News 100 Nights of Hero Julia Jackman’s 100 Nights of Hero Adaptation Has a Pretty Stacked Cast The two Star Wars stars are just the start By Molly Templeton | Published on November 19, 2024 Screenshot: Lucasfilm Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Lucasfilm This is not a cast lineup you see every day. 100 Nights of Hero, writer-director Julia Jackman’s adaptation of Isabel Greenberg’s graphic novel, now counts among its stars the following: Oscar nominee Felicity Jones (Rogue One, pictured above), Emma Corrin (Deadpool & Wolverine), Richard E. Grant (Gosford Park), Nicholas Galitzine (Red, White and Royal Blue), Markella Kavenagh (The Rings of Power), Varada Sethu (Andor), and Charli XCX. Yes, that Charli XCX. 100 Nights is Jackman’s debut as a feature screenwriter; she previously directed 2002’s The Riley Sisters. Her adaptation slightly changes the name of Greenberg’s graphic novel, which is called The 100 Nights of Hero; the novel has the following synopsis: In the Empire of Migdal Bavel, Cherry is married to Jerome, a wicked man who makes a diabolical wager with his friend Manfred: if Manfred can seduce Cherry in one hundred nights, he can have his castle—and Cherry.But what Jerome doesn’t know is that Cherry is in love with her maid Hero. The two women hatch a plan: Hero, a member of the League of Secret Story Tellers, will distract Manfred by regaling him with a mesmerizing tale each night for 100 nights, keeping him at bay. Those tales are beautifully depicted here, touching on themes of love and betrayal and loyalty and madness. In a statement quoted by Variety, Jackman said, “I’ve been in love with Isabel’s graphic novel since I read it in 2016, and it’s been a dream to adapt it into its own weird cinematic universe. … |I’m excited for people to see what we’ve done with Manfred, Cherry and Hero—even if you’ve read the book, you may not know the whole story just yet.” No release date has been announced.[end-mark] The post Julia Jackman’s <i>100 Nights of Hero</i> Adaptation Has a Pretty Stacked Cast appeared first on Reactor.

Books Dissecting The Dark Descent There’s Always a Bigger Fish: “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor A self-loathing bully meets a cheery Bible salesman… By Sam Reader | Published on November 19, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share Welcome back to Dissecting The Dark Descent, where we lovingly delve into the guts of David Hartwell’s seminal 1987 anthology story by story, and in the process, explore the underpinnings of a genre we all love. For an in-depth introduction, here’s the intro post. Flannery O’Connor might not have invented the Southern Gothic, but her work certainly helped define the genre. Through her stories of grotesque situations underpinned by what she characterized as “harsh, unsentimental realism” and exaggerated characters, she outlined a moral universe where grace and unpretentiousness were valued over more nebulous pursuits, outlined by sharp humor and stark human drama among characters who were deeply flawed both psychologically and physically. “Good Country People” showcases all these elements, observing an arrogant bully whose toxic defense mechanisms and deep resentment of herself and the world around her deliver her directly into the arms of a much greater monster, one who has accepted and embraced his flaws. Mrs. Hopewell lives on a large onion farm called The Cedars with her tenants, the Freemans. She’s also host to her daughter Joy, a full-figured one-legged woman in her thirties who exaggerates her limp, refuses to work, and legally changed her name to “Hulga.” Mrs. Hopewell entertains her friend Mrs. Freeman’s grotesque stories about her daughters and is constantly burdened with the equally grotesque behavior of Joy-Hulga. They exist in a kind of long-suffering détente until the day a young travelling Bible salesman shows up on her doorstep. Introducing himself as “Pointer,” it’s clear that something is off about the young man, but for all the ugliness in Mrs. Hopewell and Joy’s life, Pointer’s goal is something far darker and uglier than either of them could realize. While “Good Country People” might be partly told from Mrs. Hopewell’s point of view, it’s clear that the focus of the story is Joy, who views the world with a sneering resentment. In her introductory scene, she’s seen as a large, one-legged nuisance who shuts herself in the bathroom first thing in the morning. She’s also stuck in her family home, partly by design and partly by physical limitation—the text notes that if it wasn’t for her weak heart, she’d be living her best life at a northern university lecturing on philosophy to “people who actually knew what she was talking about.” Being stuck, treated like a child by her mother, and dealing with the limitations of a weak heart and a missing leg are by no means easy. Worse still, she’s clearly very intelligent, but she’s stuck depending on her mother. Joy resents her situation, the parts of herself she can’t change, and everything around her by proxy. She acts out, trying to give people the loathsome version of herself she thinks they see anyway. Joy’s ugly behavior—her stomping around, wearing the same skirt and yellow sweatshirt every day, the fact that she legally changed her name to “Hulga”—also point to defense mechanisms. Among “good country folk,” her intelligence and lack of conventional attractiveness leaves her vulnerable, not just to the people she believes would look down on her for her disability, but as a woman and one with more smarts than sense in the rural South. She exaggerates her shortcomings, lumbering around her mother and Mrs. Freeman with all the grace of (as the text describes her) “a hulking battleship.” It even extends to the name “Hulga,” a grotesque sound with an unnerving mouthfeel that’s meant to be as ugly as she acts. If she’s ugly but with a mind sharper than all the people around her, then at least there’s something to her life. Her exaggerated ugliness and bright interior life makes her interesting and keeps away the people she doesn’t want to deal with. Her mannerisms and childish, antisocial behavior are an act to get out of doing things she doesn’t want to do and keep other people at bay. She’s even infuriated and scared when Mrs. Freeman homes in on the things she resents and uses them to directly needle her, reinforcing her own resentment and self-loathing in a tangible enough way to hurt her. Lest we view Joy too sympathetically, it’s useful to point out that these things inform her experience but do not excuse it. Joy’s sin above anything else is arrogance. She treats the people around her like a joke. Her intellectualism and disability might set her apart from the “good country folk” around her, but it’s telling that she treats her mother as little more than the help; she regularly insults her, and is unwilling to help with the farm and the laborious process of weeding the onion fields on the Hopewell property. She even delights in telling her mother that she’s “got no inner light.” It’s this arrogance and superiority, as well as her intense need to bully others due to her self-loathing, that eventually dooms her. Pointer’s is the superiority of someone who has honed his act well enough to get away with it. In fact, he seems to know exactly which buttons to push, the horror from his encounters with the Hopewells coming from the clear air of menace and manipulation surrounding him. From the moment he fake-trips into Mrs. Hopewell’s house, he tries to push all the buttons he can to convince her to give him more access. It’s also unnervingly clear he knows his intended targets, as he tells Mrs. Hopewell a (probably false) story that mirrors Joy’s own to win her sympathy. The difference is, of course, while Mrs. Hopewell is polite, she’s got enough sense to know not to buy what he’s selling. Joy, meanwhile, buys the aw-shucks country act hook line and sinker. Pointer knows which buttons to push on her, too, and for all her intelligence, Joy can’t resist the fact that he sees through her ugly act to the person underneath. All these things make the scene of Pointer’s intimate violation (if not in the explicit sense in the psychological sense) even more tragic and horrifying. After some initial conversations, Joy takes Pointer up into the barn loft, abandoning her defense mechanisms as she goes. He takes a genuine interest in her, and she, thinking he’s a dumb Christian bumpkin fascinated by the “inner light” she has and which these “good country people” lack. There’s even an intimate moment as she shows him how to take her leg off, and he brings out a flask of whiskey, some pills, and a pack of playing cards to set the mood. Joy is (for once) not acting as a brash and arrogant grotesque but as a human being. Then when she rebuffs Pointer and his offer of sex, nudie cards, pills, and whiskey, he completely drops the gentle approach, steals her leg, and uses everything he knows about Joy to mock her for her beliefs. Joy resents her own vulnerabilities and weaponizes her ugliness, and Pointer uses his acceptance and seeming lack of ugliness as a weapon to attack those clear vulnerabilities. Joy’s inability to navigate her own humanity puts her at the mercy of a real monster, one who leaves her a pathetic, helpless wreck. “Good Country People” is, in the end, a psychological portrait of Joy, defenses and all. In her resentment and inability to accept herself, Joy weaponizes the parts of her situation she dislikes into a grotesque bullying caricature, only to be disarmed and forced to accept her shortcomings anyway when Pointer steals her leg. O’Connor creates a tragic monster and has them then destroyed by an even larger monster, one who operates freely, unhindered by self-loathing and vulnerabilities. In the end, it’s a haunting reminder not only of the necessity of learning to love oneself, but to not pick on others you find weaker. Sometimes, you might attract the notice of a real monster.  And now to turn it over to you. Was Mrs. Freeman feeding Pointer information? Was Joy truly tragic, or merely the victim of a higher moral calculus? And what was your first experience with Flannery O’Connor’s work? (This is in fact the second time around for me, the first time was reading this story in a modern American lit class.) And please join us in two weeks for “Mackintosh Willy,” by modern gothic superstar (and occasional lurker in our comments section) Ramsey Campbell![end-mark] The post There’s Always a Bigger Fish: “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor appeared first on Reactor.

Born in 1929 in Ixelles, Belgium, Audrey Hepburn grew up to be one of the world's leading actresses and fashion icons. She was one of the most recognized on-screen actresses during the Golden Age of Hollywood, quickly becoming recognized for her work in films such as Breakfast at Tiffany's and Roman Holiday, for which she became the first woman to win an Academy Award. And while people today... Source

As a First Lady, the country will scrutinize their attire if something is considered too risque for the White House, such as showing their shoulders or re-wearing a dress. These First Ladies didn't back away from wearing some daring gowns throughout history, though. From Jackie O and Todd Lincoln to Michelle Obama and Melania Trump, here are some of the most controversial First Lady gowns in... Source

Still smarting from the loss of its access to Washington as President-elect Donald Trump gears up to reenter the White House, the Left’s cancel culture enforcer has trained its sights on Not the Bee, the real-news partner of the Christian satire site The Babylon Bee. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a far-left smear factory that gaslights its donors and engages in routine defamation against mainstream conservatives and Christians, targeted Not the Bee after Tesla Founder Elon Musk purchased Twitter in 2022. One of Musk’s first directives at Twitter was restoring The Babylon Bee’s speech on the platform, and it seems likely he bought the social media platform in part for this reason. Twitter had silenced the Bee for the crime of disagreeing with transgender orthodoxy, one of the key issues on which the SPLC will brook no dissent. In fact, this connection may explain a secondary motive behind the SPLC’s attack. Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon revealed the SPLC’s forthcoming attack in a post on X Tuesday. “The discredited, scandal-ridden smear factory known as the SPLC is about to publish a hit piece doxxing several of our ‘Not the Bee’ writers who wished to remain anonymous so they could speak freely, without fear,” he wrote. “The SPLC extracted sensitive information from our site, then used that information to contact our writers directly.” Dillon said the SPLC went digging for the information “because they’re left-wing activists masquerading as journalists.” “They did it because they lack principles,” he added. “They did it because they’re vindictive bullies who’ve admitted their aim is to ‘completely destroy’ individuals and organizations they disagree with by making them pay a steep price for speaking freely.” Dillon admitted that since he’s a public figure, he accepts that getting attacked “comes with the territory.” “What I won’t accept is the doxxing and smearing of our staff because they said some things the SPLC doesn’t like,” he added. The discredited, scandal-ridden smear factory known as the SPLC is about to publish a hit piece doxxing several of our “Not the Bee” writers who wished to remain anonymous so they could speak freely, without fear. The SPLC extracted sensitive information from our site, then used… pic.twitter.com/toQLfga5SU— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) November 19, 2024 Why Is It Called the SPLC? The Babylon Bee CEO is exactly right. In fact, he arguably understates his case. As I wrote in my book, “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center,” the SPLC began as a noble civil rights nonprofit, providing legal representation to poor people in the South. It won some major cases, getting black men who had been falsely convicted of rape off of death row and even representing white people who faced reverse racism (yes, even some on the Left used to care about that). Beginning in the 1980s, however, the SPLC began a massive—and quite lucrative—rebrand. The organization’s co-founder, Morris Dees, had an uncle in the Ku Klux Klan, and his familiarity with the Klan naturally bred a rather just contempt. Dees began targeting Klan groups to sue them into bankruptcy, and since he was doing this in the 1980s—and not in the Klan’s heyday of the 1920s or the 1950s—he found it rather easy. In fact, SPLC staff compared taking the Klan to court to “shooting fish in a barrel.” Suing the Klan paid dividends. Dees cast a grand narrative of himself as a noble knight, slaying grand dragons in the courtroom. Northern liberals, who saw the South as a den of hateful white rednecks, sent massive checks. SPLC’s do-gooder attorneys weren’t happy with the work. Many of the left-leaning attorneys didn’t appreciate SPLC’s work with law enforcement, and they wanted to help people who actually needed it, not find every excuse imaginable to sue Klan groups that had barely a cent to their name. They quit en masse in 1986, while Dees doubled down on the strategy. The Hate Map Eventually, Dees ran out of grand dragons to slay, so rather than abandoning the strategy, he started casting a wider net. In a stroke of fundraising genius, the SPLC expanded its “Klanwatch” project into “Hatewatch,” and started publishing a map plotting small and ineffectual “hate groups” alongside Klan chapters. Gradually, the SPLC added more and more mainstream organizations to the “hate map.” Today, the SPLC’s “hate map” is a political and ideological enemies list that the SPLC uses to scare donors into ponying up cash and to “mortally embarrass” those who dare disagree with its leftist agenda. If you disagree with the SPLC’s open-borders approach on immigration, you’re an “anti-immigrant hate group.” If you don’t think kids should be told that a boy can become a girl and vice versa, you’re an “anti-LGBTQ hate group.” If you condemn the ideology of radical Islam, you’re an “anti-Muslim extremist.” If you support parental rights in education, you’re an “antigovernment extremist group.” This isn’t hyperbole. The SPLC does actually put conservative groups like the Center for Immigration Studies, the Family Research Council, Alliance Defending Freedom, and Moms for Liberty on the “hate map” alongside Klan chapters. The SPLC’s Year in Hate and Extremism 2023 report, released in June, describes the groups on the map as “organizational infrastructure… upholding white supremacy.” As for the idea that the SPLC aims to “completely destroy” those they disagree with? Dillon is exactly right. SPLC spokesman Mark Potok said so at the annual conference of the Michigan Alliance Against Hate Crimes in Lansing, Mich., in 2007. “Sometimes the press will describe us as monitoring hate groups, I want to say plainly that our aim in life is to destroy these groups, completely destroy them,” he said. Potok reiterated this point at a Vermont school group in 2008. “You are able to destroy these groups sometimes by the things you publish,” he declared. “It’s not so much that they will bring down the police or the federal agents on their head, it’s that you can sometimes so mortally embarrass these groups that they will be destroyed.” The Results In 2012, an LGBTQ activist targeted the conservative Christian nonprofit the Family Research Council for an attempted mass shooting. The building manager, Leo Johnson, prevented the attack, but the terrorist later confessed to the FBI that he intended to kill everyone in the building. He pleaded guilty to terrorism charges and is serving a 25-year sentence. The SPLC rightly condemned the attack, but it has kept FRC on the “hate map” ever since. Companies like Amazon, Eventbrite, and NextDoor have used the SPLC to exclude people they brand “extremists.” Legacy media outlets, Democrats, and others consider the SPLC a reliable arbiter of “hate,” despite the group’s many scandals. The Scandals In 2019, a reckoning came for the SPLC. The group fired its co-founder, Morris Dees, and saw its president, Richard Cohen, resign. This took place amid a racial discrimination and sexual harassment scandal. Amid the scandal, a former employee came forward, calling the “hate” accusations a “highly profitable scam.” Yet the SPLC brought in Tina Tchen, former first lady Michelle Obama’s chief of staff, to run an internal review, and the results of that review have never seen the light of day. It seems Tchen’s job was to brush the scandal under the rug. Employees weren’t happy, so they unionized. Earlier this year, the SPLC restructured in what union leaders are calling “classic union-busting behavior.” The SPLC also faces multiple defamation lawsuits. It paid more than $3 million to settle a lawsuit after branding a Muslim reformer an “anti-Islamic extremist.” Last year, a judge allowed the Dustin Inman Society’s defamation lawsuit against the SPLC to move forward. Why Attack Not the Bee? Despite all these scandals, the SPLC has enjoyed undeserved clout. Many on the Left prop up this corrupt organization because it is politically useful—an attack dog they can cite to demonize conservatives. As I wrote in my forthcoming book, “The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government,” the SPLC has had tremendous access to the federal bureaucracy under President Joe Biden. SPLC leaders and staff have visited the White House at least 18 times. Biden nominated an SPLC attorney, Nancy Abudu, to a top federal judgeship, and she was confirmed in 2023. SPLC leaders have briefed leaders at the Justice Department and the Department of Education about “hate” and “extremism,” and the FBI’s Richmond office notoriously cited the SPLC in its 2023 memo on “radical traditional Catholics.” The SPLC will likely lose this access in January, as President-elect Trump takes office. The far-left group may harbor some resentment at The Babylon Bee for this development, because Elon Musk appears to have bought Twitter in part to liberate The Babylon Bee, and Musk’s purchase of Twitter loosened the Left’s stranglehold on information. Musk’s new platform, X, has circumvented the Left’s ability to censor information that conflicts with its narrative in the name of suppressing “misinformation,” and this development likely helped Trump prevail in the 2024 presidential election. Not only does the SPLC want to silence Not the Bee’s reporting on cultural issues, but it also likely harbors resentment against the entire Bee enterprise. The post CANCEL CULTURE: SPLC Targets the Real-News Partner of The Babylon Bee appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Senator Paul Rand, who is about to take over as chair of the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, has spoken in favor of shutting down the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). CISA, a part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), was established in 2018 to do just what its name says – but has in the meanwhile become weaponized to suppress free speech, opponents believe, citing a number of programs where CISA was involved in monitoring and flagging online posts for removal. Senator Paul refers to the agency’s behavior – which he says included the ability to censor content and thus influence what information is available to people – as “intrusions into the First Amendment.” “The First Amendment is important, that’s why we listed it as the First Amendment. I’d like to, at the very least, eliminate their ability to censor content online,” Paul said in a post on X. The senator was referencing his previous statements made for Politico, when he revealed he is in favor of shuttering CISA completely, while at the same time conceding that this is “unlikely” to happen – but also promising there will be hearings, as the incoming committee starts probing this government entity “working” with social media. According to Politico, Democrats in Congress would react “fiercely” against any attempt not only to dismantle but also to limit CISA’s powers. CISA representatives, like senior adviser Ron Eckstein, continue to claim that the agency is merely doing its job, without ever overstepping the mandate and engaging in censorship. Quite the contrary, Eckstein told the press – according to him, CISA is in fact protecting Americans’ “freedom of speech, civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy.” Taking into account what has come to light regarding CISA’s activities over the past four years in particular, that is an extraordinary claim, and one Senator Paul clearly disagrees with. Even though established under President Trump’s first administration, CISA assumed an active role around the highly contentious 2020 election, allegedly to suppress those voicing their concerns online about the legitimacy of the vote. CISA and legacy media supporting the policies the agency is executing – or has been until now – describe this as “countering domestic disinformation,” and suggest that CISA is these days more focused on fighting back adversaries from abroad. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post “Shutting Down CISA” Senator Paul Rand’s Crusade Against Online Censorship appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer appears to have no problem throwing the police under the bus, in a bid to extricate himself and his cabinet from a controversy over “non-crime hate incidents” (NCHIs) reporting. The row, which is refusing to die down, was sparked by Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson becoming a subject of police interest for a message posted on X a year ago, that is suspected to be a hate crime (allegedly, incitement to racial hatred). Amid the backlash, Starmer told the newspaper, “I think that, as a general principle, the police should concentrate on what matters most to their communities. This is a matter for the police themselves, police force by police force, so they can make their decisions and will obviously be held to account for those decisions.” This statement came despite the prime minister previously personally supporting a number of online speech-restrictive moves, as his government approved the removal of restrictions placed on NCHIs – with the number of these complaints rising. If Starmer’s intent had been to do some “crisis management” it doesn’t seem to have worked: “forked tongue hypocrisy” is how the deputy leader of Reform UK, Richard Tice, reacted to the PM’s comments. Tice at the same time repeated what many critics of NCHIs continue to warn about, namely, that a large number of trivial complaints are being looked at by the police, drawing their resources away from investigating violent crimes and towards doing “woke tweet policing.” Another point that opponents keep making is that the current UK cabinet, which took over earlier in the year, has been working to ensure more NCHIs get recorded, allegedly as a method of suppressing free speech. Among those raising their voices against the practice after the affair targeting Pearson came to light are opposition MPs, such as the shadow home secretary, Chris Philp. According to him, the police use hate crime laws “wrongly 90 percent of the time.” The way these rules spurring the police to react should be used is “extremely rarely” – when there is reason to suspect, from somebody’s speech, that they are likely to imminently commit a hate-driven crime. Even former heads of MI6 and the Metropolitan Police, Sir Richard Dearlove and Lord John Stevens, have spoken against what they call “a waste of (police)” resources, that should instead be used to deal with violent crime. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post UK PM Starmer Slammed Over Police Controversy as Critics Decry “Woke Tweet Policing” appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Ever heard of Hygge (pronounced “HUE-gah” or “heurgha”)? It’s high time you are introduced to Hygge, a traditional Scandinavian concept for cozy and warm living that’s taking quite a following! Creating Hygge At Home For Cozy And Healthy Living First, the Swedish gave us IKEA. Now, this traditional Danish Hygge concept got many of us fascinated. I’m quite taken that there's a name for a state of being or a lifestyle, and the word Hygge is a charming word which simply means all things nice, warm, cozy, friendly or an overall sense of contentment. If you haven’t heard of this concept before, you’ll be as taken as I am with it when you find out more about hygge here. Help yourself to these tips, tricks, and ideas to create hygge in your home with friends and family.   1. Pure And Simple Home Interior Simplistic and conventional are what defines a hygge home with natural color tones. Avoid loud and overly flamboyant tones or color scheme in your home design. The idea is to create a serene and peaceful effect in a monochromatic color scheme or a harmonious mix of earth-colored tones. 2. Create A ‘Hyggekrog' Or Snug A window seat looking out to a lovely view of nature, a body of water, or your garden, should be a perfect spot for a cozy nook where you can enjoy some moments of peace and quiet with a good read. Add some pillows and a blanket to create a perfect snuggly retreat. 3. Display Treasured Memories Scandinavians are family-oriented and strongly promote an environment of happiness and affection. You can promote the same environment in your home with your family photos in frames, travel memorabilia, and stuff with sentimental value put up as decor. 4. Bring Nature Close Anything from the outdoors is encouraged in a hygge home whether in Christmas decor, year-round decor, or as an everyday household item. We've long been doing this anyway, which is often attributed to our primitive nature. Natural decor ranges from antlers, fur rugs, houseplants, or wreaths. Anything from branches, pine cones, and driftwood are equally perfect. 5. Treasure Old And Rustic Waste is antithetical to the hygge way of life. If you're a homesteader who loves to recycle, repair and repurpose old furniture, then you're right at home. An old family member's favorite chair, for instance, is better repaired or repurposed for its sentimental value rather than buying new ones. It's a new trend anyway, with more and more people going back to the classic and rustic. 6. De-Clutter Your home need not be spic and span and shiny like a museum. It just has to be organized where things are put in their proper places. For your home to get that hygge vibe, try to invest in a storage space in your place for mess-free and clutter-free rooms. 7. Hygge Outdoors Hygge isn't just about being snug and comfy indoors. You can have it outdoors with your family and friends, perhaps around a fire pit or a campfire while having tea or coffee. In the summer, you can achieve a hygge vibe by camping even in your yard with some fun family activities. 8. Light Candles Candles are an important aspect of the hygge concept of living. Make sure you only use the white unscented ones–you can even make your own homemade candles. Light a candle while reading, enjoying a meal, or relaxing in your snug. Candles create a feeling of warmth with its glow. If this is not possible for you with pets and kids around, you can use lighting with a warm glow or light tones. 9. Keep It Plush And Comfy Warmth and coziness are vital to creating hygge at home. A fur rug would be ideal but a nice and comfy fiber or synthetic rug can suffice. Make sure to spread pillows around, in your bed, the living room and your cozy nook. You can also make your own pillows with this DIY sewing project. 10. Create A Spa-Like Sanctuary Scandinavians are big on sauna and you can create this environment and experience in a spa-like bathroom. Transform your bathroom into more than just a place to take a quick shower. If possible, install good lighting and even a basic sound system for a relaxing and rejuvenating bath experience. Make your own DIY bath bombs and homemade soaps for an inexpensive homemade bathroom-cum-sauna. 11. Flowers And Foliage You can also create an environment of warmth with flowers in summer. A fresh bouquet of wildflowers or native annual flowering plants in a vase indoors is enough to create a joyous feeling. The smell of fresh herbs in the kitchen is equally delightful. 12. Pleasing Home Aroma A true blue homesteader need not worry about this aspect with all the cooking going on the kitchen and the fresh produce laid out on the table. A pleasing home aroma is not the artificial scent from fresheners but the natural homey scent, characteristic of a traditional home. A fresh bouquet of flowers, herbs, and spices in the table, the smell of morning coffee or even some freshly baked bread will surely put you in a good mood. 13. Get A Fire Going What better sound on a chilly winter evening, than a crackling fire with the warm glow in your face. A nice warm fire with soft pillows and blankets and your family and friends huddled around it is hygge in action. There are also ideal firewoods preferred by homesteaders for their steady fire, less smoke, and even pleasant scent. 14. Calming Music Good music can definitely set a good mood. We've all got different tastes in music and personally, I like sentimental movie soundtracks, especially from Horner and Badalamenti, while some like upbeat music like jazz. Well, there are no rules and what relaxes you is what you should go for. 15. Light Snack Having something to nibble or munch while enjoying a good read or a conversation is one way to create a hygge at home by yourself or with friends. Again, it’s up to you, but the idea is to snack light and not to fill up. You can check these homemade fruit snacks both you and your kids will love. 16. Keep It Laid Back And Intimate Trade your stiff high back dining chairs and formal table setting for a relaxed dining set. The same goes for your living room and even your bedroom. Although contemporary room design and furnishing call for straight lines or the English formal settings, I like mine where people can just huddle and be comfortable. 17. Embrace Your Home's Unique Features Rustic wood boards for the floor, rough log for the wall, an out of place log beam overhead are what makes your home your own. Some design elements of a home that used to be considered out of place and unbecoming are now considered rustic and charming. Embracing the unique features of your home is a hygge tradition. 18. Love Gardening It’s no secret, gardening is good for you physically and mentally. While you cannot get down and dig the earth in winter, you can keep an indoor winter garden. In the summer, this is a great way to get hygge in your home. A well-kept garden or garden design definitely promotes a sense of peace and tranquility. 19. Hygge In Summer Yes, you can have hygge at home in the Summer! Of course, lighting lots of candles and snuggling in pillows on a hot sweltering summer day isn't exactly comfy, but there are always ways and means. Open up your doors to invite the cool summer breeze and lay down in a hammock instead. Some good music, light snack and a good read is definitely a hygge vibe in summer. 20. Hygge With Family And Friends If not the most important, spending quality time with friends and family is one the most important aspect of hygge. This is not the once in a year 4th of July BBQ, Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, but the simple get-together in a relaxed environment. This is when you sit down to a less formal dinner party with some hearty comfort food and a happy conversation. 21. Do As You Please Finally, creating hygge is really up to you. Whether you prefer a fur rug or a quilt, the smell of coffee or tea, sleeping in winter or keeping your hands busy with simple crafts, what makes you comfortable and content is what hygge really is all about.   Find out more DIY living room decor ideas to help you create hygge at home in this video:  You don’t need to have all these elements to create Hygge in your home. A few of these, especially those that are already present at home and a positive outlook in life can create an environment of peace, quiet, contentment and happiness—your own Hygge at home! Did you cozy up to these ideas for hygge at home? Share your thoughts about them in the comments section below! Unpleasant household odors isn't a character of hygge at all. Check out these amazing stinky home remedies to promote hygge in your homestead! 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