Looking for the simplest Waldorf kite paper star pattern? You’ve found it! Anyone can make a beautiful sun catcher for their window out of translucent paper. This pattern gives young children the delight of creating their own decoration, while practicing fine motor skills. Please note though – it may be a bit tricky for kids […]

The post The Simplest Waldorf Star Pattern – Beautiful and Easy Decoration appeared first on Joyful Abode.

Are you ready to make some kite paper stars? Here’s the tutorial you need – a simple, step-by-step breakdown of this classic craft, so you can follow along with no confusion. At the end of this project, you’ll have a beautiful paper star you can hang in your window as a sun catcher. Try making […]

The post How to Make Kite Paper Stars – Simple Tutorial for a Classic Craft appeared first on Joyful Abode.

Have you ever had a personal word of the year before? Did you choose the word? Or did a word choose you? I don’t choose my word of the year. It comes to me, generally in December or January, and sometimes it surprises me. It’s something that’s been happening for me for the last seven […]

The post My Personal Word of the Year (And How to Find Your Perfect One) appeared first on Joyful Abode.

This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through an affiliate link, the site author may receive a small commission. The mini kitchen remodel reveal Have you been on the edge of your seat, wondering how my DIY mini kitchen remodel turned out? Well, here we go! We didn’t do a full […]

The post Mini Kitchen Remodel – Bright & Airy AFTER (You’ll love it!) appeared first on Joyful Abode.

Here's your ultimate guide to declutter kids' clothes and keep the clutter from coming back! A whole new way of thinking about kids' wardrobes.

The post How to Declutter and Simplify Kids’ Clothes – The Ultimate Guide appeared first on Joyful Abode.

Getting organized is always one of the most popular New Years resolutions every year – not surprisingly. And you need. To. Do it. This year. Why? It’s not just because being organized for organization’s sake is a good thing (It’s not good or bad – it’s morally neutral). You NEED to stop procrastinating and finally […]

The post 8 Reasons You NEED to Get Organized This Year appeared first on Joyful Abode.

A travel guide for moms who are traveling alone. It can be hard to find time to do things for yourself when you have young kids at home, so why not take advantage of the opportunity to travel without them? Here are some great ideas for your next solo momcation.

The post 9 Tips for Your Best Momcation – How to Maximize your Relaxation appeared first on Joyful Abode.

By Leo Babauta Something that has long been a struggle for me is when people complain a lot — I really don’t love the negative energy, and I tend to turn away from people who are complaining. So I’ve been examining this in recent years … and I’ve been learning a lot about myself. The […]

The post Transforming Our Complaints into Something Generative appeared first on zen habits.

By Leo Babauta I talk to dozens of people every month — Zen Habits readers, coaching clients and Fearless Living Academy members — who struggle with a feeling of overwhelm from all of the things on their plates. Overwhelm from tasks, messages, and more is completely normal. It’s based on a fear that we can’t […]

The post Transforming Overwhelm into a Creative, Productive Energy appeared first on zen habits.

By Leo Babauta Let’s imagine that there’s a big task you’ve been avoiding for weeks (or maybe a bunch of them!) … it just becomes this ball of dread that you don’t want to think about, but that you feel really bad that you’ve been putting off. Sound familiar? Everyone has something like this, whether […]

The post Turning Towards a Task You’ve Been Avoiding for Weeks appeared first on zen habits.

By Leo Babauta Most of our stresses and frustrations come from our unwillingness to let go. Hear me out: think about something you’re stressing about, or someone you’re frustrated about. What thought do you have about that person or situation that causes the frustration? It’s often an invisible thought, that we don’t realize we have, […]

The post The Practice of Letting Go appeared first on zen habits.

By Leo Babauta There’s a practice that I find to be really valuable, and I call it “Examining Beliefs.” If you regularly engage with this, it will transform you. Let’s say there’s something you want to do but you feel stuck — maybe you’re procrastinating a lot, maybe you’re stuck in an old habit. The […]

The post The Practice of Examining Our Beliefs appeared first on zen habits.

By Leo Babauta Each day, I try to get outside for a walk or run (or other sport like cycling or basketball), and my debate with myself is often whether to bring my phone and earbuds to listen to music, a podcast, an audiobook … or to go tech-free. Tech-free is my favorite option — and […]

The post What Happens When You Walk or Run Daily, Without Tech appeared first on zen habits.

By Leo Babauta Sometimes we decide not to do something because it feels like there’s not enough time to do the task — it will take me 2 hours to work on that task, and I only have 20 minutes, so why bother starting? We do this kind of thing more than we realize — […]

The post There’s Not Enough Time appeared first on zen habits.

By Leo Babauta Last year, I turned 50 years old … and I found myself thinking about aging more than I ever had before. To be clear, 50 years old is still pretty young, but there’s something about the number that had me realizing that my 60s and 70s aren’t very far away, and it […]

The post Overcoming the Fear of Aging appeared first on zen habits.

By Leo Babauta I believe in finding powerful practices for transformation wherever we can find them. And the Stoic philosophers Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca are huge inspirations for me. I’ve found there to be a huge overlap between Stoicism and Zen Buddhism, even if there are also some key differences. The overlap between Zen & […]

The post 5 Stoic & Zen Practices That I Believe In appeared first on zen habits.

In this episode, Frak, John, and Melissa do what they had not yet done together as hosts and friends: discuss and unpack J.K. Rowling's harmful rhetoric regarding transgender people. We strongly encourage you to listen to 15.2: Sorting It Out, the episode we released right after her tweet in December, for information and facts on why what she is doing is so difficult to parse. 

Here is a link to the twitter thread we referenced debunking JKR’s statements:

https://twitter.com/carter_andrewj/status/1270787941275762689?s=21

We also touch on the future of the show, and the state of things in the pool. (You'll get it when you listen.)  PotterCast is hoping to recommit to what it did much more in the early days when we didn't all have other jobs: highlighting a wider expanse of fandom, creation, and fun. We appreciate your patience!

In the Drums(tm) we detail our latest videogaming habits!

Join our patreon! http://patreon.com/pottercast - Now, you can also join our Discord community there!

When your 2020 wrapped congratulates you on all four episodes of content you produced this year, it must be PotterCast!

Welcome to season 16, in which we are, we swear, on the edge of actually producing this thing at a normal clip. See how it's going to start to work in this episode in which we introduce a few new segments — a bit of opening chatter (including an IN-Depp conversation as Frankie puts it) with your gang, then two new segments: POTTER PONDERINGS (in this episode, we wonder what it takes to make a Hufflepuff go dark) and HEY NETFLIX (in which we pitch spinoff shows about the Potter universe — today, what would we want from a show about the Ministry of Magic?). Then join us to chat in the drums as usual!

~*~

Here are ways to support the show!
Join our patreon! patreon.com/pottercast - Now, you can also join our Discord community there!

You can also buy PotterCast-related merch at mischiefmerch.com!

The internet went crazy today when a rumor seemed to break through about the always-destined Harry Potter television show — specifically that while no series is actually in the works, WB is now officially shopping for writers and pitches for an HBO Max event. We did a quick-and-dirty reaction pod with our three hosts and our good friend Proma Khosla, a longtime LeakyCon staffer and Mashable entertainment reporter, to break down the news, what it means for the franchise, and what the fandom does now. 

Basically, we decided the fandom just needs to get a trillion dollars together and buy the franchise from JKR. 

You can follow Proma on Twitter at @promawhatup  and read her Mashable articles here!

~*~

Don't forget to follow us on @pottercast on Twitter and @pottercastpod on Instagram!

Join our patreon! patreon.com/pottercast - Now, you can also join our Discord community there!

You can also buy PotterCast-related merch at mischiefmerch.com!

Woo hoo it's PotterCast time and it hasn't even been six months! This week, we are talking about what a TV series starring Arthur and Molly would look like, and pondering what you would or should do if you were to wake up as 11 year-old Harry with all seven books' knowledge in your head. Trippy. 

We are still going through all your amazing emails for guest hosting and will be reaching out to people soon! Please also welcome our new editor, Christine Peruski! It's her first time, y'all, and she did a great job!

~*~

This episode's sponsor is LootCrate! Use THIS LINK (http://multitude.productions/lootcrate) and the code POTTERCAST for a 15% discount on your first box!

Don't forget to follow us on @pottercast on Twitter and @pottercastpod on Instagram!

Join our patreon! patreon.com/pottercast - Now, you can also join our Discord community there!

You can also buy PotterCast-related merch at mischiefmerch.com!

This episode was produced by Christine Peruski and Melissa Anelli. Hosts Melissa Anelli, Frank Franco, and John Noe. PotterCast is (c) PotterCast 2005-2021.

Happy 2022 and welcome to season 17! This one was recorded a little bit ago, when we got the title of the next Potter movie, but it's chock full of theories and ideas about what could be coming in the third movie. More soon!

We are still going through your emails for guest hosts! Also, we are still looking for editors so if that's you email us at staff@pottercast.com!

Don't forget to follow us on @pottercast on Twitter and @pottercastpod on Instagram!

Join our patreon! patreon.com/pottercast - Now, you can also join our Discord community there!

You can also buy PotterCast-related merch at mischiefmerch.com!

This episode was produced by Christine Peruski. Hosts Melissa Anelli, Frank Franco, and John Noe. PotterCast is (c) PotterCast 2005-2021.

We haven't seen it yet, but we've seen all the trailers and we have THOUGHTS. John, Frak, and Melissa discuss the "Fantastic Beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore" revelations — like the fact that it's almost certainly the last one.

~*~

Don't forget to follow us on @pottercast on Twitter and @pottercastpod on Instagram!

Join our patreon! patreon.com/pottercast - Now, you can also join our Discord community there!

You can also buy PotterCast-related merch at mischiefmerch.com!

This episode was produced by Melissa Anelli. Hosts Melissa Anelli, Frank Franco, and John Noe. PotterCast is (c) PotterCast 2005-2022.

WARNING: Volume. RIP headphone users.

Steph Caskenette made these awesome illustrations.

What even is this planet that we live on anymore though?

It turns out that there's a VERY fine line between Donald Trump and the Futurama character Zapp Brannigan. Memes with Zapp's image and Trumps tweets started circulating the internet and they caught the attention of Billy West, the voice actor who plays Zapp Brannigan on Futurama. The recordings he made are out of this world.

Do you use Google Chrome? Do you want to look at pictures of kittens instead of Donald Trump? Install this! It doesn't work on every news site, but it's still pretty darn great. PS - If you already have the extension installed and you're trying to look at these examples, they'll all be replaced with kittens. It's magic!

It's every cat's greatest dream to finally catch that red dot. And sometimes they do (meaning we get tired of holding down the laser and pointing). 

There's plenty more fun with pets and animals over at Animal Captions!

Here's a nice, heart-warming moment to help restore your faith in humanity.

At IWA Midsouth's "Big Ass Christmas Bash" last week in Indiana, wrestler Ace Perry had a surprise for his number one fan Amanda.

The high school junior who has autism, has been to every one of his matches and has even reached out to him on Facebook.

So when he asked her if she would go to prom with him, she was – of course – ecstatic.