Stinkerpants

Glass Water Bottles

November 17, 2009 in I Freakin' Love This Thing! • I Freakin' Love this Household & Every day Stuff!

My husband and friends all seem to think I’m a total freak of nature, just because of my slightly abnormal water receptacle.  Yes, it’s true: it’s not your average water bottle, but it is superior in so many ways, people.  Seriously.

So here’s the deal: I have a tendency to be a bit of a klutz.   I am constantly knocking things over, which is why it’s good for me to drink out of a water bottle–otherwise, I end up with water all over my desk, the couch, or myself.

I used to use a Nalgene or simply refill old bottles.  Bad idea–we’ve all heard about the risks of BPA (although Nalgene now makes BPA-free bottles).  Because Y is pretty aware of environmental and health risks associated with chemicals (we’re both hippies, but he also happens to frequent digg.com), he knew a long time ago that we shouldn’t be using plastic bottles.

So he ran out and bought us some BPA-free metal bottles from Klean Kanteen.  I hated them, though.  I know I’m going to sound like a lazy SOB, but I hate how long it takes to unscrew the cap!  Plus, I am convinced that the water tastes kind of like tin (Y insists that I made that up, but what does he know?!  He adds three drops of mint extract to his water, which would mask the tin taste anyway!).

My solution was to find a glass water bottle.  Glass is safe to drink out of, and I’m absolutely convinced that water tastes better out of glass than any other type of container.  So I did some research.

I fell in love with these beautiful glass water bottles, made by an Italian company.  They look plastic, but they’re actually glass!

Unfortunately, I’ve seen these in person, and the glass is pretty thin.  I was paranoid that I’d break it–after all, these ain’t cheap.

Then I discovered the Love Bottle, made here in San Francisco.  At first I wasn’t too wild about these because they aren’t exactly my style, but they’ve been coming out with more styles recently.  They also have plain bottles.

I found the bottle of my dreams, though, in a surprising place: Ikea!  These glass water bottles are big (meaning I don’t have to refill it five times a day) and they’re thick (meaning I’m more likely to break the tile in the kitchen than the bottle itself–not that I’ve tried it).  And on top of that, they are cheap.  At $2.99 each, I bought four, just in case one of my family members wanted one.

Unfortunately they all think I’m crazy.  They claim my bottle is “too heavy” and “breakable.”  I say they’re jealous.  My water tastes way better than theirs.

Favorite Things: Dyson’s “the Animal”

November 2, 2009 in I Freakin' Love This Thing! • I Freakin' Love this Household & Every day Stuff!

Prior to our wedding, Y and I had two vacuums: one was a 20 year old hand-me-down canister from his parents, and the other was a cheap upright vacuum from Target that I bought and loved.  I am the vacuumer (is that a word?  If not, it totally should be!) in our family, and I refused to use the canister because it was such a pain in the neck and it spit dust out the back.  I’d heard wonderful things about the Dyson, but I wasn’t about to give up my vacuum.  It was two years old and perfectly fine, thankyouverymuch.

Until it broke.

Well, technically, it caught on fire and I was terrified to plug it in again, so I’m not entirely sure it was broken.

In any event, I wanted a new vacuum.  We did some research and added Dyson’s “the Animal” to our wedding registry, hoping someone would get it for us in the next week (with four cats and a dog, I have to vacuum a lot).  Obviously, no one wanted to buy us a $400 vacuum 6 months before our wedding (or ever, as it turned out).  So we bought it ourselves, hoping some super rich member of our extended family would take pity on us and eventually get it for us.

This vacuum is so much better than I ever thought it would be.

It. is. amazing.

It seriously sucks up a TON of dust and cat hair.  The dust is actually what amazes me most, because most vacuums can clean up cat hair.  After I vacuum each week, there’s about an inch of dust at the bottom of the canister thing.  It’s both fabulous and disgusting.  Here I am with my vacuum on our first day together:

The vacuum is also really easy to empty: I just take it right outside, hold it over the garbage can, and push one button.

I love it.  It’s definitely one of my favorite things!

Favorite Things: Clarisonic

February 18, 2009 in I Freakin' Love This Thing! • I Freakin' Love this Household & Every day Stuff!

After the wedding, my skin started to break out.  Badly.  When I got off birth control pills to help my migraines, it got even worse.  I went to the dermatologist, who prescribed me antibiotics and a bunch of topical stuff.  Then she told me not to get pregnant, because my child would be so horrifically deformed I’d need an abortion.

Yikes.

I am of the opinion that if something that could do that to a fetus, it probably isn’t good for me, either.  And what happens if I accidentally get pregnant?  I don’t want to abort it!  I would like to keep that child (even though I don’t really want kids right now), thankyouverymuch.  So I didn’t fill any of the prescriptions and continued to be depressed by my acne.

About a month and a half ago, I finally decided I needed a major intervention and I didn’t care how much it cost me (well–within reason).  I went to a skin care clinic called Trio Skincare, which was recommended in an online forum.  They put me on a line of natural skincare products (Rhonda Allison), which was something I’ve been wanting to do anyway after learning that there are a lot of nasty chemicals in skincare products.

One of the other things they recommended was the Clarisonic brush.  At first I thought it might be a gimmick, but it’s one of the Best of Sephora products, one of Oprah’s favorite things, and has tons of positive reviews on both Amazon and Sephora.com.  I decided that it probably wasn’t a gimmick, but I didn’t have a bunch of extra money lying around to spend on something that washes my face for me, when my hands are perfectly capable.

I used the Rhonda Allison products for about three weeks without the brush.  My skin started to improve, but not super dramatically.  I hadn’t stopped thinking about the brush.  I started researching it a bit more thoroughly, trying to decide if it was worth the money (it retails for $195).

Once I saw that it has a satisfaction guarantee, I decided to fork over the money and get it (I got it on Amazon through a third-party seller for about $20 less–just look at their marketplace).  Besides, 257 5 star reviews on Sephora can’t be wrong, right?  I figured it was worth a shot.

I have to say, I am very impressed.  I love it.  I use it twice a day, and my skin has improved at a much faster rate since I got it.  I use it with the skincare line I was already using (in an effort to avoid those chemicals), and my skin is much softer.   The acne is going away, too.  According to Trio Skincare, the brush sloughs off all the extra dead cells, so the products you use absorb a lot better and work a lot better.

I love it so much, I recommended it to my mom–she just went out and bought one herself!

I know this is an expensive item, but I really love it.  It was worth every penny.

Favorite Things: Bee House Tea Stuff!

December 30, 2008 in I Freakin' Love This Thing! • I Freakin' Love this Household & Every day Stuff!

Happy New Year, everybody!!

This time of year, I really like tea.  Like, a lot.  I like to make drinking it special, with pretty teacups, loose tea and my favorite personal-size tea pot.  I really, really love this tea pot:

image from here

It’s made by Bee House, and I got it from a place online called the Tea Table. I bought it well over a year ago (maybe even two years ago!) and I still haven’t forgotten the excellent customer service I received from Lori, the owner.  I’d order from her again in a heartbeat, and I really loved the tea samples I got there, too.  I’m still opening and enjoying new packets.  I have a LOT of tea (Y used to work for Cost Plus’ corporate office, and we got a great discount and a lot of samples), so I haven’t had a need to go back…but I digress.

Back to the tea pot.

There are a lot of imitations of Bee House design now.  I find myself feeling pretty protective of the real Bee House, especially considering the imitations aren’t as good of quality and they’re the same price.  Buy Bee House, people.  They come in all different sizes, and I want a bigger one so I can have my girlfriends over for tea.  Not that I ever do that, but if I had the tea pot, I totally would.  Right?  ;)

When I bought my tea pot, I also bought this adorable cup (it says “tea” on the side!):

image from here

I didn’t just run across Bee House in a store.  A few years ago, Y and I took a cross-country roadtrip, and we stayed at an awesome bed and breakfast in New Hampshire called the Silver Fountain Inn.  It was the best B&B either of us had ever stayed in, and the owner had Bee House teapots for each room.  I fell in love and googled “Bee House” as soon as we got back to California.

In other news, I’m looking for a fancy tea pot to match our wedding china.  Anybody seen anything to match this:

?? It’s Kate Spade’s Gwinnett Lane in Creme.

Who else loves tea?