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 :)