Cub Scouts Birdhouse Project at Our Half Moon Bay Location

We hosted a troop of Cub Scouts last Monday for a great project on making and painting birdhouses. The boys got a great hardware lesson in the different types of woodworking nails and tools and we had a lot of fun helping them learn and play!

Thank you, Troop 263!

Note: If you have a group who'd like to do a fun project at one of our locations, let us know!

Homemade Laundry Soap Good for Septic, Drain Fields and HE Washers

We (and by that, I mean Claudia from our Ocean Shore location) found a great recipe for homemade laundry soap.

A few reasons we like this approach: It's non-toxic; safe for septic tanks and drain fields; it saves you money; and it's perfect for HE washers!

Supplies

1. 1 Bar (or 4.5 oz) of Fels-Naptha (fine grated) [SKU# 1253129]
2. 1 Cup of Washing Soda [SKU# 1380013]
3. 1 Cup Borax [SKU # 1253301]
4. Grater (for shaving the Fels-Naptha bar)

Directions

1. Shave 1 bar of Fels-Naptha
2. Add 1 cup of Borax
3. Add 1 cup of washing soda
4. Stir thoroughly (stirring is complete when you have a fine powder)

Use 1 Tbsp per load (2Tbsp for heavily soiled loads)
1 recipe make 16oz which is 32 loads!

This soap is a “low suds” soap, so it’s perfect for High Efficiency (HE) Washers. Ingredients are non-toxic, containing ZERO phosphates, ZERO fillers (like clay) that clog lines, or harm necessary septic tank bacteria.

Caution!
DO NOT confuse Borax with Boric Acid, they are NOT the same thing! Boric Acid should NOT be used!

Original recipe from diynatural.com

Night of Lights, Half Moon Bay, 2012

The annual Half Moon Bay Night of Lights was a success again this year. We intend to be more prepared next year so that we can participate, but we had fun spectating this year.

Here's what we saw:

Homemade Vanilla Extract Recipe

Homemade vanilla extract!

Ingredients:

10 vanilla beans, split lengthwise - be careful to keep the gooey-inside-seedy-stuff in the pods.

1 liter of Vodka

Directions:

Place the vanilla beans in a bottle of vodka and seal.

If you're going to give these as gifts, find some pretty clear glass bottles and make smaller batches.

Store in a cool, dark area such as a kitchen cabinet for 3 weeks, shaking the bottle every week. Three weeks is the minimum, store it 6 months for the best flavor. After using, replace with more vodka. The same beans will continue to flavor the vanilla for up to a year.

Repainting the Forklift

We have really fantastic employees. One of our FACE (Facilitating Awesome Customer Engagement) team members took it upon herself to strip the paint off the forklift (which we use for loading and unloading all of our product); sand it; prime it; wet sand it; and then paint it. Now she's just waiting for the guy to come this week and paint our logo on it.

I love the people I work with!

Christmas Tree Stands On Sale

If you're in Palo Alto and in need of a Christmas tree - stop by Whole Foods on Emerson. Then bring in your receipt, and this coupon, to Palo Alto ACE Hardware and get 15% OFF any tree stand in stock!

Black Friday at ACE Hardware

We have some great coupons, sales and deals for you this weekend!

Stop by any of our locations - Palo Alto, Willow Glen, Half Moon Bay and San Mateo for incredible savings!

Fixing Broken Christmas Lights

 

Tip of the Week:

Got an old set of Christmas lights that are not working?  Our Sales Associate, Jorge, suggests trying the LightKeeper Pro fixit gun.  It comes complete with instructions and batteries!  If for some reason you are unable to get the string of lights working, then bring them in to one of our locations - Half Moon Bay, Palo Alto, San Mateo or Willow Glen.  We have teamed up with "Lights for Life", an organization that recycles your lights to raise money for cancer survivors.  Come and visit us for more details.  We look forward to seeing you!

Repair Cafe Palo Alto

We had a blast at the Repair Cafe in Palo Alto a few weeks ago. To see what it was all about, check out their great photos and write up at RepairCafe.org!

Girl Scout Silver Award and Oh So Much More

[caption id="attachment_663" align="aligncenter" width="529"] Before and After[/caption]



Ella rocks. I knew this about 20 seconds into our first phone conversation. Or perhaps I had a glimmering even before we spoke, when I learned why she and her parents had come into our store seeing if we could donate some supplies to her project.

Ella, and two other Girl Scouts in her troop, were working on their Silver Award. I thought, “That sounds like a fairly important award - Gold, Silver, Bronze, and all that.” What I soon learned is that a Silver Award entails 50 hours of community service.  Let’s let that one sink in a bit – 50 hours. From someone who’s only 13.

We were more than happy to support her efforts, and Katie, Ella’s mom, was so pleased with our employees, she sent me an email with photos and a great big thank you to everyone at our store.

Katie had previously volunteered with InnVision Shelter Network and Ella was moved by the drab playground at one of the locations. That’s when she decided where she would spend her time earning her Silver Award - bringing light and fun, energy and color, to a children’s space that was otherwise brown and overgrown with weeds.

The weekend neared to install the projects the girls had created over several months – a sandbox to be placed where once there was only tanbark; a sensory garden - child-height - where sage, rosemary, geranium and lavender were planted to waft their gorgeous scents at the brush of a small person passing through;  a long, plain, concrete corridor floor painted bright with hopscotch and footprints.

I was so impressed by what Ella was doing and by her poise and grace, I offered to come help out. She and I talked on the phone a bit about her project and I got to spend some time working with her and the other volunteers that weekend. I saw the playground transform as they worked, and I experienced  something wonderous – people helping out other people, just for the sake of adding some beauty and joy to the world.

So, to Katie and Ella and all the other volunteers on that warm, late-summer Sunday afternoon, building beauty and kindness: Here is my great big thank you right back. For  for including our store in such a wonderful experience and contribution; for showing others that serving is also a blessing; for spreading color and joy in the world; and for helping just to help.