Summer Bucket List

Go hiking & visit a waterfall. - When Shawn and I first moved out here (8 years ago...) we were so excited to visit nearby parks and go hiking. And yet, here we are, years later, and we haven't gone on a single hike (out here anyway - we were more proactive that year we lived in NJ...) I keep coming across a post about all the waterfalls in Pennsylvania, and I've been meaning to get to one. So that's a goal - by the end of this summer we will have gone on (at least) one hike and seen a waterfall!

Visit Centralia, PA. - Speaking of visiting things, we've been talking about checking out this old mining town for a few years now as well. It's now a ghost town, after an underground fire forced most of the population out of town. It's one of those off-the-beaten-track tourist attractions, and I'm determined to make it there this summer!

Bike 25 miles. There's a trail that runs through the suburbs and into center city Philly, and a friend and I have been biking parts of it. I'm determined to make it all the way downtown by the end of the summer... from where we start on the trail, it's about a 25 mile roundtrip. So far we're doing about half of that! I think we can do it.

Buy a disposable camera, take photos. I read this post when I was initially coming up with this list, and felt inspired to buy a disposable camera and use it up. There's just something about the moments you capture with film that is so much more memorable than pulling out your phone and snapping a photo. Just sitting here right now, I'm visually recalling a catalog of photos from summer camp, school trips, good times with friends... I don't have that same memory/connection to photos I've taken with my phone. So, more physical photos, please.

Watch more TED Talks. There are so many fucking TED Talks out there, are you aware of that??? I feel like I've only skimmed the surface... and I'm determined to watch more. I mean, every TED Talk leads to another similar TED Talk, and then that one leads to more... and next thing you know, two hours have gone by and your eyes are strained and your brain feels fuzzy with energy. I've been trying to start the habit of taking notes when I watch, since I tend to be a pretty passive audience. It seems to help me absorb the Talk better, so let's keep that up!

Stop for ice cream. I'm determined to get some really freakin' good ice cream this summer. There's Franklin Fountain downtown, which I've only been to on one other occasion. And there's a creamery I remember going to after picking pumpkins three years ago; they had an abundance of amazing options. Anyways, I see plenty of good ice cream in my future.

Get more plants for the apartment. I know it's getting a little late in the season to be buying plants, but our apartment really needs some love. We moved all the indoor plants outside for the summer and now the apartment feels so empty! I enjoy picturing the balcony surrounded by plants on all sides, but we're not there yet. And Sylvester is a plant fiend... so that makes it difficult for us to have plants near floor-level.

Send more snail mail. I am the worst pen pal. I mean, really... I buy all the cute stationary and think about what to say, but then never actually write the letters. But I love getting letters in the mail, and I really enjoy putting together little packages for people! Just have to work on the actual writing part. And I need more pen pals!

Get my yoga website up and running. Doing this by the end of summer is a pipe dream. Realistically, I'll probably need until late fall... but a girl can dream! Hm... or maybe a girl can do yoga and design a website.


What's on your bucket list this summer?

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Intentions for 2017

I've been thinking all month long about what I want my intentions to be for this year, with the intention (haha - get it?) of sharing them here with all of you. But the deeper we get into January, the more I've been stressing out about getting this posted before the end of month (because doesn't everyone make their intentions at the beginning of the month, and if I wait til the end of the month, I may as well wait til the end of the year... and then none of these other posts I have planned for this year will ever pan out and I'll never get half of the shit on my to-do list crossed off and I'll be a failure at living any sort of a productive life and AGHHHH!) I have to remind myself to calm the f*ck down and just sit down and write sometimes. There is a serious disconnect between my brain and my fingers most of the time. The problem is that the times when I have the most brilliant revelations and thoughts, are always when I am not in a place to write any of it down. So by the time I get there, everything is already lost in translation. Does that makes sense? Do other bloggers/writers/crazy people have this problem? I don't know. Anyways, enough rambling; let's get to the bulk of the post here: my intentions for 2017.

I struggled with whether or not to make actual concrete goals this year like I have in the past or whether to live this year with certain concepts in mind like I did last year. Then I came to the realization that I can do both! I can pick an intention, and apply it to my goals. They may sound like the same thing, but I don't believe that they are. Intentions seem to leave room for freedom whereas goals tend to be more concrete and determined. I think each have their place in our lives. What my yoga practice has taught me though is that living life with intentions and constantly working towards those intentions leads to a powerful and more fulfilling existence. And that we may very well be working on certain intentions forever - it's part of the practice, it's part of life!

My intention last year was mindfulness, and I really only dipped my toes in. This year, I'm hoping to apply it to more areas of my life. I'm actually working on a Mindfulness Series for the blog! It's something I thought up after having a few ideas for posts that were all mindfulness-based and it occurred to me that I have the opportunity to turn it into a series. So keep your eyes peeled for that. I'm hoping to do one post a month, or so. We'll see how it all pans out.

As far as more concrete goals go, I do have a few this year. They're pretty loose, yet attainable. I'm generally pretty terrible with these sorts of things, so I'm giving myself space to breathe. They're also very much related to being more mindful. Most of these are actually going to be broken down further in the mindfulness series, so if I'm a little vague here, don't worry - we'll delve further into these later on!


+ Unplug
As much as I try and mostly succeed at not being sucked in by my phone and the tv, the computer is a whole different story. I can easily sit in front of the screen, browsing and reading, and next thing I know a few hours have gone by and I haven't done anything to really nourish myself. Then there are those days when I realize I haven't touched the computer even once all day, my phone is no where to be found, and the tv has yet to have been turned on that day... I love those days! I want more of those days. I'd like to spend more time reading books, coloring pages, sketching things, writing with a physical pen... really doing things that feed the soul. Ideally, I'd love to unplug completely for one day a week. Realistically, I'd love to do it at least one day a month. Hopefully I can land somewhere between the two.

+ Teach yoga
I'll be a certified yoga teacher by this time next month! I should be able to teach at least one class a week at the studio where I've been doing my training, but I'd also like to explore other options and really see where it takes me. I'm actually planning on sending out some feelers over the weekend; I have a few places in mind. Teaching will hopefully help me implement a more regular home practice in my life too, since I'll need to work on sequences for classes. I've already noticed a difference in my everyday life, in the sense that I view every conversation and occurrence as a possible theme for classes. Bring it on!

+ Meditate
I never meditated until last year when it was introduced to me during yoga teacher training. It's a really great thing to be doing, and I don't do it nearly enough. I was on a roll for a while, meditating every morning, and really starting to see the benefits of it spreading into the rest of my day. Then I switched jobs and subsequently started waking up at 3am for work, and my meditation was the first thing to go out the window. So the meditation doesn't happen as often as I would like because I really do like meditating first thing in the morning. I need to form a new routine and stick to it.

+ Save money
I used to be pretty good with my money, but it seems that over the years my concept of spending and saving responsibly has gotten a little loose. (I think it goes hand in hand with "well, I'm making more money now, so it's fine, I can buy this.") I'd really like to tighten my finances back up this year! I've been talking to other people about methods they use for saving, and I've got lots of good ideas about it now. I need to sit down and come up with a realistic budget. This is a huge thing for me. Like, real adulting right here!

+ Shop less
This was also a goal last year, but I made it way too concrete and failed miserably. Well, I failed at limiting myself, but I succeeded at being more thoughtful about my shopping habits. In fact, in doing so, I actually changed my shopping habits! So this year, I'd like to continue... not by limiting myself to a specific amount, but by continuing to browse less and purchase more intentionally. (This also goes hand in hand with saving money...) Something I'd also really like to focus on this year is buying more ethically and sustainably.

+ Post more often
Last year I ended up posting the least amount I've posted since 2012. I'm not setting myself up for anything specific here... I feel like every year I say "I'm going to post more recipes!" and every year I come up short. I'm not really concerned with what the content will be specifically, I just know I'd like to post more content in general. I'm hoping that doing a Mindfulness Series will inspire me to bring more insightful content to the blog, even outside of the series. And yes, I would like to post more recipes, especially since I've been cooking so much more! Ideally I'd love to be posting 2-3 times a week, but honestly, that's probably still a stretch for me. But if I can do it, while still keeping the content organic and not rushed, I'd like to!

+ Have more dance parties
I threw this one in for fun. And I'm not talking actual parties here... I want more of that feel good, move like no-one's watching, ridiculously exaggerated kinda dancing we all do on our own time. I think we all need more solo dance parties! (That's my campaign, and I'm sticking to it.) More dance parties a la Hugh Grant in Love Actually. I mean seriously, who doesn't feel good after a quick dance session? Also, I don't know about you, but I'm more likely to clean the apartment when there's dance music playing. Just sayin'.



Did you set intentions/goals this year? Got any pointers for how to stay on point?
* Intention cards are from here.

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2016 Shopping Goals List

1. Golden Ponies Leopard Print Oxfords
2. Mika Yoga Wear Lynn Top
3. Frye Sacha Moto Shortie Boot
4. OhMeOhMy Clothing Circle Skirt
5. Omerica Organic Lucky Squirrel Plugs
6. ?
7. ?
Everyone who knows me will say that I really love shopping. I love finding good deals, and I love switching up my wardrobe on a regular basis. I've always had a very full closet with lots of clothes, shoes, and bags, and I was never overly selective with what I purchased (if the quality was good and the price was low, hello!). Last year I started looking at it with a different mindset though... I purged 75% of my wardrobe and became very picky with what I would bring back into my closet. But even though my mentality towards what and how much I was buying changed, I still loved to indulge in shopping on my days off, or any time I saw sale signs outside of a store. I realized that even though I wasn't spending the money, I was still spending a lot of my time and energy actively shopping. In fact, I spent a lot of my trip to Spain doing just that as well (Mom, I love you, but you're a bad shopping influence on me!), and I kind of regret not having spent more time exploring the country.

So this year I'm looking at shopping a little differently. I'm not going to do it. I'm going to do a lot less of it. Instead of spending my days off roaming from store to store ogling all the things, I'm making an active effort to not go into any stores, regardless of what sale signs they may have posted in the windows. Of course, I won't be able to avoid stores all year, let's be honest.... that's why I said effort ;)

Shawn and I have decided to make this year the year of savings. (I'll post more about that later.) So in recognizing that one of my habits is shopping without any intention, I've come up with a goal for myself this year. I'm allowing myself to purchase 7 items for my closet. Yep, just seven things for the whole year! I'm forcing myself to be intentional with my purchases. The price of things doesn't matter, it's more about the limitation. And you know what? It's already having an effect on my mindset. Any time I've thought to myself "Oh, I should go see what's on sale at the Gap!" it's immediately followed by "But then again, I really want to save up for those Frye boots, so maybe I won't." That's pretty freakin' rad, you guys. It's all about changing the thought, which then leads to changing the action, right?

I thought about allowing myself 12 items (one item per month), but that sounded like too many. Then I struggled with whether to give myself a limit of 7 or 8, and ultimately 7 won out because I really just love the number 7. So we'll see how this goes! I'll be sure to keep you updated throughout the year, especially since I still have two undecided open spots, and one or two things on the list may get switched out for others, depending on how the year goes.

Have you ever attempted a shopping goal? ... Do you think I'll last the whole year?

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Mindfulness in 2016

This year I was all set to make a list of goals for myself like I did last year... but the other day I woke up earlier than usual with three words running over and over again in my head.* Three words that seemed like a perfect way to sum up my aspirations for this year. Three words that somehow manage to fit into the major aspects of my life: self, home, and work. Three simple words that make an easy mantra to come back to throughout the year.

Breathe
Focus
Purge
Breathe: This is a word that I have been coming back to on a daily basis. It was my mantra last year, the source of much needed calm that I would turn to whenever I felt frustrated or upset. Breath is the essence of life; it is what keeps us alive every second of every day, it's what moves through us and stimulates our entire beings. And yet, breathing is something we rarely think about. (Which is a good thing, I mean, can you imagine having to concentrate on breathing all the time?!) When I think about my breath it reminds me to slow down, and reconsider, which is something I think we all forget to do in this fast-paced world we live in. That brings me to the next word....

Focus: I've said it before and I'll say it again, my head is constantly in the clouds. If you believe in astrology, then you can blame it on my birthday... if you're not into that stuff, well, then I don't know what to tell you. I really struggle to keep my feet on the ground sometimes. Just the other day I managed to lose my wallet a mere block from our house! (Thanks to a good samaritan I got it back within the hour though!) Of course this all happened right after I was telling Shawn about my three words...... So yes, focus is something I definitely need to work on. This may actually be the most difficult of the three for me.

Purge: The last of the trifecta, but perhaps the most important. I'm not just talking about materialistic things here, although I plan on purging a lot of those this year.... I'm also talking about negative emotions. I'm very quick to judge people, often in a negative manner. I worked on this a little bit last year, but this year it really ties in with the two other words. Any time I feel any negative energy building up, I just need to remember to breathe, focus, and purge the negativity. Hey, it sounds a little hippie-dippy, but I don't care. (I may be a bit of hippie, ok?)

It all ties together to say, my big goal for this year is to practice mindfulness. It's a concept that is a big part of my yoga practice, and I'm ready to take it off the mat and introduce it to other aspects of my life. Mindfulness is something I could really use in areas like finances (I'm terrible at budgeting!), work (trying to get a promotion, yo!), and even myself (I think I'm awesome, but I recognize that there are areas that still need some work).

I do have a few concrete goals for 2016, but I feel like they don't fit into this post. They're mostly related to blogging, sewing, yoga, and shopping.... so they're more, shall we say, hobby goals? I'll touch on those in another post.


* Shawn has been moving the furniture around in our bedroom to get it more feng shui.... apparently you're not supposed to have a lot of books in your bedroom because that's too many words and it's not conducive to sleeping. Well, I had three big books on my nightstand that day, so perhaps this is all a ruse and it's just my books playing mind tricks on me....

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2015 Goals Review

With 2016 nipping at our heels, it seems like a good time to look back on the goals I set for 2015....

+ Stay positive
I spent a lot of my younger years calling myself a "realist". This is the first year I can honestly say I felt like I looked at the world with a positive (albeit skeptical) eye. That's not to say I haven't always had a relatively positive outlook on life, but this year I really tried to see the good in every person and situation. I tend to be very quick to judge people, so whenever I caught myself doing that, I brought myself back around to a more positive way of thinking. I'd say this goal was a success! (Yes, I'm positive about that ;D)

+ Be more present, more aware
This is an constant struggle for me as I seem to go through life with my head in the clouds most of the time. I felt slightly more grounded this year though, which means I was more present, more aware. I think yoga has helped a lot with this; I've certainly been more aware of myself and how my thoughts and actions can affect everything else in my life... Being more aware of my immediate surroundings will always be a work in progress though.

+ Shop local
Hm, this could go either way. While I was definitely more conscious of where my food/clothes/materials were coming from, it didn't stop me from buying things that weren't local. I think I succeeded in the overall philosophy of the goal, but not the goal itself... does that make any sense?

+ Keep up a regular yoga practice
Heck yeah I did! I went to at least one class per week all year, but usually more like 2-3 classes per week. I tried to practice at home at least once on the weeks when I couldn't make it to class. And I attended two yoga workshops! Both for arm balances, both informative and so much fun. This is a goal I'm super proud of achieving after not having a regular yoga practice for the past four years.

+ Participate in an Instagram yoga challenge
Nope, didn't do this. I'm still a little camera shy, especially when it comes to social media!

+ Run another 5K
This did not happen. This wasn't even thought about; I think I ran consistently for about two months at the beginning of the year, and then not at all.

+ Post more recipes on the blog
I actually succeeded at doing this! Still not nearly as many as I would have liked to have posted. But here are a few favorites from this year: whole wheat banana chocolate chip muffins, browned butter espresso brownies, turkey stuffed peppers with poblano crema, roasted summer vegetable quiche, and iced key lime pie fossil cookies.

+ Keep reading
Well, I didn't read much, but I certainly did keep reading! I also read pretty much only books off of my bookshelf, which helped me pare down my books a bit. I would have liked to have read more, but hey, there's always next year!

Speaking of next year, I guess it's time to start thinking about my goals for 2016....

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Goals for 2015

I'm not usually one to set goals or make resolutions because I believe in the practice of just doing things. (Totally stole that one from Nike...) Sometimes it's nice to have things written down in list form though. So here's a list of things I'd like to achieve this year; call them goals, resolutions, or whatever you want. They are what they are!

(Image from Death to the Stock Photo)
+ Stay positive
This has been an active ongoing goal for the past three years. Though my default disposition is not particularly negative, I still need the occasional reminder to stay on the more positive end of the spectrum. I'm a bit of a realist, so I tend to look at things in a very matter-of-fact way, and the reality is that we live in a world filled with overtly negative energy. I've been doing my best to put more positive energy out there, and I'm going to continue to do so.

+ Be more present, more aware
I spend a lot of time in my head. (It's part of being an INTP personality...) Some would say I'm absent-minded, or forgetful, but really I'm just thinking about something completely unrelated to what's going on around me most of the time. (If you're a fan of Scrubs, think of the classic JD daydream scenes...) I'm trying to make an effort to be more present in social situations and more aware of my surroundings when I'm on my own, and less lost in my thoughts. Like meditation in the real world! Except I'm awful at meditating.

+ Shop local
For the past two years I've been pretty diligent about buying our produce from local farmers. I love supporting our local farmers markets, and everything just tastes better when it doesn't have to travel more than 100 miles to your kitchen! This year I'd like to take it one step further and apply that same philosophy to other aspects of my life. I'd love to get to the point where I'm buying only clothing and other goods made in the USA. I recognize that this is not an easy feat, but just recognizing and being conscious of where things are coming from to begin with is a big step. And of course, this excludes artisanal goods one might find on Etsy or Novica and the like because those are still supporting local artists, even if they're not local in the traditional sense.

+ Keep up a regular yoga practice
Now that I'm working at a yoga studio on Sundays in exchange for unlimited free classes, I really have no excuse not to practice! I'd love to change this goal to "cultivate a home yoga practice", but I recognize that just making it to at least 3 classes per week is a decent goal as it is, and I can work towards a home practice once I'm regularly practicing outside of the house. I'm going to my first workshop (arm balances) on Saturday, and I hope to go to more of those as the year progresses! And since I like having a few concrete goals, I'd like to eventually be able to hold crow pose for 30+ seconds and to do a handstand away from the wall.

+ Participate in an Instagram yoga challenge
In keeping with the previous goal, I started following a few yogis on Instagram for daily inspiration. I've seen a few yoga challenges already but I'm not ready to commit to one yet. Hopefully by the end of the year I'll have one, (or more!) under my belt.

+ Run another 5K
I ran my first ever 5K last year, with some motivation from my siblings. After that I bought some new sneakers and made it a goal to keep running, but then daylight savings happened and now it's dark before and after work, and I really don't want to run around our neighborhood in the dark. Once the sun shows its face again though, I want to start running again and check another 5K off my list! I'd love to do a 10K eventually too, but that may be a goal for next year.

+ Post more recipes on the blog
I don't think I've posted a recipe on here in... probably about a year. Let's change that! I'm sure a lot of you would love to see more recipes on here, and I'm going to make an effort to deliver. I mean, I'm in the kitchen baking for 8 hours a day so.... I really have no excuse. It's the prep that gets me! Taking photos and typing everything up... no more excuses!

+ Keep reading
Last year's goal was to read one book per month, and even if I didn't necessarily read one per month, I ended up reading 14 books total! I'm going to set the same goal for this year. I'm also going to try to read only books from my bookcase - I have way more than 14 books on my to-read/re-read shelf - plenty of reading material to get me through the year.

What are some things you'd like to achieve this year?

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