Soda Jerk

I drink a lot of seltzer. So much so that we usually buy it by the case. That equals a lot of plastic bottles, and even with them going into the recycle bin, wouldn’t it be better not to use them in the first place? But how can I have my seltzer and not the empties? Enter Soda Club. It was actually my step dad that turned me on to this site. He is always on the cutting edge of cool kitchen gadgets, the latest is a low tech yogurt maker. I am envious. I got my Edition 1 machine last week and have had a grand time making seltzer. You can control the fizzyness so now I can have a less bubbly drink. I love it and I love not feeling guilty about all the plastic. I even made some Mountain Dew like soda for M with the flavor tester packs they sent. Personally I prefer my seltzer with some concentrated cranberry juice.

Plastic Bag Triangles

If you are like me, you are trying to get your plastic grocery bags under control and out of your life, but you aren’t quite there yet. You are pretty good about carrying and remembering your reusable bags. But you still have quite a few plastic bags left over and every once in a while you forget and have to get a new one. Today I got fed up with my plastic bag situation. They were taking over. I remembered seeing plastic bags folded into triangles and how little space they took up. It only takes 5 minutes and now I can make sure to carry one in my purse along with my other bags.

Parent Shock: Children Are Not Décor

Why someone would need to be told that a child is not decor, is beyond me. Apparently I am not alone. The comments are priceless here, here and here

I Heart IKEA

It is no secret that I love IKEA. I can’t help myself. The simple clean lines, the cheap prices. What is not to like? This bedroom combination is just fantastic. When we finally have a place to sleep upstate I think this is the look I am going to go for.

Nesting

These chairs remind me of huge nests. I happen to love birds and nests so that is a good thing. I can totally see these as part of an outdoor lounge space. via

Rural Studio

For my own selfish reasons I have been looking into reusing materials for building. Our upstate property (I promise I will post pictures soon) is full of junk and I am hoping to be able to use some of this junk for building. Otherwise it is destined for the landfill which is bad for the environment and my wallet. I also happen to be looking into modern looking structures to put on the property because I would like to avoid plunking down a cape or ranch or some other ordinary building if we can avoid it. I was clicking around today and was reminded of the Rural Studio by this post over at Materialicious. I can’t remember where I first heard of this project but it is just amazing and every time I see this house in particular I am once again blown away. The quick story is this is a house built in rural Mississippi to an extremely poor family, it was built and designed by students, and there is a large amount of recycled material used. The story behind the people who live here is just as amazing to me as the people who put it together. If you don’t already know about Samuel Mockbee, learn about him and his Rural Studio. More here. You won’t be sorry.

Where Do I Fall

So I missed my chance to vote in the NY primary. I know, I know. Don’t yell at me. I know I threw away my chance to vote. I feel bad enough already. I don’t even have a good reason as to why I didn’t vote. As usual, I haven’t been watching any sort of debates or reading the paper so I didn’t even know who to vote for. Since I generally lean left I knew it was either Hillary or Barack, but beyond that, I really didn’t know. Are you like me and don’t really follow what is going on? Well I may have something to help. Basically you answer a series of questions based on hot topic issues and then voila! You know which candidate feels the same way you do. Apparently Hillary and I agree on just about everything. Well everything in this quiz anyway.

As You Wish

First one way

Then the other

The Princess Bride will always hold a special place in my heart. Like many people around my age it was a favorite. We swooned for Westley. We envied Buttercup. We cheered for Inigo Montoya to avenge his father. We demanded to see Humperdinck lose. We didn’t mind the kissing parts. Even to this day a quote or two squeaks into conversation. While roaming around this weekend I ran across the 20th anniversary addition. My first thought was “Oh God, am I that old?!?” Once I got over the shock, I wondered why we needed another copy. We really don’t but I have to say that the logo almost compelled me to buy it. It is whimsical and perfect for the movie, but best of all it is readable in both orientations of the box. Just fantastic. I flipped the box several times just to make sure I was seeing it correctly.

I Wanna Rock!

If you didn’t already know, I am a fan of video games. I can go for months without playing, but when we find a good one M&I can waste lots of time together. This weekend we were at M’s Dad’s house and his sister has guitar hero. I have never played before and M only played a few times, but we were hooked. So hooked we went out and bought one of our own. We are both still on easy, but we hope to move up to medium one of these days. With a lot of practice maybe we will even beat Slash. While Guitar Hero is a great game, what we really can’t wait for is Rock Band for the Wii. Then we can live out our dreams of becoming a garage cover band. Rock on!

Embroidery

When I was younger I used to work on embroidery projects. I used to love being able to follow the directions and come out with something crafty. I think my mom still has one of my projects hanging in her kitchen. I stopped partly because I went off to college and who has time to embroider in college and didn’t pick it up again because of the lack of patterns that appeal to me. When shopping around it seems that if you like country, you are set. If you don’t, well apparently you have to do a little hunting, but it isn’t impossible. This deer and bird scene is adorable. Maybe after my craft diet is over I will take up embroidery again. link