This time, a Rave

I am generally reluctant to cop to my love/hate/fascination/repulsion relationship to Martha Stewart in mixed company. Partly because she's fallen from her pedestal as the Domestic Goddess of upwardly mobile America and become more of a character and a brand than a creative maven. And partly because she's kind of anathema to my newly sprouted "Less is More" shifting. But I gotta love her for reuniting people to their glue guns and inspiring millions to try DIY. Even when the project is so ridiculous you have to use her name as a verb to describe it. As in, "Oh my gosh, my roommate is a total Bridezilla. She is expecting us to Martha Stewart 300 handmade escort cards with embossed butterflies and paper-cut flowers for her reception."

Anyway, all that to say, I too have replaced aspirations of Martha Stewart-style LIVING with dreams of simplicity, gentleness, and far less stuff  (hand-made or otherwise). So I was skeptical of her revamped "Whole Living" magazine (formerly "Body and Soul"). But, the covers were pretty and I had cancelled all my other magazine subscriptions this year in a bout of frugality and waste-reduction. And I missed them. So when an email promo told me I could get one year of Whole Living for $10, I bit the bullet and subscribed. Because blogs are great and reducing waste is super, but man, I love me some magazines. Real paper magazines, with pretty pictures and pages that fold over at the corners.

I've gotten three issues so far, and I have to tell you that I've dog-eared so many pages, the designation has become rather pointless. Especially the issue I received yesterday. Seriously. I'd tell you to go out and buy it/borrow it/steal it from your acupuncturist's waiting room, but if you did, I would have far fewer interesting blog posts to write because Whole Living stole at least 7 of my blog post ideas in one stinkin' issue. I guess that makes my job easier, because they've been kind enough to do the research for me. So now I don't have to look up each cow milk substitute one by one to see the calorie, fat and protein content OR look for recommendations of how to use each. They put it all into one handy table. Which I now have to decide if I will plagiarize and/or how to properly site the info on the blog. This issue gave a how-to for indoor composting, using avocados as moisturizers, and making the transition towards veg or vegan. All that info for less than a dollar AND a zillion beautiful pictures to tear out for my cheesy vision board? WIN!

The only real caveat I see of the magazine is that you have to read it with the fact that they ARE trying to sell you stuff very present in your mind. And remember to cross-check every product they recommend with the Good Guide and Skin Deep rather than relying on the biases and preferences of Ms. Stewart's marketing people. If you can wade through the BUY ME! mulch nestled in between all that great general information, it's a fun and useful read.

Of course, I should say that I am in no way compensated for this or any of my product reviews, and no one is sending me anything for free (I WISH they were, but alas). So these ramblings are purely a product of my opinion and experience. Your results may vary.