For example, any negative thoughts and feelings I have from time to time surrounding money and those who have it, holds me away from it in precisely that equal measure. Your subconscious will never allow it in, and do everything it can in its power to sabotage and “protect” you from it, whatever that thing is. So every time a negative or jealous thought arises, I question it and decide whether it’s still all that useful a belief to me to hold on to or not. Money, despite being a neutral tool when not in play, tends to be a hot issue that has a lot of emotions and memories attached to it for most people, which is why I’m using it as an example. But really this concept works with everything we want while holding volatile feelings about. Shedding guilt and fear around wealth seems to be a continuous process and requires quite a lot of maintenance to stay on track but it steadily pays off with each shedding. I think of these awkward tweaks and adjustments as investing in my future self.

As more and more people want to live simply and sustainably, so many tiny homes are popping up, but these days they are usually out of the box or another company has designed them. The price ranges are outside of many people’s budgets. Couple Jess and Dan designed and built theirs themselves, together, on the cheap from reclaimed wood and gently used stuff off Craigslist. They live in just 125sq ft of space, and its pretty obvious that theirs is a pretty close relationship focussed on the more important things in life. It’s very sweet, and encouraging to see.

You can read their full inspiring story on Custom Made.

Ever since the first cuckoo clock I ever read about in a book as a child, I have been obsessed with perfectly hand crafted timepieces and the traditional art of clockmaking. And for as long as I have loved clocks I have desired one particular timepiece into existence that showed the position and rotation of our plants around our star. Every few years I’d search online to see if it had come into existence yet, and then today, by sheer luck I finally stumbled onto it without even searching!

The Midnight Planétarium watch By Van Cleef & Arpels not only tells time, but follows the orbit of our solar system’s planets. The Midnight Planétarium which showcased at SIHH2014, follows the celestial orbits of six planets, each represented by a gemstone, orbiting a rose gold sun. It is a feat of design: just as in reality, Mercury makes a full rotation in 3 months, and Saturn in 29.5 years. I am utterly dazzled by its beauty and exquisite craftsmanship!

It’s a good thing I can’t afford to have this timepiece because I would covet it more than the dream of creating my own home some day and would become crazy with obsession over this possession. I don’t know why this is, it just is. I want it so badly…

Behold!

The dial is made of aventurine and the planets of semiprecious stones.
Price: about $245,000

Don’t follow the Summers; feel like Summer