A Whole Lot of Nothing

While I am roasting in my air condition-less apartment, I am having fun perusing through new blogs and taking pictures around my apartment (while successfully avoiding writing a summary of an article for my English class tomorrow). Here are some fun things to share with you...

Cute DIY found here via here. I will be making some of these in the very near future.

I just changed up my table, I have so many vintage tablecloths I have to be sure to rotate them frequently. I'm sure that the butter is melting in the butter dish right now as I type, it is just too hot in here! I think I need to make a special trip to IKEA so I can get a jumbo pack of candle tapers for my candlestick. Yes, I  would make a trip just for that.

My buttercup mug and D.'s every growing collection of books.

Cute little notecard for someone's belated birthday package.

Strawberry Picking

This past Sunday D. and I decided that we wanted to get out and do something fun, so we headed over to Linvilla Orchards to go strawberry picking. I had only ever gone berry picking once before.

Yep, I'm the one being carried by my sister. We were going blueberry picking. It looks like I was just going along for the ride.

Anyway, back to Linvilla... D. and I had such a grand time here, they do fruit picking from late spring to early fall and I can't wait to go back for peach picking, yummy!

The farmer's market sold food, as you can see some very poor choices were made. What you cannot see is the bag containing half a dozen apple cider doughnuts. Man, those were good.

We took a "hayride" to get to the fields. It was really a pickup truck with some hay on the bed, but I liked it.

Before.

After.

They may be tiny, but they are oh so delicious. There is just something quite unnatural about the behemoth strawberries that you buy at the grocery store. Strawberries should not be the size of apples, very unnatural indeed.

D. proved to be an excellent picker (that is after I told him he should not be picking berries that were half white).

So long Linvilla, we'll see you in peach season!

We made steamed lemon pudding with our fresh picked strawberries. What a delight!

The Magic of Organic Apple Cider Vinegar

Whoo, hoo, "school's out for the summer..." Quick name that tune! Okay, well school is only out for me until Tuesday, I decided to take a summer class after all. But I am thoroughly enjoying this extra time I've had between finals and summer classes, mostly doing nothing but that is fine with me. I was perusing a new-to-me blog today (the velvet bird) and I came across the most interesting post about clearing up problematic skin with apple cider vinegar. Although I had pretty much perfect skin in my teens, it decided to act up in my 20s, much to my chagrin, so I am going to give this apple cider toner a try.

(buy me here)

Anyway, the post sparked an interest in apple cider vinegar and I began googling the benefits of this acidic stuff and let me tell you, it seems to be the cure for what ails ya'. Well not every ailment, I mean this isn't snake oil, but I do love finding out about natural remedies. It is important for the cider to be organic and raw (it contains the nutrients and bacteria not found in the clear apple cider vinegar that has been processed) and has been known to help with high blood pressure, cholesterol, problematic skin, diabetes, allergies, and arthritis.  Of course there isn't the necessary research for doctors to prescribe this as a treatment (and why would there be because then pharmaceutical companies wouldn't have anything to gain...) but I think it's worth a shot. Just be sure to dilute the ACV (through my googling I learned that is how all the in-the-know peeps refer to apple cider vinegar) with water, it is vinegar after all and highly acidic. ACV is inexpensive and can be found at most supermarkets and health food stores, go on google it for yourself I know you probably are just a teeny bit interested in this wonder vinegar.

Gag. Yuck, yuck!

I'm supposed to be writing out a lesson plan and rationale for my ed. psych class, but I needed to take a little break. I can't help but think of how pointless this assignment is since I changed out of my education major in the middle of my semester. Now I am forced to plod along in all of my education classes until finals, which thankfully are next week. Since I never plan on teaching I feel very unmotivated to create a lesson plan. Sigh, sigh, sigh. Back to the plan...