Friday, April 24, 2009

Bungalow Scout Comes through again.

I have an adorable counter in my shop. It’s made from an old French door that I found in a thrift store. It’s so cute I must write a post about it, but not right now. I have an old dinosaur computer that is a blemish upon my lovely shop counter. It’s a hodgepodge of parts composed from my kid’s old computers. The kids get the new computers and I get the rejected parts. There is a need for change in the hierarchy.

Ryan recently discarded his old laptop for an upgrade and keeping with tradition, my benevolent son passed the old one on to me. Once I gave it a good cleaning and invested in a new keyboard it looks and works like new. I love it, although the little mouse in the middle reminds me of a pencil eraser and is a little difficult to get used to.

Now that I’m a lap top owner I need to better protect it while I travel to and from work. I carry a parade of totes that I love but don’t offer any protective padding for the lap top. Trying to keep with my adorable tote theme I didn’t have go far to find what I needed. Bungalow Scout makes me rejoice once again. As if their totes and coolers weren’t charming enough they came up with another product, coordinating lap top sleeves.

The Lil Slim lap top sleeve fits into any one of my totes. It's padded and water resistant, protecting it from my clumsy coffee spills. It also has a few hooks and handles for easy grabbing, which eliminates my usual early morning fumbling.

I can't wait to see what Bungalow Scout will come up with next.


Wednesday, April 15, 2009

I Love Spring...


The flowers are blooming, the birds are singing and Pretty Green's new patterns have finally arrived. It gives me great joy to see that the new fabric designs are even prettier than I expected. Truc had sent me earlier photos of the totes, which were lovely, but did not do them justice for how nice they truly are. Some things just have to be viewed in person.

Thanks to my “handyman hubby” I have a very cute display rack designated just for these bags. And more happy news...the display has become a customer magnet. Now my real dilemma is whether or not I should keep one for myself, but do I really need to have another bag? I think so! :) I already carry the Pangea pattern back and forth to work everyday. It holds my notebook, various files, the previous day’s mail and bills I'll ignore for a week or two. Tote bags are like shoes, you can never have too many. So now that I’ve graciously decided that I deserve another bag which one do I choose?

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Your junk might be someone elses treasure....


There are times when I’m a little slow keeping up with the rest of the world. I’ve heard about recycling cell phones but to be honest I didn’t give it a second thought. I currently have several old cell phones resting in my kitchen junk drawer. They’re in good company with all sorts of odds and ends like loose elastic bands, odd pens, random yard sale stickers and give-away cork screws from a food show. All of which are entangled with old curling ribbon awaiting their final resting place, the trash.

This morning I opened up a piece of mail from a company I regularly do business with. Enclosed with the correspondence was a postage paid envelope for “Cell Phones for Soldiers”. Curious, I took the time to Google the organization.

Cell Phones for Soldiers was the brain child of 13-year-old Brittany Bergquist and her then 12-year-old brother Robbie. The goal of their charity is to help soldiers serving overseas call home. The charity began when the children heard a news report about a local soldier who was charged a large amount of money on his phone bill for calling home. The kids raised money to help the soldier by emptying their piggy bank, getting snack money from their friends at school. They raised $21.00 and went to a local bank to open an account. The bank was so impressed by their efforts they kicked in $500.00.

A few years older the siblings are now raising funds to provide as many soldiers as possible with prepaid calling cards. Cell Phones for Soldiers are collecting both donations and old cell phones to recycle. The ultimate goal of Cell Phones for Soldiers is to provide banks of satellite and video phones. Cell Phones for Soldiers have distributed thousands of calling cards to soldiers in Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan and and elsewhere.

Its time to dig through your favorite junk spot and pull out your discarded cell phones. This afternoon I slipped mine into the handy envelope provided and sent them on there way.

* photo of 1st Sgt. Devon A. Holson and company with their pre-paid calling cards


Friday, April 3, 2009

Hand Care for the Cook....

Tantalize your senses with some kitchen aromatherapy. Cucina (kitchen in Italian) is a line of hand care products created by Fruits and Passions. As you may remember from my previous posts I’m married to a Chef. Over the years he has worked in a multitude of restaurants and with that is a multitude of odors. Fish, onion, liver, if you cook with it, his hands have reeked of it. We’ve tried several remedies, one of which is lemon juice. It may work, but if you have tiny little cuts from say, shelling fish…. OUCH!

This is where Cucina Chef Soap comes in, it’s an exfoliating soap containing fine flecks of lemon peel that help dissolve traces of grease. This isn't just for the professional chef, its wonderful in any kitchen. It leaves a fresh scent on your hands that does not interfere with the flavor of dishes. It really does works and as a nice accompaniment there's a Repairing Hand Butter with olive oil and olive butter. It will nourish, protect and moisturize dry damaged hands on contact. I have extremely dry hands and it's intensive, protective cream has worked miracles for me. I keep one on my kitchen window sill and another at work.

Made with pure olive oil to deep clean and protect the skin from dehydration, the Cucina collection also contains
olive tree extract, known to help relieve minor burns and cuts as well as rosemary and sage for the anti-bacterial and toning powers. Their packaging is distinctive, Mediterranean in style I don’t have to hide the products in a drawer or under a counter. They look great and smell wonderful.