Small Cool Home Contest …
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/small-cool-2009/small-cool-2009-jays-tumbleweed-house-teenytiny-division-00-081049
Come on Jay, you should mention this here. Or if you have already blogged about it and I missed it, maybe an update.
As of now, you are about 80 odd votes away from sweeping the category and in turn most likely the overall contest.
Been lurking on Tumbleweed for a while, thought I’d share.
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Jay Shafer reply on April 16th, 2009 10:12 am:
Stephanie? Good to hear from you, Darlink.
Good idea. I’ll link to the contest as soon as Steve, keeper of the web, returns from vacation on Monday.
The good news is, I am amongst the semi-finalists.
The bad news is, there are two houses in my “teeny-tiny” division that ranked higher than mine in the qualifying round- one of which scored significantly higher.
But whose counting? In any case, there are some super cool small spaces at the ling Stephanie has provided.
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No not Stephanie. Someone who saw her post on a mailing list recently about that contest.
The gap is widening though (180 odd votes) , but unless I am reading it wrong, it looks like you are second in your category.
Thought I’d mention it in case other readers on this blog is feeling competitive.
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Dear Jay
I live and work in the UK, although I am a partner in a design and brand agency that is based in Denmark and the UK. I am also a trained architect.
I have to say your tiny houses are brilliant, and would enquire whether you have any outlet in the UK? I am sure that you realise property prices here are ridiculous (small island, 60+ million folk!), these represent not only a beautifully crafted solution, but also a mobile one.
Great stuff and keep up the good work.
By the way I received a link to your site from an Architect friend, and have posted it on my facebook site.
Regards
Paul
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Jay Shafer reply on June 23rd, 2009 12:33 pm:
Good hearing from you, Paul. We only build in California right now, but someday we hope to conquer the world with love and tiny houses everywhere. ‘Til then a Brit would have to buy plans or have a portable one shipped.
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