• Beauty & Health,  Diet

    My Thoughts on Food Addiction

    Imagine for a moment that every person you knew smoked. Imagine that it was an expected thing to do and so socially ingrained in the society that even children started smoking at young ages. Now imagine that there were some people who didn’t smoke, but they were the exception and others sort of included them just a little bit less when there were social functions. Weird, huh? Crazy, right? Yet, this is a pretty accurate account of the food scene here in America. Hear me out on this. Food is actually one of the most addictive substances people put in their bodies. It makes perfectly rational people go out of…

  • Entertaining,  Life & Travel

    Coastal Outdoor Dinner Party

    Since it’s spring time, I’ve been thinking of outdoor dinner party ideas before the summer really sets in. A little lighting, some candles, great company. What’s not to love? But you know when you go to a big dinner party and there’s 12-16 or even 20 people facing each other on an endlessly long table?  You know how you only get to talk to the people in your section of the table?  🙁 I decided that I wanted a dinner party where the guests could really mingle, so my husband and I built two oversized farm style tables and created just that. This set up comfortably seats 4 people per side,…

  • Eco Living

    Save the Bees Please

    Spring is here! Oh, the birds. And the bees. Wait. That might not making everyone as happy as it makes me. A couple years ago I was scrolling through my Facebook feed when I came across a post: Basically, a hive had been created overnight just outside his bedroom window.  My heart actually broke a little. I get it. They’re bees. They can sting and they’re buzzy. But they’re also incredibly vital to our eco-system. Without bees, we wouldn’t have so many yummy fruits and vegetables and valuable plants including tangerines, oranges, watermelon, coffee, avocados and cotton. Yes. Coffee. And cotton. These are just a few crops that rely exclusively…

  • Girl Talk

    Welcome to Girl Talk

    Why, hello there Beautiful. I’m so glad you dropped by. I love it when we get a chance to talk candidly about the sort of stuff we really need to talk about as girls. You know, all the random stuff we never really get to talk about, and might even be too embarrassed to Google. Yeah. That sort of stuff. Well, luckily we have each other so we can talk about whatever we want to right here. But what if some guy comes here and tries to eavesdrop? Well, that could be awkward… for him. He’d find out more than he wanted to know about how we deal with ungrateful uteruses and…

  • Art & Everything,  Home Tour,  The Home

    Functional Art for The Home

    Mmmm. Yes, please. You know what functional art is? It’s art that is not only lovely to behold, but it also serves a function; a utilitarian purpose. It’s useful. And I am all about functional art in my home. I have a rule, it’s actually #129 on my list of 365 Ways to Be Awesome:   Put nothing in your home that isn’t useful to your life, or meaningful to you. I’m lucky, because wherever possible, I try to do both. At the same time. And, why not? Why not have a light fixture which adds beauty to a room? Or a bit of decorative storage that stores things you need regularly?…

  • Home Makeover,  The Home

    My Whole House Makeover

    I never meant to give my whole downstairs a makeover. It just sort of snuck up on me. After I tore up my water damaged hardwood floors and then painted them, other things popped up that needed to be sorted. Like, my kitchen. It was literally falling apart and made food prep a nightmare. You can see a glimpse of it below. So, I gutted my kitchen, and created this instead:   Yep. Those are concrete floating shelves and a concrete counter top. You can read about my kitchen remodel and reveal and see more photos here, but you get the idea. So, now I loved my kitchen and I loved my floors. But I…

  • Beauty & Health,  Diet

    Conquering Food Addiction: My Journey

    What happens when you’ve been eating really healthy for months, and then you go back to eating “normal” food? Well, I can’t speak for others, but holy hell! Let me back up a minute to give this a little perspective. Five months ago, I was a mess: overweight, grumpy, tired all the time, achy as hell, foggy headed and generally without energy. In a word; miserable. Then I embarked on this journey to get fit at 45. The first 3 months were not easy. I battled food cravings, came to terms with my very real food addictions and overhauled my whole life. I went through weeks holed up in my…

  • Home Makeover,  Home Tour,  The Home

    Breakfast Nook Makeover

    I have no idea why we never created a use for this space in the 7 years or so that we lived here, but we didn’t. Actually, that’s not true. I do know why; it’s because I never really considered how I use spaces in my home before. We just moved in, unpacked, and started living here. Sure, I hung pictures up and I painted walls, but that was it. Well, that was all about to change. I wanted a cozy, yummy breakfast nook so that I could enjoy  a more intimate breakfast with my husband. First, I needed a dining set. I figured out what I wanted (a 30″ round…

  • Entertaining,  Holidays,  Love & Family

    Outdoor Thanksgiving Dinner

    This Thanksgiving was my absolute favorite. And you know what? I got to see first hand how creating a specific feeling and atmosphere can truly set the mood for a whole evening. In a word, it was magic. It all started about 3 weeks before Thanksgiving: I was going to host Thanksgiving at my house, and there were a couple extra guests this year, making a total of 15. This troubled me. See, last year I hosted Thanksgiving, too. My dining table seats 8 comfortably, but at family gatherings we typically have at least 13 people. So, we squeeze in 5 more chairs somehow, and we all agree to forgo elbow…

  • Beauty & Health,  Diet,  Health

    The Perfect Diet: My Thoughts

    Did you know that none of the longest lived people on the planet were vegetarians?  Or that none of the longest lived people were actually Paleo? Crazy, right? How could this be? Surely one of these diets is the right diet for humans. I can promise you that there are people that will tell you that from both camps, and they’re both right. That settles it then. So glad you stopped by. Kidding. But seriously. The perfect diet. There’s even a video from the Paleo camp with that title, I believe. But no. It’s actually not. And neither is the vegetarian diet, or the fruit only diet, or the ketogenic diet, or…

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