faboo mama

That’s right, I won the Easy Green Living book by Renée Loux that was being given away on Seesmic. Want to watch the whole thing? Below is the video of the when Ms. Loux took our questions on what we viewed as important in living “green”:

Yes, that’s not Renée, but if you click on it, you’ll see here (yes, I’m laughing at a pretty frantic email I received).

About a week and some days later, the winner was announced:

I laughed. I cried. I want to thank the Academy…

Then today…the book arrived:

I’m kinda busy with work, but I’ve had a chance to flip through the book and it’s pretty interesting. There are a lot of items in the book that I already own/buy not because of any greenness on my part, but because of price, locality and prettiness/smells. The book is more a shopping guide than a lifestyle guide, IMO, but even flipping through it, it was struck by how many items in the book are things you don’t really need in life. Or the lack of actual greenness of them, i.e. paper towels/napkins. It’s much more green to use cloth towels, and thankfully, the author does point that out. Which brings me to the second cool thing about the book.

Everything is pretty accessible to anyone who can read and shows that you don’t have to drop big $$$ to be green which is stunning to me considering Loux hosts a show on Fine Living. The best part is that Loux does explain why certain things are better than others. Unlike other “green” books, there doesn’t seem to be those not-so-unsubtle judgment calls on your purchases. Take the section on cookware. It’s extremely detailed explaining why Teflon or non-stick cookware isn’t in your best interest vs. stainless steel or cast iron cookware.

Check out the book at your local library or you can find at Powell’s.

That would be me.

We just installed this bad boy today and let me tell ya, as much as I enjoy working my windows to get the perfect cross breeze going, this won’t let in bugs and we can use it at night. Life is sweet. And cool.

Image by fabooj via Flickr

Yesterday, driving in Pasadena we drove past the California Cactus Center (see my blog post on LA Metblog for a review of the store) and dropped in to check it out.  If you’ve ever shopped for succulents or cactus, you know expensive they are.  We saw some really beautiful and small plants that were flirting with the edges of $90!  Happily, they did have 3″ pots that are comparable to watch you find at any nursery, with the added advantage of actual healthy and happy plants.  I already have enough cactus for my small needs and I went agave and echevarria crazy last year.  Now, my goal is more crassula.

But first, this photo is of the baseball plants (Klipnoors) we got, we saw a few of them that were pretty nice and big and $$$, these tiny guys were affordable.  We also got living rock, but the focus are the new crassula, I’ll just post the pics and let you drool:

I can’t wait to put them in their spots and watch them spill over the ground.

How awesome am I? I grew irises all by myself. Sure, you may think, “Big whoop!”, but for someone completely intimidated by bulbs, this is HUGE. I just found out though they only last for like 5 days, so I’d have to say I’m completely unimpressed. After all the planting and 3 months of leaves, 5 days of flowers isn’t worth it. I guess that’s why they suggest you plant them successively.

Live and learn, eh?

Remember this:

Well it looks like this now:

Pretty nice, huh?

You’re jealous of my Best Buy/Ikea themed potting bench/bar/buffet thingy.  And you can’t even seen the ultimate coolness. Adrian actually had a great idea…the top shelf has a built-in planter in the back.  Damn…you just got even greener!  Tomorrow, I’m going to put something up there.

Don’t hate on me cuz my bench is the bombdiggity.

Well, that’s it.  That’s what I finished up yesterday.  I need to get some 3″ screws, so I can put the shelf on top.  Then I’m still trying to decided if I want to add another shelf on the bottom and if so, where?  At any rate, my plan for today is to at least be able to get the first coat of paint on it today.

My hands, back and knees (!) hurt so bad.  I feel like I ran and went to the gym.

I started on a potting bench/bar/buffet.  I should have taken a photo of how much I completed today.  It’s almost done.  I just need to put the top shelf on.  Hijole!  My back is killing me and I think I swallowed a cup’s worth of sawdust.  Of course, it doesn’t help that it was unnaturally windy  either.

I had just finished ripping some plywood, and my driveway was covered in sawdust from other trees I killed pieces I cut earlier in the day.  I sat there gasping for breath after having a serious fight with my circular saw, then all of a sudden the wind picked up.  Oh my goodness!  Sawdust everywhere!  Swirling around furiously, everything shifted 7 feet over, meaning in my cup of water and my soda.  It was in my eyes, my mouth, my hair…my hair!  I stalked into the house, “I am so not moving to Mars!”.  Okay.  It was pointed out that I’d be in a spacewalker if I did move to Mars, but still…I was Making A Point.

Other than that it was all fine, minus the parts where A-Dawg constantly kept saying, “Don’t you want to sand this down?” or “My Dremel can do it.”  Whatev.

And I’m pleased to note that 90% of the bench/bar/buffet is recycled materials.  Most of the wood is from the previous owners, the rest from the scrap pile at the lumber yard.  The screws mostly are also from the previous owners.  So…yay me!  If you’re in LA and have extra wood or stone or brick that needs to be gone, feel free to drop it off at my place.

Tomorrow…pictures!

On Saturday, we went to Descanso Gardens for the World of Good Weekend. (see photos here)I had never been to Descanso Gardens before, but I heard it was more like the Arboretum than the Huntington and it was. In theory. Even though the Descanso gardens has a lot of different kinds of gardens and pathways, I prefer the Arboretum.

The one thing at Descanso that was truly impressive were not just the number of lakes and ponds on site, but the different layout of them all. It is a beautiful place that seems more like a large nursery than a place to study plants. Sadly, there is also a severe lack of customer service onsite. From the moment we got there until we left, no one who worked there knew anything about what goes on 4 feet beyond them. The guy at the ticket booth didn’t know procedure on if we give our receipt to the lady or what. The lady at the entrance had no idea if they sold sweaters or jackets in the gift shop. “You can ask”, is what we were told. The little girl had to go to the bathroom. We hiked all the way up the hill to the Boddy House couldn’t find a bathroom. I asked two people who worked there where it was and neither of them knew. I’m expected to believe that they were up at the top of the hill, working, and had no idea where the bathroom was? I could say that you get what you pay for, but the Arboretum and the Zoo both cost the same and the workers at both places are unnervingly friendly and helpful that you almost believe they’re robots…or not from LA.

One of the most wonderful parts of Descanso was the lilac garden. Yummy. It was like heaven with that scent in the air. Every time I found a lilac that was beautiful, I found another that was even better.

The camelia forests were also nice. I wasn’t too dazzled by the California garden and was very underwhelmed by the succulents and cactus there. The iris garden was amazing and most of the irises hadn’t even opened yet. I should go back to see the other hundreds of cultivars available. There were only about 10 open this weekend.

The kids loved the little train and even Daddy thought we should get one for the back yard (yeah right). Oddly enough, I loved the tulip garden. That was outstanding.

At the entrance of the park, there is an installation titled Edible Estates. As you know, I’m virulently anti-grass, especially for Southern Californians. We are slowly getting rid of most of our lawn and had considered giving it over to food. The subject came up again, as my husband tried to convince me to move my veggie garden to the front yard so we can put the pool in the backyard. The Edible Estates installation, prodded us a little closer to that goal, though I still need more sun than I get in the front yard.

The artist, Fritz Haeg, will be back at Descanso on May 17th for a book signing and artist’s reception. I believe he’ll unveil his summer theme at that time too. (Brasil Brazil is also playing that weekend, so I’ll definitely be there!)