StuntSewing

I took a few minutes last night to dig out the weeds from my front beds. It was a perfect evening for it, 70ish degrees, the kids out playing with the neighbors, taking a minute to stop and enjoy nature. hmmm, maybe a trip up the canyon is in order. I hope you enjoy a few of my flowers!

Here I am trying to find interesting ways of seeing ordinary things

Certainly this will give it away...

7 houses out of about 30 on ONE, yes I did say ONE street for sale. All but one of them are the same floor plan and there are 3 in a row. My house being the middle of said three LOL It is comical really. And quite frankly if I hadn't have been laughing my way through the last 5 months I would certainly have cracked by now. Blogging has fallen to the bottom of the priority list, surviving has risen to the top. Isn't this just the way life goes? We make our choices and have no idea what other people have cooking in their pot of life, then suddenly there are 7 houses for sale on the same street. More choices... do we rent the house, leave it vacant, ditch the great opportunity in a great city all together, lower the price then lower it again? All the while the neighbors are certainly pondering the same questions.

Personal life is no different than business. Everyone is making choices and if said choices effect you then the ball is in your court as to how to respond. When lemons arrive in abundance it might be time for a Lemonade stand or maybe a Margarita party. BTW, Terry has a great Margarita image here This man makes a mean margartia!

Style Cafe Moms Directory

Look what came home from costco! Terry set out with half the family to do some much needed pantry stocking. That in itself has quite a treat, but then to return home with a special, selected by Olivia (the queen of pink), surprise. What more can a girl ask for?

Days have passed and we've all enjoyed having fresh flowers in the house, they manage to brighten up even the brown of cardboard moving boxes. But I find myself feeling a little like the, past their prime, blooms. Lucky for me, I'm not headed out for the garbage man to tote off.

We have about 100 power cords that moved with us, where I ask you are the devices they provide power to? Okay, 100 is an exaggeration but every time I go looking for something I seem to find a stray power cord. Everything is pretty much unpacked, all plug in devices are properly plugged and humming away when needed, and yet still I continue to find lonely power cords. I also know that as soon as I pitch them they will certainly be needed. Amidst all these stray cords, I'm sure, is the cable I need to attach to my camera in order to u/l all the pictures I've been snapping lately. Valentines fun, sewing fun, life fun. I've been snapping it all and they are having a secret party in the camera, unable to come out to play.

And what happened to that special proprietary a/v plug that sony makes us use? Which leads me to "damn, Sony" why must they make a special a/v plug, everyone else seems to get by just fine with red/white and yellow on both ends, but not Sony. While bitching about this last night Terry informed me that Blu ray won out and now HD is the "Beta", this surely mean more lame proprietary plugs, Blugh!

Back on track... since I can't share all the exciting times, quite yet, I'd like to say a little something for this AMAZING documentary we watched last week on 'on demand'. I've been checking into the electricity options here in our new area. I've discovered that I need a MUCH larger recycle bin: Every bit of paper and cardboard, along with all triangle numbered plastics and glass can be picked up here! This is so fabulous and really means that the little recycle bin should really be for 'garbage' and the big humongous can should be for recycling.

It also leads me to the question "As a business owner how can I leave a smaller 'footprint' on the earth?" First, I will switch to 100% post consumer paper as soon as I need more paper. Until then I will use less paper for invoices, I will continue to reuse papers for the shipping labels. I am broaching the subject of 100% post consumer paper with the pattern companies that I work with and think, hope, that I'm not the only one that feels like the extra cost is so TOTALLY worth it! I'm also looking for more eco-friendly packaging.

Well we, M and me, have been welcomed properly to Texas, a 3 car fender bender. The days that followed were filled with paperwork and various headache remedies. I'm happy to report that we're both fine. Now the headaches are from dealing with insurance companies.

I just came across this site, just so happens to fall right inline to a big focus for me. Now I'll sidetrack for a moment. Did you see An Inconvenient Truth yet? I highly recommend it ;-) Talking to my dad about it I was pleasantly surprise to learn that he's already switched his light bulbs to swirly ones and doesn't bitch or moan about the short time it takes them to rev up to full light capacity. I've started investing in those same bulbs and don't mind it at all either, but while chatting up every other mom I come into contact with about ways to "do more" or maybe I should say "do less" this, the time it takes for those bulbs to rev up seems to be an issue. What's the big stinkin' deal? Do you really NEED 5 60 watt bulbs over your breakfast table anyway? Alrightly then, I'm climbing off that wobbley box and taking it out for the recycling guy.

Back to the regularaly scheduled programming. EcoMom lists the first 10 steps that you should take. Recently, I sent an email to Terry listing in numbered list form all the things I was irritated with at that time. He replied an "answer" to every one of my ranted in numbered list form. It made me chuckle and look at things a little differently. And now, today, I think I'll use that same format to 'check off' the things I've started doing and evaluate how I can do more.

From EcoMom
1. Change a light. If every household in America changed out just 5 light bulbs to energy efficient CFL's it would be equivalent to taking 8 million cars off the road. -- Changed 3 (the forth one in the pack was defective and while I wanted to take it back for a replacement I didn't want them to garbage the other perfectly fine 3 from the same pack - so I'll eat the 4 bucks that that one bulb costs and buy another pack the next time I go to the store)

2. Drive More Efficiently: Car pool, don't idle during drop off and pick up, drive a hybrid and drive less. If we each drove just 10 mile less per week, it would save 20 billion pounds of CO2 - and you'll find more time in your day. I've got a car pool going with the neighbor for taking the kids to school and they ride the bus home in the afternoon. Plus Terry takes the van, which is more fuel efficient on his daily commute on the days that I'm not carpooling) Hmmm, Now I wonder if that's the best thing. The amount of gas that truck hogs getting downtown and back is certainly more that we're saving by carpooling the 1 mile to school)

3. Shop local, fair trade and organic. Most food travels an average of 1,200 miles before it reaches your table, so by walking down to your local farmer's market, you'll not only reduce fossil fuel waste, you might also reduce your own waist. NEED TO WORK ON THIS, although we are buying lots of organic and sugar free. But it still comes from WallyWorld ;-/

4. Use non toxic products for cleaning, bathing, even make-up and you'll protect the environment as well as reduce you and your family's risk of disease. DONE, we didn't move cleaning supplies and I haven't bought new, we're using vingear, bleach, baking soda cleaning supplies.

5. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Cutting down on garbage by just 10% can save 1,200 pounds of CO2 and you'll have less junk around the house! I am mindful of packaging on purchases. I try to find new uses for what we already have and I'm using the box from costco for the overflow recycling, cuz we have to much to recycle for that little container. I mean, come on now, we are a family of 6!

6. Turn off and unplug electronic devices and you'll reduce your exposure to electromagnetic radiation, and save on energy and CO2 emissions. You can also start having dinner by candlelight, which your kids, and your partner, will love! I need to be more persistant about this, in particular the computers need to go off, at least at night. Lights and other devices, though, that's always been a peeve of mine, I just hate it when they are on and aren't being used. Candlelight dinner..... it's put on the menu along with Friday night -homemade- Pizza for tonight!

7. Re-think your laundry plan! A favorite of many EcoMoms. Doing less, using cold water and line drying when possible you can save over 500 pounds of CO2 and over $600 per year. Gotta love the Duet. I never would have just gone out and bought it but since we were moving and our 15 year old washer was sporting a grease leak, we splurged and went he! I really wanted to save a few bucks at costco but they only had the 'sport' models and I feel strongly that that savings we will see having the larger capacity are BIG

8. Plant a Tree. Or any plant. Just bring more green into your life. This is a great activity to do with your kids to mark special occasions. Over the course of its lifetime, a single tree can absorb one ton of carbon dioxide. Go organic if you can and avoid those nasty pesticides. This makes me sad. I had to give away all of our plants when we moved. Most of them found a good home with my 'greenthumb' mom, but I think poor harold the ficus froze in the garage. I just can't think about it. Once our life shakes out and we have a more clear picture for the future, I'll once again bring in the green.

9. Buy carbon offsets and reduce mom guilt, like the SUV you still have. Offsets are kind of like eating too many brownies one day and jogging extra the next. For more information you can visit www.nativeenergy.com. Here is South Texas you can have wind powered electricity for an extra percentage tacked onto your power bill. We've looked into it but still need to commit.

10. Play more. This will be your child's favorite, and hopefully yours too. In today's world, it is easy to get so busy that you forget to take time to connect and play with the people you love, and to do things that feed your mind, body and spirit. So do things that make you feel healthy, good and thriving. It's all connected. Sustain your Home, Sustain Your Planet and Sustain Your Self. You're on your way to being an EcoMom! Maybe we'll head to the park today!

We interrupt regularly scheduled blog posts for this important announcement.

Corie has been completely absorbed in a new book

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2008-08-03-breaking-dawn-sales_N.htm

She is almost done and will then be able to resume all of her standard duties. Please standby for some exciting news in the next few days.