In case you’ve been missing it (and I know you have), issue #6 of Joie is in the works! If you weren’t aware, Joie is an online lifestyle magazine that’s all about the art of joyful living and it covers art, craft, living, design, fashion + more. It comes out quarterly and each issue is put together around a theme.

Issue #6’s theme is Frolic and is scheduled to come out the beginning of March. You can see a little sneak peak of some of gorgeous content above.

And it’s not too late to reserve your ad spot in issue #6!

There are Double Page, Full Page & 1/2 Page spots open. Rates and specs can be seen HERE. You can email to reserve your spot or checkout on the page.

Each issue has an expected readership of over 200,000, so you can promote your business  to a lot of people and support Joie at the same time!

Advertise in Joie – Click here!

A big mug of  Xocolatl drinking chocolate with almond milk in my 1971 mug…I’m as old as Starbucks. yea, I know.

A trio of cupcakes for myself and my two favorite people in the whole world….bet you can’t guess who they are?!

The mister and I on a roadtrip!

Self-portrait.

This is Shagga kitty, Mr. Indie Fixx’s father’s kitty. She lived with us for a brief time last year until we had to find her another home because she didn’t get along with our other cats. We still get to visit her though.

I’m beginning work on issue #6 of Joie mag (coming in March) and I’m looking for creative writers who want to submit short (very short) stories and poetry for a new feature I am adding to the magazine highlighting creative writing.

Here’s what I need:

1. Short stories less than 300 words. Think One-Minute-Fiction. Get in touch to find out the theme.

2. Poetry. Get in touch to find out the theme.

Contributors do receive credit or a byline for their contribution, a blurb in the contributor directory and a 150×100 banner on Indie Fixx in exchange for contributing. I also spotlight selected contributors on Indie Fixx as well.

Email for more info. Please include examples of your work.

It got me to thinking about all the other places where I  come up with my best “big ideas”.

My Best Thinking Places

In the shower.

Over a cup of tea.

Laying on a blanket under a tree.

On a walk through the leaves.

Weeding the garden.

Whilst knitting and crocheting.

Baking bread, cookies or just about anything!

What are your favorite “big idea” thinking places?

I have much love for this cute little shop (Krize Smilins) and what a wonderful place to get something for Valentine’s Day for your bestie (or yourself)!

Did you know that I love you? Well, I do. I love everyone. Well, some of you are harder to love than others, but in general I do love you all. And I think that we should practice love for one another. Not just your family, that’s too easy.

I’m talking about loving strangers,

because believe it or not, that’s our default. We are all born into this world with love in our hearts and it is only through the years that we learn to not love as a default. Instead we learn to distrust, to hate, to judge, in inflict pain, to shut out and to shut down. But, we can make a change. We can make a conscious decision to love our fellow humans again. And that’s what I plan on doing.

What got me thinking about this is I have a friend who told me recently that he is planning on hugging everyone at these joint meetings we both attend. Now, these are not social meetings at all, the people who are meeting are often strangers or distant acquaintances at best, but he has decided to hug them all. Sometimes, these meetings can get quite contentious and it’s so much more difficult to get angry and shut down in a conversation with someone you just hugged.

A hug sort of resets that default,

it helps you to see other people are people. I think his idea is a fabulous one.

So, I’ve undertaken a new project. I’ve made these signs (see below) and I plan on posting them in random places. Wherever I see a community bulletin board, I will pin one up. I actually have a stack and some pins in my bag right now, so I won’t be caught unawares. My goal is to share my random stranger love with the world and hopefully they will in turn share their love with strangers as well.

What do you think? Would you like to join my campaign to tell the world that we love them?

If so, download this sign I made and post it wherever you can. Take a picture of it and post it to the Pass It On Flickr Group.

Printable Pass It On Sign

Oh how I love thee, let me print out the ways…

Mushy Lovey Stuff printable card

Printable Robot Card

What a Fox Collection

Be Mine teddy Bear Cards

When the hibernation habit gets a little blase and the bottoms of your feet become a little itchy for remembrance of their bare-naked grassy days, I feel like the “wet seed wild in the hot blind earth,” of Faulkner’s imagination—caught in the hopeful tandem between winter and spring. If nothing else is ripe, at least the time is ripening for sowing seeds of futures, dreaming dreams, and planting wishes.

The Greek goddess of vegetation, Persephone, is the spring herald of seeds and fresh growth. The pomegranate seeds she ate, while banned from food, are said to have been the reason she was shunned and absent from her duty as fertility mother, thus creating the barren season of winter. We are teetering on the edge of this cold season and the turnover of new growth, so we shall celebrate the seed!

The year is new and I needed something lovely to write on and plant—why not combine the two forces into plantable paper? My seeded stuff ended up looking curiously edible. It somehow achieved the consistency of oatmeal (the brown and cream paper mush) and raisin (foxglove seeds) cookie bars. To make your own write-on granola-esque notes, do this!

(Oatmeal Raisin) Seeded Wildflower Paper

Material and Tools

• 10-20 sheets of recycled paper (you can use newspaper, old book, junk mail, etc…) and keep in mind the color will be a result of the dye of the paper you use
• 1 or cups of lukewarm water
• natural dye or tissue paper (optional)
• 1-2 packs wildflower seeds
• a hand towel
• a cookie/baking sheet
• a mug, cup, or rolling pin
• a blender

I started off with black/cream sheets of paper from a discarded 1950s atlas, a handful of newspaper, some junk mail, and a brown paper bag. Rip all the paper you’re going to use up into thin shreds. The smaller, the better, but don’t go too crazy! Put the paper shreds into the blender until it’s almost full. Add 1 cup of lukewarm water and blend, starting with the lowest setting and gradually vamping it up to full power. Blend until the individual pieces have become a watery mush and are indistinguishable, adding water as needed. This process took me 10-15 minutes, and lots of patient alternating between stirring and blending, but eventually did the trick. When the paper has returned back to its pulpy state, you may add a bit of natural dye or square of (dyed) tissue paper to kick it with some color. I chose to leave mine its neutral shade of oatmealy-beige.

Remove the pulp from the blender and place it in a bowl. Add whatever seeds you are inclined—I used foxglove, shasta daisy, and zinnia, for lots of variety and potential. Stir well until the seeds are distributed evenly throughout. Take a small handful of the “dough” and ball it up in your hands, squeezing most of the water out but leaving enough so that it clumps together. Spread the ball out into your desired shape on the baking sheet, flattening it until it’s as thin as it will go. Thin it out even further with a rolling pin, or by using a mug to roll it out. Soak up the excess water with a towel. Repeat this until all the pulp is used. You can make whatever size/shape of paper you desire, but know that the thicker and larger the size, the longer it will take to dry.

Bake at 250 for 20-30 minutes, or until mostly dry. Alternatively, leave in the sun to dry, dry with a hairdryer, take a hairdryer to it, or use your breath for the most hands-on experience.

When you’re ready to bury it, soak the paper for about an hour before placing it lightly (about 1/2 inch deep) in the soil. My foxgloves, zinnia, and daisies will spring up to life in a few weeks.

Get fancy with your paper! I used a sheet of mine to make a hand-sewn Valentine. Simply use thread (usually 3 strands is plenty for this) to make your own design and sew it as you would anything else.

From {Tree}HouseHold, and the promise of spring, sew your seeds of wild oatmeal today!

About the contributor:
	Heather Buzzard is a freshly hatched graduate of Emory University, where she studied creative writing, sociology, religion and environmental science. Her time is spent frolicking as a musician in two Atlanta bands, dressing up for silly photoshoots, inventing recipes, and drooling happily over her Indie Fixx work.