It's in the air

Spring...it's pretty cold out right now but the sun is shining and we're plotting away at all sorts of outside schemes, projects, and getaways. This extra hour of daylight is almost too much for an overachieving optimist to get her head around! (although it is throwing us something awful in the morning - guess you gotta pay up somewhere).

Here are random snippets of the signs of Spring happening 'round the house...

We're making our own bread again now...at least once a week, sometimes twice. This is a yummy kasha cereal bread I whipped up yesterday (kasha is buckwheat - find it in bulk bins). Oh, it is delicious! :o) Haha, and our neighbors have been asking us if we're baking - seems we're makin' the neighborhood jealous. We keep the bread machine in the former back porch now laundry room instead of in the kitchen (as it's way too loud for a sleeping baby) and the aroma wafts into everyone's backyards.

This orchid is finally happy again after 2 years of not blooming! It helped that I moved it to the kitchen sink area - lots of sun, and easy to water.

Random wintery fruits...can't wait for those CSA strawberries!! Plus our own cherries in May, apricots in June, apples in July, and oranges nearly year round.

Sweet pea seeds a'waiting...with 'to die for' fragrance. If you've never smelled sweet peas and you have a little teeny spot in your garden (or any little patch of dirt with some sun - they're not picky!) put these in the ground. You will not be sorry!

Ok, so have a lovely springish Tuesday...I'm off to try and hack away some more at Illustrator and my sister in law's film logo. Who'd have thought that this same computer program could give me so much pain for so many years!! I'd much rather sew curtains and make bread (gosh, even put away laundry...it's gotten that bad), but I must, must, must persevere!

xo, devon

P.S. - More randomness for you - just how it is this time of year with so much going on...just read this article yesterday...the items below were of special interest to me as I have to print and ship often. I had no idea those standard mailing envelopes aren't recyclable!! Such a bummer - I have at least half a big box left of them. And everybody seems to use them. One more reason to switch to that 'kraft' style mailing envelope (besides the fact that they don't bend - I have to load my print packages with stiff backer boards for just that reason).

Goldenrod: Those ubiquitous mustard-colored envelopes are not recyclable, because goldenrod paper (as well as dark or fluorescent paper) is saturated with hard-to-remove dyes. “It’s what we call ‘designing for the dump,’ not the environment,” says Matsch.

Jiffy Paks: Many Jiffy envelopes―even the paper-padded ones filled with that material resembling dryer lint―are recyclable with other mixed papers, like cereal boxes. The exception: Goldenrod-colored envelopes must be tossed.

Padded envelopes with bubble wrap: These can’t be recycled. The best thing you can do is reuse them.

Printer-ink cartridges: Seventy percent are thrown into landfills, where it will take 450 years for them to decompose. “Cartridges are like gas tanks,” says Jim Cannan, cartridge-collection manager at Recycleplace.com. “They don’t break. They just run out of ink. Making new ones is like changing motors every time you run out of gas.” Take them to Staples and get $3 off your next cartridge purchase, or mail HP-brand cartridges back to HP.