Cujo Anyone?

I am a purveyor of cats. I admit they shed copious amounts but they make up for their faults by keeping their tongues in their mouths. Cats just ...suggest themselves, looping and coiling around furniture and ankles like fuzzy boa constrictors (incidentally the Egyptian name for cat translated to fur-snake).
Dogs invade.
My mother in law was famous in her small town for becoming a dog hero of sorts, a bonified rescuer. At one point she had eighteen or more. There is no way to design a living space for eighteen dogs. It's hard to do with more than one. You have to become a dog, join the pack, get rid of the toss pillows, give up the dream of white carpet and hair free surfaces. At least that seems to be the current belief. I have been in many many homes where the dog has its own furniture. I am usually shown "Rover's couch" upon which Rover is unceremoniously slouched in a jumble of doggie legs and tounge on a rump sprung sofa that dominates the landscape. This sofa is often covered with Rover's blanket and an assortment of grubby toys plundered from the toy box missing squeaks and ears.
Minimalists usually opt for fish which come packaged well and live in streamlined zen little environments. But what is design loving dog or cat owner to do?
There is a designer that suggests choosing your pets to accompany your decorating scheme,which though extreme, does lead me to believe that it is possible to choose the accessories for your these four legged elements of the family that blend seamlessly with the architecture.
So in the interest of pet lovers everywhere I have looked into this problem and discovered that you don't have to give over your house to the furry people. You can embrace the dog(or cat or bird)in your life and modern living.



Cat condo from Moderncat.net Beautifully constructed, visually appealing, and so the cats tell me...tons of fun.




This collection of elements makes up an offering of cat furniture from everydaystudio.com. Each piece has a particular name such as pounce, sleep, scratch. Very cool.




Hepper's got it going on. Pet beds that blend or accentuate modern design. www.hepperhome.com/



The classic dog bed with a Euro twist. From ohmydog.com

More Pet Finds

More Hygge picks for pets. You may never go back to your old ways.




The Evo Eco Mat from ohmydog.com Recycled materials and super colors, subtle dog or cat space for your furry pal.


Minimalist pet dish from everyday studio.com




Cat Pod from Hepper.

Cat tree from everydaystudio.com It's art and cat toy in one! Available in multiple colors for you finicky felines.



The Buddha. Hygge loves these perches for kitties made from sustainable bamboo. They come in various configurations including a step so they can leap from one to the next. From squarecathabitat.com

Moments

It is dawn. On Wall Street the clamor and clang is cranking up. The world’s economic decisions are warily being made. The future is uncertain.

Here in my corner where I write I can hear the birds clamoring in the trees, waking up. There is frost on the ground and juicy new green buds popping out ripe little nuggets on the bare branches. It is spring.

I am having a moment.

When we visited my Gramma she would suggest as we entered that we “Have a cuppa.” This was a signal that a moment was about to begin, that a small familiar ritual would take place; the pouring of a sweet fragrant tea that clung to your nostrils in dewy drops, a dark smoky coffee thickened with cream. There were cookies, usually made by her deft gnarled hands or more frugally produced from a tin, a relic of earlier times. Sometimes there were games of yahtzee with the thunk and clatter of the dice and war cries, sometimes puzzles requiring silent concentration with room only for the occasional comment. Each person was given a time to talk and my grandmother answered with insightful questions and comments to let you know that you had been heard. Even the littlest person had importance and weight. Everyone had a moment, something to savor and hold like the lemon drops she sometimes doled out as we left.

The beauty of the moment lay in its isolation. Gramma pulled each of us out of the mundane for a while, made us the star of the show, nurtured each and every one of us and armed us to go back out again.

These visits were the essence of Hygge.

Today it is rare for any of us, small or big to rest, to consider, to share together. We blunder through our day on cereal bars, Starbucks, and frozen pizza. We huddle together for a few minutes at night in front of the tv before going our separate ways, each to their own box. Kids are often marched through their after school hours, homework, dinnertime, bath time, story time, bedtime, sleep. Often it is only after I have kissed my son’s damp hair as he is drifting off that I realize what I wished I had had time to say, time to do with him, but it is too late…he is off into dreams and all too soon out the door again away from me.

Sometimes however we have moments, rarely whole days but snatches of beauty, of stillness, of laughter to share: My little daughter may have discovered an earthworm and she is just delighted with its wriggling so much like her own. The baby smiles so big that it seems to encompass his eyes, his ears, the top of his head. He has only smiled maybe a hundred times in his whole life and each one is new and fresh and unbelievably precious to me. My son has begun to play a game in which he owns a tea shop and he urges me to stop and buy tea “Only 11 cents” and visit a while. My teenage daughter asks me to sit and talk to her while she soaks in the bath.

These moments are of critical importance because they are the fleeting bits of life that we gather and call memories.

To me, ultimately Hygge is the collection of memories and the creation of new ones, those times that we remember as meaningful only after they have passed.

It is up to me to make a home that is set for memories, that encourages moments, that brings us together. I have made it not only my personal goal but my public one as well. I am working to help families find hygge, find each other, to live…together.

So now I will listen to the birds, the morning coming to life, my own heartbeat. I will have a cuppa and consider myself, the day that lies before me…and all the others that lay behind me now….the ones that brought me here… to this moment. I will breathe.

Welcome! Get comfy and join us!

This is a little quiet space where we at Hygge Interiors sit, have some tea, cookies, and talk about all the stuff we love in our world of interior decorating. Our "thing" is clean, green, kid-friendly, living-enabled, and pro-comfort.

So, pull up a chair as we stoke the fire, pour you a cup of tea, and soothe your sweet tooth.