Well, well, well. We meet again.

It's the time of the year where I think I'll start blogging again... for a day or two. We'll see.
I'll just jump back into this like it ain't no thang.

So this last Monday morning I noticed little creepy-creeps around my back door. Ants. Grah! No me gusta. So I cracked open my handy homekeeping handbook and looked up how to eradicate pests, specifically ants. There are multiple solutions, and after observing the critters I deduced that the problem was relatively small. There wasn't a trail, only 4 or 5 wandering around. Research indicates these were 'scout' ants sent out to look for food. Goodness knows I couldn't let them get to the kitchen or we'd be done for.

First things first, I vacuumed errything. Like 5 times. And then I vacuumed some more. The carpet, the walls, the furniture, the baseboards, the corners, under the couches, window sills, the kitchen floor, under the appliances- it was exhausting. I also vacuumed about a cup-full of baby powder (to be 100% sure the ants are exterminated) lest the ants survive and start nesting in my Dyson. One could also just use regular corn starch, since that's actually what baby powder is, but without scent.

Then I got some hot, hot water, the hottest I could stand (I wore latex gloves for moderate protection) and bleach (1 part bleach to 10 parts water) and thoroughly scrubbed and wiped down every inch of the kitchen floor I could manage. Also exhausting. And mildly terrifying.

During this time, two or three more ants had reappeared by the back door. I vacuumed them up (and vacuumed a little more powder) and sprinkled a crap-ton more of the baby powder around my back door. I also noticed the door is in dear need of new weather-stripping.

I've heard about ants not liking cinnamon, and last summer I tried making a cinnamon barrier with little luck. My homekeeping handbook recommends sprinkling talcum powder to deter ants. Talcum isn't widely sold anymore as it's thought to be carcinogenic, so I used baby powder. The baby powder is going strong 2 days now. No more ants. And I have a lovely scented powder so when I vacuum, it leaves a lavender smell in the air.

Now all we need to do is instill some tidier cooking habits in our household.

I'm just going to leave this here:

Pizza!

Time Again For My Bi-Yearly Post

So yeah remember when I said I would post tomorrow about that raffle I won?
Well I blew it off and also the posting. Oh well.

It's Day Two of lent and Spencer and I are going strong without meat!
I'm considering making this a permanent change. Vegetarian has so many benefits (other than losing vitamin B12, but I take multi-vitamins, so whatever).

Also it was Valentines Day last week. Probably the least romantic Valentines ever lived, and I have slacked off worse than last year. I had been keeping a tradition of making a fun hand-made valentine every year, which broke slightly when last year I started to sketch one out and encountered artists' block. Then I sort of skipped over this year.

Karlie gave me a lovely simple and yet refreshing valentine along with a mix cd which inspired me to make a Valentine mix for her too.

Here's the track list, for those interested in checking out the songs. Disclaimer: there is a bonus track which comes from a band I love, and who is a guilty pleasure. Embarrassment ensuing.

1. Where Do You Go To (My Lovely) / Peter Sarstedt
2. Oh Yoko! / John Lennon
3. Dis A Ton Capitaine / France Gall
4. In The Orchard / Tiger Army
5. Silver Dagger / Dolly Parton (not a guilty pleasure, Dolly rocks!)
6. Stone Cold Dead In The Market / (I lost track of who sang this)
7. I'm So Young / The Students
8. She / Elvis Costello
9. Take It In / Hot Chip
10. One Life Stand / Hot Chip
*Bonus Track!* Now everyone will know my secret!
11. I Knew I Loved You / Savage Garden

All that aside, I'm a little proud of this mix. Except for the double hit by Hot Chip (I couldn't part with either song), I think it all flows very well together while still being a mix of very different sounds. I hope the two people that read this maybe seek out these songs and give them a try!

New Bike!

Ok up the street from where we live there is a cute little "shop" called The Recycled Bike and one time when Spencer ran an errand on our old Huffy Cruiser and the chain popped off, the owner of The Recycled Bike happened to be walking by and helped him with the chain and mentioned that The Recycled Bike did trade-ins in case we ever wanted a more city-appropriated vehicle and we do, so we traded it (that's the gist of the story anyway) and HERE IT IS!


Yep, right there in the background, mind the grainy quality (the only working camera we have right now is the one inside the iMac screen.)

ANYWAYS it's a sweet lemony yellow Schwinn Varsity (vintage) but in great condition, working gears (5-Speed, is that what it's called?) front and back breaks, and they cleaned it all up and oiled it and threw in a rack for free (I attached the milk crate with my extensive resourcefulness) and we still have a "credit" (I want a saddle-basket for when we eventually get another one in the future so Spencer and I can both ride together) from the guy, Mike, the owner and he was so friendly and helpful, SO happy I finally have a street-ready bike to start taking to work and whatnot and long-running sentennnnnnce!

The only thing is that the tires probably need to be replaced in about 3 or 4 months; they're coming to the end of their reign, but still got enough life in 'em. SO EXCITED.

And tomorrow, I'll tell you about a RAFFLE I won!

Finding The Right Chef

Spencer and I like to use the library a lot. We check out DVD's, I track down music, we read comics, fiction, non-fiction. We I get to thinking I need to know more about a hobby I might try out, how to care for finches or look up some weird history about Utah, I'll be at the library. And most often, we love to check out recipe books. (Ok, maybe comics and DVD's beat out how often we check out recipe books, but it's a close competition.)

We'll browse the titles, and pick out a few recipes, try them out, make some edits, maybe copy the page if we like it enough. And there are some authors that we love the most, namely Jamie Oliver "The Naked Chef," Sam Stern, who's kind of like the 16 year old version of Jamie Oliver and Charlie Ayers, who was hired to be like a personal-ish chef for the Google staff for many years.

The time has come, I think that Spencer and I have found a good round of books that fit our lifestyle and ought to be made permanent resources in our home. And I've realized that all this time we've watched the Food Network, browsed recipe books, and watched what our grocery budget goes to, it's all been adding up to the time we start having a somewhat basic recipe books of our own to shape our everyday diets. And these three authors cater to us the most.

I should mention Alton Brown. We love him. But more than love his recipes, I think we mostly treat him as the ultimate authority on how to cook what and why. I recommend you seek out anything with his name on it too.

Here's the round-up, the books we've gotten the best results from, are doable and make us realize we have more control we eat than we think and what we just all-around find the most useful:

+Anything by The Naked Chef, Jamie Oliver

+Sam Stern, who caters to my minimalistic, adolescent (but still so good) attitudes

+Charlie Ayers, who can make tasty food work for you

+Alton Brown, Food and Cooking Expert

+and recently, Anything by Martha Stewart, who has never yet led me astray while baking (this suggestion is mine alone since I'm the one who usually bakes out of the two of us).

So I suggest you look these people up, check out their books, try their recipes, listen to what they have to say about food and enjoy cooking. Like Robert Rodriguez said in one of his 10-minute cooking lessons on his DVD bonus features, you have to eat everyday, so why not make it something you love? Or something like that.

Until next time!~

Back in Black!

So it's 6 months through 2009 and I'm revisiting my new years resolutions. They were roughly to:

Live simply
Keep up my hobbies
Go back to school

How have I fared half-way through the year?

Well I haven't had the chance to go back to school just yet, however I do plan on being up at the U this fall.

Keeping up my hobbies. It's hard because this resolution kind of conflicts with my other resolution: to live simply. Obviously, the more hobbies you have, the more stuff you accumulate, and the more time and money spent doing different things. So I let some go.
I still sew but I don't thrift shop for fun and I scrapped almost all my old projects just because they'd been unfinished for years and I was no longer driven to finish them. I don't shop for clothes almost at all, and if I do, I donate or sell something I already had to try and maintain equilibrium. We plan our meals by the week and I stay on top of the groceries. I have a calendar system for bill paying. I've started finding a home for every knick-knack and if I can't find a place for it, then out it goes.

Simply put: less projects, less things, less clothes, less laundry, less cleaning, less money spent. More time for exercise, hanging out with friends, cleaning, preparing home meals and more time for the projects that are left and actually worthwhile!

However I still have have a ways to go. I'd like to be tighter on the laundry schedule, deep cleaning schedule and daily tidying but I'm at least to a place where I can do things like pick up exercising and cooking and holding 3 part-time jobs.

Cool, I'll be back in December! (Only hopefully sooner, lol)...

Oh Em Geez.

It's been a long time so I'll make this quick:

-Black Chandelier IS NO MORE.
Everyone was laid off, myself included, the store is shut down, the website has been suspended and I have effectively concluded my time with Nexia Holdings, Style Perfect, Black Chandelier and Dan Nappi. It is a RELIEF.

-I am on unemployment/seeking new employment.

-I am also seeking to return to school this fall.

-I have become utterly domestic. Cleaning, preparing dinner and a weekly sweet, it's all good.

-I got a haircut! It looks WAY good.

-WE FOUND SPENCER'S CAMERA.

Pictures to follow.