Crafting!

Knit headband.  Now I can stay warm without
abandoning my standard ponytail.

Lamp before-ish!  (I added the blue ribbon
on the top and the bottom before I took the
picture... oops.)

Lamp after!  Some glue, some yarn, and some
crocheted circles (or closed disks, to those
of you who like to keep your mathematical
definitions straight...), and you have a super
cute lamp!

OWL PURSE!  Wicked awesome.

The pattern for the knit headband can be found here.  I made my owl by making up a pattern after admiring the owl purse found here.  If you aren't comfortable making up your own pattern, you can buy a pattern at that site.

Massage Giveaway... just in time for the Holidays!

*NOTE*:  December 10th through 12th you may comment each day for an entry into the giveaway.  If you have not given a Christmas story or tradition yet, you may still provide one for an extra entry.

This is a giveaway for one of the following three things: one 60 minute Shiatsu massage, one 60 minute Swedish massage, or two Reflexology massages.  The massage of your choice will be provided by my friend's new business, GivingTree Massage, LLC in Corvallis, Oregon.  The massage therapist, Robert White, received his license this past year, and he is committed to providing a comfortable, peaceful experience  to all of his clients.  As he was getting hours of practice to get his license, I received a massage; I can attest that he was professional, and the massage felt great! :)

If you would like to win a massage at GivingTree Massage, please leave a comment with your email address on this post by December 12th!  For TWO entries into the giveaway, include a short (or long!) description about a favorite holiday tradition that you have.  I will only use your email address to contact you to let you know you have won.  On December 12th (*Edit*: December 13th.  You may enter all the way through the 12th), I will use a random number generator to choose a winner.  At that point I will contact the winner so that I know which massage choice he/she wants and a mailing address so that I can send out the gift certificate!  (*Note*: If you don't want to leave your email address and you have a way to contact me, just leave a comment below and just make sure that I know who you are!)

If all of this massage stuff sounds amazing, then you can consider buying a massage gift certificate at GivingTree Massage through me from now until December 15th.  Robert has given me some discounted rates to offer to those who are interested:

$45 for a sixty minute massage (either Shiatsu or Swedish)  (usually $60)

$25 for a Reflexology massage (usually $35)

$12.00 for a Chair massage (usually $15)

If you are interested in this offer, leave a comment with your email and a statement of your interest in purchasing a massage (or contact me with another method if you can/want to), and we can work out the details.  If you comment and buy a massage before December 12th, you will be given THREE entries in the giveaway!


Please let me know if you have any questions!  I haven't done a giveaway before, so I am hoping that things are clear.

To contact Robert directly, please call him at 541-760-7239 or email him at GivingTreemassage.rw@gmail.com.  Even after this promotion ends, he'd be happy to let you know what his rates and specials are!

Daily Decisions: Banking

When Matthew moved up to Beaverton for his six month internship right before we got married, he got an account at Washington Mutual (now Chase).  The reason for this was that he knew he'd be coming back to Corvallis for another few years, and after that he didn't know where he'd be.  I was added onto this account after we got married, and we still have it open.

However... There are a lot of good reasons to support local banking instead of big banks, and a local credit union is a terrific way to accomplish that task.  After moving to the Hillsboro area, we started an account at a credit union in our area.  We have started switching everything over to that account so that we can close our Chase account once we're sure everything has cleared from our checking account.

Coincidentally, there is a current movement to leave big banks and to join credit unions that I didn't know about until after we made the switch.

Especially with the ability to use the ATM pretty much anywhere, I feel like we have no need for a large bank.  Switching is truly an easy way for us to take away support from the banks that operate like those that we had to bail out a few years ago.

Want to know an added benefit?  We found a checking account that offers a 2% interest rate as long as we satisfy a few requirements like using online banking, having a direct deposit occur once per period, and using our debit card for a point-of-sale transaction 12 times per period (good thing I can only carry so many groceries at a time on my bike!).  Two-percent is much better than the rates out there for savings accounts that we've seen, and even if we don't satisfy the requirements one period, the interest earned that period is the same as we were earning at Chase in our savings account.

Yay credit unions!

Honey Honey

For those of you who enjoy honey and hope to get all of the nutritional benefits it can offer, I suggest reading this over at Eat Drink Better.  The article they are using as a source is found here if you tend to like to read things from the original source.

In short, honey is being ultra-filtered to remove the pollen so that the source is hidden, but this process removes the health benefits of the honey.  It also technically makes the product no longer "honey" as defined by the FDA.  Unfortunately, not much is being done to test and regulate this, so it's up to the consumer!  You might want to buy honey from a co-op, farmers' market, or natural foods store as these honeys tested well for having the appropriate amount of pollen.

Slippers for the feeties

Look at those warm feet!  Give me the correctly sized crochet hook, and I will whip up these guys in two days!  I apparently will also add an extra band and a crocheted "button" (most visible and better looking in person than in the photo) for more pizzazz (and to make up for the fact that the slippers were just really long thanks to my husband's size 11 or 12 feet.)

In case you are interested in making these, I will let you know that I actually had to play with the pattern a bit because Matthew's feet are kind of wide.  I added an extra round to the bottoms.  This created minor adjustments in the number of stitches the rest of the way.  I also added extra rows on the tops of the slippers so that there would be maximal foot coverage.

Daily Decisions: Hand washing vs. Dishwasher washing

Perhaps as you go about your journey to save electricity and water you have asked yourself which one is better.

I recently watched a (corny) video from PGE where they tested and compared energy consumption done by a few different types of hand washing and a few different types of dishwashers.  As a note, they didn't discuss the amount of water used, which is an important factor to consider.  You also can't tell how full they fill the dishwasher which is clearly a large factor as far as energy and water efficiency go.  It's also challenging to factor in the environmental costs of creating and shipping a dishwasher in the first place!

I currently only hand wash items that can't go in the dishwasher, and I will wait until I get a stack to do these dishes.  The way I currently do the rest of the dishes is by running a (very full) dishwasher on light wash instead of normal wash.  I get away with using light wash by pre-rinsing all the dishes.  I don't use extra water to do this, though.  We put dishes that need rinsing in the sink, and they get water in them as we wash our hands/produce/etc over them.  Then  I use the scrubby brush to brush the food out.  We also, of course, air dry the dishes instead of drying them with heat.  We also try to minimize the number of dishes that we use.  For example, his mug for his morning coffee becomes my mug for water or tea during the day.  This all takes a bit more effort than just using whatever dishes we want to or running water whenever it's convenient for us, but it becomes routine, and it's really not that challenging in my opinion.

Personally, I think that video makes one thing clear: By being conscious of the energy and water you are using, you will save a ton when compared to taking the resources for granted.  It's very challenging (at least for me) to know what "the best" way to do some things is, and I think that it's OK to just be thoughtful and do our best!

Crochet hooks

Look!  Pretty crochet hooks!  I learned how to crochet on a few hooks I got from Goodwill, but I've been unable to do a few projects because I had the wrong size hooks.  Here is D through K as found used on Ebay.  Yay!  My husband shall (hopefully) have slippers for his feeties this winter!

I just thought I'd share since I'm excited about them. :)