The Joy Of Using Up

The other day I realized that we are almost out of tomato season. It happened quicker this year than last year. But each time we pick tomatoes there are less then the last harvest, more are unripe or rotten before we can get to them and each bush produces less. No more tomatoes and cheese, no more salsa and fresh sauce, no more tomatoes garnishing our salads and pastas. It made me sad.

But then, the weather took a cold spell and I saw a potato. Mmmm, I thought, we haven’t had potato soup in forever!

Part of being as zero waste as possible is eating with the seasons, eating what’s available when it is ripe and fresh. One might think that this is restricting, but really, it’s only the joy of using up. All winter we eat great and hearty winter veg and in the summer, those are set aside to have fresh light summer fruits and vegetables. A perfect balance and nothing is given up.

6 More Months of Zero Waste | September - Back to School!

It’s time for back to school, but this year is a little different for most people for many reasons. For anyone starting on their zero waste journey, this is a great opportunity to practice your zero waste and plastic free skills. For those who have been practicing for years, this is a good reminder to keep learning!

Back to school means new text books, new notebooks, new supplies. But make it zero waste! Once you’re used to thrifting and foraging, it’s easy to find school supplies second hand. Family and friends might have pens and notebooks they will not use (almost everyone has a surplus of pens somewhere in the house, right?), thrift shops and rummage sales usually have school supplies. Backpacks, school clothes, lunch boxes, water bottles, and other supplies are easy to thrift. Keep your eye out for yard sales! Pens, pencils, paperclips, and rubber bands are surprisingly easy to find dropped on the sidewalk. A quick sanitize and they are good as new. Most college bookshops have almost all the books in a syllabus second hand. Make sure you are donating your books at the end of each semester!

We can work at not using plastic and not generating waste while we are in school, too. We can pack our lunches, use digital media, avoid the campus cafe and bring our coffee from home. Many hand outs can be recycled, or reused. Art supplies for projects can be foraged, borrowed or culled from “junk”.

The other opportunity we have while going back to school is to educate anyone and everyone who might not be familiar with zero waste. When we lead by example, when we reach out to answer questions, or notice when people are surprised at our choices and make the effort to talk about and explain them, we are starting the seed that could grow into someone else’s Zero Waste Journey. It’s important to talk about your zero waste choices when ever and how ever you can! Teaching others about the perils of waste and plastic is an exciting avenue for our knowledge.

Back to school is a time to educate others about zero waste, but it’s a good time to educate ourselves as well! Even if you’re not in school, the school season is a good time to pick up a new book, delve into research on a subject you want to know more about, or talk to someone you’ve been meaning to about their lifestyle.

It might seem daunting when you have life milestones, like going back to school, sending your kids to school, or whatever circumstances you might be in near the school year, to stay zero waste. But thinking ahead, putting aside convenience, and remembering our overall goal for ourselves and the planet, will make your back to school one more step our our zero waste and plastic free journey!

If you are new to this series, here’s what we are working on for this 6 month block. Follow along or pick and choose challenges to try.:
June 2020- Say NO, Say Yes
PLASTIC FREE JULY
August 2020 - Carry No Disposables
September 2020 - Back to School/Educate
October 2020 - Beach Clean
November 2020 - Hidden Plastic
December 2020 - Repair Before You Replace

We started our tackling new zero waste challenges six months at a time in 2019: January 2019 - Trash Audit
We separated and looked our trash to see what we are throwing away and what we can reduce.
February 2019- Declutter Everything
We went thru what we have to declutter and reduce.
March 2019- Switch to Paper
This month we moved to paper to get one step closer to reusables.
April 2019- Compost
Composting is an easy way to reduce food waste and prevent it from reaching the landfill.
May 2019- Meatless Monday
One of the best ways to improve the environment is to stop eating factory farmed meat and industrial fish. Small steps lead to big change so this month we gave up meat (or dairy or fish) for at least one day.
June 2019- No Bottled Water
We gave up bottled water as an avenue to give up more disposable plastic in Plastic Free July.
July 2019 - Plastic Free July!
Go plastic free this month!

In late 2019, we continued our journey to becoming more zero waste:
November 2019 - Zero Waste Kit
We created a zero waste kit to help us be more zero waste in our day to day life.
December 2019- No Gifts
We took Dec to give no gifts and get no gifts.
January 2020 - Clothing and Fast Fashion
This month we explored what fast fashion is, and how we can stop buying it forever.
February 2020- Use Mass Transit
The shortest month seemed like a good time to explore alternatives to driving our cars.
March 2020 - Bathroom Make-over
You’ve swapped out a few items to more sustainable choices around the house. It’s time to tackle a full room.
April 2020- Grow Your Own Food
April marks the start of spring in the continental USA, and when we can start growing food easily. But there are many ways and time to grow your some of own food.

Slow Stitching Goal Sliding

It’s more than half way thru the month and it doesn’t look like I’m going to finish my goal of two quilt finishes in September. I may not even finish one! I will continue working on this quilt that I started way back in 2009, but I will see how far I get. Although, my September goal feels like it’s sliding away from me, I have high hopes that I can start fresh in October. For the rest of this month, I will try not to worry about my goals but simply enjoy the slow stitching.

Linking up with Kathy’s Quilts and Slow Stitching Sunday.

Death of an Expert Witness

One of my goals in 2020 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

Death of An Expert Witness by PD James is the 6th novel in the Adam Dalgliesh series. This is also the 6th book I’ve read in the series even though I have NOT read them in order.

In one of the most important forensic labratory in England, it seems impossible that there would be a murder. Does the walled in lab hold the secret of this gruesome crime? Or could it be a random act of violence? Detective Dalgliesh must find out.

By now, avid readers might recognize the closed community, in this case a locked laboratory with a walled in campus, the jealousies and passions of a such a community, the twists and turns of such relationships. This cast had a lot of varied characters, some we’ve never seen before in this series, some more venomous or independent than many we have seen before. A relationship or variety of character that James continually examines is that of close siblings. In many of her books, brother and sister not only live together but share an unsettling bond of some kind. Although none of her books, that I have read, have explicitly taken the relationship to an extremely inappropriate place, in many cases the writing keeps you guessing if there is more going on than the reader is seeing. This creates a particular type of tension that builds the story and bleeds to other characters. What do the people in this community think or imagine is going on between these siblings? In all of James’ books, I find a character that I like and want to discover what their fate will be but in Death of an Expert Witness there was so many unlikeable people! That being said, I really enjoyed this book and although James uses many of the same plot devises, I like to find out where the subtle differences will be! I recommend this book to those on Adam Dalgliesh’s journey, as I am, those who enjoy the intrigue and affairs of closed communities, and of course, readers who love murder mysteries.

How do you read series? Always in order or do you jump around as the books come to you?

Something Nice

My new bujo (to start in Oct) arrived in the mail! I have started working on the yearly spreads and can’t wait to get more into the meat of it!

Lines and Fans

For the quilt I’m working on right now, I’m quilting with freehand fans and lines. I’ve never used this pattern before, and I’m really enjoying it! This is an easy quilt to sew lines on bc a lot of the fabric has patterns that can be used as a guide. Lines are kind of quick to quilt but also feel quite slow at the same time. I want to get the quilting finished soon, so I can move on to binding!

Red Dragon

One of my goals in 2020 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

I loved the show Hannibal and wanted to read the source material, starting with the first book Red Dragon by Thomas Harris.

Will Graham has left his time with the FBI behind him. He has a wife, he has a family, he has tried to forget the traumatic events of capturing Hannibal lector and the scars it has left on his mind and body. But when his old pal and boss. Jack Crawford comes for a visit, Will Graham knows his FBI days were never truly over.

I read this book in about 4 days. It’s a quick read compared to many of the books I had read around the same time. It is a heavy book in that there is a lot of violence and some gore. I have seen the show Hannibal, which primarily takes place before this book. I have never seen the two movies based on this book, Manhunter and Red Dragon. Since I wasn’t sure when the events of Hannibal related to this book going in, I was surprised where it picked up. I do not usually go into any book with such preconceived notions. That both made it easy and hard to read this book, I think. Once I got my bearings and realized that season three of the show was based on this book, I was surprised at how faithful to the source material it was. I had watched that season only a few weeks before and could remember exact lines that had come directly from the book. It was interesting to see where changes were made and what charters were changed. The characters were not as likable as they had seemed in the show, but I still wondered about them and wanted to find out what happened to them. This book gave me “books advertised on the subway” vibes. Like, maybe not the most brilliant book, but one that would be quick and easy to read. Overall I liked this book and look forward to reading the sequel, Silence of the Lambs. I would NOT recommend this book for those that don’t like horror, or books about killers or books where the violence could exist ion the real world. I would recommend this book for people interested in the source material of the show or movies, those who like easy to read psychological thrillers, or books about serial killers or forensic/FBI agents. I also have a love for authors who write several books, and when they want to stop are forced to write more by their publishers. That’s probably pretty rare, but it makes me want to read all the books and see what effect that has on the series.

Have you read this book? What are you thoughts? Do you have recommendations for other books that famous movies were based on?

August Plant Update

Looking back at my plants photos of August, I didn’t take too many. We were quite busy, as I’ve said in just about August wrap up post. We did travel a bit and we did go to the beach so we got a wee bit a variety. A’m happy every month of the year that there are flowers to observe.

A little mushroom at Grover’s Mills NJ.

A happy bee on cloudy day.

Although it’s the high season, we have made it to the beach a few evenings this month.

Rose of Sharons remind me of my mother’s yard.

One of the flowers from our wildflower bed.

These puffy grasses are on my way to work.

Another beach sky.

Was August a busy month for you? Were you able to observe some plants around you?

2020 Monthly Goals | August in Review and September Goals

August was a busy month and I’m surprised that I got anything at all done on my goals list. Turns out I got something done on allllmost each goal.

Sew
I’ve started to get back into this and I want to make it part of my daily life.
This goal was unlocked and achieved.

Stretch
I have got to figure this goal out.
Nope. What is my block with this goal? I will roll it over. This is something I want to have a handle on bny the end of the year.

Make 1 video
it doesn’t matter what it is or what it’s about. I just gotta get the process started.
I’m counting this as partial. I definitely didn’t make a vid, but I did work on

Tattoo work
I want a tattoo, I want to tattoo. I just have to do something on this goal. Either book an appointment for a tattoo, or practice the art of tattooing.
I thought a lot about this goal and got a lot of encouragement and inspiration but didn’t actually do anything.

First steps on my book
In July, I had a realization of a book I want to write. I would like to take some baby steps to this.
I’m gonna say yes to this and hopefully expand my thoughts in a larger post.

And now we can move on to September. I have rolled over or defined some of my goals from last month.

Have two quilt finishes
Ahhhhh Back to quilting and back to finishing quilts. I do not think it’s unreasonable to get two finishes a month done for the rest of the year. We’ll see how Sept goes.

Stretch
Gosh. I really need this in my life.

Swim/beach
September swims!!!

Make 1 video
Ooof, I was close to actually getting this goal done in the very start of the month. Some set backs will make me have to fight for this one.

Tattoo work
I want to make an appointment before the end of the month and practice at least on fake skin to get back of tattooing.

Book step two
Step one was tiny, step two should be a bit ore calculated.

How did you do on your August goals? Did you roll any over into September?

New (Very Old) WIP

My plan for quilting for the rest of 2020 is to get at least two finishes per month. One of the things that I did upon returning to quilting was to see what quilts I have that are not finished. There are a lot of them.

My next WIP, the “new” quilt I’m working on, is very old! This quilt was started sometime in 2009, I believe. It’s ready for a finish! Irving is turning out to be quite a quilt cat and he is ready to help!

Linking up with Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching to get some inspiration and get moving on this very old WIP.

Everybody Loves Our Town

One of my goals in 2020 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

A freind from work recommended Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History Of Grunge by Mark Yarm after I mentioned reading a oral history of punk some years ago. I picked up a copy, but it took me quite a few years to actually read it.

A collection of interviews with almost everyone who was on the scene in Seattle and surrounding towns when “Grunge” started, this book tells the true tale of their time, their music, in their own words.

Many of the interviews in this book are new when writing, but some are from older interviews as well. In this way, the author is able to share voices of those who were lost druing or after this time. Many of the people in this book are now deceased and part of the running theme of this history is how the musicians and artists became currupted during or after thier climb to fame. Although now grunge is well known around the world, in the late 80s and early 90s Seattle was just another American city and not yet the birth place of this influential music movement. In a few short years, it became an epicenter of it’s time and produced some of the most well known bands in history. And yet, many of it’s founding member were left in relative obscurity. Many saw the climb of certain bands as a cash and fame grab rather than making music for the right reasons. As with the punk history I read, I really enjoyed learning how people felt as it was happening, from the player’s themselves. But there is, so long after the fact, a feeling that history has been changed a lot by perspective. This is neither bad nor good in this book. The artists have mostly all had some time to ruminate on their version of the history and are able to retell it having thought about it for many years. Having grown up during this time, and having experiences and opinions on this time and music myself, it felt in some small way that I added my own history to this book while reading it as well. Although I was experiencing these milestones from a far, I certainly have my own take on them. I would highly recommend this book for readers who like oral histories, non fiction about the resent past, those who liked or still love grunge music, and those who grew up in the 1990s..

Do you like to read books about music? What are some of your favorites?

Mad Cat Garden | August

Another month, flown by! Summer garden is almost gone! We never had much luck with sunflowers, but in August we got a really nice one from our wildflower bed. The squirrels loved it too and once the head of the flower got heavy enough to bend, the squirrels ate every seed.

We had similar luck with our few beautiful strawberries. None were had by us, but birds and squirrels reaped the benefit. We have gotten our strawbs to a good place. They much prefer pots, we find, but are sending out shoots and runners so we must come up way to encourage them to grow new plants.

Something else the squirrels love eating are our raspberries. Our bush has quadrupled in size this summer, but we haven’t seen a single ripe berry.

We have two water barrels that were both gifted to us, and this summer we have used their content as well as rainfall to water the garden almost exclusively. It’s a nice feeling not to turn on the hose. I’m sure this is having an effect of some of our plants, but being a new gardener, I’m not sure what it is. Our tomatoes and peppers are producing well, but by the end of Aug are looking a little scraggly. This could have something to do with the water situation.

This is a year of experimentation and we have done so much. Peppers from saved seeds, some in pots, some not, lettuce, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, zucchini, chard (the squirrels ate it all before it could grow more than a few inches), soy beans, onions, potatoes, wildflowers, new things for us to grow, or new methods of growing. A lot of things we are letting go to seed, in order to observe, or save. Many things have worked and we will try again next year. Some we plan to plant again asap for our fall garden. A new crop of radishes are planted, some using seeds from earlier this year. I want to try ginger and garlic in the fall.

Our yard looks crazier and crazier, especially when it’s not mowed, but it is a paradise of growth, a maze of meals. And we wouldn’t want it any other way. The greenhouse makes it all the more intese, but we haven’t even finished or starting using it. It will prolong our season, I’m sure.

Our first home grown zucchini looked like a duck. We’ve eaten a lot since them in Aug. We have tomatoes every other day or so. Our favorite way is fresh cut with mozz cheese and vinegar or in simple sauces, or fresh over pasta with garlic and olive oil. We eat a lot of peppers, pepperonchini, shishitos, poblanos (although our crop this year is nowhere near as prolific as 2019). Our new favorite method to enjoy is blistered with a horseradish cream dipping sauce. We’ve had edemame, pananella salad, zucchini parm.

Due to social distancing we have not given away as much as last year, not shared as much. So we have had to come up with new ways to eat or preserve veggies. We are not great at it yet, but hope to get better.

We have had a very mild Summer here and I’m interested to see what September will be like.

What have been your biggest crops this year? What are you favorite garden meals? Have you been able to share with friends and family?

Bullet Journal Check In | Sept - Looking for New Book Inspo

September is here and my current bullet journal is almost used up so I have been seeking out what I will buy next. It’s like back to school!

The first thing I did was go thru some notebooks I’ve gotten second hand to see if one of those would work. My first choice would be to use one that I already have. I recently found a wealth of old sketch books and journals that I had gotten very many years and many years ago. Last year I picked up a handful of notebooks at a rummage sale. But alas, none dot grid, unfortunately and I really want to continue using a dot grid.

My normal next steps would be to go get thrifting! But since that’s not as easy as it used to be and since I’ve only been to the thrift once in the last 6 months this isn’t the best option for me right now.

So, on to the internet to start seeking out a sustainable option. I have used and really like the Decomposition notebooks before, so that’s a possibility. I had the oyster dot grid two BuJos ago and really enjoyed it. Being spiral bound was super easy to get to all the pages and the large format was nice to work with and design.

I took a look and enjoyed the Catskills design, too. This is dot grid but has too few pages, I think. I like my journals to last a good long while if possible. The exception I make to that would be a thrifted journal. Better to make do in that case.

I’ve seen journals and notebooks with paper made from reclaimed and recycled construction stone pop up a few times and I am intrigued! There are quite a few brands now: Karst looks interesting. All the stone paper lists smoothness as a quality and advantage, but that’s not my favorite when it comes to writing and drawing.

I might be most interested in the Cognitive Surplus notebooks (top photo). The covers are so pretty! I love the designs, the price is quite nice and they are made in the USA.

One factor that is important to me when choosing a notebook online is to avoid amazon. I’m trying hard to wean myself off that site.

I’m not sure what I will pick, but I only have a month to figure it out! Are there any sustainable, recycled journals and notebooks you have used and enjoyed? Are there any you would recommend?

The Wild Places

One of my goals in 2020 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

This copy of the The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane was bought from the Montague Housing Works thrift shop and had post card of a cat face in it. How did it come to me? I have no recollection.

A world traveller, Robert Macfarlane realizes one of his favorite wild places is a short walk from his house. He begins to wonder what other wild places are still in his home country or if there are any left. He takes the time to search them out in this book.

This book is divided into the different landscapes that the author visits and takes the reader on a tour of the wild and remote places in the British Isles. Full of visual and emotional observations, Macfarlane shares thoughts on travel, history, friendship, and what wildness means. This book was definitely a beautiful travelog, but also quite slow and a little bit hard to stick with. His travels have a sort of meandering style and his writing does, too, switching between historic details and his current quest. I really loved that his destinations were so varied and he took the reader to many contrasting locations, high mountaintops, fields, valleys, beaches. But I found it hard to identify with in many ways, as I have never travelled as described in the book. That these were experiences I have never had could have been inspiring and exciting, but mostly they felt a bit isolating. Sleeping in a ice drift seems like a mad idea, not a romantic revelation. There may have been some places that I would have liked to see while reading, but afterwards, I can’t remember them. They were beautifully described but the image doesn’t linger. More so, the story of Macfarlane himself is what sticks out about this book. His duel life between traveling and sleeping rough, his loyalty to his family and close friends, and discovery of his farsightedness when it comes to the wild places right outside his door. Being an anglophile, I did love learning more about the English landscape. I would recommend this book to those who want to hear more about the English terrain, people who love travel books, “ramblers” and anyone who wonders what and where the wild places are.

What is your favorite travel book? Do you like books where people travel to exotic lands or explore their own back yard?

I recently started a goodreads account. If you like my book reviews, friend me there!

6 More Months Zero Waste | August - Carry No Disposables

6 More Months of Zero Waste is where we explore how to create a more zero waste and plastic free lifestyle one monthly challenge at a time. Zero waste is the goal, mindful reduction and exploration of less waste is the action.

We talk a lot about disposables in this series. We’ve switched from using plastic bags to paper or reusable, we’ve given up plastic bottled water, we try to carry our zero waste kit. 2020 has made all these things harder.

Maybe you were really good about bringing your own coffee cup but now they cafe won’t let you use them. Maybe always had your reusable bags, but now the grocers wont touch them, maybe you got take out in your own container and now you can’t. What a bummer.

But for the rest of August, let’s pledge to carry no disposables. Things are a little more relaxed in places so many coffee shops will let you bring your cups again, or stop in at a spot where you fill your own. No more take out containers: let’s eat at home, or dine out safely. We can always bring our own container for left overs!

Sticking to reusable will be hard going for a while longer, but the sooner we start making reusables the norm again, the sooner others will follow. Remember, switching to a more zero waste life style isn’t about grand sweeping changes, it’s about the small change we can make each and every day.

If you are new to this series, here’s what ew are working on for this 6 moth block. Follow along or pick and choose challenges to try.:
June 2020- Say NO, Say Yes
PLASTIC FREE JULY
August 2020 - carry no disposables
September 2020 - back to school/educate
October 2020 - beach clean
November 2020 - Hidden plastic
December 2020 - Repair before you replace

We started our tackling new zero waste challenges six months at a time in 2019: January 2019 - Trash Audit
We separated and looked our trash to see what we are throwing away and what we can reduce.
February 2019- Declutter Everything
We went thru what we have to declutter and reduce.
March 2019- Switch to Paper
This month we moved to paper to get one step closer to reusables.
April 2019- Compost
Composting is an easy way to reduce food waste and prevent it from reaching the landfill.
May 2019- Meatless Monday
One of the best ways to improve the environment is to stop eating factory farmed meat and industrial fish. Small steps lead to big change so this month we gave up meat (or dairy or fish) for at least one day.
June 2019- No Bottled Water
We gave up bottled water as an avenue to give up more disposable plastic in Plastic Free July.
July 2019 - Plastic Free July!
Go plastic free this month!

In late 2019, we continued our journey to becoming more zero waste:
November 2019 - Zero Waste Kit
We created a zero waste kit to help us be more zero waste in our day to day life.
December 2019- No Gifts
We took Dec to give no gifts and get no gifts.
January 2020 - Clothing and Fast Fashion
This month we explored what fast fashion is, and how we can stop buying it forever.
February 2020- Use Mass Transit
The shortest month seemed like a good time to explore alternatives to driving our cars.
March 2020 - Bathroom Make-over
You’ve swapped out a few items to more sustainable choices around the house. It’s time to tackle a full room.
April 2020- Grow Your Own Food
April marks the start of spring in the continental USA, and when we can start growing food easily. But there are many ways and time to grow your some of own food.

Little House in the Suburbs

One of my goals in 2020 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

Little House in the Suburbs: Backyard Farming and Home Skills for Self-Sufficient Living by Deanna Caswell and Daisy Siskin is one of several books on self sufficiency I’ve read. I think I got this one used from amazon.

Two friends living not that far away from each both decide to get back to basics. They share their wins, loses and advice in this book.

Why do sustainablilty books try to be so cute and clever? It’s really annoying. Please avoid the cliches, puns, silly phrases and the like. I get it that many sustainability authors are nervous about sharing their lifestyle, that they worry about how “normal” people will relate. Or at least I guess this is what they are thinking. Make it cute, make it twee, that way the masses will become interested. It’s true that for many (perhaps most) people subjects in this type of book, like growing your own food, raising chickens and goats, making your own hair products, sewing your own clothes, keeping bees, and other homesteading ideas, will be very strange. These concepts seem remote, alien and undoable to most people nowadays. But it wasn’t that long ago that these were extremely mundane practices. If you had a yard, you grew food, you prob had a few chickens. If you wore clothes you repaired them, sometimes you made more. You used the scraps to make rags or quilts. If you wanted honey, you had bees and if you wanted clean hair, you made shampoo or soap. Although our society has moved far from these easy daily tasks that enrich our lives, it wasn’t so long ago that they were “normal”. Books like these, by reducing these actions to simply cute, silly stories, I believe do the opposite of the goal intended. They allow someone interested in these subjects to blow off the reality of it. I actually ended up skipping a lot of this book. I wasn’t really interested in many of the side stories, looking more for the informative aspects of the text. I skipped the goat section, as I do not intend on getting goats. There is a lot of useful information in this book, you just have to get thru a lot of “cute” to find it. All that being said, I do think for people new to the slow living or homesteading movement, this book does go over a lot of questions one might have. It covers a good range of basics, like gardening and easy health care items and recipes, to more advanced projects like keeping chickens, bees or goats. Some passages in this book were a bit outdate language wise even though it was only written in 2012, but the message is pretty timeless. If you are looking for an overview into urban homesteading, this might be a good starter book. I would recommend this book to those interested in this lifestyle and who live in the suburbs, those who have none of the basics but want to learn more, or those interested in some of the specifics in this book, like easy beekeeping.

Do you have a favorite homesteading or slow living, or low impact movement lifestyle book that you can recommend?

Summertime Makes Me Want to Quilt

You would not think that the hottest month of the year would make one crave to be seated, inside, under layers of cotton and batting, squinting and repeatedly poking themself with a needle. No one wants to sit under a sturdy quilt in August Summer for a few minutes, let alone the hours and hours it takes to make one, right?

But every August, without fail, that’s what I get a craving for.

My early life of quilting was mostly concentrated on vacations, in August, in the balmy Vermont Summers. And I just can’t shake that muscle memory or the desire to return, year in and year out, to those simpler times. Mid August rolls around and I start to dream of lush green vistas, sitting by a lake, or out on a porch, with a freshly peiced quilt over my lap, myopically poking away and sweating.

What do you crave in the summertime?

Videos about Videos

As you may have noticed, I want to start a YouTube Channel.

(Well, okay, I already have one. You can visit it here. But be warned, I haven’t posted there in a long while!)

Over the last 5 or so years, I’ve really gotten into watching YouTube. Watching videos and hearing people stories has really helped me on my Zero Waste journey, taught me sewing techniques, helped me better understand composting, shown me the joys of marble racing, and much more. I hope one day I can make videos that make people happy too!

I’ve been watching Renee Amberg for a few yers now. I really like a lot of her videos (about books, manifestation and planning), and others not so much (her lifestyle is very different from mine, so I skip a lot of her vlogs). I thought these “honest” tips for starting a channel were really helpful.

Jania On Film, is not a youtuber I ever watched before searching this topic, or the kind of youtuber I watch normally. But I found this video while seraching videos about how to become a youtuber and how much money creators make and I was really captivated by her style. I plan to explore some more of her content!

Another new to me creator is Jada Jones. I came across her in a video about up-and-coming yourtubers and I really enjoy her vibe. I like the way she talks to the camera as she would to a friend. This video echoed a lot of things that Renee said, but it was good to see another take on it.

My OG favorite channel abut building a youtube channel, tho is channelnotes by MuchelleB. I love her style, her voice and I think she has a lot of great advice. She breaks it down way more and shares more detailed aspects of how to create a youtube channel. I highly recommend her vids! She’s paused channelnotes but her main channel is still great!

Do you have a Youtube? How did you get started?

Bullet Journal Check In | August - What I Track and Why

The other day, I saw a friends habit tracker on Instagram and they requested to see mine. When they did, they were surprised! I was tracking so many things!!

When I first started bullet journalling, my tracker was only a handful of things, now it’s up to about 50.

I think my friend used thier habit tracker to keep them motivated for certain tasks, and I use mine that way, too. But I mostly use it to track my habits. I like to see what days I do what things, how often I do those things. I like to see what weeks or months I do which of the things I track. Sometimes I want to build a habit so I put it on my tracker to inspire me. My habit tracker changes seasonally. Summers I track swimming, Winters I might track something else. Some tasks I would do whether they were on the tracker or not. Some I very rarely do. I Like to look back over the month to take note of all this info.

Recently I’ve tried to put all the action items I want for my morning routine in one spot on my habit tracker. This way I can see if I do each item every day. I like how this has been working. Sometimes checking the habit tracker reminds me of some part of my morning routine and I set out to do it before I forget. Sometimes I don’t end up doing it in the morning, but later in the day instead.

Occasionally these are things that I will kick off my tracker if I see that I’m consistently not doing them. Sometimes I take things off bc I don’t feel the need to track them any more.

More often I think of things I might like to add to my tracker. But unless I drop other items, I’m just about out of room!

Do you use your tracker to keep you motivated? Do you track only things you do with consistency? Do you change your habit tracker each month or always track the same items year in and year out?

Why I Buy Secondhand

Last week, I went to a thrift store for the first time since March. That’s 5 months of no thrifting. That’s a long time!! That also means I went 5 months basically not buying anything besides groceries or food. And luckily, I found just want I was looking for! Right in the front of the shop, I found some cute little dishes, perfect for cat bowls.

In recent years, I’ve moved to mostly buying second hand items. The last new thing I bought, that wasn’t food or art, was a frying pan over a year ago. I already loved thrifting, but when zero waste became more important to my lifestyle, thrifting became more important as well. The more I thought about waste, the more I thought about the way things are made. Who makes them, how those people are treated, the waste that goes into production, packaging, mailing, shipping, shopping, and consumerism. And I had a realization: Basically everything I might need already exists.

Think about that for a minute.

The reasons I buy second hand is bc I don’t need to buy new.

Buying second hand reduces waste, gives items a second (or third, or fourth, etc… ) life, and saves money, among many other things.

Next time you need an item, take a minute to see if you can source it second hand! That thing you need is already out there, waiting for you to find it.