The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out...

Worm Compost Bin

Outside our backdoor we have a redwood box that serves as our worm compost bin.  Unless I tell people what it is they are never the wiser.  I've actually had it on my to do list to make a cushion for the top of the worm bin and lockable wheels on the bottom so it can double as a movable bench/seat.  There are may different ways to make a worm bin, but here's how I did it.  I bought the pre-made box at a local gardening store along with the worms, soil, and coconut fiber (for worm bedding).  I put the worms and all the fixings in the box and viola worm bin.  Now every evening after dinner I put our fruit and veggie food waste into the bin, varying the food placement each day. It's that easy.  The benefit is that we are keeping a portion of our food waste out of the landfill, we make compost for our veggie garden, and my son not only loves feeding the worms, but is learning hands-on about the food cycle in his own back yard.  What's not to love!

Perfectly Preloved Bench

A while back I posted about my New Year's resolution to turn our house into our home and to do so mainly with pre-loved or repurposed items.  Well, I'm slowly making progress.  Up until now our front stoop has been bare and unwelcoming.  Now thanks to this cute, well-worn bench it is a bit more inviting and my son has a place to put on and take off his shoes and rain boots.  I also use it to set down my groceries while I open the front door (no more balancing bags of groceries on my knee while fumbling for keys).  Who knew one little bench could be so useful!  Next up....buffet for the kitchen.

Safe Cosmetics

I've never been a product junkie, but when I was pregnant with my son (didn't know if it was a he or she at the time) I swore off all beauty products with harsh or harmful chemicals.  I moved to buying simple, natural, and chemical-free products and making my own at home.  Once my son was born I searched out natural and chemical-free baby soap and massage lotion for him.  I was doing all of this because I didn't want my baby exposed to harsh chemicals, but it made me rethink what I put on my own body. Enter my new motto, shamelessly taken from my favorite brand of body oil (Heather Lorain Cosmetics Apricot Oil), "If you wouldn't put it in your body, don't put it on your body".  After all our skin is our body's largest organ. While living by this motto isn't completely feasible, it is an excellent goal to work towards. And it's not as hard as one might think.  Apricot, almond, avocado, grape seed, and jojoba oil are wonderful body oils that can be used in place of lotion.  You can make body/face scrubs and conditioners out of items found in your pantry (salt, sugar, olive oil, avocados, honey, yogurt, milk, berries, watermelon, lemon, etc.).

For the products that I do buy, I try to find ones that I can use for multiple purposes. For example, I use Dr. Bonners soap for body wash, hand soap, and as an all purpose kitchen and bathroom cleaner.  I use apricot oil as a body oil, for taming my frizzy hair, and I put a dash in my son's bath water to keep his skin nice and soft.  The added bonus of all of this is that I save money and I have significantly cut down on the number of products cluttering my bathroom cabinet.  Here is a list of my favorite products.

• California Baby (Calendula cream, shampoo/body wash, and sunscreen)
• Acquarella (water-based nail polish)
• Dr. Bonners (soap)
• Weleda (skin food cream)
• Heather Lorain Cosmetics (Apricot Oil)
• Keys (Solar Rx Sunscreen)
• Marie Veronique Organics (Face Screen)

If you have any home made recipes or products that you love and recommend let me know. I'm still on the hunt for a good mascara (the one makeup item I use on a daily basis).

Valentine's Day and Family Traditions

It's no secret to those that know me that I L-O-V-E Valentine's Day! (I love pretty much every holiday.  Mainly because most holidays center around family, friends, and food...three of my favorite past times.)  Form me Valentine's Day isn't just about flowers and chocolate (although I enjoy both), but it's about taking a day to put down the "To Do list", focus on with your loved ones, and tell them how much they mean to you.  Really, who doesn't like feeling special and hearing your friends and family tell you how much they love you! I don't think anyone, especially kids, can hear it enough.

I was lucky to have amazing parents who somehow managed to carve out enough time between juggling three kids and full-time jobs to make every holiday special for my siblings and me. Through the years my family has developed a slew of holiday traditions that we still uphold.  Now that I have my own family I feel that it is important to make my son feel as loved as I did growing up and feel connected to his myriad of cultures (mainly Italian and Mexican with a bit of German and Irish thrown in) through holiday traditions.  I also want him to learn how to show love and compassion to others. While we try to do both of these things on a daily basis, holidays are great opportunities to put emphasis on them.  They also provide an opportunity to sit down and talk about various topics, customs, and traditions, what they signify, and why they are important.  For example, Dia de los Muertos (a holiday we celebrate in our family) is a great time to teach kids about death in a light-hearted manner and give them a way to remember loved ones who are know longer with us.  So this Valentine's Day I decided to take the day off of work and spend it with my little man.  We spent the day making heart-shaped pancakes, hanging out at the park playing baseball, making a special surprise desert for dad.  Then we spent the evening as a family making heart shaped pizza for a special Valentine's Day dinner.  It was the best Valentine's Day yet!!  I hope yours was equally as wonderful.

The Journey to a Functional Room

Design Concept for Office/Guest Room/Play Room Makeover

Our spare bedroom has never really functioned well for us.  Mainly because we've never owned the space and made it work for our needs.  We have just tried to make the previous owners' design of the room work for us, and it hasn't. So....it's time for an office makeover.  I sat and brainstormed all of the uses I wanted out of our spare bedroom (i.e., office, guest room, play room, craft room) then went to work planning a layout that would make all those uses  happen as cheaply, but elegantly, as possible (see above).  This "planning" part of the process has taken the better part of two months.  Let's just say that the planning part of anything, be it a vacation or a birthday party, is by far one of my favorite parts of any process and I tend to milk it for all it's worth.

With the office/guest room/ play room/ craft room design plan in hand, it is now time to roll up my sleeves and put my well conceived plan into action.  First step, clean and organize.  So, for the past two evenings I've been elbows deep in paper, trying to clean out 10 years worth of files.  I fluctuate between feeling of giddiness at how neat and organized things will be when I'm done and discouragement that getting to that neat and organized state seems to be taking FOREVER!  So last night as I sat amidst piles of paper, it struck me that the process for most makeovers (be it overhauling your house, your car, or your bad habits) seems to follow the same process.  And that process involves things getting worse before they get better.   But, if you own your project and follow it through, the end result is worth the messiness and you'll probably learn a bit from the process as well.  At least, I'm hoping that will be the case and that in a few months from now, we will be sitting in our neat, tidy, and functional guest room/office/ play room thankful that we decided to make it our own.