Lawn Care Tips For Fall in Florida from TruGreen

I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Influence Central for TruGreen. I received a promotional item to thank me for my participation.

Fall in Florida is a little different than it has been any where else I've lived... it's basically an extended summer, with some cooler days. Most days it's a tad bit warm, perfect for sun-bathing and absolutely amazing for outdoor activities.

We've enjoyed every other fall in Florida, but now that we live in a home with a huge, gorgeously landscaped yard we're learning about how to maintain our lawn and landscaping and this fall has been the best one yet. It's been amazing watching our yard transform.

With trees blossoming full fruits over our fence line and yellow flowers sprouting out of a tree that was formerly all green. We've learned a lot about botany within a short amount of time, so when TruGreen asked me to share some Florida Fall Lawn Care Tips with you, I figured I might as well help spread some knowledge and hopefully learn something myself!

As I mentioned before, Florida fall is fairly mild but the few days when the temperature does decrease happens to mean that our lawns actually call for more care than they do in the summer. The transition from summer to winter growth is usually marked by a distinctive decrease in leaf growth, which means you'll be mowing less. I've actually noticed this small adjustment over the last month, as hubby has only had to mow once in the past few weeks vs. every week (like he did in the summer).

While the mowing slows down, the lawn maintenance and the landscaping are still a priority in our home! TruGreen says that we should be sure to make sure our lawn is getting enough water, so that's something we are trying to work on. You would think with the annual rainfall at about 50 inches that our lawn would be wet enough, but with torrential down pours one week and a drought the next - it's obvious that our rainfall is consistent. Therefore, us Florida folk have to make sure our turf isn't thirsty during the fall and winter months! An irrigation system is the best way to deal with watering your lawn and while our yard actually has a pretty spiffy sprinkler system, our county won't allow it to be put in use any more... so I must mention, you have to be mindful of city and county ordinances. My advice is to also try to use captured rain water, if possible!

TruGreen also suggests not letting weeds take over your lawn... which is something we definitely need to work on. Dollar weed and oxtails are the most commonly found in our Florida turf grass, especially if it is over-watered! Using regular maintenance for weed control and putting an irrigation system to work or watering your lawn on a tight schedule are the best ways to avoid weeds in your yard!

Since your mower won't be getting as much use, you might as well take it in to get it's blades sharpened so it's good to go when weekly mowing is necessary again. Until then, plan on only having to mow once every two to three weeks!

The last little tidbit of advice I received from TruGreen was to help the lawn recuperate over the next few months. This time of the year is actually the best time to perform core aeration and overseeding. Plus, well fertilized grass is more likely to last through the winter and look healthy next year!

After educating ourselves about lawn care this year, I've decided I want to plant a tree as well. Luckily, TruGreen even had answers when I asked if I should plant a tree this fall - click here to find out!

We've decided that while our yard is kind of pretty now, we know with the help of TruGreen our HUGE yard can be even prettier. So tell me, are you a fellow Floridian? Do you love your lawn as much as we love ours? I'd love to hear how you keep your house looking spiffy during the winter months in the comments below! Plus, don't miss your chance to win the giveaway below:

TruGreen #LiveLifeOutside Giveaway

DIY Super Simple Fox and Owl Hanging Planter from a Soda Bottle!

This post contains links to Amazon, these are affiliate advertising links designed to provide a means for sites like mean to earn advertising fees by advertising for and linking to Amazon.com.

My house is my little sanctuary. Like most adults, I fill it with the things I love, the items I need, and little trinkets that make me smile. I'm doing my best at making sure I also don't throw too much away, since our planet is so full of stuff.

So that leads me to my DIY project for today. I found a new plant while grocery shopping the other day and I had to have it... but I didn't have anywhere to plant it. Of course, I could have planted it in our yard... But I wanted to plant it in a cute planter. My first thought was that I could buy one. Then I considered the price of the pot that I had looked at when I was shopping at my favorite discount store, it was $7.99; that's $4 more than the plant cost. So I decided I could make one or two...

That's right, I made a planter for my new little pink fuzzy plant... and I actually had a plant from my friend Rachel that I decided to make a pot for as well. So to get technical, I made TWO planters. But how?

Out of an old soda bottle. While we love the taste, soda isn't regularly our beverage of choice around here; so when we had a couple empty bottles, I knew I had to do something creative with them - I blame it on Pinterest.

I turned the Fanta bottle from this post into two adorable little hanging planters and it only took me about an hour to complete the project.

Do you want to make an old soda bottle into something useful and adorable? Here's how I made my little fox and owl:

What you'll need:

1 2 Liter Soda Bottle

1 Pair of Scissors
Waterproof Acrylic Paints

Paint Brushes
Hemp String
Exacto Knife
Clear Pebbles
Soil & Plants

To start, I cut the soda bottle in half and then cut the shapes of the animals into each half of the bottle. Making little triangle ears for my foxy friend and little bubbly, rounded eyes for my owl friend.

Next, I painted each animal. Giving the owl an almost all-over coat of grey and the fox a thin line around the top, just giving the top of his head the orange coloring like a fox would have. Let this layer dry.

After that, I added the white paint to each animal. Covering the bottom half of the owl and the fox with a thick white layer of paint.

Lastly, I added on the details, little white eyes with black circles and rectangles inside left white for the owl eyes. Tiny little beady eyes for the fox with a heart shaped nose. I added in little detailed lines around the owl, some feathers, a little bit of orange for his beak and he was set to start drying. The fox needed a little white on his ears, a little orange on his "neck" or the bottle cap, and a few little black lines to add some detail and he was also ready to dry.

I let both the fox and the owl dry for about 20 minutes and they were dry to the touch and ready to have string added as well as some pretty plants. Using an exacto-blade cut two small holes to each side of your animal face, about 1/3 of inch down. Use a fairly long piece of hemp to hang your planters and tie knots securely on both ends.

Now it's time to add the beautiful greenery, to start I added in a handful of "pebbles" purchased from the $1 store and a thick layer of dirt. Placed the plant properly in the planter and added another layer of dirt.

Lastly, I lifted both planters off the ground and made sure they were sturdy and balanced on the string! They worked perfectly and are now proudly displayed!

My little owl friend has replaced my Halloween wreath and looks fabulous next to my door that is colored almost exactly like the flowers!

My fox is towering over my little reading corner, looking out into the living room and beyond. These little planters are so cute and can be used indoor and outdoor - the perfect new addition to our house, if I don't say so myself!

Whether this is a project you attempt with the kids or it's a way for you to get your crafting fix, I'm sure you'll love the way your planters turn out as well! So simple to make, yet so incredibly cute! If you decide to make a set, be sure to show me how they turn out! Plus, what other animals would you like to see? I'm thinking a hippo will be next on my list... or maybe a little penguin?

Macy's Rwanda Path to Peace Baskets Help Families and Build Stronger Communities for the People of Rwanda

I am a member of the Everywhere Society and Everywhere has provided me with compensation in the form of the beautiful Baskets from Rwanda  for this post. However, all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Since 2005 Macy's has been selling hand-crafted baskets from Rwanda, this year marks the 10 year anniversary of something truly special and they celebrated in a big way - with a Rwanda Path to Peace pre-sale on their beautiful line of baskets, hand-made by the hard-working people of Rwanda! It's hard to imagine the journey the baskets (and these women) have been on; it's as though each of these baskets is a weaving together of cultures, a reconciliation of sorts - and that's what makes these colorful baskets even more beautiful. Basket-weaving allowing former enemies to come together and make something beautiful, I'm all for a Path to Peace for Rwanda...

After the terrible events that took place in the 90's, Rwanda and Macy's are trying to focus on the future. By focusing on poverty reduction through job creation, improved incomes, access to global markets and job skill training, the women of Rwanda can help lift their family (and their entire community) out of poverty. Macy's didn't want to offer the women a "hand out", but instead wanted to assist the strong and capable women with a hand up and that's' exactly what they are still doing 10 years later...

The purchase of each item from Rwanda provides the basket weavers an opportunity to improve their quality of life and puts a one-of-a-kind craft directly into your hands, it's a win-win situation for all involved! With the basket weavers earning nearly TEN times the average Rwandan wage, it's a huge help to the families in need.

As you can imagine, each women tediously works to hand weave these baskets; with such intricate detail and a process that has been practiced in Rwanda for centuries - these baskets are truly a treasure. Each design is unique and painstakingly created from sisal and grass by women who learned to weave from their mothers, aunts, grandmothers, and other maternal figures.

The project employs thousands of weavers who are organized throughout Rwanda. What's amazing about this fact is that every group consists of women from both sides of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide conflict, working side by side. This proves that anyone and everyone is capable of working together towards economic stability.

With beautiful red hues and stunning intricate patterns, I absolutely adore my new baskets and will begin collecting these baskets each year - because helping out a good cause and indulging my basket hoarding habit are two fun ways to kick off the holidays! Plus, each basket is signed by it's creator, giving me an indirect look into the life of the strong women in Rwanda.

Do you want to give a gift this year that truly gives back? Get all the details on these beautiful baskets and snag one for yourself and your favorite friend here.

Are you interested in getting your hands on the same baskets I have pictured? The red basket on the top (in the photo below) is Macy's Special Commemorative Basket, woven to represent 10 years of peace and prosperity and is absolutely beautiful. The bottom basket is the shining star fruit basket and it's absolutely stunning as well, no matter which basket you get from Macy's Rwanda Path to Peace program, I'm certain you'll love it!

Want to find more awesome gifts to give over the holidays?

Check out my holiday gift guide!

Keep Your Home Safe & Super Connected with Canary, Netgear, and Sling TV from Best Buy!

The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.

Keeping your home safe is always a priority, right? Well, a little birdie told me about a new home security system that anyone can use, you just need wi-fi and a cell phone and you are able to keep an eye on your place 24/7.

The Canary Indoor Wireless High-Definition All-in-One Home Security Device keeps your place safe and sound with a motion detection sensor, a 90+ dB siren, and home health technology that monitors the air quality, temperature, and humidity! So many cool features packed into one tiny little device, the techie side of me is overflowing with delight!

But the awesome thing about the Canary system is the fact that you don't have to be a techie to set this baby up. Just place the Canary in a central location in your home, connect it to wi-fi, and your home is protected and your able to view it all from your cell phone... it's that easy!

The best part about the Canary is the ability to notify authorities within seconds of an alert of something peculiar, plus you're able to sound a siren if necessary! No need to pay a security company to monitor your home, when you can monitor it yourself!

Whether you want to check in on your nanny during a long-weekend away or you want to keep an eye out for a known neighborhood nuisance, this little birdie is the best investment for someone wanting to keep a close eye on their home.

You're connected home needs a router to keep up with all the action, so you'll want to invest in the Netgear Nighthawk DST Router and DST Adapter! With Geek Squad included in the purchase, your guaranteed a reliable set up and no worries about malfunctions because they've got you covered. Other than having geek squad on your side to make your connection better, the DST adapter actually stands for "Dead Spot Terminator" and will kill those pesky zones of your house that don't get the wi-fi connection they deserve! Get ready to connect to the internet like you never have before with this Nighthawk Router and DST adapter!

With all this inter-connectivity, you'll want to try out the new service everyone is talking about - Sling TV. You're able to watch your favorite shows at home (or on the go) without worrying about equipment or set up fees. Watch what you want, when you want, on the device you want, and pay for the channels you want at a great price. Enjoy TV from many popular channels including ESPN, A&E, AMC, HGTV, and more for just $20 a month... Sling TV is like cable, but better! Click here to give it a try!

Now that I've shared how we keep our home safe and super connected, I'd love to hear what you would do with a Canary if you had one in your home...? Would you snoop in on the dogs while you were out on the town or would you keep an eye on the backyard to make sure the neighborhood cats stay out of your garden? The possibilities with the Canary are endless and with an internet connection provided by the Nighthawk Router you are guaranteed a reliable source of wi-fi!

DIY Painting Inspired by MARVEL's The Avengers: Age of Ultron

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #AvengersUnite #CollectiveBias

When I heard that MARVEL's The Avengers: Age of Ultron is now out on disc, I knew I had to go out and buy a copy ASAP. See, if you didn't already know, we are pretty big fans of The Avengers in this house.

While we were hunting down The Avengers: Age of Ultron on Blu-Ray, we ran into the costume section at Walmart! With every costume you can think of for so many different age groups, my hubby and I were like kids picking out candy! We saw all kinds of MARVEL character costumes at great prices but we finally decided that it'd be super fun to have Hubby dress up as the Hulk!

Once we chose a costume for him, we were on our way to the back of the store where we were able to buy a Blu-Ray 3D, DVD combo of The Avengers: Age of Ultron! We grabbed a few snacks on our way out the door and we were on our way home!

On the way home, I was having a closer look at the cover of the movie and I was inspired. Such great talent, such fun colors - I don't normally paint things like this, but I knew I had to let my creative juices flow... That's when my mind was made up, I wanted to make minimalist versions of "shields" for each of my favorite Marvel Characters!

Good news, though! Not only did I decide to paint a MARVEL inspired piece of art for my home, I know there are other Avengers fans out there so I decided to share a step-by-step painting tutorial! Now you can make a MARVEL's The Avengers: Age of Ultron shield painting of your own!

The first step is tracing a hexagon onto a canvas in pencil, with however many "shields" you want to make and maybe a few extra spots for color shields.

Once your hexagons are traced, it's time to start sketching the minimalist versions of each character.
I chose to work with Hulk, Vision, Captain America, Black Widow, Ultron, Iron Man, Thor, and Hawkeye - basically the best characters!

In case your wondering how I sketched each item, here's an example:

Once each character is roughly sketched, apply a background layer of paint. I went with silver, black, and white and blended slightly - allowing for a tonal, textured background.

After the background is painted, it's time to grab a smaller brush and work on the details of each character. Painting the simple Hulk sketch purple and green, making sure the Black Widow circle is painted around the logo, Captain America's shield needs to have a white star in the middle, etc. Slowly filling in each characters logo with the correct colors. Here's a collage of my step-by-step process...

Once the entire painting is filled with color, you'll want to outline each shield with white and/or silver and add little details with white and silver paint. Adding little lines to make things feel textured, like the outside of the hexagon shields.

Sign your name to the bottom of the painting and your creation is complete.

Now sit back and re-watch The Avengers: Age of Ultron and feel free to admire your artwork anytime you please! 

A Simple Date Night at Home: A Starbucks Picnic & A Paired Painting!

A Big thanks to Starbucks for sending over a box full of goodies to help make this post possible.

With school back in session, my blog and all kinds of fun projects in full swing, and my hubby working full time, things have been super busy lately and that means we've been neglecting date night. Since we haven't had the chance to spoil each other with a night out on the town recently, I decided to spoil hubby with my most recent package from Starbucks and a little impromptu date day inspired by the contents.

You may remember me talking about becoming a Starbucks blogger a few months back and I was blessed enough to receive another awesome package full of goodies to share with you. This time my box included some of my favorite Starbucks items, frappuccino, espresso, coffee to-go; all of the essentials for a busy gal, as well as a picnic basket and a blanket perfect for picnicking. It's like the people over at Starbucks knew we needed a date and sent it to us in a box.

So I gathered our little picnic basket and all of our coffee together. I also grabbed my painting supplies and a few canvas' to paint on and lugged it all out in the backyard. I told hubby to take a break from studying for a few minutes; he needed some fresh air, so I decided to be a "good influence" and asked him to take a second to calm his mind while he drank some java and painted with me.

A few hours later, we were finished painting the background for my upcoming creation, we just simply blended a few neutral-ish colors together and did short brush strokes.

When it came time to painting a subject on the canvas, I knew I wanted to make a painting that depicts one of my favorite things in the world, other than my family - Starbucks s'mores frappuccino!

You can see the step my step process in the photo below and I tried to make it easy enough that anyone can follow along and make this painting in just a few strokes of a brush! Follow the steps below and you'll have an artsy Starbucks painting of your own:

Who doesn't love the little green mermaid and her magical frappuccinos though? If you love her as much as I do, then this painting is perfect for your home... I'm debating between hanging my painting in my kitchen or office, which do you think?

Regardless of whether you love my art and decide to make your own, you'll want to grab a frappuccino, an iced coffee, or maybe one or two of each! Which flavor is your favorite? I think I'd go with a s'mores frappuccino or maybe the caramel iced coffee... it's a hard choice to make every time I'm grabbing for my caffeine fix!

Find a Home Where You Can Be You with Trulia + Enter to Win $25K #TruliHome

I received compensation for this post as part of a promotional program with Trulia and MomSelect, regardless all opinions expressed below are my own.

If you follow me on social media or here on the blog, you've probably noticed that the Harmon family has been on the move this summer! By on the move, I don't mean we've been dancing and traveling... although we have been lucky enough to do a little bit of both. I mean that we moved into a new house, finally! Can I get a little "hip, hip, hooray"? 

Both my husband and I are so excited to have finally found the house for us, but let's get real: house hunting for the perfect place is overwhelming. We spent hours just driving around through neighborhoods we liked, some nights I would stay up until sunrise looking at listings online and writing down little notes about each house. During the month of May, house hunting is all we did in our free time and it was getting old. Browsing listings on local forums without any of them actually panning out to be anything worthwhile was becoming a daunting task; I was just about to give up the search and re-new our lease, but then I started using Trulia.

What's Trulia? Well, it's basically a house hunters dream, whether you are wanting to rent or buy! Trulia is one of the leading destinations for home buyers and renters, it's a website/service that makes finding a home, condo, or any piece of real estate an easy and enjoyable experience, for everyone involved. Whether you are the type who likes to debate over board games in your birthday suit while lounging in your lush backyard or the type of couple that spends hours loudly practicing your whale language skills in your acoustically pleasing loft, Trulia will be able to find the perfect place for you!

After we found Trulia, the house hunting game changed for us. I was able to adjust my search to only include places that fit into our price range, that were in the area I wanted to remain within, with the amount of bedrooms and bathrooms I preferred, and so on. Adjusting the search parameters made it easy to find houses we fell in love with, but our next hurdle to overcome was other couples falling in love with the same home.

It's a dog-eat-dog world in real estate, so having Trulia's e-mail alerts and notifications set to alert me on my phone when new listings were available in my area was a huge help! These notifications allowed us to be some of the first eyes to view the listings and ultimately helped us snag our cute little place before anyone else!

After about three days of new listings being sent to my phone, I knew I had finally found the one when I saw the front of our new place in the photos, then we drove by the outside and we both fell in love. Butterflies were fluttering all over the bushes in the front with a beautiful pink & red flowered vine growing along the trellis, an oversized backyard, quirky details within the home like original hardwoods and built-in dressers, our place is perfect for us and we knew it from the second we saw it on Trulia!

Whether we are walking around in the backyard singing silly songs that rhyme to our dogs or dancing in our pajamas on top of the couch on Saturday morning, we are free to be us without worrying about disturbing neighbors on each side of our apartment walls now. It feels so nice to be able to freely express our silly selves and we have Trulia to thank for our new digs to be so silly within.

That's not all thought... Not only did Trulia help us find the perfect home, they want to help you find the perfect place and pay for it as well! Enter to win the #TruliHome $25K Giveaway simply by entering your e-mail here!

Now that you've put your name in the hat to win big, I'd love to hear what you look for in a home to make you feel #TruliHome? Are you a fan of high ceilings, calming wall colors, houses with places for you to sunbathe nude... Let me know what really makes or break a house for you in the comments below!

Make Smelly, Moldy, Old Books Like New Again with This Simple Trick

Have you ever found a book you just had to have while browsing at a thrift store or garage sale? If you are a bargain shopper like me, you can't pass up a good deal on an old favorite and when I recently found a hand full of first edition copies of some awesome books, that must have been decades, if not centuries old I just had to buy them. I was so excited I didn't even notice that although I had fun some hidden treasures, they stunk something awful.

After contemplating and a testing a few methods, I found this way of cleaning the scent of the books the most effect. It's super easy and while it may take a while for the smell to completely disappear, it's definitely a useful way of restoring glory to some classic literature.

Before we get started, you'll want to take a very lightly dampened cloth and wipe the pages of all the books. This will remove dirt, mold, and other nasty little grime around the pages, the spine, the covers, etc.

For the project of removing the actual smell of the book, you'll want to start with a large covered bin of some sort, an old garbage can, a plastic tub, or a small pail will work just fine. Please keep in mind that it'll be in use for a fairly long time though and you'll need to be able to fit another smaller bin inside of it.

You'll want to put several inches of an odor absorbing material at the bottom of the bin you choose. By odor absorbing material I mean anything that is known to absorb stinky smells; such as kitty, litter, charcoal or baking soda.

Now place a smaller pail of any sort inside the "smell absorbing bin", place a handful of books (or whatever will fit) inside of the smaller bin, and place a cover or a lid over the top of the smell absorbing bin.

It's that easy, all you need to do now is sit and wait. I suggest checking on the book and it's smell level every couple of days or so until you no longer can smell the stench. It may take a week or maybe even a month, but that stink you once dreaded will dissipate and you'll be left with a wonderful book to add to your library.

If you decide to give this method a try, let me know how long it took your book to smell better... Here's to the reading of books that don't smell for many years to come!

How to Get Your Deposit Back When Moving Out of a Rental with Green Works

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #NaturallyClean #CollectiveBias

As you probably already know, we moved recently. This means that we had to do something that I've always thought was second nature when moving out of a home, we had to deep clean every square inch. From the bathtub to the refrigerator drawers, we scrubbed and wiped to make sure it was perfect for the next tenant.

The reason I'm sharing this not-so-exciting detail of our move is the realization that most people don't clean out their rental homes. When speaking with other people that rent, I've heard several say they don't even bother to wipe down counters. While I understand not wanting to waste the time on your old place, you should respect the landlord and the future tenants enough to make sure you leave the house looking even better than when the keys were handed to you.

Wiping down every surface, scrubbing every inch of the kitchens and the bathrooms, dusting, sweeping, mopping, even wiping down baseboards... it's all a necessary part of giving your place back in pristine condition... even if you are a clean-freak while living in the home, once all your furniture is moved out it's still nice to clean the entire place! Plus, as a renter, you are more likely to get your deposit back in full if your place is in tip-top shape!

While we were cleaning our old place, I realized that our new place hadn't been cleaned to our standards yet either. Some parts of the house were too dusty for words and we noticed little nooks and crannies that needed a good cleaning. This means that we had to double the deep cleaning during the same week and needed a powerful army of cleaning products to helps us out!

We took a trip to Target and found the entire Green Works line waiting for us. I decided to purchase these green products because they are just as tough as the other products on the market but they don't leave a harsh chemical smell or residue! You'll also be overjoyed to find out that Green Works is made with plant and mineral based ingredients and the products are all actually in environmentally sustainable packaging whenever possible. Want some awesome news? You can save money, head to Target now and grab three Green Works products for $8!

The good news about this whole cleaning situation that moving in & out of a rental creates is that Green Works has a product to help clean every room in your house! They offer everything you'll need from sprays to wipes to laundry detergent, all the bases are covered!

My line up for cleaning both the old place and our new home included the Green Works All Purpose Cleaner as a star player! It tackles grease, grime, dirt, and other little nasty things around the house without any trouble and puts off absolutely no chemical fumes or residue. Made with 98% naturally derived ingredients, this cleaner is the perfect way to clean everything from your bathtub to your kitchen counters!

My next favorite Green Works item is the Cleaning Wipes. They are so easily accessible and make the perfect cleaners for all kinds of surfaces. I love being able to quickly dust with a Cleaning Wipe and since these wipes are 99% naturally derived ingredients, they won't harm me or my animals!

I've never been one for dishwashing but with Green Works in the house, the whole process somehow doesn't seem so daunting. With a super fresh and clean scent this bottle of naturally derived dish soap cuts through all the tough stuff and easily rinses away to offer a sparkling, streak-free shine on everything you wash!

Lastly, I'm overjoyed to announce we have a new addition to our home: a washer and dryer! We've spent the last three years visiting the laundry mat and I'm so over that! No longer do we have to spend a few hours of our day washing piles of clothes, we can do a load every single day with Green Works Laundry Detergent! I love that this laundry detergent attacks tough stains, while still being made with naturally derived ingredients! You can wash your clothing without phosphates, optical brighteners, or any other nasty chemical residue causing problems, even those with sensitive skin won't be bothered by this powerful, stain-fighting detergent!

Now that I've shared my cleaning tips to ensure you receive your deposit back in full, I'd love to hear what other tips you have for those that are in the processing of moving?