Magazines.

I find one of my HUGE fetishes is magazines!  How did this happen? Why do I love them so much? What good do they do me?   All very.... good questions, and quite frankly these are questions I get each time I try to share a magazine with someone face to face.

Lets see... I think it all happened from the basics of being a child.  Didn't you love that new notebook of paper for school, how perfect it was, and to imagine what you were going to do with it.  A New Notebook pad for school made me want to do more homework, be organized, and look as pretty as my new clean notebook did.  

Of course... I always got as sloppy as I was before, but that doesn't mean I didn't try each time I got something new.  And truly I knew how hard it was for my parents to come up with the same supplies for three children.  They always played fair... if one of us got something so did the others. 

Even at Christmas, as ADULTS we got to ask for what ever we wanted from OUR PARENTS and Daddy always made sure that what ever the most expensive item was..... the other two got EXACTLY the same amount of money.  Down to writing us checks for pennies. 

So to get a new magazine makes me more happy than getting a new pair of shoes, a dress or even a hat. ( I love hats)

My first magazine is one I only have 4 of them, but reference them for ideas all the time.

Artful Blogging    Art full Blogging Mag information
Visually Inspiring Online Journals
        I enjoy this magazine because I inspires me to take pictures I would not normally take. I took photography as a kid, developed films...black, white and yes color, learned to manipulate photos as I was developing them in the dark room.  But after getting out of high school I never touched a camera, unless I was on vacation.  what a waste! Life has so much to offer in the everyday! It's my passport into my imagination... I look, read, and dream! So I get this magazine as it feeds my soul every four months...

OK... so my next favorite mag is again another I am happy to share, would love to give this as the perfect Christmas Gift, but few in my family think the same way as I do... except my Mother's husband Bill and Daddy.

 number TWO is... Urban Farm  Urban farm online information

I don't care who you are this magazine has something in it you can try! 
Who doesn't love home grown tomatoes?
Who wouldn't enjoy a cheaper grocery bill?
Even if not any of the above, it assist you in searching out local foods so you support your local area, have better quality foods and get out!
Of course every magazine out there that has anything to do with the out doors is pushing composting! so to is this one... but it also gave me alternatives to my composting decisions.  slow, quicker, and as quickly as possible.
Balcony gardens... ?  this is all I had for YEARS... and I've been known to throw plants in the back of a uhaul if I had to.
At any rate it brings the outside challenges down to any ones level as where Hobby Farms is WAY over my head although I have a "hobby farm" expecting someone to have the perfect land, animals, fences, machinery is WAY too much for me to be challenged with.

I have six acres and an OLD gravely no one wants. Do I need to spend 12,000 dollars on a tractor? I wish I could but reality is, I'll be doing most of my work by hand, truck, horse, or gravely so reading magazines that make me feel like I have to keep up with "the Jones'" society does me no good.  so yes I like hobby farm magazine but I no longer get it as it only made me feel worse about my own inabilities.

I can do what ever this magazine has to offer.  I see its ideas and want to apply them in the small scale they are being offered for.  It helps me to dream about the expansion of my little stall barn into other things...

xmpl... using chickens to keep the bugs down on the estate.

I could use them but they would also supply us with eggs, we eat on average an egg and a half a day! It's an average.  Jerry eats ONE egg a day,every day for breakfast.   I eat several if I eat any!

This magazine is only ... like the last published only every season.  I miss having it more and maybe it will grow as time and companies allow! 

So the third mag I get... is Hobby farm HOME...Hobby farm home info...

This one is an in between magazine for me. It gives me ideas, helps with out of the box management of the estate.   BUT it gives me wonderful ideas of how to make money out of my house, or save money within my house, or how to live a little more simple life.

Don't get me wrong I enjoy the finer things in life, but going to a museum, or seeing things displayed beautifully is more rewarding to me than having to keep them clean, make sure nothing happens to them.

I live in a world... that if I am not going to use it, it needs to go!  This applies to everything from closes to fine china.  If it has no purpose, it has no place in my life.  (I will have to post my packing routines soon, as a few have asked of late.)  Although my life of fewer things is more like the rest of the world as apposed to the aggressive practices of most US citizens...
Although taking or saving less physically is starting to become more the practice of more U.S. Citizens each year. 

Personally I am not concerned with the entire world, I am simply trying to do what I can to stand on my own two feet if I need to...AND doing all I do physically is better for ME than paying for a gym membership I would never drive into town to use!  I'd love to have a membership to the Y but ? would I ever get up and go?  probably not.  So why spend the extra money when that money can go into creating a place cheaper for my horses, and then start to support me more than me it!    It's just a dream but... I'm on my way.