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pour a little dry laundry detergent around the legs of your tables and the ants will not disturb your picnic food. They do not like the smell or the texture. I have also heard that ants will not cross a chalk line, so if you are on cement, you might try that as well!
In the kitchen, we all have amazing gadgets and appliances that we have collected over the years.
USE THEM. Throw a party. Invite people over.
Pull out your fondue pot and host a cheese and chocolate fondue party. Your your fancy china and throw a tea party for kids, have a dinner party and make lots of little desserts in ramekins! Use your stuff.
UTILIZE this truth when putting kids to bed.
FAKE a yawn, and even the most awake kid, will start to settle in.
Try it and let me know how it works for you!
When your garbage disposal jams, there is a self-service wrenchette that you can use to "fix" it. I have done this a few times and am not afraid of anything plumbing related. Just in case you ever need to reset your garbage disposal, I thought it would be helpful to show you what to do and warn you what "not to do" - from my experience today.
First you want to make sure the garbage disposal is off. We have a button that is flush with the counter so it is hard to know for sure, but it is VERY important the the unit is OFF before you crank and reset.
Next, insert the wrench in the very bottom of your garbage disposal (it is located right in the middle) and turn clockwise. You will feel the disposal "let go" and this means that you have disengaged the safety mechanism that caused it to shut off.
At this point - TAKE THE WRENCH OFF before you do anything else.
Or else....you may end up with a problem....
After you take the wrench off, you will push the red reset button and your garbage disposal should work after this. I did not take the wrench off, and when I set the RESET button, my disposal was ON - and my hand got caught in the revolving WRENCH.
OUCH!!!
I know better and i did it wrong - so hopefully anyone who reads this will remember the tips and learn from me WHAT NOT TO DO, which is equally as important as HOW TO DO IT!.
We had the kids write resolutions and incorporate them into an art project! Happy 2011
They are insightful and meaningful!
I have a very special place that I love to take photos. It is a magic driveway and the light is amazing, and the walls are perfectly distressed, and everyone photographs well there. Especially people with light eyes.
Last year I decided to offer portraits to all my friends in the magic driveway as a personal project. We would meet at the driveway and shoot for approximately 5 minutes. Done. Natural light, no flash, quickly shot, while dodging traffic. Here are some of the portraits from the magic driveway.
There is something magical about my daughter - that when people (who do not have kids) meet her, you can see them start to imagine wanting kids.
It was like that when she was a baby -and we called her a trick baby - because she could trick you into wanting kids.
But now it is even more interesting - as she is in her tween perfection state - where she loves everything and everyone, has smart things to say, is very nice to little kids and all dogs, and she is really fun to be around. At a wedding this weekend, I could see the 20 and 30somethings engage with her and start to imagine wanting kids.
I was explaining to her how proud she made me = when she is around people and i see this happen and she said - well you need to tell them one thing.
She said -"They have to be really nice parents if they want to have a child like me. "
See what I mean? tween perfection - the calm before the storm. I know these days are special and before we know it we will be in the throws of teen angst - but for now, i love my tween girl and I cherish every sweet moment we share.
The week after Christmas came fast this year. We did not really plan this adventure as a whole - but the various parts just worked together. We made a plan to rent a boat the day after Christmas with our friends who just moved here from Minnesota and we had a wedding to attend in Palm Springs on New Years Eve. Everything in the middle, just found it's way.
In one week we went from our home in Los Angeles, to Oxnard, to the Santa Cruz islands on a boat, to our friend's house in Santa Ynez, a quick stop at home and now we are in Palm Springs. It was nice to be away from our normal worlds and even better to all be together. That was the only goal of the week - to spend it as a family and hang out with some friends along the way.
Unusual for us, we were very disorganized in our packing and planning - which meant for a couple extra tanks of gas, and a few lost hours. We joked that to top it all off, we should head to the snow on our way home from Palm Springs , but I think we will actually head home and do laundry and make black eyed peas for New Years luck. It was a great California roadtrip - with lots of terrain, great friends, delicious food, and time together.
Happy two thousand and eleven. I am very excited for the new year.
