Happy New Year!🌞 It's Editor K.
It is already heading to mid-January, and I wonder how the year 2022 is treating you so far. Last December, I have shared my story of the visit to Home ·Table Decor Fair in my post on Brunch. Home ·Table Decor Fair, the largest home & interior design exhibition in Korea, has surveyed consumers' tastes and interests and presented PLAY as a keyword home decoration in 2022. Editor L explained the meaning of PLAY in her previous post. Do you still remember all? Let's take a look once again!
P. L. A. Y
Interior Using Plants (Plants)
Sustainable Lifestyle for Future and Environment (Lifestyle)
New Premium Living Brands (Appreciation)
Sensuous Home Decoration for Youth (Youth)
For this year, I came up with an idea to decorate my daily life according to this keyword. It would be nice to transform the whole house with trendy home accessories, new wallpaper, curtains, etc. But I have looked for ways through PLAY to take better care of myself and be a little happier with my life. Then, shall we take a look at what editor K's picks are to follow home décor trends?
[ Plants ] How about Living with Plants?
As I prefer to see mountains in summer or foliage in autumn to see flowers in spring, I always have dreamed of living with plants. So, I've raised succulent plants that are easy to manage and herbs to use for cooking. However, my plants that were so fresh at first barely survived at most for a month once they lived with me. Then, they either died slowly or were killed by all kinds of pests.
While I was writing All About Planterior last spring, I also learned a lot of tips. Yet, I was still not confident enough to grow them since I'm terrible with plants. After all, I had to satisfy having just some artificial plants, but I will try again this year! So, I revisited 'Planting Butler, Leafy' that I shared with you on the post, All About Planterior.
Leafy is one of the most famous Instagram accounts specialized in planting to recommend various plants and teach to take care of them. They published a book <I am living with plants - the guide for beginners to take care of plants> for newbie plant owners like me. When I saw this book, I was so happy, and of course, I bought it right away!
This book starts with a simple bingo test to see how much you are ready to have plants. Also, it has everything from the basics for growing plants to plant recommendations based on the level of difficulty. With this book, I feel like even I can challenge to have beautiful plants. Sooner or later, I might tell you about my pretty and healthy plants.😉
[ Lifestyle ] Save Farms, Eat Eco-Friendly Vegetables and Fruits
I am not only a foodie but also enjoy cooking. And I always try to use fresh ingredients. As I mentioned earlier, I have grown herbs at home to use fresh herbs for cooking. You can find herbs easily at any grocery market, but I use only a little at once. So I always felt bad because I couldn't use them all and ended up throwing them away.
It doesn't happen to only herbs. There are a lot of ingredients that are forced to throw away while cooking. Even worse fact is that there is so much produce that is discarded even before being used for cooking just because they are not pretty enough to distribute. There is a brand called YesUs, a service that saves discarded produce and guarantees the profits of farmers. Editor L accidentally found this and told me.
YesUs buys eco-friendly vegetables and fruits discarded because of their ugly shape and sells them to consumers at low prices. It is good that farmers can trade their hard-grown crops without wasting them. And, also consumers can have eco-friendly vegetables and fruits, which they don't often eat because they are at a high price, at a lower price! Some I wonder if there is a better service than this!
Of course, I immediately signed up and looked around. You can join a subscription service to get a UsBox every week that is full of fresh and eco-friendly produce. Or you can purchase a box of individual vegetables and fruits. After looking around, the thing that caught my eye was sweet potatoes from Yeoju! As soon as I saw it, various dishes I wanted to cook immediately came to mind. I had better order them quickly and make a lot of sweet dishes. 🍠
[ Appreciation ] Fragrance Filled the Time Just for Me
There are numerous fragrance products these days, including scented soap, candles, incense, and aroma spray, so it's not that difficult to find one you like. It means more people are looking for a good scent, right? I have also tried scented candles, incense, and scented sprays. When I light a candle in my tiny room, I get a headache from the scent that fills the whole room quickly. The incense only gives me coughs because of smoke, and I don't like the manufactured fragrance of the spray.
After a long day, if my favorite scent spreads softly in a quiet room, it would calm my mind and ease my stress. But it is so hard to find a scent that makes me pleased. Then, I recalled that a yoga studio I attended a long time ago used essential oil, so I started to google it. Voila! I found a brand just like destiny. It is 'at nature,' the only brand in Korea that develops blended oil using only 100% organic natural essential oil. They make specialty oils with experienced clinical perfumers, which are unique combinations considering the fragrance and therapeutic component of each oil.
They are affordable and have a wide variety of scents. The story behind each name of the oil is also interesting. I wanted to buy them all, but after carefully reading the details, I picked a few blend oils that I liked the most and bought them with a gorgeous amber-colored oil burner.
It's essential oils and the oil burner that I got recently. I was so impressed with the careful packaging..😍
Just like all of you, I have been stressed out and become grumpy for a quite long time for many reasons, including COVID-19. After switching the scent of my room with at nature's essential oil, I felt much lighter. There would be no better thing than this to have my own time without disturbing doing meditation or yoga practice with a candlelit on an oil burner. So these days, the first thing I do when I get home is to light up the oil burner and drip a few drops of oil... I think I will be more peaceful this year with at nature oils.
[ Youth ] Spice Up My Kitchen?
On my days off, I spend my time in the kitchen as much as in my room. As I mentioned a lot in my posts, I am always serious about food, and I love to cook. So I always feel happy when I am in the kitchen. As much when I see kitchenware or kitchen appliances, I lose my mind.
When visiting the Home·Table Decor Fair, I concentrated on only kitchenware brands. Among them, there is a remarkable brand that I would like to tell you about. That is Heriter, a kitchenware brand that reinterprets Korean heritage and presents it fit a modern kitchen. From handcrafted ceramic tableware to 100% cotton pure cotton kitchen cloth to premium knives appropriate for Korean kitchens, the products are created by collaboration with artisans in various fields. I am sure anyone interested in cooking would love them.
Among the Heriter products, the Heriter Signature Knife & Cutting Board Set caught my heart. This cutting board was made by an artisan who has worked with wood for two generations. Also, it is very sturdy made of the finest North American wood. Not only that, the octagonal design is luxurious enough for just plating, and the frame for storing the cutting board is also incredible. The seamless stainless steel frame makes it dry quickly and is hygienic since it has tiny parts touches when a cutting board is attached. Also, there is a space on the frame to store knives of various sizes so you can keep both the cutting board and knives safely at once. Isn't it stunning like a decorative item just by placing it on the sink putting it together like this?
As it is made with the mastery of artisans and the design of Heriter, I cannot say it's affordable. But I think it is worth the money. If I had a set of cutting boards and knives, I might be dying to cook all day long. 😊
I'll buy it soon and brighten up my kitchen. Also, I will try to spend more time with my people this year.
It was a PLAY that I chose based on my very personal taste. How do you think?
I hope 2022 will be a year of caring for yourself a little bit more with your style full of taste.
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