Seven Things that confirm I am living the kind of life I want...

(Click on photos to enlarge)

1. Jasmine tea in a glass mug.

2. A handful of freshly darned socks.

3. More seeds than I know what to do with!

4. Matt stirring a colorful Saturday Night Stir-Fry in my kitchen.

5. The blooming geranium over my kitchen sink.

6. Bringing home a full compost jar from the office every day.

7. Melty fresh biscuits with butter and cinnamon honey; steamed broccoli with cheese.

Something Remarkable

Once in a while, a person sets out to do something truly remarkable, something positive and something that is just truly an achievement. If you want to hear about one of these people, I suggest you check this out:

jessicawatson.com.au

Jessica Watson is a 16 year old Australian sailor who is on her way to becoming the youngest person ever to circumnavigate the globe solo, nonstop, and unassisted. In the last week she has rounded Cape Horn, passed the 10,000 mile mark (the whole journey is around 23,000 miles) and seen her parents (sort of) for the first time in months as they participated in a flyover off the tip of South America. I have been following Jessica's blog since she left Sydney in October, and every time I read it, I am totally heartened by the reminder she is of strength and courage in the human race and the sheer guts with which she has undertaken her voyage.

Besides her blog, there are news updates, a voyage tracker, and various videos from throughout the saga. The latest one is from her parents' flyover, I admit I cried at how small she looked in that giant ocean, a symbol of strength and humanity way out there away from the rest of the world.

Garden Planning!

My sort-of New Year’s resolution was to not look at my seed catalogs or think of garden planning until January. Well, January is here and I have spent the last couple days cracking out over my seed catalogs, dreaming and scheming and mapping out potential gardens. My neighbor Julie and I are co-using the garden space, so I can’t grow quite as much as I wanted, but I’m sure I’ll still pack in a lot. We chatted about what we want to grow/share (chard, arugula, and other greens) potentials for biodynamic gardening (something I’ve never really read up on, but which Julie is very keen on), and how to share the space.
Without much space to work with, I am planning on doing lots of interplanting (basil between peppers, feverfew between tomatoes, squash plants growing around corn) and using the back fence and trellises for vining plants. By using indeterminate varieties of cucumbers, peas, etc, the amount of soil space they take up is much less than bush varieties so I can fit more in overall.

It’s so much fun planning- I love the organizational aspect of it, and finding ways to barter, share seeds, and involve multiple people. My coworker Olga and I are ordering seeds together, and going to do some swapping as well from what we already have. Olga was wonderful last summer, bringing me lots of surplus produce from her garden and bestowing me with lots of herbs that would have been really expensive to buy from the store.
This year I will (attempt to) grow my own starts of tomatoes, peppers, squashes, cabbage, and onion sets. I may try starting corn inside too, as it takes so long to get going in the ground. Later this week will be the trip to the hardware store for good florescent lights with hoods, so I can replicate my mom’s plant-starting setup (which will occur under my dining table in the living room, as that is the only space available in my apartment for several square feet of planting pots and trays. Olga has a major surplus of starter pots/trays/supplies and is giving those to me for free! I always find it so amazing and gratifying how many things you can pick up for free or for trade, to save money and to reuse instead of unnecessarily putting more products into circulation. Olga is also going to trade me cucumber starts (lemon cukes and others) for tomato starts. We are trying to stick mainly to heirloom varieties of veggies in order to preserve traditional pure varieties and not funnel our money into hybridizing and patenting companies like Monsanto. Of course there are some hybrids that we both love (Bright Lights Swiss Chard comes to mind) so we will make a few exceptions.

Already my garden is getting going- my garlic came up before Christmas!

(click on images to enlarge)

I was not expecting it to show up until February at least, and was planning on fertilizing before it sprouted, but too late! I had talked with my dad about how/when to fertilize garlic, as fertilizing can make a huge difference in its growth, so last weekend I pulled back the mulch and gave both patches a dose of fish fertilizer (excellent for most veggie crops, dilution ratios differ for different types of veggies, all the ratios are listed on the container). Now it’s mostly just waiting. The sprouts are already several inches tall!

Here's some views of the garden space, from both ends:
You can see my compost bin (and the neighbor's rowboat) in the background.

Here's another view, on the same rainy day. You can where the garlic plots are "roped" off:

On top of everything else, loads of flower bulbs are sprouting! Check this out:


I have this feeling that I’ll be writing more frequently with garden updates as I get seeds ordered and everything set up for starting plants indoors.

Recent Crocheting Projects

Here are some photos of a couple recent things I’ve done with crocheting.

The first is a purse that I’ve taken forever to finish- I started it last spring! I’ve had all the pieces sitting around for months and finally got around to putting it together.


The purple heather wool came from Matt’s grandmother’s knitting bag, which he inherited when she died. It is a really fine wool, and tears easily, so I doubled it with embroidery silk to reinforce it. The lining to the bag is an old napkin from my kitchen that I cut down and hemmed by hand (before I had my sewing machine).

The button and the grosgrain ribbon for the strap came from a craft store. The crocheted section is just a rectangle, with pink embroidery silk instead of purple on one end, which became the flap. I sewed the napkin lining to it with dark teal embroidery silk- I was being a little sloppy with big stitches, but I really love the way it looks!


Once the lining was on, I folded the rectangle over on itself and “spiral” stitched the sides of the bag with the same teal thread, making sure to get the stitches through the lining to hold everything well in place. I folded the ends of the ribbon and put them right inside the edges of the bag and double stitched them with the teal thread to make sure they were good and attached. Then I sewed on the brass button, and I was done!

I didn’t use a pattern and just kind of made the whole thing up as I went, so I’m extra pleased at how it turned out. I needed a new purse, and it just fits my wallet, phone, keys, and glasses case.

The other projects are a couple more dishcloths that I’ve been crocheting in my free time at work.
They are made from wool, not cotton, so they shrink once they get wet and end up with a nice felted texture, so after my first one I learned to make them a little bigger, so they don’t end up tiny once they’re in the water!

Tracking My Spending

With graduate school on the horizon and a steady income available, I have been making a conscious effort to save money. Starting at the end of October, I have been tracking my spending, writing down every time I spend any money and what I spend it on. Just the act of having to write down every time I spend anything at all is good incentive not to spend! My goal has been to put $500 into my savings account every month, and I achieved that in November, but only put in $370 in December. I tried to curb my spending for the holidays and I know I could have done better, but all the events of the holidays, gifts, plus food for a family of four (five if Matt was around) for 3 days added up. I feel pretty good about how I managed, but wish I could have made my $500 goal in spite of it. I’m not particularly concerned about my grocery costs, I feel pretty good about those, but here is the breakdown for bills, leisure (eating out, candy, coffee, movies, etc.), and spending on Christmas gifts/events:

November leisure spending: $66.83

December leisure spending: $174.06

Christmas gifts/events: $123.32

My average rent/utility bills per month: $740.00

I can account for some of the increase in my December spending by the fact that I had a couple doctor/dentist appointments in December with copays, and a chunk of $40 to Deck Family Farm when I stocked up on their free range sausage and other pastured meat at the last farmer’s market of the year.

I have definitely cut down on buying things like coffee and candy, but I still succumb sometimes when I need a pick-me-up. I try to remind myself that it’s ok to treat myself once in awhile, and that the fact that I’m only doing it once or twice a month is making a huge difference. I feel that it’s not a sin to indulge if it’s done infrequently and if you don’t spend on a whim. I try to really think about what I want and if it is worth it, or is there something else I want to spend that money on. I love seeing the difference it makes, when I really do have money to spare at the end of the month and can transfer it into my savings. I’ve been living paycheck to paycheck since I got laid off a year ago, so it’s really nice to continue to live that way to control my spending, but know that I have a reserve if I need it.

My rent and bills each month add up to almost an entire paycheck for me (I am paid every two weeks), so my goal is usually to set aside the majority of the other paycheck into savings and spend the rest on groceries. If I think of it in those terms and plan ahead and keep good track of my accounts via online banking so I’m always aware of how much I have available, I feel in good control of my finances. I have not yet set a budget, as writing down my spending makes me think twice about what I’m paying for and has already helped me cut down drastically on my spending. I don’t feel trapped and have found a lot of good ways to be innovative and make things last longer, and do things with my time that don’t involve spending.

Christmas

Christmas has come and gone, and now it’s only one more day until 2010! My Christmas was a really wonderful one, one of my favorites so far. Mom and Dad and Tighe arrived from Spokane late afternoon on Christmas Eve, and I made Brazilian black bean soup, fried plantains, and salad for our supper. We attended the Christmas Eve candlelight service at First Unitarian Church downtown, and it was beautiful, 1,000 people and wonderful music. We stayed up late, hung stockings from my mantelpiece, and woke up to a clear blue sky and a gorgeous, sunny Christmas Day. We drank tea, dug into our stockings, ate grapefruit and cinnamon bread per tradition, listened to Neville Marriner and the Choir and Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields (also per tradition), and opened our presents.


I got a number of wonderful, useful things. My family knows I like practical gifts- I received The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery, a set of glass Tupperware, tea and dried fruit, a really cool guitar strap from Tighe, and a gorgeous basketry-style trivet/centerpiece handmade in Senegal. Matt gave me an insulated thermos and a nifty potholder that fits around the handle of my cast iron skillet and lives there so I don’t have to reach for a potholder every time I need to lift the skillet. Mom and Dad also took me shopping on Boxing Day and got me a 12-quart stainless steel stockpot. We couldn’t find one with the blancher insert that I wanted, but we did find a stainless steel colander that fits in perfectly and will serve the purpose just fine. They also got me jar lifters/canning tongs, so all I need now is a small canning rack to keep the jars off the bottom of the kettle, and I’m set!

For Christmas dinner I roasted a local pastured chicken and made a green salad, and we roasted pans of veggies including potatoes and carrots from Mom & Dad’s. It was simple, but delicious. I had made a squash pie on Christmas Eve, but we didn’t eat that till late Christmas night because we were so stuffed! Matt joined us for Christmas dinner which was a nice addition, and we spent an hour or so with one or more of us on guitar, playing and singing Christmas carols and folk songs. Before dinner my family and I went walking for an hour or so through Washington Park, enjoying the clear blue skies, if not the freezing cold wind. On Christmas night we walked through Peacock Lane to see the light displays, but didn’t stay long as it was very cold and windy. I really couldn’t have asked for a nicer Christmas. We all went out for a fun Thai dinner on Boxing Day with relatives who were passing through, and spent the evening with my cousin and her partner, so we got in lots of good social time. Mom and Dad and Tighe headed back to Spokane after breakfast on Sunday, leaving behind lots of good memories. I just enjoyed myself so much and give so many thanks for wonderful family, good food, and beautiful weather. This was my first Christmas without snow, but I hardly noticed, thanks to the sunshine and smiles!

I hope you all had a blessed holiday and that your 2010 will be filled with fun, friends, family, and music!

Accomplishments

My favorite days are the ones when I accomplish a lot. Tuesday night was one of those nights when I got a lot of things done and felt great. I did two loads of laundry (I do laundry at my cousin’s house, three blocks away, so this involved some exercise too), pulled out my sewing machine and did some more mending, made a good dinner, washed dishes, and decorated my Christmas tree!

I forewent the usual Christmas music accompaniment –my soundtrack was Bruce Springsteen. I’ve also been crocheting a new dishcloth, mostly at work, and working on mending that is too detailed for the machine.

I am now in the throes of holiday festivities, with a holiday party at work last week, a wonderful Hanukah party at Leah’s last Saturday, gathering last night with Matt’s family to decorate his dad’s Christmas tree, and an all-staff holiday gathering today. Right now I'm in the middle of working on more gifts! This weekend will include volunteering at the Jesuit High School Alumni food drive (Matt and his sister both went to Jesuit), a holiday party at my house, a holiday party at another friend’s, running lots of errands, and hopefully attending a Celtic fiddle concert!

My family (Mom, Dad, and brother Tighe) is coming to Portland for Christmas this year, so I am also planning and working logistics for that. They will be staying at my cousin Carol’s house, my apartment is just too small for more than two people! I am excited to have a cozy Christmas here in my own space, and do lots of cooking for my family! I’ve been sadly lax on the cooking front lately, as I haven’t really had much time at home with so much going on in the evenings. But this weekend and early next week I will be a cooking maniac, preparing all the traditional holiday food I grew up with. Strangely, I’m most excited about the chex mix! I also need to make a fresh batch of granola before the family arrives, and will cook Christmas Eve dinner for them.

I’ve made a couple nice inroads this week in terms of living sustainably:

• I put a compost jar in the kitchen at work! I’ve been meaning to do this for awhile and finally got around to it. I will take it home to my compost bin every couple of days, but I feel much better now, since a little part of me dies every time I see orange peels and tea bags going into the garbage. Sadly, this effort is involving a little more education than I foresaw, mostly along the lines of “No, actually, foil-lined teabag wrappers are not compostable.” It is a good reminder for me that composting is not such a norm for everyone as it is for me, and that this is good opportunity to open the minds of my little community of coworkers!

• I talked to my landlord and he has ordered me a low-flow showerhead and an aerator for my kitchen sink. Both of these items, and a lot of other water-saving devices, are free to Portland Water Bureau customers. Those of us who are tenants have to get our landlords to order them, because they are the customers, but I feel like any landlord would be happy to do it, because of the savings in money, if not the lower environmental impact. My current showerhead is one of the 5 gallon per minute ones, the new one will be 1.5 gallons per minute. This will save so much in terms of water and money, and also will make my hot water last longer! The aerator will decrease the amount of water that comes out of the kitchen faucet, without decreasing the pressure. My landlord made it sound like he had ordered these for all the apartments in the house!

Mixed in with all this, I continue to work on my personal statement for my application to PSU and round up my letters of recommendation. I anticipate I will be happily busy now through Christmas weekend! I wish you all the happiest of holidays. May you be surrounded by good friends and family, good food and good music!