That's What I Mint! Go Minty on Earth Day

Mint:
noun
1. an aromatic plant native to temperate regions of the Old World. Several kinds of which are used as culinary herbs.
2. a peppermint candy
3. a place where the coins of a country are manufactured by authority of the government.

adjective 
1. perfect, as if new


Mint is topping Spring's must have hues list this year.
Personally, I love this shade. However, I don't have the time or money to go searching after every look of the moment, even one I really fancy.
Instead of running off to the store, I'm growing my gratitude for what I have.
This morning I did a roundup of the Mint I have in my life.  That's right, this morning.
It didn't take much searching at all to discover I own Mint-y things already.

This might sound silly, but hitting up my bathroom revealed a lot.
It might not help you feel like you're fashionable, but here are some tricks I use.

1.) It feels pretty satisfying to be fashionable underneath it all.

 

When I'm prepping for the day (read: bathing & deodorizing) I tell myself, "I'm so trendy right now."

It's funny how well that works. 

2.) Bright spots.  

I have plenty of minty receptacles (pots, drawers, cups, etc) around to store my craftiness.  

3.) Paint

If I need to add a little color to cloth, wood, glass, etc, I have craft paint on hand.  

I highly recommend Martha's line.

4.) Painted lady

Sally Henson's polish lasts fairly well.  I put on 2 coats.

5.) Be- dazzled

I got one of these necklaces at a clothing swap.

The other is from a spur of the moment World Market trip.

6.) These are just sweet.

See?  It's easy going Mint this season without spending a lot of coin.

#HappySpring  #HappyEarthDay  #GoGreen  #GoMint

Could Love Be Brewing? Percolating Coffee and Money Stuff

Let me tell you about my latest coffee date.

I have noticed that my posts on dating or that have titles that hint at dating perk up your interest readers, so...gotcha.  This has nothing to do with my personal life.  (Boundary maintained.) But it shows how I do attend my analytics.  

I won't be telling you a tale of love; I'm going to save you money instead.

One thing I started to try to tune into when cutting down on my gas bill was weaknesses and consumption habits.  It was a form of S.W.O.T. Analysis.  

If I have a consumption habit, it's one for stove top coffee.  That's right, I brew coffee twice a day.  I make it in my vintage mocha pot that I found at an amazing garage sale.  I think it must have been a wedding present because it hadn't been used and had the original papers with it.  It might be worth something, or it was until I used it lovingly 2 times daily, for years.

Are you wondering if I am twitching as I write this?  I'm not.  Though I did make some more coffee to accompany this post.  Yes, my doctor seems a bit concerned. 

Here is a brief timeline of how I brew coffee.  After moving apartments, I got rid of my old Mr. Coffee pot.  It was a joke, only held 3 cups of water, and just wasn't hacking it.  Mr. Coffee and I split up and now he lives in my parents' basement.
I turned my attentions at this point to my mocha pot.   Unfortunately, and likely because of the thickness of the metal, I noticed it took quite awhile to percolate.  I was paying for those therms, so, I switched over to my tea kettle and french press.  Faster, but could be improved upon.

And then, after the gas bill of December '13, I bought an electric kettle.

The box boasted a lot of positive attributes, and I can tell you, it truly does boil water faster.

And to use "faster" appropriately I conducted a very simplistic experiment.

I put 6 cups of water from the tap (which is frigid) in each kettle, turned on their respective energy sources and let them go.

The electric took just 7 minutes to bring to a full boil and blow the fuse in my kitchen!

And the metal kettle took at least 14 minutes (it still wasn't at a rolling boil) and blew no fuses!  

The lesson here?

There are several, but first: have a flashlight and know where you stored it.

Also, know where the circuit breaker box is and make sure it is not painted shut.

The second is like the first, don't use a microwave and electric kettle at the same time in the same outlet.

The third, you save therms if you use an electric kettle. 
I'm not sure how to compare gas units to electric. It likely requires one of those conversions that I never quite mastered in chemistry class.
(Correction: I have not and will not take the time to convert therms to kwh, but I could because I am smart.) 

Simply put in my head, I converted less gas to more dollars.
I still drink enough coffee to concern my physician and sustain my wit past work hours, so I can convert it to wisdom for you.

Happy Brewing! 

P.S. I am coffee dating myself, and it's going great.

Hot Cool Yours: Simple DIY for Saving Money

It seems all to fitting that they Olympics and my heating situation could both have the same slogan.
Hot Cool Yours
Though, I think it more apt written this way:  Hot?  (No.) Cool = Your[s] (home)
This explains how my apartment feels.
At night it is downright cold.  But there are certain pockets of the space that feel hot.
Such is the condition of a place built in 1913.

One aspect of the apartment that I found appealing aesthetically were the radiators.
Beautiful to look at, and functional, but I haven't utilized these as well as I might have.

After TGBD'13 (the gas bill of December 2013), I found a tip that could help my heated pockets spread the wealth.  The radiators can get quite hot to the touch, so I wanted to increase its thermodynamic radius*.

*I made that term up.

The tip suggested using aluminum foil.  The foil, when placed dull side to the wall has the shiny side facing the radiator.  The logic goes like this, since the heat source is next to a reflective surface the heat should bounce off instead of straight into the wall.
I decided to fix the foil to each wall using Washi tape.
Washi tape is growing to be a popular way to decorate apartments, and I've been looking for a reason to use it.  Since it is adhesive but doesn't leave lasting marks that could jeopardize my security deposit it's great for apartment livers like myself.  I found my tape at Target.

It's difficult to capture, since the behind the wall space is so small, but I pre-folded the edges of the foil, measuring and tearing sheets of about 2 feet each.  I found managing tinfoil longer than that was difficult.
I don't like wrestling with tinfoil, it just crumples under pressure.
Be ready for the foil to fly up towards the radiator.  I put the Washi tape on the tinfoil to troubleshoot this.

Then I fixed Washi tape at the top and bottom.  I wanted to ensure I had enough tape to place foil behind every radiator.  But now that I have them up, I will be framing the sheets along all edges to help it look a little more polished.

Essentially the foil serves the same function as it would in an oven.  The shiny side reflects heat off in a more useful direction than the wall.  Because who needs a warm wall?  I need warm toes!

Nerd alert: The science behind this intrigues me.  I hope to place thermometers around my apartment and take readings with the foil in place and without to see if there is a difference, or if this project was just had a placebo effect on me.