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Carmen Shenk

Author & foodie enjoying the simple life in a tiny haven-home

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Join Carmen Shenk and other Tiny House gurus at these fine tiny house and simple living events:

2018

April 27-29: Tiny House NC Street Festival

May 12-13: Mid Atlantic Tiny House Expo Virginia

June 15-17: DC/Virginia Tiny House Festival

September 28-30: Massachusetts Tiny House Festival

October 6-7: Mid Atlantic Tiny House Expo Maryland

November 10: Second Annual Tiny Home Show – Florida

November 16-18: Florida Tiny House Music Festival

December 7-9: Tiny House Festival of New Orleans

Invite Carmen to speak at your tiny house festival, church group, book club, or book event. Contact us with information on your event.

2019

May 2019: The First Annual Tiny House Minimalism Conference in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia.

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I don’t very often buy prepared food, and I’m sure all the hard core foodies out there are changing the channel... however! I live in the real world where I have real work to get done! Sometimes when we are in a season where some schnitzel needs to happen pretty quickly, we do break down and get some easy food. We try to keep that to a minimum, but it happens. Here’s how I make a super quick and easy frugal feast with prepared food: I found a bag of meatballs for $.99, a jar of sauce I bought with my ibotta app. (It gives you money back on your purchase - I will put a link in the comments.) We buy the offcut cheese at our bulk food store - it’s the ends and pieces of the cheese left when they slice it for the pre-sliced sandwich-making crowd. They sell this cheese at a reduced price and it’s always kind of a mix of various kinds. Great price, minimal packaging. Win! There’s a tip for you! Look around and see if your bulk food store does this, and if they don’t... maybe you could suggest it to them. Instead of pasta I grabbed a zucchini and cut it with my spiral slicer into zoodles... and then gave the whole mess a toss together. All that is going in my #skoolie oven for a while and our late lunch should be pretty good. I can totally get back to work for a while and ignore this yummy mess until the timer rings! See? Easy peazzy! Plus, this little oven only has to heat up that little space instead of the whole space of a regular range, so it may even save me a little bit of power. And maybe it won’t heat up the little kitchen in our workshop much, which would be nice because it’s a scorcher out there! #Frugal #feast #foodie #simple #fastfood #skoolie #tinyhouse #eatwell #simpleliving #simplefood #zoodles #simplicity #tinyhousefoodie

I walked into my kitchen this morning and glanced at this scene and smiled. That gorgeous cutting board was a gift from a very talented craftsmen we met at the DC/VA Tiny House Festival! I love love LOVE it and every time I see it, I smile! What Daniel at @dependent.creations doesn’t know is that we’ve been using an ugly cutting board for years and I’ve been looking for *just the right one* to replace it for ages... and I’m picky... so I had not found *the one* until I noticed this one while we were happily chatting with him. When I realized that he actually intended to give it to us, I was blown away! It means the world to us to have such a beautiful thing with a beautiful memory attached and we will treasure it. We are actually using it, it is not there just for display! It is beautiful and functional!! Meeting other tiny house people has been so much fun! At the beginning, our tiny house situation was a little less than legal so we were very low key about what we were doing (fall of 2014). Now that I’m traveling to speak at different events about living tiny - I keep finding *the best people!!* And quite honestly, when our politicians are being heartless b$&@ds and the world seems to be in a dark place, I *LOVE* being reminded that there are good people all over this country who are busy leading simple, beautiful, generous lives! #thereishope #thankyou Daniel! Everybody go follow @dependent.creations please! #goodpeople #vanlife #craftsmen #artisan #foodie #simple #kitchen #cuttingboard #minimalism #minimalist #simplicity #thegoodlife #eatwell #simplelife #tinyhouse #simpleliving #simplefood

This was my mini-organization effort this morning. Somehow we had LOTS of bottles of these three pain relievers and I hate having the plastic around so I put the contents in these reusable jelly jars and put the bottles in the recycling bin. We buy big bottles of this sort of thing to reduce the amount of plastic we are buying - I have not figured out how to get pain relievers without plastic - which really sucks!! So I needed to clear out those big bottles! Our city doesn’t recycle plastic #boohiss so we keep a large trash can outside that we slowly fill just with plastic and then drive it over to the station where they accept plastic for recycling. That’s easier to do at a small house than it is at a tiny House, but as long as there is a little outside space somewhere, recycling isn’t a big deal. Thankfully we do have curbside pickup here for glass and aluminum. Though to be honest, I’m not entirely sure our city is actually recycling those things. We need to keep on those details in our local government because they will do what is cheap and easy instead of what is right if we don’t pay attention and speak up! #motherearthmatters #recycle #reduce #reuse

Breakfast! Whenever my step daughter appears, we feed her! That is job one! I got lucky because I was too busy to cook something... and look what the Austrian did. He is such a great cook and I love his creations! There is never a recipe, just an understanding of how food works and a willingness to create and explore. This egg-vegetable stuff was delicious, and all that fresh fruit? Yummy!! Yeah. #lifeisgood #delicious #foodie #breakfast #simple #kitchen #thegoodlife #eatwell

Here is some stained light for your morning. #gorgeous #colorful

We've turned the old Benz into the sun and are heading home. Tiny house Festivals are really something rare and wonderful. We meet the most interesting people and come away invigorated by those connections and inspired by the creativity we witness. #lifeisgood #tinyhouse #vanlife #skoolie #tinyhouseminimalism

Tiny houses, music, carnie food. Come see me. #bringfood

Archives

Archives

Carmen’s Favorite Books

Can you Judge a Book by the Cover?
Live a F.A.S.T. Life (Fabulous, Abundant, Simple, Tiny)
Coming Home: Letters from a Tiny House
The Advance Reader Copy of my Book is Here!
Meeting my new Book for the First Time!
Inspired
The Future She Left Behind
Close Enough to Touch
The Blackbird Season
Lucy Libido says… There’s an Oil for That
Spells & Oregano
Who Am I If You’re Not You?
Spells & Oregano
Secrets of Worry Dolls
Where the Sweet Bird Sings
Cooking for Ghosts on the RMS Queen Mary
The Queen Mary
The Secret Room
The Big Tiny: A Built-it-Myself Memoir
I Like You Just Fine When You’re Not Around
Slightly South of Simple
House Broken
The Memory of Things
The Dog Year
Our Short History
Miss Coconut Cake
The Coincidence of Coconut Cake
The Big Adventures of Tiny House
Blushing Eggs
What Falls from the Sky?

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34 days ago our documents arrived at the DMV in Richmond…

Mise en Place

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The Tiny House NC Street Festival

Xaver and I had a great time at the street festival in Pink Hill North Carolina last weekend. I spoke on Pain, Pie, Poverty, and Purpose…

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