A Tiny Retreat

I absolutely love this little cottage in the woods!!! The New York Times featured it on Thursday in the Home and Garden section. [here] I would love to even have a place as little as this for an escape from the city.

I've always dreamed of having a beautifully decorated tree house in the woods. I remember when I was young my neighbor had a tree house. It was always our meeting point where he and I would map out the days events of tree climbing, hiking, bike riding and whatever else we could conjure up. After I became a teenager and Ryan moved away, my tree house became the canopy bed past down from my mother. The feeling of having an enclosed retreat always seemed to fulfill my nesting needs. When I first moved to Brooklyn, I bunked with 4 other roommates in a built-up a loft apartment. The space was about 1,000 sq. ft broken up into 6 different living spaces and my bedroom was 8ft by 8ft. It was tiny! But so cozy. My father built me a lofted bed where underneath I could store my clothes and above I could nestle into my bed. I guess that's why living in a 450 sq. ft apartment now feels like the plenty of room. Seeing the little cottage reminded me of the piece Domino did a few years back.

I searched through my archives for it, and couldn't find that issue. (I hope I have it somewhere) but luckily other bloggers have written about Linda Aldredge's woodsy escape (Thanks Spirit Cloth). This tree house if I can remember correctly, the Aldredge's built themselves. The eco-friendly house also runs on its own, as they added solar panels on the roof. Doesn't this place seem like a wonderful getaway!

Tree houses have really been on my mind lately, I think it's because I am reading the novel Loving Frank by Nancy Horan. It's a fictionalized story about Mamah Borthwick's love affair with Frank Loyd Wright. Although I heard stories about how he was stubborn and in some cases a bit of a tyrant about his designs, this book brings a lighter note to his personality. His love of nature and organic architecture really wasn't such an abstract concept, I think everyone wants to live in a home that brings in the outside in. Even in Manhattan, having a place with natural light is a high priority. I'm so thankful of how where I live, we can hear the birds in the morning. Sometimes, we'll even have the occasional mourning dove visitor on our fire escape.

NYT photo credits: Trevor Tondro - Tree house: if anyone knows the photographer, please tell me. I can't find the name on the blogs that posted the pictures.