Young Living Essential Oils, eBay and a Healthy Eating Update

It's another nice day! This week has been the first week it's really felt like spring everyday. And with the time change, it stays lighter outside longer, too. It's been getting us really excited to start spending more time outside and working on outdoor projects. Who else is with me??

In the mean time though - yesterday I spent the day in Bloomington, Illinois for another work conference. This one was more informational than anything. A selection of holistic veterinarians gave presentations about holistic health and Young Living Essential Oils. I haven't had any experience with essential oils before, but I learned a lot about them at the conference.

These oils are derived from natural herbs, and they can assist in numerous health issues. They work both physically and psychologically. Some can have calming properties, some can give you energy, some can give you confidence. Others (peppermint, for example) have heating and cooling properties, and can assist if you're having a fever. Most are so potent, all you need is one drop.

Young Living is the best on the market by far, for essential oils, or so I'm told. Everyone I talked to said that there weren't really any other brands out there that compared. YL's oils are the purest of their kind, and they're selected from the best sources all over the world.

Since Trent and I have started kind of a detox for the past week, I decided to get a couple of oils and try them out. When I got back from the conference I bought a couple of bottles on eBay for cheaper than you can get on the website, so I can't wait to get them and try them out. I decided to try the Lavender and Peppermint to start. Lavender is one of the most versatile oils, and can have different effects depending on where you apply it on the body. It can be calming and relaxing, or it can give you energy. Plus, it smells good! 

Left: Lavender - from here                Right: Peppermint - from here

Peppermint can improve concentration and digestion, and it's very potent, so one drop is definitely all you'd need. I also bought a little sample 1 ml bottle of Valor, and a bottle of Thieves hand soap. They had this soap in the bathroom at the conference, and it smelled so good! The next thing I want to buy is the Thieves household cleaner. I just love that scent. Thieves is a blend of herbs with healing properties, so there are a bunch of hygiene and cleaning products available with this scent. Valor is strengthening and empowering. I'm getting a small sample of this, since I've never smelled it before, but thought it'd be cool to try. 

So crazy to think that these smells can literally change your mood and have an effect on you psychologically. I've never really been into aromatherapy before, but these vets swear by the oils and use them in their practices. They're not only for human use, but can be used for animals, too. I thought about Saleen during some of the talks, and how we can even use the oils to enhance her health and mood. Young Living actually has a whole line of products for pets, which is pretty cool. I'm excited to get my oils in the mail and start using them! 

Speaking of getting things on eBay, I'm continuing to sell old clothes, wallets, etc. on eBay. I've netted about $115 during March alone, but of course with shipping costs, I've only profited about half of that. That's not bad though, considering that's around 20 items that I've sold this month, and if I would have put them in a yard sale, I maybe would've made only 25 cents to $1 for each item. So, it may take a little more work to get each item to the end destination, but I'm also making a few more bucks for each item, too. And I'm slowly but surely cleaning out my closet! And what doesn't sell, we might have a yard sale in the summer, then I'll probably take what's left to Goodwill. I still have yet to sell anything on Threadflip, so I will probably discontinue trying on there and just stick to eBay, which has been 1,000 times more successful for me!

And a little update about our healthy eating cleanse - as you may know, last weekend Trent and I picked up a bunch of healthy foods to start adding to our diets. We've been trying to detox a little, stay away from processed foods a little more and eat more natural and fresh food. Trent has gallstones, but hasn't gone to the doctor yet, and is trying to see what he can do for it naturally and by changing his eating habits first. He has been doing a lot better just by changing his diet, and he feels a lot better, too. I'm proud of him for changing his diet so fast, and we're trying to make it a habit and continue the healthy eating.

Yesterday, Trent sent me these photos during lunch time:

Those are shrimp bites, but it could be worse. It's a lot better than bacon, or those horrible Chef Boyardee cans or frozen burritos he used to eat. Mixed with Bell peppers, avacado, and "veganaise". Ha. It looks like a lot of food to me, but hey, at least it's healthy.

We've both been drinking tea, and Trent hasn't drank any beer in a week. We'll see how it goes with the healthy eating I guess, before seeing a doctor about the gallstones. If they get worse at all, he will have to go to a doctor, but he says that they're a lot better than they were a week ago. Apparently, Trent's sister and mom had both had gallstones, and had to get their gall bladders removed. But they hadn't done anything about it or changed their diets, and Trent's sister even had them for two years before getting something done about it. So, I guess we'll play it by ear! I'm not sure how long they normally last, but I'm hoping he doesn't have any issues by the time the wedding rolls around... 

My Birthday Weekend: More Wedding Stuff, and Other Random Adventures

It's been a few days, I know. The last couple of nights our internet was acting up, and then there was the Bachelor finale on Monday that had me glued to the TV for 3 hours....Yay Whitney! Was rooting for her the whole time..wonder why ;) haha.

We had a pretty busy weekend. Of course, Friday was my 27th birthday. I worked all day, but that night we went out to eat with my parents at Thunder Bay Grille, a place I had never been before but have been wanting to try for a while. It's kind of a seafood/steakhouse restaurant. But they had a variety, and I even had a few pastas to choose from. I got the pesto pasta, and we each tried a dessert. Trent and I both got the tiramisu...which was amazing!

The night would not have been complete without some photos of us all to remember my birthday night! Not the most flattering lighting (for me anyway), but we got a couple of decent ones.

The next day Trent and I went shopping in the cities all day. We started the day out at the Antique Fair that was taking place at the Expo Center. I have been to one of these before, and everything was really nicely displayed in each individual booth, but they bring their best stuff to these shows! And you know what that means...lots and lots of variety, but everything is pretty pricey. It was no different at this one.

We saw several cake stands, but they were all more than I wanted to pay, and most were too small. These two were $68 and $58. A little more than I want to spend for a cupcake display at my wedding.

This booth got the award from me for the sparkliest...look at all that crystal! It was so shiny I didn't want to look away. So I took a picture so I wouldn't be the weird person staring at the shiny crystal all day. I can stare at it at home now. :)

This was one of the weirdest items I think I saw that day:

A cigar holder? Never heard of it. Then there was this really cool gold bull statue I told Trent he needed to have for his dresser. (He is a Taurus ya know). He disagreed, though.

One of the coolest things I saw was this blue glass poodle:

How in the heck do you make one of those?? That booth had colored glass everything.

The idea was that Trent was going to buy me something at the antique fair for my birthday, but even with all of the booths and thousands of items there, I didn't find anything I absolutely wanted or needed, so he just took me make-up shopping instead! We went to Beauty Brands, which I had never been to before, and I got some nail polish and an eye shadow palette. This one, to be exact:

(Image from here)

It's the Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bar palette from Too Faced, and I'm loving it so far. Thanks, Trent! :) We also went shoe shopping at DSW, and I got a couple new pairs of dress shoes for work. I have another conference to go to on Saturday, and I've been wanting new dress shoes, since I hate wearing tall heels. The new shoes I got have smaller wedge heels, so they're more comfortable and most likely won't make my feet sore at the end of the night. (Gotta be all about comfort at work conferences, ladies, let me tell ya!)

We then went to the mall where we did a little more suit shopping for the wedding. I say "suit" now because Trent is fairly certain he wants to buy a suit instead of renting a tux. And...he wants a navy blue one. Which I was a little scared about at first, but seeing it on, it didn't really look that bad. Maybe with a different vest, but this one at JCPenney actually made me kind of open up to the blue suit idea....

We're still going to keep looking a little, but we tried some different tie and vest colors, etc, just to start getting some ideas. So we're starting to narrow it down some.

We ate at one of my favorite places afterward - Panera. Love it. Does anyone else pick out all the onions from their sandwiches, or am I the only weird one that does that? Just me? Ok.

Trent's been having stomach/side pains, and he thinks he has gallstones. We've done some research, and he's fairly certain. And it's not pretty. But, he refuses to go to the doctor, because he's stubborn like that. He's passing them though and has been feeling better the last couple of days. We're trying to eat healthy together before the wedding, so we're doing a detox and trying to introduce more fresh foods into our diets like fruits and veggies, and eating more organic. We got groceries Saturday night, and this was our haul:

Trent's been cooking a little with the organic apple cider vinegar, and even drinking a little mixed with apple juice and lemon juice. We've also been eating greens every night, like green beans, asparagus, and peas. We're taking multi-vitamins, Trent's trying a couple of supplements, and I've been getting more into green tea. There's some weird stuff in there, but Trent is much more adventurous food-wise than I am! Kefir and Kombucha? Don't think I'm ready to try those things yet...

In other news, I'm still selling my old clothes and stuff on eBay, and March has been pretty successful for me so far! I've sold a ton of things already, and I'm almost running out of packing and shipping material...

Oh, and I did end up finding a couple of new cake stands for the wedding at Marshall's for $12.99 each. Compared to those at the antique fair, this was a much more reasonable deal, and they have a vintage/antique look to them, too! I think the mismatched cake stands will look pretty cool with all of our cupcakes on top.

So that was my weekend-slash-week. This coming weekend is the St. Patrick's Day parade and festivities, but I will be at a another work conference in Bloomington, Illinois all day on Saturday, so this may be the first year in a while that we'll have to miss it! Trent is wanting to stay home and get some rest, too, since he hasn't been feeling the greatest lately. Another week, and more adventures! Always something new....on the bright side, it's been feeling like SPRING this week! Hallelujah, I thought it would never come.

You Know You're Old When...

• You look forward to the weekend so you can "get things done around the house" like laundry, dusting and the dishes.
• You research and get excited to grow flowers in the yard.
• You've resorted to selling things on eBay for some fun and excitement in your life.
• You decide to go to an antique fair for your birthday.
• You're almost the same age as your parents were when they had you.

Image from here

My life exactly. I'm officially 27 today. Happy Birthday to me. :) Going out to eat with Trent and my parents tonight, and of course, an antique fair tomorrow. Can't contain my excitement!

Dusty Miller: The Ever Popular Accent for Bouquets

Yesterday I blogged about preparing to grow our own DIY wedding flowers, and all of the flower gardening tips I acquired over this past weekend. But there was one plant I completely forgot about - Dusty Miller.

Image from here

The lecture I went to at the conference didn't mention this plant - maybe because it's more like a shrub than a flower? But I love it's silvery gray color, and it creates the perfect soft accent to a lot of popular wedding flowers.

Image from here

Image from here

I don't know a lot about growing it, but if it's available in our area this spring or summer, I definitely want to plant some. I know the florist is planning on including some in our bouquets, but since we are DIY'ing our own centerpieces for the reception, I definitely think we need to remember to include accent leaves and foliage like Dusty Miller to keep things looking amazing...don't you?

Image from here

Here are a few facts I found online about Dusty Miller:

• Can be annuals or perennials
• Low maintenance and easy to grow
• Drought tolerant
• Deer resistant
• Does best in full sun - can become "leggy" in shade
• Disease and pest resistant
• Plant early in the season
• Grows yellow flowers that people often cut off
• Grows 10-18 inches tall
• Plant 10-12 inches apart - will tolerate a little crowding.

Overall it seems like a pretty easy plant to grow and maintain. And it looks incredible mixed with pink florals. I even think it looks super simple and amazing with Baby's breath:

Image from here

Super excited to try my hand at growing some of these flowers and plants this summer!

The Wedding Flower Planning Continues

So I have the day off work today due to the freezing rain we got this morning. And that means I can spend part of the day doing some things for the wedding. As we progress toward the big day (under 6 months now!), there's still lots more to be done. Which brings me once again to: Flowers. I've shared some of my initial flower ideas for the wedding, and then even more ideas after we met with the florist. The florist will be making all of our bouquets, but I'll be putting together most of the centerpieces for the reception. And we're planning on growing most of our own flowers. Call me crazy, but we're up to the challenge. We like to do a little DIY'ing every once in a while ya know. So now, even though it's still winter, spring is nearing closer and closer, and it's time to start thinking about what flowers we're going to plant and continue planning.

This past weekend, I actually attended a lecture at my work conference in La Crosse about Organic Flower Farming. I'm kind of a newbie when it comes to flower gardening, and this wasn't "Flower gardening 101," but I definitely left with some new information about a few different flower varieties - what's really easy to grow, what's not as easy, etc., along with some general growing and harvesting tips.

The presentation was given by Doug and Robin Trott of Prairie Garden Farm in Minnesota. Here are some of the general tips I learned from their lecture:

• Planting more is better than planting less.
• One person can successfully manage one acre of flowers.
• The average retail price per stem is 90 cents.
• Plant woody perennials in late April.
• You can use a hand torch to quickly make holes in landscaping fabric for seeds.
• A few good tools for harvesting flowers are an apron, #32 rubber bands, an ARS cutter, and a grass knife.
• To get long stems on flowers, cut down as far as you can, which may mean sacrificing other bulbs.
• You may need to net flowers to protect them from storms and high winds.
• Things to consider when deciding what flowers to plant: day-length, germination light/heat/cold, plant spacing, pest control, soil pH, seasonal, toxicity.
• Most flowers like high acidity.
• For long stems, 24"-36" is an ideal length, but 18" also works.
• Woody perennials (peonies, hydrangeas) make good fillers.

The most interesting part for me though, was when they discussed various individual flower varieties. Here are my notes for some of these:

Left: Madame Butterfly Snapdragon - from here        Right: Hydrangea - from here

Antirrhinum majus (Snapdragon) - A hardy annual. Plant 4 inches apart (6" by 4"), always put netting on. Early bloomers. The "Madame Butterflies" are stunning and fragrant. Great article by Robin on these here.

Hydrangea - Make sure there's plenty of water in the soil in early spring. These like shade.

Left: Lilies - from here        Right: Lisianthus - from here

Lilium (Lilies) - Can plant Oriental bulbs in crates inside first. Best under shade from June to September to prevent sun scald of buds and leaves.

Eustoma grandiflorum (Lisianthus) - Tender annual. Can plant in early May. Seeds very slow, good candidate for purchased plugs. Use support netting. Space at 6" by 3". Water can spot petals, especially purple.

Left: Dahlia - from here        Right: Celosia - from here

Dahlias - These are "tubers" (like potatoes). Plant in April - May. Usually start producing in September. Take a long time to grow. Bug magnets. Can't do these organically because of all the bugs they attract. Use support netting or staking.

Celosia argentum - Heat-loving annual. "Hi-Z" is a hot pink color. Plant in June. Space 6" by 6". Use support netting.

 

Left: Gomphrena - from here        Right: Campanula Medium - from here

Gomphrena - These were one of their failures last year. A tender annual, loves heat. Blooms in Aug-Sept. Plant rows a foot apart.

Campanula medium - They like the Champion series. These are an annual, space at 6" by 6".

Left: Yarrow - from here        Right: Sweet pea - from here

Achillea millefolium (Yarrow) - Blooms early in the season.
Lathyrus odoratus (Sweet pea) - fragrant, early in the season. Bloom through summer. There is a heat tolerant brand available. Plant with vertical netting (8' to climb on) at 46" apart.

Left: Stock - from here         Right: Black-eyed Susans - from here

Matthiola (Stock) - Annual, doesn't tolerate heat. 'Katz' has great colors.
Rudbeckia hirta (Black-eyed Susans) - Perennial, space at 12" by 12". Susceptible to 'Aster Yellows'. Varieties include "Indian summer", and "Cherokee sunset."

Left: Veronica - from here        Right: Dianthus 'Sweet William' Mix - from here

Veronica - A hardy perennial - planted 12" by 9" or 12" by 12". Good variety is "Blue shades." Can tolerate a lot of weed pressure.
Dianthus - For annuals, "Sweet Williams" is a good variety (space at 12" by 6"). For perennials, "Pinks" are good (space at 12" by 12").

 

Left: Marigolds - from here       Right: Zinnias "Queen Red Lime" - from here     

Tagetes Erecta (Marigolds) - Tender annual. Space at 12" by 12". Fragrance is in the foliage. Good varieties are "Jedi" and "Babuda."
Zinnias - A Tender annual. Long stems, need to sacrifice buds. Don't like the cold. Very susceptible to bacteria. Varieties include "Queen lime", "Queen red lime", and "Benary's giant".

Left: Ammi magus - from here        Right: Sunflowers - from here

Ammi magus (Queen Anne's Lace) - An annual. Space at 12" by 12". Pick long! Multiple blooms per stem. (Look for similar flowers along the roadsides!)
Helianthus annuus (Sunflowers) - An annual. Can succession plant. Can be branching, non-branching, or pollenless. Space non-branching at 12" by 6" and branching at 12" by 12". Support them with netting.

Of course what we grow also depends on which flowers will still be blooming in August. So, while at the conference, Ruth Holliday, a lovely lady who's the wife of our consulting veterinarian and an avid gardener, helped me narrow down some of the choices and gave me lots of ideas for flowers that would be good for an August wedding. These were her choices along with a few tips (many of these are already listed above):

• Linneas
• Snapdragons (come in already-grown pots)
• Zinnias
• Marigolds (good to bring in yellow)
• Dahlias (Buy tubers and put in as soon as you can - right after the last frost. "Karma" good variety)
• Carnations
• Asparagus Fern (Can buy pots. Do well in shade)
• Black-eyed Susans
• Cosmos (come in pink)
• Ornamental sunflowers
• Baby's Breath
• Celosia
• Queen Anne's Lace

From left to right: Carnations, Linneas


From left to right: Baby's Breath, Asparagus fern

So, though I wasn't expecting it, I got tons of good flower gardening tips over the weekend, and I even brought home a free bag of organic fertilizer and some free sunflower seeds. I'd say I'm almost ready to get planting our Wedding flower garden, don't you?! Just need some nicer weather, and a bit less ice and snow....

Lazy Sunday, and La Crosse

Happy first day of March! Today has been a lazy Sunday for us so far. No, we didn't go to the movies or watch the Chronicles of Narnia (you know you remember that SNL video), but I have been watching movies at home and doing a lot of absolutely nothing.

I'm kind of exhausted from the conference this weekend. I went to La Crosse, Wisconsin for work. We got back last night, and as much as I slept in, I still don't think I'm caught up yet. So I've just been relaxing on the couch and watching old movies on TV. And by old, I mean Beaches and The Newsies. Yup, pretty exciting.

My first time in La Crosse was pretty interesting. The conference went really well. It wasn't too long of a drive..about 4 hours there and 4 hours back, though I just rode with my fellow work colleagues. The drive was actually pretty scenic when we got into Wisconsin. Lots of giant hills covered in trees, and with no leaves on the trees, you could see quite a long way into the distance. Lots of snow covered hills everywhere. Driving by the Wisconsin river was pretty. And we got to go through Dubuque, and of course La Crosse - both river cities.

The drive up was nice and sunny and on the way up there we ate lunch at this pink diner called Katina's Kitchen. They serve breakfast all day long. I had a veggie and cheese omelet with toast and apple butter flavored spread. Really yummy. It was a nice little friendly cafe.

The town of La Crosse looked like it had lots of things to do at night, and if Trent and I were staying up there I'm sure we would explore quite a bit. But I spent most of the time between the hotel and the La Crosse Center where the conference was. I was nice though and picked up a 6 pack for Trent of Spotted Cow, a beer that you can only get in Wisconsin:

And we ate dinner at a couple of really nice restaurants in La Crosse. The first night we tried Edwardo's. (Edit: Edwardos is now closed, as of Dec. 2015. :( ) It's a Woodfire pizza grille, which has both Italian and American dishes. The cheese curds were supposed to be delicious, so we tried those for an appetizer, and they were really yummy. I split a veggie pizza that was also delicious. It was a nice atmosphere, really cozy, candles on the tables...and it looked like they had a nice craft beer selection, which I'm sure if Trent was there he would appreciate.

The second night we ate at The Freighthouse, which was a really nice steak house right on the river in La Crosse. There was a huge bar when you walk in, so it looked like a pretty cool place right away. The environment was again, cozy, but it was really busy, especially since it was a Friday night. They had a salad bar, but they're mostly known for their steaks. Being a vegetarian, I had the veggie plate with a caesar salad. The veggie plate was definitely full of veggies. A baked potato, rice, asparagus, carrots and cucumbers, and it was my first experience with an artichoke. Interesting, to say the least! It literally looked like this on the plate, but the leaves were very hard and not appetizing. I was shown how to eat it and get to the "good part" in the center, but there wasn't a lot of the good part there. So, needless to say, I was not a fan of the artichoke!

Overall La Crosse was a pretty cool place, and I would like to explore more up there someday and just go for leisure instead of work. We were lucky to have fairly good weather and no big snow storms. Of course it was winter and we had some negative temperatures, but we're pretty used to that by now! SO glad it's going to start warming up next weekend. My birthday's next Friday, and it's supposed to get up to 40 degrees. Haven't seen those temps in a while! Spring is looking closer...woo hoo!