Category Archives: Personal

Tattoo Tour: Dead Cute (5)

Posted on March 18, 2025 by Thistle

When I closed The Zen Leaf in 2023, I had four tattoos. There were the original two I got back in 2013/2014, the second of which was such a bad experience that it took me nine years to try again. … Continue reading →

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whoops…

Posted on February 20, 2025 by Thistle

Hmm, so there’s this thing where I said hello, then never wrote again… I do have reasons! First, it was because WordPress went crazy for a bit and tried to take away the old editor from me, and I despise … Continue reading →

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Goals 2025

Posted on January 1, 2025 by Thistle

**Note: I’m doing some blog maintenance. This is a backdated post (I don’t know if it’ll go into anyone’s feed readers – you can ignore it if so!). I’ve moved my goals info from my primary Goals Page to this … Continue reading →

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Happy New Year!

Posted on January 1, 2025 by Thistle

Hello! What am I doing here, you ask? Well, I was going through the end of 2024, looking over everything, and I got annoyed because I couldn’t remember most of the books I’d read this year or the latter part … Continue reading →

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End

Posted on August 14, 2023 by Thistle

My first official blog post was 15.5 years ago on 2/14/08. My first official post at this URL after some blog shuffling, when I was resurrecting The Zen Leaf, was nine years ago today, on 8/14/14. I’m still honestly not … Continue reading →

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Kittens and KonMari

Posted on August 7, 2023 by Thistle

L and I were meant to leave on our roadtrip yesterday, but we canceled. 1) The weather was alternating between excruciating high temps and severe thunderstorms for the entire week of travel and being outdoors, and that didn’t sound like … Continue reading →

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July 2023 in Review

Posted on August 2, 2023 by Thistle

July was a really hard month. We lost a family friend to ALS right at the beginning. We almost lost a foster kitten. Our a/c failed during one of the worst heat waves we’ve seen in a very long time … Continue reading →

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Sunday Coffee – The Summer Blahs

Posted on July 30, 2023 by Thistle

Back in the early days of blogging, when I was paying attention to views and comments and reader engagement, I noticed a few times each year when statistics would fall across the board. Some of those drops made sense – … Continue reading →

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because some tattoos are just silly

Posted on July 28, 2023 by Thistle

I waited so long after my last horrific tattoo experience in 2014 to finally get the one I got last month. It was like a dam burst. All these ideas that I’d had swimming in the back of my mind … Continue reading →

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Photoshoot: Engagement

Posted on July 21, 2023 by Thistle

Recently I had the honor and pleasure to take engagement photos for a beautiful couple. Julie happens to be one of my oldest friends, having met all the way back to when we were ten-ish. She and her fiancé, Carlos, … Continue reading →

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