Show me them pearly whites!

I was talking recently with a friend about teeth whitening. Yeah, we talk about stuff like that...but in all fairness, the entire conversation was about getting to the gym, re-vamping our wardrobes, and just generally giving our A-game, so it applies.

Anywho, in talking about teeth whitening, my friend mentioned that she really wanted to try it, but didn't want to spend the money on whitening strips, which is totally understandable. Those puppies are like $30!!! And for a college student at a minimum wage job that just isn't going to happen. But I told her "No! It doesn't have to be that expensive! Here, let me impart words of wisdom onto you!" Actually, I didn't say that...I thought of it after she left...so I'm posting it now in hopes she'll read it, and for anyone else who thought that white teeth were out of your financial reach! Because they're not, just so you know.

I'm actually going to post a video made by the wonderful Kandee Johnson instead of writing a long blog post, because she's actually how I found out about this system, and she'll probably explain it better anyway. Then, after the video, I'll add a little tid-bit about what I learned as a first time user and teeth-whitener in general, so you don't have to find this out for yourself! Aren't I nice?



O.K. So now that you know all this good stuff, here's the stuff she didn't mention in her video:

-Make sure you get the CHILD SIZE mouth guards. Those ones are 97 cents. the adult sizes are like $8. Big difference. If you can't find them. Ask. At my Wal-Mart, the child size was not with the adult size.

-You could buy that whole whitening system, and it will only cost about $10. The box comes with the whitening gel and then a mouth wash. OR, you could just buy the tube of gel for like $4, and buy a ginormous bottle of regular mouth wash, because they're basically the same thing. Plus the mouth wash that came in the box was tiny, and I ran out of it WAAAAY before the gel.

-Kandee has been whitening her teeth since she was 16, so she only has to do 5 minute touch-ups once a month. I had never whitened my teeth before in my life, and my childhood was not abound with a track record for taking care of my teeth. SO, I had a little more to work through then Kandee does. If you're like me, I would suggest starting with 15 minutes twice a week, until you start seeing results. Then cut back to 10-15 minutes once a week, then 10 minutes every two weeks, you get the idea. Then, when you have your teeth looking the way you want. Do what she does, and just do a 5-10 minute touch-up as needed.

Now go out there with your new pearly whites and smile, darn ya', smile!

Order Your Seeds

It's almost time to order your garden seeds!

A few years back I was on a huge "Back to Basics" kick and I whipped out all the goodies…

• I bought a wheat mill and started grinding my own wheat flour & baking bread.
• I dug out the entire area behind my garage and planted a full on garden.
• I bought chicks and attempted to build a coop. 
• I started woodworking and bought a whole slew of tools. 
• I began sewing more clothes. 
• I tried to buy a portion of a cow. 

I had my ups and downs with all these and I am still very drawn to each and everyone of these activities, but life changed and they all fell away. However, I learned a lot and I continue to learn more.

One day I hope to live on a small piece of land and have a much more sustainable lifestyle, but for now I'll just have to continue to learn on my little city plot, adding in the different activities slowly as I have time.

This year I am planning on trying gardening again. So today I have a bunch of great resources to share with you that may help you on your own journey. I would love to hear about your favorite books, video's and catalogs so please leave me a comment below!

Teach Children to Love the Garden is the blog of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. You'll want to request their free catalog. If you're not familiar with GMO's, you'll want to do an Internet search on that topic. This catalog is committed to providing you with traditional, God designed Heirloom seeds, not FrankenSeeds. So ORDER this catalog!

Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills is an old book, but updated Reader's Digest book. 

The Encyclopedia of Country Living is a classic and in it's 40th Anniversary Edition. It is one of those authentic books written from true experiences. It is so huge, you'll likely read a bit here and there and never get through the whole thing. 

All-New Square Foot Gardening is an alternative form of gardening that is a really easy and successful method. 

Starter Vegetable Gardens: 24 No-Fail Plans for Small Organic Gardens is a new book for me but seems to hold loads of potential. It is one I'll be checking out of my library soon. 

The Ultimate Step-by-Step Kids' First Gardening Book can help you make this a learning experience for the kids as well. What better way to spend a summer?

How about a few more fun ideas?

Happy Gardening! Hopefully I'll be sharing chickens and coops with you in the near future!

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