Today is Day #21!! We have a Winner!

Ok - so it's Day #21 and I can officially say that the shiny sink thing is ALMOST a habit. I say almost because there have been one or two nights where I just couldn't drag myself back to the sink to empty it and clean it out at night. And I am being honest - it has been more recently than I would like - but - every time I had to wake up to a yucky sink full of yucky stuff I was sad about it and vowed to do better.

How's it been going for you?

I found that this sink generally kept all the counters clean if not the kitchen table. And the tidying around the house has been a lot more awesome. Since my relatives came over to visit we have done a pretty good job of keeping things at least tidy enough that if someone came to the door - I wouldn't be embarassed.

Flylady calls this the CHAOS - or - Can't-Have-Anyone-Over-Syndrome which in our house was pretty often. Check her out more at http://www.flylady.net/. So it is all getting better. I think I would like 21 more days to keep working on my house and home habits and since none of you commented otherwise - I will assume it's alright with all of you.

During the next 21 days, I will share with you my home successes, shopping triumphs and the continuing saga of the plastic bag phenomenon. Can you believe 2 terms of 21 days are up?

In this time, my husband and I have also been on a very huge change in our food/diet lifestyle. To date, (about 5 weeks have passed) I have lost 8.5 pounds and my husband has lost 11 pounds plus both of us have lost many, many inches. Man we have got lots going on lately around here!

Jenn - My sister Laura drew the names and you are the winner of the bracelet giveaway! Send me an email with your address and I will mail it to you - or if you are going to our favourite store this weekend by chance, let me know - I will be there tomorrow for part of the afternoon... Maybe we can run into each other there and I can give it to you in person!

I wanted to share with you all some cool shopping bags I found. Remember I said that I found some cool ones with a cool store? Well - here are some pix:

So here it is... only 99cents and made entirely from 2L plastic bottles. The store owner (Tootsies - if you have one near you, stop in and grab some of these!) told me that the cost is 99 cents for him to buy but he doesn't try to make money on them - he just wants to do his part in the environment too by selling them at cost...

So this is how many of my Christmas gifts will be delivered this year - this is our replacement for wrapping paper... Cheaper and reuseable!

Here is what it says on the tag:

"This reuseable bag is made from approximately 4 recycled plastic bottles. That's a very good thing.

-Annually we consume in excess of 500 billion plastic bags. That's 1 million per minute.

-Only 1 in 200 single use plastic bags is actually recycled.

-Every plastic bag ever used still exists today, and will exist for up to 1,000 years. Plastic bags are not biodegradable.

-This bag is 100% recyclable.

-This bag is made from 85% post consumer recycled plastic.

-This bag can replace 50 or more non-recyclable bags.

-This is all a step in the right direction for the environment and the future."

Pretty cool right?!

And the black tie version: