• Deciding to Follow My Passions and Other Thoughts Over Yarn

    13/02/2017 - By 

    This weekend we went out to a coworker’s house for brunch, which was very nice and I got to meet their super-sweet kids. It was fun to run after a super energetic toddler and have the simplest things make him laugh. And they have Cornish Rex cats!! I took so many photos of their furry friends….the Rex cats look like little princes and are super soft. That took most of Saturday and the rest of the weekend was taken up with movies and crochet. I find crochet so comforting and meditative. There is also something very tribal about having soft…

  • Setting Up an Indoor Herb Garden in Canada

    08/02/2017 - By 

    It is COLD outside, here in Calgary, and I am so grateful that I have an indoor herb garden blessing me with a bit of green to cheer me up. Outside is a beautiful white blanket of snow! I prefer to be insider, finding it prettier to look at than to be in-haha. The temperatures make it unbearable to be outside! When it is white, white and more white outside, it is nice to see a bit of green and smell the uplifting scent of basil in your kitchen. My succulents and cacti are cheerful, too, but I love the fact…

  • Setting Up Grief Counseling

    06/02/2017 - By 

    Today Josh and I spent the morning talking to a grief counselor to set up sessions for Hunter. We figure he doesn’t need much but would love to set up a therapist for him so he has the tools and the dialogue to use when he needs it. Josh and I just don’t have any idea how to proceed with this… and a neutral person, outside of the family, to talk to may be just what Hunter needs. He tries to talk to us but it is a stunted conversation that he stops if he sees me getting too sad…

  • Easy T-Shirt Yarn Tutorial

    Easy T-Shirt Yarn Tutorial

    01/02/2017 - By 

    After decluttering my closet, I had a lot of t-shirts that weren’t really worthy of sending to a thrift store. I considered making rags out of them, but I have enough cleaning rags. Instead, I decided on t-shirt yarn! You can make a myriad of things with t-shirt yarn and I have an addiction to crochet, so it is the perfect choice. My heart is set on making a t-shirt yarn rug, like the ones my grandma had scattered around her house. She braided and sewed her rugs together but I am going to attempt to crochet mine. They will…

  • A Quick Five Minute List to Organize Your Whole Week

    30/01/2017 - By 

    Today is the day. I say that every Monday, as I see Monday as the day of the week worthy of mini-resolutions. Far from stressing me out, it creates a sense of order and renewal within me. As soon as I have finished packing the kid’s lunches, I sit and eat breakfast, notepad by my side, planning my week every Monday morning. I don’t go too grandiose.  I make a giant list of everything I can think of: from “clean out the pantry” to “make hard-boiled eggs”. Those items are amazingly different! The pantry could take me two hours whereas…

  • Why I Mostly Failed at the First Attempt to Have a Capsule Wardrobe

    27/01/2017 - By 

    Fear. I failed because of fear. I got rid of 90% of my clothes and shopped for a brand new wardrobe. I did alright! I stuck to my budget and got a few new shirts and pants to wear. All in neutrals so that they would all go together, thinking I would add in my pieces with bursts of colour when something caught my eye later on. And jewelry! I could add in bright, beautiful scarves and jewelry as colour pops. Great, so I was ready, physically, with my list as a plan. Off I went. Mentally,  a smaller wardrobe…

  • Five of the Easiest Ways To Get a Handle On Your Finances.

    25/01/2017 - By 

    The other day, Josh and I sat down and made the beginnings of some very big decisions. Actually, a long time ago we did that. We made some very vague goals for our future a few years ago, did a couple of quick meetings with advisors (who gave us some vague advice) and patted ourselves on the back. We are great at being adults, we thought. We, of course, followed through on nothing and a few months later felt stuck-again. Like hamsters in a wheel, I tells ya. So we made some more decisions and some promises to each other.…

  • Hunter Turned 6 Years Old!

    23/01/2017 - By 

    Hunter turned 6 years old on Friday, January 20th. My children turning one year older is not something I take for granted, as I used to. Hunter’s birthday was full of joy tinged with sadness. He mourned the fact that his friend B. couldn’t celebrate with him as she was so excited for his birthday this year. We talked to the moon, where she lives, and we made her an invitation and a goodie bag in case her spirit made the trip. Hunter was able to let those rituals lift his mood a little bit and was able to celebrate…

  • A Creative’s Take on the Konmari Method.

    18/01/2017 - By 

    I felt crushed by clutter when I came across the Konmari Method and her book, The Magic Art of Tidying Up. I did not have a hoarder’s palace, by any means, but every time I had to go from tiny pile to another tiny pile of stuff to find what I was looking for, I felt dispirited, my energy sucked dry. Frustrated also became a common emotion; like an old friend, it would hang out in the back of my heart ready to jump out and squeeze my lungs until my frustrated, shallow breaths became a norm. I could feel…

  • Feeding the Soul By Creating.

    16/01/2017 - By 

    There is an Aesop Rock song, called “Rings“, that starts out with the lyrics: “Used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw, portraiture and the human form, doodle of a two headed unicorn, it was soothing, moving his arm in a fusion of man-made tools and a muse from beyond…” (Hear the whole song here.) And even though I never used to draw, I do connect deeply with these lyrics. When we do things that feed the SOUL rather than just our pocketbooks, it is deeply satisfying and almost tribal….and very therapeutic. Whether it is art, journaling,…