jessysblindstyle.com

We try to avoid plastic and use wood and other materials as much as possible in our lives.  This means staying away from plastic toys for the kids, and avoiding plastic in other products as well.

I've found some beautiful wooden wall niches and other accessories online, and since storage is something we always need, I am really interested in buying some.  We desperately need a good way to store our books, and I would rather buy a wood bookcase than one of those pressed board ones they sell at Walmart.  Since this site sells magazine racks as well, I thought it might be nice to get one of those to go along with my bookcase.  The one we have right now is cheap and falling apart. 

I love that this company's prices are so reasonable.  It seems like wood is always vastly more expensive than other materials, and it's nice to be able to afford things that are well-made and built to last.  If you're starting to think that wood is good, check out those links and see for yourself!

jess @ 09:12 | comments(2) | Permanent link

Mike does quite a bit of side work using our garage, and so he likes to have it set up nicely.  We have an automotive lift, two parts washers, a transmission bench, a steam cleaning machine, various air compressors and a ton of other tools, and one of his first projects in the garage involved building a separate room in which he could work on transmission rebuilds.  He really has a great set up, but he has two more projects before he says the garage will be done:  insulating the ceiling with spray foam, and putting down an epoxy floor system. 

The reasons for insulating the ceiling are obvious; it's necessary to keep the heat in, in the winter and the air in, in the summer.  But I know he's gotten a lot of questions about why he would want to spend money on the garage flooring.  The first reason is that it's very hard to keep clean when all you have down is cement.  Garage floor mats are good, but they can only do so much, so he feels like it's important to cover the entire floor with something that can be cleaned.  His second reason is purely aesthetic -- the floor looks nicer when it's all sealed and shiny with epoxy. 

Right now, we don't have money to spare on the garage, and we need to remodel the porch and add on a third bedroom, so I'm not sure poor Mike will ever have his beautiful garage floor.  He'll just have to keep dreaming (and throwing down that kitty litter stuff that soaks up oil) for now! 

jess @ 08:52 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Our little patch of garden is finally ready for planting.  Mike finished running the tractor over it last night, using the discs to break up the big chunks of soil and making it nice and smooth so that I can plant it.  The only things we need now are seeds! 

Last year, we bought them online through a garden catalog that came to our house, but this year, I would like to look elsewhere.  I just went on to this shopping site, ShopWiki which is like a shopping search engine -- it shows all the stores on the web in a particular category.   Very cool, and very easy, so even my lazy self likes it!

I did a quick look for vegetable seeds and was even able to narrow down so that I was looking at organic seeds only.   Apparently,  seed shopping is as dangerous as grocery shopping when done on an empty stomach.  Looking over things like artichoke seeds and other organic veggie seeds made my stomach growl!  Take a look at these:

You know you want some!!!

jess @ 11:01 | comments(0) | Permanent link

One of the things I never get to do in my house is decorate the walls with art.  We have mostly plaster and cement walls, and it can be difficult to hang things.  Mike always resists the idea of putting up anything new.

Fortunately, we have a few nails already in the walls from pictures that were hung before we bought our house, and every once in awhile, I find something new to hang on them.  This time, I've been looking at Len Grossman's Silhouette Art.  I love the whole concept of the way he works.  His silhouettes are created using only paper and scissors -- he doesn't do any preliminary drawings. 

Another really cool thing about Mr. Grossman's art is that he is willing to come to parties and entertain your guests by doing their silhouettes.  Isn't that neat?  I remember my parents going to a party that had a caricature artist once, and they thought it was fun, but I bet a silhouette picture is something people would be more apt to take home and hang on their walls.   

Too bad we don't live in Ohio . . . maybe someday we'll get an artist like him around here!

jess @ 20:52 | comments(4) | Permanent link