Posts Tagged ‘green cleaning Fairfax VA’

GreenItUp! will be at the Fairfax Farmers’ Market tomorrow. Come by for a bottle of MultiPurpose cleaner and a chance to win a free home cleaning. Drawings will be held weekly for MultiPurpose winners and monthly for home cleanng winners.

This week’s MultiPurpose winner is Keith H. of Reston – hope to see you tomorrow, Keith. Come down anytime to pick up your free bottle. You can also come on Saturday the 18th. (GreenItUp! will be at the Celebrate Fairfax Festival on June 11th and on a weekend trip  June 25th.)

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So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

When our friend Erin visited this February she brought us this hedgehog.  I call him HedgeBob. I love him! He was created by Amanda of Three Bad Seeds in Columbia, SC. He is made from 100% recycled/re-purposed materials. His beautiful red color is part of a sweater she bought at a thrift store.

This Owl was given to me by Eric who checked out Amanda’s table at the All Local Farmers’ Market at 711 Whaley in Columbia, SC. Verna loves him!

I loved ‘Bob’ so much that I had to have more animals that looked like him. But, I feel guilty about buying things for myself. So, I immediately thought of my friend Andrea who makes beautiful gifts for Eric and myself on a regular basis. Below are the ‘Two Owls & A Friend’ that she made for my birthday this year.

So, I decided to commission a work from Three Bad Seeds for Andrea. Both Andrea and her son, Toby Morriss (whose absence is a physical presence in all of our lives), loved to photograph the bison at Tall Grass in OK. Eric and I knew that Andrea would love Amanda’s work and the bison pillow. (The stuffed animals are really pillows!) And, of course, she did! She loved it so much that she cried! He went home to OK with her last week.

We also decided to commision a work for Griffin’s (my stepson) birthday in July. He is 12 and going on 65 intellectually. Despite his maturity and intelligence, he maintains a compassion and love for animals that most boys have unfortunately shed by the awkward preteen years of peer pressure and insecurity. I tell you this to explain that he collects stuffed animals and misses Eric’s cat, Gatsby, very much. You may remember Gatsby from my blog on litter box odor ( The Great Gastrointestinal Gatsby!) We asked Amanda to recreate Gatsby with the beginning of the last line of the novel on his backside. She did such an amazing job even though the shape is not typical of her style. If you know Griffin, Shhhh!, we have not given it to him yet.

Amanda lives in Columbia, but her family will be moving with the military this year. Luckily for all of us she can ship. Her work is unique and incredibly sweet. Her prices are very reasonable. You should buy something now before her business explodes and you wind up on a waiting list.  And she is so cool – I asked her if it would be creepy if I had her ‘make’ all of my cats when they died – her response was: “only if you have 16 of them”.

If you have a friend’s or a child’s birthday coming up, consider one of Amanda’s creations or a commision. Better yet, what would make you happy? I would like a three bad seeds pig. I don’t think I have seen one yet, but I know it would be awfully cute… (My birthday is 2/14, anniversary is 11/21 and I celebrate Christmas.)

Check out her blog on our commissions and her creative process: http://blog.threebadseeds.com/2011/05/commission-adventures-gatsby-and.html

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The Arlington Dog Nanny sent me a link to this article on how to make green cat toys. At first glance I thought, this stuff is cheap – she’s a dog nanny, what does she know about cats? But then I started thinking about how the cat toys I have sit – unused – on the floor while Verna tries to play with the laundry I am folding or Eric’s belt when he is dressing. In fact, my cats have only ever really cared for one store bought toy.

Frankie, who is now too old to play with toys, played fetch with a tiny ‘bunny head’ when she was a kitten. After she decapitated a porcelain angel figurine in order to play soccer with it’s head, I decided to find her some toy heads. She fell in love with a little, round, fuzzy, soft bunny head the size of a golf ball. I lived in a shotgun apartment at the time (Cornell Arms or Conroy’s Leap for Columbia folks) and I would throw the bunny to the other end of the apartment and Frankie would run for it and bring it back to me for as long as I would play with her.

Other than the bunny head, I have never known a cat to care about toys. Before cell phones were affordable to college kids, Verna enjoyed many telephone cords to the extent that I kept several in the house on any given day just in case. Emma, my dearly departed (and not so bright) cat loved to play with ice cubes in a beverage. She often got her head stuck in a glass trying to retrieve her captured prey.

So, I reread the green cat toy article and I can truly see my cats enjoying these ‘toys’. The point is that you are spending time with them, engaging with them. That is all that they need. Well, that and your soul – they’re cats!

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This Saturday the Fairfax City Farmers’ Market opens! Be there! Buy a bottle of MultiPurpose Cleaner!

The Market is every Saturday from May 7th through October 29th from 8AM to 1PM.

Located at West & Main Streets behind the Wachovia Bank and adjacent to the Historic Fairfax County Courthouse

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Just a reminder that GreenItUp! will be at the Loudoun County Market this Saturday. Please stop by for a bottle of MultiPurpose Cleaner or a refill. It was great working with Judy, the other vendors (it was especially nice to be right next to Simply Nut Free Chocolates… yummy), and all of the Market shoppers who showed up in all kinds of weather.

I hope to be back in Loudoun County next Winter. For the Spring, Summer and Fall GreenItUp! will be in the Fairfax City Market which is every Saturday from 8AM to 1PM beginning May 7th. The Four Mile Run Farmers & Artisans Market in Alexandria is a possibility for Sundays – I will keep you posted on that.

Thank you and see you at the Market!

http://www.loudounfarmersmarkets.org/news_winter.php

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For those that do not know about boiling frogs, I will explain. If you throw a frog into a pot of boiling water he will jump out immediately. If you place a frog into a pot of water and slowly bring it to a boil, the frog will not resist. The image is often used to explain how we can become comfortable with situations and environments that might otherwise cause panic. Watch the news, look at your personal finances, turn on the radio, think about your job, watch an Adam Sandler movie, eat fast food, remember who you wanted to be when you were 18 – do any of these things and you will see how we are a culture of slowly boiling frogs.

We are resistant to change – even when the change is good for us – simply because change (of any kind) is scary. So, for Earth Day this year I propose that you begin the process of slowly changing who you are as a consumer. You don’t have to throw everything away for a life on the Ranch with the Manson family.  Take it one step at a time. Change one thing this Earth Day and make a plan to make another change every month. On the 22nd of each month, change some aspect of your routines or consumption that will benefit yourself and your environment.

I have listed some suggestions for actions you can take now. Not all of these apply to everyone so be creative – look around your home and at your life and find solutions that fit you.

1. Carry your own reusable water bottle.

2. Make sure you are recycling everything your city or county supports.

3. Change your bulbs.

4. Turn off lights and electronics that you are not using.

5. Support local farms – buy as many of your groceries as possible from a Farmers’ Market.

6. Don’t buy meats and dairy products with hormones.

7. Limit junk mail – ask companies to take you off their mailing lists.

8. Reuse scrap paper, packaging materials and bags.

9. Lower the temperature on your hot water heater.

10. Switch to cloth diapers and napkins.

11. Try to buy used items or repair broken items before purchasing new.

12. Drive the speed limit.

13. Give up paper-towels.

14. Wash your laundry in cold water and line dry.

15. Buy GreenItUp!’s MultiPurpose Cleaner!

Change can be scary but the alternative is far worse. Have you seen a weather report in the last two years? Heavy snows, crazy hurricanes, Japan, tornadoes everywhere, fires in Texas…  These are not changes that I am willing to accept. With Frankie’s arthritis, we would not make it very far on McCarthy’s Road…

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My friend Andrea M. makes me think of the e.e. cummings poem below. Today is her birthday and I am sharing it in celebration of her – not you or me.

maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach(to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

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Today is my husband’s birthday. He can do anything he wants today in DC or the mountains. He chose to go to a museum about buildings! This is one of the many reasons why I adore Eric.

We sometimes say that Cool Hand Luke brought us together. For that reason I got him absolutely nothing for his birthday. (Frankie and Verna got him a cake and a card.) I know, however, that as Luke says in the church, we “find our own way” – we have to play the hand we have been dealt.

Happy Birthday, Handsome, and many, many more…

Luke sings Plastic Jesus

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Brought to you by Proctor & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive and Lever Brothers…

To understand why certain cleaning products are better or worse for your health or the environment, it is important to understand how soaps and detergents differ. To understand how they are different, it is important to understand first what they have in common.

Soaps and detergents clean surfaces. The molecules of a soap or a detergent will attach to the dirt, odor, grease, food, or other culprit, loosen it from a surface, and pull it into water, where the other part of the soap or detergent molecule is firmly attached. The offending substance is then washed away from the surface with the water.

The “attaching” process is where our troubles begin. In an effort to make more money, soap manufacturers invented detergents designed to create a quicker and stronger attachment to dirt and other substances. To do this, cleaning companies added petroleum products, preservatives, antibacterial agents, and artificial fragrances (the latter to cover the unpleasant chemical smells).

Detergents “attach” too well, which causes two problems. First, detergent molecules often stay on the surface rather than pulling away with the water. You know these remnants as soap scum or residue left on your clothes, sheets, or skin. Second, detergent molecules can also pull away surface molecules as they wash away with water. This causes deterioration of home surfaces or clothes and dry, irritated skin.

Soaps, on the other hand, are the byproduct of a fat (usually a natural oil) and lye interacting. They have a ph of 9 or 10 generally, so they are not as harsh. Soaps retain glycerin that is usually removed during the detergent making process. The effect with soap is a less harsh interaction with a surface.

Another big difference between soaps and detergents is their effects on the environment. Many toxins and synthetic substances are used in the manufacture of detergents. This means that a lot of energy is used to produce them, and they leave their mark on the world everytime we wash them down a drain. Soaps use very little energy in production and are made from natural substances. The ingredients will also biodegrade after they run down your drain and out into the world.

Hopefully, you will make an effort to choose a soap over a detergent the next time you shop. You may need to visit a health food store to find one.

I also wanted to explain the differences before I introduce any further blogs on why “green” cleaning is so much more effective than what we have become used to. I will keep you posted in future blogs on how we have all been duped into believing we need cleaners and antibacterial substances that we not only do not need, but that are actually making our world less safe and dirtier!

Help make a difference – time is running out!

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As I told you a few blogs back,  Let’s Talk S#@T!, Verna, my 12 year old cat, has had a serious gastrointestinal problem since August of last year. My Vet in SC, who is very competent and extremely compassionate, had tried what seemed like everything to cure her. The basic issue is that she had not had a solid BM since early August. When we left for NOVA in mid November, we had given up. It seemed the only options left were very invasive and expensive procedures that would only end up pointing at cancer anyway. I decided that if my sweet Verna had cancer I wanted her limited time left with me to happy and comfortable – not in a Vet’s office with a camera up her butt!

I did find a Vet up here and took her for a checkup earlier this month to make sure she was not losing weight (one of the signs that would let me know her condition – whatever it was – was getting worse). He wanted to run some blood work and test a stool sample. I went along even though I thought we were wasting time and money. I was very skeptical when he said that he might have found the culprit and he wanted to try her on an antibiotic to see if she would get better. I had certainly heard many variations of this before.

He said that she had tested positive for Bartonella (cat scratch fever). She has to spend three weeks taking Azithromycin. No sooner had I walked in the door from picking up her meds, my oldest cat – Frankie – had a stroke. She has pulled through. I only mention this because while at the Emergency Vet with Frankie I told them that Verna was being treated for Bartonella. I was just being a good Mom and telling the Doctor anything I could think of that might be relevant. The Emergency Vet expressed amusement at this. He seemed to think that Bartonella was some kind of last ditch effort at curing the incurable.

So, I went home and did some research. It turns out that between 20 and 50 percent (depending on the study you read) of cats have Bartonella. Many will carry a form of the disease for years and never become sick as a result. But when they do become sick it can be from such a large variety of illnesses it would be difficult to know the cat had Bartonella. The illnesses that can result from the virus include, but are not limited to, oral, respiratory. ocular and intestinal diseases. Then I remembered that in 2008 Verna had both Conjunctivitis and oral surgery for decaying teeth. My cat, Emma, died in 2008 a few weeks after Verna’s conjunctivitis from a respiratory infection.

Verna has been on the meds for one week and she has had solid BMs everyday after the first day or so of starting the treatment. I do not want to count my chickens before they hatch, but I think we are out of the woods.

I cannot say for sure that Emma‘s death or Verna‘s previous illnesses were related to Bartonella. But with so many illnesses that it can cause over years of a cat’s life, it is important for people to know about the virus. It is clear that not all Vets seem to look for it as a cause of illness. I am baffled by that since the test is done with the same blood sample acquired for all of the “usual suspect” tests. Both the test and treatment are  in the same price range as everything else we tried.

Hopefully, if you have given up on finding an answer to your cat’s illness, you will demand that your Vet test for Bartonella. Pass this information on to anyone you know who may be in a simillar situation.  Like I said, I am not one to put my cats through invasive procedures. But, I will NOT let my cat die or suffer when a $50 antibiotic can cure her!

Thank you, Dr. Rosen of Falls Church VA from Verna!

Useful information on Bartonella below:

http://www.natvetlab.com/PDF/catownerbrochure.pdf

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