I love trout fly fishing and knitting. Go figure. I have custom rods and custom needles. Both activities have incredible health benefits, you can find those here and here.

After MRI’s, X-rays and cortisone shots, I received my doctors now mandatory orders: two months physical therapy for my elbow (from construction overuse) AND no typing!

Totally bummed about not being able to work on the build, I found a way during the holidays, snowstorms and frigid weather to still move forward on my sustainable tiny life.

In the afternoons, after teaching my “Sustainable Lifestyle Design” classes, I would post items from storage for sale. In the evenings, I decided to engage in other sustainable practices such as preserving my famous Mango chutney, infusing vodka with lemon/ginger/honey, and creating  sugar/coconut/raw honey and lemon/salt rosemary body scrubs. So much fun and makes the house and your skin smell delicious!

Anyone have some of their own homemade stuff to barter/trade, Email me at taospirit [at] mac [dot] com!

Like other tiny life enthusiasts I was anxious to creatively repurpose my, my friends and family “stuff”. I needed some great winter socks, holiday gifts, hats and scarves anyway. All these designs are mine. Not planned or written down;  just organically started, a different color here , a different kind of stitch or cable there, different texture based on what was left at my front door on a given day.

I was able to gift all the leftover sets of hats and scarves to our local Council on Aging before the holidays for those in need. I got carried away and knit another entire drawer full of socks and leg warmers for my daughter who likes to walk through the snow and woods to teach at the private academy nearby . And best of all, it provided endless hours of play for my daughter’s felines and for me, plenty of laugh therapy through the snowstorms while we await the Spring!

Repurposing of worldly goods this month: 26 cubic feet.