arielingolden's Profile

After having eliminated most fragrances from my beauty products (i.e. natural no pthalates) and using greener cleaning supplies; I have found that Mrs. Meyer's products are overly fragranced. I find them to be so strong that I can not stand to use them - they make me sneeze and the smell lingers long after the counter or dishes are dry. This is frustrating after having spent so much for these little bottles.

I just tried the Method 50 load laundry detergent (unscented) and it seemed to work fine. However, as someone else stated, this is not a greener way to go as it is plastic. Unscented 7th Gen. in the box works just fine.
For counters, tubs and toilets we use a homemade spray of vinegar, water, tea tree and lavender oils or vodka, soap and water.

Yes! They do work. I used to live on Lexington Ave in NYC and the amount of noise the interior sound proof windows blocked out was amazing. With them open I could hear the subway (from the 4th floor) but with them closed it was perfectly quiet. They were 1/2" thick glass.

When it comes from the maternal Grandma you display it. Even if it is the ugliest plastic glow in the dark frog you have ever seen.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000Y3ZTV8?ie=UTF8&tag=busyboo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000Y3ZTV8

If it were my own flesh and blood... I'd... well I might display it for less time. Wow. That means after two years of looking at this atrocious thing I think I'll stash it in tomorrows trash.

I have ordered from a company in Portland called Indigo Traders. They have a website but not an online store. I bought three beautiful towels in natural white with blue stripes, silver stripes and gold stripes. The owner was very nice. I described what I was looking for and he made a recommendation. I think I paid around $75 for three with shipping.
These are also know as Pestemal Bath Towels and you can find them here:

http://www.indigotraders.com/
http://www.berbertrading.com/pd_pestemal_turkish_towel.cfm

Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions! If you have any more after I tell you a bit more I'd love to hear them!

Janel, the sail shade company you found is one I had spoken to and they are booked through the summer! So bummed but maybe we will set it up so that we can use it next summer...

Some more information about our back patio...

*We live in Golden Colorado... where there is only about 15 inches of water a year - so no flooding issues but we do have to shovel a path for the dog to get to the yard in the winter. Plus we live on the side of North Table Mountain so we are more likely to get rockfall (actually not likely) than flooding.
*We want to retain the smooth concrete so that our daughter may learn to ride a bike and skate in the back (we live on a very steep hill with a fair amount of traffic -the local rock climbing area is one block away). We are interviewing concrete finishing companies this week to look at staining or acid washing the patio so that it has some more color variation (we are also considering maybe a checkerboard pattern with gray and brown -thx Gerry).
*The retaining wall holds back the yard. Access is behind where I shot the picture. It has retaining walls, lots of trees and a garden area. You can see some more pictures on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23500300@N07/
*We are strongly considering building a pergola on the blank expanse of wall where there are no windows and moving the grill to the left of the back door. I really liked this week's Brooklyn roof deck (just a couple inches high with rope lighting) we may do that under the pergola...
*One reasons for not cutting into the concrete is that the rocks in the soil in and around our house are HUGE. One corner of our basement was never excavated as there is a giant boulder there. We are afraid if we cut into the concrete to plant a tree that we could find one of these where we hoped to put a tree. I do however like the idea of cutting in to plant succulents that would take less soil or depth but maybe using a horse trough for a tree or some large planters like mgn suggested. Would those look like sore thumbs? Also we have to contend with freeze and thaw and water getting trapped under new cut sections...
*As the retaining wall can not be taken out without considerable expense (and there is no way to bring in any machinery to this yard) maybe we should convert it to rammed earth or screw corrugated metal to the cribbing (Thx Gerry). Thoughts?
*I am looking at patio sets that are deeper and more oversized like the set on PBTeen (square not in a circle).

Again I am thankful for all the suggestions - especially the tennis court one LOL!

I hate to be "Debbie Downer" but aren't these made from vinyl which is a carcinogen and should not be given to kids let alone brought into your house to off-gas?