Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arrangement. Ike means ‘live’ as in ‘fresh’ flowers and bana comes from hana which is flower. When two characters are connected the pronunciation changes, therefore hana becomes bana. When Buddhism arrived in Japan from China during the 6th century, they brought along floral offerings. This slowly evolved into …
Everyone’s sense of smell is different. I know my nose is more sensitive than my husband’s because I often ask him, “What’s that smell?” and he has no idea of what I am talking about. My younger sister has had allergies throughout her life, so her ability to smell has also been diminished. Our homes …
The last six months have been a real learning experience for me. My feng shui master, Dr. Hsu, has taught me many new insights into feng shui and clarified many misunderstandings that I had. He has explained to me how some of these gadgets and cures came into use. Most have come from Chinese culture. …
Unlike the homes of the 70’s and 80’s where the kitchen, dining and living rooms were all separated into individual rooms, families today enjoy the use of a great room. The great room usually incorporates the kitchen, family room and casual dining area. We tend to watch T.V. and generally ‘live’ in this space. This …
