Spring Part 2

More goals, this time more life related then crafty...

13. Cook at home more, pull out my cookbooks. I want to be inspired in the kitchen more.

14. Purge, this is huge. I am not a pack rat, but I need to learn to live with less. I have yarn and craft supplies I need to get rid of too!

15. Back up my blog!

16. Start bringing my own mug to Starbucks, for my once weekly treat.. (ok maybe sometimes more than once a week)

17. Get in to Podcasts, so many great ones out there.  What are you favorites?

18. Read more! Start listen to audio books while knitting, if I can't pick up a book. Gimme a book suggestion!

19. Take a walk everyday, good for me and good for Vito. Take my camera too!

20.  Buy an External Hard Drive, I need to move the 30+ gb of music off my iMac. Along with all my pictures. This will make for a much happier iMac.

21. Switch over completely to earth friendly cleaning products.

22. Eat vegan for one meal a day or one day a week. Since going veggie, I eat a lot of cheese!

23. Again, return emails faster. I need a system! Also my links are out of control, I have an account at both del.icio.us and ma.gnolia. Anyone have a better solution?

24. Use what I have

25. Don't take on projects and obligations I won't follow through with!

26. Relax.

My Dad sent me this today:

"Be not afraid of growing slowly.
Be afraid of standing still."

Comments

[Chris]

I like your Dad already. :)

Cast On is the only podcast I listen to regularly. I've purchased a cd or two based on the music she plays.

Books. Hmm. Bellwether by Connie Willis. To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. Julie & Julia (a tale of a blogger - I'm reading it right now). The Eve Dallas mysteries by JD Robb (oh, Roarke! be still my beating heart!).

Life is much better on my laptop since I bought an external hard drive. Very much worth it.

[nikki]

Mmmmmm.... Lemongrass STR. Suggestion #21 is easy! I've been making my own cleaning supplies for years. Its really easy. In fact, you may already have most of hte things you need in your house already. The best book in the world for this is 'Clean House, Clean Planet'. I frequently get told how fresh smelling and clean my house is! Try it. :)

[Jes]

I love the at home remedies for cleaning things, especially with pets in the house that arbitrarily lick the floor and such. The number ones there are def. vinegar and baking soda, it's amazing how much you can replace with just those two and water!
I got my external hard drive from tygerdirect.com. The Seagate ones have rebates of $50 with them until the end of March. Not sure if they are Mac compatable tho.
Oh and if you want to come over and purge my house when you're done, I would really appreciate it ;)

[brooke]

great list! #17-knitcast has some great interviews #18-have you read Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri?

[Emmie]

Hi Joelene!

I only recently started reading your blog, thanks for the tutorial on turkish cast on...

I have a few suggestions for you, hope you like and don't mind!

For:

#17, I recommend Pointy Sticks podcast by Christine Selleck. She is newer than Brenda, but she is my fave. http://www.pointysticks.org/

#18 I have no idea what types of books you like, but my hubby and I listened to this one and I laughed so hard I nearly peed my pants:

Jane Heller - Female Intelligence http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1559276460/qid=1143153779/sr=12-9/102-2457022-4888144?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

#24 check out this:
http://simplesparrow.typepad.com/simple_sparrow/2006/03/use_what_i_have.html
http://simplesparrow.typepad.com/simple_sparrow/2006/03/use_what_you_ha.html
http://www.flickr.com/groups/usewhatyouhave/

Good luck!!!

Take good care,
Emms

[vera]

i'm big on lists (though whether i actually get around to doing what's on them is another story :0)
i'm not one for podcasts but i quite love the interviews on knitcast...
it's hard to recommend books to others but i recently finished paullina simons' 'the bronze horseman' -and even though i usually prefer to read the classic- i really loved it.
happy purging...x

[Amber]

Book recommendations that I'm reading or have recently read:
The Time Traveler's Wife
Snow Flower & the Secret Fan
The Handmaid's Tale
The Bonesetter's Daughter

Cleaning products:
White vinegar and baking soda can be used to clean so many things. I especially like this for the kitchen because my dog likes to lick cabinets & floors. And my cleaning supplies are edible!

Organizing links:
Do you use an RSS reader at all? If not it's a great way to read all your blogs at once without clicking 500 times. Email me if you want more info.

[Ginny]

Hey Joelene,
I love to listen to Cast On, but I have heard that Knitcast is a good one too. About listening to books, I highly recommend looking into Audible.com because it is such a better value than buying audio books online or from a bookstore. Matt and I download 2 books a month for a total of $20. and we are able to "stock up" on future listens when we don't have time to listen to all of our books in time. You can also cancel anytime and re-subscribe later with no penalties.
For eating, you might also look into a good magazine about food and vegan cooking. Sometimes I find it fun to recieve ideas every month and then I keep a binder full of the ripped out magazine recipes so that I can refer to them later.
Good luck with tackling your list! I hope this helped at least a little bit.
Oh, and you also might enjoy a podcast called Indiefeed: Alternative/Modern...they play one song a day by an upcoming or relatively unknown band and it's a great way to hear new music for free.
G

[Charmaine]

I can't believe how many I too want to do -- you reminded me that I REALLY need to back up my blog (email me if you know the smartest way to do it) and finally switch over ALL our cleaning products to earth friendly ones. http://www.gaiam.com is a great place to find stuff if you don't have a co-op nearby. They also have a great article about the exact topic: http://www.gaiam.com/retail/gai_content/learn/gai_learnArticle.asp?article%5Fid=2780