Favorite Things – Preen Garden Weed Preventer

Does it seem like weeds sprout from your garden only days after your last weeding?  That’s how I felt, until I bought Preen Garden Weed Preventer.  Preen is advertised to keep weeds at bay for up to three months.  Three months!  I was so sick of trying to weed all of our flower gardens and trying to keep that viney creeping Charlie at bay that I decided to give it a shot.  Now, first things first; Preen is not a weed killer.  If you already have weeds in your garden it’s not going to kill those.  You need to get down and dirty and pull those babies out yourself.  Once all the weeds are gone you can sprinkle the Preen granules one top of the mulch and then rake them into the mulch or give them a quick shower with the hose.  I like to apply it before it rains.  ‘Cause I’m lazy like that.  I applied Preen in May of last year and didn’t notice an increase in weeds until August (at which time I chose not to reapply because it seemed too late in the season to waste money on weed killing).  It’s not a miracle drug for gardens though.  I still saw weeds in June and July; just not nearly as many as usual (c’mon, don’t be THAT lazy!  Gardening IS a good workout you know.).  I have already applied Preen to all of our mulched beds this spring.  That March heat wave didn’t just cause the flowers to bloom early.  I did this in early April and I’m expecting to have to reapply in June/July.  Preen makes lawn weed control and organic vegetable garden versions too. 



Being only semi-environmentally conscious, I have never bothered to look at the chemicals in this product.  I know I should care about the Earth and the potential for contaminating ground water sources and all that hooha.  But.  I don’t.  I recycle and I don’t flush over the counter drugs.  That’s how I save the Earth and that’s good enough for me. If you do care, go and read the fine print and decide for yourself.  I do make sure that the granules have been well soaked and wait a few days before letting the dog munch on the mulch.  So far, he’s still alive and hasn't grown a third ear on his butt or anything crazy like that!

As with most weed preventers, this stuff isn’t cheap.  But, I think it’s worth it.  Both times I’ve purchased it I got it on sale for about half off.  This year I bought a 13lb bag for $10 (normally $20) at Stein’s.  That took care of all of our mulched beds (we have many, including a large circular butterfly garden) and we still have almost half a bag left.  It’s a great deal for not having to spend the hot and humid summer on my knees pulling out dandelions and creeping Charlie.  I’d much rather sit on my deck with a margarita while something else does the work for me.  ‘Cause, I’m lazy like that.

Is Your Nose Clean?

So, this post might fall into the ‘too much information’ category but I’m going to share it anyway.  If you are someone who suffers from allergies or sinus issues this might be your solution; or at least a ticket to feeling a little bit better.  It might even help with the common cold.  It brings new meaning to the phrase that my childhood neighbor’s dad always said to me when I rang their doorbell; “You can come in if your nose is clean!"  I never really knew what that meant, but maybe this was what he was referring to.

About 7-8 years ago I somehow developed seasonal allergies.  Every fall for two or three years I’d start sneezing, get a runny nose, itchy eyes, and be stuffed up.  It lasted for a few weeks so I figured it must have been some sort of pollen.  Most over the counter drugs helped with the sneezing and runny nose, but I had terrible post nasal drip that no drugs could help.  This was something I always sort of had issues with no matter what the season but it became worse with the allergies (my sister always made fun of me because drinking milk made me phlegm-y).  It was so bad that I would get a sore throat from it and I had enough of it.  I consulted Dr. Google and read all about neti pots and decided to give it a try.  I went to Walgreens and ended up buying a saline rinse bottle, which is a similar concept.  The point of the rinse is to eliminate all the impurities you breathe in before your body notices them (your body sneezes and causes a runny nose to get rid of the allergens).  You’re just avoiding the allergic reaction to begin with.  It's preventative medicine.



Now, how does this contraption work, you ask?  It may look/sound a little odd, but it’s pretty simple.  Basically, you fill the bottle/pot with warm water (they recommend sterilizing the water or using distilled, but I never have…I used to test that water afterall!) and add a packet of salt.  You tilt your head down towards the sink, stick the nozzle in your nostril, and lightly squeeze.  The warm water will travel from one side and drain out the other side.  Then you switch sides and repeat, lightly blowing your nose in between.  It feels a little odd at first, especially if you are one to plug your nose when you go underwater.  At this point, it reminds me of my vacations to the ocean; snorkelling with the fishies!  Depending what’s living up there, it can sometimes be surprising at what comes out!  Especially if you are sick or were working in the garden.  Ewww, gross, I know!

I’ve been using the rinse for a good 6 years now and I love it! (I realize that makes me sound like a total nerd with a pocket protector)  I rarely use OTC allergy medicines anymore (to be fair, I think those allergies have subsided quite a bit on their own…maybe my apartment was near a tree I was allergic to.).  Whenever I feel like my post nasal drip is ‘acting up’ I use the saline rinse and it’s fixed!  They recommend using it once daily, but I typically only use it when I feel the need; every two weeks and maybe more if I have a cold.  It’s helpful for the common cold if you can’t seem to get your nose unstuffed.  It helps to loosen up all that mucous so that you can blow your nose. I would proceed with caution if you are super plugged up though….the water sometimes can't get anywhere and will just come back out the same nostril it’s put into.

So, there is my TMI post for you.  If you haven’t cleaned out your nose the all natural way, I highly recommend giving it a squirt.  You might save yourself from spending a boatload on all of those OTC drugs.

The neti pot was even featured on Oprah by Dr. Oz.  So, it's got to be good!

Dr. Oz on the net pot

Project MCP - April

As promised, here are my April submissions for Project MCP.  The themes for May will be a bit challenging; I might have to ask for some help from my friends!

April Week 1: Showers/Wet

We finally got some afternoon rain mid-month and I got this shot of one of our many tulips in the yard. 

April Week 2: Shallow Depth of Field

DOF refers to what is in focus.  Shallow DOF means that only a small part of the subject is in focus.  I asked for Gilberts help with this one.  Nice nose, eh?

April Week 3: Blooming

This one was easy; we have tons of flowers blooming right now!  I just had to narrow it down.  I like that you could see the pollen on this tulip.

April Week 4: Get low

I took this photo lying on the ground in my living room.  It's the ceiling fan in motion.  I gave it a vintage process because I didn't really care for the true colors and thought this one looked cool.

Sweep Me off My Feet

One chore that I hate more than anything is vacuuming and mopping.  However, it’s the one thing that I feel really HAS to be done in our house.  With a dog that sheds year round and laminate floors throughout, there are always black tumbleweeds rolling around the house.  Not to mention, muddy paw prints, drool, dirt/leaves/pine needles andr whatever else can be tracked in from outside.  And that’s just from the dog.  Every Saturday I spend at least an hour or two vacuuming and then wet swiffering the floors.  I attempt to vacuum once during the week as well.  I try and look past chore and think about the workout I’m getting, but I still despise this weekly task.  So much so that I try and tell Gilbert that he needs start earning his keep and do some chores while we’re at work.  For some reason, that never works.

I had looked into the Roomba before but had a feeling that it wouldn’t be able to keep up with a hairy floor.  I was sure that it would get clogged as my regular vacuum does.  But one day I caught the tail end of a commercial for Mint.  Mint is an automatic floor sweeper and mop.  It uses washable microfiber cloths to sweep dirt and hair and wet mop your floors…..all while you do something else (like watch it!).  Mint got great reviews; especially from those who had a house full of laminate/hardwood floors and pets.  As the Mint website says, "Clean floors to your heart’s content without lifting a finger."  Sounds like my sort of thing!

 

So, after some consideration, that’s what I decided to purchase with my birthday money this year.  I thought about not getting it (Do I really NEED it?  Wouldn’t I rather use my money for a fun camera accessory?), but ultimately I decided that even if I didn’t need it, I wanted it!  It was my birthday money and I could buy whatever I wanted with it.  I thought that it would at least free up a little time so that I can play with all the camera accessories that I already have!  I don’t expect Max (yes, I named it) to completely take over my floor cleaning duties.  I’m sure I will have to pull out the vacuum and hand mop every once in awhile, but I think he will make the chore less of a chore for me if he does his job every day or so.  We’ll see.  In a few weeks I will give an update as to how Max is fitting in!

I don't Like Pinterest

There, I said it.  When I first heard about it, I didn’t really think it was something up my alley so it took me months to even check it out.  It wasn’t until I was in search of a new area rug and some artwork for the living room that I thought, ‘Hey, maybe this is what I can use Pinterest for.’  So, I added the few things I found at various online shopping sites to a Pinterest board I created.  Previously, these items were housed on my Amazon Wishlist (which worked perfectly fine for my purposes, by the way).  I browsed other people’s boards getting quite bored in the process.  I guess I really don’t care what craft projects others think might be fun.  I have repinned a few recipes, but the chances of me making them are slim (I did make one recipe but it didn't go over well).  I suppose if you are into crafts or love cooking or need inspirational ideas for things like a wedding it might make a lot of sense.  Or maybe I just need to follow people who have similar interests as me.  Cooking isn’t something I enjoy all that much and I like baking even less.  I don’t care to craft, and I don’t need to find projects to keep a 4 year old occupied.  Plus, my ‘to do’ list is long enough as it is.  Pinterest would just make me feel like my list is getting longer and longer each and every day.  Many of the projects that would interest me (redecorating the house or landscaping for example) require time and money I don’t have.  As if I don’t have enough pipedreams in my own head, now I am logging them to remind myself of the things I can’t have/will never be able to do?  Ha!  Why set myself up for failure?  I also don’t really like the idea of people knowing what I might be up to at any given time (I could make a whole post about Facebook ‘check-ins’ as well).  I’m not totally bashing Pinterest.  I can see how it can be useful to some people, but I’m just not one of those people.  I do have a feeling people spend more time browsing Pinterest and repining things than they actually do performing the projects they find there!  So, yeah, I’m perfectly happy doing Google searches if I’m looking for something and saving it to my Favorites/Bookmarks or my Amazon Wishlist.  In fact, I just googled "I hate Pinterest images" and found these:

Spring Flowers

Even though we have a yard full of perennials, we decided to buy some bulbs to add more flowers to it.  I love spring flowers but we had hardly any tulips or daffodils in our yard to satisfy my taste.  So, last fall we spent hours outside removing mulch, cutting weed barrier, digging holes, placing bulbs (the right side up), covering with dirt, watering, and replacing the mulch.  We planted just over 200 bulbs in four hours.  I'm happy to report that most of these bulbs have sprouted into beautiful flowers!  I love driving up our driveway now and seeing all of the yellow and red.  I love it so much I want more!

Favorite Things - Shutterfly Photobooks

I’ve been a faithful Shutterfly customer for five years now.  I started using this online photo printing site on recommendation from our wedding photographer.  That’s when I discovered the awesomeness of photobooks!  If you take a lot of pictures, you know how time consuming it is to print pictures and load them into a traditional photo album.  And it’s the worst when you realize you skipped a page and have to unload and reload the pictures again if you want to keep them in order.  By making a digital photobook you can avoid all of this.  It's so easy to swap photos back and forth and choose different layouts to fit one to multiple photos on a page.  You can even add stories and captions without the fear of making a writing mistake or having to see messy handwriting.  Making a photobook is sort of like scrapbooking, but without the mess.  I typically make a photobook for each vacation I take.  Sometimes, if there is a special deal, I will make a ‘year in review’ photobook too.  I really should get better at doing the latter though because it is nice knowing that you have a hardcopy of your favorite pictures.  And one of the best features of a photobook?  They take up a lot less space then a traditional album.  And who couldn't use a little more space?!

In the five years I’ve been making photobooks I’ve always been impressed with the quality and service of Shutterfly.  However, my last photobook….not so much.  I opened my book and the first thing I noticed was that the cover photo was crooked.  That’s a big error in my opinion.  I don’t want to display a book with a crooked front photo!  Without even opening the book I saw another error.  The book was brown; not the usual black that I order.  After looking back, I realized the color choise was my mistake.  I also found a spelling error inside.  Again, my error.  I knew there was a chance that here wasn’t much that could be done about my mistakes, but I contacted Shutterfly customer service about the unaligned front picture.  After sending a photo of the complaint they offered to reprint my order.  Great!  Except I really wanted to fix the cover color and the spelling error too.  I contacted them again to ask if there was any way I could fix a spelling error I found before reprinting (I didn’t mention the cover color since that really wasn’t that big of a deal…well, it was in my mind!).  Instead of just reprinting, they credited my account for the price I paid for the book along with the free shipping I originally received.  The credits have an expiration date two months away.  Awesome!  Not only do I get to fix everything I want, but I have almost 2 months to do it.  And I still get free shipping and don’t have to send the original photobook back.  Now that’s customer service!

If you’ve never made a photobook before, I highly recommend it.  It is a bit time consuming (especially if you are learning) and a tad pricey depending on the cover style you choose (Shutterfly always has sales, so just wait a few weeks until one pops up before ordering), but I think the final product is well worth it!

Crappy Photobook

Not Crappy Photobook

I realize now that the collage thing (with a white border) might not be the best idea for the front cover!