The Mysterious Affair at Styles

One of my goals in 2019 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

When I went on my first audio book buying binge, I was certain to get a novel by mystery great, Agatha Christie. The Mysterious Affair at Style is the first novel in the famous Poirot series and was read by James Langton.

Poirot is another classic and famous detective that I have watched for many years, but I’ve never actually read any of his novels.

Hastings, freshly back to from the war is resting and recouperating but edging to boredom until he runs into his old friend John Cavendish who invites him to stay at Styles Manor for a while. Relaxation soon turns to tragedy when John’s step mother is poisoned and the household is sent in to disarray. Although Hastings earns to be a detective, this case might prove to be too much for an ameture. Hasting speculates that if only the odd, meticulous, but brilliant Inspector Poirot were available the case would be solved in no time. And whom should he meet unexpectedly in the village… Why Poirot himself!

This is another first mystery novel that betrays the newness of the author. Long and meadandering, with a lot of contasting clues and misdirections, The Affair at Styles can drag a little. Although not the most dynamic novel, it still has all the great elements that Agatha Christie is known for. Not the least of which is Poirot himself. Fastidious, exacting, Belgian, Poirot demands as much from his suspects and friends as he does for himself. This mystery kept me guessing until the end, and I would recommend it to those who enjoy murder mysteries, famous detectives, or novels about British aristocracy.

Do you have a favorite first novel? First work, first in a series?

Something New: Intermittent Fasting

I would certainly eat all day if allowed. But for several weeks, I found myself eating unhealthily, eating right before bed, or naps, and eating food which I know doesn’t make me feel my best. I searched around for something to reset me, and put me on a better path with my eating habits. I decided to try Intermittent Fasting.

I had heard about intermittent fasting and decided to give it a try bc it seemed like it might help me get out of my eating rut. The idea behind IF is simple. Here is what wikipedia has to say about it:
”Intermittent fasting (intermittent energy restriction or intermittent calorie restriction) is an umbrella term for various eating protocols that cycle between a period of fasting and non-fasting over a defined period. Intermittent fasting is under preliminary research to assess if it can produce weight loss comparable to long-term calorie restriction”

When I have heard this term, people are generally using it to mean eating for 8 hours a day and not eating for 12 hours a day or some other cycle of eating and not eating daily.

People use it for weight loss, to reset gut health, to reset eating habits, as an elimination or allergy diet, and more. There are a lot of variations with people eating for less time, more time, different times. Many people do not fully fast for their non eating times but drink coffee, bullet proof coffee, celery juice, a smoothing, or some such other thing.

As with almost every trend I follow or try, I’ve taken a very relaxed approach to trying intermittent fasting. I decided that I would try to keep to the idea of eating for 8 - 9 hours per day and “fast:” for 12 or so hours per day.

I’ve tried this method for a little over a week and here are my initial thoughts:
- The first few days were very easy. I ate from about 1 or 2 pm to about 9 or 10 pm (for reference, I get up around 6:30am and go to sleep around 11:30pm, taking a nap in the early afternoon). I found I was a little more mindful about my meals, ate well, and I felt quite satisfied.
- Even when I was “fasting” I still drank coffee with nut milk, tea with honey, water, etc…
- By the third or forth day I found I was starving and broke my fast early and ate basically all day (as one normally would).
- I’ve worked like this for the time I’ve been trying this method, eating only 8 or 9 hours per day for two to three days in a row and then being ravenous for a day or two, eating whenever I want.
- I’ve noticed that the longer I eat like this, the hungrier I am each morning. I wonder if this is physical or psychological?
- It’s been hard to navigate events, or a differing routines. During the time I’ve been trying this eating method, I went away for a few days and it was hard to keep to only eating 8 hours a day, or eating and fasting at the same time each day.
- The easiest days are those when I stick to my normal routine and take a nap in the late morning, early afternoon. We already fast the entire time we are a sleep and sleeping more makes it easier not to feel famished.
- Most days that the method is working for me, I eat two large meals, one early in my eating time, and one later. There are days (especially when I’m working) that I nosh the whole 8 hours, but AI think I prefer the two big meals.

I feel like I could have initiated this trial in a better way. Perhaps slowly building up my fasting time over several days, or setting more defined parameters for myself. But as I have started the way I have, I plan to continue as such, adjusting as I go.

Have any of my readers tried this fasting method?

2019 Goals | January Recap + February Goals

For every month in 2019, I plan to make and post goals here, and then check in with them at the end of the month to see how I did.

For January | 2019

Inbox to 0
I’ve already started working on this in the last few weeks and have gone from over 8000 messages still in my inbox to just over 4000. I want to have it completed by the end of the month so I can move on for the rest of the year.
I did not get my inbox to 0, but I did delete or organize over 3000 emails. Only about 3000 more to go!

Find 2 Japanese resources
I’ve already downloaded a lesson book. I would like to find some writing and reading resources to work with as well.
I found several resources for learning Japanese in Jan! I was off to a good start the first week, but haven’t done anything since.

Blog at least 4 days every week
I did pretty well on this in Dec, so I hope to continue in Jan.
I may not have posted four days in every week, but I posted enough to make me happy.

Photograph 6 items per day for mad cat market
Weather permitting. I feel like if I set this lofty goal, I’ll at least do more than I have been currently.
This goal was nowhere near completed, but I did make some decisions this month. I want to totally revamp, rebrand and rethink this shop which I did work on a little in Jan. We can revisit this goal another time.

Add 12 listings per week to mad cat market
This is pretty much the same as above.
See above.

Add tags to 100 blog posts
Right now, I only use categories but I think tags will be easier to find and cross reference.
I prob only tagged like 15 old posts and tried to add tags to a lot of the new posts I made.

Overall, I feel like this was a medium month for achieving my goals. Not bad, but not great.

For February | 2019

Inbox to 0
Let’s keep trying.

Have 1 life admin day
I learned about life admin days from MuchelleB and I think I need one! This is where you get things sorted that you would normally put aside, things that don’t need to happen every week, or month, but that you’ve been wanting to do. For me, this might mean making appointments, sorting out billings, taking the car to get serviced, etc…

Study Japanese 2 days a week
This seems doable.

Morning Walk 3 days a week
Not sure about this one, but I want to get back to taking morning walks, and them being distinguished from walking to work. This goes along with a goal of wanting to get outside more, as well.

Blog 4 times a week
I want to keep this up before moving on.

Add tags to 40 blog posts
Seems more reasonable.

I’m feeling good about my February goals. It should be a busy month! What are your goals for the February?

January Plant Update

I feel like I spent most of January in doors. I did have some plant observations but this was a slow month for it.
What months are you less inclined to get out and observe?

Bathroom Pothos

First snow of the year.

A visitor and some indoor plants.

This local magnolia is always fuzzy.

Who knows what February will bring for plants?

What did January look like where you live?

January in Review

Alright, the year is 1/12th over. Full steam ahead, go go go.

January was cold, busy, and brief. Lots of work, lots of naps, lots of cold walks.

We visited with family, celebrated with friends, watched the sky and stayed at home. And now January is over.

Only 48 more days until Spring. Let’s get started.

Zero Waste Recipe: Vegan Kheer

A few weeks ago I made a kheer inspired vegan rice pudding and a lot of people asked for the recipe. When I got out all the materials to make it again, I had completely forgotten how I made it the first time! So this recipe is a version of the original and perhaps eventually I will make another recipe for that one as well.

Kheer is one of my favorite Indian dishes, a simple rice pudding. This vegan version so so easy to make.

Ingredients:
Cooked (leftover) rice.
Light coconut milk
Cardamum
Nutmeg
Sugar
Thai ginger
Vanilla extract
Saffron

Equipment:
Medium sized pot
Spoon
Knife

In a pot, combine coconut milk, spices and a small chunk of ginger, chopped. Add rice and cook over low heat until mixture starts to thicken. Once desired thickness serve warm or cold. I garnished mine with a simple fruit compote but I like it just as well plain.

A few notes:
-I used batsmati, but you can use any leftover rice you have at hand.
-Saffron was in my original recipe, not the one pictured here, but I included it here bc I thought it added quite a lot.
-I used whatever sugar I had to hand, but you can use maple syrup, agave, coconut sugar, etc… You can also use only a smidgen of sugar to make this a more breakfast friendly recipe.

Using leftover rice, coconut milk out of a can, and bulk spices make this recipe low waste. I really love that this recipe is super creamy even though it’s vegan and I appreciate that it’s not overly coconut flavored.

What are your favorite simple dishes that use left overs?

Chagrin Valley Soap And Salve Company Review

Disclaimer: My product reviews are completely unsponsored and unsolicited. The opinions are my own from my own experiences.

Last year, while spending time in Cleveland, I came across the Chagrin Valley Soap shop. I brought home one of their shampoo bars and very much enjoyed it! Since then, I’ve tried several different shampoo bars but none were as nice. Last month, I ordered a few more bars from them.

From start to finish, I had a great experience!
I chose the Citrus Chamomile Shampoo Bar, the Citrus Soapnuts Shampoo Bar, and the Cocoa Butter Hair Balm. Ordering from the site is very easy, and shipping was shockingly fast.

I was so pleased to see that all the packaging was plastic free! One never knows what to expect with packaging, and it made me thankful to that I didn’t have to worry. The first bar that we opened was the citrus chamomile and so far we love it. We’ve used the hair balm a few times, and it’s also quite nice. The soap bars are large and judging from the one I got over the Summer, it will last a long time.

I look forward to using these products more. The plastic free packaging pretty much guarantees I’ll be purchasing from Chagrin Valley Soap again. I can definitely recommend these soaps if you’re looking for a reliable shampoo bar!

Wolf Moon Appreciation

One of my goals for the new year is to observe the celestial. I thought I would have a great opportunity to do so on Jan 21st when there was to me the first Super Moon of the year. A full moon in January is called a wolf moon and this particular one would have a lunar eclipse, and there fore also be called a Blood Moon. The shadow of the earth falls on the moon giving it a bright red apperience.

I was feeling pretty lucky to have such an amazing convergence of heavenly delights to observe so soon into my new goal! And then I got the timing wrong. So I missed it. It was a good learning experience! I now know that if I want to observe the skies in a mindful way I will have to be quite purposeful about it.

Here are a few articles I read recently about the moon:

Two really good articles with photos from this moon.

Apparently there was also a meteorite strike on the moon at the time of the eclipse.

And here’s some ideas for celebrations of future moons.

Did you get to see the Super Moon?

Zero Waste Fail for Xmas

Each year at my work we have a holiday party. For 2017 I implemented ditching plastic straws at work, moving to paper straws and only giving them out upon request. At the holidays I thought it would be fitting to give everyone on staff a metal straw.

To keep the tradition of zero waste gifts up in 2018 I decided to get everyone some bamboo utensils. I found some super cute little sporks. I tried to make sure they were sustainably made, a good company, the right fit for what I wanted to convey with the gift. I felt at least mostly satisfied and made my purchase. 50 bamboo sporks.

And then they arrived.

Yes, every single one of the 50 sustainable zero waste-use items I had bought was wrapped in it’s own plastic bag, and each 10 in turn were wrapped in another plastic bag.

The horror.

The absolute horror of it when I opened the mailer (also plastic, BTW). Even though I tried to be as zero waste as possible I was wasn’t at all. But it happens. You can only do your best, and work with what you have.

As I unwrapped every single spork, I thought about how my coworkers would like them and how it might save them from using disposable utensils. I thought about how more people know about or ask questions about zero waste bc they work with me. And I thought about how I would have to drop all these tiny plastic bags off at recycling.

Even though the was a fail, I will learn from it. What fail have you had recently?

Goals, Habits, Routines

In this series I explain low impact terms, lifestyle terms, and other verbiage that I use on my blog and in my daily life, simply, in case they are new to readers. In some cases, I have done some research on them, but these definitions are mostly what I understand them to be and how I use them.

My readers have heard me talk a lot about goals, habits and routines. For these simple everyday terms I have written the dictionary definition below and then gone into detail about how I use them.

Goal
”The object of a person's ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.”
Goals for me are anything I am striving to do. This can include creating a new habit, or building a new routine. It can also be saving money, traveling, or being productive. See some recent posts on goals here:

Habit
”A settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.”
I try to create habits for things I want to be better at or practice. I want to have habits for productivity, learning, wellness and

Routine
”A sequence of actions regularly followed; a fixed program.”
I love to have routines! Utilizing routines help me keep my habits and meet my goals. Some routines I have are long and take hours to complete, some are short (like a leaving the house/checking the cats routine), some are rigid and some are more loose.

Are these the definitions you would use?

On My Mind On Friday Morning

I loved the photos in this article about snowflakes. Close ups of them never cease to amaze.
Towards the end of 2018, NY was buzzing about mandarin ducks in Central Park, but one of our favorite Zoos have had them all along.
Xmas is over but I wanted to share these well wishes, shell ornaments, and a very beachy xmas tree in NJ.
You might remember that we want to get a wood stove. But there are downsides to this fuel as well.
I’ve saved the last few lettuce scraps and started a little lettuce garden. I’ll be excited to start more seeds and plants, and transplant these little lettuces to pots or beds.

My Favorite Thrifted Items from 2018

I’ve been seeing a lot of posts about people best thrifted items from 2018. I started to think about what I would include in my own. 2018 was the year that I really rekindled my love of thrifting, even opening an online vintage clothing shop. Looking back these were the thrifted items that really stuck out to me.

Black Wool Coat
I love this coat!! It’s almost a bat wing coat in black wool with suede details on the shoulders. It’s cozy and warm and makes me feel very scandanavian chic.I got this coat for $10 at a local thrfit shop.

Oversized Chair
We knew for a long time that we wanted a big puffy chair to cozy up together in. Something bigger than a chair, but smaller than a loveseat. We found the perfect chair at our local ReStore shop. We paid $49 for this chair and every single person in the house loves and uses it.

Rainbow Mugs
In 2018, I decided that I wanted more rainbow mugs and kept an eye out for them throughout the year. I use them every day and they make me happy! I like that they have become a collection and they lend themselves to the curated living feel that I want to achieve.

Spiderman Notebook
I’ve talked about this one a lot already bc I use it as my bullet journal, but I love it!! I love using a thrifted bok, I love the size, I love that someone else lived this book and there are drawings scattered throughout.

As you can see all my favorites this year are very useful or utilitarian but also my personal style definitely shows through. What have been some of your favorite or most used thrifted items from 2018?

The Big Why Behind the Habits I Want to Create

One trick to building new habits is to have a strong reason for doing them. Most people will tell you that in order to make a habit stick you have to be super motivated for them to work. You have to have a “why” behind them.

When I talk about the habits I want to make, I mention why I want to make them, but here I want to state in a simple, straightforward and brutally honest way,

Here are the habits I was working on in 2018 and continue in 2019:

Stretch everyday - I’ve never been a stretchy person and I don’t want to be old and feeble, or unable to bend and tie my shoes, etc…
Dish free sink - The sink get gross and I would rather it be free and clear. This helps make doing many tasks easier.
Read everyday - Reading makes you smarter and reminds you that the current digital age is not the only way to live.
Morning pages - I want to be able to clear my mind and think about my issues.
Daily Face Massage - I’m not getting any younger, but I don’t want to look old
Clutter-free couch - Why have a couch if it’s too messy to sit on?

What are some of the Whys behind your habits?

6 Things To Do This Year to Become More Zero Waste

In 2017 I started my zero waste journey. Zero Waste is the goal, mindful practice is the action. When I use the term Zero Waste, that is my ultimate goal, but Less Waste would be a more accurate description of my evolving lifestyle.

One of my 2019 goals is to be come better at being Zero Waste and Plastic Free. I made huge strides in this effort in 2018. If this is your goal too, here are 6 ideas, one for each month in 2019 until Plastic Free July, of things to do to generate less waste.

January - Trash Audit
Since we are mid way thru the month, this is a perfect time to take the next few weeks and observe what trash you are generating. This is a very easy way to see areas where you might reduce your waste. Use paper grocery bags to separate your trash into at least 4 categories: plastic trash, other trash, plastic recycling, other recycling. At the end of January, share your thoughts and results here in the comments!

February - Declutter Everything
The beginning of the year is always a good time to clean and declutter your space. Feb is the perfect month for this bc it’s short! Use whatever method you most like and works for you. Go crazy Marie Kondo style, or just your usual cleaning and declutter routine. When the month is over, give yourself a break, whether you’ve finished or not! Make sure you let us know any insights or tips you might have at the end of this month! What was wasted, what was essential?

March - Switch to Paper
An easy beginner switch to make is to ask for paper bags at the grocery or for your take-out lunch. Asking for paper is a good start to prime you to bringing your own reusable bags. Paper bags can be reused and recycled or composted. These paper bags are great to use as your trash bags. Now you’re choosing to use paper over plastic for trash bags, too! (See how many paper grocery bags you reuse and fill for the month. Was it less or more than your January trash audit?)

April - Compost
I know this one is scary for a lot of people, but composting is super easy. You can compost anywhere and there are more resources than ever before. All you really need to start is a bucket or a bowl and a place to take your compost. This can be your back yard, your balcony, your local dump, your local farmers market, a community garden, or one of many more options. How much food waste do you collect in a day, week, month, year? In April, we’ll talk about what we can do with the compost we are creating.

May - Meatless Monday
The meat, fish and dairy industries are notoriously wasteful. A great way to make an impact is to lessen your participation with them. A lot of people transitioning to a meat free diet will start with one set day a week where they avoid meat. Variations on this could be going dairy free or vegan one day a week, going raw one day, or raw before four, or eating only local, etc… The beginning of Summer (in the US) is a great time to work on this bc there are so many fresh food options. Share what you might give up or some recipes below!

June - No Bottled Water
The month before Plastic Free July can be all about giving something up. If you are still buying bottled water it’s time to give it up!! If you’ve already given up bottled water, try giving up disposable coffee cups, say no to plastic straws, stop using plastic utensils or plastic food wrap. There’s a ton of things that can be given up this month and it will prep you for a month of plastic free living. What will you stop using this month?

I hope these simple zero waste tips help you in the months to come. I will post more about each of these ideas in the month they take place. Would people be interested in a link up for each month?

Remember, going zero waste, low impact isn’t easy. We can only start where we are and do what we can. Every little bit helps.

Bullet Journal Check In: January 2019

I started my current journal half way thru November of 2018. I’m not one to start a new journal for the start of the year. I don’t make a grand show each year switching over with lots of fancy new spreads, etc… I really only do a few over view spreads, like an index and a future log. All of my other spreads I make new each month.

For Jan I have been watching a lot of new journal set ups on you tube and there are some spreads I might try to incorporate this month and in months ahead. But mainly I just use what I know works for me and continue to tweak how my bullet journal helps me be more organized and productive.

I’ve talked about my current journal and how I thrifted it in another post. It’s a very different size than I’m used to and it took me about two month to figure out how it works best for me, but now I’m loving it!

You’ll see that my Bullet Journal is very minimal and utilitarian and I really don’t mind if I make mistakes or try things that do not end up working out.

I like that this journal is so large that I can put my monthly calendar and tasks on the same page. I follow this same practice for my habit tracker and my goals. My tasks are appointments and and items that I try to get done each month. My goals are more aspirations that I want to fulfill each month. Intentions and inspirations.

All of these are different than the monthly goals I’ve been setting in this blog.

For January, I had room to put a content calendar for this month and the next. I’m still trying to get the hang of using this, but I have found it more helpful than not, so I keep at it. I also have a general idea of the content I want to post each day on the bottom of the calendars.

The next spreads are my sleep tracker and blog tracker. I like the content calendar for theoretical content, but I always track what I do actually post. I use the space under these spreads for various things, different each month.

New to this month, I’m tracking the clothes that I wear each day. I want to couple this with outfit of the day photos, but I haven’t gotten that far yet. I’ve tried to track my clothes before, but this is really working for me this month. This month, I’ve been adding the clothes as I wear them, but in the future, I would like to write them all down more neatly.

The next page is an example of my daily spreads. In this journal I find this layout the easiest and most effective. I have been trying to journal a little bit about each day with all the space provided.

Below, after another page of dailies, in which you can see a shopping list, and some ideas for a reset day, is a completely failed cleaning spread. I hope to figure out a way to use this or something like it in coming months, but for now, I just gave it up.

What do you do with unused spreads?
How do you plan your months? What does your January spreads look like?

Last Bus to Woodstock

One of my goals in 2019 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

Last Bus to Woodstock, An Inspector Morse Novel by Colin Dexter. Read by Kevin Whately.

I finally caved and started buying digital audio books. I really held out for a long time, listened to every free audiobook that audible had (that interested me) before I bought new books. I waited for such a long time partly bc I knew that I would want to buy so many books!! And I was right. I still take umbrage at the prices, but there are a lot of books on Audible that are quite reasonable. I was delighted to find a whole trove of Inspector Morse novels for under $10.

Inspector Morse eyes a possible new partner as he is called to the scene of a grisly murder. As the two investigate and are constantly confronted with lies along the way, Sargent Lewis gains insights in to the odd but effective methods of the cantankerous Morse. Lewis soon learns there’s a softer side hidden there, too.

Now, I’ve long loved PBS’s Mystery series and Inspector Morse is a great one! I also particularly like the spinoff, Inspector Lewis. I’d been looking to read the original books but never managed to pick one up. In this, the first book in the morse series, we are introduced to Morse, not everyone’s favorite police inspector. He’s off beat, weird, love opera and whiskey, is prone to angery explosions. He doesn’t work or think like other officers but he gets things done. He takes a shine to Sargent Lewis, who thinks more traditionally, more by the books. Together their skills combine to solve the convoluted murder of a young woman. It might have been by destiny that they become partners, or it might have all been by Morse’s design. I really enjoy Morses grumpy style and the subtly of the back story of the characters. Last Bus feels like a first attempt, but it was very enjoyable. I can’t wait to listen to more of this series. One of the things I loved most about this Audio book was that it was read by the actor that played Lewis in both series!! I highly recommend this book for those who like police novels, British novels, and murder mysteries.

Do you have a favorite Inspector?

Mad Cat Capsule | Winter 2019 (Jan, Feb, Mar)

For this Winter capsule, I started collecting some of the items I wanted to include early, and yet it still snuck up on me! That’s kind of how I’ve felt about Winter in general.

I knew months and months ago that I wanted the weird cat dress two piece that I found thrifting to be a focus of an upcoming capsule. In Winter I got to bring it out and use it as inspiration! I’ve liked black and white in the last few capsules and I was happy that this piece had those colors. I also picked up the dark red, teal and navy blue. The main colors in my Winter capsule are black & white, brown, navy blue, maroon, dark grey with pops of teal and light pink.

For this capsule, I think I chose far too many dresses and skirts. I really love them all and I want to wear them, but I know myself and I doubt I’ll use all the ones I picked out in the next three months. But I really want to have the option of wearing them, so I did include them. The way that I use my capsule, I could always go to my back stock of clothing, but I prefer to only use what’s in my current capsule if possible.

10 dresses - Black and white rabbit dress (3+ years old), “new house” dress (3+ years old), velvet dress (new second hand vintage find), blue floral dress (5+ years), black sweater dress (3+ years), denim dress with pockets (10+ years), spaghetti strap midi dress (not pictured, thrifted), brown floral wrap dress (not pictured, 10+ years), grey long sleeve (hand me down, 10+ years), cat dress (thrifted and vintage).

6 skirts - midi black skirt (5+ years), leather (vintage, thrifted), velvet (vintage, thrifted), sweater (new to me but vintage and thrifted), blue cord (vintage and thrifted), red with pockets (new to me but vintage and thrifted).

10 pants - Cat leggings (these are part of the set with the cat dress but together they are a look and a little hard to wear. Vintage, thrifted). silk harem pants with pockets (new to me, vintage, thrifted), engineer jeans (thrifted), brown pants (thrifted), black skinnies (thrifted), levis (thrifted), black wide leg (vintage and thrifted), eileen fisher brown linen (sustainable, ethical, thrifted, new to me), high waisted plaid (new to me, thrifted and vintage), black AA leggings (ethical, sustainable, 10+ years).

9 sweaters - teal (3+ years), wool raindeer (10+ years), wool turtleneck (new to me, vintage and thrifted), black eye (vintage, thrifted), dark gray “katie” (gifted, second hand), cashmere (thrifted, new to me), blue stripes (10+ years), brown floral crewel (from one of my first jobs, vintage), black turtleneck (not pictured, new to me but a new favorite!! Vintage and thrifted).

12 “fancy” tops - brown silk (thrifted, vintage), blue silk (thrifted, vintage), nubby blue silk (thrifted, vintage), gold secretary (vintage thrifted), “versace” print (new to me, vintage, thrifted), levis tunic (thrifted), stars button down (10+ years), b&w floral (5+ years), brown floral (vintage, thrifted), everlane pocket top (ethical, sustainable), silk mock neck (thrifted, vintage), grey mock neck (thrifted, vintage)

11 layering tops, tees, tanks - grey waffle tee (10+ years), brown waffle tee (10+ years), brown henley waffle tee (10+ years), work tee (locally made), AA dark grey v neck (10+ years, ethical, sustainable), Happy Birthday Sandwiches tee (thrifted), the following are not pictured: maroon crew neck (ethical, sustainable, 10+ years), teal v neck (ethical, sustainable, 10+ years), 2 black tanks (10+ years), another black tank (5+ years).

9 shoes - velcro vans, brown pointy booties (vintage, thrifted), zipper boots (thrifted), emily boots, black flats, white vans, black snow boots, feral robbins buckle boots (small business, 10+ years), high suede boots (vintage and thrifted).

I don’t usually count leggings in my capsules, but I want to really pare down and make sure that I am only keeping what I actually wear. I don’t yet include outer wear, sleep wear or intimates. This capsule comes in at 57 pieces which is right around where my capsules usually land. Around 45 of the items are slow fashion with many being second hand. I think this capsule is very much different than my last one and I’m excited to wear it!

Once I complete my capsule, I try to leave it alone. I often find pieces to add or substitute but I never try to find them. For this capsule, I will keep my eye out for a few new to me items. I would love to have a few more light pink accents. I’ll look for a tank top or tee for layering, or a cozy sweater.

What are you wearing this season?

Off Season: Asbury Park Post Office

One of my favorite places in our city by the sea is the Asbury Park Post office. Built in 1912 and in continual use, it’s a very lovely old building tucked into a quickly modernizing city. Functional and beautiful, the PO sits close to the train station, police, and administrative building on Main Street, Route 71. It has a grand sweeping exterior but inside is full of beautiful small details.

Below is a pic from the early twenties when the post office was first built. in the thirties is was renovated and a back extension was put on.

I’m not sure when the above photos were taken but the modern PO looks just about exactly the same, now. That tree on the south east corner of the property is still standing and shading people waiting to cross Main Street instead of a hedge row, there are roses around the perimeter. I found these photos here.

Although not a luxurious stop in a fast growing beach town, this gorgeous link to the past is well worth a visit!!

Monthly Goals - January 2019

All the goal setting in the beginning of the year has me itching to get things done. I posted my overall goals for the year, but I want to make some smaller goals for each month, as well. Some of these align with the larger goals. Some are just things I need to get done.

For January | 2019

Inbox to 0
I’ve already started working on this in the last few weeks and have gone from over 8000 messages still in my inbox to just over 4000. I want to have it completed by the end of the month so I can move on for the rest of the year.

Find 2 Japanese resources
I’ve already downloaded a lesson book. I would like to find some writing and reading resources to work with as well.

Blog at least 4 days every week
I did pretty well on this in Dec, so I hope to continue in Jan.

Photograph 6 items per day for mad cat market
Weather permitting. I feel like if I set this lofty goal, I’ll at least do more than I have been currently.

Add 12 listings per week to mad cat market
This is pretty much the same as above.

Add tags to 100 blog posts
Right now, I only use categories but I think tags will be easier to find and cross reference.

When making these goals, I didn’t realize that they are almost all about technology. I like that without trying, I made a theme for this month.

These seem like actionable and achievable goals for this month. What are some of your goals for January?

December Plant Update

December tends to be a tough month for plant observations, and this one was the same. It’s cold, Winter has set in, it’s a busy month, and this year we were sick for a big chunk of the month. There were still some good plants this month. December was a month of critters! Perhaps this we should be calling these posts Plant and Animal Observations?

On a warm day, Tom checks out if there’s any catnip left.

Our garden, waiting for spring.

The pines are happy in the yard.

The vines are happy in the kitchen.

December was cold, but there were enough warm days to go to the beach.

Can you spot the cardinal and blue jay?

Some stray kitties getting special attention.

A night visitor.

A happy sidewalk.

Very festive front yard.

Also festive.

We don’t get an xmas tree anymore, which overall we are happy about. But there is something nice about having an ever green in the house during the darkest days and winter months. I’m always happy to visit family who continue this tradition.

It’s been a great year of plant observations. I love to go back thru and see what was happening in each month. In the coming year, I hope there are many garden posts, many houseplants observations, and lots of getting outside into nature!

What were your favorite plant moments of 2018?