Happy Birthday to this no-longer-wee website, and Happy Birthday to all of you, who make up her heart!!! Part of me still can’t believe a year’s gone by already. I’m still getting the hang of this! I’m still just getting started!

Another part of me can’t quite believe it’s only been a year. Was it really just 13 months ago I was working my unfulfilling day job? Has it only been 12 short months of covering such diverse topics as gardening and urban farming, sustainable fashion and an ambitious manifesto, backyard chickens and indoor seedlings, tons of vegan sweets and savory treats, ten life-changing challenges, and so much, so much more? And of course, a year of inspired contributions from each and every reader – the blog comments and personal emails and dialogue with each other throughout the site. You all have grown this little seed of an idea into something greater than I’d ever dared to dream of.





For the first 6 months of Bonzai’s web life, I posted every. single. workday. (whew!) Since then, barring medical breaks, I’ve maintained a schedule of 4-5 posts per week. All in all I’ve written over 250 entries and articles. And we’ve received hundreds of thousands of visitors!

Articles I’ve written have been featured across the internet, most notably on sites like Lifehacker and Apartment Therapy’s green blog Re-Nest. The most popular posts continue to be for DIY hygiene and cleaning recipes, like deodorant, drain-o, laundry detergent, dish soap, shampoo, and hair gel. Who’d have though!?

I’m so proud to say that I’ve done all of this without accepting any advertising offers! Bonzai Aphrodite operates free from external financial influence, and will continue to follow the PBS/NPR model of ‘viewer/listener supported’. You’ll never have to question my integrity – I can promise you that.

Finally, I must give some thanks. Firstly, foremostly, and foreverly, to my AMAZING HUSBAND who was the catalyst and carrier for all of this. Damian encouraged me over and over to quit my job and pursue my passion, and he has continued to support me unfailingly throughout this crazy, oftentimes incredibly stressful, process. It is absolute truth that this site would not exist if it weren’t for him (hell, he designed it!), and I cannot thank him enough for that.

And then, of course, YOU GUYS. Thank you thank you for making my dreams come true! You all amaze me and inspire me and make me excited to wake up and ‘work’ every morning, and I just can’t thank you enough for that. I wanted to show a little gratitude (and support one of my favorite local businesses in the process), so I’m giving away these adorable, special addition underwear from Herbivore Clothing Co! All you have to do to enter is visit the Herbivore site and then leave a comment here. I’ll randomly select one lucky winner next week. Boys and girls are welcome to enter (there’s boxer-briefs as well), and non-vegans can play too as long as you don’t mind sporting ‘Veganism is for Lovers’ on your bum! Good luck everyone!





So what’s next for Bonzai Aphrodite? BIG THINGS my friends! Damian and I are scheming to expand, and I have more ideas than I know what to do with. I always tell my readers to “Dream big – no, BIGGER”, and that’s exactly what I’m doing. I hope you’ll come along for the ride!

Because there’s so much out there to enjoy! Why not seize a chance to celebrate life’s little pleasures!? In no particular order, and leaving out the big stuff (husband, friends, family, etc), here’s what’s getting me giddy these days:

1) Vegan Donuts. They are my pregnancy kryptonite.

2) The RadioLab podcast from WNYC. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s a radio show done in the style of This American Life, but it’s all about the mystery and magic of science. Perfection!

3) Ethiopian Food. I’d never eaten it before I moved to Portland, and I can’t believe I lived so long without Injera and Berbere.

4) Learning that my son has hair (via ultrasound). WOW! Little wonderful wisps on his perfect little head.

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5) The song ‘New Resolution’ by The Heartless Bastards. I know it came out in like, 2006, but I’m completely enamored with it and can’t get it out of my head. It works so well for the new year and all.

6) The teapot I got for my birthday, which is lime green and lovely, and sure beats the little sauce pot we’ve been using for almost 6 months!

7) And speaking of, I’m drinking a ton of lemon ginger tea these days. I take it with maple syrup and real lemon juice. It’s medicinal and sooo relaxing.







8) Harley’s lower lip, which sticks out all funny-like. It’s hard to capture on film but I assure you, it’s *hysterical*.

9) Knowing that the crocus bulbs are ripening underground, all over Portland, and that soon they’ll be popping up from every sidewalk crack to tell us it’s springtime. The wee crocus is my favorite spring flower.

10) In the meantime, the Petrichor (which is also, as it so happens, my all-time favorite word)

11) Secondhand baby clothes! Especially those with animal ears and animal feet. I’m sort of obsessed. My son will end up wearing nothing but ducks and monkeys, I swear. Ha!









12) The Origin Of Love. Plato (yes *that* Plato) conceived of the myth itself, but Hedwig and The Angry Inch brought it to life! It’s so very beautiful. Incidentally, if you haven’t seen the film, WATCH IT. It’s in my top 5, easily.

13) Taquería Los Gorditos, which was our absolute favorite take-out food cart, recently opened a real restaurant. I’m not even kidding, I ate more of my meals from there than not, in the first 2 weeks they were open. Having a go-to eatery that brings you so much pleasure is PRICELESS. And these beans and rice are like gold my friends, gold I’m telling you. I swear this baby is built entirely of vegan burritos. (Damian want’s to make a baby blanket that looks like a giant tortilla, so we can wrap the baby up like a burrito. Genius, no!!? We’re gonna be millionaires . . . )

14) My ever-growing collection of houseplants. I want them everywhere, on every counter top and in every nook and cranny. So essential in winter – and they’re even good for you!

15) Baking soda. Need. I. Say. More? (I do need? Okay – lately I’ve been using my baking soda for heartburn relief, carpet cleaning, toilet deodorizing, and mildew scouring, among others)







16) Subversive artwork, a la Banksy. I don’t agree with everything he does or says, but I certainly appreciate his presence in the world! (and most of his stuff is just RAD, as evidenced above)

17) Getting packages in the mail! Ahhh, bed rest. It can be so terribly boring. But between the Holidays, the baby stuff, and my birthday, I’ve been getting bunches of boxes and it’s SO FUN!

18) Dreaming of produce. I can’t wait for late spring/summer and all the bounty that it brings. Overflowing farmers markets, eating a high-raw diet, and growing my own tomatoes. I like to flip through recipes and plan out all the amazing new dishes I’m going to develop. Yes, I’m a food geek! (and thus I want this so bad! HA)

19) Portland. I can’t even begin to tell you why, I don’t have the time.







20) Wearing my tutu. No joke, it brings me endless amounts of joy and reminds me of the ‘fairy slip’ I practically lived in as a child. I’m thinking of giving birth in it.

21) On the sartorial tip, lets include Big Clunky Boots and Stripey Long Socks. These classics will never get old and will alway make me happy.

22) Truly embarrassing reality TV addictions. I refuse to admit what I’ve been watching, but it is sinfully delicious and I am horribly hooked. I plead the bed rest defense.

23) Getting a ‘real’ hair cut. After years of drunken DIY snipping with friends, it’s somewhat of a luxury to go to a professional. Especially at my favorite spot, where the styling is super cheap and they give you free beer while you wait. (another reason for #19)

24) A precious sip of Damian’s Chianti. I actually had a whole glass of Syrah on my birthday, enjoyed very slowly over a long dinner. But those little tastes of my husband’s wine here and there, those have been such a treasure through this pregnancy.







25) Bertrand Russell. I’ve been reading his ideas and writings, which are still so relevant. What a mind, what a mind.

26) A good soak in the tub. I’ve always been a bath person, but with the big belly it’s just extra extra fun. Plus it takes the pressure off the ol’ back!

27) Tom Waits. Always and forever, no list of things I love would be complete without him. A primer: Damian had me listen to this song when he confessed his feeling for me. I walked down the aisle to this song (which is ‘our song’) at the wedding. And when our son is old enough for his own room, the lyrics to this song will be stenciled on the wall.

28) Finding out that Brian Greene, the quantum physicist and author I’ve had a total geek crush on for years and years, and maybe one of the smartest people alive, is A VEGAN!!! Oh, *swoon*

29) The impending birthday of Bonzai Aphrodite. I can’t believe it’s been a year already! And at the same time, I can’t believe its only been a year. I have worked so hard, and learned so much, and connected to so many amazing people here. This blog has grown into something more beautiful than I ever imagined, and in only 12 short months. Imagine what the next year will bring!




Now it’s your turn my dears – what little things are tickling you these days?

My Closet: ‘like items’ grouped into boxes; clothes coordinated by color.

You know, it’s really hard to save the world if you can’t even find your keys. And believe it or not, sometimes the ‘Socially Conscious’ part is a whole lot easier than the ‘Totally Fabulous’ side of things.

But just like I didn’t always suffer from Hyper-Productivity Disorder™, I wasn’t always compulsively organized either. I had to teach myself to think systematically. In college I would take sloppy notes in lecture, scrambling to get down every essential piece of information. Then, each and every night, I would re-copy all my notes, in perfect script, color coded. It took hours, but it forced organization as a habit. These are learned behaviors, see, and that means anybody can adopt them.

After college Damian and I somehow managed to buy HQ. That was over 2 years ago, and our time since then has been spent renovating the place. We do all the work ourselves while maintaining full employment, which means 1) our living space is constantly under some degree of construction, and 2) home improvement is tailored around our jobs, thus relegated to nights and weekends. Projects tend to take a *long* time.

So, what’s the key to a smooth operation? Of course – organization!

Believe it or not, this is spread is meticulously arranged.

There have been times when our entire kitchen is emptied and under drop cloths, the cabinet contents laid out, exposed, on makeshift plywood picnic tables. Another few months where I kept half my clothes, and did half my dressing, in a separate room from the bedroom. And yet another 6-month period where we slept in our bed . . . in the living room. That was interesting when guests were over.

The bottom line is that maintaining order matters: for your sanity, for your sense of balance, and most importantly to enable you to do what you need to do. I never could have made home-cooked meals through a kitchen remodel, without sticking to strict system. And I’d never succeed at running a website if I didn’t plan everything ten steps ahead. Orderliness can turn farce into the best adventure. I’ll always think back fondly on the summer we ‘camped in the dining room’.

The hall closet is utterly uncluttered.

With the new year and new intentions on the brain, I’ve had a lot of readers asking for advice on practicing positivity and living a more mindful, fulfilling life. Let me tell you this: methodology is step one to getting everything on track. And careful organization isn’t reserved exclusively for the ‘big stuff’ like home improvement or education or activism. These principals apply to day-to-day living. They’ll free up tons of time, and allow you to put your energy (physical *and* emotional energy) where it really matters. Here’s three easy steps to get you started.

1) Keep a clean house. Everything, I mean everything, should have a place. Know what goes where, and make sure it gets there. Notice how your anxiety decreases when your surrounding are aesthetically pleasing (ie clean). We’re sensitive to these things, so don’t let it get out of control!

2) Make lists. I’m a notorious list-maker (another consciously learned behavior). I write a daily to-do list, lists of goals for each week, and long-term lists for a number of subjects (like ‘baby stuff to research’, or ‘upcoming posts on Bonzai’). I keep these in a notebook that comes with me everywhere (I like a looseleaf 3-ring binder ’cause it’s easy to shuffle stuff around, but your mileage may vary. Many are fond of the brand Moleskine) Try this, it will seriously change your life.

3) Have a vision. Sleeping in the living room would have been embarrassing and tragic if I didn’t have the image of our beautiful new bedroom to hold in my mind’s eye. Painstakingly copying notes would have been achingly tedious, were I not so damned determined to maintain my 4.0. Having these overarching plans will offer comfort when things get crazy, and ground you when you’re caught up in the chaos of life’s minutia. So dream big (no, bigger!), and then let that vision guide you.




And what about you, my dears? What are your methods for controlling the madness?

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 came across this recently and thought of you guys. Unfortunately I don’t have a source to credit – if anyone knows it, please leave the citation in a comment.

Happy Holidays my dears!