2023 Creepy Cat Calendar Club Secret Page
Hello, and welcome to our official 2023 Creepy Cat Calendar 'Secret Page'! You can use the form at the bottom of this page to contact me (Anastasia) at any time. I am genuinely thrilled to be able to share the next 12 months with all of you through our very special Calendar Club.
Please know that I am so glad you are here. You are loved, friends!
March 2023 Video and Message:
Hello Creepy Cat Calendar Club! I hope you're having an AMAZING start to March.
I have so many things that I feel incredibly grateful for and excited about right now - and I hope you do too. And if not, that's ok too. You are exactly where you need to be.
And while I'm on that note... let's take a little step backwards, shall we? Let's travel to the not too distant past where I was working 10-12 hours per day as a railroad police officer. I was miserable, exposed to regular trauma, I hated my schedule, and I spent the majority of my time complaining about my problems completely unconsciously. Not realizing that the more I complained about everything that was 'wrong' with my life - I was literally hitting the REPEAT button on everything I didn't want.
This is a bitter pill to swallow, friends - but once you do... it changes your life, forever. I always pushed off peace... "I'll be happy once I have a different job, etc..." I didn't realize that in order to have peace in my life ... I had to create it, EXACTLY WHERE I WAS. One of my favorite sayings is... "Wherever you go, there you are."
The day I started a regular meditation practice was the day that my life began to change for the better. With even 1-2 minutes per day of simply sitting and finding peace in my heart (independent of what was going on in my life situation or in my chaotic mind), I watched as my entire life shifted to allow for more peace. One tiny little change led to another... which opened the door for new ideas... new opportunities... new inspiration... more peace... more happiness... and more love. It starts small, but it grows. Love and peace are like the most beautiful seeds - and when they are watered regularly, they WILL grow and bloom into the most beautiful things.
To this day, I know and believe in my heart that Kula Cloth was born because I decided to stop and turn inward for 1-2 minutes per day. Now, my morning routine is much longer and more involved and usually involves 15-30 minutes of meditation - but it is without a doubt, THE MOST important part of my day.
Ok, all of that to say - I love you DEARLY friends, and I truly hope that our small Calendar Club inspires you to look within yourself at all of the infinite beauty that lives there. It's beyond anything you can ever imagine, and you are totally capable of creating absolutely ANYTHING you can dream of!
Ok, now on to the fun stuff... here's what I'm LOVING in March so far.
BOOKS: Probably one of the best books I've read in AGES is this one...
My husband and I have been listening to the Audiobook each morning on our walks together - we are nearly through the entire book and we've also been doing the accompanying meditations. To say that this book is life changing is an understatement. It takes a lot of 'woo' concepts and breaks them down in a very scientific way - so this book is PERFECT for somebody who might not resonate with the 'woo' language. I've had so much more self-awareness around my own 'unconscious' thought patterns through reading this book - and I'm REALLY EXCITED about some of the things that I'm creating right now as a result of the visualizations that he recommends. His next book is called 'Becoming Supernatural', and I'm very excited to read that book too.
Food: My favorite recipe this month
This month, I made this Thai Peanut Zucchini Bowl from Paleomg and it's DELICIOUS. I did substitute rice noodles for the zucchini and I added a ton of veggies and pretty much doubled the sauce. You could also add in meat or tofu - or whatever you want! It's SO SO good, comforting and delicious. I also used PB2 power and/or real peanut butter (instead of sunflower seed butter), because it was what I had on hand.
Truffle of the month:
So, my assistant Sheraden bought me a silicone truffle mold and I've been making bon bons for the past few months. I recently 'invented' a new ganache that I'm REALLY loving. If you have a silicone mold for chocolate, just melt white chocolate (they make melting wafers that don't need to be tempered like normal chocolate) and fill your molds with a thin layer of the white chocolate and put in freezer to cool.
Then make the ganache:
Bring to a boil: a little bit of heavy cream or half and half, a splash of vanilla and a splash of maple syrup
Slowly the scalding liquid over a small bowl of butterscotch chips (enough to make the filling for as many bon bons as you have... but you can save the extras too).
Add some quick oats (I like picky oats trail mix flavor) and pecan dust (just crush the pecans to a dust). Pour as little as possible until the chips melt and you can stir into a relatively thick syrup. Put it in the fridge to let it cool. If it isn't thick, you'll need to add more chocolate and/or try microwaving it in 20 second increments to thicken it.
Take the silicone mold out of the freezer and fill with ganache. Put back in the freezer to let the ganache cool. Then pull out and paint the bottom of the chocolate molds with more white chocolate to 'enclose' your ganache in the white chocolate shell.
Freeze or put in fridge to cool. It's SO SO good!! I hope you love it as much as I do.
Music I'm loving right now:
This was our playlist for day 1 of the Dance Experiment, and it's a pretty special list of fun songs that I hope you love as much as I do!
A meditation that I am enjoying right now:
Lately, it's been all about the Solfeggio Tones for me! Solfeggio Tones are a very specific group of frequencies based on a 6-tone scale. You can read more about them here: https://www.mindvibrations.com/solfeggio-frequencies/
My personal practice is to listen to an album of Soleggio Tones and either focus on my breathing in a meditation and/or do a visualization of something that I am working on cultivating in my life while the solfeggio tones are playing in the background. I've found this really powerful and I've had some pretty beautiful experiences while doing this - so I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
This particular frequency is really nice, but there are many that you can try:
Finally - I did a TERRIBLE job at being on the Geneva app (scroll down to February's message if you don't know what I'm talking about) last month - HA! So my resolution for March is to get that up and running and to be more consistent with it - so watch for me to 'appear' there in a day or two. Otherwise - I've been having fun doing things like designing t-shirts, dancing, going to antique stores looking for miniature spoons, planning our next KAT events, running a business, spending time with my husband and really just trying to truly enjoy each and every moment. Life is such a gift and I want to live my life as a giant smile - because this day IS the gift. This is it!! There isn't any time in the future that will be more special - this IS the special time. It took me a lot of decades to realize that - but now that I have, I've made it my life's mission to share that with others. It seems so simple - and yet it eluded me for most of my life - and I feel so incredibly grateful to be here ... and to be able to share some of my own journey with you - and I'm looking forward to learning more about each of you and what matters to you in your life too.
Never hesitate to reach out and contact me - and please know how much you are loved - and I really do mean that. There is nothing more important to me than bringing kindness, care and compassion to others - so please know that my words are as heartfelt as anything I've ever said - including, 'I love Chocolate Chip Cookies' ... so you KNOW it's the truth.
Sending you all love and looking forward to seeing you in April!
Love,
Anastasia
February 2023 Video and Message:
Hello Kula friends, and WELCOME, WELCOME to our February Creepy Cat Calendar Club.
Ok - first thing's first... I started something new-ish and I want to see what you think... it's a website/app called Geneva, that will allow us to chat, discuss and, in general, connect with other Creepy Cat Calendar folks. There are a bunch of really cool humans out there who are a part of this club - and I thought it would be fun to bring us ALL together. Here is the link to join - I'm not super 'on it' with the app yet - so be patient with me, but let's test it out and you can get early access to it if it ends up being something that I want to incorporate into our Kula Community. Or, we can keep it a secret - ha!
Here is the link to join: https://links.geneva.com/invite/243832ae-cb8a-456f-bb71-453e7c8d793a
Ok, so HOW did your month go and what are you excited about for February?!
Please feel free to use the 'contact' form below (or the Geneva app - I'm adding a forum post including my list below about February intentions!) to let me know what YOU are excited about!!
Here's my list:
- I hope we get some good weather because I want to ride my motorcycle, but even if we don't get good weather - I'm excited to plan some little trips. My husband and I used to go on 'big' vacations every year, but recently we've both been feeling really content about staying home and planning small little adventures together. It's exciting to try new things!
- I'm excited about a few new products that I'm designing. I LOVE LOVE LOVE being in the creative flow and having ideas and there is nothing that excites me more than watching something come to life. It is invigorating and thrilling for me - and I'm so excited to test prototypes and to get creative about things that feel fun to me.
- I am excited to spend time being present and relaxing. I ran on 465789 cylinders for a long time and I was always 'BUSY' and always 'needing' to do something - even recreating was pretty much overboard for me. Lately, I have just enjoyed having quiet weekends and spending time with my husband. I love our little morning routines and I love making pizza on the weekends and baking cookies. The more and more I tune into the feeling of abundance in my life - the more and more I notice that I already have all of it.
- This is totally random, but my husband and I decided to buy a metal detector to try metal detecting. Have you ever done it? We never have and it sounded fun - so we bought one and we are really excited to try it out - stay tuned because I will let you know how it goes.
Other fun stuff for February:
A few other things that I want to share with you - lately I have become totally obsessed (in a good way) with a musical ensemble called Beautiful Chorus. They are COMPLETELY INCREDIBLE and their songs are short and more like mantras that you can sing along with. I listen to their album 'Now' on repeat - and I sing along with it while I'm doing my morning walks at 4am. I'm going to include that album below for you to listen to - but ALL of their music is absolutely incredible. I hope you love it as much as I do.
Food that I'm having fun making:
Most of you probably know that I have a little it of a chocolate obsession - and lately I've been experimenting with making my own truffles and bon bons. My favorite recipes are these Snickerdoodle Truffles and these Oatmeal Raisin Truffles. They are SO GOOD and easy to make. I've even modified them and made my own lemon poppyseed truffles with white chocolate filling and peanut butter and white chocolate chip truffles. If you try them - let me know!
Books I'm reading:
I'm reading Return to Love for the 2nd time with our Kula Book Club - and it's even better the second time around. It's a pretty deep book that talks about deep things and really encourages us to practice forgiveness for our own sense of peace and wellbeing. One of my favorite quotes from the book in the 'Work' chapter:
"I don't want to do it because I can't make a living doing it," is a very weak beam to send into the universe.... Some things you do for no other reason than because they're the right thing to do. "I'll do this because it serves, even if I'm not paid," is a very high beam. It says to the universe that you must be very serious. And when you get serious about the universe, the universe gets serious about you."
I also just got another book that was recommended to me by my friend Rose called, "Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself" by Joe Dispenza. Have any of you read it? It seems really interesting - but I haven't even started it - so stay tuned and I will have to update all of you on how it goes.
And that's all folks...
Thank you all SO MUCH for being a part of our Creepy Cat Calendar Club. I am SO TRULY grateful for all of you. A few of you have written messages to me telling me how much you enjoy the creepy cat club - and I've even heard that a few of you are joining along to my 'mini dance breaks' - so I really hope you are enjoying it as much as I do. I'm already planning my March video and I think it's going to be a fun one. As always, please reach out anytime - have a beautiful February and be well. You are loved, friends!
Love,
Anastasia
January 2023 Video and Message:
Hello to my dearest Calendar Club members! This is Anastasia here - I'm the founder of Kula Cloth and I am *really* looking forward to hosting this Calendar Club for the next 12 months with all of you. As somebody who is always working on living in the present moment, it isn't lost on me that a calendar club seems like a conundrum... but bear with me. Within the framework of the year - we are going to actively find ways to practice being more present - so that we can really discover a deeper connection with ourselves and find more peace, abundance, stillness and joy in our lives.
I want you to know that there is nothing wrong with you. Resolutions are not bad - but there is absolutely nothing about you that needs to be fixed. You are the way you are ... you've done the things you've done... because it was how you needed to be and what you needed to do in order to do your best. And that's what you are doing - your best. You are whole and perfect - and if you are feeling 'stuck' in your life right now, I want you to know that's ok too. Wherever you are - no matter what that looks like - just know that there is no right or wrong way to be. You don't need to have any of this all figured out (I don't). You don't need to know what you want to do with the next year - you don't even need to have specific goals.
Do I have any 'goals' for 2023? Honestly, my goal is and always will be this, "I am open to the infinite possibilities in every moment." And that's it. I don't want to say that specific results will make me more successful or better than I am now - because that pushes off my wholeness to a later date when things are 'better' than they are now.
Eckhart Tolle says that the foundation for all abundance is gratitude for exactly where you are right now - so it is my greatest hope that we can all use this calendar and our little calendar club to cultivate gratitude NOW and trust and know that as we cultivate the powerful feeling of gratitude NOW, we are ultimately attracting MORE things that match that frequency into our lives. Another one of my favorite speakers, Abraham Hicks says, "The better it gets, the better it gets."
So, with that in mind - I am going to share a few things that I really love that I'm excited about. The absolutely MOST IMPORTANT THING that I prioritize every single day is the energy that I create within myself - that's it. It is far more important than any 'business decision' I will ever make. Keep in mind that wherever you are right now is fine - and that is where you will start. The process of shifting yourself into a place of gratitude must be gentle - it doesn't happen overnight because our beautiful brains have been trained and programmed for so long to look at what ISN'T right. Believe me - I was there. I saw a very different world for the first 30+ years of my life.
So, here are a few fun things that I want to tell you about as we move into 2023 and things that I'm excited about. These might seem random, but I hope you love them and that they bring you joy in some way. If you have anything you want to share with ME in return, please use the contact form below to do so - I promise I will respond to every message!
Things that I love to eat:
Ok, so this recipe was given to me by my mom (and she inherited it from a neighbor) - this is literally the photograph of the original recipe that she's been using for most of my life. It is a sweet potato souffle unlike any other that you will ever try. It is NOT the sickening sweet potato dish with marshmallows. It is grown up sweet potato delight that will knock your socks off. Note: I use about 1/2 of the amount of sugar recommended in the recipe and I use all purpose flour if I don't have self-rising flour and it works just fine! It does not need to be a holiday to make this - just try it and let me know what you think - you may never recover.
Music I'm listening to right now:
I'm going to share with all of you my never-before-shared DANCE EXPERIMENT STORAGE playlist! This is the playlist where I stockpile every song that I randomly find that I want to dance to in our Kula Dance Experiment. Some of them will eventually make it into a virtual dance party, but others just sit on the playlist - waiting to be remembered. It's a pretty lengthy playlist that I've been slowly compiling over the past year, and I hope it gives you new inspiration to get up and DANCE!
A meditation that I really love right now:
I've discovered a meditation teacher named Tramaine Cato that I really love. This meditation by Tramaine is a BEAUTIFUL Loving Kindness meditation that I've repeated many times. It really cultivates a sense of true compassion for ourselves and for others. You can find the mediation here:
Other random things that I'm really excited about right now:
Recently, I started a personal project of taking photographs of sunrises and then painting them and writing poems to go along with the paintings - I'm really excited about that little project. It's cathartic to sit down and paint as often as I am able to do so.
Another thing that I'm really excited about is taking small trips with my husband on our motorcycles. I used to LIVE for vacations - I was always planning the next big trip to 'get away' somewhere - and it's been a really strange experience for me, but the past two years have been very different... that sense of needing to 'get away' really isn't there anymore. I love being home, I really love my 'job' and I love spending time with my husband and our 3 cats. While my brain wants to tell me that I need to be constantly 'doing stuff' - my heart has really wanted me to focus more on 'being' and more on enjoying exactly where I am. Big, elaborate vacations haven't felt as necessary anymore - but my husband and I both recently got motorcycles and we are really excited to take little trips on our motorcycles in Washington. We have a plan to ride the Cascade Loop and to circumnavigate the Olympic Peninsula.
Me, on my motorcycle (and yes, I always have a Kula on my backpack... I have to pin it down with safety pins so that it doesn't flap all over the place while I'm riding - ha!).
Tell me what YOU are excited about!
You can write down the things you are excited about in the 'Dream Portal' of your calendar... or you can send me a message and tell me about them - I would love to hear about the things that bring you joy.
Please know that I am truly looking forward to spending this entire year sharing videos and love with all of you. I will be posting a new video to this page every single month - and if there is a specific topic that you want to see, just let me know - I'm happy to answer questions or share any resources or personal experiences that will help you out on your own journey. We are ALL truly in this together - and we are all so connected. Please know that you are loved very much and that I am so grateful for your presence here and I'm grateful every day for your support of Kula - it means more than I could EVER possibly describe.
Happy New Year, friends.
Love,
Anastasia