Everyone knows that the new year is a traditional time for starting over.

I was always the sort to eschew the new years resolutions. “Everyone always breaks them anyway,” I’d say. I think my friends and I all tried to quit smoking together one year. I lasted about 3 months – others didn’t even last the night.

But then in early 2008, I found myself in a very, very bad place. Would you believe I was a totally bitter, negative person? It’s true. I’d never dealt with depression before and it took me damn near a year to figure out what was going wrong. The sadness itself was brought on by a multitude of factors, but suffice to say it left me in a pretty bad way. I was lonely, lost, unmotivated, and squarely in the center of a quarter-life crisis. I knew I needed to do something radical, before I lost myself forever.

So I did. Not overnight and not without trial (and error), but I wrote a journal about the breakthrough, here, if you’re interested. I began to practice positivity as a lifestyle. I made sweeping changes, looked at myself critically, imagined what I wanted to become. A lot of the work I did during that time served as inspiration for this article. And of course, it led me here (among other places). Just a few months later I was launching Bonzai Aphrodite.

The turn of the year seemed a perfect time to put my vision down on paper. I do believe that having a reference point, the simple act of writing something down and thus entering it into the world, can be a powerful force in manifesting that goal. I had 10 new intentions that I kept in a Word doc on my desktop. It’s entitled 2009 – Living the Dream, and along with my ‘resolutions’, I record my strategies for happiness, my sources of inspiration, and a list of the books I’ve read (I always try to read more than I did the year before). I make sure to open it at least once a month, to read over my 10 intentions and remember the bigger picture.


Resolutions for a New Year:

1) I can be whoever I want to be.
2) CLARITY → VISUALIZE → MANIFEST
3) Practice being a good wife. Be good to Damian. Try to make sure that every day, his life is better because of me.
4) Make realistic, ambitious lists. Cross off everything. Then, allow satisfaction and relaxation.
5) GET PREGNANT IN 2009. Get happy before getting pregnant. Get happy.
6) Enjoy food. Eat healthily. Eat with intention and moderation and pleasure.
7) Walk the boys every day I am able.
8) Exercise every day I am able.
9) Worry less about money. Worry less about the future. Worry less.
0) Never get a ‘real’ job in 2009!




This year there are less intentions – I’m coming from a very different place, after all. But I still have a few (always will, I hope!), and on new years day I’ll write them down in a new Word doc.

What about you, my dears? Do you believe in setting intentions? Do you you make new year’s resolutions, or are you more the type to skip the gimmick?

Lots of Love and wishing you all the best and brightest year of your lives!

I’m so happy to announce our first giveaway, just in time to kick off a new decade! When Novica approached me about sponsoring the site, I thought, ‘what better way than to pass on the goodies to you guys’!? So here it is, in the form of three free handbags to three lucky readers!





Novica is an online international marketplace of sorts, and functions in association with National Geographic to allow artisans from around the globe to hock their wares worldwide. You can read more about their mission, here.





Each of the bags pictured in this post will be given away on New Years day! All you have to do to enter the drawing is to leave a comment on this post. Feel free to request the color you’d prefer, though I can’t guarantee that you’ll get that one if you win. And why not poke around Novica’s site to check out their awesome unique handbags, slings, and totes.

You guys are awesome! Happy New Year!!!

Hello my Dears,

It’s good to be back, and I apologize for being gone so long. I hadn’t intended such an extended stay away, but sometimes life is unpredictable like that, you know? I hope you all had a magnificent holiday season, whatever it may have entailed.

Damian and I had lovely holidays (we celebrate Chanukah, Solstice, and Christmas, with various people) but it was not what we’d imagined. We had planned a long trip back to our home town – a whirlwind of visits and celebrations and merry making – but we ended up camped out on our big red couch instead.





On December 15th, at exactly 28 weeks pregnant, I began exhibiting some strange symptoms. Damian and I called the midwives and they had us come in immediately. After a day and a half of ultra-sounding, fetal monitoring, peeing into cups, bleeding into tubes, poking, prodding, and stirrup riding, I was told that I was exhibiting strong signs of potential preterm labor. I was put on complete bed rest, transfered to the care of an OB, and our holiday homecoming was canceled.

It was very frightening and I needed to take some time away from everything. Being such a logician, it was difficult for me to accept the answer, “We don’t know why.” I’m at risk for preterm labor because my cervix is too short, but why is my cervix too short!? No one knows. Apparently, very little is understood about preterm labor.

[ Just in case you were wondering (and I'm surprised how many have), this has nothing to do with veganism. And even though I knew that, I asked my doctor about it. He laughed in my face. Seriously. So yeah, this is not about diet. At all. ]





For the past week and a half we’ve been living a different life. I’ve had to quell my Hyper Productivity Disorder™ in a major way, and Damian’s had to pick up all my slack around the house. He has blown my mind with his support and his strength and in the midst of such a fearful situation, I can’t help but feel incredibly lucky.

So we’ve worked out the kinks and life is running somewhat smoothly again. I’m able to work from bed (or couch), but I’m mainly focused on eliminating stress, relaxing, and slowing down. My big internal hurdle of the last year or so has been around reconciling stillness. So, I’ve been joking, perhaps this is my final exam.

Our baby boy is absolutely amazing. He is measuring nice and big, healthy with a strong heartbeat and the most beautiful face I’ve ever seen. He flips and kicks all the time, as if to reassure me that everything’s okay.





I feel physically better each day. I’m very optimistic that everything will be okay. My doctor agrees. He is a wonderful man, but when I reach 35 weeks I’ll be thrilled to transfer back to my midwives.

I continue to learn through this. I am humbled and I am grateful. My marriage has been tested and only strengthens; Damian and I are such an exquisite team. I almost can’t wait to begin this family of ours, but really . . . I can wait. At least another 8 weeks or so. =)





Lots of Love to all of you, and thank you for your support and your patience.

*** All photos of me were taken at 29 weeks 2 days, by Damian Rebhal ***

The Feedback Forum comes early this week. I’m having some personal issues that require a lot of my attention, and it’s keeping me from my regular posting frequency. I’m sorry guys! But, I think instead of driving myself crazy trying to maintain my blogging schedule, I need to just shift my focus for a little while. So, posting may be a bit sparse next week as well. I do apologize, and please hold some good thoughts for me. Lot’s of love to all of you. I’ll be back soon with a vengeance, I’m sure!

And happy impending weekend, of course! Which would mean it’s time for comments, critiques, thoughts, support, and suggestions. So let me know what YOU are interested in!

The Feedback Forum will remain here at the top of the page all weekend (and maybe longer), so if you’ve got an idea or a question or you just want to introduce yourself and say ‘Oi!’, you can stop back by any time. This is your community, so get involved and have your say!

Have a great weekend guys! Happy Holidays!

How does one prepare to replace something as seemingly sanitary and culturally expected as toilet paper? Well, some times you just have to dive in . . . erm . . . metaphorically speaking. Ew.

If you’d like to learn more about why one would want to do such a thing, you can get the background story at this month’s Mission post. Now, you can go about getting started in one of two ways: buy them or make them. Since one of the major themes of this exercise is reduction, I opted for the DIY approach. A couple of my husbands old softened tee shirts was all it took!





An old sheet, flannel PJs, dish towels or bath towels – pretty much anything can stand in here. No sewing required! I just cut the fabric into strips the width of regular TP. Then, cut them into lengths so that when they’re folded in half they’ll make a perfect square.





From there you just need a place to store ‘em and to stash ‘em, close to the scene of the crime. I picked up this lovely secondhand basket at the thrift store, and found the perfect plain plastic waste bin for catching wipes. An empty drawer would also work great for storing the clean ones. I considered getting the biggest, tackiest vintage cookie jar i could find for used wipes. Ha!





There are really a million variations here. Highly customizable. Now as far as actually *using* them, that’s a whole other story.

We’ll revisit that at the end of the month.