The Best Thing EVER!

I have been reading about the Robby Wash Ball for a few years in European magazines; just throw it in the wash and get clean, whiter, brighter clothes. I have been waiting to get my hands on one for an eternity, it seems - imagine my sheer joy when Oransi, the North American distributor of the Robby Wash Ball sent me one for free to review! I felt like I had hit the lottery!

The Robby Wash Ball is an environmentally friendly wash product which works by ionizing the water molecules to remove stains and odor from laundry. You simply throw the ball in with your 10 pound load of laundry and wash as usual. It is recommended that if you use a high capacity washer two balls be used. Also, if necessary, laundry should be bleached and rinsed ahead of the wash as the ball cannot be placed in bleach. The ball comes with a pre-wash stain stick that can be used instead of bleach. The Robby Wash Ball retails for $32.95 and will wash 12 months worth (an entire year's worth!) of laundry.

I've washed several loads of laundry with my Robby Wash ball and have been thrilled with the results. The first load was a doozy: it had been washed twice, the first time it smelled oddly of moth balls after being washed, the second time it came out with the lovely smell of a teenage boy's locker room. I can't tell you why, but I couldn't get this load to smell good. After I washed it with the Robby Wash ball, all of the unpleasant smell was gone and all of the whites were brighter. Not back to their original pristine white, but definitely noticeably brighter. I would recommend using a softener sheet in the dryer as the clothes were very staticy when I removed them.

You know how pillowcases can get an odd, bed head smell after a while? The Wash ball totally removed that smell. Nothing else I have ever tried did. The sheets were soft and bright, and there was no blue staining like I experienced with Oxy-Clean. The Robby Wash ball is a wonderful thing, especially when you consider that 100 ounces of Tide retails for around $10.00 and washes 64 loads (this lasts me about a month or two). A full year's worth of Tide would cost me $60 - $120 a year. And it's not an eco-friendly product. With the Robby Wash ball, you pay under $33 dollars, never measure detergent, wash your clothes for a year, and release nothing harmful into the environment. Seems like a no-brainer to me!

The Robby Wash ball can be purchased directly from Oransi and also through Amazon.com.

August Break: New Shoes

Gotta love the Chucks!

August Break: Lichen

These lichen are on a tombstone in Dublin, Ohio's historical cemetery. I love the color of lichens. Did you know that the tree tops on model railroad tracks are made of a form of lichen? That they are used to scent soap and were used in the past to dye wools? But mostly, they are beautiful, these the most gorgeous rusty orange color. They are beauty in the most inhospitable of environments, a lesson that we can thrive no matter where we are thrown, even if it means only growing a fraction of a millimeter a year.

August Break: Mural

Columbus's Short North is full of murals: trains, the old Central Station, this painting by hometown hero George Wesley Bellows, but this amazing take on American Gothic was one of the first and is still my favorite.

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I am finding that using my Brownie may be more costly than I ever imagined. There is a manufacturer of B&W film for $7.99 (color is discontinued and is currently $12 - $14), but developing at most labs is HIGH - like $75 A Roll! If I developed the film on my own, I'd have to spend about $45 on chemicals, but then to get the photos on film I'd need an enlarger, and don't even get me started on how expensive they are! I don't have a photo scanner, nor do I want to purchase one. If I can find a developer who doesn't want a kidney to develop my film I'll get some B&W film and have about 12 snaps (and I could experiment with dual exposure, which would be cool). So, the moral of the story is that if you are going to buy a film camera, buy one that takes 35mm film, unless you have a magical money tree in your backyard. Who'd have thought a $6 camera could cost so much!

August Break: Escapee

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Very lazy day today. It's 81F (27C) outside and it feels like fall after our weather near 100F (37C) with high humidity. Made pizza for dinner, did the dishes. Kendall hasn't taken any of her pain meds today, which is fantastic. She's had a constant stream of visitors keeping her occupied. Thank God for lazy days.

Oh, and I don't get the appeal of "Shark Week." Tim's all over it, and to me it's just endless shows about fish attacking people. Although sharks are amazingly beautiful and so graceful the way they move through the water. But I don't get it.

OH! I decided to stick with etsy because I was having trouble creating a "Buy It Now" button for my blog/store. All of the hidden values are listed on top of the button when I publish it. And I really don't want that! So until I figure that out, click on the banner at the top for Howard Knits (named after my Grandpa "Chub" Howard - he was called Chub even when he got skinny as a rail - that's him in the photo in the 50's with Bluebell the parakeet) and our ancestral name. And Tommy and William have the middle name Howard. So it's an important name in these parts. Anyhow, check it out - it only has photos on it, but I'm trying to figure out how to do note cards and am working on some crocheted cushions.