Well Planned Life

Source I recently read Mud Season by Ellen Stimson .   Not one, but two coworkers brought this book to my attention, given my love of all things Vermont .   But it wasn’t enough for me to put the book on hold from the library; this was one book I had to buy. Even if you don’t have a soft spot for Vermont, even if you know nothing about it, it’s a good read—it’s comical and just fun.   The subtitle of the book says it all: How one woman’s dream of moving to Vermont, raising children, chickens, sheep, & running the old country store pretty much led to one calamity after another .   And that’s exactly what happens. In short, Ms. Stimson and her family decide to uproot their lives in St. Louis and move to rural Vermont where she has grand ideas of running a small farm and an old country store.   What she finds, however, is that life doesn’t go quite as planned.   From the time they make the decision to move, they run into one issue after an...

If you read my “ Culture of Philofaxy ” post in April 2012, you know all about subcultures and what one is and how it is comprised.   So as not to repeat everything that was said there about subcultures, I’ll let you head over to that post for any further clarification.   From this point forward, I will assume you know what I mean when I refer to the subculture. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you will know that I love, love, love the state of Vermont .   I have always been a huge fan of New England , ever since my first trip to New Hampshire in high school—the hills and mountains, the fall colors (it was fall when I went), the general outdoorsy feel of it all.   It’s just so me.   My one goal in high school was to eventually live somewhere in New England, New Hampshire specifically.   That was not meant to be for several reasons, at least up to this point in my life.   But upon meeting my husband and learning that his family vac...

Every summer, my family and I go to Vermont for a week’s long vacation and family reunion.   This year was no exception.   While there this year, I looked around for something that I could use to beef up my planner inserts.  Stickers—maybe, but finding Vermont stickers was not going to be easy.  Inserts—no I would never find those.  Pictures—sure, those I could find very easily.  But how incorporate those into my compact binders without making them too bulky (like last time ) would be the hard part.  But I happened upon a little something that I knew would be great for my purposes. I found a small wall calendar featuring scenes from Vermont. It’s your basic wall calendar—it opens up like a flip calendar.   On the top is a picture, and on the bottom is a monthly calendar grid.   Flip the page up again, there’s the next month.   And so on.   The last thing I need is another calendar.   I don’t typically use w...

I am starting a new series on this blog: Things I Love.  It will cover just about anything, but the point is to highlight things I love and cannot live without.  I don’t know how often this series will be posted, but the posts will be tagged as “Things I Love.”  The series does not include the topics that already have their own tag on the blog, such as planners , bags , yoga , knitting , etc.  The posts will be more random. So, without further ado, here is the first post in the series. One of the things I truly cannot live without is coffee.  YUM!  First, let me say that I love hot drinks in general, whether it is coffee, tea, hot chocolate, or apple cider.  I just find hot drinks so soothing and comforting.  There really is something to putting on a pot of coffee or tea to drink your blues away, nothing like holding that warm mug in your cold hands, and definitely nothing like breathing in the hot vapors of whatever is your drin...

After all the anticipation, preparation, and hype, Hurricane Irene turned out to be a dud in my neck of the woods. We did have quite a bit of rain and the wind has been whipping pretty good, but we never even lost electricity. Some areas saw more damage than others—downed trees, flooding, storm surge and the like. Some of these areas are only minutes from me. It’s strange how Mother Nature works. But I thank each and every one of you for your concern, whether mentioned here on my blog or on Twitter. In the last few days, with all the bad weather yet to come, I often thought about my favorite place to be. Well, if truth be told, I often think about it anyway. I had come up with an idea this past summer, that if I couldn’t be there every day (at least for right now), that I’d bring a bit of my paradise to me. While on vacation this year, I bought several postcards of Vermont scenery to use in my Filo. My stock of postcards. I punched each one with my Filofax personal punch. S...