Best of Made in LA - CBS Los Angeles

Many of us are in the thick of the holiday shopping season. Why not consider gifts made in the USA? I'm on CBS Los Angeles with Best of Made in LA.

Save Tara – Victory!

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For seven long years I have been a member of “Save Tara”, fighting West Hollywood City Hall to preserve a small piece of history and greenery for future generations. Team members have passed away, I had two babies and the fight went on. Today we won! Read about it here in The WeHo News. I knew we would win. Good vs. Evil. Evil destroys itself in the end. Grateful, yet sad for those who did not live to see this. Victory!!!!!!

Family Getaway to Tenaya Lodge at Yosemite – CBS LA

To get away, enjoy nature, yet be able to swing into the spa after a hard day of hiking….Tenaya Lodge at Yosemite is where it’s at. I’m on CBS Los Angeles with Family Getaway to Tenaya Lodge at Yosemite. Just wish I’d spotted Sasquatch…

2010 Buying Guide – simplehuman

My love of simplehuman products is deep and vast.  It just doesn’t feel like a year end review without covering some items of genius for the home from the one company that seems to solve all my domestic problems.  Everyone knows I’m relatively un-domestic.  I don’t want to have to DEAL with household furnishings.  I want stuff that is simple, easy and solves my problems.  The other thing most people don’t realize is that most of the stuff I’m talking about, like the Tension Shower Caddy I reviewed last year and the Steel Frame Dishrack I reviewed last Summer, are things you use all. The. Time.  You shower, you eat, you live your daily life in your home.  It makes sense to get the good stuff that lasts and looks good.

For this round, I’m really excited about three products I’d like to introduce you to.  Let’s kick it off with the Quick Grip Napkin Holder which holds approximately 75 quadrifold napkins while allowing you to pull out just one napkin at a time.  The weighted tension arm simultaneously works as a paperweight while keeping the stack neat.  The sleek stainless steel style makes it totally all about the napkins.   This is great for outdoor events or heck even when I have my kitchen window open.  Your typical “vertical letter holder style” napkin holder is ridiculous compared to this.  I had inexpensive, bumpy textured, lower weight napkins stacked in the Quick Grip and was able to easily remove the top one without disturbing the stack.  This holder is also ideal for toddlers, as in my family, who can just grab for the top napkin.  The Quick Grip Napkin Holder is $19.99, has a 5 year warranty and also comes in a bamboo version.

My love affair with simplehuman began years ago with The Wall Mount Grocery Bag Holder which was perfect in my previous kitchen.  Where I live now, however, the wall mount is not an ideal setup.  Thus, when I noticed that simplehuman offers The Upright Bag Holder, I knew I had found my new solution.  It has a slim design that I describe as being about “two cereal boxes wide and a little bit longer”.  It fits easily in my kitchen cabinet (where I keep it) but it also looks totally great on a countertop like a stainless steel kitchen accessory anyone would have.  The base is sturdy and non-skid with rubber pads that also protect surfaces.  You put your plastic shopping bags in the top and pull them out through the wide front opening.  The official capacity is listed as 50 bags, but I’ve been known to jam more than that in.  The Upright Bag Holder is $16.99 and has a 10 year warranty.

It’s interesting to note that I am totally gung-ho about a product that stores “plastic shopping bags” and maybe you would be thinking that’s not so great for the environment.  Let me state that I am a huge proponent of reusable shopping bags and I own a bunch of them.  I use them constantly.  However, in my household, there is a real need for plastic bags and I think that reusing plastic shopping bags is a good way to minimize consumption.  We have diapers, a dog and….Well, without oversharing, you know that there are times you need a plastic bag!  Which brings me to the final product I’d like to share with you: The Profile Open Can.  I have space challenges in two bathrooms, and this product fits right where I need to put trash cans.  I prefer open top trash cans in my bathrooms, it’s so much easier to toss and go.  But, even more importantly, if you have awkward spaces, getting a foot maneuvered to open a step can is just silly.  Of course, I want to have a liner in my swell Profile Open Can, and what do I use?  Plastic shopping bags!  The can is stainless steel and has a 2.6 gallon capacity which is exactly right for your typical plastic grocery bag.  There is a removable inner bucket that has handles designed to hold a grocery bag in place.  Then, as if that weren’t perfect enough, there is a removable top frame that covers the inner bucket and hides any of the plastic bag, giving a totally clean look.  I really would love it if simplehuman offered this can in more colors and/or materials.  I think this is the only can any bathroom needs.  The Profile Open Can is $29.99 and comes with a 5 year warranty.

One question I always ask myself when I consider a purchase is: does this solve more than one problem for me?  If the answer is, “yes”, that is a big justification for me to open my wallet.  simplehuman products always solve more than one problem.  They even solve problems you didn’t even know you had until you start using them—their product line is that well conceived.  You can order their products directly from simplehuman.com as well as at many retailers, visit the website to find a store near you.

Disclosure: simplehuman provided me with these three products for the purpose of this review.

Bosch from Hamper to Hanger

I have appliance envy.  I just returned from a blogger trip courtesy of Bosch Appliances and have become a groupie.  Let me start by saying Bosch was already on my radar because my mother owns a Bosch dishwasher which she raves about.  In the US, Bosch is best known for their really quiet dishwashers.  They however, make literally every appliance you could use in your home, including appliances you’ve probably never heard of (more on that later).  I was invited to participate in Bosch’s “Hamper to Hanger” Blogger Retreat which centered on visiting The BSH Gallery & Training Center located in Scottsdale, AZ.  The gallery is an amazing space with every appliance in the Bosch family installed and fully functioning.  My fellow bloggers and I split up into two of the kitchen areas.  Our assignment?  To use a variety of food items to stain cotton t-shirts.  We were going to put Bosch washing machines to a real test!  Eggs, chocolate syrup, Coke, raw meat and salsa—we thrashed and then signed our shirts with sharpies.  Next stop was the laundry room where they had several Bosch washers and dryers set up.  We watched as our thrashed shirts were tossed in a washer for the “blogger test wash”.  With our shirts spinning and cycling behind him, Chris from Bosch was introduced and gave us a great overview and demonstration of the Bosch Vision Series.

Rockin' Mama at Bosch from Liz Peterson on Vimeo.

Here are some key things about Bosch washers and dryers that I really thought were awesome.  Bosch’s Vision line of washers are the most energy and water efficient brand of full size front-load washers in the U.S.  This is huge especially here in California where we are in a water crisis.  A lot of what contributes to Bosch’s eco-friendliness is that their appliances are “smart” and are able to monitor water, temperature and suds levels.  The washers use 70% less water per load than the industry average.  In Vision dryers, ActiveDry sensors detect remaining moisture throughout the cycle to lower the energy usage.  Not only is this earth friendly but it translates into lower energy and water bills for you. 

My readers know that safety is a big deal to me.  Front loading washers and dryers are easily accessible for kids to crawl inside.  There have been accidental deaths of children inside front loading washing machines in homes.  As front loading machines are gaining popularity in this country, I was really, really interested to hear Chris explain a feature available on the Vision 800 series washer.  When an adult uses the washer, they unlock it via the menu screen on the front.  When the washer is actually in use, it is locked anyway (you don’t want to flood your house, right?!).  When the adult is finished using the washer, they then enable the locking of the washer via the menu screen on the front.  That’s it, it is locked.  The Vision 800 series is the absolute safest choice if you have children in your home.  Continuing on my safety spiel, let’s talk flood.  Not the kind from rain.  The kind when a pipe or a hose or a valve in your house lets go and your house is flooded.  Misery.  Bosch has a back up system to a back up system in its exclusive AquaStop Leak Protection System to make sure that doesn’t happen to you.

Bosch Washer Demo from Liz Peterson on Vimeo.

Now let’s get to the actual functionality of the washers and dryers.  Like, what do they do?  I have a washing machine that is about twelve years old that I inherited with this house.  I don’t have the owner’s manual and I have no idea what all the various stops on the dials really mean.  So theoretically, I’m not really using the machine to its full potential, I guess.  I’m not happy with how well it cleans my clothes (see my opening sentence) but I’m getting by.  So, if you had a brand new Bosch washer and dryer, could you just get by?  I suppose you could, the models all seem very easy to use.  But, I must say you’d be missing out on some great features!  You can program in what kinds of stains you have on your clothes via the Stain Removal option, even if your load has all different kinds of stains, and the wash will cover each type of stain in one cycle!  Over on the dryer, I was impressed that The Vision Dryer offers three steam cycles, Steam Touch-up for when you left your clothes sitting in the dryer, Steam Refresh which is a quick way to touch refresh a garment and remove odors in just a few minutes and my favorite, Steam Wrinkle Relax which lets you toss something in (say Surfer Guy’s shirt before work?) and relax the wrinkles without having to iron!

I touched on the fact that Bosch is famous for their super quiet dishwashers, but their washers and dryers are also really, really quiet.  In the room where we were sitting, the floor was tiled and we could not hear the machines going at all.  Bosch’s Anti-Vibration System (AVS) makes Vision one of the lowest vibration washers on the market.  AVS was designed and tested with second story installations in mind, making it a low vibration quiet solution for house and condo owners looking to move their laundry room upstairs or closer to the living area.  This was something we talked about at the event, how it makes sense to have your laundry room on the second floor if you live in a two story house and that is where your bedrooms are.

One of my favorite stores is The Container Store.  Every time I go in there I find something amazingly awesome and useful to buy.  I was really excited that the manager of the Scottsdale store came out to the Bosch Gallery to give us some tips about getting organized in the laundry room:  Use a laundry hamper that has 3 sections: lights, darks and colors so you aren’t constantly sorting just to get a load going.  Having a laundry rack that allows you to hang garments straight out of the dryer really helps to minimize wrinkling.  Assign each member of the family their own color clothes hanger, which I also realized has the added bonus of making their closet look organized.  Use Sock Cops to clip pairs of socks together in the wash, you will never lose socks and will save time matching pairs!  The Container Store carries the Elfa line of storage and organization systems which you can actually design with their help in store.  Just bring in the dimensions of the space you are trying to organize and a Container Store expert will help you design your dream storage system at no extra charge.  Even if you aren’t looking to re-do your laundry room, you can still benefit by getting modular pieces like the Elfa laundry storage a simple yet useful unit.  We were each given a FlipFOLD to help us fold our laundry perfectly when we got back home and a $25 gift card to visit our local Container Store.  I’m really excited because I keep meaning to re-do my office closet with an Elfa system and this is just the motivation I needed!  My thanks to The Container Store for such great ideas and for a wonderful store filled with useful things!

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So after learning so much about Bosch washers and dryers and getting organized with The Container Store, we then got to use some of the other appliances in the Bosch Gallery.  Bosch also has Thermador and Gaggenau brands in its lineup.  I was familiar with Thermador having actually had a vintage 1950’s Thermador oven in our kitchen before we remodeled two years ago.  We cooked our own lunch, under the guidance of a couple of chefs,  in two of the gallery kitchens, which was really fun.  Then we toured around the rest of the gallery checking out all the amazing appliances like wall-installed espresso makers, burners that are dedicated to woks, and space saving ovens that are installed on a wall.  You load from below and then the bottom raises up like an elevator to bring the food to the heating area.  I was really blown away and decided I needed to remodel my kitchen again.

Vision washers and dryers have a MSRP range of $999 to $1,549.  Before you run out to buy yours though, I strongly suggest you do a little online research to see if there are any rebates available to you.  For example, some states offer a “cash for clunkers” type of incentive for appliances.  Some utility companies will also give you a rebate if you buy an energy efficient appliance.  You can sometimes even “double dip” and get another rebate from your utility by having them pick up your old appliance.  This could be $200-$300 in rebates, again, depending on where you live.  Definitely worth spending a few minutes looking to see what’s available.  If you add up all the rebates you can score it may actually allow you to get a higher level Bosch than you thought you originally could afford.

For more information on any of the Bosch products I’ve covered above, visit www.bosch-home.com/us or call 800.921.9622 to request a catalog.  Connect with Bosch on Twitter at @BoschAppliances or become a fan at Facebook.com/BoschAppliances.

Wow, lots of info.  I was in overload.  As I walked out of the Bosch Gallery scribbling some notes, I was a bit dazed in the bright Arizona sun but realized how lucky I was to have the opportunity to see this amazing design award nominated gallery.  High end designers, custom home builders and major appliance stores come to the BSH gallery to learn about these products.  Here I was just a simple blogger who got the chance to report back to her readers.  We headed back to The Intercontinental Montelucia Resort & Spa in Paradise Valley where we were staying.  Our afternoon was perfect with spa treatments at Joya Spa, which is definitely in the top tier of spas I have been to.  I can’t wait to get back to the Montelucia, the pool, restaurant, views, oy, I could go on and on.  The bathroom in my room was pretty amazing.  It was really, really nice to be in Arizona with the glowing red sunsets and the mountains surrounding the hotel.  It felt totally southwest!

So, what about those t-shirts we thrashed?  Just before we headed to dinner that night, some of our t-shirts were brought out for our inspection.  Keeping in mind that a dozen totally thrashed t-shirts were thrown into the wash without being so much as rinsed off, I would say they fared pretty well, most totally clean.  There were some slightly visible stains, mainly the ground in chocolate syrup, but I would have pre-treated and had some other clothing in the wash in a real world test.  In my book, Bosch wins on water efficiency, energy efficiency, safety, quietness and washing and drying features.  My next appliance purchase will be a washer and I am going to seriously consider a Bosch.

Because I always think it’s good to get as much perspective as possible here are some links to posts by all the lovely ladies and new friends I made on this trip: Jen at The Dirty Shirt, Caryn at Rockin’ Mama, Sugar at Sugar Jones, Jamie at Blonde Mom Blog, Jennifer at Tiny Oranges, Jocelyn at Hip Mamas Place, Julie at Angry Julie Monday, Katie at La Jolla Mom, Sarah at Technology for Mommies, and Shanna at My Favorite Everything

Album photos courtesy of Caryn Bailey aka Rockin’ Mama

Bosch paid for my trip to the Bosch Hamper to Hanger Blogger Event.  The content of this post is entirely my own.

Earth Day is 40

This year, Earth Day is this Thursday, April 22nd and it marks the 40th anniversary.  It’s interesting that I hear all this buzz about it being the 40th anniversary because I’d say that easily the first twenty plus Earth Days went by largely unrecognized by most of the population.  In fact, only upon hearing that it is the 40th Earth Day was I able to connect back that I was a bystander to the 10th anniversary.  Heck, passerby might be more accurate.  I was in Washington, DC for Spring Break with my family and I distinctly remember driving by what appeared to be some sort of a demonstration or a carnival, to my child’s mind.  Peering from the backseat of my parent’s 1970’s gas-guzzling sedan I read “Earth Day” on the signs.  The year was 1980.  I do not believe Earth Day hit my radar again for at least several more years.

Even though Earth Day itself did not hit my radar, plenty of things that equal “being green” or “earth friendly” sure go back as far as 1980 for me.  My hometown in Massachusetts was an early recycling town, and that doesn’t mean curbside recycling!  We actually hauled our paper, glass and aluminum to a central location twice a month where trucks picked it up from us.  My mom started Household Hazardous Waste Recycling in our town in the 1980’s as well.  From there the list could go on and on and on for another twenty years.  Now THAT would be a really BIG post.  So, to keep it current, I thought I’d do a round up of some Earth Day related things I’ve done the past couple of months.  Some Earth Day related kids stuff.  I’m also going to throw in some new things that are being kicked off in honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.  My Earth Day Post:

For the past two years, I have been invited to attend the Go Green Expo in Los Angeles which is a convention featuring all different types of green products and initiatives.  One product that I had been considering and was featured by several companies at the expo this year was artificial grass.  No, not astroturf, this stuff looks like real grass.  At first I didn’t understand how fake grass would be considered “green” other than in color.  Then I got it.  You don’t need to water it!  And in California, where water is constantly an issue, that is huge.  I met some nice people from an artificial grass company at the Go Green Expo and through their referral, I hired a local landscape designer who installed some fabulous artificial grass in my backyard and turned off my sprinklers.

I know many of you will remember Planet Earth (a BBC/Discovery co-production) that aired on The Discovery Channel in 2007.  In celebration of Earth Day’s 40th anniversary, the beloved and award-winning 11 episode BBC Earth series Planet Earth is now available on iTunes with a special, one-time free episode download (“Pole to Pole”) from April 12 – 26, 2010.  So head on over to iTunes for your free download!  Planet Earth is a perfect precursor to Life which is now airing on Discovery and you may recall my story of my attendance at the premiere.  Life is coming out on DVD in June.  Both Planet Earth and Life are the ultimate in TV viewing for Earth Day.

There are some kid’s characters that are sending the go green message to the preschool set.  I’ve received a couple of DVD’s recently that Chip and Lulu both really love to watch.  In Wubbzy Goes Green, a DVD from the Nick Jr. preschool series, many situations are presented that give kids a chance to see how decisions can impact their environment.  To help celebrate the new release, and Mother Earth, Anchor Bay Entertainment has partnered with the Alliance for Community Trees (ACT).  For every Wubbzy Goes Green DVD sold, Anchor Bay will donate $1 to ACT to help support the planting of trees in playgrounds and schoolyards across the country. The special tree-planting initiative continues through May 31, 2010.  In Explore The Earth, Dora the Explorer and her compadre Boots globetrot to beaches, the South Pole and rainforests.  What better way to start to explain that we are on this place called Earth than by pulling the globe off the bookshelf as we watch Dora and try to figure out where she is?

Guess what?  I have not seen the film Avatar.  I have two toddlers and trips to the movies are not easy to come by.  Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment is releasing Avatar on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on Earth Day in the US. (Internationally the release rolls out between April 21 – May 6)  Yay!  This means I will get a chance to watch it!  “This is the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, and we felt it a fitting day to release a film with such an eco-friendly theme.” says, Elysia Yeary of the Avatar Media Relations Team.  Avatar grossed over $2.6 billion dollars theatrically worldwide, making it the biggest film of all time.  To add to the launch date theme, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has teamed up with the Earth Day Network to plant 1,000,000 trees worldwide in celebration of the BD and DVD release of the film. 

Earth Day Network will spearhead the initiative and collaborate with its international partners to plant the one million trees, indigenous to each region in 15 different countries, by the end of 2010.  The organization is committed to caring for and nurturing the trees to maturity, as well as considering natural disasters such as fires and landslides during the planting process.  "I am pleased to have the opportunity to share the environmental messages from AVATAR through the efforts during the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day and with Earth Day Network,” said James Cameron "Earth Day Network's commitment and actions to promote a healthy, sustainable planet go hand-in-hand with the themes of AVATAR.”  People who purchase the film will be given a unique access code that allows them to go online and actually adopt one of the million trees being planted, charting its location and progress.

I want to say that every day to me is Earth Day.  I don’t modify my behavior just on one day and I truly hope no one else does either.  Rather, I would hope Earth Day is more a day to spread the word about new ideas, initiatives and advances.  Every single day I make an effort to minimize my “eco-footprint” by recycling, re-using or re-purposing.  I bring cloth bags to the supermarket.  I recycle so much household plastic, paper, metal and glass that our recycle bin is often full in advance of trash day and I have to run around in the morning to see if my neighbors have space in theirs.  Meanwhile, my trashcan always has room in it.  I only run full loads of laundry and dishes.  I have trained myself to think: is this the most eco-efficient way to do this?  Before I embark on something.  It’s a constant learning process.  Everyday I try to keep myself open to learning something new about making life more simple, safer, healthier and greener.  We are all inter-related.  Happy Earth Day!