017: No-buy, Impressionism, and Soviet bus stops
It's January, the best hibernation month of the year.
Welcome to In the Clouds, where I share what I've been consuming and what I find inspiring.
Hiiii :) It’s been a minute since I did a normal style edition of In the Clouds. Happy to be here, as always. I really missed sharing my little links. The world feels scary out there and I hope I can provide a small distraction. Hope you tik tok people are staying sane.
Some new years-y things first.
💡 No-Buy January
For the past few years, I have done a “No-Buy January” where I don’t buy anything that isn’t essential. People have a lot of feelings about no-buys but I like having a month where I am forced to face how much time and money I spend browsing clothes. It zaps you awake. Overall I treat the month as a rest and hibernation month where I can reset and reprioritize what’s important.
My rules:
No clothes, accessories, or anything non-essential. Groceries, home supplies, and hobby items are okay. You can replace items that run out, like makeup or skincare. For example, I like to knit more in January, so buying yarn is okay if it’s for a working project. Cook more so you order takeout less. Lean into the no-buy, and try to fill your time with habits and hobbies that make you feel good.
It helps to have an accountability partner with whom you can talk about your progress or about how bored you feel not shopping. By January 20th you might feel very bored. Stay strong.
These are just my rules, feel free to look into real no-buys if you’re into it.
💡 Monthly Buy List
A result of my No-Buy in 2024, I started a monthly Buy List where I logged clothing purchases I made throughout the year to help me understand my habits. The goal of the list was to keep the spirit of No-Buy alive: shopping more intentionally (hopefully less) and (hopefully) saving money.
2024 Learnings and habits:
Despite every person in my life raving about it and after having this much visibility into my clothing shopping habits, I still did not feel like subscribing to clothing rental companies made sense for me. The Buy List was helpful in making me take inventory of the clothes I have and the gaps in my closet I need to fill without overdoing it.
I bought more leading up to occasions and trips. I went to five weddings this year…can you guess when they were…
Eventually I got into a rhythm where I wanted to buy something, I would check the spreadsheet, and if I had reached my limit for the month, I thought about 1. how much I wanted it, 2. what purpose it served, 3. pushing the purchase to the next month. Half the time I pushed a purchase to the next month, I had completely forgotten why I wanted to buy it in the first place. Conversely, if something had been on my list for four months, I set money aside to buy it.
Will I do it again in 2025? Yes! I really liked having this log, and it has helped me look at shopping more soberly, and avoid repetitive purchases.
🗞️ How to waste less food and eat less ultra processed food
I love
’s newsletter and I have these saved so I can refer to when I need them. I cook a lot and I am keenly aware of how much food I waste even though I actively try my best not to. Reading this the first time felt overwhelming, like I needed to do so much still, but after I came down from my panic, I noticed how many of these things I already do and how easy some of the others are to implement. And as Kara says in her newsletter, it’s not a checklist—it’s a list of ideas. It’s not about completion, it’s about progress.I added these to the list before I knew that ultra-processed foods were being written about more and more and it’s been a topic of online discourse but I’m not looking into it so loop me out!
🕊️ RIP David Lynch
My social media feeds have been full of those mourning him, sharing photos and videos of his work and interviews, other artists sharing their love for him, and people telling stories about his art’s impact. It’s been so sweet to see. I wish my feeds were like this all the time.
We lost a great mind and artist. RIP king!!! I saw Fire Walk with Me last night and had freaky dreams. It’s what he would’ve wanted!!!!! <3
“Mankind was not made to suffer—bliss is our nature. The individual is cosmic. Let's rock.”
Monet or Manet? Take le quiz. This was hard!!
🗞️ How Wallace & Gromit found a place in our living rooms, and in our hearts
A conversation with the creators and animators of W&G, looking back at the history and creation of a claymation classic. Claymation is so magical and epitomizes the determination of the creative spirit. Moving little tiny guys a tiny fraction of a centimeter to make funny and sweet art. There’s so much care and affection for the craft there, truly inspiring.
🖼️ Handwriting with pen by Thomas Smilie, 1900
The Public Domain Review is one of my new favorite websites for discovering old stuff. You can buy art from their shop, like this photograph by the first curator of photography at the Smithsonian.
🗞️ The wonder of Soviet bus stops
The antidote to hostile architecture. Imagine paying artists to have fun…unheard of.
“In many Soviet architecture universities, the bus stop was one of the students’ first projects and an opportunity to create something never seen before. Since it was considered a ‘minor architectural form’, it was not seen as threatening to any major ideological value – rather, it was encouraged as a medium for artists to have fun and bring pleasure to the people.”
🏔️ A visual summary of my trip to Arizona, Sonora, and Colorado
Heart full :)
❤️🩹 Melody Hansen compiled a list of resources for those who want to help those affected by the LA fires
As always, thank you for reading. Wishing you blue skies and golden sunshine internally all along the way.
See you next time. On the first Monday of the month, you can expect Asset Library and on the third Monday of the month you can expect In the Clouds in your inboxes.
Thank you for sharing Maria!!! ☺️ Love your notes and thoughts on No-Buy Jan. I’m doing low spend ($50/week on non-necessities) Jan and it’s such an eye-opening reset