Typically, I go with whatever is cheapest -- and that generally is plastic. Because, by and large, my plants are small growers a lack of "heft" is pretty irrelevant. I have picked up a bunch of neat pots and pot wannabes over the years. Sometimes they are pots at BBS in which all the plants have died and I am able to get the pot for a buck or two. Other times, I have found pots at thrift stores or attractive glazed ceramic bowls/containers that I then have drilled a drainage hole or holes thus turning the container into a pot. Examples of the latter follow: Recently, I was at a craft store looking for candle making supplies. Total waste of time in that regard but I did happen across a cool (IMO) faux rock pot in their clearance section. The pot had a few chips in it which enabled me to get it further discounted. When all was said and done, it cost me a little over $3.

Last year, I bought a feeder at the store that was made of green glass, and shaped like a pear with a hole at the bottom. There was a black rubber stopper stuck in the bottom of the glass pear. The stopper had a hole in its center, and an angled glass tube was inserted into this hole and hung downward. The end of the glass tube had a collar of red plastic. It was cute looking, but what a terrible feeder! The vacuum inside the glass receptacle prevented the solution from travelling down the tube, and the tube was so long that it would take millions of years of hummingbird evolution to find a bird that would evolve a bill shape to use it. Their bill would have to be curved upward, like a godwit or something! Anyway, I got so disgusted with this that I decided to make my own feeder. I got a small glass liquor bottle (maybe 4 oz or so) and found a red rubber stopper at Wild Birds Unlimited. The stopper fit perfectly into the opening of the bottle and had a hole in the center that was meant to receive a bent glass tube. Instead of using the tube, I made a flower out of Sculpey clay (or is it, Sculpy?) and poked a skinny hole in the center of the flower with a bamboo skewer that seemed the right size. The sculpey clay itself is supposed to be non-toxic, and I glued it to the red rubber stopper with epoxy. The epoxy is on the outside, and never touches the solution. Finally, I found some very fine gold wire and fashioned a sort of harness to hold the bottle. The bottle hangs diagonally downward at an angle of maybe 45 degrees, or a bit less. The ants I have trouble with are great big carpenter ants (man, can they bite!) and they are too large and clumsy to climb down my very slender gold jeweller's wire. I don't know if it would work with tiny ants, but I haven't seen a single ant on the feeder, so it seems to be working. The feeder is small enough that the nectar gets used up quickly, so I seldom have to worry about nectar going sour. When I do clean it, I just pop off the stopper/flower and toss it, and the bottle into a pot of boiling water. Easy! To be sure, there are more elegant feeders to be found, but the hummers seem very comfortable with it. The sugar solution stays up in the bottle, and the bumblebees that have visited it seem to have trouble reaching the solution, so don't linger. The hummingbirds, with their longer bills, have no trouble at all, and just probe deeply inside to get at the sugar water. My fake sculpey flower looks kind of like a cardinal climber flower, and I guess it's convincing enough that the hummers have no trouble seeing it as a possible food source.

Yes, rubbing alcohol (70%). It's what we refer to as the "homebrew" on the Kitchen Forum :) Some people use less alcohol...I like the smell. There are many natural stone polishers on the market. Usually if it's OK for granite, it's ok for other natural stones (altho it might state for "polished" stones). I like a product by Black Diamond Stoneworks called Marble and Granite Polish Preserver. It says: For counters, walls bar tops and all natureal stone surfaces, great for shower walls, NOT for floors. Resists etching and water spots. No rinsing necessary. All I know is that it makes my granite slick and shiny(er). I've been using it for 5 years. The company used to give away samples. They still might. I have a bottle of AquaMix "UltraClean Spray Cleaner with Ultra Seal. I have no idea WHY I bought it (lol) Haven't used it yet. It's a neutral pH balanced cleaner...Maintains Maximum Stain Protection and is for marble, granite, slate, limestone,travertine, quarry, saltillo, grout and other stone and tile. Which granite are you using? Not all granite needs to be sealed but my fabricators/installers don't know that. I was surprised mine did and he was even more surprised that I did (g). If it does need to be sealed, be sure and find out what type of sealer they will be using....water based or solvent based. The reason you need to know is because you'll have to reseal it in a year or two and need to use the same "type"...not the same brand. Here is a link that might be useful: Black Diamond Cleaners

Another CFL hater here. One was broke in our basement and I wasn't thrilled. You know, we have CFL bulbs in our chandelier over the table. They're very warm/yellow and I forget which ones there were. I do remember we needed another box and we bought a different kind by accident the light looked almost bluish white in the globe! I'm wondering if that was the cool or the daylight. I can't remember what we have even if I needed to replace one. What are they getting rid of the old bulbs? To be "green"? Gosh, I hate that overused phrase. Bulbs filled with mercury are so green dontcha think?