leslie2000's Profile

I'd personally rather see a well cared for home like this one that is painted in a somewhat outrageous way than a run down house/yard that conforms to the norms.

Another plug for Evernote, if you upgrade to the premium account ($45 a year) you can search your scanned documents. So say you've only tagged your recipes by category/course you can still search by the ingredients (or exclude ingredients). Example, you want to see all the dessert recipes that include peaches and brown sugar but has no nutmeg. And that works for scanned items, web clips, text docs, everything. Plus it has so many more uses than just recipes. AND you can access it from any computer, smart phone or smart pad. The End.

I've started having a smoothie everyday for breakfast, makes it much easier. I usually do 1 banana (frozen) 1-2 cups water (depending on how juicy the fruit is) 1 md apple, 1 cup other fruit (whatever is in season, strawberry, peaches, etc) and a cup of greens (kale or spinach usually). You can't even taste the greens (although it does look a bit like swamp water) all you taste is the fruit, and I'm starting my day with 3 servings of fruit and 1 of veggie.

Huh, a box of it in Chicago is 2.49. Also, you forgot to add in the cost of 1/4 milk, which isn't much, but still.

Unless you're planning on going with a dark color I would suggest patterned fabric versus a solid as it's better/more forgiving at hiding stains/dirt. I don't know the type of fabric I have on my couch but it's almost like a soft yet heavy duty canvas material, fur vacuums off pretty easily using the mini turbine head on my Dyson and I throw the cushion covers in the washing machine ever couple of months.

I'd have two concerns with this that I couldn't find addressed on the product website. 1) would it flood during heavy rain? 2) how would you even begin to clean this out?

One of my daily uses of plastic is my morning bagel and cream cheese from Au Bon Pain (plastic container for cheese, plastic bag for bagel), in an effort to cut down on plastic (and save money!!) this past weekend I made my own batch of asiago cheese bagels and sun dried tomato cream cheese, wish I'd tried this sooner! Not only did my homemade version taste better but I know (and can pronounce) all of the ingredients that went into my breakfast!

I use various sizes of canning jars and glass hermetic jars (metal clasp flippy kind) for kitchen storage and to take food to work. The lids I use are plastic (which isn't great) but are at least BPA free. I got the lids here:

http://www.freshpreservingstore.com/detail/TCL+1440036010

Mirror/windows - straight vinegar

Kitchen - 1/3 vinegar to 2/3 water, plus 1-2 tablespoons soap (depending on size of bottle) I use Dr. Bronner's, I've tried adding essential oils to make this smell better but the vinegar pretty much negates anything added. Shake before each use.

Wood/dusting - 1/3 olive oil to 2/3 vinegar, shake well before each use as it will keep separating. I suggest spraying onto rag and dusting versus spraying directly on wood.

Bathroom - start with a cup of baking soda and start adding soap, stirring as you go, until it becomes almost the consistency of frosting, I also like to add some peppermint essential oil, but lemon or lavender would also be nice. To use scoop some out onto a damp rag and apply to surface (tub/sink/toilet). Bonus, can double as a body scrub. =)

Total ingredient list: white vinegar, olive oil, baking soda, Dr. Bronner's soap, any essential oils you want to add for smell.

If I'm going through a "I'm a responsible adult" phase then all of the bedding will get cleaned every two weeks (sheets, blankets, duvet cover - I have golden retriever who sleeps in bed on top of the covers and sheds like crazy), but generally I wait to do all of my laundry (including bedding) until I start getting low on undies, which is about every 3-4 weeks. I also wash couch cushion covers about every 1-2 months because of fur (you can only vacuum so much off) and dirt that gets tracked onto it.