In honor of Earth Day and something for my techno-gadget friends

--In honor of  Earth Day--here are a few ideas of for making your life greener, as well as apps for my friends with smart phones.

Some of these are from an online article from Real Simple.

1.  Use greener cleaners.  Chemicals in many cleaners can cause air pollution inside and out. They can aggravate asthma and allergies.  The article recommends reading labels and choosing products that are plant-based.  One of my mom's favorite cleaners is vinegar and water.  It cleans the counters,mirrors and windows.  It can also be good a good way to help a slow drain or freshen up a smelly kitchen drain.  Pour in some baking soda and then the vinegar, then some cool foaming action occurs, and it helps most of the time.

2.   Leave your shoes at the door.  Excellent advice for keeping the house cleaner. It can be considered the equivalent of washing your hands, keeping outside dirt, exhaust, pollen, and chemicals from being tracked into the house.  For people with allergies, this is sooo helpful.

3.  Select fragance-free products.  People with sensitive skin and other allergies realize some of the benefits but there are other benefits.  Some of these products can cause hormone disruption and also mess with the water supply when they are washed down the drain.
For the full article, please click here.

iphone apps

Please excuse the lifted quotes, but it seemed that the Apple App Store said it best.

1.  "At the touch of a button, you will have instant access to the latest green information from one of the web’s most popular green technology and sustainability blogs, Ecoble."


2.  "Get the latest Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics on your iPhone, including company scores, further information, videos and links."


3.  "GoodGuide’s science-based health, environment and social ratings for over 120,000 products. GoodGuide’s personalization features enable you to choose the issues you care about most - like nutritional value, safe and healthy ingredients, animal welfare, human rights, climate change, energy efficiency, and more. The app will then inform you whether products pass or fail on your key criteria."

Special bonus for those of you who use Kiehl products--tomorrow at Nordstrom's, if you bring in an empty Kiehl bottle, tube,or jar, you will get a sample lip balm.  While supplies last.

Happy Earth Day!

Health Habits That Are a Waste of Time

Call me lazy, but I love it when I find out that there are things that I thought I should be doing but don't have to. Follow that?  Anyway, there was an article from Men's Health called "9 Health Habits That Are a Waste of Time" which debunked a few myths that have been perpetuated for many, many years.  Here are a few of my favorites:

1.  See your dentist twice a year.  From childhood, the dentist was my least favorite appointment and my sisters and I went twice a year. : p  Well, guess what?  That information came from an old toothpaste ad!  There have been studies done that show no evidence that going twice a year has any greater benefit.  Once a year is plenty and the article does say that you should go every year as a study by the American Heart Association has shown it reduces risk of heart attack and stroke.
 
2.  Don't eat after 8:00 p.m.  In the past I have ignored it.  Glad to know I am not doing any horrible damage.   I sometimes get hungry before I go to bed.  And, if I go to bed hungry, often I can't sleep.  I am not crazy, the Assistant Director of Human Nutrition at UCLA, confirmed this point.  She told that going to bed hungry can disrupt sleep patterns.  And, for people over 60, it can help combat muscle loss.  The recommended snack is something with a lot of protein, like a protein shake.

3.  Starve a Fever.  Nope,you shouldn't do this.  "A high temperature boosts your metabolism, causing you to burn calories. If you're weakened, the illness will hang around longer. So try to replace calories any way you can, says Ben Ansell, M.D., director of the Comprehensive Health Program at UCLA."  And, he mentions that your body needs more than the normal intake of fluids during a fever.

And, Feed a Cold?  There is no scientific basis for this either.

For the other five health habits that are a waste of time, you can check out the rest of the article, here.

Easter is Coming!

I'll be honest the favorite part of Easter has always been the candy.  Specifically the chocolate but as I was going through my emails this morning, there was an article from All You for twelve different ways to decorate Easter eggs.  I love the idea of crafty stuff, although I don't to much of it.  So,  I am going to give you some ideas I found on the web for decorating your East eggs if you want to get beyond the dye and the vinegar. 

Easter Egg Vase from All You

1.  From the same All You article: This requires hollowing out the egg --which you do with a raw egg, basically poke a hole in each end of the egg and blow.  I tried something like this one year and almost popped an ear drum.  But they are pretty.  Click here for directions on how to create these.

2.  Also from the same article and a little simpler for smaller children: making bunnies and chicks out of the eggs.
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3.  One more from this article, thought it was so creative and pretty: an Easter egg votive.

For the other Easter Egg ideas from All You, click here.

The next  website was from Disney Family Fun.

4.  This first one cracked me up.  No pun intended.  They are called Dye-ving Dudes.  You can get instructions on how to make them here.

Dye-ving Dudes from Disney Family Fun

5.  A little more traditional, but pretty cool looking are the tie-dyed eggs.

6.  On this site they have a series of different animals and people your can make.  I think the purple cow is my favorite.

There are many more creative ideas for eggs including a super hero at Disney Family Fun.

Superegg-man Egg from Disney Family Fun

Purple Cow Egg from Disney Family Fun

I found more! Come check out my board on Pinterest.