I’m a self described modern day hippie and I could not be more proud of the title. Sure I still shower and maintain a sense of grooming, but I’ve been taking big steps toward a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. And honestly, it’s been so easy to make the switch. One of the biggest hurtles to becoming more eco-friendly is the inconvenience, but these few steps make it way easy to reduce your footprint, save the turtles, and feel a lot better about yourself.
I said goodbye to plastic straws first. I wrote about the experience in a post a few months after I started, but it’s been over a year now of actively giving back straws through drive-thru windows and toting around metal straws with me. I estimate that I’ve reduced my straw usage of about 300 straws in one year. That’s a lot of straws that won’t be bothering the poor sea turtles.
Another easy switch is to take reusable bags to supermarkets. Sure you can bring back plastic bags to the store to recycle, but it’s just so much easier not to get them in the first place. I keep a few in my car, a few in each of my bags, and some where I grab my keys. That way I always have a bag no matter when I decide to pop into the store.
If you’re a frequent Starbucks groupie like I am, their reusable cups are a must. They’ll give you $0.10 off your drink order when you use the cup, and the ones at the register cost only $2. Anything to reduce the guilt of hitting up the Starbucks drive-thru for the third time this week, right?
Now if you’re really down to help the Earth, let’s talk about composting. I recently got a Lifetime Compost Tumbler from Costco (this one is similar) and have started to make my own compost. This videoI saw on Facebook made it look so easy that I finally took the plunge and purchased one. So far we’ve been putting in food scraps and collecting leaves. It feels so good to not throw away scraps from cooking. We still have quite a while until we have any compost, but it’s been a fun process. Plus Starbucks sometimes has coffee grounds for free you can add to your compost or use in your garden.
It hasn’t once felt inconvenient to bring a reusable bag or hand back a plastic straw I won’t be using. I finally feel good about my involvement in helping the environment. It’s so easy to think “it’s too big of a problem for little old me to do anything.” But with the environment that’s just not true. There is so much we can do every day that you’ll feel ridiculous waiting so long to start.
It’s no secret that making friends as an adult is hard. You’re no longer surrounded by the same people every day in class, and if you work from home, it’s even harder to meet people. At the start of my 20s, I had friends few and far between. I felt lonely, unlikable, and just plain down on myself (I’m sure un-diagnosed depression didn’t help either…) I actively had to start seeking out friends in the planner community, in my neighborhood, and beyond. Keeping in touch became more important than ever. It’s taken a few years, but I’ve learned that not all friendships are going to be the same. As I get deeper into my 20s three types of friendship types seem to keep popping up.
The old school BFF. This is the friend that’s been around pre-puberty and holds all your most embarrassing secrets. The type of friend who you’ve known since childhood and still keep in touch with even if you haven’t seen them in ages. Yet when you finally get back together, it’s as if no time has passed. I’m fortunate enough to have three people who fall into this category. The older you get, the more exclusive this category becomes.
The budding friendship. I read somewhere that it takes around 200 hours to become close friends with someone. With busy work schedules, kids, and significant others, it takes way more time to get to 200 hours than it did when we were kids. There are a few women in my life that I’ve met a year or two ago and seem like they could be amazing friends over time. We have a ton in common, but it takes a lot of planning to find time to get together for coffee or a night out. This category of friend has a lot of promise, but it’s not going to happen overnight.
The comer and goer. When I first moved into our neighborhood I made a bunch of fast friends. Over time they’ve faded away as I’ve found other people I have more in common with and shared interests. And you know what? That’s totally ok. There are going to be people in your life who come in for a certain amount of time and then move on. I find these friends incredibly important, but I’ve also learned when to let go.
When I finally started to understand that not all of the friends in my life will reach “old school BFF” status I became a lot more relaxed. The pressure lifted to become best friends overnight. Now I have friends I see maybe once a month, and others I talk to on a daily basis. Not all friendships are created equal, and it’s about time I started realizing that it’s ok.
Is it fair that I feel like I get to celebrate Christmas every month? Is there such a thing as too much excitement? I may die from it if that’s the case. Building the Oh, Hello Box every month is literally my favorite part of my job these days. So thanks for that, planner friends.
This month’s theme is Coffee Shop Vibes. I wanted a box that contained things you would usually see, do, and use while at a coffee shop. Of course a large coffee mug topped the list of things I had to add. Motivational quotes are my jam and nothing starts a day off better than a quote reminding you that it’s a good day to have a good day.
Of course I had to sprinkle in my love of plants into the box with this rubber key chain as well as a blossom kit where you can grow your own poppy flowers!
Probably my two favorite items in this month’s box are the tartan tote and the coffee cup dangle enamel pin. I love how classy the tote feels while still giving off serious oh, hello vibes. Plus the enamel pin is just so cool. I mean come on, the spoon dangles. Witchcraft I tell ya.
There are a ton of other products I haven’t highlighted in this post, so if you want to see them all be sure to watch the video! This box will be available Saturday, April 6th all the way through the month or until they sell out. Each box has over $100 in lifestyle and planner items and costs $44.95 with a flat shipping fee!
A week or so ago my husband Alex and I took half the day off to go to Frederik Meijer Gardens for their annual Butterflies in Bloom event. In the three years we’ve lived in Grand Rapids, we’ve never been. We of course have talked about it, but always found some excuse as to why we were just too busy to go.
Now my mental health journey is no secret to regular readers around these parts. And in an effort to actively work on bettering my mental state, I’ve taken a lot more care with myself. More breaks, more understanding, and more love.
It was so easy to push aside whatever work we had that day to go see the butterflies. A lot easier I think than either one of us expected. We’re so consumed by work that we barely come up for air. The break felt more than just a break, it felt like a rediscovery of what really matters.
Alex and I bought ourselves a membership to Frederik Meijer so we can go back anytime we want throughout the year. We’re making a conscious effort to put our mental health and relationship at the forefront, rather than constantly pushing them aside for more work.
I guess the point of this post is to act as a reminder to take a break, do something you’ve talked about doing but haven’t made the time for it yet, and remember what really matters. It’s something I think we all have to actively work on…and you can bet that I am.
Alright. I admit it. I’ve become addicted to planner stamping. You know it must be true if there’s a blog post about it, right? I’m sure there’s a video to follow at some point. This girl just can’t help but share her latest obsession with whoever is listening on the internet. But I digress.
One of the biggest reasons it’s taken me so long to get into stamping is how overwhelming it all seemed. I didn’t have the slightest clue where to begin, most stamp sets felt overly expensive to me, and I didn’t even know if I would like it. So here are my tips if you’re interested in giving stamping a go, but don’t know where to start. Don’t worry, I’ve done all the fumbling around so you don’t have to.
1. Don’t buy everything at once. Give it a go first to see if you even like it. It’s so easy to want to purchase everything out there or what you see someone on YouTube using in a tutorial. Save your pennies until you know whether or not stamping is even for you. If you happen to be at a planner meetup or event, check the destash table for any unwanted stamps left behind (I’ve found quite a few there myself) or buy a variety set from Erin Condren (like the ones in the photo) or Amazon (this is a set I’ve been looking at). You’ll have to pick yourself up an acrylic block as well as ink pads, but to test out stamping shouldn’t cost you more than $25-$30.
2. Practice on things you don’t care about messing up. This is a big one. If you’re a planner perfectionist like me, you’ll want to practice on scrap paper to get the hang of it before diving into your precious planner. It took me quite a few tries to understand pressure and how much ink to put on the stamps.
3. Be open to mistakes. It’s part of the process. Regardless of how much you practice, there’s still a good chance you’ll mess up. I’ve “messed up” literally every time I’ve stamped in my “good” planner and yet that’s part of the charm. I weirdly love how a slightly imperfect stamp looks in my planner now. If I want perfection, there’s a sticker. If I want a little personality, I’ll stamp.
4. Look for variety ink sets like this one on Amazon or these from Erin Condren to make switching colors easier. It really helped to keep costs low when getting started while still giving me a ton of freedom of different options.
5. Clean off your stamps after every use. I use these wipes from Erin Condren, but any technology alcohol wipe should do. Cleaning off your stamps makes them last longer and stay in good condition so you can stamp away without worrying about residues or damaged stamps. Get into the practice now when you’re just getting started.
Of course, I’m still a stamping novice myself, so any stamping experts out there, leave your tips in the comments!
