In case you were floating around trying to find out if there were other women out there who do home improvement like you, then check out www.BeJane.com We are the largest women's home improvement community and we are adding new features every day for you to be able to be inspired by other women or to offer your own projects as inspiration for others.

So just as June is right around the corner I would have to say that its finally time for me to my spring cleaning and this weekend is looking like it is the going to be it. I am dying to redo my closets and I have the perfect closet system that would make getting dressed my dream but the house we live in was built in 1922 and built of lathe and plaster. (I used it in my last house and it made me the neatest person I've ever been in my life!) I would need studs to hang this system off the wall so for now I will just have to live with the 1920s rack currently there.

 

Wish me luck.

 

Heidi

Alright, now I rarely get up on my pedestal and spout anything but I kind of feel like I need to. In the last few weeks I've done a great deal of traveling between going to Memphis, Nashville, Detroit, Houston, and New York City and I was able to see first hand how many airlines are trying to do their part with the whole "GREEN" thing. I was pleasantly surprised to see that most of the airlines I flew are now starting to recycle all of the bottles, cans and newspapers that come off of the airline. Seeing as I travel a great deal and already feel guilty for the polutants I am adding throught it, it makes me feel better knowing that at least they are conscious of our world.

 

That was until I took my last flight, a trip from NYC to my home in LA. On this flight not only did Jet Blue not recycle any  bottles, cans or newspapers, they also have individual size servings of Jet Blue water that they pass out to the entire plane at the end and through out the flight to anyone who asks for water. Now I need to preface this with I happen to love flying their airline but I have written them about this and I have to say it is making me think twice about whether or not they really do care about their customers, as they say they do, and if I should continue to book any flights on them.

 

Am I the only person who's noticed this and written in to them? Does this bother anyone besides me?

 

Heidi

Alright so Eden and I had a really great time in Houston working with the ladies from the National Charity League Wednesday through Friday last week. Then I went on to Detroit for my Aunt's suprise 70th birthday party! I'm still in Detroit and I have to say it's nice to come back "home" after soo long of being gone. (For those of you who don't know, I lived in Detroit until I was 16.)

 

I'm supposed to leave for NY on Wednesday to go and do the Mike and Juliet Fox Nationa Morning Show on Friday. I'll let you know once we have a time set in stone.

 

Heidi

So tonight I'm getting ready to leave for Houston tomorrow moring. Eden and I are going to the National Charity League event they are having there in which Eden and I are going to speak. So far it looks like the weather is going to co-operate and be around 80! I'm actually looking forward to sitting by the pool a bit when we're not working.

 

Otherwise I really don't have any ideas about Houston, never been there before. Does anyone have any good suggestions on what to do or where to eat?

 

Heidi

I just learned that Dunn Edwards has come out with a low odor/VOC paint and I started wondering what other lines of paint also have one. Now I guess I must have been living under a rock because I had NO IDEA how many companies out there are adding lines of paint that are healthier for your home!! 

 

(In case you are asking yourself what does VOC mean, most paints and primers contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs are common organic substances that readily evaporate (usually at room temperature). VOCs hold the paint in a liquid form, and, once applied, aid the paint in rapidly drying from a liquid to a solid by an evaporation process known as off-gassing. Off-gassing adversely affects indoor air quality, and may continue for months or even years even though the paint or primer has dried. A primary goal in the creation of healthy buildings is to generally reduce the overall amount of VOCs. )

 

Here are some other lines that I found that also have one:

 

Sherwin Williams

BioShield Paints

Anna Sova

SafeCoat

Auro Paints

Benjamin Moore

Devoe Paint

Dutch Boy

Earth-Tech

ICI Paints

Kelly-Moore

MAB Paints

Miller Paint

 

And by the way, when I started doing research on this, I also found many adhesives, sealers and eurethanes that all fall into more of a "Green" category!

 

 

Okay, so yesterday's post got me inspired to look at my pictures from our trip and I also came across some pics of inlaid stone floors that I couldn't resist showing you. (And yes, I know I looked like and was a complete goober taking pics of the floor everywhere I went.)

 

Make sure you click on the mosaic floor pic to see all of the absolutely amazing detail put into it.

Okay so I don't mean to bore you all with pictures from my trip to Northern Europe this summer but I couldn't resist taking pictures of all of the amazing inlaid wood floors. These were actually from a museum in St. Petersburg called the Hermitage.

 

I don't know the type of affect they have on you but to me they made me want to go back and learn how to do this from scratch.

 

(Make sure you take a look at the one that is the same design on the floor as on the ceiling! They are the 3rd ones down. Click on any of them for much more detail.)

So here's the deal. My brother and sister-in-law are giving birth in less than a month and have been looking into childproofing things while they still have time. They called me last night to ask if I had heard of the magnetic childproofing locks for drawers and cabinets.

 

I went online to see if I could find it and what it appears to me is that the locks only open when you place the magnet that comes with the lock over where the lock sits. I guess it magnetically unlocks it.  (I am attaching a pic of something similar, I don't know if it is the same one they are looking at.)

 

The problem is that they asked me if it was any good or even worth looking at. They wanted more specifically to know if:

 

1) they kept the kids out

2) if they were actually adultproof and difficult to open

 

I would love to get back to them with a response but I don't have one. Anybody have any experience with these or childproofing?

I did the stupidest thing on Sunday. I was cleaning up around the house and tried to close a cabinet that has a latch that looks like it's from 1952. It has never closed once in the last 4 years we've lived there and for some reason I wanted that door closed. So I messed with it a bit and got it to close, the only problem was I hadn't remembered that opening it was going to be an issue as the knob wasn't connecting to the mechanism.

 

I got it to shut, was excited to have the door closed and then realized "DOH!" I couldn't open the door. So I took off the lock with a screwdriver figuring that I would open the door and put the latch/lock back on regardless so that you wouldn't see the other paint color that was underneath. Instead my husband messed around with it for 10 minutes and actually fixed the darn thing!! I have to say I am very impressed considering I am the one who does most of the home improvement around our home.

 

Heidi

I just got the funniest email and want to share it with everyone I know. I already sent it to all of my girlfriends and have heard back from most of them so I think you'll like it as well:

 

So after going to Memphis last weekend, Eden and I were in Rochester, NY this past weekend for the First Annual Home and Garden show. We spoke  on Friday and Saturday and met some really neat Janes! We also got to meet Norma Holland from 13WHAM TV when she interview us early on Friday morning. She was soo sweet and went out to dinner with on Saturday night and brought her sister Andrea. Between the four of us, we didn't stop laughing for hours. I was actually hoarse by the end of the night!

 

 

For those of you that don't live in the Memphis area and didn't get our newsletter regarding the Southern Women's show, I just got back from there after speaking on both Friday and Saturday. I have never been to Memphis before and I have to say that everything from the people, to the food and blues were great! I really enjoyed getting to meet all of these wonderful ladies that came to hear me speak about how to make your home a place you love to live in.

 

I came back in last night rather late (tried to get on an earlier flight but it was completely booked) and guess who was on my plane?! Jane Seymour! I so badly wanted to go up to her and tell her about us and Be Jane because everytime I Google us, up comes her website and information! I didn't though because she seemed tired enough and like she didn't want to be bothered. So today, being just the 2nd day I've had off in over 3 weeks, I am going to relax and enjoy the heat wave in Los Angeles!

 

Have a great day!

 

Heidi

I am actually writing to you from my computer (duh) on an Amtrak train going from New York City to Washington DC! Eden and I came to New York on Wednesday (2 days ago) to do a taping for CNN's Open House (it is expected to air in a week or two) and now we are on the way to DC to do appearances at the Capital Home Show in Chantilly, Virginia.

 

I know it sounds stupid but I love the fact that we took a train instead of took a flight. To me it's our little way of trying to keep this world  from melting away. With all of the things you hear every day about how important it is for everyone to do their part I always try to find a way to make a difference. Like on Thanksgiving, my husband and I took the train down to San Diego instead of driving. (The funniest part of that was the fact that it was such an enjoyable trip and driving is such a bear, that my husband vowed that he wouldn't drive down for Thanksgiving ever again ;). Anyway, that's my exciting train story.

While we were in Minneapolis I was actually able to catch up with Cris Willig, one of our book Janes, as she lives just outsite the city. She was such a sweetheart! We had wanted to take her out to dinner but due to the fact that she is in a very intensive class for interior design and she had a project due the next morning and expected to be up until 2am finishing it, coffee was all she had time for.

 

She was soo sweet to talk to and she even told us about a contraption she had created as a tool tray to hold all of her tools when she used to create/put up curtains before she went back to school.

 

Here's a picture of Cris and I.

So we got back late last night from Minnesota and I have to say we were very pleasantly surprised. We found the food to be really good and the people to be very nice. We were actually in Minneapolis and loved their walkways around the city! You could spend your entire day walking around downtown and NOT NEED A JACKET!! Which is saying a lot considering the high temperatures while we were there was 15 degrees fahrenheit. I wouldn't mind going back there anytime they ask.

 

Now it's back to work in Burbank, which by the way is supposed to be almost 80 degrees tomorrow. It's so strange to go from a true winter climate (more like the one I grew up in) and then end up back in sunny California.

 

-Heidi

So I'm trying to figure out what to pack because we are going to Minnesota on Monday and it is FREEEEEEZING cold there right now! To tell you how cold, the current temperature is 4 degrees. There's not a 1 or a 2 or possibly even a 3 in front of that...just 4!! And to add insult to injury, the "real feel" is negative 12!!

 

I am going to freeze my booty off!! I'm grateful we'll only be there for 2 days otherwise I might turn into a Jane-sicle!

The funniest thing just happened, one of the guys who works for us came up to me around a week ago as he had bought a very cool paint (I think he said the brand name was Aura) and he painted one wall with it in his bedroom. He used blue tape to make the lines but found that when he removed it that the color has bled through the tape. So I showed him the technique we used for the horizontal stripes in Ellen's room (using clear, painter's caulk on the edge of the tape you are painting on).

 

He spent most of the weekend working on it. (Poor guy, he had his whole house painted in Swiss Coffee and didn't realize that he had both semi-gloss and flat...and painted the wall with the semigloss and then needed to paint two coats of flat to cover it!) He just came up to me and emphatically asked why they don't teach this technique at every paint store/paint section. It's really only a difference of $2.50 (or so) and a bit more time but when you're done it really does look professional. He was so funny he said he had his neighbors come over and see his new paint job and they were all very impressed!

 

Just thought you would find that funny.

 

In case you want to see how we showed Ellen how to paint perfect stripes every time, here's the link:

 

We were down in San Diego a few weeks ago doing an appearance for a locla television station to promote the book and we were lucky enough to have Lydia Contreras (one of our book Janes) with us. I have to say I thought she did a great job on camera. She stayed cool and remained calm the entire time! If you would like to take a peek at the clip, here's the link to it:

 

 

Just as an fyi, it was friggin' cold!!! Last minute they changed doing the interview from inside the studio to just outside and it was probably around 51 degrees outside. (I know that for those of you that live up in the northern part of this country that it's not that cold but to me, without a jacket, that more than chilly!)