Welcome! Joie de Vivre Magazine (JDV) is a freestyle blog and presents content covering varied topics, e.g. art, psychology, culture, science, education, history, entertainment, and opinion pieces; along with curated content from around the web. Interesting, informative, entertaining, fascinating and fun! Experience my joie de vivre. Please visit often!
Part of everyone's joie de vivre (joy of living) has to do with simply decorating one's home, apartment, or living spaces. It doesn't take much money to make yourself happy. You know you better than anybody else, so it should be easy to tap into your own psyche. I tapped into mine and ended up writing these blog posts. Somebody else might appreciate my home and garden blog posts.
Is there are favorite room in your home where you go to relax, retreat, block out the rest of the world, or share a special space with someone?
OK. Before I get started I just want to say that I know what a casbah is.
It’s a fortress in North Africa (and in some other parts of the world). It is a unique medina or Islamic city and the Kasbah of Algiers is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site.
“Casbah” is a word that I have heard in movies and in music. I watched an old movie, released in 1948 titled “Casbah” (1948) and it was set in Algiers. There was also a song I liked during my teen years called “Rock the Casbah” . Will Smith sampled it on one of his songs. (Will Smith feat. K-Ci’s ‘Will 2K’ — Discover the Sample Source)
Casbah is also spelled kasbah, qasba, or qasaba.
When I hear the word “casbah”, I usually associate it with something really cool!
When I’m talking about casbah in this article, I’m going in a completely different but still cool direction from the usual meaning of the word and how it is commonly used.
JUST FOLLOW ALONG WITH ME.
Everybody likes to read articles or watch TV shows about the personal lives of celebrities. I kind of like shows where they show the homes where they live. The late Gregory Peck and his wife said they liked to spend time in a room in their house that they called “The Casbah”. It’s a place where they retreat.
Just then I had “Ah hah!” moment. I thought to myself:
‘It would be so cool to have a room in my house that I could call ‘The Casbah’.’
The best part would be decorating the room.
There would be thick rugs and huge comfy pillows. The décor would look Persian.
Yes. I know a casbah is a fortress and there are famous casbahs that are located in Morocco. Morocco is in northwest Africa and Persia (now Iran) is in southwestern Asia.
But it’s MY CASBAH! So if I want to decorate Persian or Iranian style, I will. LOL.
8 Inspiring Decor Ideas from Iran: This article says to use copper pots, some handwoven baskets, various types of hand-stitched cloth, sweet-smelling flowers, decorative rugs, and a Poshti (a decorative pillow for your back). (FYI. There is an excellent selection of poshtis on Etsy.)
At present, I live in an apartment with my sons. But if I ever get into a home again, I plan to have a home office/casbah. Yeah well! I figure I won’t be able to afford a house where I can have one room for my home office and another for a casbah.
