My Life In Stages Blog Giveaway Winner Was Me (woo hoo!!)

My good bloggy friend Anna (Almost Precious on Etsy, My Two Cents at blogger) alerted her readers a while back to another bloggy friend, My Life In Stages, having a giveaway so I figured what the heck.

I almost never enter giveaways. Not only because I tend to not win most of the time but I feel like there are probably other people who could benefit far greater from the winning item than little old me. But this one was different.

I mean, do you see those beautiful cups and saucers in that picture up there? How could I resist?

Well I couldn’t, and not only was I the uber lucky winner but I found an item that I completely heart in Tracie’s shop too!

Let me first back up for a second and explain why I even entered in the first place. Matt and I live in a rental as most of you know. We are not allowed to paint the walls so we have to adopt our color infusions in other ways.

A while back I decided to refinish our second (or forth, not sure) hand kitchen furniture with a very modern feel -- espresso brown for the chairs and deep navy for the table. I wanted the kitchen to feel like it came out of a Pottery Barn catalog but with refinished older pieces and far less expensively.

The paint treatment was just the start of course as our dishes (that are close to 10 years old, chipped, broken and worn) were also going to be replaced. I wasn’t sure what we would do but I knew I was going to scour shops like Goodwill and Salvation Army for previously loved but not broken items.

Then like a beacon of awesomeness, there were the pictures on Tracie’s blog and I was in love! Strangely enough she drew my corresponding commenter number and wouldn’t ya know, it was my lucky number 11! Must have been fate.

I sadly have not yet had a chance to put these out (because my table is still not fully cured yet due to the massive humidity & I haven’t finished making the placemats from the fabric as seen in the photo) but I didn’t want to wait ay longer to tell everyone about the wonderful My Life In Stages blog or how grateful and appreciative I am that I was the winner of her first ever giveaway.

Thanks Tracie, I can’t wait to start sipping my evening tea from these very mugs!

Ziploc Evolve Bags Make the Effort Toward More Responsible

This past week my bloggy friend Anna, from the super cool Etsy shop Almost Precious, and I worked out the details for me to ship her a whole bunch of beading supplies. Then while grocery shopping I happened upon these new Ziploc® evolve™ sandwich bags and I was intrigued to say the least.

Made by utilizing 25% less plastic (than their original Ziploc counterparts), by utilizing less overall energy consumption in their production (intended to help reduce emissions), through the power of wind energy (up to 50% of the energy associated with the creation will come from wind power) and packaged in recycled cardboard (100%, 35% of which is post-consumer). These bags are a step in the right direction.

Now I know what many of you are thinking, they are still plastic, still using fossil fuels and still part of a ‘one and done’ mentality and that is definitely all true but sometimes change comes in the form of baby steps for some who might be more resistant. Busy parents who still package their kid’s lunch in sandwich bags at least have a more environmental option now. I feel better knowing that if they were going to buy them anyway, at least there are smart choices to consider.

Over time, this awareness in behavior might transition into packing sandwiches in reusable containers, but in the here and now I like to see companies making some kind of step, any step, towards a more responsible option. And they were only about $.30 more expensive for the box of 50 bags as compared to the store brand sandwich bags.

I can’t Leaf Rate the bags as I’m not really sure how they work, my whole intention was to use them for separation and storage during the shipping process and I imagine Anna will see to it they are disposed of properly as she is a fellow Greenie. Perhaps she will also be so kind as to let us know how they held up during shipping and if they are a decent storage option on the whole??

If you’re a person who plans to buy them anyway, I recommend looking into Ziploc® evolve™ as a more responsible option.

A Tuesday Pretty, What A Deal From Almost Precious!

While perusing the virtual aisles over on Etsy yesterday I stopped by the shop of a good friend -- Almost Precious. Um, not only is this gorgeous but at an amazing price!

To go direct to the item listing page, and snatch up this baby immediately, go HERE.

You had better hurry up though, if its still there on payday I’m definitely going to beat you to it! Beautiful work Anna!

For all of you jewelry designers out there, Almost Precious carries a slew of gorgeous beads and jewelry making supplies at really super reasonable prices and currently has all of her handmade pieces on clearance.

Happy shopping!