We believe stories are valuable, no matter how many people read them.
We believe following your passion is more important that watching your site meter.
We believe in the handmade, the first try, the small start, and the good effort.
We believe that small is beautiful.

This month in our February round up of Small, Beautiful, and Passionate bloggers we feature four sites with beautiful words and inspiring images. You know how encouraging it is when you get a new comment, right? Why not stop by and say hello? (Tell them Magpie Girl sent you!)

Shanna at For That Which Matters has a very handy, back-to-basics post for Moms who’s need to learn How to Say No. (I don’t know about you, but I could always use a refresher course on that one!)

Rachel B. Blog is a very pretty photography blog, and she’s offering a photography ecourse which starts Feb 16th. (If one of ya’ll take it, let me know how it goes!)

I don’t know what it is about Shehani K’s blog, Shutterbug Scribbler, but something about it calls to me. Maybe it’s this inspiring story about a spunky HIV survivor, or the fact that she shared this inpsiring video of JK Rowling speaking to Harvard grads about benefitting from failure. You should stop by and see what catches your heart.

The Streets I Know – it’s a vegan fashion blog. Need I say more?

Fellow Revolutionaries are featured once a month for link love and general accolades. Readership numbers, fame, and fortune matter not one whit. Grab a button to play along, then sign up on the mailing list or follow me on Twitter. Thanks for being here!

sammy dog would like the complete the ritual of being let out to pee…

Every morning we have this ritual. The alarm clock goes off with a little electronic tune, and Sammy dog immediately hops out of his bed, prancing around waiting to be picked up and put on OUR bed for a while. I wake up the girls, who come in for a cuddle. At 6:59 I read a prayer from a little devotional that Catie insists upon. The INSTANT I say “Amen,” the dog LEAPS off the bed, looking eagerly up at Eden, who then takes him outside.

If you snooze the alarm and it goes off again later…Sam scampers.
If you say “Amen” at any time during the day…Sam runs to the door.
Sam is completely Pavlov-ed.

I ‘ve been thinking lately,  I need to be Pavlov-ed. 

Serendipty is at hand, because The Bliss Chick has been writing about how she accidentally Pavlov-ed herself into a wonderful writing habit.  Then she extrapolated from there to write about how she wants to Pavlov herself into ballet/yoga everyday.  In the second post she talks about Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life and how in that book Twyla says that the ritual of her 2 hour daily workout isn’t getting her gear on, or stepping onto the treadmill. It starts the moment she hails the cab.

I’m starting my gym ritual too late. I don’t put on my workout clothes until 2 hours into my days. And by that time my monkey-mind has thought of approximately 57,000 OTHER things for me to do. I’ve got to start it first thing. FIRST THING.

I’m gonna  Pavlov myself into exercise.

Further more, I’m gonna Twyla Tharp it.

For 30 days, every morning when I wake up I will immediately put on my workout clothes. This means my ritual has already begun.  In fact, I’m going to say that to myself when I pull on the clothes I need to go to the gym. THEN I’m going to follow the advice in  The Power of Less’s  and connect my new ritual to an already established ritual which looks like this: 

Twyla Tharp It: the ritual has begun.
Morning Cuddle: (connect to an established ritual) connection time with the girls
The Military Precision Hour: breakfast for the kids, pack lunches, fill water bottles, send kids off.
Nap Time: an extra hour of sleep for this insomniac living in the deep Winter north.
Kitchen Ritual: fill my water bottle, make a carafe of green tea tea, take my vitamins. (This was last month’s habit.) 
Breakfast with Vincent: (connect to an established ritual)  I read about VanGogh while I eat breakfast.
Exercise! the ritual gets completed.

Also, I’ve already established what  exercise I do on what day, provided I make it to that point. Which, now I will, because the ritual will have already begun. And I am waaaaay too witch-y to interrupt a ritual already in progress. In case life gets in the way, with an appointment or something, my Emergency Back-Up Workout Plan is a quick 25 minutes of pilates or 45 minutes of yoga on DVD.

Do you want to join me? 30 Days to Pavlov: The Exercise Version. Here’s what to do:

1. Find your Linchpin. What will connect your new habit to an already established habit.
2. Twyla Tharp It: What will be the thing that signals your ritual has already started.
3. Back Up Plan: What will your back up plan be if you can’t get to your gym/class/yoga studio?

I think if you’ve got that down, you’re ready to go. Sign-up (you know I love a good sign-up) and let us know what the answers are to these questions in the comments. I’ll see you in 30 days (0r sooner for a mid-month check in if I can get organized enough). Oh, and by the way, feel free to start your 30 days anytime. You probably need a day to think this through. It’s okay. I’ll still cheer you on.

Love to you bubs!

Rachelle

*8Things I’ve Learned in the Past Little Bit

1. You Can Cook It Fast.  I’ve always been a decent cook. Not  fancy, but good. Homeskillet style, I call it. Since moving to CPH I’ve had to learn to do it every night. Not just for special occasions or when I have time. Now I can cook from scratch, healthy, fast.  Plus, I make gluten free baked goods three times a week, including bread. (Yeah. I kinda rock.)

2. Nothing is Ever Wasted. I’ve had a lot of jobs in my life, switch fields, I fall in love frequently with new things, I start and stop projects. On bad days it looks like one big meandering mess. On good days I can see a pattern in the chaos. Being distracted by sparkly things has got me here. And here is good.

3. It’s okay to Nap. In the Winter it makes perfect evolutionary sense to go back to bed for an hour after you get the kids off to school. It’s called hibernation. All the beasts are doing it. Why not you?

4. Wake to the Light. Make your Bed. Usually Karen Maezen Miller makes me want to throw Zen books at her. She’s so nice, but my not-Zeny self likes to rebel against her calm. This article really worked for me tho. (Except the go to sleep with the sun part. In the North you’d go to bed at 3pm!)

5.  Human Contact is a Must. I work at home. I live abroad. If I don’t see a real, live human grown up (who is not family) at least once a weak I go bat-shit crazy. This is a lesson I have to re-learn on a regular basis.

6. People Over 40 Need Tune Ups. My reading glasses are not strong enough. My distance vision is getting iffy. There’s now a history of skin cancer in my family and I’ve never seen a dermatologist. (Says the girl who sunburned to blistered ever Summer of her life.) And don’t even get me started on what 7 years of chronic migraines has done to my endocrine system. When I get back into the land where they actually run tests and prescribe you things, I am SO getting a full-on tune up.

7. Embrace the Crazy. I’m never going to be even-keeled. I’m not a certified Freak, but I’d fly the flag. Yet in spite of this friends say “Rachelle is the solid at the center.” (Thanks, Josh.) Some of the best art in the world is made by the mad.  The key is to learn how to harness the crazy. I’m getting the hang of it. (I even wrote a tiny bit about it here.)

8. Your Kids Grow Up. A year ago my son-adopted-by affection was making me grind my teeth at night. My eldest by birth was on my nerves. And my little one was – okay well she was peachy. Now the manchild in college; the eldest daughter is a delight and a friend; and the little one – okay now she’s crying at the drop of a hat. My point is “This Too Shall Pass.” (Put it on a sticky note on your fridge. It helps the Merlot not disappear quite as fast.) 

What *8Lessons has life been dealing you these past few months?  Contribute to the Giant Pool of Wisdom by puting your *8Things in the list together. Grab a button and play along, or put your list in the comments below.  If you post on your list on your blog, please give us the permalink in the Mr. Linky below so we can come say hi! Thanks for being here.

I am not one of those bloggers who makes a lot of dough or gets a lot of freebies. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) But there’s a new rule that says we have to tell y’all these things, so you know how I might be influenced by the mighty dollar. (Or in my case, by the not-so-mighty dime.) So, here it goes:

(More info and a list of product referrals after the jump)

Read the rest of this entry »

Do you need something lovely and charming today? Me too. Meet Nataly Dawn of Pamplemousse. (Ahhh..I feel better already!)

I’ve just invited Nataly to do a One Q Interview or Artist’s Guest Post with us. So if you like her tunes, please let her know in the comments (just in case she stops by to scope us out.)

Cheers!
-R

I’ve been trying to figure out how to introduce you all to the goodness that is the community over at Flock: a nesting place for restless souls. Joining an online community when it is just starting is a rare opportunity.  Getting in on the ground floor means you have time to get to know each other, and you don’t get lost in the crowd.

I long to show you more of the good things that are going on in the Flock, but I’m trying to balance privacy with my boundless compulsion to sing Flock’s good praises. (It really is very cool over there.) For instance, just today Karen Mori Bonner, one of our liscensed therapists, came by to help us understand the symbols in our recurring dreams. It was just fascinating! Oh, I wish you would join us there!

Flock needs to be a place of safety and security, so I can’t go about pell-mell letting the whole internet in on the discussions that go on there. People need a little privacy to tell their stories. But suffice it to say, what’s going down in the Flock  is good stuff!

I am trying to think of ways to let you in sideways a little, and you can learn a lot from people by what they read. So today I am sharing with you some of the intriguing books that Flock members have on their bedside table. There are A LOT of good ones, so I’ll start with just three novels today. May you find a book to companion you on your journey — and may you join us in the Flockso we can be your withmates as well.

Much Warmth,

-Rachelle

Sing Them Home: A Novel
This is a new novel from Stephanie Kallos, author of Broken for You, which was a formative novel for me in my process of deconstructing/reconstructing faith. (See this postfrom 2005 to see what I started breaking.) Now Kallos is back and Publisher Weekly says: “This novel will find a welcome audience in anyone who has experienced grief, struggled with family ties or, most importantly, appreciates blossoming talent.”

The Help
by Kathryn Stockett. This debut novel is about a white woman gathering stories from the black women that served in their upper crust households in the early 1960’s. Again from Publisher Weekly: “What perfect timing for this optimistic, uplifting debut novel…set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Miss., where black women were trusted to raise white children but not to polish the household silver… Assured and layered, full of heart and history, this one has bestseller written all over it.” (This one was raved about by more than one Flock reader!)

Her Fearful Symmetry: A Novel 
Oh, thank God Audrey Niffengger is writing again! I adored The Time Traveler’s Wife. It remains one of my all time favorite novels. And her incredible The Three Incestuous Sisters: An Illustrated Novel is a favorite art piece of mine. (It was ten years in the making!) Now Niffenger is back with another haunting tale, as described by Amazon reviews:  “The novel opens with the death of Elspeth Noblin, who bequeaths her London flat and its contents to the twin daughters of her estranged twin sister back in Chicago. These 20-year-old dilettantes, Julie and Valentina, move to London, eager to try on a new experience like one of their obsessively matched outfits. I am SO buying this the next time I am in an English booksellers!

Stay tuned for more recommendations from the Flock bedside table. Sign up on my mailing list, or follow me on Twitter and you won’t miss a single post. Thanks for being here!

I don’t think there’s anything that is more beautiful than when performers take their art form to a new level…

LXD “Moments” Trailer from Jon M. Chu on Vimeo.

The things you keep close at hand are usually the most reliable, handy, treasured items in your stash. So I ask you, what do you keep on your bedside table? I’ll show you mine if you show me yours…

*8Things: On My Bedside Table

1. The Body Shops’ Hemp Hand Protector – smell suspiciously like a teenager’s bedroom after the parentals have been away, but it works wonders

2. Burt’s Bees – Almond Milk Beeswax Hand Creme -  my feet love this stuff.

3. Vintage red and gold reading glasses case from Tonya. (Occasionally, my glasses are actually in it.)

4. Divine Dreaming mp3 – a sleep/dream enhancing meditation from the beloved Leonie Allen.

5. Your Nine Year Old and Your Ten- to Fourteen-Year-Old - invaluable child development guidebooks. (All of them are great.)

6. Music & Silence by Rose Tremaine – an excellent piece of historic fiction about Denmark’s King Christian IV.

7. Sublingual Melatonin and 5-HTP - – because melatonin by itself increases depression. (Wish the sleep doc had told me that when she FIRST suggested meltaonin!)

8. A spiral note book and pen, usually with a collaged cover. The one I’m using right now I collaged with my travel art kit while in Paris.

What  *8Things are on your bedside table? Grab a button and play along, or put your list in the comments below.  If you post on your list on your blog, please give us the permalink in the Mr. Linky below so we can come say hi! Thanks for being here.

Hello loves!

I’m getting ready to leave Copenhagen, where the ice has overtaken the Little Mermaid, to go to London, where the ice has overtaken the fountains of Trafalgar Square. (What was I thinking? Why didn’t I book a flight to Spain?!) Because of this, I’m taking a it a little light on the blogging here at Magpie Girl, and there is no new One Q Interview to edit this week.

If you’re lonely, you might consider joining us at Flock: Soulcare with Magpie Girl, where the joint is jumping!  This week we’ll get to talk to our resident therapist, Jen Payne in her first Ask an Expert column; work on some Soulcrafting to set our intentions for the month; and find support in our weekly check-ins. Plus we’ll get ready for February’s Read-A-Long, Style Statement: Live by Your Own Design. (Click to see our current offerings.)

Even if you can’t be with us in the Flock, we still want you to have some support and encouragment this week. Might I suggest a little trip on the wayback machine? Here’s a list of the very best value-added guest posts from weeks of yore. May you find something you need amongst them this day.

I’ll see you Thursdsay for *8Things. Until then…

Much Warmth,

Rachelle

Jamie Ridler: Creativity, Feeback and Our Tender Hearts

Jena Strong: Impostor Syndrome, Diagnosis and Treatment

Stephanie Walker: *8 Ways to Turn Financial Crisis Into Opportunity

Becky Knight: Living by Your Own Rules, Sexual Integrity

Lisa Alexander: Honoring Your Work with Values-Based Pricing

Jen Payne: Five Signs It’s Time to Call a Therapist

Jolie Guillebeau: A Guided Visualization to Uncover you Ideal Way of Living (podcast)

…darning a sock using a rubber ball as a helpmeet…

I’m about three months into A Year Without Clothes  (we all started at different times), and I’m embracing the concept of mending.

When I lived near Target there was no real need to mend a hole in a sock, or fix the unraveling edge of a tank top. When things cost so little, is just seemed more expedient to buy new.

Now that I live in Denmark, where the cost of living is about 35% higher than it was in Seattle, I’m learning to economize. So I’ve recently taken up the old-fashioned art of mending. So far I’ve  (finally) hemmed the Joe Boxer cords I found last Summer at the thrift shop, replaced the buttons on my favorite hoodie, and darned my striped socks. 

Not spending money on clothes has freed up some cash, and at the loppenmarked (flea market) last weekend I bought something I’ve wanted for a long time  — a vintage sewing box like grandma had. Now I have all my mending tools next to the couch, at the ready.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: What would you need to gather to save something you love from the garbage heap? (needles and thread? sand paper and paint? hammer and nail?) Tell us your plans the comments below. Or join in in A Year Without Clothes. Tak!