Happy Fall Ya'll

It's finally cooled off here in central Texas so was able to break out the fall decor. Last Saturday we went to a local pumpkin patch for pumpkin pickin', a hay ride, and some face painting. The weather was beautiful!

Going Greener: Going beyond Curbside Recycling

I'm actually pretty excited about what I've learned about recycling beyond our curbside recycling program. Before we get into that, I'll say a little about curbside recycling.

It's appalling to me that there are many families on our street that don't take advantage of the free, little effort required opportunity to recycle at the curb. That's all I'm going to say about that.

My mother's side of the family comes from a very rural area of West Virginia. It's a good 30 minutes to the closest Walmart. The amazing thing-they have curbside recycling and have for at least 6 years. My point is that if you do not have curbside recycling, you might want to consider rallying your community to take action. Washington County, Virginia I'm talking to you.

Our curbside pick up hits most of the basics, clear and brown glass, plastics 1 & 2, aluminum, etc. However, with a little research it's likely you can find somewhere on your daily path that will go above and beyond these materials.

Our community is littered with green and yellow dumpsters for paper recycling by PaperRetriever. You can find these dumpsters at all the local schools, the YMCA, and goodwills. The great thing about these dumpsters is that it is a fundraiser for the organization that sponsors the dumpster. You can recycle catalogs, newspapers, office and school paper, and mail. However, they do not take any form of plastic, so you have to cut the plastic windows out of all those junk mail envelopes. Click here to see if there is a dumpster near you. If not, consider looking into getting one for your local school, church, or civic group.Joshua says, "Be Cool & Recycle!"

We have been sorting all our paper out this month and I'm amazed at the reduction it's made. I took a picture of our home office trash one week, but can't seem to find it. Basically the recyclable stuff was overflowing it's basket and the trash amounted to about 10 plastic windows from junk mail.

What I'm even more excited about it that I just learned that I can drop off pressed cardboard at a collection site just down the road. What is pressed cardboard? Cereal boxes, cardboard egg cartons, etc. Basically anything type of box that isn't waxed (such as an orange juice carton). That is probably the element that takes up most of our trash right now, so this will greatly reduce our trash volume. While our local transfer station doesn't take corrugated cardboard, the main hub does, so when we have shipping boxes etc we can take them there for recycling. To find a recycling center near you, click here to check out Earth911. For you Austinites, the Austin Recycling Center information can be found here.

In summary:
*Use your curbside recycling to it's fullest!
*Check to see if Paper Retriever has a dumpster near you for all your paper trash.
*Check out Earth911 for drop off recycling in your community for everything else, especially pressed cardboard.

P.S. You can also recycle most of your plastic bags at the grocery store, but I'm going to talk about that another day.

I guess they were right....

It's taken 8 years to say it. They were right. My sophomore year of college I changed my major to interior design and spent a year in the program. After students complete their first year in the program, they have to go through an evaluation process to determine whether they can proceed to the second year. They didn't advance me.

It's been a bit of a bitter memory. In many ways, I have been thankful that I changed paths. But I've never been able to fully say, "They were right." Until now.

A month ago we began re-decorating our kitchen. The original builder paint was still up, which is not a very good grade and very hard to clean. So, we decided to add some color and a tile backsplash. I decided it would be super fun to do a Tuscan theme, so that was the route we started with.

Picking a paint color took a little time, but was relatively painless.
We had our friend Jen come over to consult. She worked with an
interior design friend to pick out the paint colors in her house (which are awesome) and so she shared what she had learned.

However, we picked our final color with out consulting Jen, and it's ummm....cheerful. It's like to sun in shining in our kitchen.


We've always been one to call in the troops for help, this time was no exception. Our faithful friends came over to help paint. They are awesome and they got the job done so quick, we gave them another project to work on!


I am continually amazed by our friends' generosity-thank you guys! That said, don't tell anyone, but I'm not crazy about the color. Kurt says that it's okay if I don't like it, but I'll have to repaint it myself. On second thought...cheerful is good.

As for the tile backsplash, we still can't find a design we like. I went to Lowes and Home Depot today for about the 10th time in a month to look at tile. Every Saturday we load up the car and go with the hopes of finally finding "it." However, Joshua has the tolerance of about 2 stores lasting 15 minutes and 23 seconds in each, so it's been limiting. The search continues...The good news is we have found some decor items and a new light fixture for over the island, as well as remaking our old one over the table. Hopefully within the next month I can do a new post with pic of our finished kitchen.

Now that I am in the midst of the makeover project, I can finally say, "They were right." Can you imagine if I was actually trying to make a profession of interior design??? I can also confidently say I will never build a custom home....it would take me years!

Project #2: We stained some crates I found for $1 each to decorate above our cabinets.

Mike actually has a three week old at home and he's helping us???

The Supervisors

Thank you Jennifer, Chris, Jodi, Mike, Andrea, and Jeremy!!