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Poll: Can You Ditch Your Daily Newspaper?

Written by faith | View Comments

It’s a comfortable habit, sitting with your newspaper, coffee and scanning the stories of the day.  It’s also a tremendous use of trees at a time when you can easily get your news fix by switching to a news aggregator like Google News or Yahoo.  Using these feeds you can read a multitude of newspapers in online form. 

So save a few dollars; save a few trees; and help save the news biz as it migrates from the newsstand to your smartphone.  What do you say?

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Fashion Week Influences the Color Forecast and Your Home

Written by faith | View Comments

After seeing the bold colors of red and gold during the Olympics, more of the same continued at Fashion Week.  No surprise to see the 2009 color trends reflect the synergy of commerce and culture.  The bold and saturated hues remind us of summer and beaches while connecting us to influences and themes of other places such as Russia, East Asia and Latin America.  As Thomas Friedman expresses, the world is flat. 

Interpreted for your home, orange becomes an appealing color for interiors but is not crayon orange but toned down with a touch of yellow and called ‘tiger-eye’.  Likewise red receives a hint of orange and becomes tropical and lush.  In a room setting this ‘Moorish’ red is enhanced by complements of tangy lemon accents.

From Project Runway to Fashion Week, vivid blues and purples are combined with neutrals.  Blue promotes optimism and it’s grounded with nature’s neutrals; think natural fiber, wool, and wood.  This combination of fresh blues with gorgeous gray grounds the palette and promotes stability – a perfect combination for a master bedroom suite. 

The Green movement is mainstream so certainly green is a star whether on the runway or in the home. Spring inspired daffodil yellow pairs with a muddier gold green and adds freshness to the interior.  An old friend, olive green, becomes a sophisticated companion.  One color that combines with all of the above colors is slate grey providing a visual ‘weight’ to the overall color scheme. 

 

Finally, I believe color is LOCAL. Explore your locality, see how the colors are nuanced at your local markets and store display windows.  Spin the color wheel with local hues for a timely update

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Top Ten Water-Conserving Tips

Written by faith | View Comments

Ed Del Grande of Kohler shares his top ten tips:

  1. Turn off the water while brushing your teeth or shaving to avoid using excess water.
  2. Cut a minute off your shower time every day to save more that 750 gallons of water annually. Also consider swapping out your showerhead with a low-flow model that can reduce water usage by one-half gallon per minute.
  3. Landscape with native or drought-tolerant plants to significantly reduce water usage outside the home.
  4. Replace old toilets with High-Efficiency Toilets (HET) to save up to 17,000 gallons of water annually.
  5. Use leftover water for houseplants instead of pouring it down the drain.
  6. Make sure the dishwasher is fully loaded to maximize the number of dishes cleaned in a cycle.
  7. Use the appropriate water level and load size on the washing machine when doing laundry. Consider purchasing a front-load washing machine.
  8. Fix leaky faucets and install low-flow aerators on kitchen and bath faucets to effortlessly save 200-300 gallons of water each month.
  9. Use a broom rather than a hose to clean off driveways, steps and sidewalks.
  10. Water your garden during the coolest part of the day, generally in the morning, and avoid watering on windy days.
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