Hello Habituders! This is the last week of our walking habitude. I hope you all feel more energized and limber after this month of tending to self care. To send us into our last week of walking we have a guest post from miss Claire at Small Craft Advisory. Claire is one of those impossibly beautiful women who positively Radiate. She writes cunningly of the importance of the ask, hamster grief, and the wonderwoman power of wearing these. Why not go see what she has in her treehouse after you enjoy her words here.

I live in an older neighborhood, with tree lined streets, cracked sidewalks, and small bungalows built close to one encouraging tolerance and neighborliness. The streets radiate out from a city center, recently renovated but always having contained the basics; grocery stores, library, a handful of shops like Plaza Art and Manny & Olga’s Pizzeria and plentiful playgrounds. It is what I like to call my Urban Mayberry. Its a place where I can walk to all the necessities of life…food, books, art supplies and monkey bars. And this is the terrain of my daily Habitude walks.

Some days I walk with my kids—my ‘tween son racing impatiently ahead on his skateboard, younger daughter more cautiously at my side. Other days I’m out with just my dog who sniffs and pulls at the end of his leash. And sometimes I walk by myself. But always, always, I am on the lookout for found treasures.

I am a collector of small things. I never outgrew the love of a handful of little items in my pocket—stones and buttons and empty thread spools and interesting bits of metal. Even my art reflects this: collage, mixed media and knitting with all its notions and tiny implements and accoutrement. Whenever I am walking, I scan the ground for these little items. Amidst the cigarette ends, the crumpled paper bags, and beer cans crushed flat as leaves, I find things. I like to think of them as messages from the Universe, scattered behind like clues as carefully and deliberately as Hansel & Gretel’s breadcrumbs in the forest.

There are other things I lose and find, of course, on my walks. I lose the same notes and pins and coins as everyone else. I lose the stressed out way I pinball around my house in a storm of chores and errands. I step out onto the porch which faces the street and the hydrangea bushes. I feel myself soften and slow.

When I face the world placing one foot in front of the other, this 2 mile an hour pace offers a wealth of reflection and inspiration. I find my breath—that calming rhythm that matches my stride. I find my thoughts clear and uncluttered—“I think I’ll bake cornbread for dinner”, “the dog needs grooming”, “I miss my grandmother’s hands and her gold bracelets chiming”.

And so I offer this collage I have made containing the things I have found on my Habitude walks so far this month, along with the treasures of peace and breath and thought.

LadyVivienne is a new virtual friend and blogmate. Her site is sumptuous — full of beautiful photo projects like this gorgeous self portrait and a delightful city girl/country girl photo journal. Vivienne is oh-so-close to me today, visiting her sister in my sister city of Portland. (Oh, if only I had a spare six hours to round trip it down there and bliss out on the crunchy granola goodness of that fine city! ) Thankfully, this fellow habituder comes to us for a virtual cup of chai as she share some thoughts about walking, breathing and being. Enjoy this deep breath of good air!

heart,

magpie
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And now, a word from LadyV:

“I love when a simple act changes the way you function in the world, for the better. When I started going for a daily walk for this month’s habitude, I was curious to see if if it would be much different than my normal level of activity, as walking, biking and busing are the way I travel around my city. Each day I would try to make sure that I had gone on a 30 minute stroll and if I hadn’t, then I took an evening walk after dinner.

After about a week I noticed that something was missing in my daily life, something I will not miss. I stopped having that daily negative inner chatter that berated me for not being active enough. Going for a simple 30 minute walk has become an antidote to that negative voice that sits in the space between going for a run or sitting on the couch. It has stop speaking its harsh words. I am also finding it easier to go for a run on the days that I feel up to it, as its not a matter of success or failure anymore.

It reminds me of one of my favourite Veda Hille songs:

“Oh precious heart, you think you’re lost.
Look down and find your feet. The next step is the path you’re on”

You see, lately I am working hard at trying to reduce as much guilt, shame and negativity in my life as possible. As I go about this, my philosophy has been “deal with it or get rid of it” and with each small thing that I change, I’m finding it so much easier to take deep breaths in my daily life. Some of them are planned, and some snuck up on me, such as the way that walking daily makes me feel balanced and kicks my shame to the curb.

I hope to continue walking daily and keep that voice silenced and am curious to discover what other subtle changes I can make that will help each day be full of deep calm breaths.”

I’ve had two lovely walks so far – one on the treadmill watching a favorite telly show on netflix; the other with Paul and Samson up to the hardware store to pick up a some bracelet making supplies.

For me, the key to getting a daily walk is to do it in the morning. I make sure my water bottle is filled up the night before and either sleep in my walking sweats, or lay them out at the foot of my bed. I also make sure my Zune is charged up and full of audiobooks. Right now I’m listening to this and this.

Aola’s motivation plan involved clearing the blackberry vines off the trail on her property.Vivienne puts on her walking shoes before supper so she doesn’t talk her self out of her evening loop around the neighborhood. What do you do to meet your walking resolve?

Did you all have a nice summer off? Feel up to picking up some good habits? It’s time for a new habitude.

I don’t know about you, but even though I haven’t been a student for lo, these many years, I still feel like having a fresh start when back-to-school rolls around. Now that the littles will be riding the big yellow bus again, the habit I’m most eager to pick back up is my daily walk.

Dr. Oz, Oprah’s self proclaimed “America’s Dr.” says an easy step to better health is to walk at least 30 minutes a day. No. Matter. What. So what do you say? Who wants to join me in walking every day? We can keep each other on track and share about how walking changes our days.

Make sure you add this blog to your feeds list, because Monday will be motivation day for our walking habitude! Here’s an early installment so you can be ready to go on Monday, September 3rd (that’s just three days away!)

Magpie Girl’s Tips to Getting Started:

1. Make it a date. Go on, write “take a walk” in every little square on your September calendar.
2. Get your workout gear ready. Are your walking shoes in order? Know where your water bottle is? Okay then, you’re ready to go!

Drop your name in the comments if you’ll be joining our September walkabout!

Much love to all you greenies out there who played along with April’s habitude. Sadly, I did not reduce my gas consumption one iota, even though I walked more places than ever, bunched together my car-required errands, and let a lot of stuff go undone rather than use the car to do it. How is that possible???

I did walk away from the reduce-your-gas habitude much more enamored with walking places than ever before. I took the “should I drive, or walk” option complete off my plate. If it’s walkable, it gets walked. And with Spring here, what’s not to love about that?

I live in a pretty walkable neighborhood, so none of my outings take more than 15mintues to walk each way. I’d like to up my exercise ante a bit, so my May habitude is to walk at least 30 minutes a day, in addition to my regular walk-to-work-and-the-grocer routine. Thankfully I have both a lovely three-mile urban lake loop nearby and a treadmill in the basement with a steady supply of favorite TV shows on netflix. (Current obsession: Grey’s Anatomy season two.) So I can easily get my 30 minutes in rain or shine.

Anyone else want to commit to a simple exercise goal for May?

P.s. Congratulation to Karla who got the cloth shopping bag for being the first person to sign on to Love Your Mother last month! I’d also like to send a bag to Aola for consistently chiming in with great greener ideas. Aola, shoot me an email with your snail mail. (moi at magpie-girl dot com.)Your package is waiting for you on my desk. Much love!

Make a new plan Stan…

It all starts with a plan. Pick one goal. Outline the steps it will take to get there, and get moving!

11) Get motivated by cold hard facts. If stats are your thing, spend an hour finding your carbon footprint (how much carbon-based fuel you use.) It’s intriguing and inspiring.

12) Then pick just one thing to do from this list of ways to offset your carbon footprint.

13) Reprogram your heater now to run 1-2 degrees lower whenever it kicks in. Ditto with the air conditioner, keep it 1-2 degrees warmer this Summer.

14) Make a bike your second car. The new Townies are super hip and designed for mild city riding, and if you live in a hill-heavy city like mine, an electric assist bike like this beauty can help you get around for less than a second (or first!) car.

15) Share. Only need a car (or a second car) occasionally? Join a club like Flexcar. You’ll be tempted to drive less and you’ll save money to boot. Some even offer small trucks which will help with that strip to by organic produce for your “slip out the back, Jack” projects.

16) Fix your flight consumption. Flying for travel or business? Offset your flight’s carbon emissions by donating to a CO2 reduction program like this one. For instance, $13.60 will offset a short-haul flight by funding reforestation in the Great River Valley in Kenya. How cool is that?

17) Reach for the Sun. Live in a sunny clime? Time to think about solar panel, especially if you have a pool. Start here and see what you can figure out.

18) Don’t get into hot water. Turn down your water heater 3 degrees and reduce your carbon load in seconds. You can also check your local utility to see if they offer cost incentives to household who switch out old waterheater for more energy effecient models.

19) Unplug appliances when not in use. Electric appliances draw a small amount of energy even when they are not on. Unplug your blender, toaster, and coffee pot. Get really ambitious and unplug the microwave, TV, and computer printer as well.

20) Don’t overcharge. Once your computer or cell phone battery is full, you can unplug it and save energy.

“Just slip out the back, Jack..”
Backyard ideas for going green(er)!

1) Use organic plant food and fertilizer in your backyard. I like these guys.

2) Grow steppable ground cover instead of grass, which demands lots of water, fertilizer, and weed work. I like “pygmae” which has yellow flowers. I put in a half dozen each year to gradually (and economically) replace some of our turf. My local garden store carries this line , but why not go all out and find an organically grown alternative? (Tell me if you find one!) Read the rest of this entry »

Well fellow tree huggers, yesterday it happened. I hit the ½ tank mark in my car. My goal for the month was to survive on half a tank of gas, and I am woefully short of that goal. I didn’t want to use the car AT ALL, and my compromise was to get it down to ½ a talk (half my usual monthly gas consumption.) But alas!

Even though I won’t hit my mark, I’ve still reduced my car usage. Here are some things I’ve learned about being car-free in Seattle. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, it’s the first week in April — time to say goodbye to our March habitude of body love.

Every habitude I play with inspires an artful little offering for the Buy Magpie page. This month’s love-my-curves experiement left me longing — as ever — for expressions of the feminine divine.

If you are a praying sort, you might want to check out the Blessed-Be-She rosetta stones. (Sparkly Things! So pretty!) I’m only making 3 or 4 of these, so if you’d like one, order soon.

Tommorrow, the April Habitude! (Here’s a hint…it’s inspiring me to make leg warmers!)

It’s nearly the end of March….how’s the body love month going?

For myself, I’ve had a hard time remembering to use my mantra, “I love my body as I love my child.” I usually only remember when I’m doing something heinous, like eating a hostess cupcake (100% artificial ingredients!) It doesn’t stop me from eating the rest of the creamy filling, but it is making me pause and think about how I treat my very self. I don’t expect to keep up all the habitude practices I try on this year, but I will keep working on my mantra.

I can’t let a month of body love go by with out kibitzing about my very favorite girlie products. So here’s a list of things I love, just for the record.

MISO PRETTY CASSIS BUBBLE BATH. Oh so luxerious! Mounds of fluffy bubbles with a distinct but not overpowering scent. I love gazing at the bottle which has some of the best art graphics around these days. (The artist has a big new gig–the spring displays hanging all around target.) This is just one great product from the kitschy and empowering Blue Q.

BURTS BEES Grapefruit & Sugarbeet Conditioner. Keeps this natural redhead (wink wink) moisturized and shiny, with natural ingredients to boot.

ZIA MOISTURIZER with Sunscreen. Just a tiny bit spendy, and available at most whole foods type grocery stores. The non-sunscreen one is too heavy — don’t buy the wrong one. Feels so good on my no-longer-twenty-something skin.

ALBA LIP TINT in Sienna. The Magpie Girl doesn’t go anywhere without it. I’ve got one in my the pocket of my vintage car coat, one in my Queen Bee satchel, and one in the pocket of my favorite jeans. A glorified lip balm with just the right amount of color.

AVALON ORGANICS BODY LOTION. Such great scents and really creamy with a quick absorbtion. My favorite? Lavendar or peppermint. I’ve got a bottle on my desk right now!

Much love to all you in body recovery! Stay tuned for next months habitude…I’ll give you a hint, it will save you gas money