The Weekend Send-Off

April 15th, 2011 - filed under: Furthermore » Feedback

Delicious and probiotic-packed homemade kombucha.



It was almost a year ago that I showed you how to make your own kombucha mother from store-bought brew. So, are you a kitchen kombucha connoisseur yet? Well oi! What are you waiting for??

Before we jump in to our fabulous love listing, I’ve got a few little somethings. Firstly: Facebook. I’ve been getting a bunch of friends requests for my personal account on FB. And often, I’m unable to reply with a message (this must be a setting the requester has enabled?) So, I just want to put it out there that I reserve my Facebook account for in-real-life friends only. It’s like, the *one* place on the Internet where I’m not wide-open. So please don’t be offended if I don’t accept your request. Pretty please? I’m not trying to hurt any feelings. And don’t forget about the Bonzai Facebook page!

And now, I need a little input (this is what’s left of the Friday Feedback Forum, after all). I have a problem: I have too much to write about. I know a lot of writers suffer from lack of inspiration, but that is NOT my issue. I have so many ideas, so much I want to share! I could post an article a day for a year and barely dent my backlog . . . if only I had the time. Yes, time is my limiting variable. Time is never on my side.

So knowing that I can’t cover it all, I need you to help me focus. Of course, I want to give you what you want! (While staying true to what keeps me engaged, too.) So if you feel like weighing in, I’d love to hear how you rank the following:

baby-related (feeding/vaccinations/green solutions/etc)
recipes
garden tips
my garden updates
foodie stuff (like the current juicing series, ingredients I love like the “I Heart Hemp” article, more on fermented foods, etc)
more fashion stuff? (articles or outfit posts?)
more DIY tutorials (crafts? cleaning?)
homemade dog food series
vegan-specific stuff
other (YOU TELL ME!)

Thanks guys! This will really help me direct my work here over the next few months.


So onward to the good stuff, Le Love List!, in all its loving glory. Mine:

1. Carob. Carob-banana-pb smoothies are kind of amazing. You just have to let carob be its own thing (no pretending it’s chocolate!) and it’s seriously spectacular. I think it tastes *thick* and *tropical* which I realize are 2 words that do NOT actually describe flavor. Ha! I loves it.

2. Powdered peanut butter. AKA “peanut flour”. HELLO!!? I found out that Trader Joe’s discontinued this product *literally* the day after I discovered it. Love at first bite. Totally unique ingredient that inspires so so so many creations. Oh Trader Joe’s, why did you take it from us? (Tell Trader Joe’s to bring it back – I did!) I’m hoarding my stash since after it’s gone I’ll have to shell out for the hella pricey version.

3) In keeping with the edible theme. I love getting packages in the mail. I loooove getting packages of food in the mail. I really love getting packages of new foods for me to try, in the mail. But what I really, really love is getting packages of new RAW foods for me to try, in the mail. Yay UPS man I heart you forever!

Okay, I showed you mine, now you show me yours! What do you love this week?


My darlings, this happy little post will stay at the top of the page all weekend, so stop by any time to leave your Love List, ask a question, or offer some feedback! Or if you’re new, please introduce yourself and say ‘Oi!’! This is your community, so get involved!

Enjoy your spring weekend and may it be sunnybright!

  • http://twitter.com/erosan erosan

    Look lady, as far as I am concerned, you could write the nutritional info on the cereal box and I would still devour every word.

    That said, I’m partial to anything food related or anything where I learn anything (specially new skills, e.g. juicing without a juicer).

    Love list
    1. good music
    2. motivation to excersice
    3. time to do stuff. Aye, this last one is vague but that is precisely how I’m feeling right now.

  • http://www.etsy.com/shop/KristinFriesen Kristin

    I am most interested in how to be as green as possible (organic food, all natural products, do it yourself, etc) on a teeny tiny budget. Sometimes going green is very cost effective (like turning out the lights and turning off the heat) and other times it is much more expensive (like pretty much anything you buy organic or all natural). So any tips on how to get what I need without spending a fortune would be amazing! I am also very interested in the following -
    baby-related (feeding/vaccinations/green solutions/etc)
    recipes
    garden tips
    my garden updates
    foodie stuff (like the current juicing series, ingredients I love like the “I Heart Hemp” article, more on fermented foods, etc)
    more DIY tutorials (crafts? cleaning?)
    OTHER – I am always looking for new activities to do with my kids. Things like hiking, outdoor projects, learning about nature, etc. are what I am into :)

  • http://emilyscrueltyfreekitchen.blogspot.com/ Emily

    The top 3 things I love most about your blog:

    1) I really hope you post more baby-related blog entries! I’ll be getting married soon to my vegan other half and we do plan on raising our young ones very similar to the way you are raising Waits (or at least the way it seems you raise him, since I only know from what you post on here!).

    2) I also would love to see more recipes and food-related posts (this includes recipes and foodie stuff)! You definitely give me some inspiration to eat healthier.

    3) Garden updates are awesome. I only have a little pot-based garden as of right now, but gardening still interests me (heck, if I had a yard, I’d be growing all sorts of things). My fiance has the green thumb in our household and I am trying to catch up to his level! It helps reading up on these things from real people, especially a real people who are vegan!

  • http://sdvegan.blogspot.com Allison

    I would love to see more gardening tips/updates on your garden. I am beginning my second season of gardening and you are such an inspiration! I also love vegan recipes and food!

    Love list:

    1. A friend back from grad school who is vegan friendly and likes to cook and hike!

    2. Crazy upheaval at my job due to us taking on some serious new work which gives me fun problems to solve.

    3. The outdoor cat that has adopted our porch as his second home. We have named him Oscar and he is so loving it is adorable. He is there most mornings when I leave for work as well as most days when I get home.

    Have a great weekend!

  • Ro

    I would really love to see the homemade dog food series!!

  • Meredith

    Yeah, the homemade dog food for sure!

  • http://lovesveggies.blogspot.com/ Lindsay

    Hey Sayward!
    I’d love to hear more gardening tips, recipes and raising vegan baby stories :) But anything you write we’ll read so keep it comin’ girl! It’s funny, I don’t have any kiddos yet but I love hearing how you are raising Waits with clean green foods and such, and it’s inspiring. So, baby stuff is very readable even for readers without babies. lol if that makes any sense

    Le love list!
    1. Sweet potatoes with nut butter. Wow just discovered that I love nut butter on my sweet potatoes recently. I can’t believe what I was missing!!
    2. Bringing vegan cupcakes to family gatherings and knocking everyone’s socks off!
    3. Beet, carrot, apple and ginger juice out of my breville. So sweet and so so delicious. :)

    Happy friday!

  • http://www.nicoleevelynreynolds.blogspot.com Nicole

    baby-related (feeding/vaccinations/green solutions/etc) 7 – I’m freshly 20 so i don’t see myself having a baby for a while, but i really enjoy reading about alternative care
    recipes – 10! i’m slowly starting to eliminate all meat from my diet, and i need some creative delicious (step by step) ideas, please please please!!!!!
    garden tips – 8 – me and my boyfriend took made a commitment to grow all our own veggies :] i would love gardening / harvesting tips :]
    my garden updates
    foodie stuff (like the current juicing series, ingredients I love like the “I Heart Hemp” article, more on fermented foods, etc)9!!!
    more fashion stuff? (articles or outfit posts?)7
    more DIY tutorials (crafts? cleaning?)10
    homemade dog food series – homemade cat food too?
    vegan-specific stuff – 10!!!!!!
    other (YOU TELL ME!)

    Love list:
    - getting inspired by like minded people
    - chia chocolate pudding , yum yum YUM
    - trying out new exciting vegan recipes :]

  • http://alternativehousewife.com Janine @ Alternative Housewife

    Fashion and baby-related are my tops!

  • http://oliviajeankeepinitgreen.blogspot.com Olivia Jean

    I vote baby related (I have a 6 month old over here), garden tips (I am such a newbie at gardening), and DIY projects (I am a sucker for DIY!!)

    :D

  • Amanda

    Happy Friday!! I vote:
    recipes
    foodie stuff
    more DIY tutorials (crafts & cleaning both sound good!)

    I always look forward to reading your posts! Although I’m not vegan I’m becoming interested in it and I love your entire attitude and the passion that you express every day :)

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com Sayward

    You guys are blowing my mind! I had NO IDEA recipes were so popular, this changes everything! (in a good way, I’m super excited)

    Back to work, I’ll be back to respond to everyone tomorrow. Love!

  • Krista

    I saw a little something a while ago about how you feed your pets, and I would LOVE to know more about that seeing as I’m just starting to muddle into those waters. :)

  • Shannon

    I love everything you write and I’d love to hear more about:
    *Baby stuff (vegan-specific)
    *DIY stuff
    *Gardening
    *Vegan-specific!

  • Beens

    I’d love to read a bit more about fashion and DIY stuff. Even though I’m not a vegan, I enjoy learning about and trying out new recipes.

    Under ‘other’ I’d love to hear about things more personal to you – not personal personal, if you get what I’m saying, but things like music you enjoy listening to, or books/papers you have enjoyed reading; maybe have a guest post about a book or subject and open up a discussion in a dialogue in comments?

  • http://mutualmenu.blogspot.com Joselle

    Stuff I’d like to see more often:

    baby topics
    homemade dog food
    organizational and design tips
    recipes

    Happy Weekend!

  • korabelle

    Baby topics would be great excluding any discussion on vaccinations. It’s a very personal/controversial topic

  • Sarah B

    Hey, I’m not vegan, but I looooove your recipes. Gets me thinking more about what I put in my body, and based on a lot of that I’m working towards reducing the amount of animal products in my diet. (Hardly any meat anymore, but we still eat tons of dairy.) So, I’d love to see some more of your vegan recipes!

    In particular, raw food is grabbing my interest at the moment… I checked a cookbook out of the library and there was some “science” in the front I found questionable…. according to this lady, one of the benefits of raw foods is intake of ‘natural digestive enzymes?’ How helpful are those going to be, exactly, once they hit the acid bath and proteases in your stomach? I’m skeptical.

    Since you have some background in the biological sciences but are also totally 100% crunchy, I am pretty interested to hear about your vaccination choices. I’ve got a wee bubs that’s just a few days younger than Waits, so I’m always interested to see how he’s doing, and how you’re raising him.

  • RK

    I’m going to go with-
    1.Homemade dog food
    2.Recipes/foodie stuff – all of your recipes I’ve tried are FAB!
    3.Baby topics

    Love list-
    1. The sun is shinning today!
    2. My new food processor – what the hell did I ever do without that thing?
    3. My kids dressing up as superheros this morning-so cute!

  • http://urbanana.net Lauren

    More baby stuff and foodie stuff, for sure!!

    I just bought some mason jars and a candy thermometer… I’m going to try making some coconut yogurt for my toddler this weekend!

  • Meghan

    baby-related (feeding/vaccinations/green solutions/etc)
    garden tips
    my garden updates
    foodie stuff (like the current juicing series, ingredients I love like the “I Heart Hemp” article, more on fermented foods, etc)
    more DIY tutorials (cleaning?)
    vegan-specific stuff

    I just don’t care about fashion (but it’s cool with me that others do!) Your recipes are good an all, but I am much more interested in “cool” things you do, like fermentation, juicing, info about hemp, and stuff than actual just recipes. I mean… You make good stuff! If you make a cookbook, I’ll buy it! But I don’t come here for the recipes. :-) I don’t have dogs, so I can’t say that I care much about that, but it does seem kind of important. I left vegan stuff on the list because uh… yay vegan! (speaking of vegan stuff, that isn’t a STOCK PHOTO of kombucha that is actually a jar of chicken broth, is it??!! j/k…) CLEANING stuff has always been my favorite part of this blog. It is already established that I’m in to gardening and am interested in babies. :-)

    Though, in response to this post, and your comment from last weeks Weekend Send Off, given the choice, I’d rather you post several times a week and have time to interact with people in comments than post every day and not have time for the commenting. One of the things that keeps me coming back is the sense of community I think you’ve done a great job of engendering in your comment section. In some blogs, there is a big divide between blogger and reader. Like… the blogger is the dispenser of information/recipes/whatever and the reader is just a recipient. (This is true on a lot o’ cooking blogs, for example) That’s cool and all, and a reasonable business model, but I really like the level of interaction between you and us, and amongst the commenters. It is still your blog, but we matter too. It feels nice. :-)

    List!

    1. my push reel mower! I never really mowed the lawn growing up. The mower was heavy, I was week, it was noisy, I could never get it to start… I mowed my yards yesterday with my push reel mower and it was great! Not too heavy, but still good excersize, no gas, I don’t have to worry about it starting… yay!

    2. Tour de Pancakes! This might have been on my list last week too… Almost every Saturday my husband has been getting up and making a different pancake recipe. Awesome.

    3. Josquin des Prez. (Hey, I’m an early music musicologist!) Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt3H2uGxFLI

  • Meghan

    Also, ugh, carob. Although you’ve inspired me to try it again… I guess it may be better if I approach it on its own terms, rather than on chocolate’s. I never understood… when I tell people I’m vegan, they are always “oooh! so you can’t eat chocolate! Carob!” and I’m like “What on earth are you talking about?! Chocolate grows on trees! Omnomnom chocolate!” But if you have any suggestions as to how to eat or what to do with carob, I’m open to suggestions.

    Oh! Also! I’ve started to have a spoonful o’ blackstrap molasses every day. OMG! WHERE HAS IT BEEN ALL MY LIFE??!?!?! ONE FREAKING TABLESPOON HAS AS MUCH CALCIUM AS A GLASS OF MILK! OMG!!!!!!!!!! MOLASSES!!! CAN I ADD IT TO MY LOVE LIST?!??! OMNOMNOM!

  • Dana

    My top 5 of topics on your site:

    1.DIY tutorials
    2.Vegan-specific stuff
    3.Fasion stuff (as I said before, you are a great inspiration to me when it comes to fashion!)
    4.Recipes
    5.Garden tips (I am one of those people that can kill plants just by looking at them… I tried gardening, but all I ended up with was a lot of dead plants… so I need more tips!)

    When it comes to “other stuff”: I would love some tips on how to quit smoking. I know you succesfully quit, do you have any tips?

    Right… love list:

    1.My husband for taking good care of me. I am sick right now, and he even came home from work early to be with me :-)
    2.Hummus!
    3.Herbal tea, it is just about the only thing I drink right now

  • cheli

    baby
    food
    recipes
    (one hang type sorry(

  • Stephanie

    I’ve been following your blog since fall of 2009. Let’s just say I’m obsessed.

    more fashion stuff! (articles AND outfit post!)
    more DIY tutorials (cleaning AND Crafts!!)
    homemade dog food series
    vegan-specific stuff

  • Kathryn

    I really love recipes, foodie-stuff, and DIY stuff! As an other, maybe other ways you’ve found to be more sustainable and reduce waste?
    And right now I’m loving the wonderful sun that decided to say hello in Tacoma today, amusing my professors with photos of my barnacles (for my ecology research) mating, and getting back into partner acrobatics! So sore, but in a good way :)

  • Colleen

    Funny that you mention it… I’m in the process of making (waiting for?) my own SCOBY from store bought kombucha right now! It’s been about a week and I haven’t even peeked at all, so I hope its growing like it’s supposed to!

    I love everything that you do on your blog and would be interested in all of those things with the exception of fashion… that’s just how I am, though. But I would still read it even if that’s what you write about!

  • rebecca

    I’d love to hear about:
    baby-related (feeding/vaccinations/green solutions/etc)
    recipes
    garden tips
    foodie stuff (like the current juicing series, ingredients I love like the “I Heart Hemp” article, more on fermented foods, etc)
    more fashion stuff (articles or outfit posts?)
    homemade dog food series

  • TeniseRae

    Oh crap, lady! This is a hard one. Uuummm….

    1. Garden tips and Your garden updates! (If it was winter this might not be number 1.)
    2. DIY stuff ALL THE WAY!!! I’m taking one of our old garbage cans and turning it into a compost bin. Schtuff like that! You know what I’m talkin’ ’bout. :D
    3. Recipes and food porn. I love the recipes and food stuff!!!
    4. Baby (anything) and/or fashion. I don’t care which. lol!
    5. The homemade food for dogs is a great idea. I would be interested in seeing more of this, but would there be a way to incorporate cats in that post/series. I’m SOO not a dog person. Cats are more my style. ;)

    Thanks for being so awesome! :D

  • Felicia

    I just started a garden this year with help from your posts about starting seeds, so I would love to see anything about gardening, like tips, etc. Food articles, like the fermenting foods posts and such and diy posts are always my favorite. But on a side note, I love the diversity you use in your posts and I definitely dont want that to change at all!

  • Melisa

    Garden tips, recipes, DIY, and vegan info.

    Also, how about telling us more about those house plants?!

  • Kathryn

    I’m with Melisa! Garden tips, recipes & DIY!

    1. The great outdoors
    2. Family
    3. Spending time with family in the great outdoors!

  • Julie

    Sayward,

    I love the DIY posts, particularly when it comes to making foods that would otherwise be out of my financial reach. (Learning how to make household products is awesome too!) I especially like it when you blind us with science. And the fact that you’ve never claimed that consuming any particular food/beverage will miraculously cure diseases. Thanks for being sane (in your own crazy way).

    I am not a mother and do not plan on having children, but I *still* love watching Waits grow, and learning about baby stuff. (I am human, after all.) So those posts are fine with me!

    I like all the posts you suggested – write about whatever moves you, whenever it interests you!

    My list for the week:
    1. Omnivore boyfriend who cooks tofu for me and makes The. Best. Pad. Thai. Ever.
    2. Omnivore boyfriend who eats said tofu without having to thump his chest.
    3. Omnivore boyfriend. Period. Because he’s awesome.

  • Amanda

    DIY and homemade dog food! :] oh, and recipes!

  • http://www.raggamuslims.wordpress.com eternitysojourner

    i would definitely like to hear about more baby stuff! recipes, vaccinations, first solid foods, vegan supplements, etc.
    i’m trying to figure out some diy developmental activities/props for my sweet pea. if you have any thoughts, i’d love to hear them!
    i enjoyed the indoor gardening guest post. some intro to small-scale/pot gardening would be helpful too!
    as for recipes- would love to get some more ideas for cooking with seaweed and more raw recipes.
    my love list:
    1. my 4 1/2 month old daughter has been patting my back when i hold her, blowing bubbles, making lots of funny sounds. too cute!
    2. getting ready to head to the states for summer vacation.
    3. my six-year wedding anniversary is coming up! time flies when you’re having fun, huh?

  • http://www.raggamuslims.wordpress.com eternitysojourner

    oh yes- how could i forget? my little brother recently became vegan! that brings the total number of vegans in the family to…(drumroll, please)…3 (and a half?). my mom is nearly vegan, so depending on the day are stats include her too. ;)

  • http://www.growingraw.com GrowingRaw

    Love-list:
    1. Visiting my parents so my kids can get up with their grandparents and I can sleep in. YAY!
    2. Watching the Melbourne trams.
    3. Hanging out and appreciating quality time with MY Nana while I can.

    I also like the recipes, largely because I get inspired by the delicious food photography. It makes my stomach crave healthy food when the photos look so great.

    Anything to do with vegetable gardening will turn my head, too.

  • http://www.windycityvegan.wordpress.com Monika {windycityvegan}

    Your TJ’s has/had peanut flour?! It’s never been available at the one here. When other TJ products got discontinued in the past and I wanted to stash as much as possible, I had my local TJ’s order it in from other stores. I think they also gave me the bulk/case discount when I did that, too.

    I always add my blackstrap molasses to my pb-banana-choco smoothies. I’ll have to give it a try with carob…

    All of the topics you mentioned are faves! What I love about this site is that you constantly mix it up – it isn’t just recipes, or just gardening, etc. I love the variety. And I really love the interaction and sense of community with other commenters.

    Love:
    1- A friend of mine threw a 12 hour nonstop Indian dinner party, and Nina found enough other kids to play with that I was able to help in the kitchen the entire time! (It was definitely not a high-raw day, but so worth it!)

    2- The huge storm that passed through left our little baby farm unscathed. Tornadoes touched down in several surrounding towns, but none of them in our little hamlet.

    3- It’s gorgeous outside today and Nina and I are about to head out for our weekend run – and we’re bringing her new (to us) bike with training wheels for her to ride alongside me!! She’s growing so stinking fast it makes my head spin.

  • http://amongtheknights.blogspot.com Sara

    It’s soo hard to decide! I agree with Erosan…I will read anything you put up :) I would have to say:

    Recipes/Foodie stuff!! These are my favorite. That is actually how I first found your blog.
    Vegan Baby posts (Waits is just so darn cute!!)
    Homeade dog food posts (My two dogs love veggies. I would love to be able to do this).
    DIY!!! Love, love, love.
    Garden tips ( I can’t wait until I stay in one place long enough to use these tips).

    Love List:

    1- The flowers and trees in Paris are in full bloom and allergies here aren’t so bad!
    2- Finally finding an apartment here for the summer.
    3- Cooking with other vegetarian friends (they are scarce).

  • Sonja

    First of all, I’m reading your blog since you were interviewed on galadarling.com and I love what you’re doing. Your blog is such an great inspiration! I just sipped away my green smoothie :-)

    I would love to read more of the following subjects here:

    1. recipes (love your recipes!)
    2. foodie stuff (like the current juicing
    3. series, ingredients I love like the “I Heart Hemp” article, more on fermented foods, etc)
    4. more DIY tutorials (crafts? cleaning?)
    5. vegan-specific stuff

    My love list:

    * receiving the confirmation for my
    volunteering-project in cambodia

    * having a great weekend with dear friends in Luxembourg

    * my very supportive boyfriend

  • http://dietplaid.wordpress.com Jen

    I totally dig the gardening, foodie, and baby stuff. Love list…hm…
    1. Freshly picked asparagus from down the road
    2. caramelized onions with green beans
    3. finding long lost items from high school
    4. finally having lots of windows

  • http://iwannarockyourgypsysoul.blogspot.com tara

    I love the food stuff, and it’s very inspiring to me right now. You are my main source of vegan/raw/healthy motivation. And of course the baby stuff is great because your son is so cute, =) and will be super helpful if I ever get to have kids of my own. Other than that, I’ll keep reading what you write about other topics, even if they aren’t as applicable to me. Cheers

  • Moira

    I read and love it all!

    1. Lindy hopped for the first time in years today (and in Dupont Circle). <3
    2. Falling in love to new tunes i.e. Tennis. xoxo
    3. Made an amazing zucchini basil soup. YUM.
    4. Listened to a controversial and inspiring lecture at school that is motivating my next research steps. YAY
    5. My hubbie starts his awesome job tomorrow. I'm so proud of him!

  • Leah

    Dog food please, please,please! Got a lot of friends looking for the homemade dog food thing too. Thanks!

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com Sayward

    Thank you EVERYONE for all the amazing feedback. This is just making me squeal with joy, as we seems to all be in alignment (much more than I thought). I love writing about food and recipes, but for some reason I didn’t think that was what you wanted. Boy was I wrong! And I’m thrilled to hear that those posts are the central interest, with a hearty serving of gardening and DIY on the side. =) But like Felicia and others pointed out above, Bonzai has a huge range of topics, and that diversity is not going to change.

    Also for those of you asking for baby-related stuff, I’ll definitely be including baby posts here, but you’re also gonna *love* my next web project . . . it’s a whole website devoted to raising pint-sized plant eaters!

    Thanks again for the feedback guys. I love you all, I love our interaction and our community here. What a beautiful thing we’ve created together!

    @ Lindsay – Sweet potato with nut butter = you just blew my mind. Must. Try.

    @ korabelle – Yeah, the vax issue is so heated, but I’ve had a lot of people ask me about it specifically. I’m really of the opinion that it’s a totally personal decision unique to every parent, every child, every situation. No judgement *at all*. So my article will just discuss the difficulty that I think a lot of people have in navigating the whole situation, and explain how and why we came to the decisions that we did, *for us*. But I do hear you . . . it’s a tough one!

    @ Sarah B – Interesting questions! I definitely run up against the same frustration in the raw movement, and really with alternative health in general. Lots of real science that has been stretched or misapplied or misunderstood and used to draw, well, pretty wild conclusions. It’s a lot to wade through and can be exhausting! For the most part I think there’s something to the enzyme theory. If you’re interested in raw food with a logical, scientific approach, I cannot recommend the blog http://www.choosingraw.com any more highly. Gena is a clinical nutritionist and is now in med school, and in a world of a million different perspectives on health and nutrition, I don’t think she’s ever posted anything that I didn’t totally resonate with. I’d definitely suggest browsing her site!

    @ Lauren – Ooh any word on the coco yoghurt?

    @ Meghan – Okay, your post(s) seriously make me laugh out loud. Multiple times. Ha! And duly noted about the posting less frequently/interacting more. I shall keep that importance in mind.

    All of the photos on this site are stock photos. I’m actually a 50 year old dude.

    But seriously about the whole VegNews debacle, if anyone is interested I think Colleen said it best (of course I do, because for jeezy-chreezy this woman is amazingly insightful) – http://vegetarianfoodforthought.blogspot.com/2011/04/my-hope-for-vegnews-magazine-and.html

    @ Dana – Eek! How to quit smoking . . . I’ll have to think a lot about that one, because although I did it successfully, I’m not sire I did it the best way. For now I’m going to defer once more to Miss Gena – http://www.choosingraw.com/the-quitiversary-a-very-candid-post/

    @ Colleen – ooh good luck with the scoby growing!

    @ Tenise Rae – “Thanks for being so awesome” = right back atchya girl!

    @ Melisa – Oh my god, you totally reminded me that I forgot to post about propagating house plants! I had that all planned out for a fun winter project, dang! Oh well, spring it is! =)

    @ eternitysojourner – Great ideas, they’re all added to the list. Also, yay little brother!

    @ Monika – Oh lordy, I am epically jealous of that party! Sounds AMAZING (and, okay I admit it, jealous that N is at an age where she could be so independent!) Also I’m so glad your little farm is okay. I was holding good thoughts when I saw your tweet!

    ~~~

    Thanks again to EVERYONE! You’ve all given me tons of ideas and lots to think about, I hope I can continue to grow this website and shape it into something that continues to inspire us all to dream big – no BIGGER!

    *love*

  • http://laurahborealis.wordpress.com Laurah

    I love love love when you post DIY tutorials. Also recipes- especially for snack-type foods, that I can make healthier and more cheaply than buying snacks at the store.And definitely garden things.

    This is my first Love List.
    1) Art! I spent today painting a 12-foot mural for my college’s bike kitchen. I love how happy I am when I’m covered in paint, and I’m really proud of myself for deciding to major in studio art even though it’s kind of a scary choice.
    2) My housemates are all such amazing people. They are hilarious, caring, supportive, and really great at cooking. We’re all so different but it honestly feels like a family.
    3) Having time to curl up with knitting and bad TV after a long day of schoolwork.
    4) My job: I work at a preschool, and it’s the best. The kids are all adorable, the teachers are great people, and I love watching the kids learn.
    5) The scrambled polenta I’m going to make for breakfast tomorrow!

  • http://sweetness-light.tumblr.com Natasja

    ohhh yay!!!! baby project!
    anything that supports a diy approach to life is FINE by me, eg: tutorials for DIY projects, easy recipes, and EVERYTHING baby/child… do you make your bub’s clothes/toys/etc? I would love to see more of that. Gardening also… I want to learn!!!
    I love your blog because I feel like even when things don’t directly appeal to me, that I can learn something from your blog. Yay Sayward, you rock!
    x

  • http://urbanana.net Lauren

    The coconut yogurt came out thin and runny. I followed the instructions precisely (regarding the temperatures and times), so I’m thinking that the store-bought yogurt I used as a starter may not have been fresh enough. Is that a possibility? Is there a way to know if the live active cultures actually did anything? My yogurt doesn’t taste especially tangy or sour like I was expecting it to. It’s delicious… but it’s more like goopy milk than yogurt. OH, another thing, I used coconut milk from a cardboard beverage container instead of from a can. That may also be why my yogurt is thinner? I will definitely be trying again – with almond milk and fresher starter next time.

  • http://bonzaiaphrodite.com Sayward

    @ Lauren – If you use the coconut milk in the box, the yogurt will come out thin for sure. Homemade yogurt is always thinner and that’s especially true when using alt milks meant for drinking. If you use coconut milk out of the can (meant for cooking) you can get a nice thick yogurt, especially if you use full fat. That’s all I do now – so good!

    If it wasn’t at all tangy, you may have had a problem with your starter. It took a couple of tries fr me to get it to go, so don’t give up! Luck!

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