cat tested, mother approved

A little while back I made this post about using Tea Tree Oil as a homemade safe cleaner.  I love its natural anti-bacterial qualities, and the pleasant scent it leaves behind on hard surfaces, but I later discovered a critical clause to its use that I absolutely must share with you all.

When I moved to my new place I was still going strong with my own homemade Tea Tree Oil cleaning product. In what I assumed was a completely unrelated realm, Emerson was occasionally throwing up.  I tried changing her food, assuming it was something she was eating that was disagreeable with her stomach.  Then one day I pulled out my bottle of cleaning solution and watched her flea, at break-neck speed, from the kitchen. 

I thought about the timing of her little episodes of sickness, started to put two and two together and jumped online.

“Veterinary toxicologists have reported that large amounts of tea tree oil applied to the skin of cats and dogs caused poisoning.” – The National Capital Poison Center

“As little as 7 drops of 100% oil has resulted in severe poisoning, and applications of 10-20 mls of 100% oil have resulted in poisoning and death in both dogs and cats.” – The Pet Poison Helpline

Um WHAT!? In true cat mother fashion I burst into tears, totally overtaken by waves of guilt.  I threw out the entire bottle and apologized to my poor little Em-cat Sweet Pea for all the times I was upset with her for puking on my rugs. Of course I wasn't applying any of the cleaner directly to her and the amount I use is SO INCREDIBLY DILLUTED she would have to drink the entire bottle directly to have done any real harm, but it was clearly irritating her none the less.

I am surprised that it didn’t bother her in my old apartment, but back then I had a small amount of hard surfaces to clean, and the cats were going in and out at their leisure.  In my new place, there is no carpeting and, because of a lot of contributing factors, I made the decision to keep the kitties inside.   

As for Lady’s strong constitution through all of this, I attribute her immunity to spending literally the majority of her time rolling in the wet sink and shower.  She’s also markedly less curious than Emerson so she doesn’t nose around to investigate everything I do.

So this is a cautionary tale, and a pretty scary lesson I'm glad I learned quickly. I looked into it and could switch to mint as an essential oil for cleaning, but until I am 100% convinced I’m not doing anymore harm to my little four legged friends, I’ve been using Method. They don't test on animals or use animal by-products, and all of their products are deemed safe to use around household pets.  I've had no complaints since making the switch, and I am feeling once again like a responsible pet owner, which is pretty important - especially if you've got a kitty as funny and sweet as Emerson.

Visit the EPA's website for tips on keeping your pets safe from potentially harmful products, and for more kitty goodness, click here.

joyful acts of kindness

I have a spectacular friend whose birthday happens to be today. She's one of those people who is always reminding me that there are so many opportunities to give back. As a perfect example, she chose to spend the weekend leading up to her big day in an inspirationally selfless way, by making it her mission to spread small gestures of kindness throughout her community.  

I just read about it and came away feeling wonderfully full of motivation and awe (not to mention a little teary eyed). I am so grateful just to know her, and to be reminded that there are people all around us in this world with good in their hearts. 

Read about Joy's Random Acts of Birthday Kindness, and prepare to rethink your week.

taking responsibility; taking charge

 

I have started to make room on my reading list for books like “The Freelancer's Bible”, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” and “Life After School Explained”.

Reading is one of my personal releases, so it’s been really hard to budge on introducing blatantly educational material into the mix. I keep thinking that the sort of revelations people talk about gaining from these books are just going to come to me through experience and trial, but I’m finally starting to come around to the idea that I am responsible for my own ‘post institution-based’ educational evolution. 

I have a wonderful friend, Casey, who works for a jewelry designer and always seems to be jetting off to some trunk show or another.  She’s very good at what she does, and she’s got a presence that exudes gratification and contentment in her professional life. It’s that magic combination of liking what you do, doing it well and feeling a deep sense of satisfaction at the end of the day. 

Casey on an improptu roadtrip we took to Sanibel Island in December.

She came upon the position through connections she made at her previous job, and landed it with that “I can definitely figure out anything you want me to do” approach.  I thought she was one of those people who are just intuitively good at whatever they try, until we were talking one night and she told me this story.

“When we first started to get into regular trunk shows I had one in Miami, and it was horrible. Horrible! I didn’t make any sales, talking to the ladies who came by was beyond awkward and none of the people who worked in the store seemed engaged enough to want to push our jewelry.

On the way home I was feeling pretty terrible, so I stopped at the store and got a block of cheese, a bottle of wine and a copy of “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”  I sat up and read through the whole thing, and may or may not have demolished both the cheese and the wine.

The next week I had another trunk show and decided, as an experiment, to try and follow all of the advice I read.  It wasn’t much different from how I was previously managing, but I felt like I was doing a better job of reading the people around me and understanding what they needed to hear in order to feel comfortable and open up.

It was a completely different experience from the previous show, and it’s made me think differently about how I talk to all people. It really helped me to consider situations from outside of myself; to think critically about what the end result of the interaction should be and what the person I’m talking to will most likely need or want to hear in order to arrive there with me.”

She made it seem like such a simple, logical progression. Things aren’t going well? Pick up a self-help book and see if its advice makes a difference in my performance.  If it does, great!  If not, keep trying until something clicks.

Maybe part of why my twenties have been challenging to navigate is that I’ve spent a lot of it stubbornly refusing to accept the advice that’s all around me. As a result of growing up amid a technological revolution we are a highly independent generation, so accepting that we need help in order to succeed and find ourselves is a difficult concept to swallow. 

It means resigning ourselves to the fact that we must seek out the wisdom we require to make it through, that it won’t appear within us of our own volition and that all those people who came before our time might have actually learned a thing or two when they were giving this stage of life the old ‘after-college try’.  It’s the mid-twenties equivalent of refusing to follow the advice of our parents in high school because we flatly refused to believe that they were ever young.

So I’m giving it a go. Self-help books like “20 Something, 20 Everything: A Quarter Life Woman’s Guide to Balance and Direction” are sprinkled into my reading list this year and I’ve resolved to set aside more time to look for answers instead of hope they appear. It’s not so much about these books holding one singular truth or ultimate fix that will change everything about life as I know it, it’s about the act of actively seeking knowledge, in whatever capacity, that might just resonate and help inch the pieces of this grand puzzle a little closer together.

Are there any books out there that have helped you get focused and excited about the road ahead?

balcony container gardening

A few days ago I did something that I’ve never done before, I picked lettuce and tomatoes from my very own garden and made a salad.  I didn’t have to wonder where it came from or if it was caked with pesticides, I just went outside and reaped the reward of growing something with my own two hands.  There aren’t a lot of experiences like that, that can make you feel very big and very very small all at once. 

After this post about how excited I was to get in gear with my balcony garden I started searching for new additions to expand my little collection. A romaine lettuce seedling at the farmers market, some Marigolds during a trip to Home Depot, just here and there. It’s a slow process, but in a lot of ways it’s more fun.  There’s more time to research and discover things, like the fact that Marigolds help repel bugs from your tomato plants, and that lettuce regenerates fairly quickly so you can eat it often. When I’m not worrying about a hap-hazardly assembled group of plants it feels more like a fun project than a chore.

We are entering that last bit of ‘winter’ in Florida where it’s just so lovely to be outside.  Soon everything will scorch and dampen and we will be rushing from building to building to avoid the stark humidity, but for now we are permitted a short reprieve. 

I’ve been waking up earlier to spend time soaking in the morning before I get started on the day ahead.  I look forward to the time when it’s just me with my little terracotta garden, a good book and Emerson trying desperately to squeeze through the screened in window.

I don’t know what’s in store for me in the coming wave of warmer months, but I do know I am grateful for garden treasure hunts, long mornings and food I can watch grow right before my eyes.  

music monday: a.c. newman

There has been such an influx of great new music this year that I thought I would bring back my little Music Monday segment.  Today I want to share A.C Newman’s new album with you; it’s one you can put on in your car and listen to for the next few months without want for anything else. 

The first time I heard it was on New Years Day. I was in my friend’s kitchen helping clean up the previous evening’s dusting of plastic champagne flutes and holding my breath to feign next-day nausea when her boyfriend came out and put it on.  

It was a gorgeous first day of the year; the kind that makes you feel that everything you do is slightly more momentous, even when you’re physically well below 100%.  The sun was spilling in through their massive floor to ceiling slider, and a breeze was crawling across the tile floor towards the kitchen where we soaked and scrubbed and hummed.

It made a memorable impression on the start of my year, and has followed me around the way music can sometimes stick in your skin and under the pads of your feet. In fact I’ve since all but ruined it with overplay, but I’m still drifting in that phase where I just can’t seem to get enough. 

Beyond it's adroit modernization of a pseudo-experimental sound, it’s concepts function in a realm I think many of us are coming into as we grow up.  It defines an unfamiliar time that is, as A.C. Newman explains, “all about birth, death happiness and sadness, chronicling a time in my life where all those things had to learn to coexist side by side.*”

It’s all I want to hear lately; the last time I played an album this much I was a junior in high school trolling neighborhoods and slow winding roads at night as a means to play The Postal Service’s 'Give Up' on repeat.  I know this because they’ve just announced their 10-year reunion tour, and that makes me feel like a sort of old I’ve yet to encounter. 

While I sit scratching my head about how that album was released when I was a teenager, and somehow that’s gotten to be 10 years gone, you enjoy something new and try to think of me if 10 years have passed and you still come back to it.