Before and After

Friday, July 6, 2012

MADE IN THE OCEAN: SHRIMPS

Crazy crustacean design.

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Cleaner shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis). Credit: Lonnie Huffman via Wikimedia Commons.

Fire shrimp (Lysmata debelius). Credit: Haplochromis via Wikimedia Commons.

Armed nylon shrimp (Heterocarpus ensifer). Credit: NOAA Ocean Explorer.

Snow-capped shrimp (Periclimenes venustus). Credit: Richard Ling via Flickr.

Harlequin shrimp (Hymenocera picta). Credit: Chad Ordelheide via Wikimedia Commons.

Unidentified shrimp. Credit: David Burdick / NOAA via Flickr.

Pederson's clearner shrimp (Periclimenes pedersoni). Credit: Becky A. Dayhuff / NOAA via Flickr.

Sea star shrimp (Periclimenes soror). Credit: Richard Ling via Flickr.

Pregnant anemone shrimp. Credit: rtonyr via Flickr.

Pederson's cleaner shrimp (Periclimenes pedersoni). Credit:
LASZLO ILYES via Wikimedia Commons

One healthy change we made years ago was that we grind our own grain into flour. My Mom started this about 12 or so years ago so when I got married, I made sure to get my own grinder too!

I buy organic whole wheat and organic red wheat.

This is my grinder.

It is called The Kitchen Mill from K-TEC. I don't remember why we bought this one but I like.

We grind a lot of flour at once and then freeze it so it stays fresh.

I don't bake a lot because I don't like to and I don't really think I am good at it so we do not make our own bread. I know people would ask me that, lol! I wish I did but I buy the organic bread from Trader Joes. I use my flour for things like pancakes, waffles, etc.

I buy the grain in bulk. As you can see, I have two 25 pounds buckets. They last a really long time and we store them in the basement.

I honestly don't remember where we ordered them from. I usually have my mom order it for me when she places an order.

Do you grind your own grain?

Do you bake?

What is your favorite thing to make?

Have a great day!

Bonnie :)

Simple Summer Decorating

Hello! I hope that you all had a great 4th of July!! We saw the fireworks, grilled out, swam and hung out with friends and family! I will show you some photos soon.

What did you do? Did you travel?

Since I have been busy with a newborn, I haven't done much decorating but I love shells in the summer time so I did some simple, summer decorating!

Simple Summer Decorating

Here, I just placed this sand dollar out and I love it! I bought this from a garage sale for only 50 cents! So it's cheap too!!

It's just the right touch of summer!

I also really like the silver and blue accents!

I bought those Pottery Barn candle sticks at a garage sale for a fraction of the price and spray painted them silver. (They were gold.)

I also added so shells into this candle holder.

The glass Pottery Barn holder was only $10 from a garage sale. I also bought the shells at a garage sale for only a couple of dollars.

Some of the shells are from our family vacations that we saved.

Are you decorating you house this summer?

What do you use to decorate?

What are your "summer colors"?

Do you like decorating with shells?

Have a great day!

Bonnie :)

Summer cleaning? Disinfect naturally with Basic G!

THE MOTION OF A UNIVERSE

After two weeks hiking in the high Sierra, the speed of this video—set to the words of Nikola Tesla—appealed to me.
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Passing Through from Olafur Haraldsson on Vimeo.

Pressure Washing your House Naturally with Basic H

Well, it was that time of year again, the time where we need to pressure wash our house again. We usually do it once or twice a year. Since we live kind of close to several ponds, we get a LOT of bugs! It makes our house look like a haunted house a year, lol!

I wanted to share this post with you because several people have asked me what I use to wash my house. You will probably not be surprise that I use Basic H for this.

I upgraded to the large bottle this time since we have been gardening and for the fact that we go through this stuff more than most people. I even bathe my kids in it. Oh yes, now you think I am totally crazy! Don’t you? Well, I wasn’t even go to tell you that but I started telling some friends and they loved that idea and was so glad that I told them. Ha, I was embarrassed by that and yet, it makes sense. It is organic (so it won’t harm us), it cleans my kiddos (I do use it too) and it cleans the bath at the same time. I have NEVER had to clean soap scum in my bath!!! NEVER!!!! Which is nice because I don’t have time to do that anyway and then I don’t have to worry about chemicals left around the tub and then the kids soaking in them.

Anyway, back to this post. This is what I used…

I also used our pressure washer that we got on clearance last fall for $100. If you are looking to get one, hopefully clearance will start soon!!

This is what our house looked like before…I told you it was nasty!

We (I mean my husband, lol) just put some Basic H in the pressure washer and got to work. It took of ALL the disgusting stuck on bug poop too and that stuff is was caked on and is usually hard to remove!