Darla is it?

We've all seen Finding Nemo, right? Excellent film. Thoroughly enjoyable. Well, I came to the realization today that I AM DARLA!!!!  The death machine that all the fish fear. Yeah, that's me.

At least in the world of plants I am. I kill everything. My amazing great grandmother would be rolling over in her grave if she saw what I do to plantlife of all kinds. Most recently, I've killed:

• A basil bush (pricey too - got it at the farmers market!)
• A smaller basil plant
• Pansies
• Venus fly trap
• Most of my cilantro (a few sprouts are hanging on)
• Lilies
• Some mystery plant that looked like the speck from Horton Hears a Who.

I've even killed cacti. And bamboo. Twice.

The only thing I can seem to keep alive is this $0.99 plant I got from Walmart!


<===== Walmart plant FTW

I got a sunflower plant about two weeks ago and tried so damn hard to keep it alive. I read about it (ok ok, only a little). I tried to pay attention. Watered it (though I have no clue how much water you're actually supposed to give one). Put it in the sun. Talked to it. Loved it. All that good stuff.

No luck. He now looks like this ========>

I got a new one a few days ago, brought her home and put her next to her very dead friend. Probably moderately terrifying for the "new" sunflower. Assuming sunflowers can think and feel of course. And it hit me....

I. AM. DARLA.

I want that! Ep1.0

I recently found a show called "I want that!" They essentially just have 3 min bits on random cool products, usually for the home. I loved it! And I thought that I could do that on my blog.  So here's my first installment of I Want That - Katie style.

Essential Oils Sniffers.

I've been seeing a lot of buzz about these in several magazines I read. Basically, when you're stressed out, you just pull out a container of this super smelly wonderful oil and it's supposed to calm you down. This of course was supported by "studies" that weren't listed, but I think it's totally believable and I'd love to give it a whiff. The ones I saw recommended were:

• Pocket Diffusers
• Nature's Alchemy Pure Essential Oil Rosemary
• Aveda Stress Fix

Tiles - but cooler!

OK, so this one I actually saw on "I want that" but they're just so cool that I had to share. As I start to more seriously consider buying a home, I try to take note of easy ways to add some flare in a simple way. These tiles have an adhesive back  for super simple SMART installation. I think even my boyfriend could do this :)

Adhesive backsplash?!?

Caitlin Moran

I don't quite remember where I heard a review on this woman, but she was described as a modern Rosanne, which sounds right up my alley. She's written several books, one titled How To Be a Woman, which is on my Amazon wishlist right now! At one point, she goes on a mini-rant about the current state of "pube disapproval". Hilarious, IMO....

"I can't believe we've got to a point where it's basically costing us money to have a vagina. They're making us pay for maintenance and upkeep of our lulus, like they're a communal garden. It's a stealth tax ... This is money we should be spending on THE ELECTRICITY BILL and CHEESE and BERETS ..."

Caitlin, I cant believe it either.

So guys, I want these things. Do you?

Boring to.... yummy?

So I think just about everyone at some point has seen a cheap (or not so cheap) paper lantern style light fixture, right? And if you're like me, you're less than thrilled about how commonplace they are nowadays. The cool ones are uber expensive and hard to find. Meanwhile, mine focuses more as a dead bug catcher than anything else. And it's got a huge rip in one sides.

Luckily, I saw a great and simple idea to revamp ye olde paper lantern for about $5. Cupcake wrappers! Yup, cupcake wrappers. Here what I used:

• About ~200 large cupcake wrappers
• About ~200 mini cupcake wrappers
• Hot glue.

 That's it! Here's an intermediary shot:

Nothing really to it. Just glued on lots of big ones first (easier with a partner to do the hot gluing and break the hot glue threads!) and then I glued the smaller ones inside each of them. I didn't squish them too much.

 

I wasn't too sure at this point. It didn't look as flowy as I wanted and I didn't know how much of an effect the smaller ones would have, but I kept on! Well, me and my helper.   

And for the final product....

Tadaa! A simple, chic, cheap, quick project with a big effect. Any cool simple projects you want to do? Let me know (so I can steal them!!)

Part Deux - The Jersey Edition

Well howdy-ho! Have you missed me? Obviously, it's been ages since I've blogged and it's time to get crackin' again! Let's consider this Part II of my blog - the Jersey chapter? I'd like to make this an exciting post, but I'll be honest - this is the "summary of recent life events and missteps and things I want to improve" post. So....

Sorry!!!

So in the past 6 months, I graduated dive school (top of my class - take that boys), scored a new job with a great company, moved to New Jersey (wtf - I know), moved in with my lovely boyfriend and have started a new phase of my life as an underwater bridge inspector. I'll try to elaborate on all of those at some point. I'm sure there's at least one montage of cool dive photos in me.

So now for the elephant in the room (the blog room...?) - that would be me! :-x Woahhhh is there a lot of me nowadays! Surprisingly, I've been pretty upbeat about my current "big boned"-ness. Unfortunately, that's also lead to some pretty apathetic complacency that just needs to quit! I've been ramping up for a good solid game-change over the past few weeks. I've been getting back in the gym a lot more regularly (re-starting New Rules of Lifting for Women). I've been going for lots of bike rides and walks. I've done some awesome farmer's market shopping:

I'm trying to kick it up a notch now though and actually track, log, blog and focus on getting healthy. It's not really a getting fit thing anymore - I feel generally unhealthy and that just wont do. So here are some of my upcoming health goals:

• Homemade dinners - been lazy lately!
• Homemade breakfast - I used to make awesome eggwhite omelets. That would be great but some premade fritatta or quiche would be great too.
• More protein!!! - A must have for any gal trying to get back in shape, stay full, bring back some of the muscles.
• Take my vitamins, especially my iron and fish oil
• Floss
• Invest in better quality kitchenware - BPA free/microwave safe tupperware recommendations?
• Give morning workouts another shot - I'll probably procrastinate this goal!
• Go to sleep earlier/wake up more regularly
• Learn to run again
• Not suck at pushups (never ever been good at these, even at the height of my fitness abilities)
• Try new recipes - I have lots of great healthy cookbooks that should get dusted off
• Drink more water/tea and less (eventually none) diet soda

I'm going to be working on incorporating them slowly. I'm thinking one new habit a week? Maybe every other week? I should really give that small changes thing a good chance. In addition to those, I'll be working on some general life goals:

• Putting out the trash on Monday (not tuesday am)
• Find healthy/green/craft magazines
• Try not to kill all plants that enter my house
• Do the dishes!
• Read more
• Write to/call my friends more
• Blog!!
• Start playing the piano again
• Actually do the crafts I've bought supplies for.
• Sign up for some classes in town. We have:
• ExtraordinaryEd - where you can take special classes on all sorts of goodness
• The Quilted Nest - where I could *finally* take sewing lessons
• In the Kitchen - Classes including date night courses
• Start prepping and slowly reviewing for the PE exam -April 2013? October 13? We'll see.
• Learn about home buying

Well that doesn't sound like too big of a list, does it?  Hopefully I'll be able to take it slow and steady and add new good habits at a decent pace. And more importantly, get some fun blogs out of it and get you guys back in the loop with my life!

Cheers! Let's go!