*Added Bonus!
For $20 more, guests can add a special Mother’s Day Package that includes:
Photo of “Queen Mom”
“Queen of the Castle” Cape
Mom’s choice of champagne, mimosa or cider in a souvenir champagne glass.

* Moms should mention code: MOMWEB at the time of purchase. Not valid on prior purchases or gift certificates. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Advance reservations and payment required.

Yesterday, my office shut down early for the second time in light of protest events. I got home, walked the dog, then Sean and I spent the evening, like I imagine many of our neighbors did, with one eye on the TV news and one on facebook.

We watched cars and businesses looted and burned from neighborhoods nowhere near ours to neighborhoods much closer to ours. We packed bags "just in case" and barricaded our front door and window before finally going to bed.

We woke up to a beautiful day. You could hear a pin drop in our neighborhood, but others aren't so fortunate.

These events are as sad as they are disgusting, but they don't represent the city we decided to call home last year. I'm not suddenly sorry that we moved to Baltimore. In fact, I'm still proud to live here. I don't know what the national news outlets showed people outside of the area, but here's what I saw yesterday that reaffirmed my Baltimore pride:

I saw a family keep it classy. The family of Freddie Gray has more reason than anyone else to be upset. They've lost someone very close to them and they don't have the answers they need for closure and healing. If anyone is "entitled" to act in the manner that we saw yesterday, the Gray family would have the least of my judgement if they'd chosen to do so. Instead, they kept it classy. They asked for no protests yesterday, the day of Gray's funeral. They asked for this unacceptable behavior to cease. They seek not revenge, but what is right.

I saw a mother hold her child accountable.  Yesterday's riots (let's clear this up now, these were riots, not  protests, fueled by selfish desires that had nothing to do with seeking justice for Gray) began with teenagers. Children, really, running around and destroying their communities. This video of one mother's reaction has received a lot of attention, and for good reason:

This title sounds ridiculous and I'm absolutely fine with that. (Really, though, I googled "crack garden" to find that it clearly is a term and nothing terribly new. Lots of cool pics)

We moved into our first house last July when everything was in full bloom: vegetables, flowers, weeds...yes, weeds. The homes on our block are 100 years old and things deteriorate over this time. In this case, some cracks had formed in the concrete steps and weeds had spring out. Ugly, you guys. So ugly.



Except for Ms. Vicky. Two doors down from me, I noticed something. Springing from her cracks (again, sounds lovely, huh?) were not weeds, but flowers. It was unique and beautiful. As she came outside to water her potted plants (she has lovely flowers everywhere), I asked her how her crack flowers came about (in a much more polite fashion).

"They just happened," she insisted. Right.

That July and the remaining warm months were spent settling in, painting, cleaning, decorating, furnishing...all that new home stuff that we still haven't completed nine months later. Gardening was not on my radar. Next year, I promised myself. Next year I will have lovely crack flowers rivaling Ms. Vicky's.

(Who am I kidding? Her thumbs are clearly green and mine are black. I'll be thrilled if anything I grow this year comes out half as good as her plants.)

But, a promise is a promise, so on top of the veggie growing, I've begun my attempt at a crack garden. And since we all know they don't "just happen," I gave it my best guess. Here's what I did:

1. Get rid of the nasty weeds (I'll spare you all the true before photos). I put on some gloves, tore and dug out what I could, then doused the area with homemade weed killer (thanks, Pinterest). No icky chemicals here.
   

   The biggest of the cracks (technically my neighbor's), de-weeded and treated

2. Wait a day.
3. Mix soil in a container with water to a muddy consistency. I used a disposable plastic bowl and fork.
4. Scoop the soil mixture into the cracks.
5. Press flower seeds into the soil mixture (I used the seeds that came in the pitiful excuse for greeting cards that I reviewed back in March. Glad they're good for something!).

   All filled in. Can't wait to see beautiful flowers instead of ugly weeds!

6. Water as needed and wait for growth!

Training Anise at home was easy. Nearly too easy considering what a dominant breed the Presa Canario is known to be. Sean and I were assertive with her from the start and surprisingly, she cooperated.


At least, in the house she did. On leash was a whole different story. Outside, people were for jumping on and dogs were for lunging towards and barking at. While we want our dog to appear scary since we're in the city, we certainly don't want our neighbors avoiding us because they think we have an aggressive, out-of-control beast.

I mean, just look at that vicious face!

After trying multiple leash-training techniques, we finally enlisted the help of a pro (who ultimately conceded that this will be an ongoing effort and left Sean and I to it after many frustrating sessions). She's still a crazy, but she's a crazy who needs exercise. The trainer pointed out that one way to get more out of our walks was with a dog backpack . I'd seen Cesar Milan break these babies out on TV, but I'd never seen one in person and never thought it would work for us. Yet, when he brought her home from their first backpack session and she promptly plopped on her bed, I knew there was potential.
The next hurdle was actually finding a backpack. Anise is considered XL at 90 lbs., which is hard to find in stores (and pricey so we try to avoid it anyway), but surprisingly, equally as hard to find online. I scoured Amazon and was finally resigning to a backpack that was much bulkier than I wanted. I bookmarked it and hesitated, hoping to find something better. That something (much, much) better came in the form of DNA Plus seeking a tester for their dog backpack.

I have a confession to make: I've assumed that my move to the city meant that the tap water must be filthy in comparison to what I'm used to. I use my Brita religiously and I've been lusting over tub and shower filters for awhile now. They can be rather pricey, meaning research is needed before ordering one at random.

As you can guess, I was pretty excited when I was given the opportunity to review the Ava Shower Filter, which claims to "Filters 99.9% of Chlorine, Algae, Dirt, Fluoride, Lead, Chloramine, Bacteria, Arsenic, Chromium, Zinc, Copper, Selenium, Mercury and Heavy Metals and many more chemicals. Shower filter also reduces scum build-up using kdf." Amazon lists the retail as $99.99 with a current "sale price" of $69.99.

The Ava Shower Filter

The installed filter

In this case, I got the filter for free, but I did spend money to make sure this review was done right. I purchased a $15 Digital TDS-EZ Water Quality TDS Tester (total dissolved solids) to test the water before and after (you can read more about how that works here). Here's what I learned:

1. The water in Baltimore ain't bad at all. I'd read some other Amazon reviews challenging the filter's effectiveness. One user said his water tested in the 400's before using any sort of filter. Yikes! When I tested all our home faucets and showers, everything was between 170–190 ppm (parts per million_. Not bad! Our tap water when filtered through our Brita was only 110 ppm. I shared my surprise on Facebook and with co-workers to find out that Baltimore (and Maryland) are known for having some of the cleanest tap water. Nice!
   
2. The Ava Shower Filter doesn't do squat. Sean installed the filter, I took a quick shower, and measured the water. Many Amazon reviewers complained the ppm stayed the same. For me, it increased. It was over 200 ppm. I thought maybe it just needed some time to run through the filter (after all, you do have to soak those Brita cartridges before using them) I continuously tested the water post-shower for 5 days only to consistently get higher ppm readings. So, not only does it not work, it made things worse!

   Yikes!

Happy Monday! I'm happy to join a few of my favorite bloggers for a great giveaway! Are you a fan of Target? Lilly Pulitzer? If you haven't heard, Lilly Pulitzer's collection is on it's way to Target! Let us help you get some!

Aleshea and I had such a fun time hosting our second annual Blogger Basket Swap.



If you participated, link up your goodies for everyone to see below.

If you didn't, drool over everyone's goodies and mark your calendars for next year's swap!


I was paired up with Stacy and Katie.

I put together a watering can "basket" full of goodies inspired by Stacy's "101 in 1001" list. The watering can was part of #81: start and maintain an herb garden.

all goodies not pictured

 Katie sent me a sweet box with the cutest card, notebook and pen, organic pb cups (which were devoured promptly after this photo was taken), a basil planter (perfect timing!), and the cutest thing ever..a ManaTEA tea infuser:


I had such a blast getting to know both ladies and enjoy following their blogs.

See everyone next year!

1. cruelty-free
2. no toxic ingredients (parabens, petroleum, etc.)

We're so fortunate to be living in a time where companies are realizing the importance of these two factors and putting more choices that meet these criteria on the market for consumers.

When Ecco Bella sent me their cruelty-free FlowerColor lipstick collection for review, I was ecstatic. I mean, look at these sleek beauties:



Straight from the mouth of Ecco Bella:

I swatched just 3 of the 7. You get the idea.

The #EBLipstick bled like crazy on me.

On the bright side, Ecco Bella does offer skincare and other cosmetic collections. Anyone have experience with these? What did you think?

Tomorrow, Sean and I are off to the Home Depot for a vertical gardening workshop. It's time to get this structure built and get everything planted. Updates to come.

Speaking of updates, those seedlings I started in February? They've been in my bay window soaking up any sun that was kind enough to grace Baltimore. I didn't see sprouts for the longest time and was starting to lose hope, but finally, I have sprouts! That's one small victory.





Now, to get everything planted outdoors without killing anything.

Keep an eye out for a flower gardening post of the crack variety soon, too. I promise it's not what it sounds like!

I'm one of those readers who likes to read a book in one sitting, two tops. When I finally gave in and decided to read the Harry Potter books, I finished the entire series in a week.

Of course, I don't have nearly as much time to sit and read in such a fashion as I'd like. Recently, I made the time to put a dent in the pile of books from Christmas (yikes!). Here's what I read (book links are affiliate links):



1. The Civilized World: A Novel in Stories, Susi Wyss
This is my favorite of the books in this post, but I do have a slight bias: Susi sits in the cubicle next to mine. I randomly discovered one day that she had a (quite popular) book published, and I made sure to win her autographed copy when our organization had a silent auction for charity!

The Civilized World is a collection of intertwining shorter stories, mostly set in Africa. It feels like every theme is covered from love, family, and friendship to business and politics. I love the honest representation of the cultures and characters. Certain bits had me snickering because I knew they could easily describe a lot of people in my organization. Bias aside, Oprah endorsed this book and the amazon reviews are fabulous, so I know I'm not the only fan.

2. When I Found You, Catherine Ryan Hyde
I received this and the next book from a blog book swap around the holidays. I enjoy fiction, and while I probably wouldn't have chosen this book for myself, I found myself enjoying (and getting frustrated with) the characters. The novel spans several years from the time protaganist Nathan discovers an abandoned newborn in the woods while hunting. I enjoyed the bond formed between Nathan and "baby Nathan" and their imperfections—I thought I had the story all figured out, but Hyde gave us a very "human" character who continued to keep things interesting.

3. A Scattered Life, Karen McQuestion
I received this in the same swap, and just finished it during my recent weekend in New York. It's my least favorite on this list, but that doesn't mean I didn't like it. We meet Skyla as a gypsy of sorts, then see her as a wife and friend...while she still sees herself as a wandering loner. The story is short and sweet, but I felt removed from the characters—although the story itself doesn't leave loose ends, I finished the book with a lot of questions regarding the people in it.

4. The Last Mercenary, Diana Palmer + Her Lone Cowboy
I received this one in a different book swap over Christmas. I'm open to a mindless romance read every now and then. The book is actually two novellas by different authors, both of which could be finished in one sitting if you have the time. Mercenary deals with well, Mercenary Micah's rescue of his kidnapped stepsister, Callie, while Cowboy tells the story of a service member who is back home near family and a new friend after a serious injury.  Both follow your typical romance formula of meeting/confusion/conflict/happily ever after, and I'm totally fine with that. I love a happy ending!

What have you read recently?