You all know that there’s nothing we love better than finding new uses for the stuff that normally lands in the recycling bin or garbage can.  So it probably comes as no surprise that after I emptied the last drops of vanilla into a carrot cake to share with all one of our neighbors, Martin and I rigged up our own little hanging vase for the hallway:

All it took was twelve inches of scrap copper wire twisted around the neck of the bottle, and presto!  We hung our new vase on a nail already in the wall since we don’t want to be pounding into the Tire House we’re renting in the Rocky Mountains this summer.  We know how to patch bike tires from living in Berlin, but tire walls?

I suppose I should insert the disclaimer that we have no spring flowers blooming around here, hence the seeding grass and dried blooms.  The deer around the house eat everything in site except the noxious weeds that are blooming.

So there you have it!  Between covering tin cans for pencil holders, repurposing cards we get in the mail, and now decorating with our vanilla bottle, I think it’s safe to say we won’t have much garbage to haul to town for a while.

Now we’re curious:  have any of you come up with creative uses for your old glass and stuff from the kitchen?

We pulled a little switcharoo in the kitchen of our house made of recycled tires that we’re renting for the summer in the US and couldn’t wait to share our cheap upgrade.  Or should I say cheep?  The salt and pepper shakers here in the Tire House were feeling a little drab.

So we offered them the summer off – an offer they gladly accepted.  They dove into the cupboards, and our search for new salt and pepper shakers began.  Bringing in a few personal items into a fully furnished home – such as this handmade soap dish – really makes the whole “house to home” transition possible.

We bought our little birdy sugar shaker in Denver, and ever since, I’ve been drawn to having a few birds in the kitchen (not real, of course – we already have the mice).  Thanks to a few emails back and forth with Emily at emily claire creates, I found out about these shakers for $4.99 at Target.  They flew right into my shopping bag.

I’d really like to take them to Germany.  Fortunately at less than $5, I can feel okay if they don’t fit in my bag.

What types of things do you find yourself drawn to these days?  Martin – well he was totally drawn to that dish of cherries.  Yeah for summer!

We made some quick eco upgrades here at the Tire House that we just had to share with all of you.  Goodness knows this house gets dirty.  I know: what house doesn’t, right?  The problem with the conventional cleaning products that we’re using in our houses is their major toxicity.  Ever have to run out of the bathroom because your shower scrub is just killing your senses?  The EPA ranks poor indoor air quality among the top five risks to public health.

So here ya go: a golden ticket to a green clean.

1. Ditch products that say “Poison,” “Warning,” or “Danger.”  Cleaners like these shouldn’t be in your house.  If you have a septic system and a well like we do, chances are toxic chemicals that wash down your drain are going to leach into your drinking water.  Plus you’re slowly contaminating your own soil.  So by “ditch”, we don’t mean toss them down the drain.  Take them to a place that would still be interested in using them or find out how to dispose of chemicals safely in your community.

2.  Read the label.  Anything that has ingredients containing the phrase “chlor”, “glycol”, “phenol”, or ends with “-ene” is doing more harm to your body than adding shine to that floor.  Even scarier are the products that don’t even list their ingredients.  It’s almost like they have something to hide.  With our learn something new every day challenge, I’ve already been looking up unfamiliar ingredients and not liking what I’m seeing… and those are from products that reveal what they’re made of!

3. Consider making your own cleaning products.  Glass cleaner is the easiest.  Here’s our recipe inspired by the book, Green Up Your Cleanup:

Piece of cake, no?  It’s a great comfort to know that the vinegar mist might land on my toothbrush instead of traditional window cleaner when I’m washing the bathroom.  Green Up Your Cleanup offers a slew of other recipes with simple ingredients, and it’s less than 7 beans.  I absolutely recommend it.  Baking soda and vinegar are my best friends now.

4.  Scoop up some eco-friendly cleaners.  They’re getting easier and easier to find these days, which is a good thing.  Ever notice how much your nose starts to sting in the cleaning aisles at grocery stores?  Here are our favorite cleaners.  They’re all we need to clean this ol’ tire.  Seventh Generation’s dish soap has been a staple at our house forever (I’m so tempted to say “for generations”, but that doesn’t make a lick of sense since we have no other generations at our house).  We’re new to Method’s all purpose spray (love it).  And of course our forever favorites are baking soda, white vinegar, and a whole lot of elbow grease with a scrub brush, rags, and Scotch Brite pads.

So there you have it: the green clean at our house.  With all the toxins in our homes and environment, it’s nice to know there’s one less thing we have to worry about.  

Don’t suppose you have some green cleaning tips to share, do you?  We’re all ears on everything eco!

One part of earning a pilot’s license that I haven’t expanded on yet in our rather weekly updates is all the textbooks.  For every hour of flight time, there are at least three hours of putting your nose to the books.  It’s not nearly as exciting reading about the way engines work as it is checking out the scenery and houses from inside a plane.  Aren’t the least exciting things always the most important, though?  

Perhaps one of my favorite parts of studying my primary book, appropriately called Private Pilot Manual, is the stories about great men – and a few women! – in aviation.  I’ve had a couple of books on my wish list for some years; now I’d love to get my hands on West with the Night and Flying High: Pioneer Women in American Aviation.  There’s something invigorating about seeing little blips in my textbook about women overcoming obstacles.  As women, we’re constantly facing obstacles.  We feel like we have to create perfect homes, happy families, and great careers.  We put so much on ourselves and often fail to achieve our greatest desires sometimes.  

Aviation has always been so male dominated, and naturally so.  Martin naturally flocks to the dining table when he sees my textbook open.  He’s just waiting for me to ask about pistons and oil.  Meanwhile, before I started thinking of the empowerment aviation offers women, I thought nothing of all the aviation manuals and books we often lug from home to home.  I just watched the little oil sticker on our car for the next oil change because it just wasn’t my thing.

Do you ever find yourself so moved that you can hardly sit still?  When you know you’re doing something so very rare – maybe not for all women, but something rare for yourself – how do you work to contain your enthusiasm and keep from jumping up and down and waving hysterically?

Since the day I met Martin, he has always looked toward the sky any time he heard a plane fly by.  It never mattered what it was, even if it was the same Delta flight that came in every day at the exact same time.  He always looked up.  I never really got it.  Now I’m starting to.  Aviation isn’t just his thing any more.  We never thought this would be something we could share like we do today.

Yes, I’m still battling with motion sickness.  It’s something that I’ll always have to deal with.  (Thank you for all the wonderful suggestions, by the way!)  It’s worth the fight.  Look at this quote by Leonardo da Vinci from his book, On Flight of Birds:

For once you have tasted flight,
You will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward;
For there you have been,
And there you long to return.

And in case I want a little casual airplane reading, Martin has also supplied me with one of his all-time favorite childhood books:

Only problem?  He didn’t know English back then; it’s in German.

Have you ever noticed that the things that are supposed to relax you really end up being just as much work as your actual work?

All right, I admit it:  you won’t find me checking the mouse traps in the morning.  As much as I don’t want to live with the little guys, I just don’t have the heart to do anything with traps.  I’m so thankful to have a male in the house.  Of course, he doesn’t like it too much either.  You could have spotted us pulling over on the highway a little while back.  We had a mouse to let go.

So with mice forever on my mind, I thought I’d give you another peek into our house (our referring to Martin, me, and a shrinking number of mice but not shrinking number of really big bugs).  Who knew that living as perma-movers meant we were awesome mice resisters at the same time?  Certainly not us.

When you first walk into the door of the Tire House, you’re greeted with this sign:

Yep, part of living in other people’s homes means respecting their rules.  We’re totally fine with the no shoes thing.  We don’t wear them inside anyway.  As for pets?  We’d love to have some furry friends.  A cat or dog would be a blast.  But they’re expensive.  I can’t kill a mouse, and I truly doubt I could handle making a pet fly overseas multiple times.  So I’m thankful we have no temptation to get a pet as we live here.  The mice apparently did not get the message: no animals allowed.

They did get the message that mattresses are fun places to hang out, though.  Here’s how the bedding was safely stored before we moved in:

So how about some mouse prevention tips we’ve come up with on our own?  Here’s my stuff:

Okay, okay.  I realize plastic bins are not the most attractive thing in the world.  Oh but they are the easiest way to pack and move (and move and move).  We just take a little bit of packing tape and tape each one shut when it’s time to pack up.  When we arrive at our new destination, we plop our bins somewhere, tear off the tape, and kick back ’cause guess what – we’re done unpacking.

Some day, a more attractive system like wooden drawers that I could paint little pictures on would be nice.  In the meantime, these bins are perfect.  They may have college kid written all over them, yet no mouse has made his way into my socks yet!

Let’s head to the kitchen now, shall we?

Here’s my portable spice collection.  I feel so foolish to admit this to you:  I actually have an old shoe box specifically designated for our spices.  The little Pier One bottles fit perfectly, don’t they?  (They’re still looking for a home.)  Just as we store our spices, we’re discovering that all of our flour and other tasty mouse snacks need to be stored in glass jars, too.  Then the kitchen needs to be crumb-free at night.  These guys just don’t rest!

One last trick we picked up – and we just have to share – is the perfect “bait” for a mousetrap.  The owner of the airport taught us this one.  Instead of baiting your trap with cheese, use peanut butter.  It lasts longer, and the mice lick it up as fast as… well you and me!

So that’s the story of the mice who got really excited when they saw us moving in with a bunch of fresh clothes and yummy food, only to discover we just weren’t into having them for roommates.

Curious about who we do love for roommates?  Okay, maybe that’s a stretch.  But here’s our favorite band and our favorite chef’s teensy kitchen.

After making the time to take a picture every day in May, I started thinking about all the 5 minute projects that I could begin each day in June.  I’m a huge fan of 30-day projects.  They’re just the right amount of time to explore new ideas, and they’re far more practical than New Year’s resolutions because you actually can remember them and want to try them.

Trying to take a picture every day was a lot of fun, and I’ll try to find a way to share my project with all of you.  In the meantime, here’s June’s project:  take a few minutes to learn something new every day.

This eager kid says it all, don’t you think?  I’ve been so eager to start this next challenge.  Would you care to join me?  My all-time favorite website… and this is embarrassing… is Wikipedia.  It’s an online encyclopedia overflowing with gobs of really cool bits that readers actually contribute to.

Do you ever have moments where you ask what something is?  But then do you quickly shrug it off and quickly move on with what you’re doing?  I do that all the time.  I wonder about trees, foods, places… For loving Wikipedia so much, I’m not very good at using it.

So this month I’m challenging myself to take a few minutes to learn.  It’s a simple way to make learning a habit – perfect for our Simpler Life Series, wouldn’t you say?

Here was my June 1 Wikipedia search:  red-winged blackbird

These fellas are everywhere around here, and they’re one of the few birds I can identify.  (I’m still stumped by these weird birds in Berlin.)  Or at least I thought I could identify red-winged blackbirds.

They’re constantly hanging out with these guys.  I figured they were just good pals.

Nope.  Those are the females.  No wonder the males are so friendly, huh?

So here’s to another 30 day challenge!  I’d love to have you join me.  Think of all the randomness you could impress your family with at the most random times.  I can see it now.  Awkward silence.  Then you blurt out the not-so-cool ingredients in Subway’s bread or bamboo clothing like the considerate Christine is talking about on Simple Savvy.

I’d really like to know what you all do when you have questions about stuff.  Do you keep track in a little notebook or drop everything to find an answer?  You could just forget about it, and that’s okay, too.  I am up for interesting must ask topics to look into.  …well except I’m kind of thinking that today I’ll look into Subway’s bread.

(Images from Flickr and Wikipedia)