Hello November!

Día de los Muertos

Hellloooooo....Considering that I haven't posted in the last few months, I thought that a good way to get back into it would be to participate in NaBloPoMo, or National Blog Posting Month.  I did it back in June and that was the most I have ever posted and I totally loved it.  November is the big month when there are giveaways and prizes, but it is really just to challenge yourself to blog every day.  So, I will be doing some product reviews, showing some drool-worthy design photos, recipes and I will also be doing a little wedding recap. We just celebrated our first anniversary, but I figure it is better late than never and who really gives a shit?  This is my blog and I can post whatever I want, whenever I feel like it...ha ha ha.  I am looking forward to writing more, that is fo' sho'.  I didn't realize how much I missed my little blog until I posted last week.

Here are just some things that I like:

 {etsy.com}

  {This is where we tied the knot!}

 {The One & Only Johnny Depp}

 {apartmenttherapy.com}

 {anthropologie.com}

{Whoopie Pies- foodnetwork.com}

Almost 4 months later....

{Seattle- My favorite city}

(no reason for this photo, except that I was there two weeks ago)

So....I haven't written a single thing on my beloved blog since my last post on June 30th.  Many things have happened since then, one of which has allowed me to have more time to post, but also set me free from being in front of the computer all day long.  I am back and I am happy to be blogging again.  I have missed posting, but I really miss reading the blogs of my good friends and just being part of the blogosphere. I will be posting and reading and catching up and finding new inspiration and I can't wait!

One of Those Weeks- Part 2

This is Part 2 of my story.

We thought that we had a major bug problem in our house because we thought that we had FLEAS. Not the bass-playin'-naked-assed Flea from the Chili Peppers {I wish!}, but the creepy, invasive, pain-in-the-ass fleas that hitch a free ride on your pet, come into your house & then stay a while.

 Not this kind of Flea:

{Flea- from The Red Hot Chili Peppers playin' bass in the buff}

But THIS kind of Flea:

  

apartmenttherapy.com

{Obviously this bug is not to scale. If that was the case, I would have had a nervous breakdown}

I KNOW, right?!?  While the bugs themselves didn't totally creep me out, the process of getting rid of them did. We read  horror stories online of people who couldn't get rid of them no matter what they tried. That is what freaked me out.

This is how it went down:  On Tuesday, we had another guy come out from Alpha Ecological to just do a follow-up treatment & so we asked him what they were and he said that he thought they *might* be fleas.  Now, no offense to the guy that came over that day, but *might be fleas* is not what you tell people.  They are either  fleas or they are not.  He sprayed the offending area and then left.  Later that night, we started to wonder what to do because whatever these bugs were, they were still alive & well & jumping in our house, still mostly on the south side.  We googled fleas and started to vacuum our house. like.every.square.inch of it.  They literally kept popping up in the craziest places and we started to think that we were overrun with FLEAS.  We put our poor cat, Jazmine in quarantine in the bathroom, thinking that she was the one who had brought them in the house.  She is an indoor cat, but she had gotten out a couple of times when the back door hadn't been shut tight.

So, if you have been reading this blog or you know me, you know that I am quite serious when it comes to using natural products instead of the conventional chemical ones.  I am passionate about making sure that what I choose to purchase protects the health of my family & most insecticides, pesticides, fungicides do not do that. 

{This isn't what we used, but you get the idea}

 My husband wanted to set off a flea bomb in our house to rid it of the fleas.  I did not want a flea bomb going off in our house.  I was faced with a dilemma.  Do I put my foot down and say no to the bomb and then face a worse problem in a couple of months?  Or, do I suck it up & say yes, flea bomb the house and deal with the aftermath?

Against my better judgement, I said yes to the flea bomb.  My husband taped & sealed all of our kitchen cabinets, took out our food, put plastic on the counters & our table.  He did a really good job of taking all of the necessary precautions, but I was still worried.  He set the bomb off and left our house.  I came home about 3 hours later and opened all of the windows to air everything out.  When what to my wondering eyes should appear?  Jumping bugs still jumping and climbing all over the inside & the outside of our windows on the south side of the house.

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME???

After all that???

I left the house & met Josh & Reese for dinner, wondering WTF are we going to do now?  We took Reese to my parents to stay the night, away from the flea bomb aftermath & went home to clean up. When we got home, we found the bugs again and started to do some more research.  Finally, after googling "Tiny Grey Jumping Bugs," we figured out that we didn't have fleas. 

Instead, we had Springtails, or collembola.  A TOTALLY HARMLESS {annoying, yes.  Dangerous, no} BUG.  According to Jack DeAngelis, PhD (OSU Ext. Entomologist), "Collembola, also called springtails, are tiny arthropods that can be very abundant in damp, organic soils where they feed on dead plant material and fungi, occasionally damaging tender plant roots. Following heavy rains they may wash out of soil and collect in large "blooms" where rainwater flows, and can even enter houses at these times."

{Hope you enjoy the creepy bug drawings.  No way in hell would I be posting photos of the actual bugs. sick!}

Guess who had a small pile of leaves and twigs outside when they took out the bushes on the side of their house?  That happened to sit there while it rained for 3 days?

We did.

Prime conditions for the harmless Springtail.  Contrary to what you will read on the Internet, these bugs do not cause problems in humans. They are gone about as quickly as they come.

Guess what did NOT rid our house of the Springtail?


The HIDEOUS FLEA BOMB.


I will wrap up the rest of this story tomorrow.


P.S. I have to send some love to my dear friend Andrea & her family...Welcome to the world, Sweet Carly...You are loved!

One of those weeks- Part 1

I have some explaining to do....{This post is a play on my friend Maria's post on her wonderful blog, Little Things are Big, One of those days...or was it?} I have to say that it has been One Of Those Weeks! I have been doing laundry like a mad woman {and we all know how much Laundry & I love each other} and cleaning our house from top to bottom, leaving little time for being on the computer.  Why you ask?  It all started last week, but let me fill you in on some details first:

We have a house that is 53 years old.  It was built by the builder of our neighborhood in 1957 for his family.  In 1958, a new family bought the house and they lived there until about 2 years ago.  Because our neighborhood is older and we have older trees and shrubs, we tend to have more bugs.  Our house sat empty for about a year before we moved in last fall {3 weeks before our wedding!}, which gave bugs a nice quiet place to live for a while.  After we moved in, I noticed quite a few multi-legged guests coming & going through our house at all hours of the day or night.  I used to be someone who would ALWAYS capture a bug and gently let it outside to freedom.  It didn't take long to convert me to a bug smasher.  Now, before you gasp in horror, let me tell you that I do not smash butterflies, caterpillars, honeybees, ladybugs or roli-polies. {or worms, Maria!}However, I have no love for spiders who come inside of my house, especially those who lurk around my bedroom or my kid's room.  I also have no love for earwigs (skin crawling as we speak), the hornets that magically appear in our bathroom, or any other creepy-crawly insects that like to hang out in our house.  But, I do love my family and our mother earth and future generations (this is a whole different post!), so when we decided that we needed to do something about our pest problem, I put down my foot when it came to calling the Orkin Man.  I have serious chemical phobia issues and would probably suffer a nervous breakdown if he came and sprayed poisons around my house, where we live & breathe.  So, we called an eco-friendly pest control company called Alpha Ecological.  They came out & sprayed their natural-based bug spray.  There was no scent of anything and we noticed a decrease in bugs right away.  Then came winter and spring & still no bugs.  We had Alpha Ecological come out about a month ago to spray for the summer & we have had no problems with too many bugs around.  I know that bugs are important & I don't mind them in small doses, but inside my house?  really?  No thank you!

Then we had rain for about 3 days in a row a couple of weeks ago.  Last week, we noticed that we had some weird jumping bugs in our bathroom, in Reese's room & in my craft room.  All of these rooms are on the south side of our house.  Outside on the south side of our house, we had taken out some bushes (we took them out because we were worried that they would be a haven for bugs).  We thought that we may have disturbed a nest of some kind because they were everywhere.  They were tiny, jumping bugs.

What could they be?

To be continued...

Yellow is Lovely

I'm still here.  Life is happening, you know?  Nothing bad, something {sort of!} funny, going to bed later because it is summer and that is what you do...

Skipped a couple of posts...but it is all good.

Have I mentioned that I love yellow? {especially paired with grey-my wedding colors} So,

{Today I googled Yellow Chair...}

   {I found this Ghost Chair}

{Loving this one, fo' sho'...}

      {Yellow is sweet, isn't it?}

The weekend is almost here, lovelies...it is the last weekend in the beautiful month of June.  enjoy it...summer is magical, no matter where you live. and it is gone before you know it.  So, have fun.  eat dinner outside tonight!

I {Heart} Summer

Summer in Colorado!

Happy Father's Day!

{Happy Father's Day to the one who raised me, to the one who raised him & to all three of them who love me and our daughter. We have been blessed.  We love you Dave, Rich & Josh!}

Love,
Elizabeth & Reese

  {The Two Loves of My Life}
 

Happy Father's Day to my Poppy & Reese's Great Poppy.  We love & miss you!  

(the picture above was taken near where they live in Wisconsin)

it's payday, yo!

Yesterday was my sister's birthday.  We are having dinner with her tonight, so on my lunch break, I did a little shopping.  I went to a local store called Fancy Tiger Crafts.  {It is close to where I once lived and it is in an area of Denver that has really evolved into an eclectic shopping district, full of great shops, bars & restaurants. It is one of my favorite areas of Denver.}  Anyway, my sister likes to knit, so I thought that I would go there & see what I could find. 

Not a problem.  I found a neat knitting project book for my sister, a little sewing project for kids 6-12 for Reese that I saw on their blog & once I saw it in the store, I knew Reese would dig it, too.  It is definitely the one in the middle.  Reese is pretty particular about things she thinks should be for a boy!

I have been working on a project on and off for a while and while I was there, I found some great fabric for it.  It is exactly what I have been looking for...so happy!

It was fun to leave my office & get out of there for an hour.  Especially because I was able spend some time alone, looking at things {fabrics, books, crafty things}that make me happy.  What a difference in visual surroundings...my office & a small store filled with beautiful things.  What a difference in the energy in both places!  One filled with the little energy we have left on a Friday afternoon and the other, full of creative energy as people pick out things to help them create something or learn how to do something new.  It was exactly what I needed on a Friday afternoon...and you know, it is payday!

I will show you some before & after shots when I finally finish the project I mentioned above.  Hopefully that is soon.  Have a great weekend!

Always on a Mission: Part 2

I recently wrote a post about always being on a mission to find an organizational system that will help me to finally be organized. Without it being such a difficult thing for me to grasp.  I am starting to understand that I need to stop trying so hard.  It is hard for me to figure out how to do that, but I am finally beginning to realize that I really am organized.  I may not be a "place for everything & everything in its place" kind of person, but I am slowly becoming organized in my own way. I have also started to realize that I like what I see when I finish working on a project, because Honey, I know it looks good! organizing with a bit of style...now we're talking.

However....My continual issue with paper is a large part of my issues with organization, paired with the "apparently-the-ability-to-plan-and-organize-gene-skipped-my-ass-entirely" lack of planning skills is seriously the area in my life that needs my time.  I need to take the time to sit down.  at a desk. away from the computer. Alone. with good music on. and think about the things that I need to do, the dreams & goals that I have for myself & for my family. Most importantly, figure out a way to let go of the things that are holding me back and move forward.  I know that I need to pick one thing that works for me & STICK WITH IT...even when it sucks. Or it is confusing. Or I don't understand what the hell I am doing. Or when I just don't want to.

Maybe this IS the place to challenge myself to do this one simple thing:  Pick one system. start it.

and STICK TO IT. Don't give up. Don't quit.

I am going to start with one thing: Pick one system, plan, whatever.  I have done some research and found some really good advice on a website called Yvette Writes.  I think that what caught my attention is that she has had to learn how to be organized and she has had to work at keeping her good habits.  She has a really good sense of humor, too.

I also found the Simple Mom blog.  She has several different things that you can download to help you stay organized.  All of you Stay-At-Home-Mommas {this is for you Andrea!}:  Scroll down a bit to the Grocery List.  This is where you will find what she uses to help her to stay on track when it comes to Meal Planning. I like that she uses del.icio.us to keep track of the recipes that she uses...I love Del.icio.us! I really like the Daily Docket and the Weekly Checklist.  I have created something similar to the Daily Docket, but for some reason it was hard to implement for me.  I like that she is realistic about how many things you will actually get done in one day.  I always think that I will get a ton done...and I usually don't.  But that is okay.

Whatever it is that I choose to use to help me with this monkey on my back, will be something that I will stick with for 30 days.  I will want to procrastinate or stop using it at least 20 times during those 30 days, but I am making a promise here, on my blog, not to quit.  I will let you know when I start...keeping this blogging everyday for 30 days has been a little bit of a challenge, but it has been really fun.   Now is the time to get better with the paper issue...I will let you know what I have decided to use and when the first day will be.  Anyone have something that they know that they need to start/stop doing to help make life a little better?  Want to join me?

****************

So, on a completely unrelated note.  I can't blog without posting a picture.  The picture below is from Amy Butler {an amazing textile designer, among other talents}.  I bought this pattern a long time ago, but I think this will be something fun to PLAN to make this summer.  Aren't they so fun??

{These are just what my living room needs...but only one or two of them!}

Yomsayn?

I have 3 posts, unfinished & sitting in my drafts, 2 of which I started tonight.


I can't seem to say what I want to say, the way that I want to say it, you know what I'm saying?

I have a friend who used to write me notes in high school and he would always say "Yomsayn?" 


He is still funny like that.


I'm tired. So i'm going to bed.


Yomsayn?