LAGOM - December 2023
Fresh noodles, vegan buttercream, garments styling and organisations to support
Hello, hello!
We can’t believe it is already the end of the year! This month presents a formula for dressing for the warmer months, how to style ten garments creating seven outfits that will make your transitional dressing feel interesting. We acknowledge that 2023 was challenging for many, and as such, we’re also sharing non-profits and grassroots organisations that require our continued support. And we have two new recipes for you—a vegan buttercream plus a fresh noodle salad with spicy peanut sauce, an early summer recipe that is almost ready in two minutes.
As we look back on the year and towards the new one ahead, we take this transition as an opportunity to recommit ourselves to health and happiness. We started our publication to empower people to be more diligent and considerate about consumption, waste, and the many actions contributing to our climate crisis. In this world of rapid consumerism and obliviousness toward our impact on the planet, now is a good reminder to ask ourselves, "What is my role in this?"
Time moves quickly, and we must embrace moments as much as possible. With that said, what we want to bring into 2024 is the ability to keep moving forward no matter the situation. To keep showing up for our community and ourselves. For those we care about and things that matter. When we clear space for what puts us in our purpose, we are magnets for success. So, 2024, we're all in. We are committed to aligning with our greater purpose and only doing things that give us great pleasure and that we're deeply passionate about.
Thank you for showing up.
What will you let in and leave behind in 2024?
Noodle salad with peanut sauce
To align with the slowdown pace of the summer season, it's nice to have recipes that use intuition over instruction. As such, to spark inspiration, we are sharing this simple noodle salad, which relies heavily on a spicy peanut sauce, cellular hydrating cucumbers and herbs that deliver punched-up flavour.
How to style your closet, Spring edition
Being well-dressed is subjective, as anything related to personal taste. There are many variables, and in the quest to cut down our clothes consumption by shopping our wardrobe, we all need inspiration. This Spring edition of Style Your Closet will help you find an outfit for each day of the week using only ten garments. And the piece is also loaded with ideas on how to curate your style and lots of styling tips to make it easy and low-cost for you to dress with style anytime.
Vegan buttercream
For the holidays, we baked a Caker Lemon Strawberry Poppy Seed Cake Kit, and in place of the glaze, we made buttercream. The buttercream is delicious and is prepared at the moment of clearing the table. Uncomplicated. We love that we now have a new way to indulge for all future celebrations. Enjoy!
The season of giving
We will never say it enough—many causes require our attention, even more, given the recent government budget cuts here in Aotearoa. We have listed some organisations to support, mainly locally. This list is obviously non-exhaustive.
Social advocacy: Papatūānuku Kōkiri Marae, For The Love of Bees, Kelmarna Garden, La Via Campesina, NZ Palestine support fund, Object Space Art Gallery, Artists Make Auckland by D.A.M.N.
People in hardship: Auckland City Mission, Salvation Army, Sunday Blessings, Fair Food, Kiwi Harvest, Koha Apparel.
Conservation & Wildlife: Forest and Birds, Aotearoa Department of Conservation, Virunga National Park, Lion Recovery Fund, Green Peace, Sea Shepherd, Leonardo Dicaprio Foundation
The Good Registry also has a lot of other organisations in need of support.
Amandine's edit
In late November, Benoit and I went to the Mana Moana concert in Auckland by the Signature Choir Wellington and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, with Tofiga Fepulea'I as the MC for the evening. The music and songs were fabulous, celebrating the musical repertoire of the Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Samoa, Tokelau and Tonga—curated by Fepulea'i Helen Tupa'i, music director of Signature, in partnership with the Wellington's Pasifika communities and orchestrated by Thomas Goss. It was one of the best concerts I've attended, and it gives me chills to think about it again. Like, when the (almost) 7000 people audience from the Pasifika community started singing with the choir, lighting the arena, it was magic. If you missed the night, you can relive some of these moments on the Signature Choir's Instagram and enjoy all the songs through your favourite music platform.
I've recently discovered Neal.fun, a collection of websites created by 25-year-old Neal Agarwal, started when he was a teenager learning to code. It's fascinating. Each website is a web experiment with multiple goals—testing data, educating people and making the internet fun. Paper will teach you the equivalent thickness of various pieces of paper. Space Elevator travels through the Earth's sky. Or the Internet Artifacts, launched recently, an online museum browsing the internet history chronologically. Neal.fun is entertaining and relaxing!
Do you wonder sometimes if a zombie apocalypse could happen, and if so, how would you react? I've had this thought on and off since watching my brother playing Resident Evil and Silent Hill as a teenager or watching The Walking Dead, The Strain and more recently, The Last of Us. Apparently, I am not alone. The Centers for Disease and the military in the US did think about it at some point, as they, respectively, published a guideline and conducted a simulation based on a zombie apocalypse. Slates tells us more about the subject and dives deeper into how our communities could be zombie resilient. An excellent holiday read. Also, it's good to be prepared.
Trace's edit
I missed this piece published by The New York Times earlier this year, but I am pleased to have stumbled across it. 'Corporate Landscaping Lets Down Its Hair' discusses how state regulations and certifying programs such as the U.S. Green Building Council's SITES are popularising native planting. It is a fantastic (and brief) read that encompasses the drivers and shares perspectives of those keen to shift perceptions of how we define what it means to take care of our private and public landscapes.
Atmos Culture Director Daphne Chouliaraki Milner recently investigated the truth behind take-back schemes, which I digested last week. 'Why One H&M Skirt Traveled 15,000 Miles After It Was Brought Back to the Store' illustrates why we urgently need stricter controls on waste that will result in less production. This article will serve you well as someone who wears clothes and should, therefore, be engaged in such issues.
I had forgotten about ROCC, but I am sharing it with you now. Toothpaste, we all need it. But the tubes are problematic, and the ingredients are falling short of what we would consider appropriate for dental care. Even controversial. ROCC has biodegradable tubes, and this same ethos is applied to sourcing natural ingredients. They also include B12. People love it. If you are located within Australia, there are many stockists, including Coles, and for those of us in the rest of the world, we have options. There is this video where they took the Yuka App challenge and scanned other toothpaste brands, and it is definitely worth a watch.
Thoughts, questions, you can always direct reply to these emails.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Tracey Creed & Amandine Paniagua
