It is so bright, sunny, and Springish today  I just love this weather.  Kitty Cosmo is walking on the windowsill and checking out the outside world.  She’s already chased several birds and a fly today, as well as taking a cozy nap in the sunshine.

I’ve just been working on more content for the website.  There’s so much I’m working on, and I’m really excited about it.  I made 3 new meditation tracks the other week, and I’m listening to all of them to see if it’s really obvious that I was stuffed up with a head cold when I recorded them.  (”dis is da thun medidaton”).  I’m already adding the music to one of the tracks and going to be working on the others soon.  Those should be up and running very shortly.

I’m also making videos!  Well, I’m thinking about making videos  I have all the equipment in our apartment now, including a green screen, which I’m debating on using.  I need to just record a little bit and see how easy it is to work with.  I have a mind full of ideas for videos, so stay tuned for those as well.

In other news, I’m a new blogger for the Live Green in Plano website!  Yea!  That means I get to write even more about eco-friendly living.  Technically, I haven’t received the code yet to begin making entries, but they said they would e-mail it to me.  Yea! Yea! Yea!  I wonder if North Texas wants to know about my DivaCup….hmmmm….?

In other other news, I started my second sewing project today!  The tissues came out fabulously, and now I’m working on my first dress.  I think I’m going to start a crafty section of this website.  Once I have some completed, at least  Right now my kitchen table and dining area is covered in fabric, patterns, sewing books, and a kitty that just sneezed (aw – so cute).

Speaking of kitty, I’ve been debating whether to teach Cosmo to go to the bathroom on the toilet or not.  Come on, haven’t you heard of this?  Kitty potty training?  Well, the technique I’ve read about is to gradually move her litter box higher up to the level of the toilet seat, then put a bowl with litter in the middle of the toilet rim, then gradually remove it.  It’s a little more involved than that, but it takes weeks.  Um..I don’t know if I’ve revealed this or not, but patience is not one of my virtues.  Just ask Mark.  So my plan is to meditate and describe to kitty what I would like her to do telepathically and see if she just starts doing it.  The downside to this is that the toilet seat has to be left up, which I do not like.  The upside is no cleaning the kitty litter out, less packaging, and better for the environment (because most kitty litter is actually not eco-friendly).  But more on that in a different post.

I think I may need to close the window, because kitty just charged the screen to bat at a fly (the door is open, so one came in).  We live on the second floor.  If the screen gives way…Geronimo kitty!

Love,

Melanie

As an intro, the court cards are the four unnumbered cards in each suit of the tarot.  They are commonly called the Page, Knight, Queen, and King.  The traditional meanings of Pages are children of either sex or a message.  The Knights are said to be teenagers, the Queens are adult females, and the Kings are adult males.  First, let’s flesh out the traditional meanings.  How do you tell whom the person represents in a reading?  I mean, if you just say that there’s an important adult male in the client’s life, how does that help?  If you get the sense that the cards actually represent someone in the client’s life, here are some ways to determine whom the card represents:

• Follow your instincts.  If you see the card and immediately hear a word or get a sense of who the card represents, go with that.  For example, you may hear, “Father,” in your mind.  Trust your inner voice.
• Look to surrounding cards for clues.  If your eye keeps drawing you to water and tubes in the card and you get a sense of “plumber”, say it.  If you’re doing a reading for a woman who is asking about her husband, the King that shows up probably represents him.
• For more help, ask for clarification from your guides and choose another card.  Follow your intuition regarding that card as well.

If you limit your court cards to only representing other people, you may miss out on some cool insights.  My belief is that every card should be read with an open mind.  That way, you allow your intuition to show you what the purpose of the card is in the reading.  For example, I had a knight of swords show up in a daily reading for myself once.  In my deck, the knight of swords is stabbing the clouds with his sword, and lightning is shooting out.  When I saw this card, I heard a thunderstorm in my head.  It was sunny outside, but I knew based on what I was getting that there would be a thunderstorm that day.  Sure enough, hours later the sky turned dark, and we had storms for several days.  (In case you’re wondering, I don’t watch the weather, so I didn’t know about this ahead of time.)   When you are using your intuition, the cards can have any number of meanings.

Another thing to keep in mind is that other cards in the deck can represent people, too.  I often have the Emperor show up to represent a father or the empress to represent a mother.  The Strength card represents my cat sometimes.  The Hermit has represented my Spirit Guides.  I’ve also had cards show up to represent people who have passed on.  In this case, I get a feeling that the person has passed on and what message they are wanting to communicate.

The court cards are only frustrating, in my opinion, if you try to box them into set meanings.  This is the same with all the other cards in the deck.  Each card is a starting place for your psychic abilities and Spirit Guides to take over and show you wonderful insights.

For more on Psychic Tarot Reading, check out my free e-course.

I’ve read a lot lately about the eco-unfriendliness of tampons, pads, and basically every disposable product.  According to Easy Green Living, the cotton used to make tampons is from the dregs of the cotton industry, the leftover parts of the cotton plant that have the highest concentrations of pestacides and fertilizers.  That was my first, “Ahgg!” moment.  The second was thinking about the chlorine used to bleach the tampons and wondering, “Do I really want all these chemicals inside of me?”  The final kicker was the thought of billions of tampons, tampon wrappers, and tampon boxes, along with billions of pads and pad boxes going into landfills every year.  So, I looked for a better, more eco-friendly option…

Enter the Diva Cup. The Diva Cup is just one of the many types of menstrual cups available.  It’s made out of surgical-grade silicone and lasts forever.  I read about women who have had theirs for over 10 years.  The Diva Cup company says the FDA requires them to suggest replacing it every year.  The menstrual cup was actually developed in the 1930s.  Over 15 years ago, the mother-daughter team of Francine and Carinne created the Diva Cup.

I am a researcher.  Before I do anything, I like to know everything I can find out about it, so I researched the Diva Cup and read all the reviews and blogs I could find about it.  Every reviewer I read said that they loved it and would never go back to tampons or pads.  Finally, I decided to give it a shot.  The following is my Diva Cup Diary.

Day 1
Hello world! LOL! I think this is so funny that I’m sharing with everyone the intimate details of my period. It’s all in the name of eco-friendly living, right? Anyhoo, my honey just returned from the store, where he bought me my first ever Diva Cup. The Diva Cup is a menstrual cup made out of surgical silicone. So I’m just opening the package and here are my first impressions. First, the box looks pink, purple, and very happy and fun. Mine comes with a Diva flower pin, which I think is humorous  Well, I was going to examine the box/instructions, but Mark is just as fascinated by this as I am and has taken them from me.

The Diva Cup comes in two sizes.  Size 1 is for women who haven’t had a baby before.  Size 2 is for women who have.  Mark just let me know that I am supposed to empty it 2-3 times per day.  Here’s what it says on the box, “The DivaCup eliminates the inconvenience and expense of purchasing disposable products in endless absorbencies, shapes, and sizes.  The most eco-friendly feminine hygiene choice because it’s reusable: reduces landfill waste, your eco-footprint, and saves money too.”  You can read more about the eco-benefits on their website.

It comes with a cute little bag to keep it in, too.  It’s kinda like getting a present.  I feel like there might be a slight learning curve to using this product, but I remember that there was one for learning to use tampons as well.  I remember it being a little awkward at first.

Mark’s comments:
“It’s much bigger than I was expecting. No wonder you don’t have to change it that often. It could be like a competition…’How much will I fill it up this time?’ It’s got little measurement lines. This is made in Ghanda. Wait, no (turning the box around)…that’s Canada. What is the point of this thing on the end? It’s like a little grab thing? A little handle?”

(a few minutes later)

Okay, I just inserted it for the first time, and OMG, it was so easy!  Holy cow!  I read so many question and answer forums, so I thought this would be a bit of an ordeal.  It was a piece of cake.  I think other people were just making it complicake.

Day 2

Well, Day 1 was pretty good, although I did feel like I needed to urinate a lot.  Apparently, this is a common comment.  However, today I must be used to it, because I don’t feel it at all.  I haven’t had any issues with leaking, and I even exercised today!  Removal was a cinch, and I actually think it’s pretty cool because I get to see how much blood I have in a little cup, rather than seeing a nasty looking bloody tampon.  I am fascinated by the body…I think it’s amazing…and I feel like using this product helps me experience that even more.  One of the things I read about using a menstrual cup is that it doesn’t soak up all your natural fluids in your vagina like a tampon does.  You know how at the end of the period it’s kinda dry and not fun feeling?  With the cup, that’s not an issue.  I also didn’t have any cramps yesterday.  The past several periods especially, I’ve been in a ball in tears on the first day.  I take a long bath by candlelight, play some meditation music, and usually start to feel better.  I take some pain meds, but still tend to have some discomfort for several hours.  This time I took meds early, but I never felt pain.  No bath or tears!  I don’t know if this is because of the Diva Cup or just that I took the meds early, but I have also read about other people not having as much cramping.  I don’t know for sure, but just a thought.

Days 3 and 4

I don’t even have anything to write here because this has been such an easy, fun process for me.  I pretty much forgot I was on my period because I couldn’t even feel the Diva Cup, and I didn’t have to worry about it.  I wish I had known about this sooner.  I am amazed at how easy it is.  I really expected that it would take me a while to get used to, but it hasn’t.  I never had an issue with leaking (which has always been an issue with tampons).  The Diva Cup holds so much.  I didn’t ruin all my underwear!  It’s really small and takes up a lot less space than my selection of tampons did.  It’s also really easy to clean.  They recommend cleaning it with a mild soap solution, something without fragrance.  I used my foaming face wash.  The great thing about our bathroom is that the sink is right next to the toilet, so I didn’t even have to get up to clean it.  I also read about many people who just clean it when they take a shower.  Another benefit – you don’t have to change the Diva cup as often as tampons are changed, so it’s really convenient.  You don’t have to carry lots of tampons in your purse.  Another woman pointed out that it’s very discreet – no wrappers in the trash or crinkling of paper when you’re in the bathroom.  There’s also a description of how to empty and clean it in a public restroom on their FAQ section of the Diva Cup website.

Conclusion

I love my Diva Cup!  I will never use tampons again.  I can’t believe we aren’t told about this option in school on period day.  Remember that day?  I was in fifth grade, and the boys and girls were separated for several hours.  Afterwards, the boys were all hyper, jumping around and saying, “You were talking about PeRiOdS!”

I realize this is not a good option for everyone, but it is perfect for me.  I read on their website that it doesn’t work for developing countries or really low income families where women might share a cup due to cost concerns.  You obviously don’t want to share the cup because of the risk of STD, HIV, and other disease/infection.  My cup was about $40.  We bought it at a store nearby, but I’ve seen the same cup on amazon for around $25 I think.  There are also many different brands of menstrual cups, some of which are less expensive.  However, for something that lasts years and years, it ends up being less expensive than buying tampons and/or pads every month.  But back to the issue with developing countries…Also, you need to have clean running water and soap available, which is something else that may not be available in developing countries.  However, disposables are not an option either because they don’t have the infrastructure to deal with the amount and type of waste, besides the fact that those are also too expensive to the women living in those countries.  I didn’t realize there were these types of issues.  The Diva Cup website sponsors several different organizations that help women in developing countries with these concerns.  There’s a kit you can buy, Pads4Girls, that gives washable, reusable pads to women in developing countries.  This is apparently the best option for their situation.

After reading more on their website, I’m really glad I chose the Diva Cup brand (I promise I’m not being paid by them to say this).  I feel like they are doing really great things in the world and that they really care about women’s health.  I also like that they’re a mother – daughter team.  I just feel good supporting them.

Anyhoo, that’s all for my Diva Cup Diary!  I hope you’ve enjoyed this detailed look into my life.  Ha!

Love,

Melanie

P.S.  I just added the Diva Cup to my Amazon Store.  The link goes to the eco-friendly section of the store, where you can view 4 different options (2 sizes, with or without the Diva Cup Wash).

Hello all you wonderful, brilliant, shining beings of light!  (How’s that for an intro?)  Anyhoo, I had the coolest thing happen this morning.  And yes, this does have to do with my recent sewing obsession!  Don’t be surprised if every post on my blog from now on has something to do with sewing.  Ha!  Yesterday, I was wondering how to make ruffles in fabric.  I thought about it several times, but forgot to look it up online.  Then, just before I woke up this morning, a helpful spirit gave me a tutorial!  I saw a close up of some fabric in my head, a large needle, and then the needle went through the fabric at the points marked.  Then, the thread was pulled and voila!  a ruffle!  I said thank you to the friendly Spirit who helped me with that.

One of the things I’m looking forward to is connecting more with my grandmother and Mark’s grandmother, both of whom were avid sewers.  My grandmother on my mom’s side sewed clothing all the time.  She also knitted clothing.  I’ve already told them both that I expect their help in my newish hobby.  I say newish because I had a sewing machine when I was younger.  It lasted several years before the foot pedal broke.  I didn’t realize at the time that I could have just bought a new foot pedal.  I think we gave it away to a woman who wanted to sew for her children.  Then, I took a sewing class in high school.  I made a very structured top but didn’t choose the right material, so I never wore it.  Then, I tried making two different dresses.  One was a semi-disaster.  There were many fitting issues, and I eventually gave up.  Now that I’ve read a million reviews online, I realize this is a common thing.  The second dress ended up looking more like a sack than a dress.  A very well made, pretty purple sack, but a sack nonetheless.

This sewing experience I AM SURE is going to be much more enjoyable and successful.  For one thing, I’m reading everything I can get my hands on about sewing and fitting garments before my sewing machine gets here.  For another, my first project involves sewing the edges of a bunch of flannel squares.  You know how Mark and I are making different changes to be more eco-friendly?  One of the ways is by not buying boxes of tissues.  We read and saw a video about tissues and toilet paper and how they are made from ancient or virgin forests.  We’ve been rethinking parts of our disposable lifestyle and figuring out how to do things differently.  Mark had some monkey print flannel fabric he bought off etsy, so we cut it into squares for tissues.  It is so great!  We tested our creations at the perfect time, because I had a little head cold last week.  I think he cut about 50 flannel squares for me.  Here’s the cool part – this is just like an infomercial.  I spent a day while I was all snotty at my mom’s, so I used regular tissues while I was there.  The skin around my nose was rubbed raw!  Now, this has happened many times before in my life, and I always thought it was because of my cold or allergies.  However, once I got home and started using my flannel tissues, no more sore nosey!!!  It wasn’t my nose that was the problem, it was the tissue!  My mom even uses the nice kind with lotion.  It still was too rough for my skin.  The only issue we’re having with our monkey tissues now is that when we wash them, the edges are fraying.  Enter new sewing machine! Tah dah!

We also got rid of our paper towels.  We started using fabric napkins while eating and cut up an old towel for cleaning rags.  Yesterday we went to a Chinese restaurant nearby, and they had paper napkins.  They were so scratchy!  I never realized it until I started using the good stuff.  I read an article that was talking about how we had to be trained to be in this disposable mindset.  After WWII, everyone was still in the save and reuse mode.  Then, there was a huge advertising push to get people to buy things that was saying how it made life easier to just have everything disposable – plates, napkins, tissues…you get the idea.  It was even on the cover of Life Magazine – I just looked for it online again but couldn’t find it.  It showed a woman with a trash can in front of her, lots of disposable things going into the trash, and big happy smile on her face.  I can see how this makes sense on the one hand.  Who wants to do dishes, right?  But when I realized that my trash doesn’t really go anywhere – that almost everything I use stays around FOREVER, it seems crazy to me to keep living the way that I have been.  So far with tissues and paper towel change, which actually make my life better, I’ve saved a lot of paper = trees = plastic packaging.

I’ve also made some pretty other cool changes.  Stay tuned for my toilet paper and tampon blogs!  HA!  The funny thing is that I’m serious.  :)  Tampons – sheesh.  I think I’ll post that one today.  It’s called The DivaCup Diary.  Check it out in the Eco-Living section of my site.

I hope you have a lovely day,

Melanie

Last night, I had a great time making dinner for myself.  I made an impromptu tomato soup, making up my own recipe, which turned out much better (I’m thrilled to say) than my vegan brownie experiment.  I played some tango music and had a good ol’ time.

In other news, I ordered my sewing machine the other day!  I’m so so excited.  I took the past two days “off” and have been spending hours upon hours looking at patterns online and figuring out which ones I would like.  I’ve even started a file to write the numbers down and notes from the reviews I’ve read.  ”Reviews?” you ask?  Yes!  I found a pattern review website (which I’ve also spent hours upon hours on) where people post their experiences and photos of what they sewed.  It’s so cool!  I feel like I know these people – and not from the we’re-all-one-energy sense.  I mean, I feel like these are my girlfriends now.  Sewing buddies.  I can’t wait to start on a project and post a review.  Some people post their works-in-progress, and I kinda want to post some just because I’ve bought the pattern.  Which, by the way, I have!  I bought three patterns in the past 2 days because my local big box (it’s a sewing-person’s term – ha! I’m a groupie!) sewing store was having a big sale just in time for my obsession to emerge.  They’re having another sale next week – 99 cent Butterick patterns.  Oh, yeah, people, this is BIG news.

The other super cool thing?  A couple of years ago I decided I wanted to make a quilt.  I was going to do it all by hand (HA!HA!HA!).  I asked the Universe for some help because I didn’t have any fabric, and I needed a lot.  I didn’t want just any fabric.  I wanted the super nice, great-quality quilting fabric.  I was driving along one day and saw a big sign that a quilting shop I didn’t even know existed (even though I must have driven by it at least a million times) was going out of business.  The lady who owned it was going to do something different, exploring different passions and interests and trying something new.  ”More power to ya,” I thought, gasping at the gorgeous fabrics that were all 50% off.  Let me clarify – they were 50% off the already discounted price!!!  I can barely type right now, I’m so thrilled just thinking about it.  This is what can happen when you listen to your intuition!!!!!  Anyhoo, so I grab a basket and pile it full with fat quarters (already cut pieces of fabric for quilting).  I mean, FULL!  When I got home, I counted over 200 fat quarters.  AH HAhahahhaah!  (that’s hysterical laughter, in case you couldn’t figure it out).  Guess how much I paid for it?  Keep in mind, this fabric usually goes for $8-$12 per yard, and I bought about 50 yards of fabric.  Please humor me and guess a number in your mind.  Okay, are you ready for the reveal?  Normally, this much fabric would have cost me $400-$600.  I paid just over $100 for it.  I think it was $106 or something like that.  HOLY COW!  Can you believe it?  Picture me taking a bow right now.  Thank you, thank you (applause, bow, more applause).  I know, I’m a great manifester.

Guess what else?! Guess what else?!  I found the pattern I’m 85% sure I’m going to use to make my wedding dress!  Yes, me, a beginnerish sewer is going to make my wedding dress.  However, it’s not the long silky white dress you might be picturing.  I’m not very traditional – you may have noticed .  I can’t post it yet or say anything about it, because only one other person knows, and that’s my mom.  So you and my mom.  Shhh!  It’s a secret.  Okay, well I told my honey I found it, but he doesn’t know what it looks like.  I couldn’t help myself, I was so excited!!!  I saw it and cried a little.  Awww  So when I said my honey was mocking me at the beginning, he was right on.  I first prayed about finding the perfect dress.  I pictured it in my mind during meditation.  I talked with my Spirit Guides about it.  I found it.  I called my mom.  I blogged about it.  HA!  My honey really knows my routine.

I took the past two days off from doing any sort of “work”.  It’s hard to call it work because I love what I do so much.  However, the one downside to working from home is that I work a lot.  That is compounded with the fact that I’m somewhat of a workaholic.  Actually, I just get so focused and excited about what I’m doing that the rest of the world shuts off.  I only realize the passage of time when I realize I’m starving.  Anyhoo, so at first I was feeling bad for resting.  I didn’t know if I was resting or just procrastinating.  However, I had a dream last night that cleared things up for me.  I’ve been recording my dreams for the past several days because I’ve been getting such great insight from them.

Okay, that’s the latest from Melanie’s world.  I hope you have a fabulous day and thanks for reading.

Melanie

All of a sudden, in the middle of my feeling of hopelessness and sorrow, I got a word. Disconnect. Everything I was questioning stemmed from disconnection. We go to war because we believe other people are different, separate from us. We don’t see that killing them is killing us. We are all one energy. We create pollution and do things that aren’t good for our planet or our bodies because we are disconnected from the energy of the planet, the fact that its nourishment allows our plants to grow to give us food, its ground gives us stability for our houses. We think throwing a plastic bottle on the ground doesn’t matter because we are disconnected from the fact that it goes into the ocean, breaks up into tiny pieces that absorb other pollutants, is eaten by fish, and then we eat the fish. But the root disconnect, the one that leads to all the other disconnects, is the disconnect from ourselves.

This isn’t limited to “big” problems, like war or toxic waste in the oceans.  All of those things are signs of what’s going on in our day to day lives.  I created war a few hours ago in my mind when I got angry at someone else and felt that what I was doing was better than what they were doing.  That “me vs. them” mindset is war.  It’s a total illusion.  But I wouldn’t feel the disconnect on the outside if there wasn’t one already on the inside.

So what causes this internal disconnection? I think it stems from not allowing ourselves to feel. How often do we give ourselves permission to feel? How often do we stuff our feelings with food, work, things, or activities instead of confronting them, healing them, and moving on? It’s like we can’t just do nothing for an hour, two hours, a day, a week. . . we have to always be doing, going, moving. And the consequences? Health problems, depression, anger, loneliness, disillusionment, pollution, war, hatred. When we don’t listen to the needs of our body or spirit, we’re disconnected, and that is no bueno.

How do we connect? I think it starts with each one of us giving ourselves permission to feel. Just to be quiet and feel. Not thinking, not wondering what we feel – just letting our mind get out of the way and our emotions bubble up to show themselves. Sometimes it’s not pleasant at first. We may not feel feelings that we would label as pleasant at times. But usually once they’re out, or even while you’re feeling them, it’s kind of invigorating. It’s kind of fun! Your spirit feels more alive (knowing that it survived), and then joy bubbles up. Laughter bubbles up. Love bubbles up. Acceptance bubbles up. And your joy and laughter and love will look good to another person, and they’ll start feeling it too.

We’ve created a mini video of bloopers from the making of our first video, Common Questions About Hypnosis, for your viewing pleasure.  I hope you get some laughs from it!

Several months ago I picked out a dress, invitations, location, and favors.  All those ideas are out the window now with our new eco-friendly plan.  We are broadening our horizons and searching with a new eco-friendly lens.

I hope you enjoy this adventure as much as we will.

Love,

Melanie (and Mark)