Monthly Archives: July 2009

Exercise leads to better health in many ways.  It helps you to sleep better.  It improves mood.  It increases energy levels and even sex drive.  It leads to a longer life with fewer health complications.  It can reduce your blood pressure, your waist line and make you a happier person.  The thing is that it’s hard to get into a routine!

There’s a new line out there to help the motivate exercise enthusiasts to get a good workout in with an entire system.  It’s essentially aerobic weight lifting with something called a Kettlebell.  Follow the link to get a good idea of what I’m really talking about.  It’s kind of like a barbell with a rounded handle on it.  It comes in 5, 10 and 20 lb versions with a series of DVD workout programs that come with it.

They claim that in 20 minute sessions combining core, cardio and resistance workouts in each session.  Do the 20 minute sessions 3 times a week and in 6 weeks you’ll both see and feel a difference.  This is one I’d actually love to try!  There’s a huge range of workout and weight loss products out there some definitely better than others.  It’s an industry that isn’t feeling much of a pinch during this recession because obesity has become an epidemic in the western world.

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It’s not often that two of my favourite things combine together but I’m ecstatic to say that Big Brother Season 11 has “gone green”!!  The shows producer, Alison Grodner,  has proudly announced that the Big Brother house has a green theme this year.  This picture is a shot of the “green” exercise room.  The walls are covered with various upcycled materials such as cardboard tubes, bubble wrap and pop bottles.  It comes off looking only meh on a scale of meh to hooray but that’s not really the point.  The point is that they are promoting people to live more green.

They’ve got more than just one cheesily decorated room for us eco-friendly enthusiasts.  For the first time every, the houseguests will be using compostors!  There’s one in the backyard and one in the kitchen.  Some of the other green features of the house are a garbage can with separate sections for glass, plastic and paper.

There’s sustainable power exercise bikes that are pedalled to light up light bulbs.  I’m not sure what the point of these are other than being neat though because it’s not the light for the room…it’s just an extra bulb attached to the bike.  Maybe they’ll have contests about who can make their bulb the brightest.  We all know that the people themselves aren’t the brightest bulbs in the box! lol

There’s also bamboo plates and bamboo kitchen cupboards which are a great and easily visualized way to promote sustainable living.  All in all, you can definitely tell that they’ve made an effort.  And we all know that people don’t go from power hungry consumers to granola crunching hippies in one giant leap.  There are a series of small steps towards living green.  Each step on the path is important and does make a difference.  Hundreds of thousands of people watching this show take tiny steps towards green living is really a huge promotion towards environmental responsibility.  That’s if anyone but me watches this show anymore…I just can’t get enough reality tv for some reason.  I guess everyone has to have one fault, right? lol

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Even outdoor furniture can be bought with an environmentally responsible conscious.  There’s a company called Polywood which is distributed through cozydays.com that makes all kinds of outdoor furniture from post-consumer and post-industrial plastics.  They make everything from structural elements like bridges and boardwalks to railway crossties to recreational furniture such as picnic tables, benches and even pool furniture. Plastic, especially recycled plastic, makes a great addition to the poolside because you don’t need to worry about the furniture soaking up the water and ruining the wood.  It’s easy to wipe dry or just let it air dry.

It’s definitely worth following this link and checking out their line of “plastic furniture”. Look for the brand name Polywood to see the stylish and modern solutions made from this composite plastic lumber that is not only recycled plastic but it’s also non-toxic and maintenace free!  When you buy goods made out of eco-friendly or sustainable resources, you are encouraging manufacturer’s and distributor’s to provide more eco-friendly products and services.  Spend your money on quality goods instead of buying cheaper versions over and over.  It will end up costing both you and the planet more to replace items repeatedly.  Most importantly, keep green in mind when you’re shopping.

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My son, Kris, is turning 15 this weekend.  Fifteen years old…I can hardly believe it.  That’s half of 30!  He’s definitely grown into a young man right before my eyes quicker than I ever thought that he would.  What do you buy teenage boys for their birthdays???

I’m stumped.  He made a list but it’s all computer games and Xbox games.  I swear I should just give him an old barcode scanner from the office and a cardboard box so he can “pretend” to play video games like he did when he was young.  Absolutely hysterical!  I wouldn’t let him play with guns when he was younger so a barcode scanner was as close as he could get to having a real gun.  Poor thing…  He was 8 before I even let him have a water gun.  I’m a bit (okay, more than a bit) of a peace loving, tree hugging, granola eating hippie.  Except, not hippie-ish unlike my inlaws who truly are hippies!

The only other thing on his list is a few sci-fi books.  Science fiction and computer games.  I swear I don’t understand boys at all!  How is that fun?  Give me some barbies, new clothes, shoes and perfume anyday!  Boy stuff still doesn’t really make sense to me.  I guess it probably never will and if it does, that means I’ve totally lost it!

He’s too young to be super interested in girls or music or fashion or anything like that yet.  My mom got him an RESP (registered education savings plan) for his birthday.  Good idea, we contribute every month.  Not much fun to “play with” though!  Too old for toys and yet too young for men’s toys!

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It’s half way through July…if you’re not yet thinking of Christmas, you’d better get to it!!  There’s this awesome site where you can get the best Christmas presents for everyone on your list!!  Looking for something for that hard to buy for Dad on your list?  Why not look at Mens Ugly Sweaters???  Do you need to get a couple gifts for your nieces and nephews??  Think about getting Ugly Christmas Sweaters!  Heck, they’ve even got ugly sweaters in the dog variety!  Okay, now you’re probably asking why, right?  Why the heck would anyone want to buy these sweaters?

I’ll give you a taste of the item description for the top sweater just to give you an idea of how great these sweaters really are:

“This sweater makes me want to get up out of my chair and sing…

Blinded by the light,
wrapped up like a douche,
dry humping flying kites…

What does that song even mean? It has amazing lyrics, but is there some sort of subliminal messaging? When obscure curiosity strikes people make mistakes, music or sweaters. This ugly sweater has so many beads and elaborate buttons that you will feel like you are wrapped like a douche.”

LMAO!!!  You can’t afford not to buy this.  They do offer free shipping.

There’s a new phenomenon that you’re certainly going to want to jump in on.  It’s the Ugly Sweaters Christmas Parties.  Essentially, everyone puts on ugly Christmas sweaters and hits the pub.  It’s not complicated.  Everyone will know you’re together if you’re drinking in your sweaters.  You won’t have to ask where your friends are and you can no longer see properly.  People will just point and laugh and you’ll know which direction they’ve headed in.  You’ll never be ditched again!  It’s like wearing team shirts after a baseball game only more sweatery and less athleticy.  Drinking and ugly sweaters go together like peanut butter and jelly or meat and potatoes or trees and leaves.

Speaking of trees, these would make awesome eco-friendly gifts for people!  This band of merry ugly sweater wearing environmentalists scour the globe looking for the best offerings in the category of used sweaters.  That’s right, they’re already broken in for you!!  Seriously, think of all the landfill space you’ll be saving by buying these sweaters.  Shop now, selection is limited!

Great for gag gifts for those reminiscing for times gone by or just people that are old.  There’s many takes of the ugly Bill Cosby sweater available to purchase right now.  The eighties were a great decade for the ugly sweater and I say, let’s make that retro trend cool again!

This is a sposored post (that I’d have easily done for free!) with 100% real opinions.

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Check out these awesome photo albums that use records and their sleeves as the cover.  They’re made by Halifax ecologist Maggy Burns who runs Re-Cover Journals.  She doesn’t just do photo albums out of records though…She does journals, notebooks, doodle books and address books out of a variety of used goods.  Mostly the notebook covers are made from used books rescued from the landfill.  Just think of all the stuff you could make into a notebook cover…the possibilities are really endless.  Have no ideas??  Go to the Clean Calgary Association Eco-Store and buy one of Maggy’s books.  They carry a variety of her stuff from the photo albums to the books in a variety of sizes and styles.

Maggy Burns makes the products using 100% post-consumer recycled paper for the pages of her books and literally takes things right out of the dustbin at times.  The covers of the books range from sexy to funky to funny and everything in between.  If you look enough, you just might get lucky and find something you absolutely adore!  This would also make a great DIY project for those of you with old LP’s laying around or lots of colorful book covers that you don’t want anymore.  I’ve also seen the covers made out of old calendar pages.  Sometimes the photos in calendars are just terrific!  Ohhhh, a sexy fireman note book—lol.  That would be a “hot” seller!

Use your creativity and imagination to try to discover another use for something before you throw it out…you may just come up with your own eco-friendly business idea!  At the very least, you’ll keep something out of the landfill that doesn’t need to be there.

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I’ve been following this popular blog about postpartum depression for the last several months or so.  It’s called Postpartum Progress and has a ton of information on it keeping readers up to date on current research, media portrayls of postpartum, PPD from a political perspective, and basically everything and anything related to postpartum depression.  What I really love about this blog is that it’s upbeat.  It shows moms that there really can be a life after going through the trauma, fear and societal pressures surrounding postpartum depression.  My favorite part is the “Surviving and Thriving After Postpartum Depression” that is like a photo album of moms and their kids who are doing great after suffering postpartum depression.

I’ve had PPD myself two times now with the last time being the most severe.  The worst part was that I did not even get to have a live baby and still suffered from postpartum depression.  During my first bout of postpartum after my daughter was born 3 years ago, I was at home on maternity leave with her.  Here in Canada, we get a year maternity leave before returning to work after having a baby.  Last year, I was halfway through the pregnancy when a doctor at an ultrasound clinic told me that my baby had died.  Devastated is a serious understatement for what my husband and my family felt.  I was about a thousand times past the feeling of devastation.  I felt the familiar depression wash over me like an unending series of waves in the ocean.

My first time having postpartum was awful but my second time ended up with me being committed to the hospital for a couple of weeks.  I felt horribly guilty thinking that my depression had killed our son.  I had no baby in my arms and still suffered this terrible unending depression mixed with grief at the loss of our child.  There was no baby to try to hold it all together for and no maternity leave to rely on to keep the financial pressures at bay.  I don’t know what I would have done if my employer did not have long-term disability insurance to pay at least a portion of my wages until I could return to work.  What I thought would take a few weeks to recover from ended up being a year unable to work at all.

Most of these days passed with me in tears, unable for me to care for anyone.  Unable to even care for myself.  This was the darkest most frightening time of my entire life.  I cannot begin to explain what it is to have your mind shatter inside of you and still live.  It’s been about a year and a half now since my son’s death and I’m up to 4 days a week at work.  I’ve long come off of disability insurance but am more than happy to keep paying into it.  I am so grateful for the small amount of peace that it was able to bring to us.

I felt, and still feel like, even miscarriage support groups do not understand me.  I am not only suffering the loss of a child but also postpartum depression as well.  I am doing much better now and hope to one day be like the pictures of the Surviving and Thriving Mothers on the Postpartum Progress blog.  The difference will be that my arms will be empty.  Empty arms do not fill an empty heart.  Maybe my picture will be beside the lost babies memorial picture here that my son is a part of.  Postpartum depression without a baby is the worst kind of depression, in my opinion.

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This image by flickr user bernadoh shows a car in serious need of a bodyshop service.  Okay, it’s actually a strange art installation at the Sydney Opera House!  The point is that many people get rid of their cars after an accident instead of having it repaired.  These cars just end up being scrapped (or perhaps made into strange art projects!).  A good shop can tell you whether or not it’s worth it financially to fix it or ditch it.  But where do you even find a good repair shop for your car??

There’s a nationwide network of collision repair experts available on line that provide low cost and reliable services to those in need of repairs.  This collision repair expert network is a place where you get can good advice on what to do after an accident.

Finances aren’t the only thing to be considered when you’re thinking of buying a new car though.  Try to see things on a more global scale of production and pollution expenses caused by buying brand new.  And if you do decide to replace your vehicle with a new one, ensure that you get one that is more fuel efficient, less polluting and perhaps even a hybrid!

This is a sponsored post with 100% real opinions.

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Eco-friendly light bulbs have traditionally been CFLs.  More recently, led light bulbs have appeared on the scene.  At first, they were only available as Christmas lights.  I must admit that we were one of the first to run out and buy them.  They were quite a bit more expensive than “regular” light strings but consumed much less energy and were much more vivid than other types of light bulbs.  The prices have now evened out a bit.  They are still more expensive but more than make up the price difference in energy savings.  The energy savings can be felt in your pocket book as well as on a global scale of conservationism.

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about CFL light bulbs emitting radio waves which may be dangerous to people’s health.  There are conflicting reports and studies on the true effect of these emissions on people but I personally would rather be safe than sorry.  LED light bulbs are now widely available in a variety of shapes, sizes and wattages.  They are definitely more vivid somehow than more traditional light sources but the difference is unnoticable once you get used to them.  Another cool feature available in these bulbs is that you can get them in color changing varieties.  I’m not sure what you’d really want that for but it’s definitely cool!!

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Jim Rosenau goes above and beyond the term creative upcycling when it comes to his re-use of his book collection!  Check out his This Into That Gallery which aptly describes exactly what he does.  He turns this into that…voila.  Mostly it’s books into bookshelves but there is definitely more that he makes from his seemingly endless book collection.  Bird houses creatively made from books about birds as seen in the picture.  Book cases made entirely from books with room for even more books.  A book shelf made from fishing books with a ginormous fish hook through it.  A mobile made from the ends of brooms.  A book shelf with an old saw through the bottom of it as seen in the second picture here.  Chairs from books, pencils and scrap wood.  Tables made from (you guessed it) books mitred to create a symmetrical, super chic table top.  A shelf for the kitchen out of cook books and a frying pan cut in half to sit flat against the wall.  The pan can be filled with growing herbs or onions or apples or even more books if you’d like!

He tends to like thematic hardcover books that look alot better on the outside than they actually are on the inside.  He has an ongoing collection of approximately 5,000 books that come mainly from donations, library discards and recycling centers.  And he certainly does recycle them!  If he thinks they have any value, he tries to place them with dealers instead of “destroying” the readability of them with his creations.  Mr. Rosenau really likes embossed covers that sparkle in light with the gilt although he recommends keeping them out of the sunlight to prevent discoloration.  He removes some of the pages and replaces them with salvaged lumber (more upcycling!) to make his usable art pieces actually function.  His shelves can hold a surpsing amount of weight under normal use.  I wouldn’t recommend swinging like a monkey from one to another but they can hold stuff.

Definitely worth checking this gallery out.  More ideas and creativity going on in his gallery than in most.  If more people thought like this artist/carpenter/recycler, the world would definitely be a better/greener place!  Atta boy Mr. Rosenau!!

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