Posts

Mortgage? Meh. Renting? Meh.

Mortgages, hey? I dunno. I let go of home ownership when Little One was young. A home at that time was over $800,000. I couldn't even cover groceries let alone build savings. We got through it, however, and over the years, I stayed true to my value of providing for her a magical childhood filled with incredible memories. And now she is older... We get to revisit home ownership. I am currently petsitting on a farm in my hometown (population 1500) for the next three weeks. Where I am situated there is food storage, cold food storage, greenhouses, a giant garden, fruit trees, lush marijuana plants, a well-stocked pantry, pets and three months of food stored... Wandering out of the land of impossibility and back into our rural mountain town, possibility returns. Living in a metropolitan area for the past 15 years, I witnessed so many humans putting all their life energy into mortgages. The level of joy and quality of life in those locations is underwhelming. Renting for life has been a

I Sewed Patio Cushions!

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I realize that sewing has been something big inside of me for a lot of my adult life. My mom (Little One's grammy) was a seamstress; thus, sewing was a part of our lives growing up. She didn't really teach us to sew (and none of us really were interested in sewing) but sometime around my early 30s, as I got into graphic design, typography and screen printing, I developed an incredible love of working with fabric. Sewing became something that I finally just had to do. Now, I've had some crappy sewing machines over the years. My mom clearly saw the inner textile artist in myself and Little One, however, as she wanted to give me her Pfaff Creative 1471. It never made it to us, however; she died before it made it to us. I later found out my sister hijacked it. Recently, as I was working on another crappy machine, the Singer Prelude (given to me by same sister), I simply had enough. I went to find a machine on Facebook Marketplace. I had one in mind, gave the seller a heads up t

The 16 Year Old Quilting Project

So here is a fun story: When I was very pregnant and living very, very far away in buttfuck nowhere, I signed up for a quilting class. I wanted to make Little One a quilt. I hadn't much sewing experience, however, my mom was a seamstress -- so I knew I had it in me. The class was held over three weekly sessions. It was an ongoing wonder if I would make it to the end or go into labour before that last class. Sure enough, I gave birth to the most joyful human being before I could complete the quilt. 16 years later... This past week, and in a town far, far away from where I started making the quilt, a Repair Cafe came up. It would include members from a quilter guild who would be available to mend quilts. I grabbed the unfinished quilt, brought it in and said, "I started this 16 years ago and need guidance in how to finish it." Long story short, I think I just joined a quilters guild and will learn to finish the quilt on Monday! My kiddo is 16 years old this year. I will gif

Good-bye Sugar.

 As many of you know, I like food and I like healthy food. I went years without eating sugar. From around my child's first year of life until six years ago (about 9 years total), if sugar was anywhere on the label, I did not purchase it. I didn't bake with it and I just didn't eat it. (However, I did have organic, dark fair trade chocolate in my freezer at all times.) I got to the point where sugar was something I had no interest in, nor any craving for. My child was not raised on sugar -- it was just our norm. When we changed cities, however -- and then began working outside the home, that all changed. I would like to go back to no sugar -- but it really takes a community. Moving is something that always changes my eating habits. Without my go-to stores, my eating habits changed drastically. Also, when I was working from home all those years, I had full control over my meals at all hours of the day. Work and school environments are notorious for offering despicable choices

We're Off to Collect Spring Water

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Over the course of her lifetime, we have gone up to the headwater to collect spring water. This came about after going hiking and adventuring with a friend who wanted to show me the spring. With very simple access, it is just on the side of the road of one of our favorite outdoor play places. We've been passed it numerous times and I had never even realized it! After being shown this, I dreamed of having spring water as our regular drinking water. The reality however, is that I was not able to get there regularly nor did I think it made sense to drive that far to gather our water. We continued to drink tap water and with great gratitude made trips to the spring when we were out that way. Recently, and after a decade after being shown that spring, there has been a big shift in our lives. There is a huge sense of heading to the springs regularly. This has been floating within me over the past week or two. Soon after, we found ourselves at the spring filling our big jugs for the fir

Halloween Pumpkin Carving 2022

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We carved pumpkins today! I wanted to make an evil gerbil. I needed a reference and our gerbil, Sparkle, provided a great one. Little One also got to work on something awesome -- I call hers, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star'. She says it has acne.