Brummet's Conscious Blog

Today's increasing energy costs, shrinking budgets and stagnant wages are a growing concern. For those of us living in the more extreme climates that require extra heating in the winter months or relief from the blazing summer heat, there are tricks we can do to increase our comfort while lowering the bills.  Walk around your home and take a mental note of all the electrical outlets and light switches, computer and TV outlets and any vents or pipes along each exterior wall. You’ll likely find some on the outside of your house too, so be sure to walk around out there and along the deck, taking notes of where they are, and how many of each. Purchase caulking or foam and fill around any piping, cords and vents you noticed that breach the exterior walls.  Look for cracks and gaps or holes anywhere on the exterior and be sure to fill them too. Get a few packages of insulation kits and plugs designed for outlets and light switches. It is easy to do, just take the cover off with a fl...

-- Quote of the Day --  “Be aware that we are interconnected: what I do to you, you do to somebody else and it will eventually reverberate back to me. …For some people (change) is just a little blip and for others it is a smack in the head. …When you are in high school everyone is going through adolescence together. With midlife we are feeling alone, and we are dealing with hormonal changes too. For women, you might go through it at 35 or I might go through it at 60. Women often go through a shake up phase in their thirties, and then menopause later on. For men 40-50 is their time. – we get this wake up call at several points in our lives where we ask the big why questions; why am I hear, etc. …Sometimes you want to change but you are afraid of change; the best way to get over fear is to get into action. You face your fear and it just blows away. Question your fear; a lot of times we take on other people’s fears.” Franki Picasso ...

-- Quote of the Day -- " I've learned that we cannot forget or throw away our past, But we must not allow our past to control us either. We must learn and grow from our past failures, disappointments, pains and experiences. Reset our goals and priorities... and move forward.  Start TODAY, by Un-Ty-ing the knots that LIMIT you! "  ~ Ty Howard -- Tips to Green Your Home or Office --  You can save a lot of money and feel good about greening your home or office this Spring with some easy activities that require very little time or effort.  Air leaks in the home can reach 25-40% of the heat and cooling costs, and a home that is drafty or has moisture problems and high electric or gas bills will be harder to sell. Easy ways to keep the heat or cool air in the house include closing blinds and windows and doors until the sun hits the windows in the winter, then open them to allow the solar heat and light to enter the home. Do th...

 -- Quote of the Day -- " How come the dove gets to be the peace symbol? How about the pillow? It has more feathers than the dove, And it doesn't have that dangerous beak! " ~ Jack Handey ( Deep Thoughts ) -- Green Upgrades Pay Off -- Kudos to Trail’s Aquatic and Leisure center (BC, Canada) who’s upgrades - including the heat pump for the pool, the lighting, and also in the ventilation and air conditioning system - is expected to provide $52,000 in energy savings per year. ...enough to pay for the upgrades.   Find Dave and Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, information about their radio program, newsletter, blog, and more at: www.brummet.ca * Support the Brummets by telling your friends, or visiting the Brummet's Store - every sale raises funds for charity as well!

 -- Brummet's In the Media -- Please join myself and the Dream Time Radio show host, Julia Widdop, for a discussion... @ 2 PM (Pacific) / 3 PM (Mountain) Location: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/dreamtime-radio    Show title:  Writing Team, Dave & Lillian Brummet -- Conscious Discussions Talk Radio -- Finding Your Bliss is our topic today, with special guest - Susanne Alexander Heaton: CEO of Motivated by Nature ... an author, publisher, speaker and fundraiser. While being in a wide variety of work settings, Susanne had some life changing wake-up calls occur that inspired her to start her own company. Through her children's book The ABC Field Guide to Faeries , Susanne has raised over $15,000 for worthy causes – and this is just the start.  Join us live, and drop in the chat room... or access the archived show at your convenience. The hyper-linked show title (above) will take you there, or you can access the recently aired Conscious Discussions ...

 -- Chatter --  I've just learned from one of our publishers that the softcover format for Trash Talk (environment) and Towards Understanding (poetry) will no longer be available. Instead, the publisher is switching to hardcover formats only! - And they are doing this at the same retail price, which is really cool.  The hardcovers will, of course, be much more durable and will retain their value (for resale in second hand stores, for instance) - I think that will appeal to today's readers. From what I understand this change will occur in early June. It will be interesting to see what will come of this. Watch for the changes via your favorite online retailer over the next couple of weeks, as their systems become updated with the format change. -- Brummets in the Media -- I am excited to share that I will be interviewed on on http://SellingBooks.com today - the interview between myself and Cathy Stucker will be posted around 2 PM (pacific), or soon after. Please c...

-- Announcements -- - A Book Inside blog has just published an article about book promotion and this included information about Dave & I :) Check it out at: http://abookinside.blogspot.com/2009/07/are-you-expecting-too-much-from-your.html - The New Book Review Blog also posted a blurb about our recently released book, Purple Snowflake Marketing on June 30th at: www.thenewbookreview.blogspot.com - The Sharing With Writers Blog posted a wonderful piece on Authors Read radio - http://www.sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com -- Saving Energy in the Kitchen -- The kitchen, with all its appliances, gadgets and heat, is a real hotspot for potential energy saving. As the oven uses the most energy and creates a vast amount of heat while cooking foods, it is a good place to start. For instance, when baking cookies use two trays. While one is in the oven baking, the other one is prepped with raw cookies – ready to replace the tray in the oven with no wasted heat and some time saved. When we bake...