Litter Box Project

When I was little we had a door between the dining room and the living room and I would make a point of slamming it shut whenever I went through. My parents were at the wits end after telling/ yelling at me to stop slamming the door. Finally, my dad said "The next time you slam the door I am taking it off it's hinges and putting it in the attic." Of course I walked over there and slammed it. The door spent the rest of the time we lived in that house in the attic. It was a pretty effective way of resolving the issue without just spanking or scolding me. You can't slam the door if there's no door to slam. 

Since bringing the cats home, we've gone through various phases of cat-proofing attempting to do the same thing- remove the things they find to cause problems. This works for the most part. We don't follow the rules on the litter box though. They recommend having 1 more litter box than you have cats, which would put us at 3. We've barely had room for one box, so this was never an option and we're typically too busy to clean it more than once a week. Lucy shows her disapproval by making an art of getting as much litter outside the box as possible. Her success is astounding and baffling. For example, we now have 3 floors and the litter box is in the basement. She manages to spread it all over the basement floor, up the stairs and somehow gets a little all the way to our bedroom and into the bed. We can't exactly remove the litter or the box, so when we discovered our friends had a top entry litter box and said it really cut down on the litter tracking we were thrilled! On Amazon, they cost about $40, which is absurd. That's double what I paid for the boxes we have and it's nothing more than a glorified storage tub. So, here's the how-to in pictures for building your own (should you find your self in need) for $10 each. [...]

Chalkboard Paint Labels

This is a repost of sorts. I originally had this on a different blog, but decided to copy it here. It's saturday night and I'm watching the Walking Dead by myself. I have nothing better to do.

For some time I've been collecting and cleaning up used wine bottles and glass jars. I recycled a bunch of them when we moved here so I'm starting over again. I use the wine bottles for smaller grains like quinoa, soft white wheat berries, bulgur, flax seeds, etc. and pasta sauce jars are perfect for dried beans.

I debated on printing out cute labels for the jars, but I don't like being committed to only using them for one item. What if I want to put something different in there next time? I had this idea to use the chalkboard paint to create labels on my food storage. I still have the quart of paint and supplies from my deck table adventure. I searched the internet for any tips on painting glass and found another woman who'd had the same idea for her kitchen.

I started with the masking tape to mark of the area, but the tape is a real pain to work with. And like she discovered you really need to take it off after the first coat. By doing 3 coats in varying directions you can get the same uneven edge effect without the hassle of tape. I also decided to paint a large swatch onto my laundry soap bucket because the permanent marker was, well, not so permanent as it turns out.

progress!

well, we actually accomplished some things this weekend! Saturday we  did the grocery shopping. We didn't have much on the list, but did more stocking up shopping than anything. Giant and Safeway actually had some things on sale that we buy. That's our biggest gripe with coupons. Most of that stuff are products we never buy in the first place. We save by buying in bulk and only buying what we need. Our fridge and freezer are stuffed and none of our meals are pre-made. We have to do all the work except for snacks... chips and hummus or fruit. I started keeping track of what we were buying, how much it cost, and how much that cost per serving. We started because one of matt's coworkers didnt think you really saved that much by bringing lunch to work instead of eating out. So when I made shepard's pie, we calculated it up. Made 8 good size servings at $1.42 each. Booyah! 

Life in Full Swing

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -Mark Twain

20 years? I'm already disappointed by what I haven't done! I suppose that's typical thinking around the first of the year, but honestly there have been things that have been nagging at me for a while. So, when I came up with my "resolutions" for the year those things played a big part. Without further adieu:
1. exercise at least 3 times a week. how? joined gym/ have gym at the condo... really this isnt that hard. matt and i used to very regular. 
2. spend money wisely. how? no impulse purchases. more or less just maintaining my financial scruples. 
3. grow a veggie garden- how? build self-water raised planter for the deck and plant a few veggies and herbs. also along with this... start composting. 
4. get outside more. ie. more biking, hiking, etc
5. eat less no fast food. how? will power against the nacho cheesy goodness of the crunch wrap supreme. 
6. pick an instrument and start learning it- probably banjo since i actually have that handy- and practice at least 1 hour a week
7. sew at least 2 projects this year. goal: i have a dress i want to make for National's baseball games and I just salvaged 3 chairs from the neighbors trash to repair and reupholster. 
8. blog weekly. (like on saturdays)- might have to set an alarm, but if I'm working on projects and gardening, etc and whatever Matt has going on we should have something to say at least once a week. 
9. study and take GRE.- I've been planning on taking it for 2 years now and haven't. must stop procrastinating. 
All in all I feel that these are pretty achievable. I've had a sewing machine for several years and have made a total of 1.5 projects with it, despite the fact that I have a habit of collecting/ keeping fabric I intend to use on future project. The banjo, much like the piano and guitar, is something I have started and let myself get away with not making time for it. The garden and compost are probably the biggest and most challenging of the resolutions. It's new and I don't know much about either, but I've been reading up a lot. But, like sewing and music, I feel it's a part of my heritage. When I was little I remember my great-grandmother working in her garden and helping her harvest and can. I care about sustainability and personal semi-independence from corporate America, but most importantly I think gardening is fun and the food tastes a heck of a lot better than store bought. The trick for success on this is to plan ahead and to limit myself to a few items to grow. I'm thinking a lettuce mix, tomatoes, and beans or peas. Maybe a meyer lemon shrub or berry bush and some herbs. We buy Costco bags of frozen broccoli, cauliflower, squash, and carrot mix so I don't think it's necessary to grow those. Resisting the urge to build an entire forest on our deck will be hard, but very, very important to the mission. I have other much smaller homegrown projects that I have planned. One is making our own natural laundry detergent. I finally have the ingredients, now I just need to make it. Tonight I made a bottle of static guard spray because with the dryer weather we're getting zapped every time we sit on the couch or pet one of the cats. I also made two more spray bottles with a non-toxic, natural insecticide for the houseplants and one with liquid plant food. It's Miracle Grow for the time being, but once I get fresh compost (in several months) I'll make compost tea instead. I was doing pretty well with the plants until I decided to set them on the balcony and forgot to bring them in overnight and they got mighty chilly. When we got home today and brought in they we looking terrible. I might be down to two plants now: the emerald gem and the scheflera. I think the 3 pathos are done for, but it might come back. Who knows?

 pretty pathetic pathos :'(

 I suppose it's not really "natural" if it has fabric softener... but it is homemade.

-Sam