recycle, reduce, and re-use: launder green

These earthlings have some questions for you.

• Are you ready to give up your plastic jugs of chemical-filled fabric softener? 
• How about those perfume-infused dryer sheets that you throw away after one use? 
• Would you like to reduce drying time in your clothes dryer and save money on your electric bill?

 The answer is simple: 

alpaca balls!

(like these):

Alpaca dryer balls are usually the size of a tennis ball, and made from felted alpaca fiber, either natural color or with dyed accents.

How to use: Place four or more dryer balls in your dryer with your damp clothing and linens. As they gently bounce around in your dryer, they soften the fibers of your laundry while separating the items, allowing more air to circulate through each individual piece. 

The balls also absorb excess moisture, cutting down on drying time while at the same time fluffing your laundry, reducing wrinkles and static, and softening the fibers. You can re-use them over and over again. The ones pictured have been used for a year now and they are still going strong.

Here's more information from Perfect Timing Alpacas (who sell alpaca dryer balls in their online shop):

Advantages of Alpaca Dryer Balls

• Decrease drying time by about 25%, saving you money on utility bills. The more dryer balls you have in your load, the quicker the clothes will dry.
• Commercial fabric softeners and dryer sheets are filled with harmful chemicals and perfumes that coat your clothing, eventually ending up on your skin and inside your clothes dryer.
• Alpaca dryer balls can be re-used for years, saving you $.
• Alpaca dryer balls are perfect for keeping cloth diapers soft and chemical-free.
• Alpaca dryer balls won’t affect the absorbency of your towels; commercial softeners will.
• Great for drying sheets, towels, and down comforters because the balls allow the load to be broken up instead of balling up, thereby drying quicker and more efficiently.

Ready to try them? You'll find a huge selection of alpaca dryer balls from various artisans on Etsy.com. Click here:

  

Alpaca Dryer Balls On Etsy

         

renderings: western banded gecko

This original watercolor painting is called "Western Banded Gecko" and depicts one of our southwest reptile earthling friends in his happy home: a succulent-filled rock garden.

The Western Banded Gecko is a small, mostly nocturnal lizard usually measuring 3- 4" and is found in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico in the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts. You'll find more information about this reptile here, courtesy of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum:  Western Banded Gecko

For this artwork I used Arches 40 lb. Cold Press Watercolor Paper with professional quality watercolor paints. The painting image size is 10" x 14" and will arrive matted in an acid-free 16" x 20" white on black double matting ... ready to pop into any 16" x 20" standard frame.

******Fifteen percent of the purchase price will be donated to The Nature Conservancy, one of my favorite conservation groups******

Enjoy!

 

         

destinations: amity daffodil festival

Where: Amity Elementary School, 300 Rice Lane, Amity, Oregon

Dates: March 21-22, 2015

Time:  10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Festivities include a Daffodil Show sponsored by the Oregon Daffodil Society, a student and community Art Show, Plant Sales, a Buffet,  and a Driving Tour to local points of interest.

The Mac Trackers also sponsor a Volkswalk through the countryside to a daffodil farm on both days.

The Amity Daffodil Festival is produced by the Hospitality, Tourism and Management class of Amity High School in cooperation with the Oregon Daffodil Society, and the Mac Trackers Walking Club. The Festival started in the spring of 1995 and allows students to survey all of the hospitality field's areas such as food and beverage, lodging and travel. Proceeds go toward Festival projects and the Amity Daffodil Festival Scholarship Fund

For more information, click here:

 Amity Daffodil Festival 

         

garden goodness: tiny worlds

make a"welcome spring" fairy garden!

 

First step: gather up supplies. Many of my accessories and miniatures are found at garage sales and thrift stores. To begin, I chose a 15" bowl-shaped flower pot (with good drainage holes in the bottom) that was found at a yard sale, and filled it with good quality potting soil.

Any small, woody shrub with very small leaves makes a nice tree; clip off all extra twigs and branches around the base so that the trunk shows, then shape it into a tree-like shape. Plant it toward the back edge of the bowl. 

Next, I added a strip of "bricks" to make a garden path and some wire fencing that were recycled from a fairy garden that my brother gave me 10 years ago. They were purchased from this delightful establishment:

 M & M Nursery
380 North Tustin Street
Orange, California
714-538-8042

 If you can't visit them in person, check out their website where you will find lots of supplies and great information:
www.fairygardenexpert.net

For foliage, I planted two little clumps of ground cover. Visit the ground covering section of your nursery and look for ones with tiny leaves and tiny flowers. These will grow and spread so you will need to trim them and pinch them back periodically.

I added a patch of aquarium gravel that I found at a thrift store, plus a little fairy bench...
 

...then added some polished stones, and a few clumps of moss that I gathered from around our yard.

Now for the big moment. 

It's time to introduce my little fairy to his new hideaway. 

He loves it! 

He invited along two of his friends: a ginger cat...

...and a little gray squirrel.

As a finishing touch, I found a great metal stand at a yard sale. Keeping the pot raised off the ground will help maintain good drainage.

Time to take a deep breath, relax, and enjoy our little secret garden!

         

renderings: tulip trio

My original watercolor painting called "Tulip Trio" is a close-up study of tulip blossoms glowing in the late afternoon sunshine in the flower fields of the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm in Woodburn, Oregon.

I used Arches 40 lb. Cold Press Watercolor Paper with professional quality watercolor paints. The original painting is available for purchase in my Etsy shop Ramble & Frolic at this link:  Tulip Trio.  Fifteen percent of the purchase price will be donated to The Nature Conservancy.

Enjoy!

ponderings: roger miller

Roger Miller (1936-1992) was a "Songwriter, singer, guitarist, fiddler, drummer, TV star, humorist, honky-tonk man, Broadway composer, and perhaps above all else, an awesome wit".  In 1995, Miller was post-humously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Learn more about him here