#sustainability tips

[journalivm]

Credits to the people who taught me this: get the lid from a mason jar/candle/whatever, grab those think elastic bands that come on grocery store broccoli bunches and asparagus.

Wrap the elastics around the lid in a cross so that your bar soap (switch to products in bar form when you can!!!) can sit on it and dry off properly.

Bonus: some cool pages to follow for eco inspiration are NewLifestyleABB on youtube, and LoveofEarthCo.

Also subscribe to Eco-nuts on snapchat

🪴revelations in my eco friendlier quest🪴

Old eyeglass carrying case to keep change in rather than buying a new bag/container for it

Organization doesn't have to mean acquiring a new thing. It just has to work.

[enchantedwitchling]

Respecting Nature: How to Be an Eco-Friendly Witch.

🌿🌎✨

Witchcraft and nature have an unbreakable bond—one that invites us to celebrate and protect the very world that inspires our craft. As stewards of the Earth, it's essential to practice our craft with the utmost respect for nature. Embracing eco-friendly witchcraft not only honors the environment but also deepens our connection to the magic that surrounds us.

In this blog post, we'll explore the art of "Respecting Nature: How to Be an Eco-Friendly Witch," discovering the importance of eco-conscious practices and offering alternative, sustainable tools to traditional witchcraft practices.

🌟✨

1. Sustainable Altar Decor 🌿

Consider incorporating natural and biodegradable altar decorations like leaves, flowers, and twigs instead of synthetic materials. These elements not only infuse your space with a touch of the Earth but also return to it without harming the environment.

2. Eco-Friendly Candles 🕯️

Opt for candles made from sustainable materials like soy or beeswax. These alternatives burn cleanly, emit fewer toxins, and support eco-conscious practices. You can also repurpose candle stubs into new candles, reducing waste.

3. Ethical Crystal Sourcing 💎

When collecting crystals for your practice, research ethical sources and suppliers. Be mindful of the environmental impact of crystal mining and choose to support companies that prioritize sustainability and fair labor practices.

4. DIY Herbal Magic 🌿

Grow your own herbs and harvest them responsibly for spells and rituals. This not only ensures their freshness but also reduces the carbon footprint associated with store-bought herbs. Consider creating your own herbal oils and teas, infusing your magic with the essence of your garden.

5. Natural Incense and Alternatives 🌬️

Explore natural incense options made from herbs, resins, or dried flowers. You can also choose sustainable alternatives like dried sage or palo santo sticks from ethically sourced providers. Remember to set your intentions and respect for the environment.

6. Biodegradable Offerings 🍃

If you offer food or other offerings to deities or spirits, choose biodegradable options. Fruit, bread, or grains return to the Earth without harm, symbolizing your gratitude for nature's gifts.

7. Sustainable Journaling 📓

For your magical journal, opt for notebooks made from recycled paper or even explore digital journaling to reduce paper usage. This mindful practice also preserves trees and forests.

🌟✨

Being an eco-friendly witch aligns our practice with the very essence of witchcraft—an appreciation for the natural world and a commitment to living in harmony with it. As we tread lightly upon the Earth, our magic deepens, and our connection to the elements flourishes.

So, let us continue to embrace the magic of nature while protecting it, weaving eco-conscious practices into our craft's tapestry. By honoring the Earth, we honor ourselves and the beautiful world we call home.

🌿🌎✨

[exitwound]

unfortunately i was born to be unemployed i have the disposition for it and furthermore it comes very naturally to me

[fly-sky-high-arts]

I do want to talk about sharing art online from the perspective of a hobby freelancer but before that I'll just toss this tidbit I mentioned on my main

Reblogs are not numbers. Reblogs are meant to share and pass on artwork that someone may like. NO ONE is forced to reblog anything BUT it is a core of engagement in a space like tumblr. Engagement is what brings in interest after all and it's one piece of what makes it important for freelance artists here.

When you look at the numbers and the notes, we need to stop viewing them and comparing them with likes (me included) or total in general. It doesn't help.

Artists do self rebloging to both show or remind folks they've done some work as well as to nudge people to reblog their stuff. Tags are nice and comments in them are a nice way to engage too but passing on the work, especially to help someone to get noticed, is a good way to just work the site as intended.

It will always be about luck because we can't guess who wants to engage with what online. You also can't blame yourselves for this. Don't use the internet mentality of "content" (eugh!) and "flopping" and go about it that way. People find stuff I drew years back and find ways to engage with it now. It's really about luck.

There are things that can help but I'll go about it in another post.

One more thing. Don't be shy about "shilling". Advertise your open commissions, your patreons or ko-fis. I promise it has nothing to do with how big of an artist you are. Remember that you're doing that within your own zone so "bothering" followers is hardly the case, it's your house. Make a tag for it if it helps your mind. I say as someone with social anxiety.

[envirogoth]

"there is no ethical consumption under capitalism" "you can criticize capitalism while participating in it" are both true and valid statements. but if you care about anti capitalism, your hands aren't wiped clean. acknowledging the problem is only the first step

yes, you can make money to survive & buy things to have fun. you can get things that aren't necessary to treat yourself. you can work your way up the corporate ladder.

some people resign themselves to their fate, as though capitalism is the way that things must be forever. but there's still questions you should ask yourself before deciding to drop all attempts at working against the system:

do you support/promote the culture of excessive buying?

how do you treat poor or otherwise disadvantaged people?

do you support local libraries, local businesses (if you can afford to), or other local organizations?

do you vote in favor of social services and education?

do you vote at all?

do you buy things in quantity over quality(lifespan) when you have the money to do either?

not everyone is an activist, but everyone has the power to vote with their money and with their ballot. telling yourself that there's no ethical consumption isn't a get out of jail free card. you don't have to be perfect or have to shop outside of your means or really go out of your way at all to take actions against capitalism. the main thing is that you care about people, your community, the environment, etc enough to care about your behaviors. that's all we can ask of anyone. to care

(this post is written about the US, I'm unclear on the situations in other countries)

[alpaca-clouds]

How to survive the heat

Okay, let me talk about something else.

The climate is changing and it is getting hotter. The summers especially are getting hotter and hotter by the year and a lot of people are struggling with it.

As my American friends keep reminding me: The US - at least those areas, that have always been kinda hot - has usually ACs for most buildings. But someone sitting in Germany I can guarantee you: Most of us do not. At least not outside of commercial buildings like shopping malls and office buildings.

And still, we have temperatures over 30°C - at times going up to 40°C (that is like 86° - 104° in freedom units) - and somehow have to survive in here. So, as someone sitting in an attic flat with no AC in sight, let me talk survival.

Why heat is dangerous

Let me quickly talk about heat and why it is dangerous to us. And let me make it clear: Yes, heat is dangerous. Heat usually kills more people than any other type of extreme weather. Because while you can protect against most other weather, the heat is not that easy.

Our human fleshbags usually function best around 37°C (which is like 98.7°F) and to keep itself at around that temperature. When we are cold, our body burns energy to warm itself up. When we are hot, we produce sweat so that our bodies can cool of via evaporation.

The issue is, that our bodies are only able to do that in certain temperatures effectively.

And if we cannot cool off, our body will slowly fail. Additionally we might sweat so much, that we loose too much water through sweat, our bodies might shut off, too.

Just a quick graphic here. Just to make you aware. Because heat is dangerous.

So, let us talk about something.

How to survive the heat without an AC?

Let me talk about my best friend during the summer heat: The fan. With that I mean the nice electric fan that keeps the air moving. Yes, it burns energy and that sucks, but with the air moving, our sweat can better evaporate, hence cooling us down.

Another thing that might help as well, is a device removing air humidity - because this, too, helps with sweating.

Then, of course, there is the good one: Air out your apartments early in the morning or throughout the night. When it is still cool. Then close up the windows during the day and close and curtains and blinds. If you do not have blinds, you might consider putting something against the windows from the outside. I personally use medical foil blankets, that are made to keep temperatures regulated. But please, please, if you do that: Put them up outside. Because otherwise it might harm the glass of the window. (And yes, sadly I have to remind you, too that you need to check with your landlord if this is okay.)

Another thing that might help you: Fill bottles with water and freeze them. Then put them up in the highest place in your room. This can lower the temperature in your room for a couple degrees. It is a very easy hack that works quite well.

Now, you might have heard about that drinking cold drinks is bad and that instead you actually should drink hot drinks. The science behind it is basically, that cold drinks do kinda cancel themselves out. Yes, cold drinks and ice cream cool down the inside of the body, but with it, it will also tell the body not to sweat. Because of that, you win nothing, but you also loose nothing. The natural temperature regulation gets stopped for a while, but for the same while your body gets cooled by the cold drink. So... It's alright. Do it the way you like. And yes, even though sweating is a good and healthy thing in the heat... It also kinda sucks.

Most importantly though: Drink. And drink something non-alcoholic. (Because alcohol dehydrates the body.) Other than that, it really does not matter what you drink. If it is hot or cold. Just make sure you drink about 2-3 liters a day. To make up for the loss of water through sweating.

The last tip I have is not good for the introverted. But... You might wanna consider spend your days in a place that is climatized. I usually sit in the office even on my off days, because it has a passive cooling system (yes, fancy sustainable stuff even!) and during the weekends I often go to the university library, because it is nice and climate controlled there.

Would I love to lounge around at home instead? Yes. Yes, I would. But... Beggers can't be choosers. And even my autistic ass prefers sitting in the library to having a heat stroke. Because yes, I had a heat stroke once. I cannot recommend it.

So, that said: Stay chilly.

[oliviafitmomof3]

[studentbyday]

Hey guys 👋🏻 Lately even if I sleep well, I've been finding it harder and harder to get out of bed and do my work, even if I still can feel excited about certain topics in my field (if they're presented in a different enough, positive context like new research that's happening in my area). @zzzzzestforlife told me that means I'm burnt out and that if I feel like I'm so busy I can't take 5 minutes to do anything extra, I should take a hour to just rest and rejuvenate because you won't actually fall that far behind in just an hour. Proverbially speaking. She actually prescribed that I take the weekend off 😅 And I trust her judgment because she knows the pace I work at (read: slower than her) and she's burnt out enough times to recognize the symptoms quickly and take action against it before it gets really out of hand.

So this weekend, I'm just going to rest (with the exception of the little bit of pathology assignment I still have to finish before Monday and reviewing a bit more for the immunology midterm on Wednesday...and a few very light admin tasks...God, as I type this, it's really tempting to just not take a break and keep working this weekend out of fear but I really don't think I should. I should preserve the bit of passion and enthusiasm I still have for my studies and return to them on Monday feeling refreshed enough to keep going, resting each weekend, until the end of the semester because I need to build sustainable habits if I want to take 5 courses / semester next year and come out of it still whole).

And I've kind of forgotten what rest mode is like?? So I need to do a little brainstorm...again. because this list will be a bit smaller and thus less overwhelming (to me in this burnt out state) than the one I shared before and I'll only be picking the activities that will actually be helpful for my current state (e.g. i am not aiming to wake up really early at all this weekend. that just puts unnecessary pressure because i just find that really really hard to do these days as the days get shorter and recently meditating just makes all my anxious thoughts re-surface so I think I need to try more active forms of mindfulness so the full strength of the emotions don't have to hit me and drain me so much). (And I am under no pressure whatsoever to do all of these. Just whatever I feel my body and soul are most called to do in the moment. I've forgotten how to rest in the busy-ness it's so weird...like i actually had to be reminded that real rest is not something you have to try really hard to do and if you do that then it ceases to be real rest, even if you're engaging in a supposedly restful activity. Why did I have to be reminded of something so common sense. I mean, I do know, but still. It's strange, the effect that extended periods of work mode has on the brain...)

Physical movement (pilates/yoga and walking in nature are still my current faves but I only walked in nature and did yoga once this week and my body is starting to complain about it...)

Practice piano (even if I think I suck...the only reason for that would be because I'm out of practice, so the more I practice and the sooner I start practicing, the better I'll sound. I haven't played since summer ended...)

Reading fiction (Maisie Dobbs is reliably calm yet uplifting and it's what I've been reading most of this week so I might continue that, but this weekend I'm going to slow down and get cozy, i.e. away from my desk, while I read)

Yapping with those who are dearest to me

Listening to music that is stimulating in a calming way (rn I'm thinking like slow classical choir stuff haha because you've got the harmony together with occasional notes that sing out above the rest and it's just really satisfying in a calming way...there are also a couple of piano pieces that have that kind of calming vibe like träumerei... There's also slow jazz.)

Do mundane things like the laundry (I need to change my bedding anyway), sorting and folding said laundry (i don't usually like folding haha so Zesty usually does that [thankfully], but i think there will be something extra comforting about the folding patterns this time and there's just a lot still to fold...), washing my water bottle, and basically just cleaning house because the act of moving and seeing all the dirt get gone because of it is therapeutic and a surprisingly good de-stressor

I was also supposed to do my weekly hair mask this weekend which I almost completely forgot about

[wildrungarden]

5/4/24 ~ letting the bebes get some fresh rain 🌧️ 🌱

[weatheredcopper]

gahhh why is everything so expensive i ordered a dominos pizza + lava cakes and it was FOURTY DOLLARS.

[cowsaresushi-coral]

hi, new comm sheet finally up 👉👈

[maplefield]

finally started honkai impact 3rd. can someone please explain to me how anything works. i'm confused

[kulapti]

Cover construction for The silent isle imbowers, July-Aug 2023.

Finished binding here.

Materials shown: metallic gold and matte black heat transfer vinyl with cricut-cut designs, cricut-cut paper stencil, acrylic paint, bookcloth made of cotton + drawing paper backing + Lineco PVA glue. Calligraphy by quillingwords, flower art and cover construction by me.

————-General tips on how to make smth like this:

Steps in order were (1) have bookcloth, (2) cut and paint stencil, (3) cut and weed both HTV layers, (4) apply black HTV, (5) apply gold HTV, (6) add paint detail with paintbrush over the vinyl, (7) apply bookcloth to cover board.

This is not a beginner-friendly design LOL. Be like me and try most of the steps by themselves on other projects first.

I drew this design knowing how the sections would be layered, and which materials (and therefore colors) would go with each layer. Achieving a similar result with a premade design will likely require editing in a digital art program.

Test how your materials will layer before committing to a complex design. In this case I discovered that the type of bookcloth I made actually helps conceal the adhesive spread under the black HTV.

Layering HTV over small sections of acrylic paint works! Cannot confirm the result if you were to use large painted sections.

PSA This black layer with many very small pointy bits is at the extreme limit of what I think is possible to weed from machine-cut HTV. A different material might work better, and I got a lot faster at weeding the second copy than the first one, but some of this is just a technical limit. The gold section worked great but I would not recommend this for the black.

Layering HTV is much easier to do uniformly with a heat press! Check if your local library or maybe an art class studio has one you can use before doing smth like this with your iron.

Paper stencils are easy to make with the cricut but don’t try to use them for anything with small details. The above example is pushing it despite being very simple shapes. Stick-on stencils are better.

Tiny HTV design tip: designs with jagged sections and very thin lines are hardest to weed successfully. Smooth curves are much easier.

Scale all pieces of a stacked design on the same drawing program and within the same canvas in cricut so they layer precisely.

Cut tiny HTV designs with the washi paper setting on a cricut. I did not find this out myself but I can confirm the results! Using the HTV setting will cause the blade to catch on and pull up small sections of the design while cutting, ruining parts of the design.

—————-Tiny HTV design weeding tips:

For the love of cheese do not try anything this complicated the first time you use a cricut. or the second. you will cry

Seriously consider trying both HTV and cricut stencils before doing anything complicated like this. I wish I had at least attempted the black layer as a stick-on stencil.

This isn't a weeding tip but again you better cut this with a washi setting.

Use a very sharp weeding tool, good lighting, and consider a magnifying glass

Be prepared for this to take several hours, especially if you have never done a tiny piece before.

Important! The cricut does not perfectly cut out designs, leaving very small connected sections around the design at various locations. This is almost unnoticeable on large designs but can ruin tiny designs very easily. Be prepared to hold down the “keep” sections of the design with tweezers or a fingertip while pulling or trimming off some of the “remove” negative space.

Do NOT attempt to pull off all the negative space in a single piece. Either add dividing lines to your design for the machine to cut, or use a sharp tool to scrape them yourself. You are much less likely to accidentally remove part of your design if you weed the design in distinct sections.

[sappy-witch]

🌿 Ethical Cleansing Alternatives🌿

Hello darlings 🥰

I wanted to talk about an important issue today: the use of palo santo and white sage for cleansing. While these plants have become popular in the spiritual community for their cleansing properties, it's important to remember that they have cultural significance for Indigenous people and may not be accessible or appropriate for everyone to use.

Additionally, both palo santo and white sage are endangered in the wild due to over-harvesting. So what are some alternatives for cleansing that are respectful to Indigenous cultures and environmentally friendly? Here are a few ideas:

🌿 Garden Sage: This is a great alternative to white sage, and it's easily accessible at most grocery stores. You can use it the same way you would use white sage for cleansing and smudging.

🌿 Cedar: Cedar is a sacred plant to many Indigenous cultures, and it's a great alternative to palo santo. You can burn cedar to cleanse a space or use it in a bundle for smudging.

🌿 Lavender: Lavender is a gentle yet effective plant for cleansing negative energy. You can use dried lavender in a bundle or as loose herbs, or even burn lavender-scented candles or incense.

🌿 Rosemary: Rosemary has cleansing properties and is often used in protection spells. You can use it in a bundle for smudging or sprinkle dried rosemary around your home.

Remember, the most important thing is to use alternatives that are respectful to Indigenous cultures and are environmentally sustainable. Also, be sure to research the plants you're using and make sure they're safe for burning.

🌿 Some tips for using these alternatives:

🌱 Before you begin, set your intention for cleansing and protection.

🌱 Burn the plant material over a fireproof surface like a metal bowl, shell, or cauldron.

🌱 Use a feather or your hand to waft the smoke around your space or yourself.

🌱 Be sure to extinguish the material safely when you're finished.

I hope this post has been helpful in finding more ethical and sustainable alternatives for cleansing. Remember to approach your practice with respect and reverence, and to always be mindful of the impact you're having on the environment and others. 

Thank you @panthera-dei for bringing this important issue to my attention on my previous post detailing Protection Magick which I have since edited, and for giving me a reason to research this topic further. As a community, let's make a conscious effort to practice sustainable and ethical witchcraft and respecting the cultural significance of practices like smudging.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to get in contact. Let's continue to support and uplift Indigenous cultures while practicing our craft 💚✨

____

🌞 If you enjoy my posts, please consider donating to my energies 🌞

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____

With love, from a Sappy Witch 🔮💕

Blessed be. 🕊✨

[bbibbirose]

I hate bringing personal drama here these days bc it makes some things feel more real to write them out but there’s one thing I needed to vent

[soovyclub]

10 Steps to Lower Your BMI and Promote Healthy Weight Loss A step-by-step guide on how to healthily lower your body mass index (BMI) as an effective way to lose weight, speed up your metabolism, and improve your overall health. https://www.soovy.club/blog/how-to-lose-weight-ways-to-boost-metabolism-tips-to-reduce-bmi