coastal cozy

Katie Vaz is back, and she wants us all to embrace the joy of living like a coastal grandmother. The illustrator/author talks about her fandom for Ina Garten, for the movies of Nancy Myers, for the simple life filled with breakfast pastries, garden cuttings arranged simply, and a cozy cardigan.

Tiny Joys is part celebration of that coastal cozy lifestyle and part journal, with pages where readers can add their own joys, draw their own favorite tactile experiences, list their own favorite little luxuries. Vaz shares what makes her happy, and then encourages us to ask ourselves what makes us happy. It’s interactive, but in a way that’s still calming for introverts.

This short book is filled with delightful illustrations of things that can add special joy and coziness to your life and home. She offers suggestions for a calming bedroom to encourage deep sleep, a welcoming front porch, and a beautiful but useful kitchen. There are ideas for herbs and flowers to grow and for clothing pieces that will pair well together and look polished.

She offers up ideas for cookbooks to help create those coastal grandparent meals and a playlist for a relaxing vibe. There are ideas for cook clubs and for easy weeknight desserts. But mostly, there is a lot of encouragement to think about the things you like most and find ways to add more of that joy to your life. Maybe you can’t take a trip to Paris just now, but you can find some fresh pastries to enjoy. You might not have much money to spend, but you can find things in secondhand stores that can add value without breaking the bank.

But mostly, Tiny Joys is a reminder to focus on the things that bring happiness and contentment. It’s a thoughtful and colorful path to a warm and meaningful life. It’s about finding more of yourself and less of what takes you out of the moment. Whether you prefer a quiet night with a good book, or a few friends to share a dessert board and a favorite movie, an early morning trip to the farmer’s market or a day spent baking a loaf of bread or letting a hearty stew bubble on the stove, all Vaz wants is for you to make more time for those small choices that bring you genuine joy. That’s what this book is about.

I have been a fan of Katie Vaz and her art for many years. I love her thoughtful drawings and her reminders on finding joy. I’m always excited to see a new book come out, and this one had a lot of drawings of delicious pastries, so I absolutely loved that. But I also like her take on being a coastal grandmother. I’m not planning on going all in on that, as I’m pretty rooted in the Midwest, and the older I get, the more it is my happy place. But I still have a lot of respect for these ideas and I look forward to adding some coastal cozy touches to my happy Midwestern life. But mostly, I love how just reading her book helps me feel better and how her drawings put a smile on my face. Vaz is good people, and is kind enough to share a little of herself in these books for anyone who is willing to take a chance on her.