This post brought to you by Bulbs. Dig, Drop, Done.. All opinions are 100% mine.

There isn’t a single bulb flower I don’t love. Because my dad served a three-year religious mission to Holland when he was young — and my husband and I returned 50 years later to celebrate our 15th anniversary — I have a special affinity for tulips. My next favorites are dahlias and daffodils. Then hyacinthus. And I love freesia and crocus, too.

Have you ever seen a row of allium running down a walkway? Gorgeous!

My little uncovered patch in front of the porch is going to be the home for my spring bulb garden. I can’t wait to plant it next fall. And I can’t wait to cut armloads of blossoms to put all over the house. Nothing beautifies a home like fresh flowers.

To help you plan out your bulb garden, use the Garden Guru Tool (you can find it on the lower left side of the Curbside Chaos site). Just follow these steps:

1. Select your country (US or Canada)
2. Choose your garden zone
3. Select the flower you want to grow
4. Get your planting guide

The best thing about bulbs is that they are easy, easy, easy to grown. You don’t have to be a master gardener to grow them (or even a green thumb)! You dig a little hole, drop in a bulb, cover it up. Then wait until spring. You can to learn more about the varieties of bulbs available as well as planting tips./

The site is presented by three fictitious women. If I have to identify with one, I suppose it would be Marcy (“the super mom”). I’m not a June Cleaver-ish baker with clothing that matches my dining chairs and mixing bowls, but I am a mom. The other two — who are these women? Juliana (“the fashionista”) — do you know anyone who carries around a miniature dog all day and wants to know about planting anything? Won’t that dirty her nails? Evelyn (“the empty nester”) — I know lots of empty nesters, but they spend their time working and volunteering, not lounging in a silk robe and curlers, waiting for their mahjongnbsp;dates.

Anyway, if you can use $5,000 for a yard makeover — and who can’t — hop on over to Curbside Chaos . All you need to do is submit a photo of your yard to enter. The winner will get the makeover and a visit from Taniya Nayak, who will give you personal yard update tips — including how to incorporate bulbs into your landscape.

Every time you share the contest on Twitter, “Bulbs. Dig. Drop. Done.” will donate a dollar to Rebuilding Together, a nonprofit that preserves affordable homeownership and revitalizes communities.

When we moved to Eagle Mountain, we thought we were going to do the farm thing. Not a full-fledged, up before dawn, milking the cows kind of farm, just a little gentleman’s ranchette. With a couple of horses, a goat or two, maybe a few mini-cows (OK, so maybe a little milking), and some chickens.

We didn’t get very far on that dream, but we did build a coop and raised some backyard chickens.

Unfortunately, the chicken dream wasn’t a raging success. There were a number of reasons for our failure. Neither Sam nor I were really farm-raised children. Farms have a touch of the romantic to the, but we didn’t really know what we were getting ourselves into. We didn’t know anything about chicken feed or chicken care or how to provide a proper shelter and space for roosting.

We checked out a few websites, asked some friends, and hauled on down to the local IFA store for advice. How hard could it be?

The chickens seemed happy, but we only got four or five eggs. And after many months, a huge windstorm tossed the coop in the air like a tumble weed. The chickens scattered. Our cat caught one before we could save it and the others blew so far we couldn’t find them.

If you’re looking for chickens for sale, make sure you know enough to make it worth your while. Even chickens are a lot more work than we imagined.

I have a dream laundry room. It’s so amazing that a number of people (honestly!) snuck downstairs to see it when I held a large group event. Now, it’s true that I talk about my laundry room in one of conference speeches on home organization systems. So it is famous, as far as laundry rooms go. But still, who sneaks around to see someone’s laundry room?

One of the most common questions I get when people see the famous room is, “Where did you get that big laundry cart on wheels?”

It’s interesting how difficult sourcing commercial things is for most people. If you can’t find it at Walmart of Target, where would you go? The answer is, I got it from a professional laundry supply company. The kind of company that services laundromats and commercial laundering services.

In the same way, I purchase our cleaning supplies from a janitorial supply company. Often, buying commercial grade supplies and equipment means better quality and lower prices. Because of this, I’m always on the lookout for interesting finds that I wouldn’t normally see in a typical store. I try to make note of it in case I — or someone I consult with — ever needs the item.

Today I found a supplier for enclosed bulletin boards. These are the kinds of systems that you see in businesses, in schools, outside establishments, etc. They also have a great selection of magnets (of course, I like the stainless steel ones), that can be used on any magnet board or wall.

EnclosedBulletinBoards.com (sensible name!), carries enclosed cork bulletin boards in many colors with either metal or wood frames. They also carry magnetic, rubber, and enclosed fabric bulletin boards in many varieties.

Although I can’t think of many residential uses, the commercial possibilities are endless. If this is something you will need, you now have a source with many options.

Professional results and professional products go together. A few days ago I wrote about my decades-long use of janitorial cleaning supplies to clean my home. Not only do I use professional products, I use a professional system. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to spend all day cleaning. Rather, I want great results in minimal time. And guess what, that’s exactly what cleaning services do — that’s how they make money. So, I use their products and their systems to get the best results, very efficiently.

When I speak at conferences on organizing, I do my best to convince people (mostly women), that the work done in homes is worthy of the best quality equipment and products you can obtain.

Time after time I see families where men who are weekend warriors, who very occasionally do some kind of project requiring power tools — and they have a garage full of expensive gadgets. In the same house, laundry is being done multiple times each week, vacuums and dishwashers and stoves are being used every day — and the equipment (which was often shoddy to begin with) is only marginally working.

So wrong and so backward! The work of maintaining a home becomes much less burdensome when good tools are available. And, yes, a washing machine is a tool.

If you’re in a more technical field, you might need circuit analyzers, a variety of meters, thermal imaging cameras, or other professional equipment. You wouldn’t think of using subpar equipment to get the job done. Rather, you’d use the best you could reasonably afford.

Working at home is serious work, too. The tools used deserve adequate resources to make work efficient.

Some people are just more talented than others. And that goes for bloggers as well. Some of us (ahem) write about things we love and things we hate and things that make our hair stand on end and things we are passionate about. And we use stock photos or marginally identifiable photos we took in the back yard (or in the kitchen or in the family room), because that’s pretty much all we’ve got going on.

Then there are those who not only write about the things they love and hate, but do it with style. Because they can. Jason No-Last-Name-Kind-Of-Like-Cher of Frugal Dad is that kind of blogger. In his own words:

This site was created for the average family to find financial resources with a conservative slant. By “conservative slant” I’m not referring to politics, rather the “conservative” approach to personal finances.

But that description doesn’t really tell it all. Jason has created a blog, filled with infographics (see the one embedded below) and really good stuff for the budget conscious. He has made enough of a name (or lack pseudonym) for himself, that he’s been featured on such sites as FastCompany, Mashable, BusinessWeek, and Kiplinger.

An entire section is dedicated to coupons and deals. He lists coupon codes and deals for Home Depot, Target, Macy’s, Gap, and other department store. He’s got coupons for footwear and cosmetics. He features personal finance software, investing companies, and only trading firms. He can help you get a discount on cars and accessories, electronics, entertainment, and even travel.

Jason has also created a section on scholarships. Not only has he created his own scholarship (awesome, this is a dream of ours, some day) that he awards annually, but he has written ideas to attend college debt-free. With three kids as currently attending college — and three more to come along in the next few years — I know just how valuable this information is.

To top it off, Frugal Dad offers a free ebook to all readers. The 7-Day Turnaround: One Week to Change Your Family’s Financial Future is yours if you subscribe to his RSS and/or email delivery. Of course, I subscribed to his RSS feed (I use Google Reader for my feeds) and got the ebook. The chapters include:

Take an Inventory of Your Finances
Build an Emergency Fund, Quickly
Cut Up Those Credit Cards
Slash Your Expenses
Start Saving for Retirement
Give the Gift of Education
Invest for an Early Retirement

It’s a great bonus, just for subscribing to a  feed that you should be wanting anyway.

Now, get educated on where the patent scamoola (and the copyright one, to some extent, as well) has taken us.

As the snow finally begins to blow in Utah — we were all beginning to think winter would just pass us by this year — I am reminded of one of the best things about living in a place with seasons. A good hard winter freeze does wonders for keeping bugs at bay.

Growing up in Utah, I came to understand that nice homes never, ever had bug problems. If you kept your house clean, the bugs simply didn’t make an appearance.

Then we moved to Boca Raton, Florida, and life changed. Suddenly the critters were everywhere. I had, very literally, never seen a cockroach until we moved into our townhouse rental. (I apologize for using the most revolting image ever on my site. It fits the topic, but I don’t plan to make a habit of it.) Suddenly, they were everywhere, in the bathrooms, in the walls, in the cabinets, in the drawers, under the stove drip pans. I mean who lives under stove drip pans?!

No matter how I cleaned and scrubbed, the bugs were there. If any kind of food was placed in the pantry without being hermetically sealed, they were there. If a knife with so much as a dab of peanut butter was left on the counter for 15 minutes, there was a trial of ants marching back and forth collecting their prized meal.

Regularly, you’d see entire houses completely covered with thick plastic tarps (we called them bug bags) being “bombed” to get rid of the infestations.

Eventually I realized my impressions didn’t apply to all climates. Climates with year-round heat were also prime breeding grounds for year-round, exponential pest multiplication.

The “solution” was to hire a monthly pest control service, put all the unsealed food in the refrigerator, and to freak out mightily if anyone left anything out as bait.

Today, even though I’m having a twinge of spring fever, I remind myself that the freeze isn’t just making me cold, it’s doing some natural pest control on my behalf.

If you are a fellow American, “letting a flat” might sound like gibberish. Or needing replacement tires. But it’s very simple. In British parlance letting is renting and a flat is an apartment. When we lived in England in 1983, we let a flat in a row of townhouses.

Compared to our American digs, it was minimal. But compared to most of our local friends, it was very nice. It was a two-story unit with a living room and an kitchen/dining/laundry combined in one on the main floor. The upstairs featured three bedrooms. Each was reasonably sized and fitted with a sink. On one end of the hall was a tub and sink. On the other a lone toilet. (Who came up with that design? The we-do-not-believe-in-germs coalition?)

Since my dad was on sabbatical at the university in Leeds, the math department chairman made arrangements for our housing before we arrived. We lived in a quaint little neighborhood on Grove Lane. But if you want to take extended travel and don’t have local contacts, what can you do?

LettingWeb.com can help you find a place across the pond. They list properties in Scotland, England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. At this writing they have 7,229 listings in Scotland alone.

They offer flats to rent Glasgow, which is the largest city in Scotland and the third largest in all of the United Kingdom.

They have flats to rent Edinburgh, which is the second largest city in Scotland and home of the world famous Edinburgh Woollen Mill (yes, that’s how they spell it). We spend a very large chunk of change at this fabulous store and I still have my kilt!

The have an inventory of flats to rent Aberdeen, the third largest city in Scotland, with many buildings built of grey granite infused with silver deposits that sparkle.

If you’re thinking about taking a trip to the United Kingdom, see if  Lettingweb can help you find the perfect place to stay.

I shouldn’t be writing about eyeglasses. Really. I told you I finally went to the eye doctor — for the first time since we moved back to Utah (in 2001). And, yes, I ordered my prescription reading glasses. But I still haven’t picked them up. And now the eye doctor is starting to do the just-calling-to-give-you-a-super-friendly-reminder-that-your-freaking-glasses-are-still-sititng-in-the-pickup-box thing.

I need them. I paid for them. I just don’t want them. Can you blame me? I just want my eyes to magically improve so I can go on with my life without the bother.

So, as I try to get over my issues — and, I swear, vanity isn’t one, convenience is — I find that Zenni Optical has given me one good reason to do it. Valentine’s Day is coming and glasses will let me see the people I love more clearly.

So maybe I’ll give myself a little present for happy hearts day and stop squinting. If you want to join me, check out Zenni’s incredibly affordable glasses. They have over 80 red or pink frames. Perfect to add some holiday spark.

If you’ve never ordered glasses online, it is simple. You just fax your prescription in (just ask your doctor to give it to you, insist if you must), they fill it, and mail you the glasses of your choice.

When I was 19, my dad took a sabbatical form his professorial duties and he and my mother headed to Europe.

The final destination was to be a flat in Leeds, England, but before that would be a whirlwind tour of Germany (where they would pick up a VW Jetta (with American specs)), Portugal, Italy, Spain, France, Netherlands (that will always be Holland in our house because my father served a three-year religious mission there when he was young), and I don’t remember where else.

I was supposed to be part of the great adventure, but I was in a pageant royalty and was committed to stay through the summer to complete my reign on the parade float circus. In all honesty, I was more committed to staying around my boyfriend. Big mistake on both counts.

In any event, the deal was that after my parents travels, I would take a semester off from college and meet them in London for a week before heading to Leeds.

Having never flown alone before, it was quite an experience. Certainly, the entire suitcase devoted to shoes (I kid you not) contributed to the difficulty, but the multiple transfers, customs, baggage, and international flight (before smoking on planes was prohibited) were about all I could handle. Finally I made it to Gatwick Airport. I have never been so glad to see my parents!

They took me to a bed and breakfast where I was introduced to sharing bathrooms with strangers and very (very) rough toilet paper. On the bright side, I also became acquainted with coddled eggs and warm milk and BBC and cress sandwiches in tea room and Guy Fawkes Day.

Once I got over the mind-crushing jet lag, I found myself in a fascinating city. Most striking was the realization that the United States is so very young. Their is history everywhere you turn. I would love to go back to London with a little more life experience behind me, to help me understand and appreciate it.

As you know from other posts, I’m a big fan of living like a resident instead of a tourist when I travel. If you’re heading to London, contact Polly and Robert Arnold and look into their London apartments. Polly and Robert are Londoners. They have lived their all their lives and raised their three children there. With their vast knowledge of the are, the sites, locations, and events, they can tailor your visit to make the most of your travel experience.

Staying in one of the comfortable London apartments may be the best way to see — and experience — beautiful London. Check it out and then check in.

So. My dad just walked in and gave me a gift certificate for two pounds of See’s chocolate. This after three solid weeks avoiding junk food of any kind and turning down hot, buttered, theater popcorn every single week.

When I lived in Boca Raton, a good friend of mine, Rolain, always raved about Sees. She would actually have friends and family bring her boxes of Sees chocolate when they traveled. Once for her birthday, Tara and I bought her Boca trash — a local chocolate decadence. She ate it politely, but it obviously wasn’t Sees.

Honestly, what’s the big deal. Chocolate is chocolate, right? That was until my choir kids gave me a gift certificate to Sees after our year end concert. We have a See’s Candies in the University Mall in Orem. Oh, my. It was fabulous. I did not want to share.

So now — knowing full well what lies in store — I hold this gift certificate in one hand and my health resolve in the other. This is the height of temptation since my New Year’s resolutions were made.

At moments like these, I repeat my husbands favorite saying, over and over and over.

Never give up what you want more, for what you want at the moment.

And I’m telling you, at the moment, I want chocolate.