Cooler temperatures may have you missing greenery. If everything outside has prepared for winter, you can always bring your own green indoors! While there may be a list of plants you’ve been dying to get, you may want to scan your shopping list first if you have pets. Even if you don’t have curious pets, there are some houseplants that are better to avoid altogether if you have furry friends in your home. It is always important to research any plant you consider purchasing, but there are a few tried and true that pet experts recommend! Here is a list of pet-friendly plants to add to your home:
- Ferns. True ferns are an easy addition to a pet-friendly home. They pose no threat to your pets and are usually hung in spaces where your pet cannot reach them anyway!
- Kitchen Herbs. This is the best way to bring green to your indoor space while also serving another purpose – to eat! Basil, cilantro, dill, fennel, and sage are all easy indoor garden additions.
- Orchids. Orchids may not be easy to grow, but a huge range of orchids are safe for pets.
- Palms. True palms are generally safe, but cycads are not. A few safe palms to look for include areca palm, bamboo palm, dwarf palm and the ponytail palm.
- Peperomia. This group of plants is known for its easy care requirements and textured leaves, making peperomias perfect plants for a busy house with pets. Most are pet friendly, but you can stick to the basics like blunt leaf peperomia, ivy peperomia and metallic peperomia if you want to be safe.
- Succulents. Succulents and cacti, as a group, are pretty safe for pets. Though the plant may not be toxic, it is important to consider if your pet can reach a plant that is covered in spines.
Amanda Walsh Patierno aka Mandy is a licensed
Real Estate Broker in the State of Virginia.
Ok! So, I still haven’t paid a subscription, so that’s AAAHHHMAZING! Anyways, I dropped off my last tote to the post office Friday! 2 hours later, I got a notice that my next tote was ready for customizing!! Then, Saturday… that it had been sent! Tracking is saying Wednesday but last time they said that and it showed up early!
So this go-round with Le Tote it matched all but 1 item that I had in “my closet”. So you scroll through all of their inventory and heart what you like. When it’s time for your next tote it automatically will pick something for you and if you have placed items in your closet they seem to try to pull from there!
What I’m most excited about is trying 3 clothing pieces I would never buy but guess what, I am going to try them! When I get this next tote, I will do a rundown of what I got and show some of the pricing of the items. My last tote, there was a Noir black mesh dress that I didn’t wear just tried it on to see how I would look in it. Well, I didn’t look at what the item cost, I could have bought that dress for $22!!!!! I had no idea. I thought it was going to be closer to $70! Lesson: if you like it, check how much it is, because it might be a steal! Also, I know that this sounds weird to “rent” clothes but so far everything has looked like the tags were just popped off! I don’t know how long I will participate in this subscription but so far, I can see myself doing one more month! For now, I will milk May!
My plan of action. Wear all these goodies Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday and return them Thursday morning. No, you don’t have to wash them! You just put them back in the bag!! Then since I already have spent time adding items to my closet I should be able to get my next tote shipped the same day i return the last! If my calculations are right, I will have the next tote (for no additional charge) Saturday and Monday. Then I will repeat and wear new clothes for weeks, for what should be $60. But like I said… I hadn’t been billed yet!
Check out this subscription and get a free tote by using my referral link below!
https://letote.com/freetote/AMANDA11141
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Finally! Spring is here in Virginia! Need some ideas on how to get your spring cleaning done? I love fresh starts! Don’t you!? Here are MY recommendations for Spring Cleaning in 2018!
- INVEST IN A CARPET CLEANER: (if you have carpet)- I’m shampooing all of my carpets! Myself! Once I’m finishing shampooing my carpets we are implementing a “no shoes in the house policy”. So I invested in a carpet shampooer! This thing is amazing! Between 2 kiddos, 2 cats, a dog and a husband who works construction my carpets were SCARY! It sat in the box for about a week and then I decided I would take care of it myself. It was only 3 screws! I felt so silly. Anyway’s I spent $99 bucks on this thing and my carpets look amazing. You’ll want to tidy up and move some furniture, vacuum and then you can your carpets clean too! I ordered the package that came with the professional cleaning grade cleaner! I even created a little sign that says in the nicest kinda way… TAKE YOUR SHOES OFF. I’m going to be “one of those people”. But seriously, you could be tracking E-coli into your home!
- DECLUTTER: Time to put away those winter clothes and get rid of any winter clothes you DID NOT wear this past season. If you didn’t wear it this year… you won’t wear it next! I’ve dropped about 2 bags of clothes to the Good Will this week but then heard about Thread Up and decided that I would send them all of my items that were like new or still had tags on them. I just ordered the bag last night but I’ve already gotten a shipping confirmation on it. Just waiting on the bag. Have you used the service or purchased from there before? Comment below with your experience! TIA! I hadn’t ordered anything from them yet but it looks like if YOU want a free $10 to spend you can use my link and it will give you $10 and me $10. That’s pretty cool! The prices look amazing. My friend Katie mentioned this service to me after I told her about Le Tote! Here’s $10 to spend on Thread UP!
- ORGANIZE: How many lids per cups do you have? You know like if you pick up a random lid in your kitchen… do you still have the cup? Time to do a deep dive into your cabinets and drawers. What haven’t you used since you moved in or in several years? How many “extra’s” do you have lying around. I realized all of my random pots and pans that are all the same color needed to be replaced. So I order these beautiful turquoise pots & pans. I’m soooo excited about them! I did the math… I’ve had the same pots and pans for 10+ years! So I ordered some beautiful new GreenLife Soft Grip 16pc Ceramic Non-Stick Cookware Set, Turquoise
” pots & pans! I may have ordered a matching Keurig… oops!
- SELL: We live in a society that allows us to “recycle” and “upcycle”! I LOVE that! So when you are done with something you can toss it at a good price on Facebook Marketplace and it’s SOLD. This weekend, so far… I sold a rolling cart desk that I had when I was nursing and working from home all at the same time, lol. I also sold some dishes since the new ones I bought had come in. The kicker… since I sold the old ones, the new ones really only cost me $7. I was looking for a more streamlined clean look so I went with Amazon’s Basics 18 Piece Dinnerware Set. Tomorrow, I’m selling a chaise lounge & desk and replacing them with a $30-$45 dollar white desk from Facebook Marketplace and then plan to buy another set of chairs from Amazon that I have in my companies office. I love these chairs so much I had to get some for my new home office and my new vanity area I’m creating in my bedroom! I ADORE these chairs! 2 for less than $160! They’re also and “amazon choice”.
- REARRANGE: Change is good! Change things up a bit. We have a formal living, dining and family room. Our formal dining room has always been my office and the living room just space for the kids to play and my workout equipment. But I’m switching it up! I’m moving my home office to the “living room”a cough elliptical room… and we are going to set up our formal dining space for a dining room! Here’s my Pinterest board where I got the inspiration for my new office “office” and my new home office! https://www.pinterest.com/AmandaMWalshRE/new-office/
” pots & pans! I may have ordered a matching 
I would love to hear about something YOU do to spring clean too!
Drop your comments below!
So, writing (excuse me typing) is totally new to me! I started this blog to be an outlet, a hobby, something to do besides just sell real estate or be a mom! So far so good! I wanted to tell the world about a couple amazing apps though while I have them on my mind!
This app saves me from looking like I didn’t make it past middle school! You can download it as an extension and the app will underline any grammatical errors including missing commas! Or, like just now when I mistyped “grammatical”!
This is a new extension in my chrome browser but apparently, I earned 95 in Honey Gold last night when I spent $150 on Etsy working on some branding for this site and my real estate company! You can exchange Honey Gold in for gift cards! From what I understand it also looks for coupon codes for you to apply to purchases, and this happens automatically! I haven’t had one work yet but I am looking forward to it!
I adore Fiverr! I have a girl from Bangladesh that has been designing business cards for my company for 5 years! I also only paid $5 for my companies logo from Fivver! You can really play around with this site ordering “gigs”. You may want to have a logo, business card or anything done design wise and they have options starting at $5 dollars. Outsourcing has never been so easy!
Ok, so some of you might “LIKE” going to the grocery store. As a busy Mom and business owner, I DREAD going to the grocery store. Standing in line, dealing with something not being properly priced or even when I want to try something different for a recipe but can’t find it because I don’t regularly buy it. I also have a very active 2-year-old (she wants to eat everything) and a 10-year-old who will “mommy look” me to death so after a year of consideration I finally decided to try Walmart Grocery! There’s no fee for it. You do have to place your order a day ahead of time OR even the morning of for a later pick up.
So let me set the stage… you’re having lunch with your kiddo. Kiddo says, “Mom, can you get me some veggie straws next time you get groceries?”. What do you do? Take a mental note? Pull out your pen and hunt for something to write on? I don’t anymore! I open my Walmart grocery app, type in veggie straws and ask if she wants the ranch ones or the sea salt ones. DONE! I don’t have to remember them anymore because they’re in my cart. I prefer to shop on Sundays, so all week I add things to my cart and on Friday night or Saturday I finalize my meal plans for the next week and order my groceries.
On Sunday, I get a text… “your groceries are ready you can pick them up between 3-4pm”. You select the time when you order the groceries! Then I open the app and “check-in” as you drive to Walmart they know you are coming! If you have tried this before and weren’t happy with the speed you probably didn’t check in on your way. Every time I do, they are walking out with my groceries when I pull up. I typically help them load my groceries but you don’t have to, they will show you your produce and meats (yes even deli meat) and make sure you are ok with the selections and load up your car!
And if you’re thinking.. this is just for groceries.. it is not! I order my toilet paper, paper towels, dog and cat food, cat litter, you name it, it I will try to buy it with the Walmart grocery app! I’ve ordered a laundry organizer, fruit platters for events and even air filters for my HVAC this past week!
I love it, it’s a game changer. If you use this link you will get $10 off your first order and I’ll get $10 dollar in credit too!
One last thing, you usually get a good bag on your first experience and every now and then I get goody bags too. Usually, they have samples but one time I got a full-size Dove deodorant. Another time a full-size Dove body wash (which I had forgotten to order my body wash) and around Christmas this past year I was given a reindeer decorated brown goody bag with treats in it.
Savings Catcher… yes, you can use savings catcher with the Walmart Grocery app. I totally bought the white pants I’m wearing today for free with my savings from the Savings Catcher app!
Hope this rambling on apps was beneficial to you!
xo Mandy