Donna Lundy » Environment

Argan Conditioner and Argan Shampoo

Donna — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:36:10 +0000

Last night I finally tried the Argan Shampoo and Argan Conditioner that I received as a gift for Christmas through our Secret Santa party at work and I have to tell you that I am really impressed with the way this stuff makes my hair feel and look. They combine seaweed extract with Argan oil and Vitamin E so that it gently cleans and moisturizes the scalp and the hair and by golly it really works wonders. I’ll have to make sure and thank the co worker that drew my name, it is suppossed to be a secret but secrets are impossible to keep around that place!

Sobe in Plastic?

Donna — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 02:52:34 +0000

For an occasional treat, I will enjoy a nice cold Sobe beverage. My favorite is the Green Tea, but I also like the citrus flavor and recently tried the Nirvana, which has a melon flavor. All these years the Sobe drinks have been in tall glass bottles. But today when I bought a citrus Sobe, the bottle was not glass – it was plastic. What’s up with that?

Water Heater

Donna — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:19:04 +0000

I’ve been taking a look at how to save some money lately. In these shaky times, I think it is important to save every penny we can! We recently received the electric bill, and that was motivation for me to start looking at ways to reduce our electricity usage, even now without the added extra expense of running a central air conditioner.

First thing I’m going to do is get a thermal insulated blanket for the water heater. Our family takes a lot of showers, and we run the dishwasher every day (yes, it is full when we run it, and we have it set on air drying!) and we do a LOT of laundry, so I think insulating the water heater better will help reduce our electricity usage. I’ve read that doing this will save 4-9% in water heating costs!

Insulating pipes

Donna — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 22:03:22 +0000

On my campaign to make our house more energy-efficient (for the environment AND our shrinking electric budget) I have decided that it is also a good idea to get pipe insulation for our hot water pipes. I’m going to have my hubby go to Home Depot and buy some pipe insulation and install it in the basement.

I’ve seen some little insulated boxes that fit over top of the outside water spigots to help protect them from freezing. I think that is a good idea, too. It would be awful to have one freeze and burst – especially during the day while we are not home to deal with an emergency like that.

I do try to conserve water and have always turned out the lights when I leave a room and other prudent habits. But I’m always on the lookout for more ideas on how to save money and also help the environment.

Energy Saving Solutions

Donna — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 22:29:32 +0000

Energy efficient windows are a great way to help reduce our heating and cooling bills of course, but we all know that they can cost a pretty penny to purchase and have these particular energy saving solutions installed so in this case it takes money to save money, the old Catch 22 concept, sigh. I am really interested in having a home energy audit done here, last year the heating bill about broke us and I’m sure that this year it will be even worse unless we get some of these drafty house solutions going real quick like. It is getting colder and colder at night, last night we actually hit freezing, not happy with that at all.

I love my old house but it most definitely has real issues that have become a real pain in the pocket book. We roast in the summer and freeze during the winter, even though we have a fireplace that we use most of the cold winter months to help as much as a fire place is able to. But even the cost of fire wood has gone up ridiculously high these past few years. I’d really like to find one of the contraptions that you put in front of the fireplace that pushes the hot air from the fire into the house, I’ll have to seriously start looking into that option as well.

Promote Your Business

Donna — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 02:17:38 +0000

I love looking at all of the promotional items that are out for sale these days that many businesses give a way in order to keep their name and number embedded in people’s brains in hopes of bringing in and keeping their customers that are becoming hard to find these days since we are still in such an economic turmoil. I love attending Trade Shows where you can always count on coming home with a bag full of goodies such as these. One of the last Trade Show’s I attended I walked away with a decent pair of promotional sunglasses that I just love to wear to protect my eyes all year around. And the fact that they are made out of recycled materials just makes them even more special. I’m surprised I haven’t lost them yet, it figures that I lose the expensive sun glasses and can some how manage to hold on to this free pair.

Gone are the days that you will only find calendars, pens and pencils used for promotional use. Branders.com is a great place to see all of the goodies that they have to offer and they will even send you a free sample. I sent away for one of their pens some time ago, I actually forgot all about it until I got a package in my mailbox last week and found that they had indeed sent me the free pen that I requested. That was a pleasant surprise! I’m picky about my writing pens and this one fits the bill perfectly and for FREE!

The Issue Of Window Boxes

Donna — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 22:01:19 +0000

I was one of the people that were not granted a green thumb what so ever. It doesn’t matter if it is an outside plant or and inside plant, I fear they are doomed with me as their care taker. My mother had the best green thumb in the neighborhood with all of her beautiful window boxes that adorned many of the lower level windows back at the home stead. Everyone always complimented her on how see keep these treasured windowboxes looking their best each year.

I was given two lovely garden window boxes a few years back as a Mother’s Day gift and I still am not having any luck with those buggers no matter how hard I try and no matter what I do or plant in them. I’ve gotten to the point where they are now in the garage ready to put up for sale at one of our yard sales that we will be holding come next spring, I just give up. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings that gave me this gift but I just can’t deal with the thought of trying anymore.

Rain Harvesting Barrels

Donna — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 01:53:08 +0000

For the last decade or so we have been experiencing some very dry summers, so the need for rain harvesting has been increasing around here. My parents always had rain water barrels at the old homestead, so it isn’t like it is a new concept to me what so ever, but I just never got around to get my own rail barrel. I have decided to start looking around at various websites that have rain barrels for sale and I have been surprised at the variety of these rain barrels that have made their way to the markets.

The ones that we had at home we just the plain old wooden barrels with the metals straps around them and that was what I was expecting to see online. But now a days they have them made from plastic, vinyl, polyester and as well as wooden ones that just look more modern that the ones that I was used to seeing. All the different shapes, sizes, prices, heights, widths and gallon sizes are making the decision on which type to go ahead and order more of a task than I thought. I’m in no hurry but I really would like to get one as soon as possible and start putting it to good use. It’s all good!

Whitehall Mailboxes and Products Online

Donna — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 14:53:29 +0000

Back in August when we experienced Hurricane Irene the mailboxes on our street really took a hit. So I have decided to go ahead and start the process of finding a new and improved mailbox to put at the end of our driveway. It is important to have a good quality mailbox that properly displays the name and the house phone in case of any emergency personnel being called to come and assist any of us, especially at night. So I want to take that in consideration as well.

I have found some nice whitehall mailboxes online that I’m really interested in. I love that they offer free shipping on all of their whitehall products and have a 30 day no hassle return policy. I figure on passing the link to their website to several of my neighbors that have email and need to have a new mailbox themselves. I’m not trying to be nosey or pushy, just trying to be a good neighbor.

The Hard Need For A Water Softener

Donna — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 22:17:54 +0000

I have finally had about enough of the hard water issues that we have been dealing with since moving in her years ago. Seriously I don’t know why I have even waited this long to look into purchasing a decent water softener that will help in so many areas for all of us. The staining is my major issue, while my daughter has severe dry skin problems that is being blamed on the hard water as well.

Gonna start looking around online and seeing what good deals I can come up with, it’s all about the money folks!