1. Zoe! Last Friday I talked about awesome Walter, and this week I want to talk about my rescue kitty, Zoe. She’s not the friendliest cat aroundâshe’s definitely a full-on cat, whereas Walter is very dog-like. She’s maybe 10 or 11 years old, but I’m not sure of her actual age. This is because she’s a deli cat rescue! About nine years ago, a friend of mine was living in Bed-Stuy and a deli on her street shut down. Apparently, this cat was living in the deli and they abandoned her when they closed the place, mercifully leaving the gate open enough for her to escape. My friend found this poor kitty wet and crying on the street, so she took her in. She couldn’t keep the cat, so I decided to give her a good home. Zoe is super weird, as most torties are. LIKES: head scratches, Greenies, giving good bitchface and stinkeye, chewing on plastic bags, sleeping by my feet, catching mice and putting them on the bed, chattering at birds and squirrels outside. DISLIKES: the rustling noise of plastic or paper bags, being touched anywhere other than her head, people walking through the apartment, the Game of Thrones theme song sung in meows, all other animals (sorry, Walter).
2. A beauty lover’s favorite time of year: Sephora‘s 15% off VIB sale! The sale started yesterday and runs through Tuesday, April 21st. The best part? The discount is good for everything both in store and online. Store-wide discounts are a rare occurrence for Sephora, so it’s an excellent time to stock up! Online shoppers must use code VIBLOVE at checkout (note that the code only works if you’re signed in AND you have VIB status). I just placed an order for a few goodies, so I’ll share my haul when it arrives!
3. Salty Road Salt Water Taffy. My husband was given a few boxes of this yummy stuff at work and brought home the sea salt caramel flavor. I love this taffy, and it’s made in Brooklynâyay for local goods! A box of taffy is $6.50 on their website; not too shabby for so much sticky deliciousness!
4. DIY liquid hand soap. As we started running low on a Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day honeysuckle hand soap in the bathroom, I thought I’d try mixing up soap using some of that giant bottle of Dr. Bronner’s lavender castile soap in our shower. I found a ridiculously simple recipe here and made my own hand soap in two minutes. All you need is one or two tablespoons of a scented Dr. Bronner’s liquid castile soapâI used twoâthen you fill the rest of the bottle with water and shake to mix it up. Pro Tip: pour water into the bottle SLOWLY; pouring too quickly will just cause the soap to foam up. If you use the unscented castile soap, you can scent it by adding 15-25 drops of your favorite essential oil. It’s really that easy! The soap’s consistency is a lot more liquid-y than your standard bottled hand soap, but it still works up into a nice lather on your hands. This is a VERY economical way to make your own liquid hand soap! A bottle of Mrs. Meyers costs about $3.50 – $4, but if I did my math right (and let’s be honest, that’s a BIG if) this recipe nets out to about $.50 per 12.5 oz bottle of hand soap (or $.25 per bottle if you use one tbsp instead of two), not including any essential oil.
5. Public Supply notebook: recently I filled up my Cynthia Rowley notebook with my food log, so I started a new one with this cute yellow notebook, which came in a Conscious Commerce for Birchbox gift set that I bought for myself over the holidays. 25% of profits from these notebooks go to the creative arts in public schools. My particular notebook helped out classroom 87 in Dallas, Texas.
