How to Paint a Metal Exterior Door

Under our unofficial You Broke It, You Fix Rule my repainting of The Condo's scratched and scruffy front door was long overdue.

Did I mention that it was my fault the paint was scratched and scruffy because I used various loops of tape, hangers, and magnets to hang things on the door in the first place? Yeah. My bad.

Fortunately, repainting the front door was a quick no cost project because the builder left us some touch up paint. So while it may or may not be an environmentally friendly outdoor paint (I suspect it isn’t) using the paint you already have on hand is an environmentally friendly practice (saves money too) so that’s what I did.

Here’s how I did it.

How to Repaint a Door

1. Wash the door with a mild soap and water solution. I used diluted Basic H. Dish detergent great works too.

Why Using Cheap Paint Doesn't Save Money

Until I found the perfect set of porch chairs I decided to repaint and revamp a couple of doctor’s office chairs that Husband had from his bachelor days.

Since I hated these chairs with a fiery vengeance and thought they would be better served as firewood, I didn’t want to invest a lot of time or money into their makeover. I bought a couple of cans of cheap spray paint from Dollar General and got to work.

The chairs didn’t look so hateful. After surviving Hurricane Ike, not finding anything the right scale that I liked, and the price being right (free) I decided they could stay.

That sealed my fate. *Enter the Condo Blues whammy.*

Potato Chive Bread Recipe

Now that summer’s officially over (boo!), and everyone’s garden is bursting with extra food that they want to give me (yay!) I have potatoes a plenty. It’s the perfect time to make a loaf of Potato Chive Bread in the bread maker.

Potato Chive Bread Recipe

You will need

1/3 cup shredded potato (a food processor is great for this project)

2 teaspoons margarine or butter (I prefer butter, I think it tastes better in baking)

1 cup milk

A New Use for Old Nail Polish

I ran over a broken glass bottle and got a flat tire on my bike. I also got a major workout because I had to push my bike 3 miles home instead of riding it. That’s the “Blues” part of Condo Blues in case you’re just joining us, *sniff*.

I have no idea how to change a bike tire, especially the back tire because it requires taking off the chain assembly. The gears and chain were a little wonky and I was putting off having someone look at it anyway.

Time to call in a pro.

I sucked it up and took my bike to a Serious Cyclist Shop that did repairs. The type of store that sells real bikes to Lance Armstrong types and expensive touring bikes (no gears – WTHeck? We have hills) to frou-frou moms who ride in very flat neighborhoods (not mine.) Husband and I fully expected to be soaked for the repair and the tire, possibly costing more than my bike.

Did I mention that my bike is a Toys R Us special?

Made for kids?

Yes I’m that short. I have to ride a kid’s bike. *sigh*

Grow Flowers in Old Lawn Chairs

Here’s a seriously cute creative reuse project for those old 50’s style lawn chairs – turn them into flower pots!

I was be bopping along one of my favorite shopping haunts and found these little beauties outside a shop as an art piece.

They look a lot nicer than my mushroom patio chairs too.

Looks easy enough to duplicate. Find some ugly 50’s style lawn chairs, paint them a wild color (I’m digging the hot pink), stuff them full of dirt (tricky I suspect), and plant a bunch of succulents or any other type of water-retaining plant. (I suspect cactus might look tad inhospitable. Ouch!)

Peach and Rum Smoothie Recipe

I came back from the farm market with a big bunch of fresh peaches. It’s warm outside and I’m in a festive mood – peachy in fact – why not kick back on the front porch with a homemade peach smoothie?

Peach and Rum Smoothie Recipe

8 Ways to Reduce Household Trash

As an experiment, I saved all my plastic trash for one week and posted it Condo Blues and later on Fake Plastic Fish: Show Us Your (Plastic) Trash.

These were the items I threw away in the trash. There were other items in my tally that I recycled or found a reuse for.

Katidids commented:

"I can't get over how little trash you have! We have a huge bag a day! Part of it is cleaning stuff out. I free cycle & goodwill a lot but 20ys,  4 kids who were pack rats... {snip}
Boy, you REALLY opened my eyes..I would hate to show all our trash...every time I start to feel like we are doing the right thing...pop that balloon, no no I mean dog poop bag"

I felt bad because I didn't write the original post to sound like a Greenzilla about trash and recycling. I certainly didn’t get this zero waste, low waste way overnight. To be honest, there are times when the garbage can has more in it than I like or the recycling bin overflows. 

4 BPA Free Water Bottle Alternatives to Sigg

Last week I logged onto the 3 Green Angels #ecowed back to school Twitter party. The subject of BPA free water bottles came up. So did Sigg’s announcement that the linings of their aluminum reusable water bottles made before August 2008 have a lining that contains bisphenol A (BPA). There were a lot of upset green moms who own Sigg water bottles that evening.

Now it’s getting worse.

So what’s the big deal?

Aluminum bottles and cans must be coated with some sort of epoxy liner in order to be food safe. Some of these liners can contain BPA.

Prior to August 2009 (as in just a few weeks ago) when customers have asked Sigg if the liners in their aluminum water bottles contained BPA, Sigg danced around the issue saying that they couldn’t give specifics because their liner formula is top secret and proprietary. What Sigg would say is that their pre-August 2008 Sigg bottle liners were tested by a third party and did not leach BPA. To make current matters worse, according to The Daily Green , “It's been known for a while now that SIGG goes after any consumer group (EWG, OCA etc.) that infers their "proprietary" liner content contains BPA.“

Hmmm…so I guess that means the liners are OK, right? Wrong.

Once Sigg started producing and marketing water bottles using the new EcoCare BPA free liner in August 2008, their CEO wrote in a letter on the Sigg Website dated August 2009,“Prior to its transition, SIGG utilized a water-based epoxy liner which contained a trace amount of BPA.”

Trace amount doesn’t sound like much. It could be a little, it could be way too much. We don’t know. The old liner formula is proprietary and Sigg said they can’t reveal its contents, remember?

If you are one of those people who bought an expensive Sigg bottle thinking that since Sigg assured you, their customer, that their bottles have a leach free liner and led you to believe that it has a BPA free water bottle; I can see why Sigg customers might be feeling a little deceived right now. Or maybe you’re only feeling a trace amount of deception? Especially when it’s still possible to purchase a new Sigg bottle with the old liner.

Photo courtesy of Sigg

4 BPA Free Water Bottle Alternatives

If you want to avoid this whole mess altogether – what do you do? Are there any BPA free alternatives out there? Yes there are, try these:

1. Water glass. A glass works just as well as a water bottle if you’re hanging out at home or working at a desk in an office. In fact, I have one right now on my desk, as I type.

2. Stainless Steel water bottle. Stainless steel water bottles do not need a liner. Double check the label or tag on the bottle to verify that the bottle is made from stainless steel before you buy it. Personally this is what I use to avoid dealing with aluminum bottles and their liners.

3. BPA free plastic water bottle. Again, don’t assume that since it’s a new plastic bottle for sale that it doesn’t contain BPA. Check that the label specifically says that the plastic is BPA free or look for a recycling symbol on the bottle. The safer BPA free choices for food and beverages are #2 HDPE (high density polyethylene) and #5 PP (polypropylene.) I also use BPA free plastic water bottles for sports when appropriate, for example when I go cycling.

4. Glass water bottle. You can buy a reusable glass water bottle or do it on the cheap by washing out and reusing a glass juice bottle with a screw on cap. Being a klutz I balked at this idea until I realized how many glass jars and bottles I already use and drink out of regularly (jelly, salsa, juice, beer, wine, etc.) without breakage or incident.

Do you use a reusable aluminum water bottle? What do you think of the Sigg liner controversy? What do you think should Sigg do to win back these dissatisfied customers?

How to Make Nontoxic Blowing Bubble Mix

As The World’s Most Fabulous Aunt (trademark pending) I like to do fun things with my nieces and nephews. Preferably in a way that won’t kill them. Or maim them. Because hoo-boy! Parents can get testy when you return their kid to them with a chunk missing.

Not that I would know anything about that.

When I have kid visitors, I like to have something fun for them to do. One way I keep the older kids from gluing their faces to the hand held video games they bring with them (a little rude, yo) and keep the younger ones from climbing up my walls (taking full advantage of their normally eagle eyed parents being distracted by visiting and chatting with say, me) is to make and blow bubbles! Of course this being The Condo I like to do it green and on the cheap if I can help it. Here’s how.

Make and Blow Green Bubbles!

You will need:

How to Cook Edamame (Soybeans)

“Mom and Dad said their soybeans are ready and we can have some if we want,” Husband said.

“Why in the world would we want soybeans?” I said, thinking of all the things we buy that are made from soybeans like soy foam insulation (hey, I’m still tinkering with sealing air leaks in The Condo) and not thinking about actually cooking and eating the soybeans, like, well, beans. Ironic, because we regularly eat a large variety of beans.

Husband gives me an exasperated look, “Soybeans are edamame Lisa!”

Oh. I didn’t know that.

Did I ever mention that edamame are one of my favorite snacks and something I introduced Husband to early in our relationship?

I feel stupid. Oops.

Needless to say, I made it a point to steal as many soybeans from my in-law’s garden as possible visit my adoring in-laws. Actually the adoring part is true. They are lovely people. And my father in-law buys me power tools for Christmas. That puts them at the top of Santa’s Nice list. No lie.

So now I have a big bunch of fresh edamame – how do I cook them?

How to Cook Fresh Edamame (Soybeans)

Craftsman Hammerhead Auto-Hammer Review

Craftsman gave me their NEXTEC Hammerhead Cordless Auto-Hammer to review. It is a battery operated nailer that doesn’t need a hose or compressor, unlike a large pneumatic nail gun. It’s also a much lighter weight than a pneumatic nail gun – something that this short woman appreciates. It quickly and powerfully drives a variety of nail sizes.

My test: I took the Auto-Hammer to a family reunion to a give it a thorough test run in case the party got a little slow and to get numerous opinions on it. Needless to say, if you want to get cozy with some of your husband’s older male relatives that you really don’t know very well and are a little old fashioned about women doing DIY projects, bring a new power tool to test at a family gathering. Just a helpful hint from me to you.

We had a bunch of different size nails and nailed some scrap boards together. We compared the performance of the Hammerhead Auto-Hammer to a traditional claw hammer.

The results: The Auto-Hammer did what it said – it hammers nails. Some of the older men in my posse, test group, as well as myself liked that the Hammerhead did it with minimal effort on the user’s part. I’m short, and sometimes I don’t have the extra oomph needed to start a nail without bending it while I’m trying to drive it into a wall. Not so, with the Hammerhead. A squeeze a the trigger and a little downward pressure is all it took to drive a large nail into a couple of two by fours. Even my nephew Mr. J(age7) and his girly girl sister Miss H(age 6) both used it to easily nail thick boards together without incident (they were surrounded by adults and all safety precautions were taken.) I asked Mr.J7 what he thought of the Hammerhead Auto-Hammer and he said, “Cool. You could build a doghouse real quick with that.” Miss H6 agreed and with that picked up her stuffed unicorn with the fuzzy purple mane and scampered off to play.

Where the Auto-Hammer really impressed my audience was at removing nails. Sure, the Auto-Hammer kit comes with a small (and very cute) pry bar, if you need to pull a nail out a wall BUT if you’re in a situation where you can flip the boards over you use the Auto-Hammer to drive the nails out of the backside of a board it did it much more easily than trying to remove them with the claw part of a conventional hammer. This isn’t the intended purpose of the Auto-Hammer (please use caution doing so) but every single man in my party was duly impressed and wanted to give that a try. Most said that application alone would make them consider buying the Auto-Hammer despite the $100 price tag.

Pros

1. The magnet in the head holds nails up to 7/16-in wide. Great for those times when you wish you had three hands to hold the nail, steady the wood, and whack the nail on the head.


2. The magnet in the head makes for very little chance of smacking your fingers with the hammerhead or dropping a nail before hammering it.


3. Great for those tight areas where you can’t fully swing a claw hammer or don’t have the strength to fully drive a nail into a thick pieces of wood.


4. Great for those jobs that are in between using a claw hammer and a pneumatic nail gun.


5. Easy to use. I really hate to use the cliché “so easy a kid can use it” but I think my test demonstrated that with adult supervision, a young person can safely and successfully use this tool the first time out.


6. Best when using larger nails than smaller size nails. Small nails tended to bend, much like when using a claw hammer but easily remedied if you hold the nail to the board with a pair of needle nose pliers, something I also do when using a conventional claw hammer.


7. Much easier to use to start hammering a nail into hardwoods than with a conventional hammer!

Cons

1. The nail sleeve that covers up the impact mechanism and retracts during use can leave divot marks on the wood if you aren’t careful.


2. Not powerful enough to replace a pneumatic nail gun in order to use for heavy professional construction work (think building a people sized house) but it’s not intended to do so. It’s great for smaller projects, like say, the dog house my nephew suggested or hanging peg board on one of the walls of my garage, etc.


3. The battery is a little hard to push into the charger. It requires a good shove to fully seat the battery onto the prongs in the charger in order to fully charge the battery. If the battery isn’t fully seated it won’t charge properly and you’ll be very disappointed with the results (obviously.)

Overall I like the Craftsmen Hammerhead Cordless Auto-Hammer. I think Craftsman got this one right because it is a power tool that appeals to both women and men for a variety of reasons. It’s a nice addition to my toolbox and if the men in my group had their way, I’d give up the Auto-Hammer and it would be a nice addition to their toolboxes. Not likely. I’m keeping the one I tested. However, I’m not ruling out buying one for those men on my gift list who suggested that I store it in their garages instead of my own.

Wine Box Wall Treatment

While I was in Chicago, met up with some of the other members of the Green Moms Carnival and went out to eat at an Italian restaurant. After we were seated at our table, I looked at the focal wall in the restaurant – it was covered in the fronts of wine boxes – genius!

I think this wall treatment would work in a dining room or bar area in a home as a focal wall.

Fortunately I was eating with a bunch of fellow bloggers and good friends who thought nothing of me whipping out my camera and taking a few photos of this creative reuse wall treatment in public.

My dinner companions. Left to right ; Micaela of Mindful Momma, Maryanne of Not Quite Crunchy Parent, Karen of The Best of Mother Earth, Jennifer of The Smart Mama, Beth of Fake Plastic Fish, Me! Lisa of Condo Blues, Lynn of Organic Mania

Public photo snapping in inopportune times is quickly becoming a blogger occupational hazard – especially when I want to document a great recycled art project like this.

What do you think?

This post is part of Trash to Treasure Tuesday.

10 Ways for College Students to Go Green on the Cheap

I learned a lot of my own green and thrifty ways during college, mostly due to thrift because I was responsible for paying my way through college. I quickly learned that by changing habits and reusing things I could save money in order to pay for the more expensive items in my budget: rent, books, tuition, and food, while still reducing waste.

That’s why I try to present options for green living and money saving tips. I’ve been doing the green and simple living thing long before it was fashionable and before many environmentally friendly items were available or affordable for the average working adult, let alone the average starving college student.

Here’s a list of 10 tips for college students who want to go green and save money doing it.

Christmas Shopping Tips that Save Time and Money

Here’s a big tip to help you save money this Christmas. Start your holiday shopping now. Early. Way early. July early even.

Don’t go hating. At first, I thought this was nutty too. And of course I mocked the friend who told me that he finished his Christmas shopping in September because it seemed waaaaaay too early to think about such things.

That was about the time that Husband and I were getting serious in the relationship department. Well, we’re not usually serious (ever!) so let’s be more truthful and say we were moving from the boyfriend-girlfriend stage into this could be THE ONE stage.

Awwwwww.

That meant that my Christmas shopping list doubled because Husband’s family was added to my own list. That’s a lot more people than I was used to shopping for. And it's grown. After many years of marriage, I now have 35 people on my gift list and that’s just immediate family and their offspring. So yeah, I have incentive to shop early and year round for all of my holiday gifts.

Especially since Husband hates to shop and I end up doing most of it.

I Made a Polka Dot Buttercup Bag!

I wanted a new summer purse. Something cute and fun because hey, it’s summer! I tend not to go vintage with purses because when I’m done with them they are so worn out they are completely trashed. I figure others may be the same way. This is another reason why I wanted a new summer purse – my old one served me for several summers before recently giving up the ghost.

Of course me being me, whenever I have cash in hand and start shopping whether it be online or in a brick and mortar store I can’t find anything I like.

It. Never. Fails.

Consequently, whenever I’m pressed for time, or not ready to lay out cash the perfect item that’s been on my wish list for a very long time will practically throw itself at me from across the store, “Take me home! I’m perfect! I should be yours! And I’m on sale!”

Does that happen to you?

I’m also fairly picky about my purses. Not too big, sort of small, but not itty bitty. And fun. Did I mention I wanted fun? And cute. It must be cute. But not too cutesy because I’m short and too cutesy makes me look like I’m 6 years old.

6 Bottled Water Alternatives

Bottled water is a greenies worst nightmare. The plastic bottles take a lot of energy and resources to make and the bottles aren't always recycled. Especially in areas that don’t have municipal recycling programs.

That goes double for soda, which can contain artificial sweeteners and high fructose corn syrup.

If you buy water that’s packaged in an aluminum can or glass bottle or are diligent about recycling or find a creative reuse for that plastic bottle you’re good, right? Well, maybe not because the problems don’t stop with the packaging.

A recent government report found that the Food & Drug Administration's (FDA) rules for bottled water are less strict than the Environment Protection Agency's (EPA) strict rules for municipal water (tap water.) Bottle water companies aren’t required to disclose to the public what is in the water they are selling or where they get it, which more often than not is the bottling plant's local tap water. That gives me cause for concern.

Fortunately there are alternatives to bottled water (or should I call it much more expensive tap water?) These methods will save you money too.

1. Water glass – This one’s simple and cheap, yet, nobody mentions it as an option. Grab a glass from the cupboard and fill it up with water. I often bring a glass from home for the office and use that to drink water at my desk. When the glass gets dirty, I wash it out in the sink at work or at home.

2. Pitcher of refrigerator water – Prefer your water ice cold? I do. I fill up a container with tap water and put it in the refrigerator. Here’s an example of the containers I use.

A #5 Rubbermaid drink container (plastic number #2 and #5 are the safer plastics that don’t leach into your food), a glass Williams Sonoma pitcher, and a Brita water pitcher (which I use without the filter because I got lazy about changing it.)

3. Filter it yourself – I’ll admit that there are places where city water may be tested and deemed safe to drink but tastes a little odd, has scale, or gives you uh, gastric distress (hi well water my tummy’s talking to you.) If thats the case, filter it yourself. On the lower end of the coast scale (or if you rent) there are pitchers and water bottles with built in water filters (like my Brita pitcher.) At the upper end of the cost scale is installing a whole house water purification system. Personally my city water tastes fine without filtering, (as always, your mileage may vary) so I don’t have much personal experience with choosing which water filter works best for which situation, but this water filter comparison chart is a pretty good place to start.

4. Reusable water bottles – I’ll admit that bottled water is convenient. Especially when I’m out and about or have a couple of thirsty kids around who tend to knock over or drop glasses full water. When I have kid visitors I fill up a bunch of water bottles and put them in the refrigerator. Then the kiddoes can easily grab a cold one when they want it. I’m getting better about bringing my own water bottle to outdoor events thanks to the economy. I find that if I don’t have to buy a beverage; I have a few extra dollars in my pocket to squander on the BIG funnel cake! As you can see in the photo, we have quite a collection of water bottles – even Blitzkrieg has his own water bottle with a dog dish attached!

Like most things Condo, some of our bottles are a little pricey like the BPA-free KOR one (I reviewed the KOR one here ) and stainless steel Earthlust bottle (I reviewed Earthlust here.) Some are not, like the white freebie #2 plastic water bottle Husband got in a race pack. We keep it because it’s #2 plastic and it’s much more practical to use in the water bottle carrier on our bikes.

Don’t think that all swanky stainless steel/BPA-free reusable water bottles are out of your price range. Market demand means the prices are coming down. I recently saw stainless steel reusable water bottle for sale at CVS for $3.99.

5. Big water jug/cooler for groups – When Husband and I are picnicking, traveling, or with a group we use this large water jug made of #5 plastic.

This works well for our family of 3. Bigger families may want to consider the large drink coolers with the spout on the bottom. There are glass and metal options available if you look around a bit. Sure, the large coolers aren’t cheap (OK, mine was fairly cheap. It was an Big Lots special because Rubbermaid discontinued it) but once you make the one time purchase, it will pay for itself in the amount of money you save because you don’t have to keep buying expensive bottled drinks for events.

6. Make your own sparkling water - Husband likes fizzy water. It’s one of the main ingredients of his homemade Orangina. We’ve given it up because of the bottle waste (sad, I know.) Apparently there are ways that you can make your own carbonated water from tap water with gadgets like the Soda Stream system. I haven’t personally tried one, but it interests me and it’s something that’s on my To Investigate Further list. The Soda Stream might solve our fizzy bottled water problem. It might also help us to reduce soda bottle waste and cost when we have guests because it allows you to make your soda too. If anyone’s tried one please me know your thoughts!

I’d be a total hypocrite if I said that I never drink bottled water because, on occasion, I have. On those rare occasions when I can’t bring or refill my own reusable water bottle from home and don’t want to drink soda (pretty much annually after doing Race for the Cure.) That makes the fact that the FDA doesn't require full disclosure of bottled water even more disturbing. However, by using the 6 methods above I’m able to make plastic bottle drinks a rare occasion.

However, I’m also proud to say, that 99% of the time, I’m a tap water gal. What about you?


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Make Business Cards from Wallpaper Samples

I needed some business cards to promote Condo Blues at BlogHer.

I opened up Photoshop and stared a hole through that stupid blinking cursor on my computer screen. Nothing I came up with said creative reuse, decorating, DIY, crafty things, clever things, let alone green things. I just wasn’t feeling it.

I HATE picky clients.

Especially when they are me.

I considered writing all of my blog information onto post-it notes and sticking them all over Blitzkrieg because he’s the real rock star of this blog, but Blitzkrieg wasn’t very interested in helping me promote Condo Blues at BlogHer. He was much more interested in the prospect of getting boozy at the cocktail parties in the evening. That meant we had to have a little sit down (again!) and discuss how alcohol is not good for dogs (seriously) and that the legal drinking age is counted in chronological years not dog years which means he’s too young to drink booze.

“Fine! Don’t take me to meet my public! Post-It notes mat my fur anyway! Harrumph!”

Hmmmm. Think. Think. Think.

Martini Tote Bag Revamp

I got a freebie tote bag with a mesh water bottle pocket at The Pet Expo. This bag would be perfect for carrying around town if it didn’t have a big ol’ logo on it.

I contimplated sewing some sort of decorative patch like thing over the logo. The Queen left the following comment on that post:

"You totally inspired me to cover up the fugly logos on my shopping bags. I was always having to explain to cashiers that no, I'm not a librarian, I just went to a book conference, etc. I did NOT have a giant needle punch kit laying around (sad), but I do have a sewing machine and a giant box of scraps! DH thought I had gone nuts, and I did. In good way. Really. I took all my giant fugly-logoes totes and put pretty pretty pockets on them. Yay, place to put coupons and no more logos. Thanks for the idea."

How to use a Jackhammer

When we last visited our intrepid gardeners (that would be Husband and I) they wanted to build a raised garden bed, a relatively simple project. Looks like we pissed off the gardening gods (again) because I found an eight inch slab of concrete growing in my flower beds.

We needed to break up the concrete and remove it before we could build our raised garden bed.

The ribbon of concrete in our flower bed was a result of a sloppy over pour when the builders made the porch. Husband tried using a 3 pound min sledge hammer and a chisel to break up the concrete. He got quite a bit of concrete out of our beds, but further on he saw that the narrow ribbon of concrete was also at least eight inches deep.

A Baby Food Jar Chandelier?

I’m always on the lookout for ideas and ways to reuse empty baby food jars. Let me tell you I have one of the most organized Condos around thanks to baby food jars!

“Um, Lisa,” you say, “We know the economy is bad and we’re all trying to save money, but come on…”

No. No. no. It’s not me, who’s eating baby food, it’s Blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg has to take allergy medication. Like most dogs, he won’t take a plain pill, so I smoother it in carrot baby food and he devours it. Baby food* has less calories than peanut butter or squeeze cheese and has our vet’s blessing because nobody likes a porky Peke. Nobody.

Come summer, when Blitzkrieg’s seasonal allergies kick in I’m going to be swimming in empty baby food jars.

I’m running out of ways to use the jars so into the recycling bin they may go. That is until I saw this ingenious baby food jar chandelier in Natural Home Magazine . Who knew a couple of repurposed barrel hoops, chain, wire and baby food jars could look so good?

Photo courtesy of Natural Home Magazine.

I think it would look stunning hanging over an outdoor dining table.

Do you have any tips on how to reuse empty baby food jars?

*I’m not a veterinarian nor do I play one on TV. Not all vegetables are safe for dogs to eat. Check with your vet first before giving people food to your dog.

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For more Trash to Treasure projects check out Reinvented.

What Can You Do with Mint?

I grow mint in a pot on my patio and as the saying goes, you never grow just a little mint – it grows like a weed and quickly turns into a lot of mint.

Needless to say, my one little mint plant as turned into a boatload of mint! So far I’ve used mint to make:

• Hot tea


• Mint iced tea

• Mint sugar scrub


• Yogurt and mint bread


• Mojitos

I’m running out of ideas. I’m experiencing mint overload! What can I do with so much mint? I don’t want to waste it; I want to find a use for it. Help!

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This is Condo Blues’ submission for the July Green Moms Carnival where our topic is Food Matters confessions. The Carnival will be held at Eco Village Musings. Please check it out after Wednesday, July 13th!

Show Us Your Trash! Plastic Challenge

I don’t try to avoid plastic like my friend and fellow Green Carnival Mom Fake Plastic Fish, but I do try to limit the amount I use. I try to avoid sending plastic along with everything else that comes into The Condo to the landfill as much as possible. Recently Beth issued a challenge to collect all of my plastic waste for one week. I accepted.

It’s time to put up or shut up. Here are my results.

Personal description: My husband and I live in Central Ohio.

1. List of Recyclable Items:

• 1 milk gallon jug, #2 plastic. My city recycles #1 – #7 plastics.
• 1 medicine bottle, #1 plastic.
• 3 plastic caps. From the milk, medicine, and a glass bottle of organic balsamic vinaigrette. The plastic caps are recycled through Aveda’s cap recycling program.
  

2. List of Non-recyclable Items
I split this category into two sub categories: 2b Reuse, because sometimes I buy things just so I can reuse the container and 2a Toss.

2a. Toss

• 1 zip top bag of 4 flounder filets. (Too stiff for reusing to clean up after the dog. Too bad because it has zip top)
• 2 plastic wrappers that held 1 frozen salmon fillet each.
• 1 Plastic wrapper from a container of organic mushrooms.
• 1 wrapper from ground turkey.
• 3 silver wrappers from my dog’s seasonal allergy medication. He gets half a pill a day.
• 8 silver wrappers from my seasonal allergy medication. Hey, look, the allergy pill wrappers make a happy face! That’s because I didn’t have enough trash to spell out “Hi Beth!”

2b. Reuse

• 1 plastic container from the organic mushrooms. It’s #2 and can be recycled. I’m reusing it in my craft room to store blog business cards that I’m making from reclaimed materials.
• 1 bag of frozen broccoli. Bag will be reused for pet waste pickup.
• 1 bag of dried great northern beans. Bag will be reused for pet waste pickup.
• 1 advertising bag. Bag will be reused to pick up pet waste. We get these weekly on our doorstep no matter what.

We have pooper scooper laws here. I have a dog. I have to have something to deal with this issue. This leads me to an extra category…

2c. Reuse 2 (Doggie Doo)

When we have an empty plastic bag, I put it away for doggie reuse. Here’s an example of the other types of bags we use/reuse to pickup Blitzkrieg’s daily payloads.

• The black bag is a biodegradable pet waste bag I purchased.
• A zip top bag from a gift of dried hot peppers.
• A clear bag that was part of the packaging of something we purchased. (I can’t remember what) – Bio is printed on the bag because they say that the bag is a corn based plastic and biodegradable.
• A blue plastic grocery bag. I use reusable shopping totes for groceries. In my mom’s city she has to put her recycling in a blue plastic bag. Many of the stores in her area switched to blue colored shopping bags so their customers can reuse them for recycling. My mom gives me some of her bag stash from time to time since I need bags for Blitzkrieg. Sometimes I use these bags for household trash since my city requires me to bag that too. It takes us about a month to fill a plastic grocery bag with trash.

3. Total number of items

• Recycle – 5
• Toss - 17
• Reuse – 4
• Reuse 2 (Doggie Doo) – 3

Grand total of plastic items - 30

4. Analysis. Answer the following questions as best as you can.

What items could I easily replace with plastic-free or less plastic alternatives?

• Organic mushrooms – During the summer we buy fresh vegetables at the farm market as much as we can. However we have snow that means that most of our winter vegetables are fresh nonlocal vegetables from the grocery store.

What items would I be willing to give up if a plastic-free alternative doesn't exist?

• 2 plastic wrappers that held 1 frozen salmon fillet each – I should give up the salmon because it is the only type of fish we buy that comes in shrink wrapped plastic in another plastic bag. But I really, really, really like salmon. We don’t try to eat it very often though.

How many of these items are from "convenience" foods that could be made from scratch with less packaging but might take more time to prepare?

• Organic balsamic vinaigrette. We bought this bottle for a dinner party and finished it this week by using it as a chicken marinade (NOM!)
• Frozen broccoli. We keep a small stash of frozen vegetables in the freezer for quick meals or when we run out of fresh.

What items are essential and seem to have no plastic-free alternative?

• Milk. As a runner my husband drinks A LOT of milk. I need to buy it by the gallon which comes in plastic. No creative reuse for the jug in my tally, maybe it will come back to me someday as a free reusable shopping tote?
• Allergy Medication. I switched both Blitzkrieg and I from prescription medication that comes in recyclable bottles to an over the counter medication that generates some waste (the box is recyclable) due to price, amount of medication, and to cut down on the number of follow visits to the doctor and vet to refill the prescriptions.
• Pet Waste. I looked into a pet waste composting system but they won’t work with our clay soil. Paper bags didn’t work very well either. I asked Blitzkrieg if he’d stop pooing but he gave me a look that said, “I’ll stop when you stop.”
• Frozen fish. The plastic free fresh fish are sometimes flown in, which tastes better and has less packaging but use many more resources and is insanely expensive. Frozen and economical win – there’s a recession on you know?
• Meat. This is how my store sells ground turkey. At least this has less packaging than the plastic wrapped ground meat on a tray method, less expensive too. Our health department is very strict about not letting customers use their own containers for meat.
• Beans. Dry beans come in plastic bags. When I buy them at Meier’s bulk bins, there’s usually drama when weighing the items at the cash register even when I use their plastic bags. I don’t dare use cloth bulk bin bags at Meijer.

What lifestyle change(s) might be necessary to reduce my plastic consumption?

• Stop buying bulk items would cut down on plastic but would significantly increase the amount of our overall recycling/waste in my bin. Often the plastic bottle version is a large size that allows me to generate less household waste or is the only one available unless I want to zig zag all over the city buying one plastic free item here and there. That wastes time, energy, and gasoline (which are how we end up with the raw material to make all those plastics in the first place.) In essance I'm trading one type of recyclable item for another. Buying in bulk also helps us save money so we can easily afford more expensive items like Blitzkrieg’s kibble that’s made with USA sourced human grade ingredients.
• Grow more food. We are working on raised beds in the front yard that can accommodate more herbs and maybe a few vegetables tucked in amongst the flowers in next year’s front garden. Fortunately my in-laws offered to grow extra vegetables for us in their garden including eggplant, which they don’t even like! Since they offered to grow extra fresh food for us, we opted not to buy half a CSA share this year.

What one plastic item am I willing to give up or replace this week?

• Soda in plastic bottles. I’m looking for some creative and affordable alternatives to pop in plastic bottles. I’d serve my guests more Ohio made wine and beer in glass bottles but every parent I know and the law frowns upon serving such items to minors. Crazy, no?
  

What other conclusions, if any, can I draw?

I’m pretty selective about what I buy and I think our experiment shows that because our plastic waste is the only trash our household generated for the week. The rest was composted or recycled. We are very lucky to be able to recycle #1 - #7 plastic. We take full advantage of this service especially in situations when the price of the plastic free version of something is significantly more expensive or is of a much smaller size, which would mean that more containers would go into our recycling bin more often. Since we have to take our recycling to a city dumpster instead of easily wheeling it the curb for pickup we are just as conscious about the number of items that go in our recycling bin whether they are plastic, glass, metal, or paper as we are our city trash bin.

Blitzkrieg offers us a way to get an extra reuse out of the plastic bags that we can’t recycle. It’s not perfect, or ideal, because we are still throwing the bags away after one reuse but we’re trying to make the best out of the situation we’re given.

Overall, I think the amount of plastic that we generated was small. Although there's always room for improvement. I was surprised how quickly those allergy pill wrappers add up!

Stylish DIY Dog Toy Storage

I have a dog. He has toys. He likes to help me decorate The Condo by artfully placing his toys all over the living room and our bedroom. Blitzkrieg clearly needed a toy box.

Most dog toy boxes have lids. I didn’t want that because I wanted something that would corral Blitzkrieg’s dog toys in one spot (in theory) but that he would be able to access at any time he wanted to play with them. At the time we were still trying to teach Blitzkrieg what toys where, how to play with them, and that in this house; you won’t get smacked around for pulling your dog toys out of your toy box and playing with them. In fact, I was trying to encourage Blitzkrieg to find a toy and chew on that instead of stress chewing on himself.

Oh, and if the toy box could be somewhat stylish that would be nice too.

I mentioned this to another dog owning friend and thought that a wicker basket might do the trick. She said that’s what she used until her dog ate the basket. Apparently there are a lot of dogs that find wicker tasty.

I crossed that option off of my list.

I found a large brass bowl at Target. It was on clearance and it was a little beat up but it would hold a few toys in our bedroom. Hoping for a better solution, I decided not to buy it. You know, bass = 80’s = ugh.

5 Ways to Whiten Clothes Without Chlorine Bleach

I like bright white laundry but I don’t like to use chlorine bleach. Chlorine bleach has some nasty chemicals in it and if you’re not careful you could ruin your clothes (looks pointedly at Husband who bought a cleaner that contained bleach unbeknownced to me until it ruined the pants I was wearing at the time I was using it.)

Fortunately there are several ways to keep your white’s white without using toxic bleach.

How to Save Money and Make Things Last – Date It!

The Condo Blues Law of Oops dictates that I will run out of something only when I’m in the middle of using it to do something like cleaning, baking, or in a project.

Just so I won’t run out of something at a bad time I used to think that if it’s something we use daily like shampoo or toothpaste or cleaner then I should just buy it every time it goes on sale to save money. Then I’d have a backup on hand when we run out. In theory that should work just fine.

Problem was that I still seemed to run out of stuff like brown sugar in mid-cupcake baking frenzy while on the other hand I constantly had at least four extra tubes of toothpaste in the linen closet on any given day of the year. There were times when I had so many extra tubes of toothpaste laying around that I considered giving them out as party favors to guests, “Hi how ya doin'? Want something to drink? Snacks are on the dining room table, and oh hey - here you go - have a tube of toothpaste as a parting gift!”

Husband wisely vetoed my bizarre attempts at generosity.

To get a handle on how long stuff lasted, or not, I decided to write the date I opened it on the label of consumable items like toothpaste, cleaners, olive oil, etc. You may think that’s incredibly anal retentive of me, because, I admit it, it is.

But you know what? Well my little born on date experiment also made me realize a few things. Our happy little family of 2 didn’t go through nearly as many bottles, tubes and cans of cleaners, condiments, and health and beauty aids as I thought. For example, we only use about 2 tubes of toothpaste a year even though we brush our teeth a lot.

I found that I really didn’t need to buy that extra bottle of whatever every time it went on sale if I already had a backup item in the pantry or utility room. That saves me money, cuts down on waste, and gives me a little extra storage room around The Condo!

Husband no longer has to worry about me foisting pantry extras at guests in the guise of parting gifts either.

How long do things last at your house? What are your money saving shopping tips?

This post is part of Works for Me Wednesday.

Make a Garden Border Out of Old Bricks!

The arrangement goes that the Homeowner’s Association is responsible for mowing our lawns and common areas but we Condo owners are responsible for the maintaining the flowerbeds in front of our homes, including the edging. Well, I don’t think someone gave the new lawn service guys that memo because shortly after they started taking care of our neighborhood, they put in trench edging in everyone’s flowerbeds, much to our dismay.

Trench edging is cheap, but it doesn’t keep mulch from sliding out of a flower bed. Even worse, since we have clay soil that doesn’t drain, every time it rains the trench turns into the perfect mosquito nursery.

This is my neighbor’s yard after a rainstorm. They are very nice people and don't deserve such crappy edging.

Needless to say, most of my neighbors dealt with the trench edging by replacing it with their own garden edging.

What are Your Favorite Power Tools for Women?

I like to do DIY jobs. I hate nagging Husband to do my projects – I think that’s mean (no nagging also helps preserve marital harmony.) I don’t believe in a Honey Do List. In my world it’s a Do It Yourself Honey! List.

One of my long term goals is to set up a little workshop in my garage. Operative word Lisa’s Workshop. Where I have a space to fix things or more accurately, an out of the way place to stick stuff that I need to fix or want to build until I find the time to get around to it. Just like my father and his father before me.

I’m in the market for tools. Unfortunately most tools made for women or a woman’s workshop are along these lines.

The biggest problem I find with power tools that are designed for women is that that just plain suck.

Why is it that most tool companies think that all women want are tiny tools in pretty colors? Sure, those cutesy tools may sell but what the tool companies don’t realize is that when those itty bitty cheap pink tools eventually break, and they will, the woman is going to march into the store and replace them with a real grown up version of the tool in question – the type of tool the industry typically thinks of as a “guy” tool like this.

This isn’t a super duper powerful hammer drill that will drill through concrete (unless that’s your need - then have a ball), but it’s more than adequate for the typical handy guy or handy gal who needs a good screw gun or to build something simple like a toy box for their kid. Think a mom (or awesome Aunt) could use that lavender “woman’s drill” to build a simple wooden toy box or turn a trash can into a compost bin? Me neither.

I wish tool companies had opportunities for women DIYers and bloggers to be consultants just like household and appliance companies do because I’d love to test and try out tools and tell them (and you my fabulous readers men and women alike) what really works and what doesn’t. *sigh* but a girl can dream…

Since that’s not reality, I’m going to spill my guts here. Hey tool companies listen up!

Here’s What Real Women Want in Power Tools:

Quality – I want a tool that will last. More often than not the cheaply made, lightweight women’s tools break too easily during routine tasks. That’s dangerous. I snapped the head off of a diminutive “girl” claw hammer when I tried to use the claw end to remove a nail from a wall and rehang a picture - a simple and straightforward task. The force of the hammerhead breaking knocked me on my butt. Fortunately for me, I wasn’t on a stepstool at the time because I could have been injured. I grabbed a grown up “boy” hammer from the toolbox and I was able to remove the nail without breaking the claw or snapping the head off of the hammer.

Weight – I’m 4’11 and I’d like to use a tool that’s physically light enough for me to handle without forsaking the power needed to do the job. Sure I’ll suck it up and heft a heavy tool if the jobs requires. I’ve done it. But if you can design a tool that allows me to work just as effectively as or more so than my current heavy tools not only will I buy it but I’ll shout about it from rooftops! I’ll also buy one for every guy I know.

Scale and Grip - Not every DIYer is a big burly dude with massive man hands. Husband is a lean long distance runner and is also on the short side. A tool that’s scaled for to a shorter person will work for both of us as long as you don’t skimp on the quality. Something that allows me to set the grip of the tool for my small hands but would also allow me to switch the grip so that a person like my Dad with his bigger guy hands could also use the same tool when we work on a project together would be awesome.

Better Ergonomics – This is what I think of when I say “tools made for women.” Tool companies I know you put a lot of research and development dollars into studying the body mechanics and how to redesign tools so that customers can use more efficiently. A good example of this are the hammers with the slightly curvy handle that allow you to drive a nail into a board better but without needing an extra “oomph” of power to drive a nail into a board. Typically those studies are being conducted and the resulting products are being aimed at older male DIYers who have more time to DIY during their retirement years but may not have the same physical strength as they once had during their younger years. Tool companies – these studies also apply to women! If you market to us we will buy these products! Or maybe the men in our lives will buy them for us (hint, hint.)

Color –In all honesty, if I see a pink tool for sale, I’m not going to buy it. Experience has taught me that pink tools are crap. Sorry toolmakers but you taught me that all you care about is making a woman’s tool pink and pretty not about quality or performance. By the way, my Husband and I share tools just like we share kitchen appliances. We have one refrigerator not a pink one for me and a blue one for him. That means I could care even less about tool color.

Tool companies, this is something the guys won’t tell you – as a women I get an extra boost of confidence and self-esteem when I complete even a minor job with a tool that looks like the real deal and not like I need to store it in Barbie’s dream house after I’m done using it. If you can design a tool that meets my performance needs, makes me feel confident when using it, and might even make the men in my life a bit little jealous because it looks like a kick ass tool that they’d want to own - mission accomplished – you’d have yourself a customer for life.


Real World Example: Tool Purchase Based on a Woman’s Needs

Recently, Husband and I needed to buy a mini sledge hammer to break up some concrete in our front flower beds. Here’s how our purchase stacked up to the needs and wants I have on my tool wish list.

Quality: We made our purchase at a home improvement store not a cheap closeout or discount store.

Weight: A four pound mini sledge (a little bigger than a traditional hammer) would do the job quite nicely. Husband could use the four pounder but it was a little too heavy for me. I could only comfortably use the two pound mini sledges on display.

Scale and Grip: We wanted a tool that both of us could use because chances were that we’d be switching on and off until the job was complete.

Ergonomics: We ended up buying a much more expensive three pound mini sledge hammer because the handle and grip were designed so that it was physically lighter to swing (so a small person like me could use it) but delivered the “whoomp!” of a 4-5 pound mini sledge hammer (something that a bigger person like Husband could use.)

Color: By the way the hammer was blue. Who cares? The tool worked and now it’s the color of the dirt in my yard.

That’s my wish list for women’s power tools. What are yours? What do you think about pink power tools? Love 'em? Hate 'em? What power tools would you recommend for women?

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What’s this Yellow Mold Doing in My Compost?

As with most newly built homes, my developer sold off all of the wonderfully fertile topsoil in my neighborhood and built our homes on the clay subsoil residing underneath. Unfortunately the builder didn’t put any topsoil back into the planting areas. Ever try to grow anything in clay soil? It doesn’t work very well.

Before I can even consider turning this dirt patch into a raised garden bed I need to mix organic material into the clay soil – preferable compost. Fortunately, sneaky person that I am I have a big ol’ composter making some fertilizer for me by way of a garbage can I made into a compost bin that fully complies with my Homeowner’s Association Rules. My first batch of compost came out well. After feeding the Covert Urban Composter food scraps all winter it was time to check how much Gardner’s Gold I had to work with this spring.

I mosey on over to the compost bin in the backyard. I take a look. I see this.

I get grossed out.

After some research I discovered that this yellow spongy, foamy and phallic looking blob is a slime mold. Specifically, Dog Vomit Slime Mold .

Aptly named don’t you think?

Dog Vomit Slime mold (gosh you just don’t get to type that several times in one sitting do you?) usually develops in damp, shady areas where there is a lot of decaying organic matter like soggy flower beds that use bark mulch.

This makes perfect sense because we’ve had a very rainy Spring. When I took the lid off of the compost bin everything was water logged. There was slime mold all over the top and sides of my compost. And boy did it ever stink! Bad.


How Do You Get Rid of Dog Vomit Slime Mold?

Easy. You don’t.

First off Dog Vomit Slime mold is not harmful to people, plants, or pets. In fact, some people in Mexico eat slime mold.

No thanks, I’ll pass.

It’s lifecycle is very short. When slime mold first appears it’s usually bright yellow and can grow as it chows down on the decaying wet leaves and whatnot (legend has it that slime molds were the inspiration for the kitschy 1958 sci-fi movie The Blob.) Next, the slime mold turns light brown and finally dries into dark, powdery spores. The whole process can take a couple of hours or a couple of days.

If this slime mold grew in the mulch in my flower beds I could just leave it and it would go away on its own. In this case I was advised to throw the moldy compost out.

Oh and just to you gross you out a little further, when I emptied the bin I found a nice big family of maggots in my compost.

Yummy.

Once the compost bin was empty I was told to clean it with either bleach (no thanks) or hydrogen peroxide (yes, please.) I mixed up a solution of hydrogen peroxide based “oxygen” bleach and water and used that to clean the compost bin inside and out, including the lid. I let the clean bin dry in the sun.

I emailed Gardener's Supply Ask an Expert and asked them how I could prevent my compost from molding again. This is what they said.

If you're developing mold in your compost pile it certainly sounds like the materials are too wet most of the time. Drilling more aeration holes would definitely help the ability of the pile to receive more air and should keep the materials more dry. Too much moisture will drown the microorganisms, and too little will dehydrate them. A general rule of thumb is to keep the material in your compost pile as moist as a well-wrung sponge.

To do their work most efficiently, microorganisms require a lot of oxygen. When your pile is first assembled, there will probably be plenty of air between the layers of materials. But as the microorganisms begin to work, they will start consuming oxygen. Unless you turn or in some way aerate your compost pile, they will run out of oxygen and become sluggish.

When your pile is very wet, try adding materials to sock up some of the moisture, such as paper, dried leaves, sawdust, or straw. Keeping a good balance between these "brown" ingredients, and the "green" ingredients such as grass clippings and food waste is very important

To make sure that I didn’t have moldy, soggy, maggoty compost again, I drilled more aeration holes in the bottom and sides of the Covert Urban Compost Bin. This last batch of compost was mostly kitchen scraps so I’m going to concentrate on adding more paper from my paper shredder for "browns." I’m also going to ask the lawn service to leave the grass clippings on our lawn so I can rake them up and put them in my compost bin. Oh, and this time I’ll try to turn the compost more often because last time I didn’t mix my compost at all - oops.

Looking for more compost options? Check out the following options - and more! - below!
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This is Condo Blues’ submission for the May Green Moms Carnival where our topic is gardening. The Carnival will be held at Green and Clean Mom. Please check it out after May 18th!