Yes. I know. It’s been weeks and weeks and weeks since I posted a “real” blog post – or at least one with lots of words. And my first post back is about fruit flies. I apologize. It’s been crazy since mid-June. So, before I talk about fruit flies, let me tell you just how crazy it has been. And I promise, there is a logical segway from busy into fruit flies … just need to wait for it.

But first, because I know people like pictures in blog posts, here is a picture of me in a field of sunflowers. Totally random.

Imagine this:

• Jun 16 – 19: take a quick trip to Edmonton, to see my brother who is in town from Australia and spend some time with family at the cabin. Highlights of that super trip are coming!
• Jun 20 – 23: work an insane amount of hours at my lawyer job, getting ready for 2.5 weeks of vacation.
• Jun 24 – 25: leave the office early to drive to Kingston for a beautiful wedding.
• Jun 26: drive from Kingston directly to YYZ to catch our flight to Paris!
• Jun 27 – 30: whirlwind days in Paris, including getting brutal summer cold!
• Jul 1: day trip to Loire Valley, whirlwind tour of fairytale castles!
• Jul 2 – 9: go to Ventenac-en-Minervois, for the best weeklong relaxing vacation a girl could hope for. I planned to blog in that week. I really did. Instead, a took a week off of life. Drank wine, read my book, took some amazing photographs of Sam + Graham, Jenn + Jordan, and Edie (coming soon!), and had a break.
• Jul 9 – 13: whirlwind tour through Barcelona. One of my new all time favorite cities and places I would like to live one day.
• Jul 14 – 15: back in the office, caught up from 2.5 weeks off.
• Jul 17: second shot a beautiful wedding for my friend Mary (my post coming soon).
• Jul 19 – 21: last minute business trip to Vancouver.
• Jul 24: spend all day Sunday at the office, dinner at the hubs’ colleague’s house.
• Jul 25 – 29: work 65 hours in 5 days my lawyer job, mostly writing a factum.
• Jul 30: in-laws come to visit, dinner with my in-laws at my husband’s CEO’s new house (yes, I said that).
• Jul 31: shoot a beautiful wedding.
• Aug 1: start editing beautiful wedding, update photography website.
• Aug 2 – 4: back to the office, for a crazy busy week because of everything that I didn’t have time to finish last week because I mostly wrote a factum.
• Aug 4: updated website design (again) to make it “softer”.  I’m getting there, I tell you!

Ok. So. It was busy. And, I know you don’t feel sorry for me for the 2.5 weeks of vacation in there. But, anyone who has ever been on vacation realizes that the two weeks leading up to and the two (or this time, three) weeks after are not so relaxing. Especially when running a photography business (summer intensive) on top of being a lawyer (intense all the time.)

Needless to say, I didn’t have time to write. And I wasn’t feeling inspired. And this blog is for me. I can’t force myself to write if I’m not feeling it, otherwise I’ll grow to resent my blog rather than love it. And that, my friends, would be a sad, sad thing!

So, after reading about 500 words you people are probably thinking two things 1) “this girl complains too much about things that are awesome” and 2) “why the heck is this blog post called fruit flies”. So. Let me tell you.

Because I am not a “super person”, just a regular person that happens to be insanely busy in the summer, things started to fall off my radar. Important things, like cooking dinner. And cleaning my apartment. Now, I went grocery shopping last last Saturday because I had very good intentions to cook. I failed to cook, however, because I wasn’t leaving the office until about 11pm. You see where this is going right? Oh, and it was a bazillion degrees last last week.

So, guess what happened? A whole bunch of fruit and vegetables got old on my counter fast. Oh, and I couldn’t even take out the garbage because my building rules say that’s only allowed between 8am and 8pm. And this, my friends, is a recipe for fruit flies. Hundreds of teensy tiny annoying-as-heck flitty little fruit flies.

I didn’t have time to deal with said fruit-flies until last Saturday. But then, oh man, did I ever deal with them. A quick Google search landed me at a recipe for a homemade fruit fly trap. And it’s easy effective, the best kind of fruit fly trap! (If you are sensitive to murdering fruit flies, I suggest you stop reading here).

When I say effective, I mean really, really effective. After 2 hours, our fruit fly problem was cut in half. After 24 hours, there was only one or two resilient (or smart) little buggers left. And after 48 hours, they were gone. And we were once again fruit fly free!

So, do you have a fruit fly problem? Do you need to “kill fruit flies dead” (a la Raid ad) fast because they are driving you crazy? Let me teach you how in 6 simple steps.

1. Remove all fruit and veggies from your counter and clean it till its sparkly. Your fruit bowl will look lonely, but that is ok. It is worth it.

2. Take out all garbage or compost with fruit or vegetables in it.

3. Collect your “ingredients”: a cup full of about 1/4 cup of water, dish soap, red wine vinegar, a knife and Glad Cling Wrap.*

*OK fine, you don’t need Glad Cling Wrap, I just can’t find a generic brand that works like sweet sweet Cling Wrap does. And no, Glad hasn’t paid me to say that. Though they should…

4. To make your trap, squeeze some dish soap into the water and stir it up so. Then add a few teaspoons of red-wine vinegar. Top your cup with sweet sweet Cling Wrap and poke small holes in it with a knife.

5. Sit back and wait. Drink wine, go out, watch your trap, whatever!

6. Enjoy your fruit fly free home!

And that, my friends, is a recipe to get ride of fruit flies.

P.S. I was telling a colleague about this sweet trap of mine, and his comment was “women come up with the craziest things”. Maybe, colleague, but I bet my house is more fruit fly free than your house!
P.P.S. Good segway right? I bet you didn’t see that one coming.