Fall Fashion Week: Day 3

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Getting in under the wire, just barely, with this one. First off, for all of those who were curious about my head chain in yesterday's outfit, I made it. But this lovely gal, Moorea, sells fabulous ones and someday I will own one! Secondly, thank you all for your kind and lovely comments. I can't wait till I have a bit more time to search through all your blogs! 

 Yes, I was tired.
 Can you tell I love these shoes? I actually wanted to wear my converse but could only find one this morning.

Outfit details:
Head Scarf: Gifted to me by Laura
Paisley printed shirt: Upcycled by myself from a too big dress from Goodwill
Undershirt: Gifted from Laura
Belt: Thrifted 
Cutoff Shorts: Goodwill then hacked by me
Tights: Target

I caught my kitty boy soaking in the sunset tonight.
 He's so handsome. My first cat had similar markings. I have a soft spot for black and white kitties.

Oh and wonderful news to share about the house we are buying. Joey and I are blown away at the amazingness of the seller. We turned in our requests for repairs after the home inspection. She's fixing ever single thing. One of the requests was a bid for her to get an electrician out to see how much it would cost to replace the ENTIRE breaker box because it is outdated. She is replacing the entire thing. Her response to the realtor, "If it needs to be fixed, it needs to be fixed!" She's a wonderful woman and I can imagine she's the type of landlord I want to be when we start renting out our house we have now. Happy dance. This young family is super grateful that there will be no worries in the back of our mind for any of the repairs needing to be done with kids in the house.

Peace and Love.
Katelyn

Fall Fashion Week: Day 2

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I'm so grateful for Rachael mentioning to me it was Fall Fashion Week. It's so nice to take a break from the work to be done to do something purely fun. The people involved are always super sweet. I wish I had more time to go through and check out all your outfits because you always are so super adorable. I'm sneaking this blog post in before Donna gets here to help me pack and sort and fold and and and. I'm so over clothing can you tell? I've asked Joey if we could just throw everything away, he said no. So I asked if we could just thrown everything on the lawn with a "Free to go home" sign. He still was not amused. Seemed like a good idea to me! The great part about learning to let go is that the items you do keep really, fit. Not even in the fit my physical body, per se, but the journey. They adorn the journey I am on.
 My little kitty boy, Cheerio, misses his brother. He has not learned to accept Tesla yet but I think his wound is still open from Bonzai's death. I just feel his sadness when I am with him. I hope the move will be a good time for his wounds to heal and for him to start fresh as well. I think these walls and this neighborhood holds much sadness for him. His brother and him would prowl the area and watch each others backs. They definitely were a team.
 He's also gotten HUGE these last couple months. He is definitely a tomcat now.
 This outfit is comprised of four of my favorite items in my wardrobe.
Outfit details:
Hand sewn by one of the sweetest souls ever!
Necklace: Gifted by Laura, Roots and Feathers

delirious rhapsody

Peace and Love.
Katelyn

Fall Fashion Week: Day 1

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Welcoming autumn. My favorite season of the year. The coolness, the time to start going inward to prepare for winter. Layers. The outfits. Ushering in autumn with Fall Fashion Week which is hosted by Delirious Rhapsody. And hello, pumpkin everything.
Donna took these photos for me with her nifty fishy lens.
 Outfit details:
Shirt: Double Zero
Arm cuff: Flourish Leather
Cutoff jeans: Goodwill
Today we spent the day with our dear friends to celebrate autumn....and for me to get out of the house away from the ten tons of clothing I have been surrounded with while washing, sorting, folding and packing into it's designated space of either giveaway, keep, donate or trash. I'm a woman on a mission to significantly reduce the clothing under our roof. With this move coming, I want to start fresh and live more simply. So for now to get to that point, it's a little hectic and I feel cross-eyed and bitchy. I.can't.wait.for.November. 
Apparently Joey is purple. I did not even want to mess around in photoshop to fix that. We're to that point. And is it just me or does the fish eye make his face resemble The Scream?

I'm linking up over on Deanna's blog for FFW.
delirious rhapsody

Peace and Love.
Katelyn

Limbo.

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I'm working through this Making Space Cleanse while packing up the house. It was good timing to do this, letting go. Laura brought it up to me and asked if I wanted to do it with her. Part of the cleanse is to reflect on our mornings because they set the tone for the day. I have realized though that my morning does indeed set me up for the day which normally is not a bad thing but lately with Penelope's sleeping habits and Leena fighting a cold this momma is exhausted. Morning does not whisper sweet nothings into my ear. It drags me by my toes out of bed and I begrudgingly go through the motions of being a momma. 
 One of my views first thing in the morning.
I dropped the entire half of an eggshell in my eggs this morning. I was a bit exhausted. Thought this accurately described my state of mind at that moment.

After some advice of trying to sleep in complete darkness we are going to try that tonight in hopes that Penelope does not wake up 4-5 times a night to nurse. I have less than three weeks to pack up this house so I do not have to worry about all that after going to Laura's mid October to shoot the next lookbook and then getting it all put together and such. I will not be putting this off till the last minute. With making space and letting go this means I will be getting rid of things that I no longer love or serve a purpose in my life. Look for a virtual yard sale that I'll be posting on the fanpage hopefully starting tonight or tomorrow. Otherwise I don't even want to deal with a yard sale and may just donate everything. 
 Time to get back to packing.

Peace and Love.
Katelyn




Wheat.

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Around 1 year old, Leena developed, what I thought was, a severe case of cradle cap. Although now she's 4 and it's still there but getting worse. I've tried tea tree oil and coconut oil. I've brushed it off completely but it came back. Slightly stronger than the time before. Her scalp loses large chunks of it and along with that, she loses hair and then has bald spots. I have been racking my brain with what it could be and I've been thinking perhaps she is having a food allergy. Specifically wheat. Today marks the first day of Leena's wheat-free diet. We will all end up being wheat free while at home since it's easiest to maintain that lifestyle as a group, I would imagine. I hope this will show improvement.

Today we might make some wheat-free chocolate chip cookies while Leena rests so she can heal from the cold she's now fighting. Trying this recipe by Emma Kwasnica.

Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Pre-heat oven to 350F.
 Combine the following dry ingredients in your mixing bowl:
260g almond flour (about 2 1/2 cups)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

On low heat on the stove top in a small saucepan, melt 115g (about a 1/2 cup) of unsalted butter; remove from heat and add in 1/2 cup maple syrup and 3 tsp vanilla; mix well

Pour wet ingredients into the dry ones and mix thoroughly

Fold in, by hand, 2/3 cup chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of walnut pieces

Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and flatten. Bake for 10 minutes, then allow to cool & harden (without removing from the sheet) for 20 minutes.

Yield: 24 cookies

Peace and Love.
Katelyn

House Business

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Hydrangea bush from the house we are buying. <3

We've been busy over here. Busy with photographing birthing babies. Busy with getting house business taken care of. Busy with living. We had our house inspection today and there was nothing major to make us not want to proceed with buying the house. We will meet with the realtor again in a couple days to talk over the inspection findings and make our list of requests for the seller. Sitting in that house while Joey walked around with the inspector just felt so peaceful. I finally felt at home. An empty house feels more at home than our current house. I'm ready to move forward. I'm a tad scared of becoming a landlord however when we start renting out the house we live in now. I'm feeling way too grown up at the current time. Leena and I sat on the fireplace hearth reading one of her books and it just felt so... right. Here's a walk through video I took on my phone. Sorry if it's nausea inducing. I started from the carport (side) door. And, I fixated for a while on a little tree frog that was on the bathroom window trying to get my phone to focus on it.
 
 
Peace and Love. 
Katelyn

The Lorax made me cry.

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Watching The Lorax the other day made me sad, happy and frightened all at the same time. Sad because that is happening to our world. Happy because the ending was of course happy. Frightened because I do fear for what is to come for our world. It is true that small changes add up to big changes. A small group of determined individuals can make a huge impact on our world, our society. Who was it that said that? As silly as this sounds, I've been more mindful about unplugging our cell phone chargers when they aren't in use. James Mazurek reminded me to do so when we visited him and Laura. Even this earth-loving momma has some changes to makes.

My goals for the next month, that I want to maintain:
1. Use less water when doing the dishes.
2. Line dry our laundry at least 50% of the time.
3. Eat more raw foods, using less energy in the kitchen to cook them.
4. Have the computer on less. No more than 3-4 hours a day, to do work.
5. Give offerings to the earth to thank her. Do this daily.

If you would like to download this print I made you can do that here. It will print as a 5 inch by 5 inch. I'd love for you to enjoy it and let it remind you that even though you are one person, you can have a BIG impact on the world.

What are ways you like to help the earth? What are ways you honor her?

Peace and Love,
Katelyn

Prayer Tie

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I attended a Prayer Tie Ceremony last week before the hurricane made landfall in Louisiana. They were filled with prayers for New Orleans. (Prayers for our house as well.) 7 years post Hurricane Katrina PTSD levels are still ever present and it's still a city full of fear and death. New Orleans was spared from this hurricane. LaPlace was not. There was a breech in the levee and the area was flooded. Please send prayers and thoughts to them as they heal and rebuild. 

A Prayer Tie ceremony is a ritual of using 5 inch squares or smaller to bundle herbs in, usually tobacco, that you says prayers and intentions over. You tie them on one continuous string and you can say one final prayer over the whole string. Then it should be tied outside on a tree or something of meaning. It's an offering to the great spirits or whatever deity you connect with. Red is the color representing the south and black represents the west generally but for us it was representing mystery. As a side note if you are wanting to do your own ceremony: Four colors of fabric are used when making a prayer ties to represent the four directions or four winds - east (yellow), south (red), west (black), and north (white). At the ceremony a gal said they are also good to make to circle around a child's bed that is having nightmares. I'll definitely be doing this for our beds.

When I got home I placed mine in my magnolia tree where I sit to talk to my grandpa. That will be one of the things I miss when we move but I take my grandpa's presence with me.

We should know today if we are approved to put an offer in on the house we love. I'm freaking out a bit.

Peace and love,
Katelyn