The first bean

Today I spotted my first string bean!

Happy Sunday

I'm on my own thus weekend my "crew" is all off on different vacations or studying so this weekend it's just me.

Yesterday I spent with my mom and some family friends walking, eating,and farmer's  marketing. 

In addition, I have now tried two of my pins from Pinterest!  The first was the one about using coconut oil as an after shower moisturizer - which was seemingly a success. Although this morning when I started gardening in the heat, and sweat combined with coconut I smelled delicious and was incredibly slippery. Problem? You decide. 

This morning I made myself a delicious breakfast and soaked in some vitamin D

Then after sweating and slipping through some gardening I tried Pinterest project #2. It is a project that says if you plant the ends of lettuce they will grow again. So I used the ends from the market yesterday and put them in my veggie planter...

Ill keep you posted on progress...hooray for Pinterest!

30 dates in 30 states

Yup, that's right.  Two of my good friends are putting OkCupid to the real test and have embarked on an epic road trip on the eastern side of our fair country as two "single girls roaming the country in search of men to make us laugh, make us love, and maybe - just maybe - make us move. We'll see.   We're road tripping around the nation to broaden our horizons, renew our faith in serendipity, and have some quality moments with some quality men."

I have purchased a ticket to join them for a stretch and start off my own thirtieth decade with a bang. 

Follow their adventures on their blog 30 dates in 30 states and even help set them up!

Love

Love this blog, I may be late to the party on this one but I can't get enough!

http://thebloggess.com/

Have you ever noticed

This may be gender specific, but have you ever noticed that when Crazy Girl surfaces she's not only spiteful, and often sad, but also incredibly conceited?

So I'm sad to say that my Crazy Girl has been raising her ugly head more often than I would like these days but I am proud to say that as of now Mature Me has successfully fought her down.  However, just now while reflecting upon a particularly tough battle against CG I realized that that chick is conceited!  How else do you describe someone who is sure that her ex in question is still scanning her FB just waiting for hints that she's still thinking about him rather than living his life?  Convinced that one post of an image that clearly references something from our relationship will be enough to make him question his current relationship and decide he needs to come back to you.  Something she's not sure she wants but not sure she doesn't want either.

I mentioned that this is what Crazy Girl would do, right?

Proud to say that I avoided being the crazy ex-girlfriend for one more day.

Who is Crazy Girl?
She's those moments when a totally normal, sane, and relatively mature woman finds herself acting like a cliche crazy girl that men are terrified of.  Sometimes this means keeping an ex on the line because you like knowing he still has feelings for you (bad).

Or texting that guy you really really shouldn't because NOTHING  long term good can come from it.

Or even those moments when you convince yourself that it'll be fine because you'll just be the maiden aunt of your friend group, and get to be the "fun aunt", which always translates to the "barren aunt", who has lots of money for travels and shoes because she has no one in her life but her cats/french bulldogs.  This is a favorite of my personal Crazy Girl at the moment.

I'm convinced all women have a Crazy Girl, with varying degrees of success at keeping her under lock and key.  In my case, my best friends know her well but it is rare that she has broken free of that inner circle.

Feeling inspired

Inspired by Texas!  That is not a thing I actually get to say very often but as I read more about the important and amazing filibuster that happened there last night I am inspired!

Thank you Senator Wendy Davis!

To Break Up Or To Have An Open Relationship....That Is The Question

I have personal experience with this question and I have a good friend who is going through this quandary right now.  I can get into the details of those distinct situations but the real issue we kept running up against was if I know I want certain things in a partner, and my current person doesn't have those and isn't getting them, is it even worth postponing the inevitable by moving to an open relationship or do you just end it right then?

This is really more specific to my friends situation.  Her boo-of-the-moment is a nice guy, totally non-offensive, attempts to be a good boyfriend but it is quite clear to her (and us) that this is in no way a boo-for-the-ages.  We even got into a bit of a heated argument yesterday because I may have ended up with a disapproving tone when discussing with her, her choice to shift it to an open relationship while she does a road trip this summer around the east coast.  I know what my friend wants in her romantic life, she wants a partner and a family and she wants it sooner rather than later - so a large part of me says why prolong it?

She contends that she is just as able to look for happiness while still enjoying the benefits of a semi-successful relationship.  I argue that you may be open but not as open or as driven if you have continued access to those "benefits".  In the end we ended in a draw and she is going on a road trip while in an open relationship...

My experience was different, I asked for an open relationship to keep a man at arms length, a man who was more comfortable with his feelings for me than I was.  A man who was ready to do what it took. And, unfortunately for me, a man who had enough emotional intelligence to understand that I was terrified, not push me, and let me end it.

I really don't know that it was the wrong decision to break from him then but I still think about him everyday and have since been able to admit the depth of the feelings I had/have for him.  Who knows if it would have worked and maybe I was right about all the excuses I came up with about why he wasn't right, but I do know that there was a lot of love there that I'm scared I pushed it away and lost my chance.

At this point my Sane Intelligent Woman Brain says, that's crazy, no chance that was your one chance at love but it's the best you've experienced which is why you keep thinking about him and why you think you want him back.

My Crazy Girl Brain says "You fucked this up and now you will be alone forever and  you might as well start collecting cats now and resign yourself to being the maiden aunt of the group who takes care of her friends kids when they want some couple time! Do something immature and hurtful now to steal him back from his new girlfriend that you know isn't good enough for him!  Now!

For now Sane Intelligent Woman Brain is winning but it is a close race some days.

Heart as traitor

On those days that you still miss that person you shouldn't be missing...

Next project...

Rather slow afternoon at work and after, finally, getting some of the artwork I brought to the office up on the walls I've started to brainstorm what I want my next project to be.  I would really like to figure out if I can build a vertical plant wall using yogurt containers and not buying a specialized vertical planter...

First thoughts:

• chicken wire with a wide enough opening, either as is or cut, to fit and hold the yogurt containers, molded around a frame and hung or leaning.
• Some concerns: weight, angles of the yogurt containers
• Ooh Idea! What if they are succulents and a rain gutter can be re-directed so that they are watered with caught rain?
• irrigation of the containers, can they be designed so that if vertical and watered at the top that water will trickle down to whole wall?
• Pinned a vertical planter for ideas, they use a pad all along the bottom that holds moisture so that all plants get water they need...

Something like this sketch I just drew:         

This is what happens when all your projects at work are in the review stage...

Any thoughts on how this project might work?

I'll keep you posted!

Like A Boss

Ever have one of those days where your productivity surprises even yourself and at the end of it you just feel like a boss?  You feel surprised and impressed with yourself that if you could you would do this?

Cause that's what happened to me yesterday evening.  After (not quite) this dance move I then made a, probably, less than stellar decision for my life but we're going to stick with the positives today.

One of my best friends and I are planning a party for this coming Saturday, as in tomorrow, and until last nights success, my backyard was bare bones and would have been a bunch of guests standing around until we eventually got tired and then went inside not taking advantage of gorgeous weather.

In addition to this, I'm best at getting those "wish list" projects done when there is a deadline looming - who isn't? So in addition to wanting to purchase some seating I also have a list of builds I want to do for the yard. Here's how it went down.

Yesterday, after a full day of work, I make the decision that I'm gonna pull the trigger and buy some of the home depot plastic adirondack chairs but to do so I need to borrow the larger car from my parents. With SUV in hand I head to the mecca that is Home Depot.  I love this place.  I love that there are always loads and loads of men who work construction (=strong), and there are aisles and aisles of projects to be done!

On the to do list yesterday?

• Get the chairs
• Complete a seating ottoman-like thing out of pallets

Not too crazy but also in the end a tight squeeze even in the big car.  When I get home and get my spoils unloaded to my garage/workshop I just dive right in.  The best part is this productivitiy spills over into unfinished projects that have been living in there too.  Check out my finished products, the patio still needs a bit of glossing but it's better than the nothing it was before!

 

This is two pallets that a friend generously suffered splinters to get me that I have screwed together and then add caster wheels to the bottom.  Yesterday's project was the top cushion, which will be predominantly outside.  I used a piece of foam from home depot that I sawed in half and then with adhesive spray stuck the two halves together and a piece of melamine board to the bottom.  Next came the "upholstery" which is actually a 5' x 5' canvas drop cloth with a plastic lining, pulled tight and staple gunned to the board.

Here's a picture of it on the patio with my new chairs!

By this point I'm  starting to lose daylight but I've been storing/helping with a rocking chair upcycle project with my friend.  This beauty originally had beat up raw wood and some horrifying fabric covering some really rough woven wicker.  We painted it this lovely gray and on another productive evening I cut out all the wicker.  And last night inspiration hit!

This is the same friend who just got married and had been receiving all her registry gifts from Crate & Barrel ho include crazy amounts of their high quality ribbon on each and every box.  As the resident crafter of the group I took the ribbon home, not knowing what I might do with it.  The plan is to add batting and fabric but we needed some support for this and last night the yards and yards of Crate & Barrel ribbon did just that!

 

Now that these projects are done I feel more ready for the party tomorrow.  Please kindly ignore that fact that I have definitely not cleaned my house yet and will obviously be doing so tomorrow in the moments leading up to guests.

Going camping!

A weekend of dirt, river swimming, and campfire cooking - can't wait!!

This was going to be the bridesmaids' honeymoon, however one of us failed and made other plans, oh well.  But this level of relaxation and forced other is very welcome at this point...

Yay