My Favourite Articles This Week
I loved this deeper read on the current trend of rejecting conventional ambition. Very thought-provoking.
They actually did a recent study on how to reduce extreme partisan feelings and the current trend towards anti-democracy, and it’s pretty interesting.
A look at how climate change is already changing the wine industry.
These cake embroidery pieces are so incredible!
A reminder that in just 2 hours, you could learn how to embroider on your knits and feel really confident about it. I’ll be teaching an online class next Friday and it’s probably the last online class I’ll have available this year! People who take the workshop regularly say afterwards, “I had no idea it was going to be this easy.” That could be you, friend!
My Favourite Links This Week
A delicious and pretty easy weeknight dinner idea – Teriyaki Cauliflower bowl! You can make veggie substitutions as you see fit (there’s no reason this wouldn’t work with broccoli instead, for example) and is a wonderful dinner that is bright and delicious. Side note- I’ve started always having red cabbage on hand and oh WOW it lasts forever in the fridge and chopped up can easily be sprinkled on anything for added colour and crunch. Red cabbage is my new thing, people. But back to the bowls! Find the great recipe here.Â
If your grocery store/local fruit market is awash in cherries like mine are, then how about some insanely good cherry brownies?! With the addition of cherries, they are instantly -and totally!- healthy. 😉  These would be perfect for a weekend baking project. Find the recipe here.
I am utterly charmed by this very pretty sewing kit in a glasses case DIY. It’s so ideal for a travel or on-the-go sewing kit for crafting, and is a great upcycle for that style of glasses case. You can customize to the colours you prefer and stuff with the notions you must need! Find the DIY right here.
This granny square sweater is SO pretty! I have always loved the infinite variety of granny squares- they can look so different with gauge, colour combinations, etc. This is a pretty project just waiting to happen. Find the pattern here.
I love the idea of upcycling thrift store lamps with this concrete finishing! This is such a cool idea that looks really fresh and modern, and doesn’t require really expensive lighting. The best part about the tutorial is that it looks like you just keep going until you get the look you want, so if it doesn’t look like how you want inside of the first few tries, you could keep going and it won’t be a problem at all. The more texture the merrier! Would be a great idea for upcycling planters for a concrete finish as well. Find the full tutorial here.
And just like that, it’s September! How did that even happen?! I felt like the summer rushed by, and I also definitely stumbled in over scheduling (work) and underscheduling (children) at challenging intervals, but I’m filing those lessons away for next summer. As this was the first summer in a while that felt a lot more ‘normal’, it was easy to make mistakes around the kids scheduling. And mine. Ah well. You live, you learn, right?
xo Julie
That ambition story is an interesting complement to all the talk about “quiet quitting” (a terribly named phenomenon, I would argue, but there it is), and it backs up what I’ve been thinking about it. For so long, we’ve all been sold this notion that working extra hard, showing up early, leaving late, doing more than what’s asked of us is the path to promotions, raises, and general workplace success. But we’re starting to realize that (a) it’s not really true. When you do all that extra work, *maybe* you’ll get some kind of reward for it, but most of the time, you just get more work and higher expectations with no added recognition or compensation. And (b) even if it does work out that way, is that even what we want? I feel like there’s been a certain redefining of what success looks like, and it’s much less tied to work. I think a lot of people have shifted focus a bit from “I need to kick ass at work” to “I need a job that pays well enough without sucking my soul to allow me to enjoy the parts of my life that are actually enjoyable, and I need to do that job well, but not to the point of taking on half (or more) of another job on top of that.” Basically recognizing that your job doesn’t love you and will never love you, and maybe it’s more fulfilling to divert some of that energy to other parts of our lives.
Until reading that article, I hadn’t quite thought of it as applying mainly to women, but maybe it does? And a part of me thinks that kind of sucks, because it feels a bit like giving up, but on the other hand, if the result is that we’re happier and living more fulfilling lives, it’s hard to be mad at it.
Brenda, you definitely had a lot of the same thoughts I have had about all *this* recently. Quiet quitting is the dumbest title ever for actually having boundaries, and it makes sense, especially now that we are talking a lot more about how capitalism has not benefited the average worker meaningfully. As someone who made a radical career shift early in the pandemic because OI could see it was going to be a while and I wanted to be more present for my family… a lot of this makes sense. We deserve to find our own happiness and not have it dictated by salary.
Question about the virtual workshop – what’s the time zone on 3-5? I’ve been loving watching those appear on insta…
HI Julie! the 3-5 pm is London UK time- which is 10 am -12 pm Toronto time. I hope you join us!