Found this gorgeous recipe and had to share it!

Bill Smith’s Honeysuckle Sorbet

Makes about 2 quarts

4 cups (tightly packed but not smashed) honeysuckle flowers, leaves and stems discarded
5 1/3 cups cool water
1 1/3 cups water
2 cups sugar
Few drops of freshly squeezed lemon juice
Speck of cinnamon

Place the flowers in a nonreactive container (glass or stainless steel) and cover with the cool water. Weight down with a plate. Let stand on the counter overnight.

In a small saucepan, make a syrup out of the sugar and the water by boiling it until all the sugar is dissolved and it begins to look lustrous and slightly thick, 3-5 minutes. Add a few drops of lemon juice to prevent the sugar from recrystallizing. Cool the syrup completely. Strain the honeysuckle infusion, gently pressing the blossoms so as not to waste any of your previous efforts. Combine the two liquids and add the merest dusting of cinnamon. You don’t want to taste it, but you can tell if it’s not there. I use the tip of a sharp boning knife to measure it. Churn in an ice-cream maker. This does not keep for more than a week or two.

Enjoy!

There is something so right about shelters that act as soothing sanctuaries. Couldn’t you imagine relaxing in this perfect plein air escape? I could spend hours reading and writing here, afraid to disturb the sacred peace with any noise beyond the rustling of paper and scratching of my pen. I’ve taken a liking to decor mimicking or blending with nature, using stone and wood, to create a simple space that makes you want to breathe deeply.

{photo} Resort Spa Treehouse, Bali. Panchoran Retreat.

images 1. & 2. {via} susie bubble,  3. robin pika

images {via} small house style

{p.s.} I did a guest post on Paloma Contreras’ La Dolce Vita yesterday. Pop on over and see the 10 Things I Can’t Live Without. {And, just as important, what I CAN live without.}

1. angela kohler, 2. {via} flickr, 3.  {via} lace & tea, & 4. noa noa {thanks Caroline!}

When you think of minimalism, what do you see? I see stark, white, clean lines, that verge on harsh. It’s always been a turn off for me; I’ve never identified with that aesthetic. I’ve been slowly reducing the amount of things I own, but I’ll admit, I’ve had a bit of anxiety over my inability to reconcile what makes a space comfortable to me and what I thought minimalism should look like. I have a tendency to let clutter build up if I own too much, so the solution is to own less. It simplifies life in a way that borders absurd. But, I still gravitate toward the glamorous, detailed, ornamented, and elaborate.

So, I put aside the aesthetic of the minimalist design movement, and thought of what minimalism really means: simplicity.

Now, take a look at the rooms below.

If you think about it, there are little to no frills in the rooms below. It’s all bare bones, but with beautiful lines. The palette is earthy and natural, which keeps it from looking as cold as many more modern minimal spaces do. It’s absolutely elegant and inviting, yet it still meets the standards laid out here.

I could live with this. I know most of my design-loving readers could, too.

So what’s the point? Why am I writing about this? Well, I think that to most people minimalism can be intimidating and exclusionary. It’s all or nothing, which doesn’t make it simple to work toward. The solution is to re-imagine it. Get rid of the assumptions, because it really doesn’t have to be that way. Everyone can benefit from simplicity, so if you’ve ever felt that you might want to live with less of anything in your life, you shouldn’t be intimidated. It’s personal. It’s not a competition. In fact it’s the opposite of that. Just start somewhere, and don’t be afraid that you aren’t doing it right.

Simple.

images from Coté Sud {via} Haute Design