Green Winner & $20 Pear Tree Giveaway!

Today's a giveaway kind of day. As promised, I'm sharing the winner of the Green Giveaway that I ran in honor of Earth Day and I have another giveaway from Pear Tree Greetings that I nearly forgot about for April. I'm not trying to get all crazy with the giveaways but I thought it would be nice for someone to win $20 worth of stationery vs. just skipping it this month altogether because of my forgetfulness.

The winner of the Method Wood for Good spray, free eco-friendly method cleaning product coupon, and other goodies is 'ldelangel'-Congratulations! I didn't use random.org this time because we only had 6 entries from 4 different people and with 3 entries from ldelangel alone I figured she really wanted to win it. I've tried reaching you via your blog and facebook page but am unable to contact you, 'ldelangel' could you please e-mail me with your address so I can mail your gift? Thank You! :)

This month's Pear Tree Giveaway is $20 to spend any way you like and includes free shipping anywhere in the U.S. I love their note cards and address labels but they also offer graduation announcements and baby shower invitations too! Speaking of grads, if you know of one, have them enter Pear Tree's graduation contest HERE to win up to $6,000!

A reader,Trish,  recently left a comment on this blog post about Pear Tree's products, this is what she wrote:

"I just received my Pear Tree invitations and they are wonderful! The color, paper quality, and print far exceeded my expectations. I would highly recommend this company." ~Trish

Now, it's your turn to experience Pear Tree!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

1. To enter, let me know you're a public follower and tell me what you are most in need of such as thank you cards, wedding invitations, party invitations, moving announcements, etc.

2. For extra chances, share this giveaway via your blog, Facebook and/or Tweet about it! (each worth an extra entry)

*Be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry and don't forget to leave your e-mail if you don't have a blog, so I can contact you if you win!

GIVEAWAY CLOSES: May.1 @ 10pm EST

NUMBER OF WINNERS: One

PRIZE: $20 to spend at PearTreeGreetings.com (includes free shipping)

RULES: The winner will be selected using random.org and announced on 05/02/11.

OPEN TO: I apologize to my international friends but it's U.S. addresses ONLY for this giveaway.


Good Luck! Shop the Pear Tree website now and get special discounts. Thank you to the always generous Pear Tree Greetings for providing this wonderful giveaway prize!!

Happy Earth Day & Green Giveaway!

Happy Earth day! I love celebrating our planet and while today is a day that gets a lot of attention, I try to do my part every day. If we all introduce small and easy changes daily, we can make the biggest impact, and also show others by our actions how to live a more green and healthy lifestyle.

As some of you may know, Method is one of our newest sponsors. I was so delighted when they contacted me as I've been a loyal user of their fun, eco-friendly products for the past 6 or 7 years. I instantly fell in love with their yummy scents, people and earth friendly ingredients as well as their large range of products. If you have not explored the world of Method, I highly recommend it! Click {HERE} to see their collection. While all items are available online, you can find most at Target or Whole Foods.

A few weeks ago a case of these babies arrived at my door:

Thanks Method! I was asked to share their Wood for Good product with others, it is just one of their speciality surface cleaners. Wood for Good cleans and polishes wood furniture and smells like almond-it's HEAVENLY! Since Method had shipped the box of 4 bottles to me, as much as I wanted to give them all away to some of you, I wanted to keep things green by choosing friends or family members locally to avoid more fuel via shipping. I gave a bottle to 'J' and one to 'L' to try out and report back to me. Here is what they had to say about Wood for Good:

{L} said..."I love the fresh almond scent of the cleaner, makes you feel like you're baking or enjoying dessert instead of cleaning! I felt that it did a good job of removing light stains and dust/dirt and I liked that it came in a spray bottle instead of an aerosol can. I can see that the product will last me a while because a little goes a long way. And lastly, it comes in nice packaging and message on the bottle is entertaining and funny, which is always a nice bonus!"

{J} said... "WOW-the scent is awesome! I've never used a cleaning products that has smelled so good. I have both antique furniture as well as some modern pieces and it left both looking clean and shiny. We have hardwood floors and since I loved this so much that I want to try Method's wood floor cleaner next! I love knowing that this is safe for our cat and us as well as the planet."

Method wanted me to keep a bottle for myself but the final bottle will go to one of you in celebration of Earth Day! It will arrive along with a free Method product coupon to buy something of your choice and a micro-fiber cleaning cloth for one lucky winner who loves green cleaning as much as I do! (*While this is a wood cleaner, they have a separate cleaner for flooring, this is strictly for wood furniture.)

Become a public follower or tell me you already are one and leave me a comment here and tell me what green efforts you make in your home. For additional entries, like me on Facebook, Follow me on Twitter or blog about the giveaway and leave a comment for each. I'll be shipping this out to one lucky winner in the U.S. and will draw the name on Wednesday, April.27th at 11pm EST. Good Luck!

I wish you all a peaceful and blessed Easter!



*image (1), (2)

Cleaning House

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Sorry for my lack of posts lately,  I've been working on a lot of new projects and am managing some new changes around our home too. I'll be back again tomorrow with a a fun celebratory giveaway that you won't want to miss!

Speaking of the house, since today is a cleaning day for me, I thought I'd share how I keep house here at the Davis residence. My friends who know me well know that I love to clean and organize. In fact, they coined a term several years back called 'Karla clean' referring to how involved and detail oriented I am when cleaning. I can thank my dad for that -he taught me well!  It feels so great when everything is sparkling clean, and fresh doesn't it?

Before getting married and moving in with hubby, things in my own home always remained really clean and I loved returning from work or a trip to it that way. Being married presents different challenges, as I've learned over the past 4 years. Learning to work together and seeing how the other person does things is interesting to say the least.

For instance, I'm the type of person who likes to clean up the kitchen sink/counters while preparing food and dinner is cooking so that when everything is done there are virtually no dishes or mess to attend to. Hubby on the other hand is happy to leave them and come back to it when he feels inspired to put them in the dishwasher. LOL. I suppose some would say it's a 'guy' thing. It's probably a good thing that I do 90% of the cleaning because I can spot dirt where my darling husband does not. I've always firmly believed that the inside of a microwave can tell you a lot about the rest of someones home. Don't worry, I don't go snooping in people's microwaves. ;)

Thankfully we don't have any pets to clean up after and being sans kiddos at the moment, cleaning is actually a pretty easy task which kinda makes me a bit fearful for when they eventually arrive. I don't know how you moms do it! Taking care of children and a home is really two full time jobs wrapped up into one-kudos to all of you who take this on everyday! Don't ever let any working mommas or others tell you different!

With the chaotic week that I had last week, I have to say that my usual cleaning schedule became de-railed and instead of my 'a little bit every day' approach, I've left myself with 'a lot in one day' as I want to knock it out so I can enjoy this upcoming weekend.

Here is what my schedule normally looks like for our house of two:

{click to enlarge and view}

Since our master bathroom is SUPER tiny (literally a stand up shower, toilet and sink) there is no way that Paul and I could share, thankfully he let me have the bigger bathroom complete with a linen closet and bathtub. It gets used heavily as the main bathroom for our house and by visitors so I really like to keep on top of it. I sometimes take over the guest bedroom too, it happens to be my office. Aside from that, hubby has a very active dream life, sometimes I hear him mumbling in his sleep and even in a king size bed I'll wake up to the odd arm in my face which is when I take my cue to walk across the hall to the other room. Thankfully he doesn't snore though!

We only use eco-friendly, non-toxic cleaners in our home. Often I'll make my own, here is post on how to make natural cleaning products for your home too. My store-bought favorites are Seventh Generation, Ecover, Mrs. Meyers and Method. I have tried Greenworkds products in the past when I've had coupons but they're still made by the Clorox company who manufactures (and makes the majority of it's profits from) way too many chlorine-based, chemical laden cleaners in my opinion and I don't want to support that.

{Smarty dish is my fav dishwasher tab with white vinegar as my rinse aid. I LOVE Seventh Generation Disinfecting Spray/Wipes-kill germs and they're 100% natural! Ecover and Seventh Generation make a great toilet bowl cleaner-commercial brands and toilet tabs contain loads of neurotoxins like napthalene, the same ingredient in moth balls-avoid them at all costs!}

For those of you who feel overwhelmed with the new school year, beginning a  new job or getting back on track as the summer months wind down and don't know where to begin, perhaps you could use my cleaning chart as an example, filling in the dates as they make sense for you and your home.

How about all of you? What type of cleaning schedule have YOU implemented? Maybe you prefer to cast schedules aside and clean when you feel inspired or when things really pile up? I'd love to hear how you tackle the cleaning in your own home. Maybe you're blessed to have a maid service to help you out or a hubby that takes on more of it? What tips and tricks allow you to spend less time cleaning and more time enjoying life?

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for all the details of our next giveaway! :)



*I am in no way sponsored by or compensated the above mentioned cleaning product companies. These are my personal preferences.