Favorite Messenger Bag: Rickshaw Bagworks found in Paradise Garage

When I first got my Mac Powerbook G4 just before I officially started Katie James back in 2005ish, I treated it to a pink carry case from Casauri that I found in Kate's Paperie. It served me well for years, but the pink took dirt in between the nylon that I couldn't scrub out, and a mysterious blanch spot appeared on my monitor's pixels that I blame on things pressing down on the laptop monitor while I'm carrying the bag or putting it into bigger bag with other things.

Now that Katie James has gone digital with Katie James Pixelated, I'm on the computer all of the time, and traveling more to meetings or to 'vacations' where I work during the day, and stop for dinner with whatever family I am with. This means lots of trips to Panera with lots of cords for phone and computer, my Griffin elevator (a raised surface for my laptop), notebook, folder of current scraps of paper notes, etc. So I usually carry two bags at minimum to contain this maddness.

Then I had to buy a new Mac, and I wanted to start things off right. I wanted a mini-office on my shoulder. And I wanted to ride my bike with it if I wanted to. Enter Columbus bike stores. I am addicted to them. I seem to buy all of my clothes from them. Paradise Garage is my current favorite, and when I asked about messenger bags, they passionately presented me with the Rickshaw Bagworks line, out of San Fransisco.

The messenger bag had all that I was looking for:

• a framed structure so that I could place things in the middle of the bag that would not smush up against the laptop
• a separate pocket for the laptop
• front pockets for other stuff like cords, external harddrives, lip gloss...
• big front pocket that folds over, and has magnet strips if you don't feel like buckling it (this might be revelutionery for actual bike messengers b/c it replace the velcro that can be noisy when they enter offices, but the Rickshaw Bagworks bag also offers the velcro opportunity under the magnets)
• cool color combos.

I would change two things about this bag:

• better placement of pockets for cell phones and little things. This bag may have been designed with men in mind, and men may not be as into pockets as women are. I want an easy place for my cell phone and metro card on the outside of the bag.
• the magnetic strips are cool for lazy days, but if you don't buckle it, the straps hang, and that's not very neat and tidy.
  

But these thoughts on improvement are not a deal breaker. I am SO happy with this bag. I don't have to carry two bags anymore, and packing it now is like clockwork. I ended up buying it from Paradise Garage to reward the brick and mortar store for their great find (keep retail stores alive!), but you can also find more styles on Rickshaw's website. Actually, I don't see mine on their website (brown with pink trim), so shop around!

Just call me a Crafty Recessionista : a Copperbrill Review

How to live a lavish lifestyle during a recession: polish what you have!

This bowl in the picture is dark dark dark. Note the right side with the tarnish. The left side is shiny copper.

This copper bowl was handed down from Godmother Mista (but could have come from any garage sale) that I just polished in 10 minutes with the AMAZING Copperbrill from Amazon or William Sonoma. This bowl had not been polished in years, and the tarnish was serious. But I knew it could come back to shiny because tomato acid (I keep the vegetables in it) would remove spots of tarnish. When I polish the other side, I will have a gorgeous copper bowl that retails for over a hundred dollars. Hurray!

How to polish using the Copperbrill:
Run the copper bowl or pan under hot soapy water.

With a damp sponge (use the one that comes with the Copperbrill), rub a scoop of the Copperbrill onto the copper.

Rub in circles and watch the copper turn a lighter shade of copper. If it's like this bowl, it will require more rubbing and possibly a few runs of this process.

Rinse the Copperbrill off under hot water, and with a clean spunge wipe off the Copperbrill. Dry an polish with a clean cloth.

Voila!

You can buy Copperbrill from Amazon.

Here are more copper bowls at Williams Sonoma.

Zen Home Cleaners: A review

I bit the bullet, three years later, and hired the Zen Home Cleaners to clean my home, justification being that I work from home, and needed a treat. I learned about them on Daily Candy and have planned it ever since. The fact that they burn oils during the cleaning part put me over the edge, and maybe the sprig of lavender that they put on their website. Even though that sprig doesn't come with the cleaning, and even though I can burn oils when I clean on my own, I was still sold.

To sign up, I had to give my card over the phone and agree to a four hour minimum. No problem, as I've had someone clean once before, and this was the norm. For their "accounting purposes," I had to fill out a survey, that interestingly, is at SurveyMonkey. This covered things like "What should we NOT do?" "What do you want done?", legal things they are or aren't responsible for, and the chance that the cleaners could recommend that they stay longer. Being a website person, I love doing things online. So anything I can set up online, makes me happier. They pressed me to fill out the form, however, calling me, saying it needed to be done by 3pm the day before the cleaning. Well, I have a pretty long to-do list, hence the need for someone else to clean my home, so I forgot several times to fill out hte form. No matter, I did it with an hour to spare.

The first cleaning person arrived 10 minutes early, out of courtesy to me if I needed to leave, she didn't want me waiting. Her co-cleaner arrived shortly after, who I didn't realize was coming but was fine b/c it cut the real time spent cleaning in half.

We went over my priorities around the house, what I wanted cleaned. I stressed dust, and that anything should be dusted. And that we have pets, so attention paid to pet hair on furniture, etc. They lit the oil, asking my preference (we picked lemon grass or something), and they went to town while I went to the bedroom until they needed to clean that. They moved sofas, gross kitchen trash cans, etc etc to get the major dust bunnies. And they aren't actually dust bunnies, as they are more like dust bombs. I make a point to vacuum once a week, and do surfaces twice a month, so it's not like we live in a total slum, but there are Secret Dust Bunny Societies living happily behind sofas and desks, so it was best that they were sucked up.

Halfway through, the cleaners made a recommendation that they stay longer. Of our five rooms (kitchen, office, living room, bathroom, bedroom - not including front hall), they were in the kitchen and living room, and had taken everything apart to clean behind it. I agreed to the recommendation, and the office charged it to my card right away. A little while later, a cleaning consultant/inspector person came to see how the cleaners were doing. Everyone was very nice, and the inspector had some notes of where they could re-wipe the kitchen cabinets a little better.

Overall, I am very happy with Zen Home Cleaners. They were nice, professional, and cared about their work. My tub was amazing, and totally white and soak-worthy for a bath. They do not use bleach, so whatever they used, that was organic, worked. There are a few surfaces that I wish had been hit, like the wall behind my towel in the bathroom, or all window sills wiped of grime. But that's OK. This can be gotten next time, and I already started making a list of what we can do next. Because you can't spend all day on every detail! I am thankful that they hit every room in the house.

Pictured above is the organic chocolate and loose tea they leave on your bed. Yum.