Tiny candles, a sneaker hunt, and the best crackers

plus, a really good environmental newsletter and the beauty of winter trees

✨Many of you found your way here via our house tour on Cup of Jo! A huge thank you, Joanna and Jannelle, for such a thoughtful interview and feature, and I'm full of so much gratitude to the COJ readers for their kind and insightful comments. I'm in awe of photographer Lyndsay Hannah, who really captured the soul of the house.✨

I'm writing to you in the aftermath of hosting my youngest's 7th birthday party - a joyful chaos of kids moving between art stations at a local art space. They drew treasure maps, made detailed renderings of a carrot with a bow tie, made paper airplanes, cut paper sculptures and put them back together with lots and lots of tape. There was even a drawing of a dancing pickle! I love watching kids make art; they are so unafraid of making mistakes (gah!), and the scale of their creativity is vast (why NOT a carrot with a bow tie?). It's also so exhausting to be a child; time moves so much slower, and small dramas, therefore, feel like they last for so much longer. I know this, and I forget it, and I will try to remember it again to act with compassion toward the littlest people in my world. The afternoon's highlight was not one but two volleys of these "no mess" confetti poppers!

What I Read
I've really been enjoying Pandora Sykes' Books and Bits newsletter, which reliably sends me in many delicious directions each week, like this article on 'dopamine menus' in The Guardian. Mostly, though, this was also a week where I started a lot of articles on my phone and… got interrupted. Ben and I both had strep throat, and then I had an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin! That was a first for me. We're both fine now, but I was in and out of the doctor's office six times, all told. 😬 My therapist and I have been working on a mantra that helped steady me through the week's ups and downs. While I feel a little silly for sharing it, if it helps even one of you, then it's worth it. The mantra is "Good shit happens, and bad shit happens - and I can handle both." As someone with a lifelong anxiety disorder, I find that I'm anxious during bad times and the good times (maybe most especially the good times!). Reminding myself that I can handle both the good and the bad seems to puncture my balloon of anxiety and ground me.

Design Notes
A. I discovered the work of printmaker Richard Shimell when a friend forwarded me KDD's post on his work. His prints of trees in winter have such extraordinary detail. I find them so hopeful as they remind me that this winter will pass. Somehow, thinking about how these trees have withstood hundreds of years of the turning of the wheel of the seasons fills me with an enormous sense of calm. I bought his book (it may end up as a gift for a friend; I may add it to my collection).

B. These matryoshka nesting fruits and vegetables (still for sale!) are a reminder of the joy of creative 'play.' There's a gentle joke here, a play against type in using fruit and veggies instead of the more typical nesting doll. I found them on Aamu Song & Johan Olin's website. Based in Helsinki, they have been collaborating with Igor Napilov for 10 years - the photos and videos of his workshop are well worth the click.

C. On the topic of creativity and play, these candles burn for 20 minutes. One way I carve out time for creativity is to clear my desk, put my phone into do-not-disturb mode, and light one of these candles with the goal of 20 uninterrupted creative minutes. It's an analog take on the Pomodoro method.

Kitchen Notes & Found Objects
D. These are chips - a la kale chips - made from nasturtium leaves! Is your head exploding, too? I can't wait to try these this summer.

E. A friend recently served me the most amazing crackers during a work lunch (she has excellent instincts about when I'm getting hangry), and the rest is history. These have become my go-to crackers in record time; they are savory and crunchy, with an almost melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness that is unexpected in a cracker. I can see you squinting at the photo and thinking - maybe? And I know - there is a health food store vibe that isn't initially promising. But here's the real test - I keep buying these for myself at our local grocery store, and when I come down for a snack, a brand-new box of crackers will be empty. HA! When Alex was a newborn, and I was a newly minted mom, a friend counseled, "You can get through a lot with cheese and crackers." Indeed, you can.

F. I'm looking for a fresh pair of spring sneakers, and these have been winking at me.

G. Spending my formative years in an antique farmhouse with an equally antique septic system made me a true believer in the Scott brand of toilet paper! 😂 However, after my favorite newsletter on sustainability, one5c, did a round-up of the best eco-friendly toilet paper, and Who Gives A Crap came out on top, I decided to give them a try. As luck would have it, a few days later, we stayed with friends who had filled an awkward nook in an unrenovated bathroom with colorful rolls of Who Gives A Crap toilet paper. It was a chic solution and just the kind of practicality I love. The design-loving part of me enjoys the patterned wrappers, and the practical Vermonter in me is pleased with the septic-first quality of the paper. NB: I learned a lot from one5c's A starter guide to saving electricity in your home.

Until next week, here's to finding joy in life's small pleasures - from crackers shared with a friend to the fun of hunting for a new pair of sneakers - and to handling whatever life throws our way with grace and maybe a confetti popper or two!

Sunday Daily Dose of Green

Sunset, July 2021 // Each morning, I share a single image of nature - a landscape painting or photograph - delivered quietly to your inbox. Think of it as a moment of visual meditation before your day begins. No commentary, no analysis - just space to pause and observe.