Magazine Christmas Tree

I know it isn't the season for this but while cleaning up my spare closet I came across my magazine Christmas trees. It is beyond simple and if I can do it so can you. I don't remember how I came across the instructions I found but here they are, Magazine Christmas Tree at Just Like Martha.

Only thing I'd like to add is that magazines without a large spine work best for getting an all around Christmas tree, I used an old Interview magazine and two old Reptiles magazine. Here are the two I still have, my mom liked them so much she took one home with her after Christmas at my place.

As for the ball on top you will have to find someone who does origami as good as my mom. I found this ball lying around and un-curled a paper clip and stuck it in the top of the tree and then stuck the ball on top of that.

Confession I took a 26 min shower

Yes I confess I took a 26 minute shower. It is not a daily thing, I washed my hair and shaved and exfoliated my face. I only wash my hair once maybe twice a week depending on how my scalp is feeling. On top of that there are more days I don't shower at all than I do. I don't go by mudnessa just because it's cute. Thankfully I'm not a stinky person and I generally don't look dirty either. I am not an assault on ones senses, well except for maybe taste, I probably don't taste so good if you were to lick me and I guess if you have a 6th sense that probably isn't something you would want to use around me....but that's not for this post.

I have a low flow shower head and it also has a shut off valve that I use when I am lathering or not in need of water on me. It doesn't actually shut off the water it reduces it to a trickle to keep the temperature of the water constant. I love it, makes me feel better about taking the occasional long shower. I also collect my warm up water and use it to water my plants. I wish I could take shorter showers but having hair almost past my butt now it just takes quite a while to even get it wet not to mention rinse it out.

Phone Books and general recycling issues

Oh great look what landed on my doorstop and on the doorstop of all my neighbors!

Not only is it a phone book, it's two phone books in a plastic bag! Ugh there is nothing redeemable about this at all. I have even signed up at YellowPageGoesGreen.org to take myself off the distribution list but of course they still deliver them because they could care less. Especially since I live in an apartment complex, the person that gets paid to deliver them isn't going to try and figure out which apartment may or may not want them. The problem starts way before that though the company isn't going to take the time to make a list in the first place or even bother to listen to an organization that wants to stop unsolicited books. They are just going to keep giving them.

If everyone who doesn't actually want the phone book was to come home and find them and then promptly put them in the recycle bin the bins would be overflowing by days end just with phone books. There are three large bins curbside next to the dumpster and they are always over flowing. We have our own boxes on our patio to put our stuff in because you never know when you are going to be able to actually get stuff in the curbside bins. Most people take their recycles out and if the bins are full they just trash the stuff. The bins are usually pretty much all recyclable stuff but every once in a while you will find bags of trash in the recycle bins. I guess some people are just too lazy to try and figure out what goes where.

It is not so bad here, the first apartment I lived in was horrible. The dumpster and recycle bins were right next to each other and the dumpster was wide open, no lid on it, you could just toss your bag into the open dumpster. For some reason people would still put their trash bags in the COVERED recycle bins. I don't understand that at all, you can just toss your trash in the open dumpster or take the time to open the lid of a dirty recycle bin and put trash in it, how does that make any sense. I am so baffled by the things people do.

Here there isn't that much trash in the recycle bin all that often but the items that people put in the recycle bins are quite often not recyclable. Like a kids plastic toy ride on bike, yes it is plastic but not recyclable plastic, hey at least they are trying. What bugs me the most is what the employees of the complex put in there and do with the recycle bins. When the bins are overflowing and the lids don't close all the way quite often a maintenance guy will go over take out stuff until it does close and put that stuff in the trash. He won't even see if one of the other bins has room or pick out the stuff that isn't actually recyclable first he just takes it all right over to the dumpster. When a kitchen light blows, the long fluorescent tube lights, the maintenance guys put them in the recycle bin. That makes even less sense than the plastic kids bike. I get so angry at what I see in the recycle bins that I have stopped taking our stuff out and make my husband do it and tell him not to tell me what he saw. That doesn't keep me blissfully unaware because the dumpster and recycle bins are right below our apartment so if I look out our bedroom window I can see them and our parking spot is right in front of that area so every time I get into my car and I back out I see the bins spewing with non recyclables.

We have single stream recycling so all items go in the same bins. A few years ago it use to be one bin for plastic and aluminum, one for paper, and one for glass. When they switched to single stream single households got new large blue cans the same size as the large grey trash cans, previously they had three small different colored boxes one for each type. Apartments and condos at the time had three large different colored bins one for each type of recyclable. They didn't replace those with blue bins for apartments and condos until the ones they had needed replacing due to wear and tear. The trash area we use has two blue bins and one red, red was for glass. People don't understand that and still put everything in the blue, including glass, but very few put anything, even glass, in the red so there are basically only two bins being used regularly. I understand the confusion but it really shouldn't be that hard to figure out and why do they pay attention to only glass in that one but continue to fill the others with non recyclables and even straight trash sometimes.

Direction

I am posting this so I will feel more need to actually do it than just think about it.

I want to post more and perhaps take a bit of a different direction with some of the posts.

First I have a bunch of reuse projects I have done that I want to post about. I never realized how much I actually did until I was cleaning up my "animal room" the other day and I kept coming across different things I have done and seeing them again made me think, "Hey those things are pretty cool I should share them with more than just my animals." Who in reality probably can't even see across the room clear enough to really see them.

That thought right there brings me to the other direction I will go with some posts. Basically it will be me blabbing away, and possibly quite often not making sense, about the odd things I contemplate. I often have these thoughts over dinner, apparently the only time my mind lets go of everything else and I think about the most random things. Well then and sometimes when I am trying to fall asleep. When they happen while I'm in bed I don't say them out loud so my mind tends to let go of them, eventually, and I don't remember them as clearly . When I do think of them at dinner, I share these odd thoughts, realizations, and/or questions that are often quite scientific with my husband and when I finally finish my rambling my food is cold and he shakes his head at me and usually says one of these things, "You are such a nerd", or "You think too much", and sometimes when they make absolutely no sense and just turn into complete gibberish as I try and put my thoughts into actual words other people can understand he says "It's a good think you are hot!"

So if you read a post that is crazy ramblings, kinda like the paragraph above, and you are totally confused, feel free to not read it or you may hurt your brain trying to understand how my mind works. I get told quite often by friends that I make no sense and usually my family can understand my ramblings, because they HAD to learn to be able to communicate with me, even they sometimes are lost, confused, and pained trying to understand me. I don't quite know what it is that I do that confuses people so much but it is part of me and instead of trying to fix it I just let it be and friends and family just live with it as well.

Ha that makes me sound like such a freak, but alas I am so I am just trying to warn anyone who does read any future postings. You have been warned! Read at your own risk!

A bit about me

Well since Cruchy posted it (who stole it from Ruchi, who stole it from Beany who stole it fromMeadowlark...) and I love doing things like this and I have not done one in quite a while because doing something like this everyday or multiple times a day is annoying to other and because I have never done one here I thought I would, oh and also because I am postponing doing important things....

A - Age: 29, until Monday that is

B - Bed size: Queen

C - Chore you hate: dishes and laundry, only laundry because we don't have one in apartment so it takes on a whole aspect of having to carry heavy clothes a lot farther than I am comfortable with.

D - Dog's name: we had a dog named silhouette, we called her silly, she was epileptic and had many head issues, we found her a better home.

E - Essential start your day item: coffee

F - Favorite color: purple

G - Gold or Silver or Platinum: silver

H - Height: 5' even

I - Instruments you play: nada

J - Job title: i don't really have a title, i guess i'm an assistant or keeper. basically i'm a animal shit cleaner upper, that's what HAS to get done everyday, also feeding, if i'm lucky i do some fun stuff, some playing, even some cuddling of cute furry things if the opportunity presents itself. all in the name of work though.

K - Kid(s): just my pets

L - Living arrangements: 2 bed 2 bath apartment

M - Mom's name: leslie or Spanish Bandanna is her nickname now, it's a inside joke basically calling her a 4 letter word, all in good fun though, that spanish bandanna

N - Nicknames: mudnessa, nessa, all sorts of adjectives that can describe me are put in front of nessa, actual name is Vanessa if you didn't know

O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: None

P - Pet Peeve: selfishness, ignorance, and closed mindedness

Q - Quote from a movie: "Why don't you just light your tampon, and blow your box apart? Because it's the only bang you're ever gonna get, sweetheart!" -Bernadette (Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert)

R - Right handed or left handed: Right

S - Siblings: younger brother

T - Time you wake up: this week its been about 8, usually its 10, I love sleep and hate mornings.

U- Underwear: Yes

V - Vegetable you dislike: Eggplant and peas

W - Ways you run late: every way possible, i usually blame the cats or the husband

X - X-rays you've had: Dental only, I think

Y - Yummy food you make: mac and cheese, tortilla soup, chili, mostly dinner foods, not good at baking

Z - Zoo favorite: hmmm, at an actual zoo as a "tourist" i like looking at the dogs/cats the most oh and the ring tailed lemurs, which i actually got to work with, a childhood dream of mine, but then he got feisty and I couldn't sit and cuddle with him anymore :( working wise i've loved working with a few specific binturongs, coati mundis, and monitor lizards. least favorite to work with definitely kinkajous in general, but just because they all hate/fear me and honestly i'm scared of them. I think it's because my hair is similar in color to their coats and they must think I'm a big funny smelling kink out to get them. i also don't love working with monkeys all that much just cause they are too damn smart test you and make you really think all the time and I have (controllable) fears of parrots and rodents, those beaks and teeth scare the crap out of me. been bitten by both too, not fun.

Cooking with Chopsticks

My preferred cooking utensil is a pair of chopsticks. In recent years I have started using a silicone spatula more than chopsticks because I have been making more one pot meals and the spatula is better at getting things moving around. I have found another use for my chopsticks while cooking, to keep the lid off the pot so it doesn't boil over as easily but still holds a lot of the heat in. When I cook I like to keep the lid on as much as I can to conserve all the heat I can but I quickly learned somethings just can't be cooked covered because they will boil over too easily. Pasta, quinoa, couscous, those types of things. I can't tell you how many messes I made before I gave up and just cooked those things uncovered, as you are instructed to, gee I guess I should listen to what "real" cooks have to say. With some other things I want to half cover the pot or leave it just a bit off so heat and steam can escape but also hold in a bit of the heat still. This is where the chopsticks come in, I lay them across the pot and the edges and then put the lid on top of them, it works great. Here are some pictures of this at work.

Plastic Packaging

Here is an item that is just totally over done in plastic and there is no alternative.

The story:

The product is basically a gift card. It is a pre-paid 60 day game card for the video game World of Warcraft. The game requires a monthly subscription to play. The game card is available at stores and instead of a gift card it come in a dvd case, a rather large dvd case, it is thicker than normal cases, not thicker plastic but it has a wider spine. So here is the breakdown of all the plastic for this little card. Shrink wrap, dvd case, and then the actual credit card sized card. A bit much, I don't see why they can't just sell cards that need to be activated like so many other services.

This game has a lot of things like this associated with it. When a new expansion come out if you want to be able to play the expansion right away you HAVE to buy a "real world product" full of multiple discs, play books, many inserts, a big dvd case, all wrapped in plastic of course. After the expansion has been out for a while you can just download the necessary files for the same price from the website. Also for each account you have to purchase separate expansion packs. Me and my husband play and we each have an account and we had to go to the store and buy two separate expansion packs. We contacted them about it and they said that there had to be a "real world product" blah blah blah.

Why the NEED for a "real world product" only though. The game would not be any less successful if us nerds who play got to sit down at our computer and NEVER have to get up or leave. When a new expansion is coming out so many people struggle with how to buy it, do I pre-order it online and possibly have to wait a week before I have the actual product arrive in the mail or do I go and stand in line all night so I get get the actual product and get home and play as soon as possible. If they could pre-order it online in digital format and have it at midnight believe me they would, so many of them would.

I'm not saying they need to get rid of the real world product because there would be those that want the booklets that come with the game and there would be those who would wander across the game at the store and purchase it there. But why do they really need a "real world product" only that is what I do not understand.

Week 5 of plastic

Week 5 of my plastic consumption

June 8th to June 14th

6 cup lids

6 straws

3 plastic fast food cups

3 2-litre soda bottles recyclable

2 20 oz soda bottles recyclable

7-11 grocery bag reused for kitty litter or taken to grocery store and put in the bag recycling

plastic freezer bag

The freezer bag is from frozen mice, food for my snakes, so it is regular thing that I don't have an alternative to. Everything else was completely avoidable. I had a craving for cream soda and my husband replaced the soda's from last week. I also had a craving for a shake and that is what one of the plastic fast food cups is from. When we do eat fast food I have been trying to get the smaller sizes that come in the waxed paper cups, they have to be a bit better than #6 plastic cups right, that's what I tell myself. I was going to try turning the larger soda bottles into upside down planters but all I have are peppers and apparently peppers don't like the upside down as much as tomatoes so I think I will just be recycling them. I so wish my tally for this week was just a freezer bag.

Week 4 of plastic

Week 4

June 1st thru June 7th

-3 produce/bulk bags will be reused for kitty litter

-cracker bag old saltines that had a hole in it and were disgustingly stale

-carrot bag

-chip bag

-bread bag

-ice bag

-2 cereal bags

-2 envelopes with plastic windows

-sour cream container

-2 fast food dipping sauce containers

-spoon

-wrapper from spoon

-drink lid

-bread bag tab

-lid to soy milk I realize now that every time I have a soy milk lid I also should include the soy milk spout since it is plastic but it is not easily removable from the "paper" carton. I put paper in " " because it is paper but coated in plastic...

-seal from soy milk

-chicken broth lid the spout on this is plastic too and the same with the "paper" carton...

-3 2 liter soda bottles we went to the store for ice cream and next think I know hubby bought three 2 liter's of soda (will be recycled)

-gatorade bottle, I was beyond thirsty one day on my way to work and had to buy something, I love gatorade but resist buying with all my might. (will be recycled lid is reused at work as a food dish for baby geckos)

-mouthwash bottle I went to the dentist for the first time in at least 7 years and while the poor hygienist really worked for her pay that day scraping years of tartar build up off my teeth I got the all's good (my husband says I am a cheater because I have no cavities, ever, and I haven't been in so long and he has 5 new ones) but you may want to think about purchasing some mouthwash, not because I have horrible breath, well they didn't say that at least ha ha, they said since I have my wisdom teeth still bacteria will tend to build up back there and mouthwash is a good idea.

-mouthwash safety seal

I got ambitious at some point in this week and cleaned out my cupboards of old food, a lot of the stuff was easily over a year old, like the crackers, the chips, the cereal, and the stuff out of two of the bulk bin bags. We don't purchase items like that any more and if we do we do it in MUCH smaller quantities so we don't get "sick" of it and still have a large amount.

I also cured my problem with ice by putting the ice I can make with one good ice tray I have into a paper bag so they don't stick together. So no more ice bags for us.

Not much else to say about this week, I've pretty much made all the major changes I am willing to at this point it is just now a matter of thinking ahead so I don't have to purchase things like the gatorade because I have no other option or will, I don't really need a this or that.

Caterpillar into Butterfly

Well caterpillar into cocoon at this point.  Will update with any real changes but I don't think there will be any more until butterfly is ready to come out.  

So the story goes, my boss grabbed some passion fruit flower leaves out of his yard to put in with a little gecko, a few days go by and I notice a two caterpillars in with the gecko.  I plan on taking them out but forget about it, the next time I go into work one is cocooned so I leave it and I take the other one out and take it home with me.  Over the next few days I give it some fresh leaves and watch it grow.  I doubled in size within a week.  

The caterpillar is a Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae. 

Then it starts getting REALLY fat and I start tweeting about it and someone asks for pictures. End result I decided to take pics and post a blog about it.  It really is fascinating.  I think I brought the caterpillar home around May 20th.  I took a picture of it when I brought it home but I think I may have deleted it, wait let me check my computers recycle bin.....nope nothing there, maybe I didn't take a picture.  It was probably just under an inch long when I brought it home.  

I apologize for the pictures, I didn't think to clean the sides of the little tank I put it in.  I think I had some crickets in there at some point and while I did wipe down the bottom it was only when I started taking pictures that I realized the sides were all spotted with stuff.  

Here are the pictures I have so far:

Tuesday June 2nd 6pm

I took this picture because he was so fat compared to when I brought it home I was amazed at how much it had eaten and how plump it was getting.  In this picture it is busy eating away at more leaves. 

Wednesday June 3rd 11am

The orange had been getting lighter for the past few days and when I set up the tank I specifically put the stick in like that and kept leaves away from it because I thought it would be the perfect spot for it to cocoon, looks like I was right.  I saw it here in the morning and around the time I took this picture it was putting some white substance on the stick by its mouth, which is on the right.  

This is just a crop of the above picture.  You get a better look at the actual caterpillar and his spines (and of the spots on the sides of the tank).

Wednesday June 3rd 5pm

I came home from work and look what I found.  

View from the other side and a surprise, another little caterpillar (on the leaf to the left of the big guy) that must have hatched since I brought the leaves home because I checked them for other caterpillars, didn't think to look for tiny little eggs.  I am going to take it out and put it into a very clean cage and grow him too and document it.

Thursday June 4th 12pm

Look all cocooned! It shed its caterpillar spines and stuff, big black blob under it and to the right.  All the little dots of black are caterpillar poop, there is A LOT of caterpillar poop in the cage. A LOT!!!!

I will update with more pics if things change and when butterfly comes out. Also will be keeping track of other little caterpillar.  

Week 3 of plastic tally

Week 3 Plastic

May 25th to 31st

-solo cup that I had been using to hold some all purpose ecover cleanser

-little plastic bag from a cleaning pad, don't plan on buying these ever again, they are pretty useless

-plastic container from new toothbrush, my husbands and a toothbrush he got from the dentist

-six pack ring, hubby brought 3 cans home from work, he worked late and the got dinner for him, he brought me some pizza and sodas

-ziploc bag from something finished in the cupboards

-2 grocery bags from takeout

-2 produce bags from using things bought at store, will be reused for kitty litter

-2 ice cream plastic seals, mmmmmm haagen daz and probably another one by the end of the night, have some dark chocolate waiting in the freezer for me

-plastic tape from sweet potato

-2 meat packages

-bag from rolls, will be reused for kitty litter

-2 styrofoam cups with 2 lids and 2 straws from take out

-pasta package, I wish the store I shopped at had bulk pastas, but I use plastic bags for bulk items still so it would only slightly lower the amount of plastic bags

-honey bottle, bottle recyclable lid is not

-bag of sugar, didn't use it up but put it into a glass jar to keep on my counter

-big bag of kitty litter, not pictured because it was used to clean the boxes and promptly taken out

-shoyu (soy sauce) bottle, it is #7 plastic, from now on we will be buying the smaller bottle that is glass so we can reuse it or recycle it

-trash bag from kitchen garbage can, usually only take trash out once every two weeks because our trash can is too big for our current trash making and it started smelling very badly this week

-styrofoam box from take out, place uses plastic whether you eat in or out more if you eat in actually because they serve their burritos on styrofoam trays if you eat there and wrap it in paper if you get it to go and serve everything in the same containter for take out or to go for the most part

I have 3 pictures:

First is one of the meat packages that I used at the beginning of the week and wasn't going to keep around and stinking to get a pic of it with everything else.

Then there is the bulk of the plastic that I arranged and took while dinner was cooking.

I thought I had gotten everything then I realized the leftovers were still in the fridge and I wasn't going to finish them and then I needed shoyu for dinner and I had not refilled our table bottle since using it up the other night and refilling that emptied the big bottle.

DIY cat beds

The use of this type of bed totally depends on what your cat likes.  I have 2 beds the cats love and 2 they have never used and a few more that they occasionally use, I think I have way too many beds for them as it is, oh well.  I decided I would no longer buy beds for my cats, I also had to take away the fuzzy ones they loved because my big kitty would pull at the fluff and eat it. I swear sometimes I think her belly is huge because it's full of non food items, but she has had belly x-rays recently so I know that is not the case.  

Whenever there are boxes around my kitties love getting in them and chewing on them, don't know what that is about.  They also love fleece so I put one of our fleece blankets in a flattish box and it is my big kitties new favorite beds.

I then had a regular size box and make a big squishy bed out of it by putting old sweaters and things in it and well they avoided it like the plague.  While I was cleaning today I decided to cut that box in half and use the bottom half as a bed, put some fleece blankets in it and had the big kitty take it for a test sleep.  She loved it and while she was in the bottom half I look over and the little one is in the top half.  So I got two beds for the price of one, well for no price at all actually.  I don't know why we had the box but it was from my husbands work.  I didn't put any blankets in and the top half of the box and the little one seems to love it so now they have their choice of padded or non padded.  

Here they are in their new box beds:

If you are the artistic type you could decorate them and they you wouldn't have cardboard boxes around your house but I am not and anything I did would probably be more of an eye sore than the sight of a box. 

I also found a use for old pants, apparently the little one loves sleeping on old pants. I gathered up a bunch of old pairs and didn't know what to do with them, they were holey in places and ways that can't really be salvaged, since I have ZERO sewing skills I wasn't sure what to do with them. I left them lying around and the kitten just loved lying on them.  I have my childhood toy box next to my bed and it holds my t-shirts and would get pile with things on top to the point I would not longer be able to get into it so I wanted to do something with it that was useful but also let me still get into it.  I ended up putting the pairs of old pants on it and it is where the kitten curls up every night.  Someone with sewing skills could probably make a blanket or something that looks nicer than pairs a pants laid on a toy box but for me it works, it's in a dark corner of my bedroom. In the picture you can see the indent the little one has made on the top left of the picture and the collection of black fur she has left too. 

More Plastic

I didn't track my actual trash this week. I did keep track of my plastic. I think this may become an obsession, and it's not a bad one, but I think my husband might get fed up of the pile of plastic that grows on the counter. It isn't that much though so it shouldn't be too bad. This week was a more eat at home week so there is a lot less convenience food trash. This is the whole households plastic trash not just mine, but it is just me and my hubby and a bunch of animals. It doesn't include any of the plastic he may use at work for personal consumption, i.e. plastic bottle of soda or something from the vending machine. It is literally all the plastic I use for myself. I did track how much plastic I use at work, for work purposes, in a day but I have not decided if I want to go there or not since there isn't a way to cut back or change what we use, it wouldn't be enlightening or anything. It would be more of a look at all this and I would start to feel real guilty and that's not the point.

Here is the list from Monday to Sunday, 18th to 24th:

-2 styrofoam meat trays with plastic film (only one is in the picture because it was thrown out at the beginning of the week)

-sugar bag (I could buy my sugar in bulk but I much prefer the organic and fair trade I can get although it's in a bag, I probably go through one bag a month if that)

-herb box (I bought a living mint plant from the grocery store, I did re-plant it but it's not looking so good)

-styrofoam box from leftovers

-tofu container (#2 plastic that is being recycled)

-2 lids and 2 straws from fast food cups

-cheese wrapper

-1 envelope with a plastic window

-plastic cover from set of hooks

-fig bar tray and wrapper (those things are so addicting)

-cap from box of chicken broth

-package for shoe insoles (been getting really sore feet from working on them all day)

-bubble wrap lined mailer

-safety seal wrap from a bottle top

-1 plastic grocery bag from buying insoles (not in picture but I did put the meat tray in a plastic bag left over from some previous shopping trip so let's pretend it's that bag)

-plastic foam padding from mailing (not pictured, forgot to add it to the pile)

Trash Tracking

I got a free membership to Going Green Today and on Saturday the daily action was to track your trash and then on Tuesday Fake Plastic Fish posted a Challenge: show us your (plastic) trash. I decided to do a whole week a tracking my trash starting on Monday May 11th. I was doing pretty good writing it all down and putting the plastic aside through Wednesday. After that I didn't put in as much effort and figured I could sort through things on the weekend. That didn't go as planned either and I went digging through my trash about an hour ago figuring out what I actually threw away. I got pretty much everything but I was not super meticulous about any of it.

This week seemed to be a bit low on trash over all compared to an average week, we were flat broke until Friday but also because of that we had a few meals of fast food graciously provided for us which did result in a lot of trash items we usually don't have. In whole though this week would fit well into a months worth of trash. We often have times of little money and meals provided by friends and family, we also have times of pure laziness and the quick run to the fast food joint. In the past month we have really tried our best to not visit fast food establishments and were doing pretty good until this past week. Also because of the lack of funds we were not cooking at home as much and so there was less packaging waste than normal so it probably, amount wise, balances out.

Here is my list of the week's trash:

Trash Tracking Starting Monday May 11th

Trash:

10 or so paper napkins

lemon rinds

about 2 cups of various leftovers not eaten

1 medium pizza box

5 bags with kitty litter cleanings

little balls of hair everyday from shower drain and/or brushing my hair

6 inch piece or so of floss everyday

Non-recyclable plastic trash (only #1 and #2 plastic containers are recyled curbside):

package from ramen noodles and sauce packet

tahini tub #5 plastic

1 fed ex bubble envelope from shipment of new moto renew phone made from recycled plastic

1 plastic baggie from charger for phone with a bit of tape

2 small grocery bags from taco bell

1 plastic plate and lid

1 food envelope with plastic window

1 salsa cup with lid #5

4 plastic lids and 4 plastic straws

1 plastic film wrapper to new "eco" sponges

1 plastic wrapper from top of wine bottle

1 ice bag (i know you are thinking, "you buy ice" just a luxury we have gotten use to)

1 asparagus tag

1 plastic twist cap from soy milk

1 inner plastic seal from soy milk (often times save these and use them as cat toys, they love them)

6 hot sauce or bbq sauce packets

1 gallon zip lock bag that appeared out of cupboards, hubby probably finished something

1 fig bar snack tray

1 container of turtle food no recycle number on it so I just toss it

Plastic Trash that will get reused:

Lid from turtle food (reused as an animal food dish)

3 fast food cups (reuse in garden, for watering or cut bottoms off and use to start seedlings)

cottage cheese tub (reuse in garden use as pot)

2 produce bags (will be reused for cat litter collection)

2 bulk item tag/clips (will reuse for next purchase, i always say that and always forget them and get new ones but i have not thrown any away in a long time)

Plasticized items that are trash:

plastic coated paper soy milk carton

8 paper lined with plastic tea bag wrappers

6 paper coated with plastic fast food taco wrappers

paper bag from fast food with plastic reinforced handles

butchers paper lined with plastic from meat counter

1 produce bag used for pre-marinated meat from meat counter (cant use for cat litter)

8 fast food sandwich foil looking plastic coated paper wrappers

1 paper coated with plastic fast food box (says on it not to microwave because its lined with plastic)

1 fast food fry plastic coated paper cup

1 regular fast food plastic coated paper drink cup

plastic lined paper "saftey" seal from new turtle food

Recycle:

1 large can and lid, plastic coated

two foil trays from dinner leftovers

2 half foil half paper lids to trays

2 cans cat food and 2 lids, plastic coated

6 paper Lipton tea bag wrappers

cardboard egg carton

paper display sleeve from sponges

4 straw wrappers

2 receipts with coupons/adds on back

5 pieces of old scrap paper with notes on them that are no longer needed

2 glass drink bottles with metal lids

Mail that gets recycled:

small box like envelope from dog treat sample

6 junk mailers, add coupons and things, that's addressed to postal customer

nrdc native voice mailing

2 election fliers

netflix DVD flap

Paper that gets added to scrap paper for notes then eventually recycled:

2 envelopes

7 bill envelopes with plastic windows

2 receipt

Here is the picture of just the pure plastic stuff, including the stuff I plan on reusing:

"Green" Shoes

New "green" shoes from Zac and Zoe available at Payless. I read about it on Treehugger, here is the article with appropriate links and info. I have not seen them in person but I do plan on buying myself a pair when I have some extra cash, which actually might be never so...

Green Footwear line.

Heat Wave, some cooling tips.

I'm a summer person, I much prefer the warm, even hot, weather.  I just am so miserable in cold weather.  I went to Seattle in June 6 years ago and I froze my ass off, it was in the 60's. 

That being said I don't like my apartment being hot, I like it to be comfortable, I'd say 78 or so is pretty perfect for me.  I refuse to use my ac because that is not really needed except in extreme conditions, plus I have no idea how old my ac unit is and it pretty much sucks and uses WAY TOO MUCH electricity for minimal output.  

So how do I keep myself cool, with fans of course but placement of said fans is key.  The windows in my apartment are all on the same side so I don't get good flow by just opening windows.  We are upstairs corner unit, out master bedroom is on the corner, gets very hot. 

Two years ago the complex cut down the big tree shading my corner bedroom so it tends to get MUCH hotter in here than it use to.  Since the tree was cut down we demanded a ceiling fan in our dining room and got one, that helps a lot since it is in the back corner of the apartment and otherwise there would be NO flow in that area what  so ever.  I have one big box fan I put in the window of the bedroom and point blowing OUT.  I then open the screen door to the patio, which is in the living room, and put a fan blowing IN in front of that window.  That gets pretty good flow and makes it comfortable to watch TV and/or hang in the bedroom.  I have found that the room that the fan points OUT in tends to be a bit warmer than the one with the window where the air is coming in. We don't use the bedroom for much besides sleeping so this doesn't tend to be an issue really.  

I only do the above with the fans at night or once it cools down.  Doing that during the day just draws all the hot air in, not comfortable.  During the day I try and keep the blinds closed and just have fans blowing on me if I get too hot.  Best option during the day is get out and do something somewhere else in the shade.  Our apartment is in the sun ALL DAY and it does get rather hot, especially since they cut down that damn tree that shaded our whole bedroom.  That use to be our escape, no escape in here anymore.  

The second bedroom is our "animal" room and is actually the most well adjusted room. It is surrounded by other apartments, the one adjacent is off set a bit so that bedroom is really in a corner hidden from most sun, except for the morning, but all my reptiles like the heat so it's their little sanctuary.  

I don't really have any other tricks, I drink lots of teas, usually at room temp of a little bit above, or if I have been doing something I drink a glass of iced tea.  Basically stay hydrated.  Looking forward too learning new tricks to keep warm, especially for my two poor black kitties, one obese and one long haired, they don't like the heat so much.  

A few articles of interest

For some weekend reading:

Article on the Top 10 Greenwashing Companies In America.

Another read about CFL's and mercury: Should I Worry About Deadly Mercury In My CFL's? from Treehugger.

Finally a great new line of beauty products from green guru Danny Seo.

WholeEarth by Danny Seo. 

A neat chart to show how much water is actually used.

Loving my hair but AT WAR WITH MY SCALP

Up until I went "no 'poo" I was in a constant battle with my hair. I have very thick, coarse, and dry hair. I think I was probably ten when I decided I wanted to grow my hair long, previous to that I had quite short hair, pixie crop type cuts. Which I absolutely love but I have so much hair it was like a clown wig on my head, OK not that bad but it wasn't the ideal cut for my hair. From looking at pictures I still had short hair for at least half of middle school/junior high but it was getting longer because I clearly remember giving up on conventional methods of thinning my hair around age 12. Previous to that I remember trying thinning it with thinning shears, layered cuts, and I am sure much more.

To this day I have only had my hair cut by 5 people, my mom once a few years ago, me a few months ago, my husband a handful of times, Darla a million and one times probably, and a colleague of hers when she was busy having babies. Basically from my first hair cut Darla is the only one who has ever cut my hair and probably the only one besides myself who will in the foreseeable future. Back to the giving up on my hair at the tender age of 12. At that time we shaved the under almost half of my head and have continued it to this day. My husband is the one who shaves it for me now, he doesn't actually trust himself to trim the length of my hair. I think at the time I had barely shoulder length hair. It made it so much more manageable that was for sure but it was still HUGE hair, I always say I was born 10 years too late, I could have rocked the shit out 80's hair metal do and been queen of the world! HAHA.

Since that day I have been growing my hair, I did regular monthly trims so the growing was slow going but it was relatively healthy but I still battled with it. As you know I finally have the hair I have always wanted since going "no 'poo", if you don't know go check my previous posts. I can brush my hair, I can style it, I can just let it be, I can do basically anything I want with it because it is in love with me and I with it. All seems like a fairy tale until we get to my scalp...

My scalp is NOT happy with "no 'poo" and it's gotten really bad. I've been prone to dandruff my whole life never anything too bad, mostly because the thickness and color of my hair hides it extremely well. At some point in reading about dandruff causes I read that some think it can be hormone related, I can relate to that at certain times that is for sure, those days your hormones are working against you and then your head messes with you too, yeah definitely had those days. What finally pushed me to "no 'poo" was actually my scalp, I was sick and tired of the buildup I would get, a very thick waxy buildup. All was good for a while and then I had issues with baking soda and the hard water, terrible soap scum. I tried a different wash, flaxseed and while I liked it the first time I soon had issues with it, specifics can be read in a previous post. So I tried using apple cider vinegar rinse only, seemed to be working. Once winter started to change to spring my skin changed too including and especially my scalp. I got itchy, dry, and flaky, I changed the makeup of my lotion to be more moisturizing and that helped my skin. My scalp was on and off, some days it would be fine and others it would be flaking like crazy. When I went to Indian Wells for a week I started with really bad flakes and after one shower with soft water and only an apple cider vinegar rinse the flakes went away almost instantly, I came home and bought a filter for my shower head. Things seemed to be better, until a few days ago...

The flakes were really bad and then I was getting itchy, really itchy. Last night I showered and once my hair dried I took a close look at my scalp, it looked like extremely dry flaky peeling skin, so I gave myself a hot coconut oil treatment. I heated up some coconut oil applied it to my scalp with a dropper and massaged to my hearts content with my fingertips, I have always loved a good scalp massage. I was going to let it sit for a bit but got tired and then the morning got away from me so I did not get to rinsing it all out till this evening. I used a baking soda wash to make sure I got all the oil out, I did so with a lot more massaging, things were going good and then when I was done I glanced down at the water collecting at my feet, it was like an oil slick, which at first made sense but then started to baffle me because of the way it was clustering in tiny balls rather than a real oil slick looking way, so I took a closer look, it wasn't really oil it was more waxy, kinda like the build up I use to get...so basically I have been building up all that on my scalp for who knows how long. It all seems to be gone now and my scalp feels pretty good and looks ok, a few flakes but not too many, I may do another oil treatment in a week or so.

Perhaps this can turn the tides and I can do my normal apple cider vinegar rinses and a monthly baking soda wash. I am quite reluctant to go back to conventional shampoo mainly because I don't want to hate my hair again. I am looking into some other sort of soap or wash but don't want to waste my money on a product I will hate or the hardest part is finding one that I can agree with the ingredients. I will not use anything with sodium lauryl/laureth sulfates even naturally derived ones. They cause extreme frizziness and are just nasty chemicals, the naturally derived ones are from palm oil and palm oil is basically what threw me WAY over the edge with conventional soaps and shampoos and basically everything.

I am on the fence with coconut oil, I did research it a bit and found it to be less of an issue but now that I am looking for alternative products again I am beginning to question that again. I think I need to find a coconut oil that is farmed in a responsible way and I think I found that in Jungle Products, the coconut oil I currently have is Spectrum which is organic but not sure about their farming practices. For more info about palm oil check out The Rainforest Action Network's (RAN) website and their Problem with Palm Oil section. The main issue for me is the poor Orangutan's, animals always get me and there is just no turning back.

RAN has a list of companies that have pledged to get their palm oil from sources that don't exploit the environment and people. Jungle Products is one such company and so is Dr Bronner's which I have been wanting to buy but was on the fence because of the inclusion of palm oil in almost all of their products. I have read that some people use it for shampoo and I would much rather use that than baking soda. I can't find a good source for baking soda, it is either Arm & Hammer which does animal testing or a plastic bag of it at the health food store. Not sure why I can't find a paper packaged non animal testing brand of baking soda. There is also the whole mining of baking soda which I don't actually know much about but mining is a four letter word to me and it was brought up on some blog by someone at some point.

And my journey with "no 'poo" and my hair and all that continues with twists and turns...

Water Quality

There is possibly something not quite right with the water in our master bathroom.  We are still having lint problems with our hair, and it has become noticeable on my husband and it wasn't before I mentioned my problem to him before and this is since we put the conditioner/filter on our shower.   

Since we moved in the toilet has been disgusting.  It took a year for me to realize it was CAKED in deposit (and poo) buildup and it wasn't just an old discolored toilet.  Once I realized that I was able to EASILY clean it. I turned the water off flushed it and bailed out as much of the left over water I could, I then dumped a bunch of vinegar in the bowl and closed the lid and walked away and went to bed or possibly work, I don't remember what time of day I did it.  When I came back the higher parts of the bowl were white not off white or yellow and with a bit of a scrub from the toilet brush the dark brown thick cakey nastiness at the bottom of the bowl was easily flaking off.  It was quite disgusting and I could not believe they let us move into the apartment with a toilet in that condition.  Unfortunately I did not think ahead enough to take before and after pictures so no actual proof of how gross it was.  

I have had multiple other problems with that toilet as well, I finally had to buy my own flapper for the toilet because maintenance would have to replace the flapper every 2 months because the toilet would start leaking again and wasting water and most annoyingly filling itself up in the middle of the night multiple times and wake me up.  The $5 flapper I bought has stopped the leaking and cost less overall than their .89 cent flappers they had to replace every 2 months but no they would just keep putting on crappy .89 cent flappers for years on end. Now even with regular cleaning the toilet gets nasty film growing on it every few days, it's really disgusting.  I'm glad it is just a toilet but with the issues we have been having with the shower water it makes me think that there is something wrong with the pipes that go to our master bathroom.  

We have a second bathroom and we use the toilet in there more than in the master but we NEVER use the shower because it is a walled in room, no window for airflow and we don't need to use it so we don't so we don't have to combat mold in there and the rest of the apartment since that is where the water would go.  The toilet is perfect, runs great even on their .89 cent flapper, stays nice and clean with minimal cleaning, toilets are one thing I don't stay on top of very well unless they are GROSS.  Sink works fine and shower does work because we use to have a roommate that used it years ago.  

So all that leads me to believe there could be some sort of issue with the master bath water supply.  I don't know where to go from here but the lint in our hair is unacceptable and the only thing I can think of it being is our water since we don't use any of the same products or "tools" on our hair.  The only thing that is the same with our hair is the water.  Maybe I should try showering in the spare bathroom a few times since I do it less frequently and am home after and can help facilitate moisture out of the room.  

Running water really is a blessing but can be quite a curse when it's not maintained properly.  My boss is having a second expensive issue with pipes breaking in just over 1 month.  

Lotion

I said I would write about the lotion I use and make and so now I am.  I just kinda made this out of stuff I had and not from a specific recipe I found anywhere. I did read this article on Oils for skin types on Care2 and I also read a post on Allie's Answers about Using Oils to cleanse your face and I just kinda experimented on my own from there.   I don't measure anything and change things up with every bottle I make but it seems to work just as well as the bottles of lotion I was buying before, if not better, I don't tend to break-out like I use to.  

My bottle right now contains Almond Oil, Grapeseed Oil, Cocoa Butter, Coconut Oil, and a bit of Vitamin E oil.  Like I said it works great for me at the moment, but I can already tell I am going to have to change things up for summer.  I started with just oils and I quickly realized it wasn't moisturizing enough so I bought Cocoa Butter to add too it.  This is the first bottle that I have added Coconut Oil to and I was a bit worried it might cause some blemishes but it didn't.  I think I might try some Shea Butter but I am not sure how that will mix in with the oils.  I also added Peppermint Essential Oil to the last bottle, has a nice cooling effect when applied, great for the summertime. 

These mixtures are not like bottles of lotions you buy at the store, you don't really get moisturizing effects out of them when applied to dry skin they are better used right out of the shower on damp skin to lock in the moisture.  I don't tend to suffer from extremely dry skin so I can't say it will work for someone who does.  I would assume if you have dryer skin or are looking for something more moisturizing straight out of the bottle Shea Butter might be your answer but I have not gotten myself any yet because it is not the cheapest stuff and what I have now is working fine for me.

Next up on my DIY beauty list is a sugar-coffee scrub, I already made sugar scrubs that were wonderful for a few friends at Christmas time and it will pretty much be the same but with added coffee grounds. Research has shown coffee rubbed on the skin can tighten skin for short periods of time and reduce the appearance of cellulite, what girl wouldn't love that, smells great too.  Seeing as I drink two cups of coffee a day I am not lacking on used grounds, usually they just go into my compost or under my pine tree but I am looking forward to doing something else with them.