The Best Things In Life - Morning Sickness Edition

An ongoing feature of 5 of the best things in life.

These are what I found were my greatest comforts when in the worst throes of Morning Sickness

1. Gum- Something in your mouth counteracting that nasty metallic taste and helping with the too much saliva thing (what is that thing? I don't know but it make you want to puke and it's probably triggered by wanting to puke)

2. Showers- sometimes you're too weak and sick but when you muster up the gusto to take a shower, ahh, that's the good stuff. When you're sick you're gross, getting all clean, the water feels good and the best thing: you can spit anywhere. The too much saliva thing makes you want to spit all the time and sometimes you're on the couch weighing your options like "Get up and spit, stay here and suffer" in the shower you don't need to grab a tissue or head to the sink, you can just spit right there. Sorry, I know this is gross but I really wanted to share how great some things can be.

3. Alcohol. Sweet relief. Not drinking of course, that would be awesome if pregnancy and drinking went together but I'm pretty sure if you're already puky, booze doesn't help. Rubbing alcohol my friend. Someone told me to sniff it and it kind of works. Probably bad for you but wipe up a mess with a little witch hazel and you're happy for 0.168 seconds.

4. Here we go,  the good stuff. Pine Sol. I bought the blue one. I CLEAN EVERYTHING. Everything in the world smells bad except for Blue Pine Sol and Rubbing Alcohol. I took every single item out of my fridge and freezer, wiped down said fridge and freezer with Blue Pine Sol, wiped down every item that went back inside fridge and freezer with Pine Sol, then mopped with it. It is un-stink. The killer of evil. Maybe I'll put some in a Scentsy pot.....

5. This one is fantastic. The "Morning Sickness Button" on Pinterest. Haven't seen it? Eh, well, it hasn't been invented yet.YET. But if the coders in Pinland are cool they will make one. What does it do? It lets your sick self waste time, distracted from the pain in life, strolling on Pinterest with all the food pictures OMITTED. I don't care if you found a way to make a Paleo Chocolate Chip Oreo Casserole for under $5 with only 150 calories, or if it's something your great grandma taught you, IT MAKES ME WANT TO DIE when I see it. So if Pinterest could just get on that, yeah, that would be great.

What was your comfort in the black death plague known as morning sickness?

Photo Credit: 1, 2, 3, 4

Sucker Punched!

Ok wise webbers, you gotta help me out here: in the pictures of my 'garden' I have one, big, happy tomato plant. Well, it's obviously indeterminite and as I have been told I dutifully pinched off all the suckers as it grew, except one that got away and became to big to prune, well....

ONLY THE SUCKER AND HEAD HAVE FLOWERS.

I thought it was supposed to be the other way around? You pinch suckers because they are "all leaf and no fruit". Well, now I have a ton of branches and leaves, and only 2 points with flowers.

What's up with that?!

Transparency And Confessions

So it's like this.

Transparency: I really am a beginner. I am here to learn from and with you all, but I feel kinda shammy having a garden blog and one sad little garden.


See my plants:

Yellow Lookin' Basil

 One very small, stunted tomato :(

Happy (I hope) Tomato

Lettuce. Fixin to bolt. Which is fine at this time in the season, but it was kinda bitter???

Crook neck. He's ok. Pretty much happy I think, I went to town on fertilizer on this guy cos he was yellow.

*BUT* When we ate some of the fruit, before, it was kinda woody. Do I need to water more?

As you can see my garden is all in containers, we are just renting and have only been living in our current state (Californ-I-A) for a couple months so we are definitely not permanent here and that leads me to the confession...

Confession: I wanna homestead!! Waaaa. Maybe not so shocking on a gardening blog, but I want to remain in my pencil skirts, heels and lipstick. I want to always be close to a city. I love girls nights out and malls. This inner homesteading desire really is kind of a secret inner burning. 

There. Now you know. 

Father's Day Outdoor Edition 2014

Happy Father's Day, Fathers! 

I've compiled a list of what Father's day would look like in my house. Enjoy!

1. A Hammock - of course. Garden and outdoors is all about relaxing and enjoying it for the father in my house.

2. Paint - why would he want paint? I'm thinking this gift is from the kids, they can paint neat pieces of wood or rocks with messages about how great Dad is. I know someone who would *love* this.

3. Another from-the-kids gift, a Birdhouse Kit to put together with the littles. Nothing like outdoor beauty and a lesson/quality time for Father's day memories. (Maybe even use those paints when it's done?)

4. Paper Lantern Lights. Like I said, Dad at my house likes to be outside, feet up and relaxing. Anything to make his outdoor experience more ambiance-ish will be appreciated. 

Social Bliss Style Box Review - May Box

Ok. It's a little late, but that's because my heavy heart didn't want to re-live the tragic disappointment I felt when I opened the box.

Real quick- what I liked about the boxes (reviewing past boxes online) was that each came with a purse that was the high-value item with some cute lil stuff sprinkled in. I DO NOT care for skin or hair care, I have what I specifically purchased for my skin at a high cost and I'm not gonna just go around slappin' every lotion, oil and cleanser on the ol' money-maker. This is why I canceled my Ipsy subscription. The value is there on paper, but if you're not in the market for that thing the value is negative.

Ex: a glass of water to a fish at the bottom of the ocean vs some dude in a desert.

SO when I opened el boxo del crap this is what I found:


Photo from SocialBliss.com

The purse was a coin purse. Oh. My Gosh. Hold me back, I'm so excited. -_-

The high value item was flippin skin care.

Then it had eyelash curlers (hi, I'm a female, I already own a set. Or two) a hair band, face wipes and a lufa foot scrubby bathroom set thing. (Hi, I'm a female, I already own a set, or two)

So "value" it puts itself at over $100 costing you only $40 (roughly) but the value to me is only what I would pay for on my own. So basically I paid $40 for some face wipes.

Canceled my scrip. I think I'm over boxes unless they are gifts to me. Speaking of gifts, if you are my friend or family member, don't be surprised to get a lufa for Christmas.

My Style Uniform and How I got there.

So have you heard about "Personal Style Uniforms"?

I'm kind of obsessed. Think of Simon Cowell, he is always in a tee shirt, usually white, that's his thing and a bad example is Steve Jobs in those hideous mock-necks. A better example is Andrea Jung, CEO of Avon, she's always in a sheath dress, usually with pearls.


I've loved the idea of having your-look. It saves time money and bad gifts. If you have your thing that's you, people will more likely gravitate towards gifts that "Just look so YOU!" than "I thought you'd look good in this" and it's purple tweed or something.

Hindrances I've found to taking the mono-look plunge:

• Deciding if marrying ONE color is something I'm ready to commit to
• Obsessing over "yeah, I could do this.... oh no, that doesn't work for weddings, funerals etc"
• I like sweaters. They don't work in summer
• WHICH look is ME???
• etc.

So I'm happy to say, I'm pretty sure I've found my answer. (OHMYGOODNESS!) Yes, it is true. Maybe this will help you as I can't be the only uniform/capsule/solve-all-my-problems wardrobe obsesser. And now that I'm pregnant I need to make wise decisions and buy a bunch of clothes. Grumble. Nothing fits. nothing nothing nothing

The first step in finding my uniform was giving myself permission to expand the boundaries a little. Simon Cowel always wears a t shirt. I am not a music producer, I have different levels of event in life. Meaning: I may just clean house and garden one day, I may go shopping another, at least once a week there is church and several times a year there are more-special church holidays. Of course there are weddings, funerals, dates and baseball games. I can't wear a white t shirt to all of those. 

Wait... white t shirt. I've never been a t shirt person, but sometimes they look so good on folks....

And it works so many ways! (If you haven't seen this picture before then Hi, let me welcome you to the internet :)  )  This is Audrey's blog. You should go to her site and read her remix stuff. It's good stuff. 

I learned a long time ago I love patterned bottoms. Mostly skirts. You can go into a thrift store or off-the rack sales place and buy a skirt for super cheap and because it's a skirt the size is forgiving, like if it's a size or 2 too big but it's a short skirt, it sits on your hips and is a cute knee-length skirt (Some of my favs are exactly that) or you can get a skirt altered easier than anything. Especially A-lines which are my super favs.

Ok, so I love colorful patterned bottoms and big necklaces. Boom. White t shirts. I will add them, learn to love them. Now on this note, I will not rest until I find the right white t. I do not like cotton. I don't know why. It has to be a major blend.

White tees and A-line skirts, with permission to have jackets on top of that, or mix it up with a maxi skirt, printed pants etc. 

Great Start! I can do a million things with that. So, now that I've spelled out that I really love A-lines I can go ahead and just throw in Fit and Flare dresses for my 'look' too. Sometimes it won't be a t shirt and skirt, it will be a dress. Fine by me. A little nicer.

Isn't that pretty? Oh I love these kinds of dresses. Since I already gave myself 'permission' to have as many jackets and cardigans as I damn well please I can accessorize with what I'll already have. Plus my necklace collection. Aaaaannnndd someday I'll learn to sew. This seems like the kind of thing I could sew. Right?

And then came color, again at Audrey's blog she talked about choosing your neutrals- I chose white and grey, with off-white being acceptable. Others will work their way in, but my intentionals are white and grey. I love white on white. I want to get a whole bunch of white stuff so I can wear all white. And then soon I'll have a baby and probably curse the white on white.....

And she demonstrated the color wheel and it's power:

Original picture from: http://www.academichic.com/2009/02/02/fashion-101-how-to-combine-colors/

In this pic she talked about color groups (in the color wheel colors equal spaces out 'go' together, like green is across from red and blue yellow and red are triangularly spaced apart). Thus I realized I wear a lot of teal. Looking at the wheel teal is across from coral/orange. Combine the surrounding colors and I have green, teal, navy and orange, coral, peach, red orange. What do you know? These colors all work for me!

I've always known I like green and blue but whenever I buy something that's really blue it just doesn't seem right and I never wear it. Navy stuff I just happen to end up with but wear the shirt out of it. Orange too. Especially orange with navy and what do you know, they fit the bill for the color wheel. So now I have a color scheme that doesn't make me feel restricted. I don't like purple and I look dead in yellow, but my blue and orange purchases will be more educated.
 My Polyvore Set
Seems kind of repetitious? That's the point! My uniform!