Try, try again

So the last few months have been WAY too hectic to blog without feeling pressured or guilty- pressured to write  something when I happened to have a minute or guilty when I tried to take the time to write when I had a ton of other things I should be doing instead. But I feel like things have finally settled enough to get to the point where I should be able to post at least once a week :) plus, I'm going to have quite a few of these types of projects coming up. Dave and I are going to be moving in to an apartment soon, well he'll move in first and then I'll move in once we get married, and I am SO excited to be able to get my hands on it and start cleaning and organizing and decorating and making it ours. I want it to reflect us- our beliefs, values, morals, ideals, mindset, lifestyle, attitude... In short, I want it to be perfect; well, perfectly imperfect. And I'm going to take on as many projects and do as much work as possible to make it happen. If anyone has any suggestions or questions or helpful hints, please feel free to comment on the posts. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy watching my projects come to life :)

Family garden

So the weather has been a little wonky this year- summer took forever to get here. But it's finally starting to warm up and stay warm and the plants are finally creating produce! SO EXCITED!

Here's a little picture of some of the bounty we're currently harvesting from our garden.

Next up will probably be the tomatoes, green peppers, and cucumbers! 

First book review- FFN

(This book review is abbreviated because I am so astonished, but I know that much more will stem from this literature endeavor.)


Oh wow, I don't even know where to begin. I just finished 'reading', (aka- listening to audio CDs in my car on my commute), Fast Food Nation. I cannot tell you how many different points it brought up for me and how many questions, (and answers), I was deeply concerned by.
Seriously, everyone needs to go to the library and check it out- either in print or audio format.


Ok, since my current review is less than adequate, here's the Google Books page and here's the Wiki- Link to the Fast Food Nation description. But neither of these reviews do the book justice.

I'm officially adding Eric Schlosser to my list of inspiring people. It's that amazing! I don't necessarily agree with everything he says, but his good points far outweigh his bad ones.


Go. Read. Now.

In case you hadn't heard, the secret is out.

Yup, the secret is out... I drink a lot of coffee. Hahaha!
(Not much of a secret, huh?) 

Regular, decaff, espresso- it doesn't matter.
I just really and truly love the taste of a good cup of coffee!
(Which usually involves some creamer or flavoring syrup but that's besides the point, LoL!)

Anywho, I saw a sign at a coffee shop a few days ago that said, "We have free used coffee grounds for your garden. Just ask!" and I got to thinking... I throw out quite a bit of coffee grounds myself and if other people are using them on their gardens, I bet I could do that too. (Sometimes I'm a little slow on the uptake, hahaha!) In looking into this, I found a great website that explained exactly how to use coffee grounds for gardening.

Oh, and here's a link to a website that sells coffee socks, aka- reusable coffee filters. It's pretty similar to the one I use except I bought mine at a co-op in Idaho and it has a blue trim instead of a cream colored one.

Indoor air quality

With the weird spring/summer transition that has been occurring in the Pacific Northwest, my allergies have been all over the charts. Some days they don't exist and other days I feel like my sinuses are going to burst out of my skull, (great image, huh?). I've been looking into home remedies for allergies to add to my local honey regimen and it seems like there's a lot of contradictory information out there. A few sites I found said to add a humidifier and others said to add a dehumidifier. Other sites said to immerse yourself in the allergen-causing items, others said to simply avoid the allergen-causers at all costs, and some had a middle ground opinion stating you should gradually introduce your system to the allergens. It doesn't help that primarily have outdoor allergies and then one indoor allergy- mold. In the case of the humidifier vs. dehumidifier: the humidifier would help with my outdoor allergies but could cause mold spores to form in the room it's placed in which would call for a dehumidifier to help with my indoor allergies. LoL!

I decided, for me, the best option would be to keep up the local honey regimen and clean up the air I can control- my indoor air. I found a website that lists the best houseplants according to NASA's testing. I'm not going to mess with the moisture in the air, I'm not going to over- or under-stimulate my body's natural response. I'm simply going to use the pollen in locally gathered honey to help my system when I go outside and have some wonderful houseplants purify the air for me when I'm inside.

Plus- I LOVE Gerbera daisies and plan on using them in my wedding next summer so I may just be able to get a head start on growing my own floral arrangements :)