Hello, hello!

As we hit send, we are nearing June, and with barely the Summer behind us, this month, we have a cauliflower chickpea curry as the days cool down. In our conversations section, we discuss resiliency and the importance of growing your food with Ellen Eskildsen, and we met with designer Marina Davis, designer of Ovna Ovich, to explore how her practice is reimagining fashion with a long-term view.

Do you feel that time moves a little faster? The days a little shorter? Perhaps you’re feeling depleted. As we move into the darker months, home calls us now, a coming back to ourselves.

This time also offers a reminder for thoughtful and consistent nourishment — basic daily practices that will make a big difference, cooking your meals, indulging in conversations, in thought, massaging with oil, and paying attention to what was forgotten. Now is a constant, but we must all be reminded that just because improvements aren't visible doesn't mean they aren't happening. What will this month bring for you? Outside of our 9 to 5, we continue building our small corner of the Internet, and we look forward to sharing more with you.

Consider this recipe more a set of guidelines — your base ingredients are chickpeas, cauliflower, kumara, canned tomatoes and greens, loads of anti-inflammatory foods. It’s also adaptable to what you have on hand. Kale and pumpkin make for excellent stand-ins with brown rice on the side. This recipe will carry us through the colder months, and we hope it will become a regular in your meal preparation routine.

Ovna Ovich celebrates the natural environment and embodies a modern sensibility of luxury. Here we speak with designer Marina Davis who talks us through her approach focused on using, reworking and preserving local and material resources to create new ways of producing — reimagining fashion with a long-term view.

Figuring out what to wear daily comes down to creativity and motivation, and a bit of personal introspection. In this guide, published in April and motivated by Fashion Revolution week, Amandine presents ideas and combinations to help you style your outfits for an autumnal week, using a limited amount of garments, with typical clothing found in a wardrobe. Trace shot the story up the road on Kodak Portra 160 film. Scanned and developed by @thefilmlab.nz. It was fun!

Earlier this year, we spoke to Ellen Elkildsen, whom Amandine met through permaculture studies. Passionate about regenerative gardening and horticulture, she has built the most extraordinary food forest at her St John residence in suburban Auckland. An inspiration for anyone seeking to build resilience at their doorstep, we are pleased to share her story.

1. In Aotearoa, politicians think building more motorways is a means to reduce traffic congestion. This piece explains that it does not and why—essential reading for those who still believe that cars are the future.
   
   
2. There is a lot of press and discussions currently about Artificial Intelligence, a technology developed mainly by the “tech boys” of Silicon Valley. If you still don’t know how to feel about AI, maybe Naomi Klein’s feature in the Guardian will help you make up your mind. And if you still need convincing about the intentions of these CEOs, where they are coming from and where they are going, this podcast with Douglas Rushkoff, author of the upcoming book Survival of the Richest, will set the record straight. Spoiler alert: they are leaving us behind.
   
   
3. Through our work with Lagom and involvement in different not-for-profits, Trace and I are practising quiet activism. However, I wonder if this will be enough for effective social change, so I recently came across two interesting resources featuring experienced activists. This video of John Minto on civil resistance in the context of restoring passenger rail here in New Zealand and The Reluctant Activist, a documentary on Ken Ward and his actions against the fossil fuel industry in the United States, got me motivated.

1. Nestlé is an appalling company. There's the 1974 report entitled The Baby Killer, and as recent as 2021, they were sued by eight formerly enslaved children. And they've made a lot of money extracting natural resources and polluting communities. And killing toddlers. So they have a lot of brands, many of which you could be supporting unknowingly. I was. Developer Zach Jordan created a website to help you avoid Nestlé — no more Solgar supplements.
   
   
2. Benjamin Alexander comes by way of a friend who had sent me a link to a 1980s-inspired power suit in cornflour. Understated, all pieces are ethically produced here in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Much of the collection is discounted heavily, so if you were looking to invest in pieces for work, this would be your opportunity. This peach wool skirt is on my wish list.
   
   
3. When I discovered Curionoir, I abandoned the idea of the signature scent. Scent is one of the easiest ways to change the vibe, delve into something, to create. And after wearing floral and verdant fragrances — which I never did, that led to exploring adjacent categories and beyond to the broader botanical family. TOTC (The Center of the Universe) is a recent discovery made with cold-pressed organic jojoba oil. There are three 10 ml roll-on scents, IDEM (geranium absolute, black frankincense, oak moss), AKTIS (violet leaf, black pepper, bergamot) and FLOUR (rose maroc, atlas cedar, opoponax). It's another addition to the clean fragrance guide on Instagram. Global shipping is available. This article offers a guide for those curious but unsure about purchasing fragrances online.

Thoughts, questions, you can always direct reply to these emails.
We look forward to hearing from you!

Tracey Creed & Amandine Paniagua