Help Wanted: Soda Drinker

Museo Pambata display

When diy projects are successful, we show off and take photos in all sorts of angles with varied backgrounds.  However, when a bowl made of magazine scraps result in what looks like a giant wad of chewed up gum, we toss the whole thing and forget it even happen.  And that's why you don't see any photos of that thing in this post.  Instead, here are photos of my new hanging "pot" made out of a soda bottle.  I got this idea visiting the Museo Pambata, (at right) a children's interactive museum in Manila, PI.  Since we don't drink soda, it took a while to acquire the one bottle.  I still have a few smaller plants outside enduring the temperature changes waiting for someone to come by and finish another bottle of soda.  In the meantime, the one strawberry plant is saved.


Materials:

• empty and rinsed soda bottle
• marker
• box cutter
• string
• drill

Procedure:

1. drill a hole through the center of the bottom of the bottle large enough to thread the string through
2. drill another hole through the bottle cap.   
3. thread the string through the holes.  cut the string to 2 pieces, and knot off each end to keep string from getting through the holes.
4. draw 2 large squares and cut out using the box cutter
5. fill the rounded end with soil and insert plant.
6. hang bottle up-side-down with bottle cap pointing down..

 I cut the string I'm holding and knotted it off to keep the string from falling through the holes.

bottom string allows the water to filter on to the next bottle (coming soon) or a planter.

Future Shock Absorbers

I went to Barnes and Noble the other day.  Walking in, I noticed a slew of Zombie books... an entire display of zombie books.  I'm not the one to shirk at zombie themed media, but has anyone else noticed an emergence of apocalyptic themes?  NOT post apocalyptic as they did with the Mad Max movies in the 80s, but in the process of....a present day realization that the ish hit the fan.  Even the Planet of the Apes took it back to present day to explain how primates took over the future with Rise of the Planet Apes released this year.

In a way Hollywood has given us an outlet to our current economic environmental problems.  Can't make your mortgage payment today?  Not to worry, bankers won't hound you anymore because they've been replaced by zombies.  The price of gas went up another couple of dollars due to limited oil resources?  Who cares! We are going to somehow figure out how to jump through a wormhole to live in another planet like in Fox's new show Nova Terra about a fugitive crossing planetary borders only to be hired as a sheriff - not much promise for this future society..

Of course zombies aren't walking around taking over our cities, but cannibalism has been a constant trend in wallstreet where executives are eating up people's livelihood.   And with our brainless, insatiable consumer habits, who's to say we aren't zombies ourselves already.

Scientific discoveries have also fueled our hope that things will be solved and the human race will prevail.  With the discovery of so many planets in the Goldilocks zone (not too hot and not too cold) eventually they'll find a planet we can designate as our new home.   Along with the discovery of a sub-atomic particle faster than the speed of light, it won't be long until we're booking our vacation to Risa (the pleasure planet in Star Trek).

I would say if art imitates life, this is one of those cases.  Except these stories resolve in a way that's comforting to allow us to continue on our destructive and wasteful ways.

Plastic In a New Light

I know this video has been buzzing around the net for the past month or so, but I thought it was worth reposting.  This is the future folks!  With depleting resources, combined with a disposable mentality, it won't be long until we're all rummaging through landfills and recycling centers to furnish our homes.  Frankly, I wish it would happen sooner rather than later - when there's nothing left to mine/cut-down/use up, etc!  I often wonder why we don't have more of those earth ships, which are homes made from recycled materials, around.  Instead, I see more and more new developments built from raw materials like wood and steel and such (another phenomenon I don't understand with so many forclosed homes).
While I appreciate the "green" movement, market media has us thinking we need to purchase our way in to it.  Not so folks.  Just look at these remarkable people who have taken something like a plastic bottle and made it useful...like a light bulb.  

The Pillow Pot

We've all done it:  lined up at checkout to realize we left our reusable shopping bags in the car/house.  It's really not that bad since I use the bags to line our bathroom trash, but I've done it so often that I have enough bags to line 50 trash cans for the next two years.. and yet the bags keep piling up.  I tried other uses for these dreaded plastic bags.  I use them as a lunch bag, gym bag, laundry bag, but it inevitably ends up in the trash (and we all know how I feel about that)...until today.  

With Fall right around the corner (2 days to be exact), it's time to move my plants indoors.  I have two particular plants in large clay pots.  They were once little house warming gifts that, over the years, have graduated to larger and larger containers.  The problem with house plants as big as these, is that once they're down on our hardwood floors, they don't move until it's time to take them out again - around late Spring.  Even then, they leave nicks and scratches on the floors, and ring marks for when the water filters down to the bottom of the pot.  Enter the Pillow Pot (made this name up).  It's a plastic bag filled with other plastic bags that allows me to move these clay pots around my living room without scratching the floors. 


Materials:
a bunch of plastic bags
1 fancy, thicker plastic bag
packing tape - preferably the clear ones

Procedures:
1.  fill thicker plastic bag with the smaller ones... the fluffier the better
2.  fold the bag to a size just slightly larger than the bottom of your pot.
3.  seal with tape, and tape in corners (or if you want to keep the square shape - do it up!)
4.  place pot on top
5.  PRESTO:  Pillow Pot

Hooray!!!  I am no longer that crazy woman who walks out the supermarket carrying 10 items to avoid using the plastic bags. 
 

Note:  ziplock bag is optional.  I happen to have one that wasn't quite ready to be thrown out...but didn't want to reuse for food either.

My rubber and aloe plant. These two gave me hope that I can be a gardener. 

Worth my Pepper.

When cooking, I opt,as much as I can afford, for fresh, organic ingredients with as little additivies as possible.  So when I read that most pre-crushed peppers have saw dust in them among other things, I started using the whole peppercorns.   Only problem is they need to be crushed.  

For the past year, I have been talking myself out of buying a salt/pepper mill.   Perhaps if they didn’t sell these whole peppers in flimsy grinders I wouldn’t have held off so long.  Because the semi-crushed seeds would slip through the grinders and in to my cooking, I'd end up taking an unexpected chomp on a peppercorn.  I warned dinner guests of these sneaky whole peppercorns all because I couldn’t get myself to shell out $15 for a good one, $30 for a salt and pepper set.  Well, fast forward to a recent visit to my mother-in-law.  I somehow mentioned to her about this dilemma and she says, "Oh is that all?” and takes out from her cabinet, a wooden pawn shaped salt/pepper grinder set.  The same kind I've been picking up and putting down at the supermarket.  ALAS!!!!  All that ridiculousness of frugality finally “paid” off!!!! 

A Hairy Situation

I love, love, looooooove Summer.  I enjoy the long days, and sticky evenings, lazy beach days, flip-flops, I even secretly enjoy sweating in a hot car while sitting in traffic (I think I'm alone on this one).  But there is a catch!  Each year, as I shift my winter clothes to the back of our closet, for the tanktops and sleeveless dresses, I am reminded that it is now time to get in to the heinous ritual of shaving my armpits.  I abhor shaving.  It's expensive, wasteful, and most of all, uncomfortable.

Women (and men) go through extreme lengths to rid of our body hair...contributing to an estimated $1.8 Billion market.  $1.8 Billion of depilatories, laser treatments, wax strips, (and worst of all) disposable razors with it's hollow plastic handles, flimsy blades, pivoting heads, and lubricating strips piling up in our landfills and oceans;  all promising to effectively and efficiently remove hair... but alas - our primitive (ape-like) genes won't quit and hair keeps growing back.  Good news for the shaving industry, otherwise they'll have nothing to sell.

A few years ago, I refused to shave my armpits as sort of a personal protest but mostly because it was irritated.  After about three weeks, I got so many disgusted glances and snide remarks, I caved in and shaved the hair off.  ,But, I was riddled with guilt each time I tossed a razor in the trash.

Since we are socially obliged to be hairless, here is a video on how to make sugar wax.  My friend used to wax mine and my sister's legs and armpits with this same recipe.  And the hair took longer to grow back, looking slightly thinner than the last time.  All you need are ingredients probably already in your cupboard (sugar, lemon juice, and water)... and a few strips off your unwanted/worn out jeans (they make the perfect wax strips).  One thing the video doesn't mention is to keep temp at 250 degrees Fahrenheit.  If it goes over, the mixture will harden in to candy.

I store my homemade wax in the fridge in an empty peanut butter jar.  Whenever I have to use it, I place the jar in hot water until the wax becomes that honey consistency again.  The sugar wax has been an underarm saver since I never developed the callous from constantly running a blade through my skin.  Usually on the 2nd to 4th day of shaving, I find myself inadvertently scratching my armpits in pubic:  I could feel the lady sitting next to me on the bus inching away from me.  My ancestors cannot be denied.  I am the hairless ape, scratching her stubbly armpits.  

Time Management

I should have probably eased up on planning my kid’s birthday party last month when I realized 44 people confirmed attendance - YIKES!    What can I say, I love birthdays... not just mine, but anybody's because it’s a great opportunity to catch up with the people that matter to us.  Once upon a time, it was effortless to be with these people, that you can do it just about everyday. Now that I'm living at least an hour away from friends and family it’s been especially difficult to catch up.  Not only are we spreading away from each other geographically, but work schedules took precedence over many things, leaving only the weekends to maintain these relationships.  Reminds me of the time I volunteered for the Special Olympics.  I was assigned to escort participants to the starting line.  At one point, I was escorting about six 4-6 year olds to the starting line for a 100 meter dash.  When setting out to cross the field to the starting point, we were all holding hands, but as we walked on, about four of the kids on both ends let go and wandered away from the group.  I was frozen, how could I gather those kids without losing the ones that stayed with me?  The longer it took me to act, the farther away they were getting.  Which leaves me to wonder, how can I hold on to important relationships while preserving my livelihood?

I maintained, as much as I can, the attitude that although three years of work was a significant amount of time, it was still temporary.   But I am also susceptible to allowing my job to cross over personal boundaries:  occupying more time out of my days, corrupting my emotional and mental well-being, and even degrading my physical wellness by spending at least 40 hours a week sitting in front of a computer.  Leaving little of myself to other matters of my life.  I understand that the bills have to be paid, but overworking has become such common practice that my self worth was gauged on gross income/assets, blanketed by so many distractions of wants disguised as needs, losing sight of what’s really important in life.  John Trudell, Native American activist, speaks of the "Spirit Eater," as an authoritarian systems that siphon off human energy to fuel a materialistic, technological reality. We are delusional to think that working more and gaining monetary assets will wash over our problems and improve our quality of life.  When in fact, it is the very thing that contributes to the misery. 

As I got closer to the termination date, reality set in and I had no choice but to ease up on my dependency to the job.  Rewiring my approach to spending really helped to differentiate my needs and my wants.  For instance, when I think I ”need” something, I go to my basement or attic and realize I already have it.  Or I get distracted by an item I forgot I had and for some reason, it satisfies the so-called need.  Either way, it kept me from shelling out some cash, and best of all I've just (very, very slowly) unpacked some of our boxes from our move.  Other times, I wait it out, until by chance, I come upon the item for FREE!!! I recently acquired a metal file cabinet from someone’s sidewalk who put it out for garbage pickup (gotta love the sidewalk boutique).  I’ve been talking myself out of this $300 purchase for almost a year, and finally, the waiting paid off.  All of a sudden, my lifeline to the 9-5 (or more) is not so desperate.  I’m realizing I don’t need that much cash flow to run our household.  I would say, one of our biggest expense is travel.  Not only for work, but also to visit friends/family.  We’ve refrained from so much frivolous/impulse spending (I can’t tell you the last time I bought a new outfit) that we were able to book a trip to visit friends and family in the Philippines for when I’m out of work.  An expense that definitely contribute to our quality of life instead of take away.  

Life’s demands tend to steer us away from each other so if we don’t have much time for anything else, at least we can come together to celebrate life’s milestones (i.e. birthdays).  Bring on your 44 guests!!

4-Drawer Metal File Cabinet = $10 (for black spray paint), Sidewalk Boutique

Globe = $0, Sidewalk Boutique; Fancy cloth under the globe = $0, basement find