Monday, November 19, 2007

Fresh as a Daisy, even in November

Cleaning can be a real pain in the backside, and I am one who puts it off until there are spider webs criss crossing my ceiling, dust kitties rivaling the size of my actual cat, and dishes forming a passable replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Finally, I decided to birthday treat myself with a full house cleaning and came across Cool Earth Cleaning, a local company that uses non-toxic cleaners to provide their services. In just 2 hours, Charlie cleaned my 1 bedroom apartment from top to bottom—it felt fresher the moment I walked in. As someone who is is especially sensitive to fragrances and chemicals, it felt great to have the feeling of freshness without the overwhelming smells of toxic cleaners.

Friday, November 09, 2007

A few extra curves can be good for the environment.


Invariably, when I leave town for a few weeks, I come back and little things have changed in ways that I never expected. (One time I returned to find my beloved Classic Rock radio station replaced with one of those iPod shuffle formats; I'm still mourning the loss.) This year when I got back I discovered the new "curvy" plastic bottles for bottled water and soda which reportedly use 30% less plastic than the usual 20 oz bottle. A great way to use fewer materials but it won't do much to curb the billions of bottles that people go through already. Also not sure that Arrowhead's arrow pointing to the cap and noting that is is "100% recyclable" is accurate. As far as I know, caps are still not able to be recycled at this time.

Friday, November 02, 2007

Happy Halloween!

Halloween's one of my favorite holidays, especially because it gives everyone a chance to be creative—the party I go to every year is always a great place to see who can come up with the most original idea. Jason Smith usually takes the cake every year (seen here in this year's amazing handmade from foam core Iron Giant costume). This year I came across this super cool (and super recycled) costume from Evil Mad Scientist using an old umbrella to make a bat costume. It made me think, why hasn't someone thought of this before! My only problem now is I hacked up both of my umbrellas to create it, and now I have none! But totally worth it for the rave reviews I received. Pictures don't do bat girl justice...