Credit: The Loewentheil Collection of China Photography

• as a fan of photography, I loved seeing these rare photographs of 19 century China! Incredible.
• also, have you ever made or eaten chickpea cookies? I'm dubious.. but intrigued!  
• love how chill Alex Honnold is about his sweet van.. his documentary Free Soul looks so crazy (I'm afraid of heights).. I don't know if I could watch it! Here's the trailer:

Have a great week.
d.

 

 This post has been languishing as a draft since 2018. So i finally decided to publish it before I could overthink it.

 

It all started with my hair..
In September of 2016 I read Bea Johnson's book Zero Waste Home for the first time. I had been researching Tiny Houses in Canada and had found an interview with a BC tiny house owner (sorry.. forgot the name of the article.. x_X) that mentioned Zero Waste and Bea Johnson's book. I had no clue about Zero Waste or Bea Johnwho but as always, I immediately hopped onto my Public Library website and looked for the book! To my delight, it was available at my local branch so I rode off my bike to go and check it out.  I brought it home, read it cover to cover and got really excited about going Zero Waste. I've always been interested in environmental protection, and have had several friends who are passionate about it, but the side that also appealed to me most was the frugality, ability to save money and to travel lightly! (Because I travel alot) I jumped in wholeheartedly with both feet and the first thing I tackled was my shampoo consumption. Travelling with shampoo is always a pain (carry on liquid is so limited) I went out to buy my first soap bar and made sure I had Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) in the pantry for my rinses. October was a crazy busy month for me because I moved overseas to Asia. Before I left I happily took a trip to Whole Foods to stock up on their Good Soap bars (package free!). The price was right (3 for 7$) and Bea Johnson had mentioned them on her Instagram a few times as her bar of choice. So off I went, I hopped on the plane and moved across the world very pleased with myself.

HAIR:
About a month later, my hair was absolutely AWFUL! I knew the stories that the transition period would be difficult and my hair would look bad for a while, but this was a whole new level of gross. Greasy, sticky, even after a shower it still felt wet. It was pretty gross. After scouring the internet for answers, I realized that using traditional soap bars on your hair is usually a no-no. For some people it works (like Bea) but for most people its too heavy on the hair and leaves your hair in a sticky mess. So here I was in small town China with no idea how to wash my hair! Again, the internet comes to the rescue. I turned to the very popular method you often hear about, baking soda! Many people wash their hair with Baking soda (diluted in water) and followed by an acid rinse (usually ACV). However, I hated the baking soda method! It left my  hair feeling like straw and I found I had white flakes on my scalp whenever I would wash my hair.. I would in the washroom at work and when I looked in the mirror I saw snow! That left me feeling very self conscious. I found a method called the egg rinse.. I was very skeptical but I tried it.. you rinse your hair with a raw egg yolk! Seriously.. I can't make this stuff up haha. After many methods, many attempts at improving my hair I finally asked my family to send me a shampoo bar from home. Using a shampoo bar has been the best thing for my  hair so far. It cleans it well and my hair feels light and i have good volume afterwards. I know some Zero Wasters who don't use anything to wash their hair (water only) and swear by it, but for me it doesn't seem to work.
Unfortunately when I moved to my school in August, my hair has gone downhill again. I suspected the water was the culprit, and sure enough when I shower outside my hair is much better. Hard water can have a big impact on your hair as well, so keep that in mind. I'm hoping to try out using Rye Flour as shampoo in the next few weeks! Shampoo bars can be quite expensive and I thought it would be fun to try a more natural method.. I'll let you know how it goes! :)

Lip Balm/Moisturizer:
When I moved I didn't bring any of my old products with me (only took 1 suitcase) so I started off moisturizing my face with olive oil. It worked fine! But i didn't love the olive oil smell and I don't think it absorbed as well. Now I make my own all purpose balm which I use as a lip balm and general skin/face moisturizer. Easy and cheap to make anywhere in the world!

Toothpaste:
I make my own toothpowder. Initially I just used straight baking soda (so versatile!) but I found it a bit harsh on my teeth over time (but some people love it!) so I started to use this recipe which is a mix of bentonite clay, Xylitol and baking soda.

Deodorant:
This one is a bit of a struggle at the moment.. I've been trying several natural methods but still haven't found one that works super well for me. This is one of the downsides of going Zero Waste.. it can be frustrating to find what works for you, and tempting to go back to buying plastic. No one likes to stink!

Make up:
I use Mascara from Elate Cosmetics, a super awesome Canadian company with sustainable packaging. I still have leftover lipsticks from before my Zero Waste days, still use those.

living as an expat is exciting and fun, but one thing that is super hard is always having to say goodbye to people and places. Some days are harder than others, and today these song lyrics are reflecting my mood.

"every thing i said 
playin back in my head 
every sweet moment 
every place we went 
is a part, is a mark in me 
every burn is a brand i see 
gotta tattoo in my soul 
memories inked, permanent black gold" 
#3 Forever by Sam Ock
.
.

I was in Istanbul for 7 days a few months ago.. it was amazing. Here are some pictures!

• Reading Cait Flanders "The Year of Less" was a treat. Thoughtful and brutally honest, told in a way I admire immensely. The idea of completing a year of 'Buying nothing' has always appealed to me. In some sense, I'm functionally doing that, but the process of intentionally tracking it and blogging about would be even more helpful. Sidenote: it iss such a joy to read Canadian authors, I'm like "Yusssssssssss Girl!!"

• Dwelling in the ancient book of Psalms, ruminating over it. It's been so incredibly rich for my soul.

• This blog post was a random find, but incredibly well written and powerful. Makes me both hesistant and inspired to type something and send it out into the world. The power of remembering.. (https://shepicksuppennies.com/share-struggles-successes)

Hoping to get more reading done this month. I feel I've been in a sort of Tornado season, running to and fro, busy from morning to evening. Now the storm has passed and I don't want to let myself get so insanely busy again.
Have a wonderful day.. I'm working on my Istanbul pictures, hope to post them soon!

d.

Quick peep into the lovely interior of Black & Smith Country General, Jerseyville, Ontario. They had an exhibit of the work of Niki Kingsmill and I loved seeing her work in this beautiful shop space, especially the line drawings of women. Definitely pop in if you're in the area.

Photo by Jérémie Jung, National Geographic

As you know, I love photography. These images from this acrobatic tightroping club in Dagestan completely captured me this morning. Where the heck is Dagestan? Yea, I had no idea either when I first read it this morning.  Check out the Nat Geo article and marvel at this beautiful country and the youth who have a fearless hope for the future.

- Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

summer is the season for jamz.
dis my main summer jam 2018.

Being back in Canada for a brief few weeks, of course I have a bucket list! #allthethings
Usually my bucket list is centered around my interests: stationary, art, food, coffee, and of course combining all those things with friends, family and my hometown Hamilton.

I've long been a fan of Wonder Pens, a small family run stationary shop in Toronto that specializes in Fountain Pens and hard to find inks. In an increasingly digital world, analogue record keeping and  correspondence has significantly decrease (case in point: as I sit here and blog) but more and more people are finding they miss putting pen to paper. Wonder Pens is a great little shop that meets those needs and has a wonderful staff with great high quality products. They just moved their store from Leslieville to Little Italy and I seized the opportunity to pop in when I was in Toronto a few weeks ago. I also needed to pick up some Noodlers Ink to refill my fountain pens with. As a Zero Waste proponent, I'm a huge fan of refillable fountain pens, and as someone who journals regularly I've found that all I need is one black, archival ink that suits all of my needs. Some people have massive fountain pen collections and a whole rainbow of beautiful inks, but as someone who is a minimalist and travels frequently, it's simple not possible for me. Off I trotted to Wonder Pens to refill my trusty stash and check out the new shop!

In short.. Wonder Pens lives up to its name. Here are some pics of their thoroughly instagrammable interior. Also, they stock a wide collection of hard to find Japanese stationary products (Superior Labour, Classiky, Travelers Notebook), as well as the staples like Field Notes, Rhodia, and Leuchtterm and a huge variety of fountain pens and ink.

love the upcycled coconut milk can ^_^

Liz has scattered great little postcards for purchase around the shop.

Mammoth Lamy pen just chilling in the corner... like nbd. 😂

Love this custom postcard drawn by Gotamago, a local Toronto artist.

green plants everywhere!

It's been so wonderful to to watch Jon and Liz do so well with this little shop. They host letter writing nights (free to join!) and classes and have even been able to hire additional staff. I browsed for quite a while and was impressed with the customer service they provided. Unfortunately, the Noodlers I was looking for was out of stock, but I had a lovely chat with Sarah and went on my way with a little sample to tide me over until the next restock.

ALL THE INKS!

Wonder Pens is a charming spot, definitely check it out if you are an analogue lover. While claiming the store is the BEST stationary shop in Toronto may be rather opinionated, it's definitely in my top three. I have yet to check out Paper Plus Cloth's new shop on Queen West but it features highly on The Bucket List. Until that happens I will reserve my use of superlatives.. 😉

Enjoy this Toronto gem, and if you are a stationary nerd like myself or a fountain pen enthusiast.. these people know all the things.

Hugs,
d.

I sit here in the friction of my heart, restless.
Feeling like i could burst out of my own skin, almost on the verge of something, not sure if I should just drop it all and completely abscond into the greater world.

Abscond, what a delicious word.

Sometimes, my heart seesaws between responsibility and absolute reliability (i have this quite caring, mature, taking the world onto my shoulders side) and sheer spontaneity filled with a devil may care attitude (often epitomized in my generation with 'Yolo' and 'Wth').
Shirking responsibility within reason, disappearing into the mystery of the unknown world. Isn't this the tension we live in? The desire to be known, to know others deeply, fulfilling that deep seated longing to be accepted, to show our dark side and our vulnerabilites and to be accepted. To grow a garden and know our neighbors and put down roots. And then that other side, that says to hell with the status quo and the middle class life that speaks of diapers, morgages, conversations about grass seed and property taxes and how the world is going to hell in a 100% organic cotton handbasket. Forget the North American dream I'm gonna live in a Tiny House or even better, an upright Sprinter Van, become one with the mosquitoes and bears
and work remotely,
and make millions of dollars blogging....

Isn't that just .. another type of North American dream? My generations reaction to the previous ones stability? The #vanlife generation. 

It's called sabotage.
We sabotage ourselves.
 Comparison, jealousy, dissatisfaction and social pressures to conform, to be _________.

To be ____________________ (cool, desirable, unattached, sexy, intelligent, sophisticated, up to date on every pop culture reference.. the list goes on).

For me the thrill of absconding is always waiting for me. That childlike stubbornness, unwillingness to give in, a flash of the eyes and a 'I'll show you' toss of the head as I leave you in my dust.

And yet, at the end of the day, a resignation to the responsibilities. To a desire to leave the world just a little bit better than it was yesterday.. a total refusal to let the evil steal my joy and so I fantasize about kicking 'it' in the face. Those sour memories of being the one left holding the bag, the disappointment in the ones who absconded without you, left you to clean up the mess. The looks of disappointment in faces of those you let down, who trusted in you. A belief in the importance of finishing what I started. Knowing when your heart is deceiving you with the niggles of comparison and knowing when you really need to throw off the shackles and run free through that field of flowers. When you need to slip off your shoes and dance barefoot in an empty room.

To dwell in this friction.
To be human, in this broken, marvelous, wild world.