I’ve become really obsessed with the ideas of upcycling and repurposing lately. Two incredibly awesome ideas that both mean relatively the same thing: making something old into something new. It’s great for the planet! :D

Upcycling

Upcycling is basically the process of taking old, unused or unloved things and turning them into something completely new. For example, when I made a quilt out of all my old jeans, I was upcycling :)

Some awesome upcycling stores I’ve found:

• Olga Road – New leather jackets made from old, out-of-date thrift-store leather items
• Freitag – making used truck tarps, bicycle tires and seatbelts into awesome messenger bags and loads of other items
• Etsy! – Etsy stores have a massive number of upcycled products that are just amazing! Some of my favorite are spoon rings and these rugs made from plastic grocery bags! And check out this rug made of vintage clothing. Love it!

Repurposing

Whereas upcycling is the process of turning something old or useless into something completely different and new, repurposing is the process of making something old or broken into something similar that is useful and purposeful again. For example, if I rescued an old, ugly lamp and then sanded and painted it and made a new lampshade, I would be reporposing that lamp. Many websites also call this recycling although it’s not, really.

Two awesome repurposing blogs I’m following:

• My Repurposed Life – This lady buys old furniture for less than $5 and makes it into new and beautiful things!
• Studs and Pearls – This creative blog by a 20-something in NYC is all about making your own clothes and jewelry by repurposing thrift store clothing – and she has great taste and ingenuity :)

Given my interest in do-it-yourself projects, frugality, and hand-making things, I guess I naturally would think these are awesome ideas!

I hope over the years, we’ll continue to see more people choosing to recycle, upcycle and repurpose old throw-away thrift store items. I know I will — saving both the landfills from the eventual trash and myself from consuming overpriced new things that I don’t need!

What might you upcycle or reporpose?
Time to be creative!!

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I usually read non-fiction but I’m trying to read more fiction these days. In 2010, I believe the only fiction books I read were The Rosetti Letter and Bookends. Although those books were great (!), I aimed to read more than two fiction books in 2011… and so I did.

Last year (2011), I read 12 books. (Only twelve?! I know! At least I read twelve!) Of those books, four (33%) of them were fiction. P.S. Not included in this list are the seven Harry Potter books that I read every summer. In this year’s case, Cory and I listened to the books on CD while moving from Anaheim to Huntsville and during our month-long motel stay as we sorted ourselves out in Texas.

	Living On The Earth — I pored over this book as I dreamed of living off-grid and setting up a homestead on some rural land somewhere :) Overall, the book is a nice read; it’s obvious that the author poured a lot of love into the book. It’s packed with great information about off-grid living and do-it-yourself, frugal advice and ideas.
	Gaia’s Garden — A fantastic book! I am really interested in someday having a huge garden that, for the most part, maintains itself. I love what I learned in this book, especially about using stones, water, and different plants to create tiny ecosystems within a plot of land. This book contains a wealth of information but is not for a novice gardener – readers should have a good understanding of gardening before buying.
	The New Organic Grower — This book was loaded with great information, but it was really targeted at people looking to run full-scale small farms. I’m more interested in just growing food for myself, my immediate family, and maybe a little surplus, so a lot of the info was superfluous for me. The chapter on marketing was great but way more info than I needed. I wanted so badly to love this book but I ended up just thinking of it as a useful reference book. Oh well.
	Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming – I read this book slowly and really employed the practices in this book step-by-step as I read along. While reading, I became utterly fascinated by lucid dreaming!! I have a detailed dream diary from the period of time that I was reading this. Over time, I have begun to develop very vivid dreams, great dream recall, better control in my dreams, and many more lucid dreams! I find it thrilling to “wake up” in a dream and maintain the dream, playing around in my subconscious! I will be playing with the ideas in this book for years to come :) I read this in an e-Book format on my old iPhone, but I’d like to get my hands on a physical copy.
	Shit My Dad Says — Mostly silly – a few of the quotes were really hilarious but overall I’d say it was a “meh” book. I thought the twitter feed was fantastic so I decided to give the book a try – it didn’t quite meet my standards. — I sold it on Amazon for what I paid for it xD
	Banner in the Sky – This was a book that I LOVED as a child – I think I first read it in sixth grade. It’s about a boy living in Switzerland in the late 19th century who dreams of climbing the Matterhorn (in the book it’s called “The Citadel”). I remember thinking that this was the most EXCITING tale that ever happened… and I hadn’t read it since then. Fast forward to today, I re-read this book for three reasons: 1) I couldn’t remember how the book ended, 2) I remembered it being awesome and wanted to read it again, and 3) I really got into rock climbing in 2010 and quite liked the idea of reading a novel about the Matterhorn!! The book was even better today than back in ’96.
	Hatchet — This was another childhood favorite of mine; I believe I read it in fifth grade (1995). I hadn’t read it since and I remembered it being just SO dramatic. Reading it again, it WAS dramatic… as in, melodramatic! I thought it was very interesting and entertaining, but also so eighties-novels-for-kids style of writing. Nonetheless, the story is truly great. I still love it, but not as much as I did in 5th grade :P
	Eat, Pray, Love — Totally took me by surprise. First of all, buying it, I thought Eat, Pray, Love was fiction. It’s actually a memoir and it is AMAZING!! The story follows Elizabeth Gilbert across Italy, India, and Bali after a nasty divorce as she works on finding herself and finding peace and happiness. The first third of the book is completely my-life-in-Italy and I was laughing and crying the whole way through. The rest of the memoir is just unbelievable and so heart-warming and empowering. Worth the read! — P.S. the movie was mostly crap.
	The Devlin Diary — After reading The Rosetti Letter, I had – for some time – wanted to pick up this second book by Christi Phillips. In my opinion, this book was even better than the first!! The story is about a female doctor in the 1800′s in England who battles against the laws of the time which were against women practicing medicine, all while a great story of murder and intrigue surrounds her life. I fell in love with the main characters and found this to be a lovely tale. The book is a split-story between the 19th-century doctor and a historian working at Cambridge in present day. The historian is a carryover character from the first novel.  — Side note: Christi Philips keeps a blog about the books she writes and it’s pretty witty :)
	White Teeth — This story is EPIC! And hilarious, and slightly disturbing in that awkward British humor sort of way. The story encompasses three generations of three different families, most of whom are immigrants, all living in London. It mostly takes place in the 1970′s, with flashbacks to the 1940′s. Though most of the story’s parts didn’t seem to make sense together (to me), I was so engrossed and entertained that I read straight through to the end anyway. The last few chapters are amazing! The way everything tied together really tickled me — whew, what a great book!
	Committed — After loving Eat, Pray, Love so so much, I had to read Elizabeth Gilbert’s second memior/non-fiction. Committed wasn’t anything like the former book, but it was very enjoyable in its own way. The book is an exploration of marriage over all time and in many different civilizations – it offers an incredible overview of marriage’s history and she gives many unique insights into the concept of matrimony. I really enjoyed this book, though not for the reasons I was expecting :)
	The Source Field Investigations — I’m still in the process of reading this book, but I thought I’d list it here anyway as I’ve already begun giving out copies as gifts! This incredible compilation by David Wilcock is a collection of much of the published but under-publicized studies in quantum physics and metaphysics – and theories and research on how they all tie together. Some of the discoveries are absolutely mind-blowing! Just thinking about this book makes me so happy for the future. It’s definitely worth the read if you’re into opening your mind and thinking about fascinating science! ;)

By the way – I swap books, didn’t you know!

Some of you may be curious about the cost, etc. for these books. Truth be told, I prefer a well-worn book to a new copy any day. That said, it should come as no surprise that I LOVE the book-swapping website PaperBackSwap!!!! It’s very cool. I obtained most of the books above by swapping :)

PaperBackSwap.com allows you to list books on their website to swap with other members. As your books are requested by members, you pack the books up and ship them out. Books that you ship count as credits on your account, which you can then use to request books (for free) from other members. How awesome is that?! The only price involved is the cost of shipping your books to others, and the process of swapping gives old books long lives and many uses!

What did you read in 2011?
♥

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The vinegar in my cupboard :)

If you spend any time on green- or sustainable-living blogs (as I do in copious amounts), there is no doubt that you’ve come across information on the (literally) hundreds of uses of white vinegar. I was dubious but decided to give some of the suggestions a try… and now I am obsessed. Obsessed!!

In the last couple of days, I have seen vinegar outperform more expensive and toxic alternatives, and seen it do things I never knew were possible! I cannot wait to see how many applications I can find for vinegar in the long run :D

This weekend, I used white vinegar to:

• Deodorize a Trash Can – In this case, vinegar did what soap could not – remove a foul odor lingering in a plastic trash can. I just filled the bin with water, added a little vinegar, let it soak overnight, then rinsed. No odor! It also, without effort, removed the stickers that were permanently adhered to the bottom of the can :)
• Clean Stainless Steel -  the outside of my Berkey water filter is shiny, polished stainless steel and it is always smudged with fingerprints and watermarks. All my soaps leave a film on the surface, but not water and vinegar! I mixed water and vinegar (equal parts each) in a spray bottle and spritzed some on the metal, then wiped. Voila! Sparkling clean.
• Perk Up Leafy Greens – The lettuce in my fridge is getting a little old and wilted – enough so that I had none to put on my sandwich this afternoon. So I soaked a few leaves in cold water with less than 1 Tbsp of vinegar for about five minutes and the lettuce was like new! Fresh lettuce! And it didn’t taste or smell like vinegar at all.

Also,  in the health and hygiene category, I’ve found that vinegar can:

• Deodorize Your Body – As some of you may know, I am currently experimenting with wearing no deodorant/antiperspirant. Most of the time, there is absolutely no adverse smell at all (yay!) but when I work up a sweat, things get pretty stinky pretty fast. Yesterday, I was beginning to stink and Cory and I were heading to a restaurant for dinner, so I sprayed both of my armpits with vinegar and (despite smelling like a salad for a few minutes) the odor completely disappeared! [The vinegar smell evaporates and disappears once its dry.]
• Boost Your Health – Because of the numerous health benefits, last night Cory drank an 8-oz glass of water with 2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar and 1 tsp honey and this morning he reported that he felt great. When I asked him for details, he just said that he felt “way better.” Yay! [My suspicion is that his pH levels have normalized. - People who eat lots of meat and dairy experience acidic bodies, and apple cider vinegar helps to alkalize your blood and therefore balance pH. Also, it helps detoxify your organs, specifically the liver and kidneys, which would make anyone feel better!]

My little vinegar water spritzer (1:1 vinegar to water)

Here are some articles I’ve recently read about the uses of vinegar, in case you’re curious about how you might use vinegar in your home.

• 254 Uses for Vinegar… and Counting by Paul at WiseBread
• 131 Uses for Vinegar (nicely broken down by usage category)
• 20 Unusual Uses for Vinegar by Stephanie of EcoSalon
• 23 Ingenious Uses for White Vinegar from Care2.com

Happy vinegar adventures to you all!

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Can you believe that before yesterday, I had never known how to make a paper snowflake? I know! It’s tragic. I can’t believe how easy they are.

After stumbling on this how-to for 5-pointed paper snowflakes, I decided I had to make one… several ;) I wish I was one of those people who had origami paper stashed away for just these situations, but as it is, I used sheets of scratch paper. I folded the pieces of paper in half diagonally and cut off the excess to make square papers.

After making some 5-pointed snowflakes, I had to then try 8-pointed folding — the easy 2nd-grade version where you just fold the (square) paper in half diagonally 4 times, always the same direction, then cut.

I love them! They just make me so happy :)

Snowflakes for 2012

Happy January!

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Vegan Baked Potato and Veggies (Indian?)

This recipe is very flexible and below I’ve given explanations for how/why.

I know it looks LONG, but this recipe is really very easy to make and the ingredients are very simple!

INGREDIENTS

1 russet potato
1 large carrot, sliced thinly
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
~1 Tbsp onion, diced (I used red onion, any will do)
~2 Tbsp fresh chives, chopped

olive oil
crushed red peppers (optional)
cayenne (optional)
thyme (optional)
salt & pepper
nutritional yeast (optional / or substitute with cheddar cheese for non-vegan)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400°F

Potato: Scrub potato with vegetable brush under water, then dry. Prick potato all over about 15 times with a fork. Cover the potato with a coating of olive oil (usually 1 tsp will do) and rub the skin with some salt*. Place potato directly onto oven rack in the center of the oven and bake for about 50-65 minutes, depending on the size of potato (my medium-size potato took 60 minutes).

Veggies: When the potato is about 20 minutes from being done, prepare all the vegetables. In a frying pan, begin cooking the carrots with a teeny amount of olive oil on medium-high heat. After 1-2 minutes, add the onions. After 2-3 more minutes, add the celery, garlic, chives, and a little water (2-3 Tbsp).

Stir everything up, then add the spices: a light dash of red pepper (more if you want it really spicy), a light dash of cayenne pepper (more if you really like cayenne!), and a REALLY light dash of thyme (a little thyme goes a long way). Add a light dash of salt and a dash of pepper.

Cover frying pan with a lid** and reduce heat to medium. Cook another 4-6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Finally, add the kale on top of veggies and cook on low-medium heat, covered, for 3-4 minutes until the kale is well-steamed.

Combining: When the potato is finished, cut it in half lengthwise and open it up completely to let it cool (on a plate). Score the white insides to help the potato cool and open up the halves even more. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and nutritional yeast (or if you must, cheddar cheese), then pour all the veggies op top and eat!

That’s all. I’m so happy to be sharing my kitchen adventures with you :D

Although I have several great vegan and vegetarian cookbooks, I rarely follow recipes… instead, I whip things up from scratch without knowing what the meal will become! LOL :P I’m so eager to use up whatever is fresh in my fridge that I end up with a lot of odd combinations. The ones that make it to facebook are only the recipes that turned out well :)

* Oiling and salting the potato will make the potato skin soft and delicious after baking – so you can eat the skin instead of throwing it away. Also note: you can bake the potato at 425°F for 40-55 minutes if you’re in a rush, but I think slower/lower temperature baked potatoes taste better.

** If you don’t have a lid, use a large plate or a crock-pot lid (that’s what I did :P). Covering the frying pan helps the veggies cook all-around without losing moisture.

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Misty's Vegan Potato Soup

This recipe was requested by many people on facebook, so here goes… VEGAN POTATO SOUP!!

My friend Misty made this for me a few days ago and I am STILL eating leftovers! The best part is that it reheats on the stove in a flash, so I don’t need to use the microwave ;)

The recipe is pretty loosey-goosey so don’t worry about exact ingredient quantities, or even exact ingredients for that matter! When I make it myself someday, I may add a couple of carrots :P

INGREDIENTS

10 or so yellow/soup potatoes, peeled and diced
3-5 stalks celery, sliced – leaves and all
1 small onion or 1/2 large onion, chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/3 to 1/2 purple cabbage
5-6 stalks kale, chopped – including stems
olive oil
vegetable bullion
nutritional yeast (optional)
salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS

Peel and dice potatoes. Bring 10 cups water to boil in a covered soup pot while preparing other ingredients. Add bullion according to directions or to taste — for this soup I believe we used 5 cubes of vegan vegetable bullion.

Once water is boiling, add potatoes to water in pot, stirring occasionally.

In a frying pan, saute onions and garlic in a negligible amount of olive oil until onions are partially clear and soft. Add the onion and garlic mix to the boiling potatoes, and add the cabbage and celery too.

A couple of minutes before the potatoes are thoroughly soft, add the kale for the last few minutes of cooking. When the potatoes are soft through and they begin to break when you stir them, t’s done!

Serve in bowls, add salt and pepper to taste (may not be necessary), and top with nutritional yeast if you want to  — I think it adds a nice nutty flavor to the soup.

The soup will get better and better as it ages! If you wanted to, you could keep cooking it until everything turned to mush, but in my opinion it’s ready to go as soon as the potatoes are done cooking :)

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A Hearty Dinner :)

Leftover vegan potato (+cabbage, celery, onion, kale…) soup made by my friend Misty :) DELICIOUS as leftovers! I had an egg over-easy in a basket (slice of buttered bread fried with the egg) and tomato warmed with garlic salt on the side. Oh, and I had crackers and cheese and grapes for lunch :P (feeding myself well…) — Happy New Year!!

P.S. I have a cold :S

P.P.S. Yes, this counts as post #1 of my 52-posts goal for 2012. I didn’t say they had to be LONG posts! ;)

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Sunset over Lake Michigan, August 2011

I’ve decided to start making videos again!

I have been making videos inconsistently since 2010… after almost 2 years of regular posing on YouTube and about 340 videos, I just burned out and I wanted privacy and freedom from the schedule, the pressure, and all the messages. As a result, I’ve intentionally been disconnected for a long while now, but these days I’m feeling more consistently extroverted and wanting to be connected and open. I’ve decided to commit to one video a week for the whole of 2012, or 52 videos for the year. (!!!!) In addition, I am going to make time to write in this blog once a week for my own enjoyment – 52 posts in the year 2012!

I’ve been through much in the last 1.5 – 2 years, only some of which has made its way into video: meeting and falling in love with Cory; learning about veganism in detail; bouncing up and down in weight around my goal weight; traveling to Seattle, Chicago & Michigan, Austin, and Yosemite National Park twice, and of course moving to Texas; really focusing on sustainable living; changing my personal style quite a bit; and becoming in many ways a much more calm, whole, happy, and mature person. I feel like I’m a completely different person from who I was in 2010! But I am, of course, still me and just more educated, experienced, balanced and aware :P

Lake Michigan - On my 26th birthday, August 20, 2011

Meeting Cory was definitely the number one most influential change in my life, followed by moving to Texas and having all my plans crash down around me. Oh, growing pains! It’s been a crazy ride, with equal ups and downs that have made me so much stronger and wiser.

I’ve been yearning for balance for a long time now without being able to attain it. Recently, I decided to switch my mindset and just BE balanced every day. All day, every day, I pay attention to my actions and feelings and I breathe deeply and make sure to enjoy every thing that I do. Suddenly, miraculously, balance has just come to me! I think being “balanced” is all about your own perspective on yourself and your life, and mine has really become a positive one as of late. There’s a season for everything, and I feel that my season for knowing balance is here :)

And regarding falling in love, I don’t mind that prolonged imbalance… as Ketut Liyer was quoted saying in the book Eat, Pray, Love:

To lose balance sometimes for love is part of living a balanced life.

:D

I wasn’t sure whether you all were still interested in watching my videos, after such a long period of sporadic video-making and broken promises on my part, but I guess you do! The status I posted to facebook about my new 2012 goals is the most popular status I have ever posted. Holy moly! Thank you, all, for following along! :D I hope I can continue to inspire and educate, and to love you through my little screen on YouTube :)

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In general, I tend to not spend a lot of time “looking back” and reminiscing on my life, mostly because I’m so excited to be living the life I’m living now. I don’t feel it necessary to reflect much except to meditate on my past and learn from it, forgiving myself and others and finding peace within. Lately, however, I haven’t been so happy with my life, and so I find myself reflecting often — and I’ve come to find that sometimes I don’t recognize myself anymore.

Where is the girl who was so full of spark and ambition? Who was always curious and creative? I feel as if she’s gone, hibernating somewhere.

In the last few days, I’ve been doing some deep pondering about why I’m feeling so forlorn and I think today I finally figured out why. I’m out of balance. Not that I’ve ever been the queen of balance or anything (LOL!), but I used to have a lot more under control.

In the last several months I feel like I haven’t had anything in my life under control — I’ve only been able to manage one thing at a time, here and there. And I’ve been loathing myself for it. Loathing! I haven’t been eating right, I haven’t been exercising, the house is a often a mess, I’m not doing any creative projects or connecting with many friends… and I haven’t really been taking care of myself; I’ve been spending most of my time in pajamas, either working or watching movies with Cory. UGH I KNOW. Loathing.

But the loathing stops now. I have concluded that I should cut myself some slack. I realize now that I don’t give myself enough credit for what I’ve been through this year — a huge cross-country move to a land deal that didn’t pan out, resulting in a big dream crumbling in front of me.

Since arriving in Texas last July, I feel like I’ve had the hold button pushed on my life. And although I’ve sorted things out mentally and settled down here for now, it’s been really rough finding my peace and identity in this new situation, especially since I was completely unprepared for it. But after a few months of melancholy routine, I feel like it’s finally time to step up and take back my happiness.

So I now have new goals, and they are thus:

1. Love myself, no matter what.

No matter that I’ve gained some weight. No matter that I can’t be superwoman always. No matter that I haven’t sewn or coded something in who-knows-how-long… no matter what. I’ve been reading the Spread the Positivity and Operation Beautiful blogs daily as reminders :)

2. Aim for balance, not perfection.

As in: do enough work every day; do a little housework; take some time to move intentionally; take care to eat balanced, regular meals every few hours; take care of myself, spending just that little extra time to feel pampered and beautiful; and take time for creative pursuits, even if it’s just a few minutes per day.

I know I won’t get there overnight, but here’s to deciding to do my best to be myself again.

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Photo by Craig Blackmoore

The last few months, I have been deep in thought about stuff — more specifically, my stuff and my consumption of stuff. We all buy and use up and throw away too much stuff. I have done my best to be less wasteful and not buy into the horrible consumption loops so many of us live in today. I live frugally.

However, when contemplating moving to the woods this spring, I started to see things from a whole new perspective. That which I used to think of as “normal consumption” I now view as, “outrageously wasteful!” I’ve had a huge change in paradigm. When you begin to honestly evaluate the situation of living on your own in the forrest, with no trash service, no guaranteed water, and no sewage system except composting, you really begin to think about how wasteful we humans are (primarily those of us in the “first world”).

That said, now I can tell you about all the changes I’ve been making!

In June, I finally gave up shaving my legs. I just see no point in buying into that vanity and doing the whole shaving routine. Consumption loops closed: Razors, shaving cream, aftershave, body lotion. Also, lots of time saved ;) No, Cory doesn’t mind. It took me a long time to get used to it, though!

In August, I gave up wearing chemical deodorant/antiperspirant. Don’t worry, I don’t stink! And antiperspirant is terrible for you. It took about a week for my lymph nodes to “detox” and they STUNK horribly. But then they cleared up and I honestly never get smelly anymore (thank you, raw-foodism!) unless I’m working really hard and sweating. I hope to buy a salt deodorant bar soon for those kinds of days (salt kills bacteria = kills smell). Consumption loop closed: deodorant/antiperspirant.

In August I also vowed to never buy perfumes again, but to use natural oils for scent instead. I still have a few perfumes running out, and some body spray, but I won’t buy any more. Expensive, unhealthy consumption loop closed. I have several natural pure essential oils that I’ve had 15+ years(!!) that are still just as beautiful-smelling and interesting and safe as they were when I got them. Sustainability is the way to go! (And also, there’s just something seductive about oil scents :P)

Most exciting, I decided to give washable feminine napkins a try. I bought one washable pad from Naturally Cozy online in September to try out in replacement of my regular choice of tampons — I will be trying it out this month.

I really love tampons, but they’re just not sustainable. The wrappers are plastic, most of the applicators are plastic, the boxes are oversized… the only biodegradable thing about tampons is the tampon itself (sometimes). So until I plan on buying land, growing cotton and picking it and using a spinning wheel to MAKE TAMPONS (omg), I need something that is not a tampon.

These pads seem very promising — I will be trying this one out for my next cycle. The instructions say that once you’ve used a pad, just put it in a bucket of cold water and cover with a lid. Then, repeat with all other washable pads while you’re on your period, and then when your cycle is complete, pour all water and pads in the washing machine (even a Wonder Wash). She claims they will last at least 20 years, so if I like them I will be buying a lot! Hopefully I’ll be closing the tampon consumption loop soon.

[EDIT: My friend tells me there's a new menstrual cup called the Mooncup that lasts a long time. I used to be interested in the Diva cup, but I heard that it doesn't last long. I haven't been able to nail down the facts on how long the Mooncup lasts, but she claims it's something like 15 years! I'll keep you posted!]

So… how much of a hippie have I become! LOL I know. Hairy legs and pits, no deodorant, no chemicals… feels good. The best part is that none of the stereotypes I expected are playing out; I don’t look uglier, I’m not less sexy, I’m not smelly, I’m not dirty, no one looks at me sideways for my choices — it’s totally new for me…and totally natural! :P

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