The rising price of gold bullion is making gold jewelry almost too expensive to buy anymore. I’m seeing more and more sterling silver being used and sold. I understand the reasons for that, sterling is very pretty and is less expensive than gold, but silver tarnishes and gold doesn’t. When I look at sterling silver jewelry I am always cautious about what should be done to prevent tarnishing.
Hooray for spring
As I get older I appreciate spring a lot more than when I was young. I don’t really know why I was so unobservant as a kid, but it was only recently that I noticed just how many plants are blossoming and how pretty they are. I’m very grateful that I don’t have spring allergies; most of my other relatives do spend several weeks during the spring suffering with allergies, sneezing and blowing their noses. I don’t know why they won’t just go to the doctor and get allergy shots! Spring is too pretty to spend indoors hiding, don’t you agree?
Beauty products from the sea
One of the things that always amazes me is when I read an article about how there are dangerous chemicals in a lot of the make-up products that people use. For example I read that a lot of brands of lipstick have dangerous levels of lead in them. And yet women still wear their lipstick! My sister was telling me that she has found a bath body website that sells beauty products that are made from natural ingredients and that some of the ingredients come from the sea. Ingredients like seaweed. What will they think of next?
Tide on the black market
This past week I’ve seen a couple of articles about the laundry detergent, Tide, is becoming a popular item to be shoplifted and sold on the black market. I stopped buying Tide for the most part a couple of years ago because the price has increased steadily over the years and it has simply gotten too expensive unless I have coupons to use. But I have to wonder exactly how it is that the shoplifters are getting away with stealing it? The Tide bottles are really quite large. Are they putting them on the bottom rack of their shopping carts and then just walking out the door? I’ve read that some stores are starting to put anti-theft devices on their bottles of Tide. I think that is amazing!
A new patio
One of the things that keeps me busy during the “slow season” is taking on a fence or patio installation. I usually only have the time to do one or two of those types of jobs a year, but they are good money when I get them, so I’m always happy to oblige when I get a call from a customer.
Ellen Alexander asked me to give her an estimate on the price of installing a new patio in her back yard. She had been given my name and telephone number from her friend Louise Wadleigh She needs to have an area cleared and levelled first, and then a base layer of gravel hauled in. She wants a path from the patio going through the woods down toward the lake. She also wants to have a second patio built down by the lake. She is trying to decide whether or not to install a gazebo down by the lake, and whether to have it screened in or with combination windows/screens. She wants to include a barbecue pit or a fire pit as well. She really has not made up her mind on that one.
She wants to have me do the landscape lighting installation going from the patio down along the pathway on both sides all the way down to the lake. I plan to take some brochures with me to her place that show a variety of options for the lighting and the patio pavers that I think will be in her price range.