I love this bamboo top! It is perfect for yoga or as a member of your regular wardrobe - really great as an under layer. Made of 79% viscose made from bamboo, 15% nylon, 6% spandex. I love the 3/4 sleeve. It is super soft, well made and both warm or cooling - wicking moisture in the warmer months. Perfect amt. of stretch. See link to this specific top below...
https://boody.com/products/scoop-top
This company, based in Australia, is focused on ecological consciousness. If you are looking for better for the planet textiles, here is one! They have undergarments, activewear, sleepwear and more, for both men and women. Children too. This is my first purchase but I will try more!
The clothing industry is under a lot of scrutiny right now due to the great harm to our planet that the production and life of clothing inflicts, especially where it ends up, sometimes having never been worn (see my blog entry further down about the truth of online returns.) Buying less but higher quality, versatile pieces from eco-focused companies is becoming a real focus and goal for me. I found this cheaper at Quimper's in Port Townsend than it is advertised online. Quite likely there are other local stores that carry this brand as well. If I find out about any I will add it to this post. Or let me know if YOU know of a store in the greater Puget Sound area that does!

I have a fairly easy and straightforward plastic challenge I want to offer you. You can do this easily and get a good picture of the various plastics that fill your trash can. Please check out the PDF below for instructions and watch my video below for a quick overview. Please email me or comment below with how it went and what you discovered! I hope you find it helpful and thanks so very much for caring about Mother Earth and the health of all living creatures!

As I sit hear listening to the song "Feeling Good" and with a new year upon us, I remember each moment is a begin again moment. 2023 is filled with so much potential that I hope we will both take full advantage! What holds you back from doing and being the ideal you or living the best life you can imagine for yourself? Some things may seem out of your control. And you are right in that you can't control others or all circumstances. However you have the greatest power there is. Your mind/thoughts/attitude!  What we think about and put our attention on influences our experience. And you CAN choose! It just takes a little practice and perhaps a little help. You are in luck!
Is the clutter and chaos surrounding you effecting your energy? Maybe feelings of guilt or shame trouble you around what you have to do, or not yet accomplished. Perhaps it is all the plastic you seem to toss into the trash with no-where to recycle it that make you regularly angry. Do you enjoy your life and your home? Are you full of energy and excited for each new day? If not, help is not far away! I love to help others! I don't pretend to be perfect or have it all figured out, with no issues of my own. But I can say I have had enough experience with struggles to be able to relate and share what I learned along the way to your benefit!
If you need help with your space, either with cleaning and clearing, or just paring down, I am here for you. Maybe you simply need to have a fire put under you to get started in order to make progress on your new years resolutions. Or maybe you want to explore looking at life from a different perspective because the one you have does not bring you joy and fulfillment. Asking for help is both brave and bold, and being vulnerable and opening up to your needs is a great way to crack things open in order to move into a life you LOVE!
Contact me for help with your space and/or your perspective! Both my energy coaching work and organizing help complement each other nicely and I love to support people who want to make improvements to their lives. Those who appreciate that they can't simply take a pill or wave a magic wand to eliminate all that they don't like in the world or in their life. We all struggle at times. We are community based creatures and we need one another. Let me help you now and you may be able to help me or someone like me, down the road. You are doing both of us a big favor! Let's make 2023 a GREAT year for humanity!  
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...and I'm feeling good! 

I was quite nervous about how I would do on camera filming this. Jenna was wonderful and made me feel comfortable right away and it all went very well, although there is more I had wanted to say about minimalism and being in the moment inside a tiny house. You have to be very aware of your surroundings so you don't bump into things! I also have to do some good squats to get to my toe kick drawers! I had fun downsizing and going minimal, although I had the luxury of having a place to keep some items (like memorabilia, holiday decor etc.)  A nice size shed could also do the trick, but this is temporary so my shed is very small and houses a few garden tools and such.
​Enjoy a tour of my tiny house. I look forward to sharing more about the upcoming pre-fab house as well!

I hate to break it to you, but the items you order which don't work out, especially clothing that does not fit, don't necessary make it back to the warehouse to be sent out to another customer. Instead, many companies chose to throw the perfectly good items away, rather than look them over and re-enter in the inventory to be re-sold. Mostly because it is "cheaper" for them to do this. It is especially bad, like I said, within the garnet industry. The BBC reported on this with their article HERE   Here is an expert...

Sarah Needham from the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at University of the Arts London says the flow of goods to customers and back to retailers is flawed both from an economic and environmental perspective.
“We know that many of the products that are returned end up in landfill before we even use them which only adds to the vast amounts of used items already ending up in landfill... These products use precious resources which are becoming scarce and we are throwing them away unnecessarily,” says Needham.
It turns out that returns not only create a giant carbon footprint, but a real headache for companies. That new pair of shoes you sent back, with the open box and the untied laces, needs to be handled differently to, say, a t-shirt with a rip in it. Many companies simply don’t have the technology in place to handle these nuances in returned goods, so it is often most profitable for them to sell them cheaply to discounters via a web of shipping, driving and flying them around the globe, or to simply truck them to the dump.
A recent petition arrived into my email box asking Amazon to stop sending so many perfectly good returns to the landfill as reported by whistle blowers in the UK who were asked by management to destroy a staggering number of items per month. Items destroyed are not limited to clothing. We are smart and creative and I am sure a better solution can be found. What a waste of all the resources it took to make, sell, ship, and return it. Then have it add to our ever growing trash problem.
In the mean time and keeping this in mind, when you order online next, please consider your options. Can you return the items yourself to a brick and morter store? Consider contacting the company about how returns are handles.  Would you be willing to donate it to a local charity, thrift store, your neighbor etc. if it isn't right for you? Perhaps you can find the item locally where it is easier to return it. Do you REALLY need it? Pause and think before you hit the "place my order" button. Mother Earth and all future generations say a big THANKS when you do!

Did you know? Food waste actually has a more significant impact on our environment than fossil fuels? And that you CAN make a difference?

Rotting food in our garbage cans, and then landfills, waste not only all the energy and water it took to grow, harvest, transport, sell and buy it, but it also produces methane as it rots. Methane is a greenhouse gas even more potent than carbon dioxide. Human-caused greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced if we reduce wasting food (buy only what you need and can eat, freeze stuff before it goes bad, eat up leftovers etc.) and if we compost our food scraps and waste instead of tossing them into the garbage. According to the World Wildlife Fund, in the US alone, the production of lost or wasted food generates the equivalent of 32.6 million cars' worth of greenhouse gas emissions!

Subpod, the makers of tools for composting and vermicomposting (worm bins) for apartment dwellers and home owners alike, is rocking the common person's ability to do something about it. They just came out with a new grow bag! I bought my daughter a worm bin for Christmas for use at her apt. But we quickly realized that the neat metal surround that she also got to place it in, make it look nice and give the worms somewhere to move about plus grow some herbs etc.,  was not going to work. Her patio is cement tiles, and that metal surround had no bottom! And their cedar box on legs was a little pricey for her taste, especially since she didn't know how long she would be at that apt. and it might be so heavy once filled with dirt, to move easily. Never fear!  Along comes some new grow bags! They can be used to grow veggies, flowers etc., but also a subpod mini will fit inside! Happy dance! I hope you will read on and consider how you can make a big difference in reducing greenhouse gases on the planet.

I am sharing this myth bust from Subpod then click the link below to read the full story:
Myth: There’s no point in composting if you don’t have a garden
Composting is one of the easiest ways you can cut your carbon footprint and help reduce the impact of the food waste problem. If just 1% of people living in cities worldwide started composting, it would have the same environmental impact as planting a 3.5 million acre forest. If that's not enough of an incentive alone, starting a worm farm like Subpod can even help you make a few bucks, since gardeners in your neighborhood might be willing to pay for a few bags of compost – or even some worms to get their own compost started!
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CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE

As I sit on my little grey couch and gaze past the white shiplap walls and out the tall picture window at the trees and sky, I am filled with peace. I am finally here. Nearly a year later than anticipated, but hey, who’s keeping track? Sigh. But I am here! I am in! I am… SO excited! My tiny is all I anticipated! I moved all my things over last week. I did it all myself and that actually worked very well. Not only did I think there wasn’t enough to move (always more than you think!) to get help from a friend, I HAD to do it one car load at a time. Because I had to find homes for all the stuff before I could bring in more stuff. So several cars showing up at once with all my items would have been very hard to handle. There is no garage or even a covered area to have things sit outside until I had room to bring it inside. Although I was wiped out by weeks end, it was what needed to happen. And I had FUN doing it!

FIRSTS!
First shower (plenty big) and first morning walk (new trails to explore). I used my oven for the first time. Great! I used the washer/dryer combo too. Not as great as it squeaked and smelled funny. Not a good sign. I have a call in on that one. First use of my new wheel barrel, boot brush (the mud here is out of control!) and machete - lots of blackberries to hack through! It is wild and untamed land. Which is cool, but the blackberries- sheesh! They are resilient little buggers! I also re-heated my first meal without a microwave. I pulled items out of my cute little Unique brand fridge about 40 min. prior, then on low heat in a small fry pan, reheated the chicken, then swapped it out and added the left over roasted veggies. Worked better than the microwave in this case as it didn’t mush the veggies nor dry out the chicken. I have been heating my milk on the stove for my Chai Latte - it’s actually frothier and more fun than heating milk in the microwave. Go figure!

It is so cute and fun to be in this cozy space! It is like playing house, or the playhouse out in the yard I never had as a child. I used to love to make forts as a kid. Whether inside using couch pillows and blankets, or out in the woods using downed tree branches or behind a bush. I was always building a little home! I also feel like a kid when I am up in the lofts. Remember when you crawled around in spaces as a kid? It just kind of makes you want to giggle! And the view from up high in the loft - so fun!

I just loved making up this space. It was like a game of tetris finding places for everything. And I would put things away, bring in another load and have to pull things out and rearrange to fit in the additional items. Very much a puzzle. But things are well organized and there are not many things here that wont get used. I hope. I do have a nice set of plastic dishes that never got used over the last 2 years because of the pandemic and not hosting any big gatherings. I will enjoy making a fire pit and burning up some of the fallen tree pieces that came down in wind storms this winter. I can envision friends pitching tents in the field and laughing into the night around a roaring campfire. And using my plastic plate set, finally!

It has become very apparent to me that you have to be much more mindful and in the moment in a tiny house. Things are close so you will bump into things if you are not careful. Things are tucked away, so you have to move things to get to other things. You go up or down the stairs or ladder to the lofts, carefully with focus so you don’t get hurt. I healthier way to be - present and aware, not lost in the mind and on autopilot. Then there is the need to squat down a lot, as things are stored even in low spaces. I am trying to squat rather than bend over. I think making each grab an intentional strength move is healthier for my back too. I am making a point to go up into the loft to sit and work now and then to change up where I am and to move around more. And I get outside more! All good and healthy things.😃