Skip to content

Carmen Shenk

Faith, Art & Tiny Houses

About
Blog
Books
Contact
Subscribe

Contact

I’d love to hear from you! ~ Carmen Shenk

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Follow

Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
Amazon
Twitter

My First Book

DREAMING BIG?

Love this little book because it reminds me that perfection is not all it’s cracked up to be! ⚜️ “The gods laugh when people pray for perfection.” -Japanese Proverb. ⚜️ “Living Wabi Sabi: The True Beauty of Your Life” by Taro Gold. ⚜️ Wabi Sabi = a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”. ⚜️ Love it!! ⚜️ What are you reading? #books #favoritebooks #personalgrowth #authorsofinstagram #tarogold #livingwabisabi #wabisabi #perfectionism #beautyofimperfection

#FaithFriday video is up, and I gave it the title “The Fine Art of Contentment” and this is the message I shared with the fine folks at the Outer Banks Tiny House festival last weekend! Letting go, taking hold... these are muscles that get stronger with practice - repetition - dedication. Link in bio! And as always- thanks so much for listening, I really appreciate it! 💕 #contentment #thepursuitofhappiness #happiness #lettinggo #hangontight #thehappinessadvantage #tinyhouse #tinyhousefestival #speaker #communicator

Years ago I did a little inventory of the stuff in my bathroom. I was dreaming of #goingtiny in those days - long before 2014 when we took the plunge. ⚜️ Turns out, I had been engaging in some serious #retailtherapy without even realizing it. I had shower gel, lotion, and various kinds of shampoo and conditioner- all in the guise of “treating myself” but it was all loaded with synthetic fragrances (which can be highly toxic) but they were pretty colors and a whole range of interesting fragrances. And I loved #collecting them! ⚜️ I looked around at all the #singleuseplastic plastic containers with their colorful labels and interesting fragrances and had a “come to Jesus” moment. There were SO MANY. From then on, I decided not to purchase a single shampoo, conditioner, lotion, or shower gel until I had used them all. ⚜️ Y’all. It took MORE THAN TWO YEARS! And even then I donated some to the homeless shelter. Crazy! #stash #collection #overboard ⚜️ I had a little chat with myself about the things I purchase when I’m feeling low and I made a plan. Instead of buying more lotions and potions that would just collect in the bathroom, I decided to start doing a different kind of retail therapy! ⚜️ Instead of pointing my car at big box stores when I felt the need to treat myself, I pointed my car at the market instead. ⚜️ And instead of collecting stuff, I started buying the components of a beautiful healthy meal. A meal I could share with my man, or with a few friends. That way I was building connection instead of collection. Because connection can change a bad day into a better day. ⚜️ These days I have one bottle of a luxury brand shampoo, and one conditioner. There are no back up bottles, and the last set lasted for more than a year. I have one bottle of body lotion - same luxury brand: Young Living. #simple #quality #selfcare ⚜️ Take a look around at the things you have because of your own approach to retail therapy. Make a mental note that next time you are feeling low and want to burn through some money in a way that makes you feel better - focus on connection instead of collection. It’ll help. I promise. 💕

I’m so excited to announce another author working with me on the new book. This project is so interesting to me - I love the diversity of it! ⚜️ My amazing friend Michael Fuehrer of @navigationnowhere is a great guy who also brought something special to this project. He lives in a full sized school bus that has been converted into a beautiful home - so beautiful that his bus has been in magazines! He has been living this way for quite a few years now, and I was amazed to hear that in the space of two years - he never once paid for a parking place. He has been all over the United States and Canada, has spoken at a bunch of tiny house festivals, and regularly helps out on bus builds since he built Navi and knows what it takes. ⚜️ One of the things I appreciate about Michael is how freely he shares information with people who are considering bus or skoolie life. I suspect there are a lot of folks out there who have made the plunge after learning to know Michael or hearing him speak. As this simple nomadic lifestyle continues to gain ground in the US, more folks are gaining freedom from debt and enjoying the possibilities of the open road. His story is an interesting and inspiring one. ⚜️ Lucky us - we happened to be in the right place at the right time to hear Michael say “let’s take the bus” and a group of us piled in and we had a lovely adventure! What a treat! Michael’s gift of hospitality is all part of the package. ⚜️ Stay tuned, more info coming soon! 💕 #author #authorsofinstagram #tinyhouse #tinyhousemovement #tinyhousefestival #tinyhouseauthors #simplicity #simpleliving #thegoodlife #andrewodom @tinyrevolution @anotherkindofdrew #brynnburger @themamaontherocks #newbook #newbookalert #shelter #carmenshenk #tinyhousespeaker @tinyindustrial @_jennbaxter #declutter #staytuned @iris_ministries

Have you seen the “How I cut my own hair” video yet? #linkinbio ⚜️ Super short minimalist hair isn’t for everyone, but I love it! ⚜️I love it that styling it is as simple as running my fingers through wet hair and letting it dry naturally. ⚜️I love it that I don’t need any power tools to dry, curl or straighten. And when we lived in our tiny house, that was especially nice since power was limited. ⚜️I love it that I don’t need styling products to make it work, which means less toxins in my environment, no film of hairspray in the bathroom, and more money in my pocket. ⚜️I love it that I can have a ride in my MGB with the top down without a worry about messing up my hair. ⚜️I love that I can always run my fingers through my hair without messing up my style. In the 80’s I could not have done that! LOL! ⚜️I love that I can dye it interesting colors so easily. ⚜️I save a fortune in hair services, but to be honest, that’s not why I cut my own hair. Hair professionals need to make a living also, and some of them are really remarkable artists. So there really isn’t anything to be gained by avoiding the pros if you don’t have hair cutting skills like I do (having cut hair of myself and others for years). ⚜️But most of all I love it that I have stopped waging war against my hair, stopped with all the comparison and frustration over what my hair would or would not do, and simply made peace with my body. This is simple hair, but it’s also radical self-acceptance. And that’s the best part. The battle is over. I am content. ⚜️Simplicity is liberating! 💕 ⚜️ The video shows me at my most awkward and least attractive - with hair all over me. It was worth it to me to bring you into my intimate space to show you how cutting your own hair is possible, just in case it’s something you would like to try. ⚜️ And a friend of mine made the point that one could go to the pros for a sweet pixie cut, then maintain the cut in the manner I show in the video. And that is a great point! ⚜️ Happy good hair day! 💕 #hairstyle #haircut #icutmyownhair #simplicity #selfcare #selfacceptance #radicalselflove #radicalselfacceptance #simplicity #supershorthair #ultrashorthair #pixiecut

Letting go is a muscle we can develop and what works at the physical level also works at the soul and spirit level. So we clean out the clutter physically as a way of developing this muscle, then we continue on to more advanced ways of letting go that invite our spirit and soul to get in on the fun. Today, let’s talk about comparison. ⚜️ Instagram is really a great environment for comparison because it’s so easy to present a picture perfect life to the world. ⚜️ Perhaps we post only the best bits of our lives. (Except that guy who is always doing Insta-stories after too many drinks! Lol!) Its easy to follow someone on Instagram and think they have the perfect life, beautiful home, great vehicle, and clearly their family is having a more interesting adventure than me. And somehow it always works out that we are comparing our weaknesses to someone else’s strengths. Argh! ⚜️ So if comparing myself to others kills my contentment, what do I do about it?! First of all, realize it when it happens. #awareness Not so we can judge ourselves for comparison, but so we can recognize that comparison exists and that it’s a contentment killer. ⚜️ Then let’s have a little talk with ourselves that sounds a bit like: “I refuse to compare myself with that person, they appear to have a great life but appearances can be deceiving. #stopyourself ⚜️ Then continue with #gratitude! I am grateful for ... and make a big long list!! ⚜️ Remember your strengths! I’m good at ... and make another big long list. ⚜️ I love the #wabisabi idea that nothing is perfect and it is our imperfections that make us beautiful. I’m working at applying that to my home and myself. #perfectionist ⚜️ What we have right here, right now, is enough. Who we are is enough. Most of us have way more than enough. Embracing purposeful simplicity is a great way to remind ourselves that it doesn’t take much stuff to live IN contentment, and it just takes dedication and focus to live FROM contentment. 💕 ⚜️ Today’s assignment is to replace comparison with contentment. This is real self care at the spirit and soul level! 💕#gamechanger #Youhaveenough #Youareenough #youareloved #contentment

So good to see our favorite German at the festival, and I even got to hold his new book in my hands. It's gorgeous, Y'all! If you are considering going tiny, drop by Amazon to order your advance copy of "The Joy of Living Tiny"! His chapter on the kitchen is Tiny House Foodie approved! (That would be me!). The only down side of tiny house festivals is driving away! Oh, and there is another book in the works as well, he has been busy! Stay Tuned! Oh, and by the way, this handsome mug belongs to Chris Schlapdick of @tinyindustrial and when he isn't writing books he is building award winning tiny houses! #tinyhouse #tinyhouseindustrial #tinyhouseauthors #authorsofinstagram #author

The gift of hospitality is strong on these two. Rachel was doing a full tilt coffee tasting in their sprinter van proving once again that you can do anything you really want to do in a tiny house - just maybe not all at the same time. We have a cutting board that Dan made in our kitchen and naturally we think of them when we use it. Dan and Rachel inspire folks everywhere they go and I'm a fan! @banana.van.adventures are further proof that living outside the box can make you vibrant! 💙 #barista #sprintervan #vanlife #liveauthentic #outsidethebox #freedom

So excited to learn that we now have a #zerowaste shop in #Staunton, Virginia! It’s called @refillrenew ! 💚💚💚 I honestly thought I was the only one around here who cared about this stuff! There are zero waste stores around the world but I thought it’d be years before it came here. #wheelsofchange ⚜️ Going zero waste (or moving more in that direction) was one of the keys to the kingdom when we went Tiny in the fall of 2014. It was so readily apparent that my sanity and my trash were not both going to fit in our tiny house!! ⚜️ So we, like so many other tiny house folks, started to make some changes. Cloth handkerchiefs instead of tissues and paper towels. Ever try to fit six rolls of sale priced paper towels into a house of 125 sq ft? No? Well, it’s crazy! When I calmed down from my tantrum about not having “enough” space I realized that I did not go tiny for the likes of a roll of paper towels to fill up the one remaining gap in my closet!! And from that moment on - no more paper towels for me! (Same thing with tissue boxes, napkins and pretty much any paper product) #familycloth ⚜️ A nice stack of #washcloths did all the jobs a wipe would do, without all the waste and the toxic chemicals. I could go on... ⚜️ In fact, I went on about zero waste living so much in my book that my publisher suggested I cut back on that because people are looking for a “tiny house” book, “not a lecture on environmentalism”. LOL! I went back and strengthened that chapter!! It’s still in there! #motherearthmatters ⚜️ My handkerchiefs have lasted 6 years now and saved me $$ as well as being much better for the earth. 💚 ⚜️ I’m just so excited to learn that these two adorable moms have started an entrepreneurial response to the plastics problem! I’ll be over here cheering them on! I don’t need anything right now but I will be looking for ways that I can support their work. #zerowaste #stauntonva is so exciting! #yay

The pair of sofas in our Skoolie work like a sofa bed. A little shelf comes out from under the left sofa, then three cushions fit in that middle spot perfectly (math for the WIN!) and then it’s a Queen sized bed. ⚜️ It took me a while to work out the design math, but I LOVE how it came together! ⚜️ And this mattress is better than the mattress at my house! LOL! ⚜️ I would have shared more video but the audio in the video went bonkers and sounds crazy, so I clipped the wonky stuff off. At least you can see how it comes together. 💙 ⚜️ #design #skoolie #originaldesign #skoolieforsale #foldoutsofa #custom

Simple Self Care

An Introduction to Wellness Wednesday
Anointing Prayer
Detox Your Environment
Essential Oils and Sensitive Skin
Essential Oils for Self Care
Food Sensitivity Testing because You Deserve to be Well
How Essential Oils Changed my Life
Level Up Your Self Care with a Super-Food Boost
Our Favorite Wellness Product: NingXia Red and Interview with Vonda Driver
Resisting the Urge to Buy Beauty Products based on Fear & Flaws.
Tiny Houses & Essential Oils an Interview with Vonda Driver
Young Living Membership without Annoying Friends and Family

TinyHouseFoodie.com

3 Knives You Need in your Simple Kitchen
Buying Guide for Quality-over-Quantity Kitchen Gear
Choosing the Right Oven for Your Tiny House
Interior Design for a Skoolie (Skoolie = Bus turned into an RV)
Tour Our Skoolie
Recipes for A Tiny Thanksgiving, Cast Iron Cookies, Horse Chow, Shrimp Rohini, Real Tiny House Yogurt, and the The Focaccia Bread that Ruined Everything.
Removing the Skunky Funk from your Tiny House
That Time I Hated My Tiny House (and what I did about it)
The Right-Size Your Kitchen Video Series
Zero Waste Kitchen Part 1 & Part 2

Instagram
WordPress.com
YouTube
Facebook
Patreon

WordPress.com.