My Science Experiment

I keep seeing ads on TV for something called "Green Bags", which are advertised to stop produce from spoiling in the fridge. I do admit that I throw out far more produce than I'd like, so these bags interested me. I got on the web and started reading reviews -- and review after review said they didn't work.

But I also read what some people say DID work... and tried my own little experiement.

I bought two bags of mixed salad greens, both with the same expiration date. I opened them on the same day (the day after buying them at the store), and put both salads in a Kroger brand zip storage bag. In one bag I put two pieces of paper towel, with the greens sandwiched in between. In the second bag, I did not put paper towels. When I sealed both bags, I tried to remove as much air as I could, though not going to any extreme to do so. Both bags were opened one time during the week with about one-half of the contents removed. After seven days of being in the ziplock bags, here are the results:

You can see that the bag on the left (with the paper towel) is still green, bright, and without brown spots! The bag on the right is just the opposite and had to be thrown out.

While the "green bags" are getting terrible reviews, this paper towel trick works beautifully and costs just a few cents.

Receive something homemade from me - and Pay It Forward!

I've joined the Pay it Forward challenge over at Cathi's Quilt Obsession blog. I admit I'm looking forward to receiving something from her, but I'm just as excited to have a chance to send YOU something that I'll make for three of you!

The rules are that the first three people to join the challenge on my blog will receive a gift handmade by me. I have 365 days to make and send your gift, although I am hopeful it won't take me that long. You must write a post on your blog inviting 3 more people to join in and receive a handmade gift from you.

If you would like to join in on the pay it forward, please specifically state in your comment that you would like to join. Also make sure there is some way to contact you so I can email and ask for your mailing address! "Handmade" can mean a lot of things -- quilting, sewing, scrapbooking, knitting, crocheting, painting... wherever your talents lay, I'm sure it will be fine!

I'm excited! Having a blog -- no, let me re-phrase that -- have real people come to read my blog -- has been a wonderful experience for me, and this is my tiny way of saying "Thank You" for stopping by. And FYI - I don't mind sending an item overseas so long as you don't mind that I ship it "slow boat" method.

Picture of the Day

The Upcoming Week - List

It's going to be a busy week. Brayden's other babysitter is taking some time off while her kids are on Spring break, so I have DGS 2 yr old Brayden Wed., Thurs., and Friday this week. I also now have my car back (yay!), and the weather is supposed to be reasonably nice all week, with a little rain toward the end of the week. To Do List for the week: Monday - Clean up kitchen - done - Quick clean upstairs bathrooms - Laundry - done - Quilting Tuesday - Errands - hair cut, bank, WallyWorld - Vac downstairs - Change sheets - More quilting Wednesday* - Story hour at library - 10:15 - Car wash - Lunch at McDonald's - Laundry - Collect and take out all trash Thursday* - Yard work - Load dishwasher - Empty dishwasher Friday (rain)* - Sewing - Sweep kitchen - Dust dining room - Windex appliances, patio door * Days when Brayden is here -- I try and do housework that he can help me with. The kid wields a mean bottle of windex and a paper towel, so I set him up to clean my stove, dishwasher and refrigerator! He also loves working out in the yard and has his own wheelbarrow, so we can start Spring cleaning the front gardens if it's warm enough outside. Should be fun, but I know it will be exhausting. Luckily, he takes nice long afternoon naps and "Umpa" will be working from home two days this week.

Spring is in the air

Despite today's temps in the 30's, you can tell here in southwestern Ohio that Spring is just around the corner. I expect within the next two weeks our temps will get up into the 50's and 60's, the buds on the trees will start pushing to open, and my daffodils and tulips will come up in all their glory.

What else does Spring mean? It's almost time to start hanging out my laundry to dry.

My clothesline is one of those multi-line umbrella-type clotheslines and I can actually hang about 4 loads of clothes at a time on the lines. I was lucky enough to find the old style non-spring wooden clothespins at an estate sale, and that's what I use to hang the clothes. And the silly thing is? I love hanging clothes out to dry! I'm very systematic in the way I hang out clothes -- as I put them on the line, for example, I match socks up, so when I take them down I can simply fold them together and drop them in the basket. I hang all kitchen towels together, so when I bring the basket of dryed clothes into the house, I can drop off the kitchen items. I hang jeans upside down with their seams matched up, so they have a nice crease and are wrinkle free. I save a LOT of time by hanging out clothes as well. It often takes my dryer twice as long to dry a load of clothes as it does the washer to wash them, so I often end up waiting to put the next load of clothes in the dryer. With the clothesline I'm able to hang the clothes as soon as the washer is done, without waiting for a load to finish in the dryer.

We notice a dramatic decrease in our electric bill -- about 10% a month -- when I stop using the clothes dryer. That, by itself, makes it worthwhile.

I love how air-dryed clothes smell and feel. Towels are so much more absorbent after they are air-dryed! Sheets have that wonderful "crisp" feeling to them and just smell so good when you climb into bed at night. One of my fondest childhood memories is helping my grandmother bring in the clothes from her clothesline.

I did a little Internet searching and lo and behold, there is actually a web page called "Project Laundry List" and it originates in my home state of New Hampshire! And "National Hanging Out Day" is April 19th!

So almost Happy National Hanging Out Day, everyone. If you live in a situation where you can hang your clothes out to dry, I do hope you'll consider it!

Happy Easter to you and yours.

Let's get a little crafty

I should be grocery shopping, but am waiting for Jeff to [get the lead out] get out of the shower because he wants to go to the library with me. So, I've been cruising around blogs, and found a great tutorial on how to make fabric covered switch plates! This is SO easy and would add a wonderful whimsical touch to any room.

This quick little craft takes just the smallest amount of fabric, and the tutorial shows how to do this without puckers around the middle of the plate. Generously shared by Pink Chalk Studios web site.

I can already see how appropriate this would be in my quilt room! If you try it, post a photo on your blog and let me know and I'll link to you.

Today's To Do List - tomorrow

Today was a bit of a washout. I'd planned on taking Brayden to the library and to the car wash this morning, but he arrived at 7am not feeling so well. I'm not sure if his asthma kicked in or he's starting another round with a cold, but by 8am I had to give him a breathing treatment, which he doesn't like but is super good about doing. That helped him a bit, but not as much as normal, which made me suspect he was actually coming down with another croupy cold. By noon his nose was running a bit. He was fairly quiet all morning and seemed tired, so I fixed lunch early and took him up for his nap at noon. He went right to sleep. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn off the phone in the bedroom, and the phone woke him up at 2:30, which may seem like a long time for some, but not for Brayden. As tired as he was, I think he would have slept until 3:30 or even 4:00pm. But he was up and having more problems breathing, so Jeff took him outside. It was a nice day but still cool (high 40's), and cold air will often help Brayden. He seemed to do much better from that point on. So we didn't get to the library or the car wash, so both must now be done tomorrow. Jeff's had my car for the past two months and he never cleans the car out (mumblegrumble), while I'm a near fanatic about having my car clean (I have cleaning wipes in my console so I can clean the inside in case I get stuck sitting at the train crossing or in traffic! LOL!), so I really need to get it to the car wash and get the two months of grime taken out! Today Brayden was playing with his NASCAR race cars, and he asked me what Car #24 was, and I said "That's Jeff [Gordon]". He looked at me and said, "Uncle Jeff!" He's only met his Uncle Jeff once, but we make sure to show him pictures often, so when JJ and Lisa come home he will know that they are family. We are working on him saying "Auntie Lisa"! Tomorrow's To Do List: -- WalMart (quick trip) -- grocery shopping (not WalMart) -- Library -- Car Wash -- Quilting Last Saturday, March 15, was National Quilting Day and I'd planned on spending the day quilting, but didn't. (I can't even remember why...) So I've decided to get up early and get my errands done by 11am (the Library and Car Wash don't open until 10am or I'd be done earlier), then spend the entire afternoon quilting. Ahhhhh... I can't wait. No pictures for this blog today, though I do have pictures of my new ironing board table on my quilting blog and Brayden has new photos on his View from Two blog.

Photo of the Day