Life is Good. Busy but Good.
It's been a busy spring! We are settling into our new home and getting involved in the community here. Spring has been beautiful here on the coast, so we're trying to enjoy all the new beaches and hiking trails that we can.
One of our most exciting developments is our involvement with a local non-profit, Noyo Food Forest. They're an organization that promotes local and sustainable food to build community. Seneca has been taking a class from them since we moved here at their Learning Garden (which is at the high school - they provide fresh produce for school lunches and teach workshops and classes there). Shortly after he started the class, I contacted them about possibly doing some design work. They were really excited about it and they've since become my first local client! I am working on a logo design and web site for them, and there will probably be lots more work to come. We've also gotten involved in one of their new projects: starting a community garden in Fort Bragg. Seneca is now the co-coordinator for the community garden, which we've worked on all spring to prepare for planting. We now have a plot full of organic veggies going as we work on getting the garden up and running. Eventually, we'll have communal garden beds that feed the hungry, compost piles and worm bins, rainwater collection, and several beds for local families to rent. It's been a great experience helping bring this vision to life, and our veggies are already growing! We are meeting more and more people and really starting to feel at home here. Every Friday we attend a drum circle on the beach, where we can play as loud as we want. We've been hiking and visiting beaches and state parks, and having BBQs and dinner parties with the handful of friends that we knew before moving here. We're even brewing our own organic beer! This seems like it will be a great place to launch my sustainable design studio, since there is a high level of eco-consciousness here, and California is at the forefront of green living.
Speaking of business, I am slowly planning an "official" business for my freelance design work called Ahimsa Creative. Ahimsa is Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence and doing no harm. It perfectly embodies the work I hope to do. Now I'm working on a business plan and getting the paperwork in order, which is coming along quite slowly since I've been so busy!
Busy with what? Well, I went back to work for the PETA Foundation part-time. I am doing web design while saving the animals, and it's good to be back. I've also had plenty of freelance projects to keep me busy. Recent highlights include completing a web site for Moscow CommUNITY Walk, an event in Moscow that I helped plan and start last year, and that we visited to attend this year. I also designed logos, flyers, posters, t-shirts, and other graphics for the event, which were all updated this year. I recently finished business cards, promotional post cards, and gift certificates for a non-toxic and green nail spa in Scottsdale, AZ called Organicures. I've been writing for Green Options each week, mostly about starting a green business on their Ecopreneurist blog. I will soon be starting on a collection of essays on a sustainable future for the Palouse region with a professor at my alma matter, University of Idaho. A couple other projects are in the works as well, so I'm definitely keeping busy!
Please visit my photo blog, which I'm trying to keep updated despite the fact that my camera screen is broken, to see pictures of our new home. I write new articles for Green Options every Friday, and you can see my archive here. I'm also trying to keep the unplug blog up to date. And of course, watch for more news on Ahimsa Creative, and its own web site, in the future. Ciao for now!
Labels: green living, life, update
posted by Megan @ 5:58 PM
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