Put Away the White Shoes, It’s Labor Day!

Labor Day is here
should I keep wearing white shoes?
Serial Mom says no

Ah, Labor Day. Time to say good-bye to summer (my favorite season), hi to fall, and a big HELLO GORGEOUS to the Labor Day sales at the home improvement stores!

I also say a little sad good bye to kicky summer sandals, even the white ones. Now, I was taught that you shouldn’t wear white shoes after Labor Day. Apparently, arbiters of What Not to Wear fashion Staci and Clinton disagree. They say you can wear white shoes after Labor Day.

Fashion, like home decorating and design ebbs and flows. Things change. Over time what’s in goes out, what’s out is in, up is down, black is white. I get it. Therefore, I’d be willing to give the white shoes after Labor Day thing a chance if it weren’t for one thing. The movie Serial Mom.

The woman scares me to bits. Come on. You have to remember how John Water’s seemly sweet and perfect homemaker Beverly Sutphin (played by the amazing Kathleen Turner) was really a raging sociopath who humorously and violently offed her neighbors for such heinous offenses as not recycling. She bludgeoned a woman with a leg of lamb for not rewinding a rented videotape (hey, the movie was made in 1994 way before Netflix.) And then Beverly gets even with a juror who commits the sin of continually wearing white shoes after Labor Day during her trial.

Remember?!!

[Juror #8 (Played by yes, that Patty Hearst ) is talking on a payphone] We did it! We set her free! I knew she was innocent right from the beginning.

[Beverly Sutphin (Kathleen Turner) comes from behind and grabs the phone from Juror #8] You can't wear white shoes after Labor Day!

Juror #8: That's not true anymore.

Beverly Sutphin: Yes. It. Is! Didn't your mother tell you? [Beverly smacks Juror #8 in the face with the phone.]

Juror #8: Ugh! [Juror #8 falls face first into the wall behind her]

Beverly Sutphin: Now you know.

Juror #8: No! Please! Fashion has changed!

Beverly Sutphin: No ... it hasn't. [Beverly gives Juror #8 an uppercut with the telephone and sends her into the wall again.]

Scary isn’t it ? (And I’m not just talking about the tacky white pumps. Those shoes are nasty even for 1994!) I look at the movie Serial Mom as a serious object lesson: Do NOT wear white shoes after Labor Day. Or else.

I wonder if the same rules apply to decorating with white after Labor Day. Any ideas?

How to Hem Pants Into Shorts, Then Use the Pant Legs to Make a Hat!

A recent closet clean out revealed that I had three, count them three pairs of khaki pants. What I am going to do with three pairs of khaki pants? After looking through some photos from last summer, I had a What Not to Wear moment that gave me the answer to the pant overpopulation problem. I needed some new summer shorts. Bermuda shorts in fact. So, I made a pair of shorts out of a spare pair of khaki pants. I cut the legs of the pants to my knee and hemmed the pants into some much more fashionable summer shorts. (The demo plays twice in the following video.)

But what to do with the material that was leftover from the khaki pant surgery? The folks at Threadbanger came to my rescue. They make reconstructed ruched hats out of leftover pant legs.

Problem solved.

This post is part of Thirfty Green Thursday.

Growing Miniature Sunflowers

I tried to grow miniature sunflowers on my back patio from seed this summer. For the longest time my flowers looked like this:

I wondered if they ever would bloom into sunflowers. Maybe they weren’t sunflowers after all. Maybe they were really some sort of mad man eating plant?

Nope. A few days later, they proved to be sunflowers.

Whew.

This post is part of Wordless Wednesdays. Although in my case, it’s not entirely wordless.

Growing Upside Down Tomatoes: Watering Schedule

I thought it was time for an upside down tomato plant update.



I’m happy to say that I have five green tomatoes growing on my plant and several flowers that I hope will turn into tomatoes. Keep your fingers crossed.

“What a minute”, you say, “You planted two tomato plants in your topsy turvey upside down tomato planter, not one. What happened to the other plant?”

Easy. I overwatered the planter and lost one of two tomato plants to root rot. Oops.

Upside Town Tomato Watering Schedule Old and New

More than a few of you have asked me how often I water my topsy turvey upside down tomato plants. The planter’s instructions said to water the plants every day because the drainage holes in the upside down planter will make the soil dry out more quickly than a conventional potted plant. I remembered seeing the

This didn’t work so well. I hung the tomato planter from the under hang over my back porch way over my head but out of the way when the long tomato vines began to grow. I have to stand on a chair in order to water the hanging tomato planter. Because I’m short, I can’t quite see where the hole is in the top of the plant and I have to guess. That being the case, when I watered the planter with a non-spouted 2-liter soda bottle I got a daily unexpected bath from the water splooshing over the top of the planter until I felt around with the top of the bottle and shoved it in the watering hole in the top of the planter. File this bright idea under DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.

And like I said before, apparently, 2 liters of water was too much water for my planter to comfortably chug on a daily basis because one of my two tomato plants developed root rot and died. Oops. This is another one to file under DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.

After removing the dead tomato plant from the planter I was determined not to overwater Tomato Plant Number 2 (which got a field commission and was promoted to Tomato Plant Number 1.) Instead of giving Tomato Plant Number 1 a bottle of soda each day I decided to give it a bottle of wine every other day.

Wine? Well, OK, not exactly. I used an empty wine bottle as a watering can for my upside down tomato plant. The wine bottle worked much better than the 2-liter soda bottle because the longer neck of the wine bottle fit perfectly into the hole in the top of the planter much better than the soda bottle ever did. The wine bottle holds just enough water to give the plants a healthy drink while not overwatering the plant. Best of all I don’t get an unexpected bath when I water my overhead hanging plants!

A Four-Step Approach to Killing Japanese Beetles the Natural Way

Last summer, after losing several bushes in my front yard to grubs I tried to plant a grub resistant garden. This summer, I thought that I had the grub problem licked. I was wrong. I still had grubs in my soil. The grubs grew up to become adult Japanese beetles. The Japanese beetles started to munch on my new plants.

I may have lost that battle but I am determined to win The War on Grubs and Japanese Beetles. In addition, for the sake of my dog Blitzkrieg and his habit of walking through my garden bed, I’m going to kill those grubs and Japanese beetles using natural and organic methods even if it kills me (which it just might.)

According to Gardens Alive

insect problems are always worse in non-organic gardens, where the balance of nature is out of whack. Chemical fertilizers cause lush, weak growth that brings in pests by the droves. And, as many listeners wrote when telling us about their beetle woes, toxic chemical pesticides like Sevin don’t work well to control
these (and other) pests, but are excellent at killing and driving off beneficial
insects, birds and other predators that DO—not to mention limiting your happy
and healthy lifespan on the planet

That validates my desire for killing these pests naturally. Unfortunately, for me and my I-want-to-fix-the-problem-now desires, the best way to treat my soil for grubs is not the quick fix solution but to use a multi step long term fix. I should:

1. Trap the bugs.
2. Treat the plants.
3. Remove diseased plants & plants that attract Japanese beetles.
4. Treat the soil for grubs and beetles.

Step 1. Using Japanese Beetle Traps

The first type of trap is homemade. Fill a yellow container (I used an empty yellow margarine tub) with water and add a few drops of dish soap. Place the trap next to the Japanese beetle infested plants. The yellow container draws the beetles over to investigate, where they eventually drown in the water because they are lousy swimmers. I tried this method and it works.

The second type of trap is a commercial trap baited with a pheromone that works oh too well at drawing any and every lonely Japanese beetle in the neighborhood that’s looking for a little beetle love into the Japanese beetle trap. YardLover.com recommends that you use one trap per every 50 feet of property. They also recommend that you put the beetle trap at least 10 feet away from your plants or the trap may attract beetles to your plants instead of away from your plants. Apparently Japanese beetles really like sex, because those little suckers fill up fast.

I didn’t use this method for one simple reason. Ew.

Step 2. Using Natural and Organic Plant Sprays to Treat Plants for Japanese Beetles

If you want to try to save your plants, you may try spraying them with something that will make your plants less tasty to adult Japanese Beetles.

• Spray your plants with Neem oil. Neem oil comes from the neem tree and is available at garden centers. It is safe around pets and children however; you must reapply the spray every few days.
• Make Homemade Japanese Beetle Spray #1 by liquefying dead Japanese beetles in a blender and spraying the stinky concoction on your plants. Again, you must reapply the spray every few days.
• If spraying stinky beetle juice on your plants doesn’t have much appeal (it doesn’t for me even though I really enjoyed Michael Keaton performance in the movie Beetlejuice) try Homemade Japanese Beetle Spray #2. Mix water, garlic cloves, and a hot pepper in a blender, strain the garlic and pepper out the mixture, add a few drops of dish detergent, and spray on your plants. You must reapply the spray every few days, especially after it rains.

My plants were too far gone to try the sprays. I had to move on the something a little more drastic.

Step 3. Removing Diseased Plants & Plants That Attract Japanese Beetles From the Garden

According to suite101,

diseased plants and trees can attract Japanese Beetles to yard where they
feast on the dying plants and then move on to the healthy plants

After checking the condition of the plants in my yard and removing the affenders, it’s no wonder that the grubs and Japanese beetles considered my yard a smorgasbord:

• Last year I planted Delilahs. This was pretty stupid on my part because I know now Delilahs can attract Japanese Beetles that lay eggs, that turn into grubs, that grow up to be Japanese Beetles and lay more eggs. I’m kicking myself for this one.
• The Japonica Spirea bushes that I tried to nurse back to health from last summer contracted bad case of spider mites and other ills that caused black spot and yellow leaves.
  
• The roots of the lone holly bush were covered in grub eggs and slime mold. Side note: slime mold smells awful!
• The Chrysanthemums and Asters (all grub resistant plants by the way) were covered in white leaf mold. That means that not only am I fighting grubs and beetles but my soil is also infested with mold and fungus gnats. Great.

After I removed all of the infected plants from my garden, which was in essence all of the plants I had planted in my garden bed. It is now disease-free. It also looks like something out of Mobile Home Disaster. However, I’m not planting any new plants until I treat the soil.

Step 4. Treating the Garden Soil and Lawn for Grubs and Japanese Beetles

Gardens Alive suggests
that I stop watering the lawn and let the grass go dormant in order to discourage Japanese beetles from using my yard as a party pad and later a nursery for their offspring.

Female Japanese beetles only lay their eggs in turf, and you can cut the numbers of the resulting grub babies that reside in YOUR lawn substantially… don’t scalp your lawn or water it during dry spells this summer; those females will soon be egg laying, and they greatly prefer moist, low-cut turf. (Don’t worry if rain is scarce; the lawn will just go dormant and green up again when wet times return, but those females will have long since flown to homes where they have a fast hand with the hose.)

This one’s easy and well, frankly, I’m not very good at remembering to water the lawn anyway. This method is perfect for me!

Next, I need to so something about the grubs and grub eggs that are currently in my garden soil. I should apply Milky Spore powder an organic bacterium that multiplies in the soil over time, attacks the grubs, and kills them. This method is safe to use around pets and children. For best results, you should apply Milky Spore when the ground temperature is at least 50 degrees F. The downside to using Milky Spore is that it’s expensive and it may take years for the beneficial bacterium to multiply in your soil. However, in my case, replacing all of my plants and shrubs for the second year in a row is more much expensive. In my case, ponying up the money for Milky Spore now seems like a bargain.

Another method is to apply beneficial nematodes to the soil. They work much in the same way as Milky Spore however beneficial nematodes are live insects. Like Milky Spore, beneficial nematodes can be used around pets and children. Like Milky Spore, beneficial nematodes do not target the helpful bugs and worms that inhabit your soil. The downside to using beneficial nematodes is that they do not multiply in your soil like Milky Spore– their lifespan is generally 18 months. Beneficial nematodes are also expensive but they also combat other garden nasties like fungus gnats as well as grubs. Most gardening experts suggest that applying a combination of Milky Spore and beneficial nematodes is one of the best ways to rid your soil of grubs and grub eggs. Since I have a whole host of bad garden bugs in my garden, I’m using the beneficial nematodes in conjunction with the Milky Spore.

There you have it. My four step approach to riding my lawn and garden of grubs and Japanese Beetles. Do you have a grubs and Japanese Beetles problem in your lawn or garden? What methods did try to fight them that worked for you? What methods didn’t work for you?

Allergy Free Apple and Banana Dog Treats

It was a fine day for agility class when tragedy struck The Condo.

We ran out of dog treats!

OK, honestly, if you’re a human, this is not a tragedy. However, if you’re a food motivated Pekingese that really looks forward to earning good treats during dog training sessions it is paws for concern. (Pause, paws. Punny heh, heh. I kill me.)

Buying dog treats for Blitzkrieg can be difficult. It’s not that Blitzkrieg is a fussy eater. Oh no. My dog will eat anything put in front of him, even if its human food that is poisonous to dogs. I’m sure that this is a carryover from the Bad Old Days when Blitzkrieg lived on the streets as a stray*.

Food allergies make it difficult to buy treats for Blitzkrieg. Wheat and corn make my dog itch and chew bald spots in his fur. As long as I keep Blitzkrieg from eating anything containing corn and wheat, he’s itch free and happy. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to find dog food and treats that are corn and wheat free because most of the grocery store “junk food” brands as well as many of the healthier premium pet store brands use corn and wheat as fillers in their treats. This makes shopping difficult but not impossible. However, when you’re out of treats and you have a training session that day, running a crossed town to buy one bag of dog treats is a bit of a pain. But it’s not much of a pain if you decide to bake a batch of homemade allergy free apple and banana dog treats!

1 ½ cups of oatmeal flour**
¼ cup of quick cooking oatmeal flakes
¼ cup flax seed
One egg
1 small jar of banana and apple baby food***
1 Teaspoon of honey
1 1/2 Tablespoons of water (more or less)

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees (F.)
2. Mix the oatmeal flower, oatmeal, and flax seed together in a large bowl.
3. Add the egg, baby food, and honey to the powdered mixture and stir. If the mixture is dry, add the water.
4. Sprinkle the counter with oatmeal flour and roll the dough out into a thin sheet.
5. Either cut the dough into biscuits using a cookie cutter (I have one that shaped like a dog bone), cut the dough into round shapes using the baby food jar as a cookie cutter, or use a knife to cut the dough into squares.
6. Transfer the cookies onto a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 15-30 minutes. The cookies are ready to come out of the oven when they are a fully cooked semi-soft cookie treat for your favorite pooch.
7. Allow the cookies to cool and let the training games begin!

Baking these treats under the supervision of your favorite canine is optional.

*If you’ve ever wondered why Blitzkrieg has one eye, some horrible unknown person hit or kicked my dog so much that they knocked out some teeth, his left eye, and gave him a hernia. Then they turned him loose where Blitzkrieg lived as a stray until we adopted him, rehabilitated him, and found dog sports that allow Blitzkrieg to earn tons of praise and treats.

**You can easily grind your own oatmeal flour by putting quick cooking oatmeal into a blender. Whir away until the blender grinds the oatmeal into a powder.

***Some baby food use corn syrup as a sweetener. If your dog has corn allergies, avoid using a brand of baby food that uses corn syrup as a sweetener. If you do not want to use baby food in the recipe substitute approximately ¼ cup of applesauce (again, be aware that some apple sauces may contain corn syrup) and half of a banana.

A City Girl's Guide to the Kitschy Ohio State Fair

Once upon a time, because that’s how stories start, Husband spent a summer singing in The Ohio State Fair Youth Choir. He lived in a dorm on the fairgrounds and sang with the choir everyday for the public’s enjoyment. Many years later Husband meets Lisa. They fall in love. They get married. Husband finds out that Lisa has never in her fabulous life been to the State Fair.

Husband drags my city girl butt against her will takes me on a date and allows me to experience the sights, sounds, and kitsch of the Ohio State Fair.

The Ohio State Fair had everything I blog about and more:

*Crazy kitschy crap to buy
*Crazy kitschy crap to see and experience
*Kitschy insane food guaranteed to melt your eyebrows
*Environmentally sensitive exhibits and waste disposal

We went on the last day of the fair so most of the animals were already home frolicing at their respective farms (this is what I want to believe, so don’t tell me any differently.) That means that this City Girl didn’t smell a lot of stinky animal poo in the hot sun and I was happy about that (even though there weren’t many animals there to pet except for the petting zoo.) However, the kitsch was a sight to behold!

The Kitsch

There were quite a few items on sale that were so crappy that no real store would carry it. In other words, most of it was Only Sold On Late Night TV slock. The Wonder Shamy, the Wonder Mop, the Wonder Cook Wear, the Wonder Underwear (looked like a cheap imitation of Spanx at twice the price and none of the durability of the real thing or the Target knockoff.) I could’ve reduced pain and gotten everlasting health in my feet, neck, back, legs, arms using about 10 different scams, I mean, methods/amazing products. My teeth could’ve been their whitest white, my rings cleaned, and the hair ripped from my legs (funny they didn’t offer to do demos on underarms. I suppose they wanted to be environmentally savvy and save old growth forests? Was that a serous TMI faux pas? I think so.) to leave them smooth as silk if only I didn’t want to deal with a hard sales pitch and give each vendor throughout the fair nine-ninety-five–ninety-five-ninety-seven for each scam, I mean, product that you just can’t live without!

Husband and I didn’t do a lot of shopping. However, we did do a lot of laughing to ourselves. Moreover, we saved a ton of money doing so.

The kitsch wasn’t just in the Junk You Can Buy pavilions. Oh no. There were some Roadside America worthy displays to see and experience too. The two most notable were the Giant 15-foot tall talking and pseudo animated (his right hand moves up and down and his head swivels side to side) Smokey Bear and butter cow.

If memory serves me correctly, the real Smokey was a bear cub that grew into an adult bear and is not the 15-foot tall sentient statue I saw at the Ohio State Fair. Yes, our Smokey talks. He calls out to visitors by name and reminds everyone about fire safety. How does Smokey know our names? Maybe he’s tapped into Santa’s all knowing and all seeing list of good and bad kids. It couldn’t be that there’s a person inside Giant Smokey who hears parents saying their kids’ names and then calls out to them over a microphone and sound system built into Smokey Bear. Oh no. That couldn’t be. Our Smokey is magic and omnipotent. And BIG. If you even try to start a forest fire around our Giant Smokey, he will stomp you out like a spent cigarette butt. All in the name of fire safety. Honest.

Then there’s the famous butter cow.

I’m not sure why it’s supposed to be a big, big deal but it is. Maybe it has to do something with the fact that after you gawk at the butter cow (and accompanying butter sculptures of prominent Ohioans including Jake Hanna) that you buy ice cream in the same pavilion? Naaaah!

I think the butter cow may be losing some of her legendary status because this year after the fair, university students are going to melt Bessie down and make biodiesel out of her. Poor Bessie, 14 days of glory only to be gone like melted butter. Moo.

Kitschy Fair Food That Will Melt Your Arteries

From my Renaissance festival days, I know that food on stick is very popular with the fair going masses. Fried food on a stick is even more popular. The Ohio State Fair took we’ll-deep-fat-fry- anything-put-it-on-a-stick-and-sell-it-to-you to a completely new level. They sold (and I’m not lying):

*Deep fat fried corn dogs on a stick (of course)
*Deep fat fried cheese on a stick
*Deep fat fried Snickers bar on a stick
*Deep fat fried Oreos
*Deep fat fried Captain Crunch. I’ve heard of the other stuff on the list before but not the Captain Crunch. This one baffles me.

No we didn’t try any of these ahem, delicacies. First, they freaked us out and second, I think I heard my arteries clogging every time we just walked past one of these fine food booths. Nope, we settled for local food from the local vendors in the Ohio pavilion for lunch. Then we got an elephant ear made with whole wheat flour from another Ohio vendor. Whole wheat flour instead of white flour? Who knew? Sorta better for us but not really since the thing was still fried and covered in sugar but still, it tasted soooooooo good.

Not that I mocked everything at the fair. There were lots of good things too.

*Lots of crafty things and flea markety things for sale as well as local honey, maple syrup, and candy. Who doesn’t like candy?

*A performance from a guy who’s troop is made up of rescue dogs. Rehabilitating and training the “untrainable” rescue dog is something that is near and dear to our hearts. Our wonderful one-eyed rescue agility and backpacking Pekingese Blitzkrieg was an abused rescue dog that needed a lot of rehabilitation. So anyone who rescues, rehabilitates, and treats’ their rescue animals well (and this guy did) is a pretty good human in our book.

*Husband and I petted a Highland calf at the petting zoo! The calf liked the carrot slices we feed him but Husband and I were certain that the little Highland cow (which we dubbed a Macmoo because if American cows say “mooo” what would a Scottish Highland cow say? You guessed it, “Mac-moooo.”) was missing the food of his homeland and really wanted a Guinness. However, he was not a full-grown Macmoo and surely not of the legal drinking in the US. So sorry little Macmoo only pets and carrots for you.

A Surprisingly Environmentally Sensitive Stance

The Fair was surprisingly environmentally sensitive – they had tons of recycling bins throughout the grounds for plastic bottles. In the Ohio foods pavilion they were trying to go Zero Waste, but they didn’t use any of that fancy schamancy eco-green speak to scare the newbies and folk who "didn't know green was something other than a color." They had sets of three bins throughout the pavilion. Brown bins for non-recyclable and non-compostable trash. Blue bins for recyclable containers – glass & plastic bottles & metal cans. Green bins for compostable materials – food waste, paper napkins, and the cutlery, plates, bowls, cups, and hinged containers.

The compostable table wear surprised me. I've heard about about but hadn't seen it up close and in person until now. The surprising thing about it was that it looked like not environmentally friendly Styrofoam tableware, but it was really made from compostable corn, sugarcane and potato starch. Kinda cool, huh?

Now before some of you I-hate-plastic-in-all-shapes-and-forms-including-food-based-plastics yell at me about how not as environmentally nice that stuff is over other food service options, I have to remind you that farmers in Ohio grow the corn that’s used to make these plastics. (Something I didn't realize until I saw some exhibits about it at the fair. Including one exhibit that including a climbing wall made to look like a gianormous ear of corn!) Farming is a tough business. Many Ohio farmers take second jobs to make sure that they can withstand the economic ups and downs of the farm business. Our farmers are benefiting from being able to plant extra corn and having the ability to sell it to another market for plastics/biofuels. Do I think that starch-based plastics and biofuels are the end all be all to our petroleum problems? I'm not 100% sure. However, I do think that it’s a step in the right direction.

Finally, the Ohio State Fair allowed me I meet my goal of “get at least one free swag bag to use as reusable shopping tote bag” courtesy of the fine folks at the Ford Motor Company. Yes, they were there promoting their gas chugging F150 trucks instead of their lone hybrid SUV. But I can’t complain too much about the company since Husband and I both drive small fuel efficient (and paid off) Ford cars. Besides, I’ve already written the Ford company headquarters in Dearborn and told them that I’d love to replace my current Ford car with a small hybrid car and not with a hybrid SUV and suggested that they put their efforts into making a hybrid sedan which I and the Ford car-loving public would surely buy over say, the other hybrid cars that are outselling Fords nonhybrids. So I didn’t give the PR people any guff for promoting the product that Ford told them to promote. I thanked them politely for the bag (made from material made from recycled plastic bottles, who knew?) and cringed when they gave Husband yet another t-shirt that he doesn’t need (he gets one for every 5K race that he enters. He runs and races a lot. He has lots of free t-shirts.)

I wanted to make a tote bag out of Husband’s shirt or at least put it in the pile of t-shirts destined to become another t-shirt quilt. However, Husband had other ideas. (How dare he think on his own?! Oh. Wait. That's what I love about him. That he has his own opinions and we have amazing discussions about everything under the sun. Drat! I can't win for losing.) Husband said that he worked hard to win his shirt in the silly promo game. (Point of order. No he did not and neither did I. The game was an answer-the-question-about-the-product-and-even-if-you-get-the-answer-wrong-you-still-get-the-swag-as-a-consolation-prize game. I know. I’ve created many of these "games" for marketing/PR gigs.) Husband said that he’d like to wear his new freebie just once before it becomes recycle fodder. OK, I can deal with that. But I’ll get that t-shirt in the end I tell you. Just you wait, Henry Higgins, just you wait.

Zero Waste Road Trip - Can It Be Done?

Big road trip comin'
doing it without the trash?
zero waste we try

Its funny how receiving one little blog comment or email can create a huge new idea. I was all hopped up on caffeine and chocolate (the two great tastes that taste great together and fuel the Condo Blues creative writing machine) all set to draft my Haiku Friday post when I got a nice comment on from Almost Mrs. Average about my wine glass chandelier. I checked out her blogs The Rubbish Diet where she's trying to make her household zero waste and Bin 101 (a wonderful play on Room 101 from George Orwell's book 1984.) She describes Bin 101 as

Things that are too good to be condemned to landfill, but not good enough for
recycling... or silly things, annoying little things, frustrating big things
that shouldn't be thrust on us in the first place.

What was in Bin 101 at the time I peeked at it? Condiment packets. I have a few of these in my refrigerator. Not a lot because Husband and I try to be health conscious, cut out hydrogenated oils, transfats, and high fructose corn syrup from our diets - there's a lot of that in fast food. But I will not lie; sometimes I must heed the Syrian call of Taco Bell. I don't' know (and honestly, I don't' think I want to know from a health standpoint) what it is about their Fire Sauce or taco seasoning that sends my tummy into a happy tizzy but it just does. Therefore, I have a few condiment packets in my fridge. Maybe you do too. I keep them around because they're convenient when we take food with us on road trips.

It's confession time gentle readers, I'm planning a road trip. Me, Husband, and the Blitzkrieg (but don't worry, I've thought of you and scheduled lots of wonderful, wacky, and helpful posts to appear on Condo Blues, while I'm officially MIA from my computer) are hitting the road. Since we've got the Blitzkrieg with us and Husband's training for a half marathon relay, it's easier to do picnics with healthy food at a rest stops than leave the pooch in a hot car and duck out for fast food on the road. (And suffer the very real possibility of having bad things happen to the dog in an empty car in the hot sun - a definite pet safety no no!) As such, I was going to take those soon to be trash condiment packets with me on the road. Then I stopped and thought, "What if I followed Mrs. Almost Average and Green Me's example and tried to do a Zero Waste Road trip?"

The next thought that crossed my mind was, "What the heck to they mean by Zero Waste?"

Because honestly when I look at places that say that they are or try to be Zero Waste, there is some stuff that goes in their recycling and compost bin. Often there's also a little itty bitty bit of trash that goes off to the landfill. That looks like generating waste to me in the very literal, sorry-but-I-parse-things-down-due-to-occupational-hazard type of way. It's not that I'm knocking them or not down with the green program. Sometimes I'm just too literal for my own good. Oops.

After some research I found that Zero Waste comes down to this: reduce the amount of trash hauled off to the landfill that you or your business makes to zero, by a combination of shopping/producing items that use less packaging, by recycling and composting everything that can be recycled and composted, and by finding ways to recycle things that can't currently be recycled. That way, hopefully, you won't generate any waste that you have to chuck in a bin and haul it off to a landfill.

Oh. OK. I can do that.

I have reusable picnic stuff; including a lovely cloth tablecloth and napkins that came with my picnic hamper. I have reusable travel coffee mugs for drinks. I have a big water jug that we were already going to take for Blitzkrieg in case the local water didn't agree with his tummy. Barring the emissions from the small fuel efficient car we drive this was looking doable.

Then I realized that I have one of these.

And as a responsible pet owner, I need to bring these.

Sure, the bags I use are biodegradable (we can't compost poo), but it's still waste. Given the Blitzkrieg situation, I was going to fail at a Zero Waste Road Trip before I even started. Sure, I could give myself a doggie doo exemption (it's my challenge and my rules after all) but that felt like cheating. However not challenging myself also felt like a cop out.

So, I decided to tweak the challenge. Instead of doing a Zero Waste Road Trip Challenge, I'm going to do a Low Waste Road Trip. Meaning: we will try not to generate trash that is disposed of in a trashcan while we're driving from our house to our destination and back. Stuff we can't recycle at our destination (because honestly I don't know what they can or cannot recycle) we're going to take home with us. This may not be an easy feat because I have a small car (sadly not a hybrid but maybe one day...) and not a lot of room for extra stuff.

How will we do? I don't know. Do you have any tips for me? I'd really love to know!

Twenty Percent Home Energy Reduction Challenge – Summer Update

I conducted a DIY Energy Audit using the using the Energy Star Home Energy Yardstick to determine my home’s Energy Performance. My home energy performance grade was Below Average with a score of 3.7 out of 10. The Yardstick suggested I cut my electricity and natural gas consumption by 20%. I decided to do it.

I gave myself the additional goal to make the reductions as sustainable and inexpensively as I could, meaning that things like changing habits, light bulbs, and sealing air leaks with caulk and insulation were in. Replacing everything I own with the newest most expensive Energy Star equivalent or installing an array of solar panels on The Condo were out.

“It can’t be done!” many people cried, “You need to replace those three-year-old appliances with Energy Star equivalents! You need to install solar, wind, geothermal to get low green energy bills!” (Personally, I’d love to install such alternative technologies but it’s not going to do much good until I reduce our energy consumption first.)

So how am I doing? Pretty darn good. The Condo’s electrical use is down for January through July of this year, in some cases I cut our electrical use by 50%.



This is for a home that uses electricity for all kitchen and laundry appliances. Lighting and to power to electric fan in our gas furnace. We also have central air conditioning.

The Condo uses natural gas for heat, hot water, and a gas fireplace. My gas usage is a little disappointing for January and February because our natural gas usage actually increased in 2008 from 2007. Oops.

The higher January and February gas usage made me to look at our natural gas heating habits. I checked that the hot water heater was set at 120 degrees (F) (it was), put a blanket on the hot water heater, turned off the pilot light to the gas fireplace that we only used when the electricity goes out, sealed air leaks around outlets, windows, doors, and the fireplace, and checked the settings of the programmable thermostat. I found that lowering the settings on the thermostat from the default settings helped lower our gas usage quite a bit.

However, the real energy savings came from examining Columbia Gas’ billing practices. Turns out that my gas company only takes an actual gas meter reading every other month. The other months they estimate their customer’s gas usage. In addition, after looking through past bills, they like to estimate our usage high. Fortunately, on estimate months, Columbia Gas allows their customers to read and report their own meters. Once I started doing my own meter reads on estimate months in March (the same month we got a huge freak snowstorm that dumped 10 inches of snow on us ), I noticed that our natural gas use went down. That’s very encouraging.

Do you have any energy saving tips to share? I’d really love to know!

This post is part of Thrifty Green Thursday.

Lighting the Olympic Torch

Every two years, I transform into a total Olympic sports junkie even though I don't have an athletic bone in my body. In fact, I was the kid that was picked last for team sports in gym class. Every. Single. Time.

However, as a kid and later as an adult I was a performer. In high school, I could twirl a flag and rifle like nobody's business. I sing. I dance. I act. I can build you a killer costume. If they gave metals for that, I'd compete for the gold.

For 14 days, I try to subscribe to the Olympic ideal that politics shouldn't be a part of sport even when the host country makes that difficult to set aside (Are you listening China? I'm talking about you. How you got the Games is beyond me.) Or when the Olympic events themselves are full of controversy and internal politics. (Like the Communist Party politburo member who forced the director to replace cute little Yang Peiyi in the Opening Ceremonies because he thought that her slightly crooked teeth meant that she wasn't pretty enough to publicly sing "Ode to the Motherland" as they raised the Chinese flag in the stadium. Another girl lip-synced the song to Yang's pre-recorded soundtrack. Yes, that burns my cookies too.)

Oops, I’m starting to go political. Let’s change gears, shall we?

My favorite part of the Opening Ceremonies is how each host city chooses to light the Olympic caldron. Each host city tries to top each other. I get giddy with anticipation every Olympic year.

Atlanta 1996

Having Muhammad Ali light the torch was touching and had a lot of heart. However, the flame on a pulley was not an imaginative way to light the Olympic torch.

Sydney 2000

Sidney upped the ante with their display of fire and water. Very fung shui. It was a dramatic lighting ceremony.

Beijing 2008

Beijing's flying torchbearer was amazing. They flew caldron lighter up on wires to the top the stadium. He “ran” along the inside of the stadium and lit the caldron. Unexpected and very impressive.

Photos courtesy of shibbolet .

Barcelona 1992
However, nothing and I mean nothing beats how Barcelona lit the Olympic caldron in 1992 with a flaming arrow.



Unexpected. Breathtaking. Superhuman - because the archer only had one actual practice with the caldron due to secrecy. Amazing!

What is your favorite Olympic moment?

Foreclosure Décor?

You know that foreclosures and horrible housing markets are a trend when you start seeing it mocked on t-shirts and doormats. Yes, doormats.

I don’t want to make light of anyone’s housing misfortune. In fact, we have foreclosures in my condo neighborhood, which have their own set of problems for those of us who have to live near them. However, when faced with adversity sometimes I think the best way to get through it is to find something to laugh about or at least smirk. Like that great philosopher and cheeseburger in paradise guy Jimmy Buffett says, “We better laugh or we’ll all go insane.”

Is this a sign of the times? I wonder.

I Redecorated - Please Help Me Finish the Job!

tell me what you want
what you really, really want*
I’m asking you, please?

Yes, I redecorated The Condo, the Virtual Condo that is – I have a new blog theme just in case you hadn’t noticed, or if you’re reading this post in a newsreader. In that case, I say kudos to you for setting a fine example! Let me give you a hearty pat on that back and a big Thank You for subscribing to my blog feed. If you aren’t a subscriber, it isn’t too late. Click Subscribe and have every single new Condo Blues post delivered to your favorite reader, it’s free, non-fatting, and not the least bit illegal!

Like most of my real life decorating and home improvement projects, I’m doing the Condo Blues blog redesign in a small series of stages. First, I uploaded and tinkered with the new template. Next, a spent a good chunk of the day creating the spiffy hammer thrown at a TV logo/graphic for my header. (Oh yes, folks I have Paying Gigs were people ask me to do layouts and graphics for them. Who knew? Well you do now.) I chose the hammer and TV graphic because sometimes, the projects that look simple home improvement 1-2-3 on TV (where they have lots of extra off camera helpers and lots more time than an ½ an hour time slot to complete,) sometimes in reality turn into home improvement 4-5-6, WTF?! Now its home improvement 10-11-12! Grrrr-aaack!

I Need Your Help

This blog is still young, only 7 months old in fact. Practically a baby in the blogging world. I have a wide range of readers and I’m not always sure if I’m serving all of you to the best of my blogging ability. So tell me dear readers, what do you like about Condo Blues, what would you want to see more of, and what do you want to see less?

• More/Less posts about decorating and design?


• More/Less posts about my attempts to live sustainably and greenly? (Is greenly even a word? Well, I suppose it is now.)


• More/Less posts Posts about life and the events of The Condo’s occupants?>


• More/Less posts about home improvement projects and/or products?


• More/Less posts about training and living with Blitzkrieg the kick butt Pekingese dog?


• More/Less posts about craft projects and/or products?


• More/Less how to save money posts?


• More/Less humor posts about kitschy, crazy, and sometimes weird products which may or may not even be sustainable that I find in my travels?


• More/Less posts about something I haven’t mentioned?

On the other hand, should hang it all up and just put Blitzkrieg into more Jib Jab videos and post those on my blog.

I’m trying to ask very nicely for your help. I am not trying to sound whiney or low self-esteemy. Live a comment and tell me the good, the bad, and the ugly. If you’re shy and don’t want your opinions made public, you can always email me at condoblues [at] gmail [dot] com. All that I ask is that your criticisms be constructive. Writing, “your blog stinks on ice!” isn’t going to help me change what you don’t like about my blog. It’s OK to disagree as long as you’re civil about it please no name-calling or hair pulling. Thanks.

*My apologies to The Spice Girls.

Drying Fresh Lavender

I have fresh lavender growing in my yard. Every summer, I cut and dry it by wrapping ribbon or strings around a bunch of lavender stalks and hang it upside down in a closet to dry and to protect my clothes from months for the coming year. Lavender is a natural month deterrent.

Sometimes I just put the fresh cut lavender in a dry vase and let it dry
that way.

The best time to cut lavender for drying is when all of the purple buds on the stalk are blooming but before the lavender flower buds die and dry out (generally mid July in zone 5).

After the lavender was dry, I used it to make moth repelling sachets for my closets.

This post is part of Wordless Wednesdays. Although in my case, it’s not entirely wordless.

Christopher Lowell is Back on TV and He’s Working It!

Christopher Lowell is finally back on television. This time his show Work That Room with Christopher Lowell is on the Fine Living Network.

In Work That Room, Christopher Lowell teaches viewers how to decorate a room that pleases both the man and the woman who have to live in it. Easy, right? Just select everything for the room and expect that the man in your life gives you a mumbled approval when you tell him how you’re going to decorate? Well, no, not so much.

What the show boils down to is this: the current trend in home decorating is that men want more of a say in how the women in their lives decorate their homes. However, while the guys may want to have more input, they generally don’t want to be dragged all over town and forced to look at endless parades of color swatches and fabric samples. (Or is that just the way it is in my house?)

With Work That Room Christopher bridges the Mars-Venus decorating gap much better than the show Designing for the Sexes ever did. In that show, the decorator encouraged each spouse to choose an item for the room that they loved and their partner hated. Then the decorator would get the couple to agree on a compromise – it was usually something that neither of them actually liked. Christopher doesn’t do that. He tries to teach his viewers to create "gender neutral" decorating schemes that incorporate some of the things that each partner likes into the same room. For example, if he likes wood, then play up the wood moldings in the room to keep him happy and if she likes flowers, then put small touches of flower print fabrics on accent pillows to make her happy.

I have to say that overall, I like Christopher’s new show and the new direction he’s going with it. This show focuses more on decorating theory than demos. Gone are the staple gun upholstery demos that inspired legions of ladies to raid the partner’s toolbox and try their hands at building home decorating projects. Those fans may be a little disappointed with Work That Room if they are expecting the new show to be just like Christophers old televsion shows. However, they shouldn’t be. (Really folks, it's been ten years since those show aired. Design trends have come and gone. Christopher's professional opportunities have blossomed since then. We've all moved upward and onward in our own special ways. Consider this an intervention, get into the now, new things are fun and good for you too!)

Christopher’s Seven Layers of Design, and You Can Do It! principals are still evident in the rooms he designs for the new show. And honestly, if you still want demos, they are available on the Christopher Lowell Website , on this radio program, and in his books. In fact, Christopher recently published a new book called Christopher Lowell's One-of-a-Kind Decorating Projects and its chock full of decorating project demonstrations. I’ve read the book. It’s great. Seriously go check it out. This isn’t a paid or sponsored post. I really and truly like the show, the book, and Christopher Lowell’s work.

Work That Room with Christopher Lowell airs Sundays at 6pm Eastern time on the Fine Living Network.

Haiku Friday: My First Award!

blog with few feedbacks
you like me, you really do!

Sally Field moment

From my stats, I can tell that Condo Blues has a lot of readers and a few subscribers (thank you folks!) However, I don’t get a lot of feedback on what my readers like or don’t like about my blog. Although increasingly I’m starting to hear this conversation with real life friends,

“Yeah, I know. I read it on your blog.”

That one’s kind of nice. And it’s kind of weird. However, I’m getting used to it.

Then I have a day when I get some feel good feedback like this. Shelley at The Mom with Brownies says,

I want to tag a few of my friends who have been so supportive this past weekend. These bloggers are sweet souls who took the time to reach out to me for no other reason than to support me. They cared that I was emotionally a mess. Most of them do not know me and some have never commented here before. If you want to surround yourself with people who really care about their brothers and sisters these are the bloggers you want to have in your blog roll……They are givers. Thank you friends. :-)/div>

And gives me my very first blog award!

Thank you Shelley! I’m feeling a lot like Sally Field when she won her Oscar. You like me! You really like me!