Found

While I was transferring some files from my old computer, I found these sweet photos of me and Sophie (who I mention in my 30 Days post). These were taken by Annie of Friendly Fox, back when she was pregnant with Jacob and still blogged as Little Ocean Annie. A whole different era.

I will be in Portland again this summer around the end of July and beginning of August. if any bloggers want to have tea, let's do it!!

The Whole Foods Cleanse: Day 14

ooookay. first of all, thanks for all the comments on my post about comments. i changed my settings (to "embedded") which means that now i can, in fact, embed a reply comment below a comment that you leave. so, this means that if you comment, and if i reply, and if you come back to check, then boom! we're all taken care of. ha. seems like we will just have to mostly throw that one to the wind, and trust that conversations flow as they need. 

second, i mentioned briefly in my post before that that i'm doing a whole foods program this month. for 30 days. i started on June 1.

i have been on a long journey of adrenal repair since last October. i feel almost all the way better. thanks to lots of things - including adressing various stressors, herbal treatment, nutrition, etc. but i haven't yet felt back to my full, 100% capacity. and my 100% is really awesome. i can do a lot of rad shit when i'm fully functioning. i've been wanting to do a longer cleanse for a while, and so with the help of my friend Sophie, a nutritional therapy practitioner in Portland, i am finally doing it. 

for me, i wanted help. having someone else create a system with me makes it easier for me to stick with it. although i hate to admit it, being accountable to someone else makes me more committed for the long haul. if i had constructed the cleanse myself, my rules might be more flexible, more easily broken. weird but true, and i'm sure many of you can relate. so! after a thorough nutrition evaluation, sophie helped me devise a plan for 30 days. THEN, she sent me a sh*tload of documents to support my process: i have a checklist, a shopping list, a snack list, lots of recipes, a general outline about what to eat, etc. i love these documents. this is exactly what i needed that i wouldn't have had on my own. 

a primary goal for me was to take a break from my sugar addiction. this 30 days includes no sugar OR sweeteners; fruit is my only sweetness. why yes, i did say no honey (!). i eat so much honey in my daily life, it's amazing. another focus (that i wasn't aware of, thank you, Sophie) - is that i need more calories. i don't eat enough calories and i eat too much sugar and that, my friends, is a recipe for weakness and exhaustion - especially for us mamas. this means i'm eating protein and fat with every meal, and loading my tea and my meals with coconut oil, ghee, and butter.

i'm glad i'm writing about it now, actually. i've been keeping a really general track sheet of my days and how i feel, but i haven't really gotten into it. 

here are some benefits that i feel most strongly so far:

• more energy. i cannot really convey how much this means to me. i feel stronger, and more able to complete a "day in the life"
• more farmer's market. for optimum health, i've been going to the marked once to twice weekly and sourcing the majority of my food there. it feels good to support the locals and to really, really connect in with what's seasonal. 
• better food for Asher. yep. keeping myself healthy means that i'm making my kid healthier, too. 
• more creativity in the kitchen. eating only meat and vegetables makes me way more creative with what i make (i.e. toast is not a meal, even with avocado on it). i also notice i'm being better at using everything i have in the fridge. that feeling of "there's nothing to eat" has nearly vanished, and i see now how that sense is kind of tied into a mode of laziness around food.
• more m e l l o w. the short-temperedness/impatience that i am familiar with has lessened. a lot. and when i do start to feel it, it seems softer, less overpowering. i can meet it in the middle now and look at it and take action, rather than completely collapsing in its presence. this is invaluable - you know how it goes with the kiddos. i hate being snappy, it's the worst.

as you can tell, it's pretty awesome so far. i haven't even really suffered from major sugar cravings, except for two days when it was gray and cloudy. of course, i often think about what i'll do after my 30 days - like eat some brownies. this whole program also has me thinking about ways to really shift my health and nutrition so i can live better. i want to feel strong and energetic all the time. always. i have this capacity. i'm not one for obsessive diets, but i do trust myself to maintain a balanced approach to support my body and what it needs. 

with all that being said, i'm  proud of myself for making it to the halfway mark and i'm very very excited to go the whole 30 days. i've never done anything like this before. 

i will post about this again soon - there are many other things i could discuss, such as: bone broth, fermented foods, cellulite, dry brushing, fruits, and sleep.  oh yeah, and exercise.

if you have any questions or if there is any specific aspect of this you'd like for me to discuss, by all means, please let me know!

p.s. you can see in the photos that i have indeed had some coffee. caffeine is allowed in moderation, and i'm keeping it very minimal. i've been putting a lot of butter and coconut oil (or ghee) in it, plus coconut milk. can i just say, wowwww. also, the last photo is some GF tempura sushi that i made for Asher.

A quick question

Fellow blogger babes and dear readers:

What is the best way to "reply" to comments? As readers, do you go back to the post and see if your comment has been replied to? 

I really want to reply to people, but I know that when i comment, I often forget to return to the original post to see the reply.

Bloggers - what do you do? also - for example, on Milla's blog, she is able to "reply" as a subpost to someone's comment. why can't i do that? how do i do it? i feel like i looked in my settings to no avail. Sigh. 

 

Please - drink your coffee and ponder this question. any answers are very much appreciated. I really love reading everyone's comments. 

image source unknown. please link if you know!

The way June goes

like many of you, i cannot believe we are well on our way to the middle of June. Asher's last day of school is on friday, and so i must frantically gather last-minute pieces for costume, and plan large plates of food for potlucks. and then begins the glorious summer vacation - a land where time transforms and delight hides in our very fingertips.

last weekend we had an epic heat wave, broken by an epic thunderstorm. the thunder yesterday was so loud and large that it shook my little house. not as much as the earthquake last month, but enough to hear a few glasses rattle. needless to say, an alarm clock was not needed yesterday morning. the thunder was our wake up call.

around here, things have been really nice. i know that's a bit of a trite way to put it, but it's true. there have been berries and cherries, rivers and naps, books at the park, and hibiscus popsicles.

and of course, vintage dresses:

roses in the garden, blooming late with the deepest red:

this is what happens after all day at the river:

yard time:

beans drying:

my alien calendula plant that grew flower tentacles off of its dying flower! has this ever happened to any of you? i've been growing calendula for ages and have never seen anything like it. i think it's awesome:

there are other things i should mention, and will in another post. like the fact that today is day 11 of my 30-day whole foods cleanse! very excited about this and i've had a lot more energy thanks to a big increase in calories and a decrease in sugar. but let me tell you how much i miss sugar: SO MUCH SO BIG A LOT. sugar is my favorite lover, the sweetest comfort, my beloved companion of all time. it's a hard one to get over. maybe at the end of the 30 days i will miss it less? who knows. 

other things worth mentioning in other posts include, but are not limited to: summer plans, swimsuits, best swimming spots, more vintage dresses, tea with friends, farmers markets, and lofty dreams. 

hope you are well and that you, too, are enjoying the fruits of summer. 

Visual Inspiration

Some gems from the world wide web of digital wonders:

dudes. it is getting HOT here. in the valley this weekend it is supposed to peak at 113 degrees on saturday. whaaaaat. luckily my little hilltop will be cooler, topping out at a mere 100 or 101. we're going camping on friday/saturday with Asher's school, so the river will be in full effect on the hottest days. essential. how is the weather where you are? do you have your summer bathing suit picked out yet??? (i know one doesn't need to buy a new one each summer, but for some reason it just feels so good to do so).

simple beauty

things at home:

kale from the garden, persimmon paint. 

Most of the time

I've been thinking that I should do outfit posts. it's such a fun part of the blogosphere - one that i really actually enjoy.  I love seeing pictures of all you ladies in cute clothes, you know? So anyway, i've been thinking about that. I used to do outfit posts occasionally, but it's been a while. 

And the truth be told, usually my outfits are reaallly really simple. not necessarily blog-worthy. generally, when i'm getting dressed in the morning, i ask myself two questions: one, is it stretchy? and two, does it need a bra?

Ah yes, the life and times of sadie-style. this is not to say i don't get cute or dressed up sometimes. of course i do. i just also wear a lot of spandex and tank tops in all the times between then. nonetheless, i will try to show my face (and maybe some outfits) around here more. here i am the other day in very stretchy jeans and a tank top...about to carry a big load of stuff to the car for afternoon errands. you know how that goes!

Summer around here is awesome because it is so hot that one can wear practically nothing. the wearing of nothing-ness in summer is one of my favorite things, since i was tiny. of course, if one leaves the house, one must wear some things. 

there is so much to be said for comfort and flexibility in clothing. there is also so much to be said for really rocking it out with some cute/crazy digs. like most things in my life, my own personal styles come in waves; the inspiration and creation ebbs and flows. i have found that as a mother, i must be able to bend, carry, climb, and run at almost any moment in whatever i decide to wear. this is why my uniform of leggings + boots has been with me for soooo long. what about you? what's your mom steez? do you love taking your jeans off at the end of the day, or could you live in them? or are you part of the radical i-don't-own-jeans club??

Collage Collaboration Cards

Woohoo! As many of you know, I have been working on an art collaboration with Alice over at Cosmic Collage. over the course of many months (because we are both mothers, thank goodness, she was able to roll with my slow pace) we co-created these collages. It was a really sweet process that involved snail mail and trust in each other's artistic vision. 

Our intent was always to turn them into something for all of you, and now we have! Finally, our collaborative greeting cards are available for purchase. 

this first one, called The Journey, has a quote inside by Marcus Aurelius. it reads, 

"Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them"

This one, called Cleopatra, is blank on the inside for maximum versatility: 

It was really fun to do this project, and in the midst of lots of big moments in my life - traveling, moving, etc., we still managed to bring this project to fruition. which, as many of you know, is nothing to scoff at. i'm really grateful to Alice for collaborating and holding the vision so strong over the months that we worked on it. this is yet another reason why i love collaborating so much - being accountable to other creative and brilliant women is the ultimate motivator. 

If any of you are interested in having some of these cards for your personal stationery stash, they are right now available exclusively on the LB+L Collective Shop... this is a new and exciting shop space that I am launching with the release of these cards! keep an eye on this space for more grand collaborations and creations as time progresses. And if you have any questions or want custom orders, please just let me know. 

Aaaand, thanks for your support and for being a big part of the reason i create anything at all. 

Pool Party

It is the combination of cherries, watermelon, and swimming pools (all in a day) that makes one truly feel the essence of summer joy. 

Movement

Yes!

time to move and dance. the first two are reconstructed fringe pieces and the last one is a flirty swim skirt. 

these sweeties are now up in the shop.