After the Party, there was an After Party and...

...well, yeah.

While my #3 fave thing about summer
entails being the hostess with the mostest,
I gotta admit that I detest cleaning up.

If you've been following along on Instagram,

you know we have been having the jam up at my place.
And by "jam" I really mean jam.
As in we had ourselves a little canning party!

Just so you know, there is absolutely
NOTHING

clean
about a canning party.

In between soaking greens in fortybajillion rinses of "fresh water"
and trying to keep a good lookout for #CleanHands,
the bathroom got OVERTIME
handwashing duty.

Though I prepped my bathroom with this super cute yellow hand towel

at the end of the night,
Kleenex Hand Towels
won by a mile.

I thought that cute,
newly domesticated folks,
would be smitten with my cute yellow towel.

And maybe they were.
But at the end of the day,
the Clean Hands Campaign
won hands down and the vote was for using
Kleenex Hand Towels.

As I thought back on my travels and all of the hands washing
and hand drying I was doing,
the more I think about it,
the more I cannot say that I disagree.

Because really, with cloth towels,
how do you KNOW that someone washed their hands long enough
or at all
(I know, that deserved a gross out alert)
rather than just wiping off on the cloth towel?

There is no mistaking when a Kleenex Hand Towel has been used.
And that is a very (VERY)
good thing.

As a master composter,
after using these,
I am totally good with disposable
(compostable)
Kleenex products.
Just want to make sure that people don't flush these
although it looks like that once used, they would be fine even being flushed.

If "fine" for you is having thousands (millions?) of others
thinking the same thing
and then the aggregate result being not so cool.

Compost for all!
#CleanHands AND Clean Earth!Why use a damp, germy, overused towel
when you can join the Clean Hands Campaign
and use Kleenex Hand Towels.

Speaking of which,
your odds were really good for winning your own set.

Congrats to Tara
who will be stopping into town next week
and getting her own box of hand towels to try out.

If you didn't win, don't cry.
At 2.99 a box, you can try out your own.
Snap some up today!

I cannot wait until later in August
when we have our annual BBQ for the tourney.
The only thing messier than a canning party
is a BBQ.

Especially around my parts.
Are you ready to party?
Wanna come over to my shindig?

It's going to be epic.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective

and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Party Prep with Kleenex Hand Towels

So.
My #3 fave thing about summer
really deserves a bit more commentary.

As I mentioned, 

one of the things I love about summer
is that this is the time of year
when people are always coming for a visit
or we are going for a visit.

Settled back in at home,
it is now time to prep for party time.

One thing that my better half is pretty adamant about
is that we have all the goods necessary for people to wash their hands in the bathroom.

Usually, this means washing our super cute yellow hand towels
and getting them hung up just right.

However this year, we're going to do a bit of an experiment.

I'm also going to put the Kleenex Hand Towels
on the back of the toilet tank.

Let's see which one's people prefer.

What say you?
Would you use my cute yellow towel
when you came over OR
would you join the Clean Hands Campaign
and use Kleenex Hand Towels.

Let me know in the comments
(or on facebook or on twitter)
what your preference is
and you might win a box of your own.

You, of course,
can still enter by 
following me on Instagram.

I posted the two photos above and you can 
comment on any of those photos about how you sure could
use some #CleanHands.

Bonus points for being clever and finding a non-party photo
to get all #CleanHands on.

Winner will be chosen by July 30/31st ish.

Just join in the convo for your chance to win.
Are you ready to party?
Wanna come over to my shindig?

It's going to be epic.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective

and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

7 Things to Love About Summer | #3 Coming and Going (for a visit) with Kleenex Hand Towels

Well now.

I'm back from the oppressively hot east coast.
I did NOT indulge in my favorite childhood treat
(although it would have been totally appropriate).

We thought about seeing another awesome movie
but after seeing that one in California,
there wasn't much that was going to top that.

Though my back was bugging me a lot before I left
and I seriously considered taking my well-researched opinion about

back arthritis into my chiro, instead, we left the garden and headed east.

Way east.
Into a heat wave.

Heat wave aside,
one of the things I love about summer
is that this is the time of year
when people are always coming for a visit
or we are going for a visit.

While this past week, we were the ones going,
we're steadily sliding into coming season.

We have some pretty big life events coming up
and to that, we'll be hosting a gig or two to close out this summer.

Last July,
right about this time,
I showed you how we got our guest spaces hostess ready
with Kleenex Hand Towels.

I mean, what is not to love about being next to Godliness
with this level of cleanliness?



In my travels this past week,
I spent a lot of time drying off on cloth hand towels.

As a master composter,
I am totally good with disposable
(compostable)
Kleenex products.

Especially when you consider that in the U.S. alone,
people do that exact same drying routine
200 billion times per year.

On towels that look clean.
But really...

Why wash your hands
only to dry them on a dirty towel?

Why use a damp, germy, overused towel
when you can join the Clean Hands Campaign
and use Kleenex Hand Towels.

I'm getting ready to host a shindig
and guess what will be in my bathroom?

Kleenex Hand Towels of course.

Want some for your next gig?
Well I'll tell you what.
I've got some to give away.

Since I know most folks visit this here blog via a reader
of some sort,
I'm not going to MAKE you jump here to comment to win.

Instead, let's make it easi(er), peasy(er).

You can follow me on Instagram.
I'll be posting photos as I get ready for the party of the century
(which I'll blog about here, of course).

Comment on any of those photos about how you sure could
use some #CleanHands.

Bonus points for being clever and finding a non-party photo
to get all #CleanHands on.

I'll even throw in some extra special
extra summer fun on top of the Kleenex Hand Towels for the winner.

Ready to have some fun?
All you have to do is comment on any of my Instaphotos
with a clever (or dull) #CleanHands comment.

You don't have to follow me (but you'll want to to see the winner)
and you don't have to comment on the blog
(but you'll want to because commenting is cool).

Winner will be chosen by July 30/31st ish.
Don't have Instagram?

If you click my widget for Instagram photos to the right
over there --------------------->

you can actually see what you're missing out on.
I think you might even be able to comment via the web.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective

and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

7 Things to Love About Summer | #4 Gardening (with Lifescript)

This is a sponsored post by me on behalf of Lifescript.com

So let's see.

Summer is now, officially, well under way.

I've sucked down my fave childhood treat

and I've seen an awesome movie or two

and I might have had chance to party like it's 1999.

But when all is said and done,
there is something about
daylight
when you live close to the land of the midnight sun
that makes summer
totally about gardening
and being healthy for me.

Case(s) in point

Thing is,
I totally inherited my green thumb from my granny.
I think I may have also inherited her rheumatoid arthritis.

You see,
she had the most gorgeous gardens
(floral and edible)
on the block.

I loved being out in the yard with her.

The other day,
as I was out and about in my garden,
I started to notice some mannerisms
that made me think about my grandmother.

I remember growing up,

that she really could not bend her knees
to pull flowers or weeds.

I remember growing up,
that she would lay the water hose in her garden beds
rather than hold a trigger sprayer or even use her fingers to
"splay" the water.

I remember growing up,
that she would wince as she
wrapped her hand around a sturdy weed to give it a tug.

As I spent time in my own garden,
I was noticing that if I couldn't sit on the grass
(ie, because it had just been watered)
that it was really painful for me to bend my knees to get close to my beds.

I noticed that
I rarely use my sprayer
without the auto on switch.

I noticed that after a couple of hours of 

pulling and tugging in the garden
my hands would be on fire.

Aside from the green thumb that I got from my granny
I started to wonder if maybe, I had also inherited her
rheumatoid arthritis.

Being the curious girl that I am,
I decided to get to know a bit more
about who I am.

I sent off a kit to 23andme

and I quickly jumped over to Lifescript.comto study up on rheumatoid arthritis.

I checked out the Rheumatoid Arthritis Health Center
and boy was I floored.

First, it should go without saying
that I'm a girl that likes to read.
Anything, really.
But especially really GOOD,

really approachable,

really legitimate
consumer health information.

I might have gotten a bit consumed by my time on the
Lifescript.com site.

While I personally love
(and write my own)
health and living advice
I actually like that the site
has writing by professional health writers, experts and physicians.
As in, lots of medical advice
but by professionals who get that
people need it to be in plain English.

While I ended up on the site
as I was exploring Rheumatoid Arthritis,
I love that they have information
on other prevalent medical conditions related to women's health.

I wish they had a Fertility Health Center.
1 in 8 couples struggles with fertility issues
and this is a significant women's health issue.

To that, they do have a general "Women's Health Center"
and if you drill down there, there is a link for infertility.

Alas, I wish it had it's own Health Center on Lifescript.

Interestingly, as I was looking into some of my
Recurrent Pregnancy Loss issues
there were lots of references to Humira and Prednisone.

Who knew that by exploring my arthritis link
I might end up on those meds anyhow?

Anyhow,
as I researched rheumatoid arthritis
here are some of the things I found interesting

1.
Yoga is good.
8 Steps to Staying Active with Rheumatoid Arthritis.

2.
Tired, stiff and achy? Maybe it's arthritis.
Symptoms

3.
Did all that work to harvest the garden, now what?
6 Recipes for Rheumatoid Arthritis
(including a tasty leek, asparagus and herb soup)

Time to get offline
(and off the keyboard)
and back into the garden.

Lifescript’s Rheumatoid Arthritis Health Center features tips, quizzes, recipes and articles
 – all by professional health writers, experts and physicians –
covering common RA symptoms,
foods that compose an anti-inflammatory diet,
new RA therapies and more.
 Please visit the Lifescript Health Center on Rheumatoid Arthritis
for more information.

And to check out this free website, click here!

This is a sponsored post by me on behalf of Lifescript.com.