M & I received a joint birthday gift form my parents this past weekend. It is a GPS and we both love it! Even though I already know the way home we decided to use it and see it in action. The funniest thing is they decided to get it for us when at the end of a visit I was exhausted (it must have been after 9:00) but I had to stay awake because M didn’t know the way home. That very car ride home I demanded M start looking at GPS units. Great minds think alike. We had a lovely visit as usual. D made lobster for most of us and a grilled pork chop for M. Yum. I had a swim in the pool and got some much needed outside time. In the evening we all played some Wii. Just lovely.

I am a big fan of iced coffee in the morning. No sugar, lots of half and half and lots of ice. In the morning I walk into my regular place and the guy behind the counter gets my large ices hazelnut with room for milk ready for me without me having to ask. In an effort to save a few bucks I have been bringing my own lately. I think I finally have the routine down to a point where it doesn’t feel like a pain in the butt. I recently changed my preparation a bit to cold brew the coffee instead of the normal hot brewing. I read that cold brewing brings out more of the chocolaty flavors of coffee and less of the bitter flavors. The process takes 12 hours although beyond grinding the beans and mixing them into water there isn’t much to do but wait. So far it has been great. Most people use a coffee filter and a strainer to remove the grounds from the water, but I figure if a french press can do it for hot brewing, why not cold. It works like a charm. Even M, who doesn’t like coffee, concedes that if he were to drink coffee that is how he would do it. He even likened it coffee ice cream.

Not that you would know it from this blog, but I don’t just talk about doing crafts, I have been known to do them as well. Anyway, a few years ago I was investigating having my own labels made to sew into my knitted scarves and blankets etc. It was a bit too much of an investment at the time and I wasn’t thrilled with the choices. Hooray for the internet because Allyson Hill has posted instructions to <a href=”
http://allysonhill.typepad.com/allyson_hill/2007/06/make_your_own_l.html”>make your own labels. If you are only looking for a few labels every once in a while, this is for you!

It seems like every time I click to a blog page someone is talking about a tiny shelter or a something prefab or modular. I love it! M & I aren’t ready to plop a 4 bedroom cape onto the property just because we can’t quite afford the modern house we would really like. These tiny houses seem like the perfect solution. Best of all more and more seem to be green and have a one day set up (not including site work of course.) Today I saw the most adorable shelter via Treehugger. I love the large deck and cozy space. More and more I see out upstate property as a weekend place to be outside and stretch after a week of cramming into NY. Frankly a part of me feels like the smaller the better.

Hello? (tap, tap) Is this thing on? (tap) There we go… So I was wondering if I might be able to get some help from my audience (I am assuming at least my mom is still reading). What are you reading this summer? I am on a real reading tear and I am looking for a few good books. I just finished The Kite Runner, which is fabulous, although very sad and now I am not sure what I am going to start on next. So tell me, what would you recommend?

So you know how if you want to post something on craigslist.org you can opt to have them assign you a temp email so that you aren’t giving out your personal address? Well I just found out that they are doing that with phone numbers as well. For free! Numbr will assign you a phone number (you can opt for a local number in a few cities for no extra charge) for an hour, a day, a week or a month. So neat! I want to get one just to test it out. 🙂 I am wondering why you would need a number for an hour…

You fellow Brooklynites already know what a premium any space is in the city with outdoor space seeming to be the most elusive of all. I am not one of those lucky folks who have a garden apartment (although I do have a washer dryer which I would not part with for any amount of money) and have recently been inspired by one very clever girl in the East Village. She has taken the only bit of space we are guaranteed , the fire escape, added some planters, a few lights, and a chair and turned it into an urban oasis. This weekend M & I are heading to IKEA to buy some planters and hopefully a few more key pieces to complete our very own strip of outdoors. I will keep you posted.

You are probably tired of hearing about my obsession with pre-fab and modular houses. It is just that we are getting close to being able to have something on the property that I want to be ready as soon as possible once we are able. I found a great new option today. It is cool looking, green and can be set up in one day! It is called a Power POD. The largest is a one bedroom, but a perfect starter get away.

I have been on a green kick lately. Although my new favorite color is green, that isn’t what I am talking about. I am talking about Reduce, Reuse and Recycle type green. I am just getting started trying to change my rampant consumerism. To be honest, I like to buy things… sometimes just for the sake of buying them… Hello, my name is Lizbeth and I am an impulse shopaholic. The other day I saw these adorable bags at Delight.com called envirosax. Before you say,”LIZBETH, I thought you were trying to change let me explain. These handy bags are supposed to take the place of plastic (or paper) grocery bags. I don’t know about you, but I have an over abundance of plastic bags hanging around. There are only so many small trash cans in my apartment. I placed the order earlier this week and received the bags today. What a… well… delight! They came wrapped in tissue paper with a cute delight.com sticker and there was the pictured handwritten note. Who does that anymore? I love it! Oh, and the bags are cute too.