Twinkle Loon

Happy Mardi Gras everyone! And for all you Yorkers, Happy Fausnaught day!

Troi and Riker

On a totally random side note, have you seen this young lady’s blog yet? Style Rookie

She is only 13 years old and she writes a fabulous fashion blog! I ran across it about two weeks ago and have been reading through her archives practically every chance I get! She is fantastically fearless, putting together runway inspired outfits and saying what she thinks about current fashions without that pretentious undertone overtone that one is used to in high fashion reporting. And her writing is amazing to me. Her voice is so well developed, I just can’t believe it!

I love her! And if it weren’t for that fact that she regularly takes photos of her self in her latest outfit I would say there is no way she is only 13 years old! Maybe I am just out of touch with 13 year olds … no, I think she is just that exceptional.

Just a few weeks ago we had the surprise wedding shower for my cousin Nick and his fiance Joyce. All of us ladies in the wedding party decided on two themes- the color blue and hockey! Blue is Joyce’s favorite color and hockey because that is where they first met. I ended up leading the way for the decorations but I had some help. A few weeks before the party I had some of the ladies over for a decoration making party. It was really fun and it was the first time that I had designed things and then directed other people making them. It was a pretty cool experience as an artist. For a brief time I got to be an art director!

For the centerpieces I used mason jars filled with big bright flowers from a farmers market and tied a little blue ribbon around them. And to go along with the hockey theme we hand stamped their names on blue pennants.

Hockey Net Chair

Stick and Puck Garland

Zamboni with trailing cans

For the brides chair we made a hockey net with white crepe paper and blue fabric served as the ice. Around the bar we made a garland of paper hockey sticks and pucks. And on the sticks we wrote the grooms last name. For the main centerpiece I had this idea to buy a remote control Zamboni and make little tin cans trailing behind it. I was really happy with the toy (I had to test it out by playing with it, of course) and the tin cans came out really well. You can’t see it here but I wrote their names on the cans. The flour that we put on the “ice” at first looked like… well it looked like we were about to snort lines. But one of the ladies made some skate tracks in the ice and I think, maybe, it does not look so much like that anymore

Winged Hockey Pucks

Winged Puck Cake

Another one of my decoration ideas was the winged hockey puck. I was thinking about those winged hearts and also doves and came up with the hanging winged pucks. We made cardboard hockey pucks and then covered them with black electric tape and attached paper wings. Then another bridesmaid, Angie, took the idea and ran with it making this amazing cake above!

Everyone had a great time at the Shower! Congrats Nick and Joyce! Can’t wait for the wedding!

My boyfriend and I recently adopted this adorable dog above, Bruce. And we couldn’t be happier with him! He is almost two years old and was found in a back yard so we don’t know exactly what mix he is but one parent was definitely a Corgi.

Bruce’s story is all too common. It’s confusing and involves a mysterious injury. Someone found him in their backyard with a scrapped up knee. They took him to the vet and told the vet they didn’t want him because he was always escaping. It turns out that Bruce had a torn ACl, which is not common in a small dog. Since that knee was scrapped up the general conclusion is that he escaped from a yard and got his leg caught in the fence causing the torn ACl.

I have come to know this dog in the past few weeks and there is no way that he would try to escape a yard unless he had been left outside all day. This is a dog who will run out in the yard and then immediately come back to the door if you go back inside. He is incredibly social and it makes me want to cry to imagine the neglect he went through.

We adopted him from the Pet Rescue of Maryland, an amazing group of people devoted to finding not just ‘a’ home but the ‘right’ home for all their animals. They took Bruce in and provided the much needed knee surgery as well as removing a benign cyst that was on top of his head. It is also their policy to make sure all animals are neutered or spayed and up to date with all shots. The process was longer than going to a pet store or breeder but the reward is huge. Rescuing an animal is the greatest feeling. There are so many animals that need help! So the next time you think about getting a new animal, take a little more time out of your life to save one in need.

Through Pet Finder you can find animals for adoption in your area.

I love reading fashion blogs, they are my Eco-conscious replacement for reading magazines… the magazines that my Mom would always give me a hard time about reading. Whenever I would buy one with my babysitting money she would say something along the lines of ”why do you want to read that trash? They make women seem stupid. You are beautiful the way you are. Now go read a real book”. And thanks to her I did read a lot of real books… a lot of trash too but at least it got my reading speed up, right?

But I digress, fashion blogs! Just today over on Garance Dore she has a post up where she mentions her Mom buying a Bulgari necklace in the 80’s. I can’t imagine growing up in a household where you could afford buying a Bulgari necklace! This reminds me of when my Mom was informed that her beautiful chunky amber necklace given to her by a Polish Nun friend was not in fact the plastic she had believed it to be. My mom was never a fashionista by any means. The woman could get dressed and out the door in 5 minutes flat. She was ready to change a tire and get dirty in a skirt suit if she had to. They were after all, just clothes. But she taught me some very important things about appearance.

*Once your past puberty don’t show your belly unless you are on the beach in a bikini, otherwise you just look trashy.

*Dress appropriately for the occasion. Never wear jeans or flip flops to any kind of religious gathering.

*Know what works for you so you can get out of the house quickly in the morning. A swipe of pinky red lipstick, hair twisted up, curled eyelashes, spritz of Chanel no.5 and you’re out the door. That was her every workday without fail and she looked gorgeous.

*Chunky sneakers just look stupid

*Do your nails at home and save the money! Clean, filed, fingernails and “rich red” toenails take ten minutes and make it look like you did a lot more work than you really did.

*A kind smile and a strong handshake says “I’m nice but don’t try to take advantage of me, I fight back!”

*And lastly, possibly one of the most important in my book (and my parents, especially my Dad) is good posture. I can’t tell you the number of times that I was told to sit up straight and got a poke in the back. My sister and I to this day have the hilarious reaction to instantly straighten up when our Dad touches our back. We’re like Pavolv’s dog!

Maybe she didn’t have the best fashion sense when it came to picking out something stylish or the latest trend. But due to these few, simple things she came off looking put together but more importantly allowed her personality to shine not her clothes.

Image above: 50’s Department Store Ad

That’s right, there is another green term starting to make the rounds on the internet, PRECYCLING! (seen on The Alternative Consumer) As if we didn’t have enough already! Eco-friendly, Green, upcycling, downcycling, recycle, reuse, reduce, sustainable, organic, renewable, cage-free, carbon foot print, carbon neutral, certified organic, LEED, fair-trade, pre- and post consumer recycled… the list goes on.

While consumers should be aware of the true definitions for all of these words you have to keep in mind this… you are a consumer! You are being marketed to and you need to educate your self so that you don’t get taken in by all the greenwashing(haha there’s another one!) that’s out there.

I introduced my boyfriend to toothpaste that did not contain sodium lauryl sulfate a known irritant (no it won’t give you cancer but it will irritate your skin) and low and behold he hasn’t had a canker sore since. But last weekend he bought new toothpaste and as soon as I began using it my mouth started burning and I saw he bought the wrong kind. He did everything right, he chose a known eco-friendly brand from the eco-friendly/green isle. So what went wrong? Greenwashing alert! These companies are so good at making us think that their product is what we want. Don’t buy into it, educate yourself. And for goodness sake never say the word precycling. ‘k, thanks!

(Image above and a great article you should read: Get Closure- When Green Gets Murky )

(Resources: Natural Health Information Center, Alternative Consumer)

CFLs!!! I know, I know, you are probably so tired of hearing about changing to compact fluorescent light bulbs by now. But the savings are pretty undeniable. But there are some major issues, such as the mercury content and disposal. There is also the concern over CFLs making people sick, triggering headaches and epilepsy in children. But it seems like the verdict is still out on that one. If I had children however, I think I would stick with conventional bulbs or LEDs.

The concern over disposal is pretty big for me. Fortunately Home Depothas a recycle program. But if you have a problem with who Home Depot supports then there are other options for you. There are recycling programs where containers are sent to your home for you to fill with unbroken bulbs and then send back to a recycling facility. But these kits do cost money. So unfortunately if you don’t have the money and your city has no other options it’s off to Home Depot you go. Two kits I found on-line were Sylvania and Recycle Your CFL. To find out if there is a CFL recycling center near you you can go to Earth 911 .

Now all that’s great, I’ve got it covered on where I can recycle my CFLs but what about if they break? You can find some good information about the mercury in CFLs as well as clean up instructions on many sites. Here is a pretty informative one from snopes. If you read through the instructions you will see why I said I would not get CFLs if I had children. I can’t imagine going into hazmat cleanup mode with little kids running around. Just my personal opinion.

(References from: Natural News, Move- do it green, Public Citizen, Wikipedia, Snopes )

(Image above: Move- do it green )

Baltimore Green Week is April 18th- 25th. Check out the Baltimore Green Works website for more information on not only green week but also the year round effort to make Baltimore Green!

You can also check out the Cleaner Greener Baltimore website for information on the city intiatives as well as a break down on what Baltimore city does and does not recycle.

(Image: Baltimore Green Works )