November Plant Update

The minute the weather changes to Winter cold, I worry that I’ll never go outside again. But we were able to get out and about a little in November. We went to one of our favorite beach-combing beaches, we went to one of our favorite breakfast spots and all their plants, we walked around our yard and neighborhood, and we watched our garden transition into Winter.

The walk up to the beach.

Look at all that goos stuff!!

Natural contrast.

Some happy plants (some not so happy).

I moved all the plants around this month. It makes some fun new corners around the house.

Record collection is guarded well.

Perfect rose.

Hanging in there.

Te garden is slowly being taken over by Winter.

Visiting plant friends.

Perfect Autumn views.

Is it Fall where you live? What are your plant observations for the month of November?

November In Review

November went by so fast, and the year is nearly over.

The weather turned very cold, so bundling up was necessary. Despite that we were still able to see family and friends, enjoy the holidays, have some walks on the beach and get a lot of work done.

1) Flounder… 2) …flounder. 3) Porch #watchercat, 4) And another warm inside.

#watchercats were out, finding sunny spots this month. We tried to save a flounder on the beach, and hung out with Flounder at home.

1) Morning light. 2) Afternoon light with a friend. 3) Morning essentials. 4) Giants in the sky.

We traveled only a little this month, heading to Brooklyn a few times and visiting a few toy shows around NJ.

Our holidays were very relaxed and we were super happy to see family and friends.

1) Recipe coming soon. 2) A little bit of zen. 3) Holidays collide. 4) Instant collection.

Over all it was a really good month! We’ve started to reflect on the past year and look ahead to the new year. Here comes December!

What I Eat in a Day | Thanksgiving 2018

No day is complete without coffee.

Woke up around 7am to have coffee with my BFF before I had to take him to the train. Once I got back I needed a snack and just had some cheese and crackers with orange marmalade and mustard.

We headed out to my father’s house for thanksgiving dinner and there was more cheese!! We also had brown sugar & spice mixed nuts, sour cherry spread, and celery with cream cheese and olives.

The main meal was a big salad, stuffing, roasted veggies, mashed potatoes, maple mashed yams, field roast, and an amazing veggie gravy! We also had wine, cider, water, and sparkling water. I piled my plate really high!!

For dessert, we had a Four and Twenty Blackbirds salted caramel apple pie and whipped cream. We ate it so fast I only got a pic of the pie after! Even though we ate quite early, I didn’t need to eat any more this day!

I loved having a vegetarian holiday meal! It was easy and delicious! We tried a vegan field roast for the first time and it was ok, but next year I would skip it. I just felt that it wasn’t needed for the meal as we had so many other fresh, non processed, options. I plan to make thanksgiving sammies out of the leftovers, though, and I feel like I’ll like that better than the loaf on it’s own.

What did you eat on Thanksgiving?

On My Mind On Friday Morning

Since I’m trying to post about house and home this month, here are a few of my favorite YouTube sites on the same topic. Whether it’s tiny homes, sustainable living, or thrifted living, I love them all.
Here’s an update on the neon art space in Asbury Park, NJ.
Bodega Possum.
Check out these gorgeous dogs being celebrated.
Lots of new Items added to Mad Cat Market insta in the last few weeks. Check it out and I would love to hear suggestions, wish lists, or comments! We’re closed for the holiday weekend, but I’ll have a big update on Monday 11/26. Thanks!

Mad Cat Capsule: Wardrobe Goals

I’ve had a capsule wardrobe for about a year and a half now and I love it, My style of capsule wardrobe and how I put it together had evolved a lot in that time. That makes sense bc my lifestyle has changed a lot, too! I still have a lot to learn and a lot to do towards having the perfect, for me, capsule wardrobe.

Here are some of my goals:

Move to an all slow fashion wardrobe
This one is an easy goal to achieve, all it takes is time!! I have completely stoped buying fast fashion, so all I have to do is wait until everything that I had bought before doing so is 10 years plus. After that, everything will be bought from ethical companies, thrifted, or 10 years plus.

Move to an all plastic free wardrobe (mostly)
Right now I still have a lot of clothes that are made with plastic. I’m not sure my closet will ever be completely plastic free. Some of the items are from when I shopped fast fashion, but more of them are vintage. I love to thrift vintage cotton, linen, silk, leather, and other natural fibers but every once in a while there is a fantastic poly or blended piece that I can’t resist. I’d like to get close enough to plastic free that all those items can be washed in a micro plastic capturing laundry bag.

Reduce the over all amount of clothes I have by… a lot.
I have so. many. clothes. Every time I make up my seasonal capsule, I try to pare down and get rid of items that I don’t wear or that don’t fit. But there are more and more clothes, and now that I am thrifting again, there are “new” clothes, too! Before I started thrifting regularly again, I was making a dent. I hope to one day either have a small enough over all wardrobe that I don’t feel that it’s exsessive. Perhaps when I can fit all my clothes into the one closet that now houses my seasonal capsule? I’m not sure how many items that will be, but I think I’ll know it when it happens. That leads me to…

Not buy “new” clothes unless I need them!
I would love to be satisfied with my wardrobe and not feel the need to buy more. I am not a minimalist and don’t plan to become one, but I do want to lessen the over all amount of stuff that I have. Perhaps Instead of not buying I simply rotate out items for “new” ones. A one in, one out wardrobe would be hard for me but may be possible. I love the idea of passing items on to new owners who will love them as much as I did.

These are the big four goals I have. I have some other goals related to my capsule wardrobe but not directly for my wardrobe. What are you goals for the future of your wardrobe?

Bullet Journal Check In: New Book for November

It’s finally time to start a new Bullet Journal and it just so happens that I thrifted a new (to me) note book a few weeks ago. While at a rummage sale I found this oversized, grid notebook with a Spiderman theme! It was obviously loved by a young someone and had some drawings still inside. I love them and have incorporated them into my index. I think it’ll be fun to come upon them when going through creating my journal.

This book is the biggest format I’ve used for a bullet journal and the grid is quite small. I love the idea of repurposing it and making due with what I have. I also think this large size will allow me more space for certain things. I’ve interested to see how I utilize it, especially for my daily spreads. I’ll be sure to show some results soon!

I really enjoyed getting something second hand and not buying new! It feels great to apply a low impact mindset to more and more aspects of my life.

I will have made it thru at least half of November in my current journal so the Spiderman BuJo will start mid month. I love to create the full spreads for both current and next journal, but I most likely will not fill in everything twice and will pick up the new book what ever day I switch over.

How do you transition your Bullet Journal mid month?

Something New: Pur Water Filter

Something we knew before we moved into our house in Asbury Park, NJ, was that we would need a water filter. We knew that the water here was terrible! It tastes undrinkable, especially coming from Brooklyn where the water is delicious! And goodness knows what's in there that you might be ingesting. So this was a priority for us right away. 

And, just over 3 years later, we got a water filter. 

We waited so long bc we were waiting for that perfect moment to get the exact filter we wanted. I didn’t want to get the exact under sink triple filtration water filter until we get the new sink and totally renovate our kitchen. 3 years later and of course that hasn’t happened yet.

When we got this sink tap water filter it was after days and days of feeling like I was intensely dehydrated. I was feeling so parched all the time, tired, and like toxins were building up in my body. In the winter it was always easy for me to drink wanter bc I would boil it and drink hot water, but in the summer I was not drinking enough.

It might seem totally ridiculous to wait until you feel ill to buy something as simple as a filter that can be installed in a few minutes. But since trying to live a more mindful and sustainable lifestyle, every decision is a weighty one. In the end, health won out and we got the filter. We are looking up ways to make our own filters more sustainably, so that they aren’t going to landfill. When we do get a more sustainable option, we will donate this water filter.

Since getting this simple devise, I have felt so much better!! A small change can have a great impact, and although it wasn’t perfect, it’s good enough. One day, I hope to have a really awesome and sustainable kitchen with clean drinking water but this small step helped my kitchen become a little healthier.

How do you filter your water? And what is a positive change you made for your health in your house?

Something Nice: Thrifting Something You Know a Friend Will Like

What Plant Based Means to Me and How We Eat

My mom was a vegetarian while I was growing up. I was used to having tofu, tempeh, fresh veg, lots of legumes, fruits and homemade foods. Bc I grew up with it, it never occurred to me that other kids didn’t live that way. My father was always a healthy eater and great cook, but he ate meat. As I see it, I had the best of both worlds.

When I met my husband, he was vegetarian and had been on and off for most of his life. I ate meat then, but I never had any issues eating less or no meat during our meals together. Eating less meat made me realize that when I did eat meat, I didn’t feel as good as when I ate more fruits and veggies.

By the time we moved to New Jersey, we were eating fish, but little to no land meat. We wavered back and forth some (my husband even ate chicken for a while) but it was mostly ovo lacto vegetarian for us. Some events in the Summer of 2018 lead us both to come to the conclusion that we would give up all meat, from land and sea, in a serious manner.

Personally, I think humans are supposed to eat animals. We, ourselves, are animals and omnivores as far as I can tell from the evidence I know. But I think the way most people currently eat animals is unsustainable and inhumane, wasteful and unnecessary. In an attempt to lead a more sustainable and less wasteful life, eating plant based is an easy and obvious choice.

I’ve been trying to eat more rice, as it is a great staple. This is a good example of a fresh whole foods meal. Rice, carrots, onions, celery, sweet potato, squash, apple cider vin, soy sauce, pepper.

Now we eat what I like to call a vegetarian, plant based, whole food diet. That’s a mouth full and what does it even mean? We stopped eating any fish and sea creatures. We do eat dairy like cheese and butter and sour cream. We try to eat mostly fruits and veggies and eat whole foods that have not been overly processed. We eat fermented foods like miso, pickles and vinegar.

We try to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. Some with every meal! The term Plant Based really refers to a diet that is only plants but I use it to mean a diet that is based on plants, which we definitely do.

We also try to keep local stores, growers, producers in mind when we eat. This year was the first one where we grew our some of our own food and it was a game changer. It’s important to us to eat this way so that we are conscious of the environment, animals, our home and our health.

There are, of course, some ways we could improve our current diet. An example would be to make our own cheeses, sour cream, and yogurt, or only buy local cheese and dairy. But right now this diet works for us.

Some of our typical and most eaten meals are:

Quesadillas with black beans, corn, olives, fresh veggies, sour cream and hot sauce.

Cheese, crackers, veggies, mustard, pickles, olives, and mustard.

Miso soup with veggies and noodles.

Pasta with red sauce or pesto or cheese or garlic oil.

Sides meal with potatoes, veggies, grains, and various other “sides”.

Salads with home made croutons, veggies, sometimes we add fake chicken patties, and dressings.

Tofu, rice and broccoli with soy sauce, peanuts and chili garlic sauce.

Peanut butter and jelly (and sometimes hot sauce) sandwiches.

Bean and rice bowls.

Grilled cheese sandwiches with red onions and hot sauce.

Pierogies with onions, sour cream and veggies.

Smoothie bowls with various toppings.

Oatmeal with fruits, nuts and nut milks.

Beans on toast.

Chickpea salad sandwiches with carrots, onions, celery, and mayo.

This is an example of a more processed meal I might eat. The cheese bread is made fresh daily at our local grocery store and the beans are vegetarian. Beans on toast is a favorite breakfast of mine but I only eat it once in a while.

Let me know in the comments if you also eat meals like this! Or if you would like recipes or more info on any of the meals listed above. What kind of diet do you eat? What role does your diet play in your lifestyle?

Two Habits I love and Two for November

I’m still working on my habit goals for October. I’ve been better about taking a minute to stretch in the mornings, but it hasn’t been every day. I’ve been trying to incorporate doing the dishes into my mornings and keep the sink dish free.
Since I don’t do the same things at the same time everyday for the most part, habit forming has to fit in where it can. Not the ideal way to form habits! It might take me a little longer than I would like, but having my habit blog post has helped me to stick with my goals. I like to refer back to it for motivation. How do you keep yourself motivated to change your habits?

For November there are some new habits I want to start working on. In order to get myself ready, I like to look at some habits I already have and remember why they help me and why I like them.

Watering the plants once a week
We have a lot of plants. Plants are, to me, an essential for every home. At last count we had 50 indoor plants and it takes about half an hour to forty five minutes to water them all. I like to water them once a week. I find when I do it less often, they are not as happy and they tend to leak more, or I will feel rushed watering them. I don’t water every plant every week, but making sure I check every plant each week is best.

Move the plants every two to three months
This goes along with watering on a regular basis, I love to take the time every two to three months to move all the plants around. Some plants just get a small move or turn but some go to different rooms, or areas of the house. Since the weather has turn I got to do this ritual recently and it was lovely.

For November here are the habits I want to make:

Read everyday
I love to read but sometimes it’s hard for me to choose reading over other activities. There are times when I get in a groove and read a lot. That time is not now. But I want to read SO MANY things! This month I want to get into the habit of reading everyday, even if it’s just a few pages.

Morning Pages
Lots of people sing the praises of morning pages. Over the last few months, I have tried to start this habit a few times. But this month I’m going to get serious about it. People say there are a ton of benefits for morning pages, and I’m excited to see what it does for me.

What are some habits your trying to adopt this month?

Here are some of the past habits I have tried to learn:
Stretch everyday
Dish free sink

House and Home in November

Starting in October, I planned on picking a theme for the each month to focus on in this blog for the rest of the year. My theme for October was all about me. I found that topic pretty hard to stick with! Talking about oneself can be hard! For November, I’ve picked a topic that should be overly easy for me to go on and on about: my house and home!

Another reason to talk about our house in November is bc November 12th is the 3 year anniversary of living here! We bought our house in July 2015, but were still transitioning to living in a different state so didn’t fully move in until a few months later.

For the most part, moving into and living in our own house is as fantastic as I imagined it would be. After 15 years of apartment living, being able to fix anything, or do anything we want to our own house is wonderful.

One thing I wasn’t expecting was that the contents of our apartment, which was about 1/2 the size of our new home, completely filled the house, including the basement. When we moved we bought very little new items, but somehow we had furniture, clothes, books, and stuff to fill every nook and cranny.

Slowly and surely we have been making our house our own, some of that involves learning what we want our house and lifestyle to be. Cleaning, decluttering, curating, and “upgrading” our house has been a wonderful and sometimes difficult experience but I wouldn’t want it any other way.

This month, I plan to share more about our house, how we have and are making it our home; more about where we live and why we love it.

October Plant Update

Plant observations were many this month. We had a lot of opportunity to walk around town, be in our yard, and visit new places. We saw bees buzzing, squirrels scavenging, flowers blooming and dying off, creatures and plants working together and everything getting ready for Winter.

On days that were clear the sky and trees were amazing.

Hardest working bee in Asbury park.

The basil bolted a long time ago, but we just let it go for the other plants and animals.

Some of the flowers we planted are still blooming.

The dunes looked majestic in October.

We saw many mushrooms this moth but some of the best ones were shelf mushrooms.

Another active plant observer.

We visited Allentown NJ and saw these fellows enjoying the river and surrounding plants.

Allentown also had a civil war reenactment. It was neat to see a world as it may have been.

Another late bloomer.

Another busy bee.

The rainy days made everything green and vibrant.

The weather was mild and it was a lovely month. For November, we are planning on ways to keep our plants happy over the Winter.

What were your plant observations in October?

October in Review

October was a super smooth month. So smooth, I can barely remember what happened. Not it a bad way! I felt calm and at peace most of October and it was a great month where we got to see family and friends, got to explore our favorite places, got to eat and make merry!

1) Perfect watcher in Allentown, NJ. 2) Practically obscured in Asbury Park, NJ. 3) Hairless and serene in Ocean Grove, NJ. 4) A friend and visitor at home.

We saw so many #watchercats and #watcherdogs this month! It was glorious!! We also got to spend time with friend cats! And as usual we took time to care for our own cat family.

1) The Great Swamp. 2) A prayer for the beach. 3) Dinos in strange places. 4) Bee mine.

Visiting new place in our state is always fun and we got the chance to explore! We also made a now rare visit to Brooklyn. We had friendly dinners, coffee dates, and guests!

1) TWIX! 2) A lovely fence sitter. 3) Porch cat in Asbury Park, NJ. 4) Cat sitting for Garfield!

October was a pleasure. As the weather turns, and Winter’s on it’s way, let’s say hello to November!

Something Nice

We continued our tradition of bringing out our vintage ghost this year!

Garden Tour | Summer 2018

Since first moving to New Jersey and into our own house, we have wanted to start gardening. It took about 3 years, but this Summer was the first year we seriously started growing vegetables. 

We started small, but this was a great introduction to gardening at home! We started basically everything from plants, except our radishes which we started from seeds. For us, starting from plants was less intimidating and we thought we would have more success. We had lot of success with just about everything we planted.

Our main bed, and the biggest producer, is in our front yard. My dream is to have more and more beds in our front yard since we don’t really utilize that space. We planted four or five different tomatoes, basil, orange thyme, and shishito peppers. We also planted items in pots that were scattered between front and back.

In the back we already had blueberry bushes and we also put a raised bed with kale, hot peppers and radishes from seed. We plan to devote one whole side of the yard to our garden next year, have some space in the middle and eventually plant fruit trees on the opposite side.

This summer was mild but we had lots of sun and lots of rain and the garden loved it! Our tomatoes exploded. We ate one of our favorite meals, tomatoes and mozz, all year and never bought any tomatoes from the store!!

Mostly for my own records here is a list of what we grew in 2018 and how it did:

4 small tomato varieties - these were bananas! Next year I hope we label/mark/ remember what we plant. That would have been nice this year.

1 large tomato variety - these got completely over shadowed, literally, by the small ones so they didn’t produce much. What we did have was delicious! We like the smalls better, but it seems worth it to have one large each year.

Shishitos - this was my favorite thing we grew this year. I want to have like a million of these next year!

Hot peppers - I’m not sure if we even ate any of these.

Kale - Next year we have to get better about harvesting and eating our own kale!

Radishes - Why did we even grow these? We tried pickling them but they turned out pretty bad. Next year, if we plant them, we will only do a few at a time.

Basil and purple basil - what we planted in beds did really well, the ones in pots not so much. I hope to plant again next year but be better about picking and using what we grow.

Orange thyme - probably my husbands favorite thing we grew, we will def be planting this again.

Assorted herbs - some of these I’ve had for ears and they just keep coming back, some are new this year. I want to get better and maintaining and using herbs next year.

Blueberries - our bluebs did really well this year. Over the winter we hope to protect them better bc they took quite a beating in heavy snows last year.

Raspberries - we only got a few but they were good! We have them in pots, but perhaps we will transfer them to beds or the yard next year.

Strawberries - we had more strabs than ever before but never got to eat them. We could never get to them before the critters.

Looking at the list, it’s a lot longer than I thought it would be! I can’t wait to grow more next year and rely on store bought foods less!

What did you grow this year and what are your plans for 2019?

Off Season: Moth Coffeehouse

We recently headed to one of our favorite small towns, Allentown NJ, and finally got to stop in at a Moth Coffeehouse. I’ve been wanting to try it for a long time but somehow always visit the town when the cafe is closed. I was not disappointed. I love that this coffee shop is in a hundreds year old building and that it offers a lot of healthy and vegan options.

The whole cafe and aesthetic is lovely. They have plenty of low waste options, to stay cups and plates. It’s cozy and if I lived closer, I could easily see myself becoming a regular.

What’s your favorite coffee shop?

Tattoo Story: Cup of Coffee

My second tattoo might seem a little out there, or childish, but to me it fit perfectly with what I want my tattoos to be and how I want my body to be decorated.

I got my second tattoo only a few months after my first. I knew that I wanted more and more right away. It was an easy choice to get another from the same artist as my anchor.

My coffee cup clearly depicts my love of coffee, but it’s also a replica of the cups I served coffee out of for 8 years at one of my favorite jobs. It’s very whimsical but it’s remembrance is very special to me.

Do any readers have tattoos of food or drink?

Why I'm Not Changing the Name of This Blog

The anniversary of this blog is Oct 28th 2013. I started it mostly bc that was around the time that I was quilting seriously. I wanted to become part of the online quilting community and to document my journey. For many years, this blog was my accountability partner as well as my journal for keeping on track with quilting.

Earlier this year, I decided to take a break from quilting. Quilting had become a chore, something I did bc I knew I had to/should but not bc I wanted to or was inspired. I found myself dragging my feet on making things, and therefore dragging my feet on posting on the blog, as well. Although it started as an avenue to share my quilting, this blog also became a way to share my life and other passions. So I didn’t take a break from the blog even though I needed a break from the reason I started it.

I’m happy to share my zero waste journey, my love of where home, my attempts to lead a more mindful life. But I’m not going to change the name of this blog to move away from the quilting and towards some of those other avenues. Quilting has been a part of my life for a long time and I plan for it to continue to be. Quilting has ties to all the aspects of my life that I want to share here, whether I’m currently doing it or not. Hopefully I’ll return to quilting sooner rather than later and this space will be the spot to share it.

Something Nice: Apple Picking

On My Mind on Friday Morning

I want to streamline and reduce waste in my dishwashing routine so I’ve been looking for a tub or pan to use in my sink to conserve water. Something like this, this, or maybe this.
I love that a “Cat Grandpa” is raising awareness for special needs shelter cats!
Some rare jellies were recently found nearby where we live.
I’m ready for a nap right now.
Thinking about a tub for better dishwashing is really just a stop gap until we finally finish our kitchen reno (which we started well over a year ago). Once we install the two compartment sink we bought second hand I won’t need it! I can’t wait!
But at the moment this sink looks like this: