Green cleaning

Even before it was the "popular" thing to do, I've been a fan of ecologically friendly cleaning supplies, relying on some old fashioned ones such as vinegar and baking soda. Now there are a variety of different green cleaning supplies out there on the market. Some make me chuckle a bit considering the price factor, in theory most of the green products should cost less, in practice, many times they are much higher priced than their chemical cleaning cousins. There are however some green products that won't take all of your green ... All that is required from you is a bit of research.

New table...new lighting

Yesterday we were given a new dining room set, so I was finally able to get rid of my table that had become a favorite item for our cats to sharpen their claws on. The two worst culprits are now in kitty heaven so the chances of this newer table not being destroyed is good. The new look has made me start looking at new lighting, I like some of the offerings by Kichler lighting though, the current lighting includes a ceiling fan and that is a feature I'd like to keep since our home does not have air conditioning.

Plunging in...

When I hear the word "plunger" I think of the tool used often in this house, a toilet or sink plunger, destined to be an often needed item with girls who clog the sink or tub with hair and who forget we don't have a garbage disposal when it comes to cleaning up their after meal adventures. So when I saw the term spring plungers, I thought it was some type of a extended plunging device with a spring. I was partly right, it does have a spring, and does a plunging action but it's designed for tool engineers...

Saving trees and money...

There used to be a time when metal buildings were used for barns and other non-home uses, now there has been an increase in the use and the types of styles for metal building construction. People are even making new homes using steel instead of wood, some using all steel, others using steel instead of the framing aspect of construction.

A news story from 2008 that I found was very interesting in using steel for framing a house:

Sunpower for lights

Not long ago we were debating what type of low voltage path lights we wanted to use since I wanted more than the traditional light on the porch. We looked at several of the different options and decided to go with solar lighting, at first I wasn't sure how bright it would be and if the lack of wiring would create a theft temptation. This was a valid threat considering someone has stolen our expensive energy saving bug light bulb right from our porch more than once. However a month into the solar lighting being placed, no thefts and it does provide some nice lighting with no electrical wiring or costs.

No wonder why I can't sleep...

After I read this from the National Sleep Foundation:

The bedroom should be visually pleasing and very comfortable. One should use the bedroom only for sleep, sex, and changing clothes, pleasant activities, and if awake in the night should leave the bed and bedroom and spend "unpleasant" times awake in another room. "Waking" activities such as working on the computer, talking with one's partner, talking on the phone and watching TV should take place out of the bedroom.

Not only is our television in the bedroom, but it's where my "office" is so that I don't have to deal with the noise and distractions from the rest of the household. It makes me wonder how many others who turn to the sleeping pill solution are in the same boat, or should I say...bed?

The mattress mangle...

Evidently when our house was built, people did not have anything other than twin or full size beds, it is not humanely possible to get a king or even a queen size bed mattress upstairs or into the basement. It is possible depending on the type of queen size mattress to mangle it into what we've called the "taco bend" to get it upstairs, but it's not possible to have a queen sized box spring upstairs. Thankfully the explosion of access to platform beds has made that not a huge issue. We spent the first several months with just our queen size mattress on the floor until we found a reasonably priced platform bed.

Marshmallows roasting on an open fire...

I'm surprised no one has done a satire set of lyrics based on the Christmas carol about roasting chestnuts on an open fire, especially with the growing popularity of the outdoor fireplace or fire pit. I decided to take a crack at the first few lines...

Marshmallows roasting on an open fire
Mosquitoes nipping at your nose
Crickets loud enough to be a choir
And men dressed up in speedos

I maybe on to something...

:-)

Get that stainless steel look...

I fell in love with some of the metal tile designs I looked at on this website. I could spend hours dreaming about which type of tile, a stainless steel look or a copper look I'd love to have in the kitchen that exists in my mind. I wonder what mixing and matching stainless steel look appliances and one of the copper designs would look like, that way giving me both looks...

Or using one of the aluminum tiles that mixes the look of silver and copper...

Adventures in vitamins...

As I ponder on my families personal product habits, vitamins are also a category where no one can agree. I have to take something without iron, David doesn't believe in vitamins, Miguel takes a regular multivitamin, Aubrey only likes chew-able vitamins though she most prefers the gummy ones and when Erin was here she was a fan of chew-ables but would never eat the orange. Meaning you'd have almost a whole bottle full of orange flavored ones that no one would eat. When I cleaned out the medicine cabinet I even found a bottle of prenatal vitamins, which I have no idea how that ended up here. One of the girls must have decided that particular brand met their vitamin needs at the moment...I also found several bottles of expired vitamins from when some member of the household had started a particular brand/formulation then forgot about it...

Adventures in shampoo...

One of the things I find funny is no one in my house will use the same shampoo, unless of course their particular brand is gone and they are forced to use mine. My husband prefers a shampoo/conditioner that is also a body wash for men, David prefers a similar product but a different scent, Aubrey has to have special shampoo for hair that has been colored, and I alternate. Right now I'm using a rosemary/mint shampoo and conditioner since it was on sale. Even when it comes to our dogs I have shampoo for thinning hair for the one dog and regular doggy shampoo for the other.

Strangely enough, everyone does agree on a toothpaste, though the same can not be said for mouthwash...

:-)

I'm thinking about my doorbell...

Actually I'm not thinking about my doorbell at all, but I am thinking about the video that White Stripes did for their song "Doorbell" -- it's a strange video that really doesn't fit the song. I'm sure there is some type of a subliminal or hidden message behind it if you are a more hard core White Stripes fan. It was recorded in 2005, before they got a bit more airplay for Iggy Thump...

If I had a spa, it would not be bare...

If I should ever get to the point where I have a spa, I would invest in a spa cover, because it does extend the time needed between cleaning. We have a small pool in our yard and while it's great for the kids to cool off when it's hot, it takes more time to keep the leaves, bugs and other material out of the pool than seems worth it. The downside of course to covering a small pool is it creates algae and heats up the water, which defeats the purpose of having a pool if it is as warm as bath water. Hence? No cover for the pool, but a spa? You want to have warm anyway, which is another plus of a cover when it is a bit colder, it helps keep the heat in longer.

:-)

Think of your mail carrier when it snows...

We had a rather spirited debate on one of my other blogs related to people not shoveling their sidewalks and how that created unsafe conditions for children walking to school. It also creates problems for our mail carriers, many of whom have walking routes delivering on foot to Residential Mailboxes and in some parts of the city to Commercial Mailboxes.

This conversation also led me to think about the different styles of mail boxes when a friend told me her's was frozen shut. If yours is in a location where water can drip down and then freeze, perhaps considering buying one with a bit more of a protective overhang should be something you consider. If it's frozen shut, it's more of a struggle for mail to not only be received but delivered. Considering the over 2,500 different types Mailboxixchange has, you should be not only able to find a design you love, but also one that works for all seasons...

Does thinking Spring help?

When it's really cold outside, a snowy and blustery day, does it help to think about Spring? For me at times it does take my mind off the weather conditions outside, especially when I start looking at some of the different types of flowers and vegetables I could plant once winter is on it's way out. Unfortunately I have not had very much luck with Indoor Planters. In part because of the cats though I have tried several times to use a Garden Planter mini type greenhouse system to start my plants.

I've learned by trial and error that it has to be sturdy enough to be able to take a cat deciding to sit on it, one year all of my seedlings were crushed by one of the household felines deciding it looked like a promising place to sleep. I've had much more success with Outdoor Planters despite the occasional nibbling from one of the many wildlife in our neighborhood, at least none of them have decided to sleep on the plants. Not yet anyway...

:-)

Someday perhaps a real living room...

It's not uncommon for me to dream about living room sets in part because our living room is too small for most living room groups and it's being currently taken over by one of my daughters who prefers to sleep there than in the basement where her bedroom once was.

Which would mean for most their idea of sofa collections were not adorned with pillows and fleece blankets. My husband dreams of leather collections in a living room or den, I think of our cats and dogs and know that will never happen. Even reclining groups while tempting create flash backs to when one cat was trapped in a recliner and stuck there for hours before we returned home to locate him after hearing the pitiful meows as we entered the door...

Changes in the mail...

There are still some areas, like my neighborhood where the mailman (or mailwoman) delivers the mail on foot, door to door to each of the mail boxes on my street. However I've noticed a trend in some of the newer building projects where they have all of the Residential Mailboxes in one area, so that the mail is not actually delivered to the home, but is within walking distance to the homes on the street.

It's very similar to what we used to see when it came to Commercial Mailboxes in apartment units. Gone is the relationship that used to exist with your postal person, what is also gone with that appears to be some of the care with delivering mail. Which may not be purposeful, it's much easier to make a mistake while standing at a unit full of many mailboxes than it is going house to house. Many times there is no longer even any personal service when it comes to package delivery, there is a special mailbox placed with the mass of boxes and the key is placed in your mailbox.

Certified mail is still in theory delivered, but I've found what happens all too often even in my neighborhood where there is a walking route, is the slip for the certified mail is left in the box with no attempt to even see if the person is home. Nor is there any attempt to re-deliver...This leads me to think that perhaps the solution is to drop two days a week of delivery, that way the four days a week there is service? Perhaps a bit better service could occur...

Spice up your kitchen...

One of the downsides to our house we are living in right now is how small the kitchen is, it's one of my dream moments about the house we are going through renovation hell with, that once that is survived, the kitchen there is 20 times larger than this one. What I have found though with a small kitchen, there are items you can buy to make things easier. Most of these items can be found online at stores like JK Adams, one example of something that can save you space is a JK Adams pot rack, the mini bar ones can also be used for small kitchen areas.

Having a spice rack is another way to save space, especially if you pick one of the JK Adams spice racks that can mount on your wall, that frees up much needed counter space. I prefer one of the chunk style cutting boards, I just leave it out as a part of my counter space but there are a large variety of JK Adams cutting boards that could also fit into a cupboard.

Even when it comes to JK Adams wine racks there are some space saving designs, and they also have some nice stemware racks, the hanging ones are a great way to free up cupboard space and if you opt for colored wine glasses? Can add a splash of color to your kitchen. This time of year I recommend red, green and gold stemware, and I have friends who take this a step farther by adding some fake holly leaves around the edges of the stemware rack. The nice thing about any of these items is when we finally do move? I can take them with me and they'll work just fine in a larger kitchen as well.

Window boxes and cats...

The other day I was watching one of those do it yourself television shows and they built a window box for their cats. It was similar to how an air conditioner sits in a window, giving your cats the ability to go out into the window box to better enjoy the view than one they would normally have just sitting in the window.

This then got me thinking about the many different types of window boxes there are. There are window flower boxes that people use to adorn their homes but there are also window plant boxes that some grow vegetables and herbs in. These planters come in a variety of materials, from wood to fiberglass, they also come in a variety of sizes. They can attach to a window or be attached to a deck, or be free standing. Or if you really wanted to make your cat happy, you'd design a similar window box as I saw on television, then attach garden window boxes in a manner that your cat could not only enjoy the outdoors but munch on some kitty greens...

:-)

Interesting timing...

This weekend my oldest daughter is moving from San Jose to Phoenix, Arizona, her job has necessitated her making the move just a bit closer to home, by a few hundred miles. So when I came across this listing for Tempe apartments it caught my attention since it's not something I normally see and reminded me of her. What's been interesting is how much less expensive apartments are in Arizona compared to where she was in San Jose, she's going to spend at least $700.00 less for a larger, nicer place in Phoenix than she had in California...