C3 a wash

Because of some financial diffuculties (that were not my fault for once), I didn't get to pay for C2 on time, so C3 has passed without an order, which is distressing. Hopefully I can pay for it in time to get the catalogs I need for the next one on time.

::sigh::

But C4 is coming up, and it's loaded with great stuff! Come check it out!

Day 38

22. Do something new to green my life once every two months.

and

26. Plant, grow and actually maintain a proper kitchen garden and get a real harvest out of it.

Two points with one project! I'll be the first to admit that I'm addicted to water in bottles-- our tap water tastes bad, and there's no water fountain or the equivallent anywhere near work-- and that means I've got piles and piles of empty and mostly-empty water bottles all over my space. Unrelated, I thought, was the problem of where I'm going to plant all my herbs and trees as I prep for the garden. And then I spontaneously made the leap to combining the two: turn the millions of bottles into planters! So I cut the last quarter or so off the top, disgarding the pour-spout, and not I have tons of little planters all lined up along my windowsill, and best of all, water bottles actually fit on my windowsill, unlike actual pots meant for planting.

As a plus, I'm now throwing away less than a quarter of the volume they had whole, so that's neat. I need to see about getting recycling pick-up here, but I think we'd have to pay for it, and that just seems rediculous to me, when Florida passed that law ages ago saying recycling needs to be mandatory.

I planted tons of herbs and greens this morning, and hopefully they'll take to growing and we'll start having fresh greens to add to the seasonal foods and foraging.

32. Learn a new crochet stitch a month, and use it in something practical and easily-finished.

This month's stitch will be the fan stitch, and I'll get started on it as soon as I get back from the Food Show I'm going to in Orlando.

23. Keep a calendar up to date with deadlines, accomplishments, failures, holidays, notes, full moons, birthdays and anniversaries, schedules, etc for the length of this exercize.

So far, so good. But it's really only been 5 days into this new year, so we still need to make it a long way...

34. Use only reusable shopping bags or paper.

This one is harder than you'd think. I keep a bag in my purse, but if we're out somewhere and I didn't take my purse, that kind of leaves me having to buy a new bag each time (which means I'm getting quite a collection of reusable bags), or having to only buy what I can carry. Alot of places don't even have paper bags, as I learned recently, and I think that's just weird. BUT, I have managed to keep my plastic bag use down to a minimum, and there's less and less each time. 

I think it's the extra planning I'm having trouble with-- having to think about what I'm doing before I leave the house and being prepared for buying things when I don't expect to be going to the store...

As an addendum to this one, I'm starting to notice all the ziploc bags I use in making my lunch for work, and that whole rinse and reuse idea only lasts a few times before it splits or gets too greasy and you have to throw it away anyway. So I'm going to green up my lunchbox, too. I've already bought a sandwich container, but I think I'm going to trade up to one of those washable sandwich wraps. And I've bought a few snack containers for the side things. I need a plastic bento bowl and a set of lunchbox / bento silverware, and I think I'll be able to get through a week without throwing anything away.

45. Keep my Etsy shop full and with a good selection, and start selling handmade gifts and cosmetics regularly.

I have this whole month off of work, and I'm going to devote big chunks of it to taking better pictures of the things I have and to getting more stock-- and refilling the shop so I can start to make some money off of it.

72. Learn to play at least one ideal song for all the flutes I have.

I'm learning the pennywhistle! And so far it's not that hard-- it's just doing it well and naturally that's hard. And I bought a new flute: a Japanese traditional-style one. I have no idea how to use it-- it's one of the side-hole ones like a professional flute and like that beautiful bamboo one I have, and so far, I think those'll be the challenge in this step.

92. Lose 30 lbs at 1-2 lbs a week, then level off successfully and keep it off.

This one's proving difficult. I've actually put on weight since making this list, but I think that's because I made it right before the Thanksgiving-Christmas food madness. Now I'm on the seasonal plan, and I'm making more of my own food and eating less junk, and I'm optimistic that I can do it.

C2 - Update

Campaign 2 is due before midnight on Friday, Jan 9th, so if you're ordering from me, make sure you get your order to me with enough time to get it into the computer.

Thanks!