Gardening One Box at a Time

The other day I talked about how I'm experimenting with easy ways to get into gardening, because I'd like to be better at it but I want to start small so that I don't get overwhelmed with a whole garden full of plants that I don't know how to care for. One way to do that is with planters, because you can try out different plants and flowers but do it in a small and manageable space.

I've shopped for some regular planters but I've also been looking at window boxes. I think they make a nice addition to any garden, and they're also great if you don't have a lot of space to work with.


I've always liked the look of window flower boxes, because you can really make some cool visual statements by mixing colors (or going with just one bold color) or switching up different heights and styles of plants.


Another thing a window box can be great for is growing herbs. That's one thing that I do know a little bit about since I love to cook. Planters are really good for certain herbs, like mint, that have a tendency to grow like crazy and overwhelm a garden. But really you can grow just about any herb in a planter and it's really cool to be able to have a lot of different fresh herbs on hand for cooking.


It's also not a bad time to start with this project now. Since the seasons are changing, I can get a fresh start with seasonally appropriate plants. As soon as I figure out what those are. I have a little bit of research to do.

Music Monday: Jace Everett's "Bad Things" (The True Blood Theme)

SWF seeking...?

I was thinking of moving to the city, but it's just really expensive to live there. (I mean, it's worth the money, but it's still a lot of money.) So I went on one of those roommate finder websites to see if I could find some cool people to live with - and more importantly split rent with!

I had never done an online roommate search so I wasn't exactly prepared for all the questions they were going to ask me about myself and my potential roommates. I expected the basics like smoker or non-smoker, but you can actually search by age, gender, sexual orientation, profession (choices include student, professional, retired or 'others'), and whether you have a pet or a child.*

That surprised me, because I thought you weren't allowed to ask questions like that (something about the Fair Housing Act not letting you discriminate). It's not a DATING site! Although there is the option to choose 'not disclosed' (for yourself) or 'doesn't matter' (for your potential roommates) on certain questions, some of it still seemed a little weird to me. but I guess because it's optional and since the goal of the sites are to bring togethe potential roommates and not necessarily tenants/landlords, then it might be a grey area.

I know that the federal law does not include sexual orientation, but many states - including New York - do protect against this kind of discrimination...  so I'm not completely sure what makes it okay to ask for this information on a website for roommates. Maybe because it's optional? Maybe because websites are protected as Internet 'forums'? I don't know.

But it all makes me wonder...

If you're going to live with someone, I guess there are some reasons why you'd want to know personal kinds of information about a potential roommate... If you have a young child, you might not want to live with a college student who parties all night long. (Or, if you're someone who parties all night long, you might not want to live with someone who has a young child.) Or if you're in a long distance relationship, your signficant other might get jealous if you were living with someone you could possibly be romantically become entangled with... so in that case the gender and sexual orientation of your potential roommates might actually matter.

I also know that certain religions don't allow living with members of the opposite sex (even if it's platonic) so it wouldn't necessarily be discrimination based on gender if you didn't want to share a bedroom or bathroom with someone who isn't your gender.

While technically it would be discrimination if someone specified "I want a straight, white roommate", it's not exactly the same as discriminating against a potential employee. It's more like "I'm a racist homophobic bigot and you don't want to live with me anyway." (And that wouldn't just apply to gay people either; I'm straight and white, but I wouldn't want to live with a racist homophobic bigot either!)

And theoretically, if you're welcoming a roommate into your home... you should have a right to be somewhat discerning about who you live with. It's not a public space.  Who you live with is a personal choice. It seems shitty to say it, but I don't want to live with someone if I disagree with their 'morals' (or really, if they would disagree with mine... or my lack thereof). But then... there's so much that goes into sharing a living space with someone. I wouldn't want to live with someone who eats lots of tuna fish or does drugs or never bathes or snores or breeds cats or listens to Celine Dion all day. I wish there was a website that would help me find a roommate using search criteria like that!

But when it comes to sexual orientation, I don't care who they're sleeping with as long as they do it in their room and not on the kitchen table where I eat breakfast!

*Information on search criteria came from RoommateClick.com and EasyRoommate.com which are the only two sites I checked out. I can't speak for any other sites.

Foodie Friday: Cooking with Stainless Steel

I know this is a little late and it's technically Foodie Saturday now. Sorry!

I love stainless steel kitchen stuff. I just think it looks modern and cool. My fantasy kitchen would be full of stainless steel appliances, but in the meantime, there are a lot of smaller kitchen items that I can shop for to get the look. Right now I'm really liking Blomus stainless steel kitchen accessories.

I love this cheese slicer. This would get a lot of use in my kitchen because I'm one of those people who believe that cheese, like Nutella, improves almost every dish. (Okay, well, they probably wouldn't work together. Choose one or the other to be safe.)


I also really like this towel clip. I'd probably need more than one because I always make a huge mess when I'm cooking or baking.


And of course, you've also got to have a stainless steel egg lifter. I didn't realize until this moment that I do, in fact, need an egg lifter, but now I'm totally convinced that I do.



I'm also a really big tea lover, so I basically want all of the Blomus stainless steel tea accessories.

Stainless steel tea glasses are a fun alternative to regular mugs:



This teapot is adorable:



And I love these tea sticks:



And finally some Blomus stainless steel salad bowls - practical and good for counter top decorative purposes.

My Stately Manor Needs a Garden

I was having a little bit of fun the other day writing about what I would do if I had one of those huge stately manor type mansions that every family on every soap opera seems to have. I've talked mailboxes and fancy address plaques, but one thing I didn't really cover was the garden. What's a stately manor without some well-manicured gardens, right?

So I've been doing a little fantasy shopping for some decorative items for my many lovely gardens. Like this sun and moon sundial:



And this Whitehall patio furniture:


And what fancy estate would be complete without an old-school door knocker? Makes it much easier to imagine a butler answering the door:


And to round out the garden decor, I really like these nature hooks. You can use them to hang plants, lanterns, bird feeders, hanging bird baths, wind chimes, or whatever else you can think of. Of course when I say "you", I mean my fantasy gardener, because I'm definitely going to need one to keep all of these stately gardens looking nice.



I think someone should just go ahead and give me a stately manor now that I've got all of these amazing decorating plans all laid out.

Wordless Wednesday: Fall is Coming

Scrub a dub dub....

This may be a little known fact here in the blogosphere, but I wasn't always the talented and popular (and humble) blogger I am today. I worked a series of lousy jobs over the years... many of them in the medical field (which is odd, considering that I'm totally squeamish). Now, that's not to say that I did anything medical... I typically worked the office: reception, billing, filing, whatever... but there was always the possibility that I would cross-paths with something... 'medical-ish'.

I've worked for veterinarians, chiropractors, pediatricians, orthopedists and even an acupuncturist. Each job was vastly different, but one thing was always the same: the outfit. Yep, I had to wear scrubs! Even though I wasn't coming even remotely close to touching a patient. And did I mention that they made me buy my own scrubs? They didn't even provide them for me. To make matters worse, they didn't let me re-use the scrubs from my previous jobs. That's right... every time I started a new job, I had to buy a new pair of womens scrubs.

So strangely enough I've become an expert at buying scrubs for women. So for those of you who work in this industry... here are a few tips:

Just because it's your job to take care of others doesn't mean that you should forget about yourself. Get a pair that's comfortable! Make sure you size them properly... most scrub bottoms come with a drawstring waist, but if they're really too big that drawstring won't help you. Nothing is worse than having to constantly pull up your pants while you're trying to look professional and treat patients. Darker colors are always more slimming and flattering. However, if you're very pale (like I am) you'll look totally washed out and sickly in too dark of a pair. You don't want to look sicker than your patients, because then no one will trust you to take care of them. Even though working in the medical industry isn't exactly a glamorous position, that's no reason you can't look good. The better you look, the better you'll feel and the better you will do your job. It's true.

*All scrubs photos courtesy of Blue Sky Scrubs. (If you buy your scrubs from them, they send a free hat to a cancer patient for every purchase of scrubs, as part of their Project Blue Sky.)