January 2018 OMG

I'm way behind on two quilts I was supposed to complete. Finishing one of these will be the first One Monthly Goal of 2018!!

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I still have to baste these quilts, quilt them, label and gift. These are both small and finishing one of them should be a doable goal!!

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts to start another great year of OMG!!

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December in Review

Another year, done and dusted. 2017 was pretty tough, but it had so many great moments as well, and December is a perfect example. 

We dealt with sickness, stress, anxiety, this month but also new beginnings, goals achieved, spending time with family and friends, and greeting our newest family member!

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We didn't get to the beach or to travel as much as we would have liked. But we always try to squeeze those things in where we can. We decorated, cooked, played clue, took walks, and chatted with family and friends for the holiday season. For those who are far from us, we talked on the phone, texted and sent photos. I didn't get to send a holiday card in 2017, but there's always new year cards!

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The weather turned brutally cold and the holidays are a hectic time at work, so we didn't get to walk too much, but some #watchercats were seen, and some were right under our noses at home.

December saw sickness and new beginnings. We're still fighting off illness in our clowder of cats, and I'm hoping January will see a break from sad babies and sadder cat mom (me). We are still figuring out our new addition, but check it out! He already has his own insta! 

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In Dec, we tried to eat well, stay cozy and keep the Winter blues at bay. We weren't always successful. But discovering a juicy new apple, spreading light through our house, listening to records, plant maintenance, plus more self care, helped us see some bright sides.  

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For this the last month of 2017, and for the whole year with all it's ups and downs, we are thankful. We are thankful for a new year ahead. January 2018, here we come!!

MCQBOM² / 5

This is sweet churn dash variation that I found from just searching google for simple blocks. I looked back at the link after I made it and you can find that here. I really like this small squares in this block for MCQBOM² . 

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This churn dash was sooooo easy to put together and really cute. I didn't get a chance to take a photo of all the blocks together but this one came out way smaller than the rest. I might add a boarder, but who knows!

I'm linking up around the web today. 

December Plant Update

A lot going at home on this month meant that not too many plants were mindfully observed besides our own house plants. We did get about and about to see some plants, luckily. 

Guest room house plants have the best light. 

Guest room house plants have the best light. 

Blurry new shoots on our eternity plant. 

Blurry new shoots on our eternity plant. 

Our back yard just as the now starts. 

Our back yard just as the now starts. 

And more snow in Ocean Grove. 

And more snow in Ocean Grove. 

And a little festive snow. 

And a little festive snow. 

Were you too busy to plant gaze this month? Or were your plants observations on point?

I'm looking forward to a new year of plant observations in 2018!!

Best Nine 2017

I started finding my Best Nine on Instagram last year and I love it!! Instagram is really the only social media I participate in (besides this blog, of course!). I try hard to curate my feed and this year, I ended up starting two new instas. I now have a quilting insta (link above) and one for our new kitty, Irving. I did this bc I want my personal instagram to look a certain way, and it could easily get filled with only my cats and projects. 

These are my Best Nine for 2017:

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I think the above collage is a good representation of my aesthetic style and of my lifestyle. 

Below are my Best Nine from the last two years. As you can see, my feed is still mostly cats. 

2016

2016

2015

2015

It's interesting to look back and see the natural color themes of each year. It seems that since moving to the beach my palate has become more neutral and washed out. I don't really try to follow a color theme, but I do use a few favorite themes/filters. I notice that I naturally have "color runs" on my feed, where, over a few days, I tend to snap pics of like colored scenes. I guess this depends on my moods's eye. Does this happen to anyone else?

Who else loves Best Nine? 

Buddhism For Beginners

One of my goals in 2017 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.

Buddhism for Beginners by Thubten Chodron is not the type of book I would usually read, but it was offered as a free audio book from one of my subscriptions so I gave it a try. I loved the reader, Gabra Zackman. 

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Growing up I was taught about multiple religions by my non religious parents. I had picture books about The Buddha, Shiva, Anansi... Although I had some previous ideas about the Buddhist methods, this book was a plain language, simple explanation of the Buddhist teachings. 

I won't be converting to Buddhism, but I took a lot from this book. It's core concepts of love, compassion, mindfulness, and careful speech, thought and action really resignate with me and my beliefs and ideals. This is a nice introduction to these concepts, plus the more complicated beliefs of Buddhism. It also gives the reader a good overview of the history of the religion and it's branches and how Buddhism differs from place to place. I really liked the reader for this book. The launguage can be confusing even in its simplest forms and the concepts can be daunting so it was nice to have a really pleasant reader for this introduction to Buddhist teachings and practices. I would recommend this book to those interested in learning about Buddhism, those who like self help books, books on history and culture, or those looking to be more mindful in day to day life.  

I listened to half of this book twice, I had started it, put it down for a while, and when I went back I decided to start it again. The calm reader, and the wonderfully peaceful ideas are soothing and easy to listen to over and over so this is a book I plan to listen to again and again. 

What books do you like to read more than once?

Recipe | Zero Waste Dry Shampoo

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. 

I don't really use beauty products. I don't put my face on, I don't wear makeup, I don't style my hair, I barely brush it. But I thought I'd talk about a few grooming staples I've come to know and love.

When I was young, I had to wash my hair every day. Had to. Or else it would become an ratty oily mess. Starting a few years ago, that changed. Now if I wash my hair everyday, it becomes brittle and dry. What the heck? 

While I still lived in Brooklyn, I found a dry shampoo in a spray can and tried it out. I had never used it before and it was great! I love dry shampoo. It allowed me to not feel totally gross between hair washes. Once I started reducing my waste and plastic consumerism, I figured dry shampoo was out. But I did a little research and not only did I discover that plastic free, zero waste dry shampoo was a thing but it's about the easiest recipe ever!

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Ingredients:
Arrowroot powder
Essential oils
Cocoa powder for dark hair

Equipment:
Container or shaker (I reuse one from Burt's Bees baby powder)

Combine ingredients and shake well.  I have blondish hair, so I omit the cocoa powder but I have head that for dark hair it works like a dream. 
To use, I either shake some on my brush or directly on my hair and comb through. Be careful not to use too much, you don't want to look like you're wearing a powdered wig. You can always add more! Make sure to comb or brush it through all your hair so it is coated and looks "clean". 

Now, this is easily a zero waste recipe. But truth be told, mine wasn't. I got the arrowroot in a plastic bag. Although I intend to recycle the bag, next time I'll get my arrowroot in bulk. Also, my brush and combs are plastic. I won't throw them away, until they are totally broken and not able to be used. But when my plastic brushes do die, I have my eye on a hand carved wooden comb from mermaidtrousers. I've seen some nice wooden brushes out there, too. 

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I also use this powder in my shoes in the summertime to keep my feet from getting sweaty. So from head to toe, I find this powder works great!

What are your simple zero waste beauty care swaps?

MCQBOM² / 4

For this simple, square heavy, Mad Cat Quilts Block Of the Month I took inspirations from Pat Sloan, once again. 

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I like this block bc it's easy to break into little units and piece together. I think this block would be a great one to bring for travel sewing. Below is the photo I used to create this block. Pat Sloan's sew alongs are great, and I highly suggest looking through them for inspiration. 

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I'm linking up around the web today, at Monday Making, Move it Forward Monday, and more. 

Mad Cat Capsule: Thinking About Shoes in My Capsule

While thinking about my next Mad Cat Capsule Wardrobe, which will be for Winter (Jan- Mar), I decided that one area of my wardrobe that makes me feel lost/overwhelmed/cluttered is my shoes. So I decided to really take a look at all my shoes, pare down, and think about adding what I was left with to my upcoming capsule. 

I have a lot of shoes that I have barely looked at since we moved, three years ago! Turns out our basement gets a little mildewy and I have not wanted to delve in and go thru (plus clean) my shoes but when I started feeling overwhelmed by my shoes, I knew I needed to. 

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I started by going thru all the shoes I had upstairs first, which were plenty. They are also the shoes that I wear more often and love well. These are mostly sneakers, some boots, and my flip flops which I live in in the warm months. While going thru, I made a list of all the shoes I found in my Bullet Journal. Next I moved on to the shoes in the basement. One of my goals was to pare down enough to only have one box of shoes downstairs. Since I started out with two boxes of storage, this felt like a really good, if a little challenging, goal. 

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At the end of the day, I had a small give away/throw away pile, a very small maybe pile, one box of storage, and a lot of shoes that I wear and can go in my capsules. Most of the shoes in my storage box are formal wear, sentimental, or super summer shoes. Those are going back to the basement. I also know that I have a few pairs of shoes floating around that I didn't capture in this declutter. I'll have to find those and determine if they are keepers. 

The next step will be to further pare down the shoes that I do wear, and break them into capsules. Right now, I'm thinking that I will try to incorporate my shoes into my Winter Capsule. I am trepidatious about this bc I'm sure this will up my overall capsule count. Even though my capsule is not about a set number, one of my goals is to reduce the amount of clothing I have and keep a smaller over all wardrobe. My end list ended up being about 40 pairs of shoes. Even though that includes shoes that I keep for sentimental value, that seems like an absurd amount. 

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Do any reader keeping a capsule wardrobe include shoes? How many shoes do you own, whether you keep a capsule or not?

OMG December

Although I did have a finish in November, I did not complete my November OMG. It was a month that I thought I would get a lot done, but it all went by so fast! December promises to be just as hectic, but I'm still hoping to get a lot done on a little ladder quilt that I've been working on.  

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That's a vague One Monthly Goal, but I'm gonna go with it!

I haven't had the most productive OMG year. Here's what my One Monthly Goal 2017 looks like:
Jan - Quilt Maybe Lyz - Not Finished
Feb - Quilt Tom Mat - Not Finished
Mar - Finish Tom Mat - Not Finished
Apr - Finish Little Baby Quilt Top - Not Finished
May - Finish Little Baby Quilt Top - Finished!!
Jun - Baste and Tie Little Baby Quilt Top - Not Finished
July - Baste and Start to Quilt Little Baby Quilt - Not Finished
Aug - Sew Honey Pot Bee Blocks into a Top - Finished!
Oct - Baste Little Blue Quilt - Not Finished. 
Nov - Baste Little Blue Quilt - Still Not Finished

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts + OMG, and around the web!