Fizz

Soda fountains and candy shops are a thing of nostalgia. At Fizz Soda Pop and Candy Shop, they are keeping the nostalgia alive.

Last night we went to Fizz in Portland, Oregon to see some of our friend Sarah’s incredible photography up on display and for sale. Now I’ve heard of Fizz before, where they have hundreds of sodas and hard to find and retro candies, but hadn’t made it down yet. What a perfect excuse! In conjunction with their large bottled sodas for sale, they also hand stir quite a variety of pop too. I tried the Virgin Island Ginger Beer and it was amazing.

The store is located in a residential area and is mostly surrounded by large older homes and seems like the perfect after school place for kids to get a little candy and a pop before walking home. Whether or not this happens is beyond me, but I did notice quite a few people looked like they just walked from their homes to the shop, and about half of them with kids in tow. The other half were about my age and actually looked like a kid in a candy store when they started perusing the selection.

Another fun thing about the store is their tribute to local legend and television host Ramblin Rod. Their shrine not only includes a sweater with buttons, which you can add to with your own buttons, but also his microphone he used on the daily morning cartoon show he hosted. While my one and only time I was on the show my smile turned disastrous with a case of the hiccups that made an unfortunate appearance when the camera was on my face during the Smile Contest, the memories I have as a kid watching this show are all still great.

If you live in the Portland metro area or happen to be visiting, I highly recommend checking this cute shop out. Also, our friend Sarah’s photography will be on display through the rest of the month so that will give you another incentive to go and maybe buy one or all of her pieces she has up for sale.

Visit Fizz on the web at:

http://fizzportland.com

or on Facebook at:

http://www.facebook.com/fizzportland

And check out Sarah Costa Photography at:

http://sarahcostaphotography.com

Fresh Fabric Treats

One of the things on my Christmas wish list was Fresh Fabric Treats. I’m happy to say I was not disappointed.

I’ve been eyeing this book since I first heard it was coming out last spring. Fresh Fabric Treats combines the great tutorials from Moda Bake Shop with the professional look of a quilt book and the shortcuts people like you and me discover from trial and error. It doesn’t hurt that there are fantastic projects waiting inside its covers. Personally, I’m looking forward to making the Block Holder Books. I may have to add a few more flannel pages to hold more blocks, but the idea behind it is fantastic and a great way to keep your blocks not only all in one place but prevent them from getting distorted.

Of course, the main reason I wanted this book so badly was because of the featured quilt on the cover, Summer Sorbet Quilt. It hasn’t at all helped my obsession with finding just the right stars to use for my Christmas Quilt that has been in the find-me-a-pattern-and-make-me-already pile for way too long. However, now that I’ve seen it in the Fandango line, and I just happen to have a couple charm packs of those laying around, my mind is wandering to what that would look like if I changed up the accompanying nine patches, another of my favorites that will be utilized in my That 70s Quilt full of a random assortment of Alexander Henry’s In the Kitchen line and coordinating solids.

Alas, my brain is so full of ideas it’s about to burst! Perhaps I should instead focus on figuring out the dilemma of how my fuzzy math got in the way for The Fall Quilt before attempting to start yet another project. Stupid math. Besides, six unfinished projects is enough, right?

Kitty Litter

Anyone who has cats, especially indoor cats, knows about cat litter. And everybody has their preference, but really, which ones are best?

Clay, clumping, recycled newspaper, saw dust pellets, rabbit food… rabbit food? Yes, rabbit food. That’s what we use at the veterinary clinic I work at. It works a lot like the pine saw dust pellets we use in our house but doesn’t have the odor absorbency found in a majority of other cat litters. So although it’s the cheapest option when purchased in the fifty pound bags at the feed store, it may only be good for people who change their feline friends’s litter out daily. However, like newspaper and pine dust pellets, the fecal removed litter is compostable.

The most commonly used litter, clay, is also the heaviest and grossest to deal with. It’s difficult to clean out the litter box and generates a massive amount of dust, even the so-called reduced dust formulas puff a cloud of clay when poured into the litter box. I may be biased on this, but past experience, and the fact that this is my blog and my opinion, has led me to realize this is probably the worst option of those on the market in terms of the health of your cat and yourself.

Clumping litters have a lot of benefits, as it clumps both urine and fecal matter, making it easy to scoop daily and keep a clean litter box. However, those small particles end up between your kitty’s toes and they track it all over. Fortunately they’re small and easily vacuumed or swept away, but still, with it stuck on your cat and the fact that cat’s groom their entire bodies, they’re also ingesting whatever chemicals are in the litter. I don’t know about you, but just thinking about a clumping litter being eaten by a cat makes me imagine a disastrous event in the making in terms of intestinal blockage if it clumps in the digestive tract.

Newspaper litter, basically pellets made from old newspapers. Okay, so, here’s my observation on newspaper pellets. I just can’t imagine that they are able to absorb odors very well. Have you ever wiped up a pet mess with paper towels? Not so great at making the stink go away and if you let it sit for a while the paper will start to dissolve. Wet paper in a litter box that smells of urine and not just any urine but cat urine which is like piss on steroids? Something tells me this is also for people who change out their litter daily. I’m not that ambitious.

Lastly I’m going to talk about pine sawdust litters. It seems that as far as absorbing, not just covering up, odors, it works extremely well. While yes, those pellets do dissolve into sawdust after liquid hits them, the natural odor control found in pine keeps the smell down. The downside is of course the sawdust, which, unfortunately, does track. However, I’d rather step on sawdust than the hard clay litter that also tracks. The good news is that the urine-soaked pine saw dust poses no health risks to yourself or your cats because the particles in the box are too heavy to float in the air and anything ingested by your cat is easily digested. Bonus in that it is compostable once any poop is removed. If you think that is gross, we also compost our chickens poop and the chemical compound in it that is perfect for helping break down everything into a nutrient-rich additive for the vegetable garden is ammonia. Anyone who’s cleaned out a litter box knows what ammonia smells like, which is what urine breaks down into. Ammonia breaks down compost-to-be and the added pine saw dust will simply be part of the final compost product. Of course, if you already compost chicken, rabbit, horse or sheep manure, you may not want to bother… unless, you want to save your garbage for non-recyclable and non-reusable waste. Then, by all means, compost the litter after tossing out the poop.

If it isn’t obvious, I’m a bit biased towards the pine sawdust pellet kitty litter. Not only is it the most odor absorbing litter I’ve ever used, but it is the longest lasting litter I’ve come across too, making the higher price actually become the most cost effective.