What Can YOU Do Wednesday?

"Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you." -Lao Tzu

"We don't need to increase our goods nearly as much as we need to scale down our wants. Not wanting something is as good as possessing it." -Donald Horban

Above are a few quotes that I found today that I really enjoyed.

I saw much truth in them.

We continue to want more.

But what do we really need?

How many things are in your home that are there for the simple fact that you wanted them?

More than I can count are lingering in the closets and cabinets of my home.

These things are just sitting there wishing they were with someone who would actually use them instead of just gawking at them.

I'm tired of being this person who wants.

I'm tired of being this person who sees my wants more than I see others needs.

It must be changed.

I'm going to spend the next couple of weeks taking apart each room in my home and giving away many of my wants.

I'm not doing this to make myself feel better.

I'm doing this to help someone else.

Who NEEDS 20 jackets? 40 pairs of shoes?

So I encourage you to downsize to take a few of the things that you want and give them to someone in need.

I will try and post as I get rid of things so you can help me give these things away if you know someone in need of them :)

Happy "keep chuggin' along, you're halfway through" day!!!!!

Sewing Excursions

I was laying on the couch tonight feeling like I needed to get up and do something.

So I did.

And an hour later this is how it turned out.......


I'm getting much better at this sewing stuff. I didn't even use a pattern for this, just my noggin.

Yay for a fun bag/purse! :)

I also made a few napkins yesterday morning when Jenny came over before church. Super easy. I decided they needed a little something so I thought why not try and embroider them, it turned out ok.

Could be better but I'm just using them to wipe my spaghetti face so they don't have to be perfect.

I can't wait to see what else my little sewing machine can produce!

Ready For The Weekend

So the next two weekends are full of fun things to keep me busy and they can't get here soon enough.

This weekend I have some of my favorite people in the world coming to Denton. Jenanabelle, Ranie Dawn and Mike T will be here on Friday to help support one of our close friends from high school.

He plays in the Boyce Edwards Band check them out. They're really great and they will be playing at Rbar. So, if you don't have anything planned on Friday night and you'd like to hear some good Texas country come join us!

Next up, Saturday morning I will be heading to Dallas to meet with Mitzi and the other bridesmaids to try on dresses (woo!) and then to have lunch with the girls. I'm always so happy when I get to spend time with these girls. It's not very often even though I'm only 30 minutes away... school and work keep me entirely too occupied.

Saturday evening is the UNT vs. Middle Tennessee starting at 7 I think. If anyone would like to join in on this tailgating fun (lord knows we probably won't win, that doesn't mean it can't be fun :) please don't hesitate to let me know I'd love to get a group together!

Next weekend I have two super fun things planned! First, THE ERIN TOBIN will be in town!!! What? Really? Yes, I know I'm totally excited! I cannot wait to see this sweet face and catch up with one of the greatest ladies! I love her!

Then on Sunday little Miss Jenny and I will be heading to the DIY wedding clinic to get ideas for her fall wedding next year. I can't wait to see all the fun things I can learn! Plus, Jenny's like the cats pajama's AKA funness.

So I obviously have some busy weekends coming up and I couldn't be more excited. Now just to get through the school and work part.

Off to a lab.

Late lovelies!

What Can YOU Do Wednesday?

I was at Jenny's house last night when she asked me, "How do you clean the sink when it's stained without using bleach?"

Well, I did a little green research and this is what I came up with...

You will need lemons and baking soda.

Make a paste with it.

And then apply the mixture to the sinks and scrub.

Let sit for a few minutes. Rinse. Repeat if necessary.

As simple as that. :)

Hope that helps lady!

Happy 'it's the middle of the week' day! Yay!

What Can YOU Do Wednesday?

Lately I've been really analyzing ways to simplify life. I've briefly touched on this subject before... HERE

It's come up in many ways in my life lately.

Aren't we all just too complicated?

I am.

I don't want to be but I am.

In a class last week we discussed a village in Brazil that was perfectly happy with their way of life.

Which included grass huts, loin clothes and food that they gathered themselves each day.

Obviously, this is the extreme of simplicity.

I'm positive that I don't want to be that simple.

But what really got under my skin is that a group of Americans went over to Brazil and tried to "fix" this village.

They didn't believe the clothes they were wearing were appropriate, they saw them as being unfortunate.

They wanted to show them that you don't have to work everyday for your food but instead you can get it in bulk.

And that although those straw huts are nice they aren't as reliable and as grand as the ones that they could build them.

There we go, the nosy Americans trying to push our way of life onto another culture.

There we go, acting like our way is better.

There we go, thinking that our way is the only way.

Who are we?

These people where completely happy before we stepped in.

And in this world where we are trying to reduce a person's footprint on the environment we go over to a perfectly happy group of people and change their world and increase their footprint.

I'm not saying that they shouldn't have nice things in life, especially if they were unhappy with the way their life was. But they weren't.

I think that we should have went there trying to learn something from them.

I think that if we would have shut our mouths and looked and listened a little harder we would have seen that simplicity is grand.

That you can be happy in spite of material things.

That perhaps we need less than we think.

That we can decrease our effect on the environment.

That if we didn't require so many resources (extra, not needed resources) to take care of our spoiled butts we wouldn't have to work such long days and that we could enjoy our families and our friends much more.

Of course that village is happier!

They take a few hours a day to gather the things they NEED and spend the rest enjoying their family.

So what can YOU do?

Simplify your life.

Quit thinking you NEED all these THINGS and instead realize it's just you wanting them. Reanalyze what you have to have and what you can do without.

It's as easy as that.

I hope to have more 'simplicity' posts coming soon.

We start a new series at church next Sunday and I'm eager learn more and more about this subject.

Weekend With Daddy :)

So this past weekend was spent with one of my favorite people in the world, my Daddy.

I always enjoy our time together.

The rain put a slight damper on our weekend but we didn't let it keep us down.

I took off work Friday so we could spend the day together. (Thanks for working for me Jenny :)

We went to the bookstore to pick up my school books (I really haven't needed them the past two weeks, but it's now getting to the point that I do.) and Daddy decided to pick up a few Plato books of his own.

We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening looking around in Grapevine and then back to Denton for dinner and then to Best Buy where I picked up a few CD's. One of which is now my new favorite, Matt Nathanson.

Saturday brought much rain, but we didn't complain. We decided to head back to Grapevine where we had noticed the day before that there was a big BBQ cookoff at Bass Pro.

But of course had only brought an umbrella and no rain gear which was indeed in need.

Lucky for me Bass Pro carries a wide range of rain gear.

Of course the cheap stuff was sold out because everyone seemed to have the same idea.

So after spending $86 on rain gear I was then ready to hit the cookout.

Some very good BBQ was sampled and we saw some very unique pits. Including an 18 wheeler and Mickey Mouse.

My Daddy used to make BBQ pits for fun when I was growing up and we used to have this huge pit in our yard that looked exactly like an old tractor it had wheels and even a seat. We decided that we definitely would have had one of the coolest BBQ pits there if we'd have entered the contest. I'm not sure about our BBQ though.

After a couple of hours at the cookout we'd had all the BBQ we could handle and made our way to downtown Fort Worth.

I have never been down to the stockyards and my Daddy hasn't been since the '90's.

It poured on us the entire time we were there. But somehow I didn't even notice. This is where I decided the $86 investment in rain gear was definitely well worth it.

We looked around for a while and enjoyed all the history the town has to offer before heading back to Denton, ordering a pizza and relaxing at the house.

All in all I had a great weekend and I'm thankful for our time together. :)

What Can YOU Do Wednesday?

Today's What Can YOU Do Wednesday? Is going to be short and sweet since I'm on my way from one class to another.

So what can you work on this week to become the green queen?

So simple.

Be tree-free!

It's just like it sounds, go without using trees. (Or work on cutting down how much you use/relay on tree made products.

A few quick examples....

- use cloth napkins

- purchase bleach free toilet paper

- print documents on recycled paper (and use the back side of paper)

- leave messages on reusable boards instead of notepads

The list could go on and on.

I challenge you to get rid of one thing in your home that is tree made and you use a lot of.

Try to find another alternative.

Not only are you saving our forests but I guarantee you will save money too!

Happy Wednesday to ya!

A Long Way To Go...

So above is the quilt I have been attempting to make.

Yes, I know it doesn't look like much but I haven't been spending anytime on it.

Before last night it was literally just the four middle squares.

It's now roughly the size of a pillowcase.

I'm going to try to devote more time to working on it because it's honestly not too hard once you get the hang of it.

I'm anxious to see the finished product and hope it'll be done in time to cuddle up with in the late fall chilly months. :)

Will You Be...

It's been about a month since I received this cute little gift from Princess Mitzi and I'm just getting around to posting about it.

"Poodle (that's what her nickname is for me :), There are many pieces to planning a wedding, this one involves you.... put the puzzle together for a special message. Love You! Mitzi"

Hmm.....


Finally, after putting together this challenging puzzle at our Cheesecake Factory lunch I read, "Will you be....my bridesmaid?"

And I said, "No." lol

J/K I can't wait to help my bestie Mitz plan for wedding and see her and Danny begin their lives together.

P.S. Wasn't this such a cute way to ask?

Throwback Thursday

First semester, freshman year with Lacee Lou :)

The new semester has started.

And I have to admit I'm stuck somewhere in the middle of wanting to get out and enjoying where I'm at.

It's no secret that it's taken me a little longer to get through my schooling.

I've had some up's and down's and I'm thankful that I've had wonderful parents that stuck through them with me and still support everything I do.

I do know that it's time to move on and that's what I'm working hard to do.

But since it's the first of the semester I find myself remembering the beginning.

The first year, the first semester the first time away from home.

It became more and more clear to me when my younger cousin (who is a new freshman on campus) came over for dinner last week.

She was so excited about dorm life and her new roommate.

Things I remember being excited about, minus dorm life. I got lucky enough not to have to live in a dorm.

But mostly it reminded me of how young I was and how much happens and changes you in your short lived college years (or in my case long lived college years.;)

At 18, I new it all. I needed to get out of the house and away from parents. I needed to be on my own and making my own decisions. Decisions that I was positive were easy to make.

Now at 23, I realize that some of the choices I made were not the right ones. And some of them were just part of growing up.

I do remember my freshman year being more fun than I imagined college life would be.

It was one of the most carefree times in my life when freedom took over and self control didn't much exist.

You live....you learn.

The one thing that I wish I could tell my cousin and have her truly believe is that this person you are now, she won't exist in 5 years.

It's something you learn on your own though.

You become more aware of your choices.

More aware of who you are and who you one day hope to be and you act on it.

More aware of others and not so much yourself.

More aware of family and how much they are the center of it all.

It's so amazing how much you change in such a short span of time.

It makes me excited to see where the next 5 years take me and what my thoughts will be on my life now. :)

Happy Thursday!

50 & Fabulous!

Can you believe this beautiful women is 50?

I can't.

Just last night I told her she easily passes for 40, so don't worry. ;)

I'm very blessed to have such a great women in my life.

Whether it's the big things like teaching me how to tie my shoes and stand up for myself or the little things like sending me sweet "have a great day" texts each afternoon before I head to work, she's always there.

I hope that you have the greatest 5oth birthday Momma, you deserve it!

I can't wait to see you on Friday and spend a few days chatting about everything and nothing.

I love you more and more each day.

Happy Birthday Momma!

What Can YOU Do Wednesday's?

Previous topics covered on What Can YOU Do Wednesday's?

Remember this guy?

Wasn't he so sweet and enlightening?

Well I'm here to say that real crickets, the ones that keep surfacing in my home are nowhere near as great as Ole Jiminy.

In fact, I have been in slight distress over crickets for the last month.

I've played the nice guy. I've used the mason jar and lid to scoop them up and free them outside.
I'm convinced that I only have one cricket.

I think he knows the one way to get into my apartment and greets me each day in my living room.

So I'm now in a dilemma cuz I really really want to just spray some pesticide and let him run away and die.

But after spending the last couple years taking toxic chemicals out of my house I just can't seem to go out and purchase a can of poo and spray it in my home.

So I did a little research and all google/books lead to any kind of mint oil.

Recipe is something like 1 tsp peppermint/pennyroyal/spearmint oil and 1 cup water and spray around baseboards, doors and any openings in home.

I'm going to do this tomorrow.

I know this seems like something so small and you're probably thinking it's really not a big deal.

But I'm a strong believer in taking anything toxic out of your home and replacing it with something natural.

Not to mention that the essential mint oils are around the same price as pesticides if not cheaper and last much longer since it's more concentrated.

Please, check if there are any natural remedies for home pests before you go out and purchase something that has chemicals that are harmful to you and your family.

:)