Local.

Buy Local.  Seriously, do it.  They are calling it The Local Multiplier Effect and it's pretty cool.

"...spending your money at independent businesses begins a cycle in which those businesses then spend their money at local shops, and so on." 


from ApartmentTherapy.com & ReadyMade Magazine



The contents of my purse.

1. Set of car and house keys with the “Jamaica – No Problem” keychain I bought in Ocho Rios c. 1992

2. Dior coin purse, full of good luck charms

3. Stack of blank postcards from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

4. Baker Creek Heirloom Seed catalogue (www.rareseeds.com) which is my current train reading material.

5. Microsoft Zune – I’m such a nonconformist, right?

6. Pens: one black Sharpie, two red Flairs, one blue Flair, one blue ball point, one black gel finetip

7. Vintage Carrera sunglasses, purchased at The Standard hotel

8. Moleskin daily planner, definitely the most valuable thing of the batch (on a personal/emotional level)

9. Moleskin NYC guidebook (even though I’ve been home from vacation for almost a week)

10. Blank notebook, I guess I should get another Moleskin, huh?

11. Digital voice recorder that I’ve never actually used and I think the batteries are dead, but I still carry it

12. Envelope containing ticket stubs, handwritten notes, stickers, and other ephemera from January 2011

13. Blank checks, because you never know.

14. Coin purse used to corral tampons (which used to roam free)

15. Best wallet ever, purchased at Target and a direct knockoff of some fancy one, but in a cooler print and one-tenth the price

16. Ulta shea butter pen/wand thing, great for your cuticles. Okay, great for my cuticles. My mangled, chewed up cuticles, poor things.

17. SPF50 sunscreen stick that I use on the backs of my hands. It’s like deoderant but made of sunscreen and I think it was made for babies but I end up scratching myself whenever I use it which is probably why it was 75% off at RiteAid.

18. Eyedrops. No comment.

19. Blank “thank you” cards, because you just never know.

Unicorn.

"If you're not drunk, you are the unicorn" - overheard at a Denver poetry reading by @milkmakesmehurl

Lunch lunch lunch. Dinner.

Lunch: Spanish rice, cheese and black beans.
Dinner: Coconut-tomato soup with cilantro-lime rice and sweet corn.
Recyclable Containers: Smart & Final about $6 for 50 lids or 25 bottoms.

2011 resolution: camp more

Potrero Hill Community Garden, San Francisco

add to the reading pile

Buddhist nun joins forces with 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' author
The siblings' book, Rich Brother, Rich Sister, celebrates both business acumen and Eastern religion. The Long Beach nun wonders: 'Am I selling out?'

By Louis Sahagun February 9, 2009 (LATimes.com)

seems so obvious

“Peace Meals is about switching our mindset from saving time to making time, because it is the special people and small moments that make the big memories.”

-Dena Prasher, Cookbook Chairman
http://www.juniorleaguehouston.org/

to do in 2009

renewable resource - gratitude

"We are all walking around with an amazing resource: gratitude. It helps us express and enjoy, appreciate, be thankful and satisfied with a little effort. We all have it, and we need to use it to improve our quality of life."

- Steven Toepfer, Kent State University

cleansing by fire

“The feelings right now are difficult to describe. One of the hazards of monasticism throughout the centuries is we become attached to what we have or where we are. This is simply a reminder that what we are called to is not our stuff. This is a cleansing by fire.”

-Brother Brown, Mount Calvary Monastery

Monks Turn to Reflection With Monastery in Ruins from NYTimes.com

resort living

making it look effortless

Oh You Pretty Things by David Bowie

Recorded for the BBC in 1972, originally released on Hunky Dory in 1971

happy 100th to an LA original

keeping the old guts in check

thrifter's salvation

lifetime supply $10

learn how to use it

take it into your own hands

Guerrilla gardener movement takes root in L.A. area
by Joe Robinson
LATimes.com


There is no law against planting on city landscaping, except for ficus trees, whose roots wreck roads and sidewalks. The city discourages unapproved gardening but tries to work with road planters it discovers. "If you want to do this, my advice is to contact myself or the council person," says Arevalo. "We want to partner with people who care about where they live."


At a time of shrinking city budgets and skeletal landscaping staffs, it's a hint at where guerrilla gardening could go -- to approved brigades of citizen gardeners helping cities turn wasted space into food and flowers.

size and strength are relative measures

"A gentle hand may lead even an elephant by a single hair"

-Iranian Proverb

babies must feel drunk all the time

quilting - the ultimate in art and utility