New Years Resolutions to Stick With

I have to say I have never been one to come up with a New Years resolution. I always felt that it was a waste of time to come up with something I knew would not last very long. Most resolutions consist of losing weight and exercising more. I would love to fit in some more exercise time and benefit from the weight loss. I am going another route this year on my resolution that will probably benefit me the same. I am going to stay away from fast food, restaurants, and prepackaged foods.

I know it s impossible to never go out to eat again but I will definitely choose my options wisely. No more fast food stops after school for a snack. I have already begun altering my shopping habits to purchase staple items and fresh or frozen produce. I am staying away from canned goods because of the BPA in the plastic linings of the cans. If you cannot buy fresh you should opt for frozen over canned. There is an organic farm a few miles to south of me and I will try to make a trip there once a week to stock up on fresh and organic produce.

Why do we consume so much prepackaged foods? I always have to read ingredients because my son has a long list of food allergies. This constant studying of labels had raised my awareness of the long list of unnecessary ingredients in prepackaged foods. Bread should only have a handful of ingredients unless it is 12 grain. Some breads have such a long list of 10 hard to pronounce ingredients that cannot possibly be good for you. Preservatives are a bad thing! My daughter actually was doing an experiment with a coworker stemming from something they saw online. They took a McDonald's cheeseburger and left it sitting in their office to see how long it would take for mold to grow. I am not sure how it turned out but she did say it had been days and still looked the same as the day they bought it. My son-in-law makes homemade beef jerky all the time. His jerky will only last a week tops in a zip lock bag. The stuff you buy in the store can last for years sometimes. So what I am saying is stay away from preservatives they are no good for your health.

I guess they best way you can start to eat better would be to read ingredients. If you are buying potato chips, make sure the ingredients are potatoes, oil, and salt. There shouldn't be much more than that. I have really been trying to purchase nothing pre-made. Everything from scratch, that's my new motto. It not only tastes better but it is so much better for you. If we are having spaghetti for dinner I make my own sauce from scratch, if we are having pizza I make the dough and add all fresh herbs and veggies.

It really doesn't take that much longer to cook from scratch and it is so worth it. With a little planning you can cut back on the processed and prepackaged foods too. So why not skip the typical resolution and join me in one that will benefit you in great ways! Go green, Go healthy, Live life:)

Last Minute Green Gifts!

Well hopefully by now you have most of your Christmas shopping done. I would imagine there are a few people out there that have waited until the last minute to finish up. I have found a few ways to keep it green when buying for your loved ones.

It can be difficult to determine what products you are purchasing are actually true "green" products. Many may claim to be eco friendly but are they really? The most obvious is in the packaging. So many toys are bundled up in such a way to appear 10 times larger than they really are. I have unwinded, pulled, ripped, and yanked toys out of their over sized boxes one too many times. Once you have set free the toy you have a heap of packaging and a small toy that fits in the palm of your hand. It angers me to see the gross waste of resources just to make something look better. You can find true green toys on www.greentoys.com where all the toys are made from recycled plastic and made in the U.S.A. If you are purchasing something more on the lines for an adult you can check a companies "green ranking" on http://www.newsweek.com/feature/2010/green-rankings.html
Here you can find a score for different companies based on their policies and procedures and environmental footprints. Thinking of purchasing a computer, a cell phone, shopping at a specific store? Check here first and make sure you are supporting companies that act environmentally responsible.

When you go to wrap up all those goodies be sure to check out my previous blog on homemade wrapping paper and keep it green. You can also use items like fabric and bandannas for wrapping up a gift. If you really want to get creative take a potato chip bag and cut it open, wash it well and dry. You can use this inside out to wrap up gifts and it will look just like the expensive foil paper you normally would pay extra for.

I hope everyone has a Merry "Green" Christmas! Much love and blessings in the new year too!

Green produce doesn't always mean organic.

How can we use green produce? When I say green produce I don't necessarily mean organic. I realize how expensive groceries can be without purchasing the higher priced organic products. I am thinking more on the lines of where your food comes from. When you are purchasing produce from California and you live in Florida there is no way that the product can be green when the travel involved to get it to you requires such a large amount of mileage. This is multiplied when we purchase produce from overseas.

One way to help green up your produce would be to purchase from local produce stands which usually get their produce from nearby farms. Another way is to grow some of your own. I have a modest garden in my backyard that supplies me some of my produce but there is still some I need to purchase. I love to receive the gift of someone else's abundance and enjoy sharing mine too. We have had an awesome crop of greens this year and have been able to share with numerous people. I also have received oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, and avocados from other people's crops. These homegrown fruits and veggies are almost always organic which is another awesome benefit.

Here is a picture of my most recent crops from my own garden and some that were shared with me.

I realize it is not always feasible to have fresh produce grown locally but during the times of year when we can we should utilize as much as we can that is locally grown or at the least grown within your own state. If everyone would change their shopping habits just a little we could make a drastic change in the amount of fuel used to move food from one place to another.

As far as your groceries go, enjoy:) Cook up some good, home cooked, preservative free, yummy dinner tonight! I have truly enjoyed having fresh veggies and herbs that I can pick as I need them. My husband and I are looking into organic fertilizer for our crops and we have some exciting and easy ways to make your own and we will be sharing them with you soon!

Have yourself a "GREEN" Christmas.

I have decided I would not buy any wrapping paper this Christmas season. I figured I could be creative and re purpose something else to wrap up my gifts this year. I had a stack of brown paper sacks from Publix that were leftover from crafts I did over the summer and decided this was the best place to start getting creative.

With a little bit of acrylic paint, stamps, paint brushes, glue and some glitter I was able to decorate the brown sacks and turn them into some decorative wrapping paper.

You can recycle just about any paper you have laying around and turn into beautiful wrapping paper. I even hand painted some of the gifts after I wrapped them to give them a personalized look to fit my children's personalities. For instance pink glitter script on one and a metallic and black zebra print on another.

Don't worry too much about the outcome just have fun decorating. It will be so much better than the paper you can buy at the store and will be such a great "green" alternative. I always have such a difficult time picking out paper that I like and then I end up with all the gifts under my tree wrapped up in what is usually 3 coordinating papers that I don't really care for.

Take a look at what I have done so far below and I challenge you to be "green" this Christmas:)

 

Garden Art From Recycled Dishes and more!

There are many creative ways to reuse something for another purpose. Rather than always running to the store when you want something think about what you can create from what you already have first. This is another way to live green.

My husband and I have a hobby of reusing items for another purpose. We have made many useful and decorative displays from items we picked up on the side of the road and have found laying around the garage. It is not only a fun hobby for us but a way to keep from purchasing extra things that we don't really need.

Recently I told my husband I wanted a new bird bath for my yard and he came up with a really cool design using old kitchen items. I love my new birdbath and it is unique and unlike any other's I have seen. Here are some picture of projects created from recycled items.

Here is the birdbath made from recycled pipes and fittings, a bundt cake pan, a wine glass, and a glass bowl.

Here is an antique door that has been turned into a hall tree by simply adding two decorative iron hat hooks.

This is a deer rack mount that was made from a piece that was found in a trash pile. Not sure if this was a mirror or just a decorative wall hanging but with an added piece of scrap wood and the deer rack added it turned into a really cool piece that adds character to my dining room wall. It is the pieces like these that blend my husbands decorating tastes and mine together.

This is a towel or coat rack or it can be used as a decorative piece as well. We used wooden thread spools to mount vintage faucet handles on a scrap piece of wood. I love the look of these old faucet handles, I think they have character.

Lastly here are some decorative items I made for the Thanksgiving holiday. I love seashells, sandollars, and anything natural. I used these sandollars from my collection and added paint and a touch of glitter. They add a nice touch to my Thanksgiving decor and I think they are appropriate for the Florida weather I will be experiencing for the holiday month.

 

As you can see there are many ways to turn everyday things into pieces of art or useful items too! I love things that are unique and you do not find in the big name stores. I hope these ideas will inspire you to create something using recycled materials. Have fun imagining other uses for those items laying around the garage.

 

Want a good use for your kitchen scraps?

Well I have continued to search for ways to live greener and I have found yet another. I have been recycling for a while and my trash output has really been cut down. We do not have to drag the trash to the bins nearly as often as we did before we began this journey. I have to say I have also saved on garbage bag purchases since my recycling has begun.

When my husband and I had acreage in the past we had hogs and would save all of our kitchen scraps each day to feed them. Since we no longer have hogs to dispose of our kitchen scraps we have been tossing what cannot go down the kitchen sink into the garbage. So I began to think how can I reduce the things I am putting into the garbage. Composting! What a great way to not only properly dispose of scraps but to reuse them for a greater purpose. It is also that time of year when the leaves are piling up throughout the yard. I have decided that I would add composting to my daily routine. It doesn't take long to turn your scraps and leaves into a nutrient rich fertilizer for your garden and plants. You can use any fruit or vegetable scraps, egg shells, newspaper, and coffee grounds to mix with your leaves and turn them into a black gold. You don't really need to be fancy about it and purchase an expensive composter. I have seen composters made from old pallets secured together into a box shape. You just toss your waste into and add a little water for moisture and turn the pile about once a week with a rake or shovel. If you are short on space and want something a little less obtrusive you can purchase one or make one out of something a little smaller. I will attach some websites below for more information on composting. I hope you will at least consider looking into composting. What better way to feed your plants than with the fertilizer nature intended!

http://www.howtocompost.org/

http://www.compost-info-guide.com/make_better_compost.htm

Reusing is green too!

I am trying to live as green as I can without too much inconvenience and discomfort. I can only turn my air up so much and I cannot afford expensive solar panels or windmills to power my home so I will have to find other areas to be Earth friendly.

One way that I have found to save the Earth and save money is buying used items. I love to shop at a thrift store! I think it is exciting when I dig through a basket of jewelry at Goodwill and find handmade sterling silver earrings for 50 cents that I had seen just a few weeks earlier at a jewelry store for way more money. There was also the time I found a brand new pair of Italian leather boots for $12 at a Plato's Closet. I know some people think they are above shopping at thrift stores but I have always felt that it didn't make sense to pay more for something if I could buy it for less. It is just smart. I have also found so many cool pieces of antique furniture from different shops that have more personality than anything I could purchase from a new furniture dealer and they are solid wood no particle board.

So basically if you want to do something to live a little greener you could start by stopping in a thrift store and taking a look next time you are in need of something. Living green is living wise. We should not be wasteful with any of our resources no matter how much we have to watse, money included.

Homemade "Green" Laundry and Dish Detergents..BIG MONEY SAVERS!

I spent about 30 minutes last night making my homemade laundry detergent. It was easy and not too time consuming. I started by using 3 simple and cheap ingredients.

I purchased these three ingredients from my local Publix for around $6. I peeled the bar of ivory like cheeses and put in a pot with 4 cups of hot water.

After the soap was completely dissolved I added 1 cup of washing soda and 1/2 cup of borax. I mixed this up and poured into a 5 gallon bucket and added hot water to fill it almost to the top.

This is the final product! I used a measuring cup to refill a few laundry detergent bottles that were in my recycling bin. I washed a load of laundry last night and it worked great! They were fresh and clean and smelled good too.

I will store this in the 5 gallon bucket with a lid and it should last me a long time. My husband did some mathematical calculations and came up with the price per load in this recipe. He said it equates to less than 2 cents a load. You can't beat that!

I also made my own dishwasher detergent using the same products. equal parts of washing soda and borax in a container shake up and you have some really good dishwasher soap. I tried this too and the dishes were really clean maybe even cleaner than with regular store bought detergent. I used a large peanut butter plastic jar from my recycling bin and it works great to store and pour.

Give it a try! You can save lots of money and keep your house clean and be green:)

Recycling Facts

I recently completed an assignment for school that required some research on recycling for my topic. I found some facts that amazed me. Did you know that in terms of energy wasted, every time you throw away an aluminum can it is like throwing it away half full of gasoline. That's crazy! The energy used to recycle an aluminum can is 90% less than it takes to make a new one.

Here is another fact about recycling that amazed me. A ton of paper from recycled pulp saves:
17 trees
7000 gallons of water
390 gallons of oil
and 4200 kilowatt hours (this is enough to heat an average home for half a year)

Americans toss out 2.5 million plastic bottles every HOUR!!!

If you saved the glass bottles that Americans throw away every 2 weeks those bottles would have filled both of the world trade centers! Wow! We really need to consider these facts next time we toss something in the garbage.

One more fact, there are 2 man made structures visible from outer space. One is the Great Wall of China and the other is a landfill! The landfill is in New York and it is called Fresh Kills.

I don't know about you but these figures have definitely moved me to be more cautious about what I throw away. I hope it will move you too!

Be sure to check out my next post because I have a recipe that I will be using to make homemade laundry detergent. If my figures are accurate the $6 I spent on supplies will make enough laundry detergent for my family of 5 for at least one year! Also this recipe is a safe, green product too! so be sure to look out for my next post. i will be trying out all kinds of recipes for cleaning products that are green, cheap, and will provide cleaner air in your home.

Trash the Plastic Bottle!

So you have probably heard that plastic bottles are not good for you. The BPA in plastic is leached into the water when it is heated, for instance if you leave it in your car or perhaps when it is sitting in a truck or warehouse waiting to be delivered to your local store. So anyways these chemicals that eventually end up in your drinking water have been linked to cancer. So if that is not a good enough reason for you to quit drinking bottled water then wait, I have more!

Did you know that bottled water produces 1.5 million TONS of plastic waste per year? Wow, why would you want to contribute to this enormous pile of waste. While some of the bottles are recycled a whopping 80% or more are actually just thrown away. Okay so now you have 2 reasons to stop drinking bottled water. Oh, you want more?

You are paying more per ounce for bottled water than you are for gas. It is funny how you hear people complain all the time about gas prices (which unfortunately is a necessity to run a car these days) but they never think twice about that over priced bottle of water they are drinking. If you buy a normal sized bottle of water for $1 you are paying about 5 cents and ounce. An average gallon of gas is $3 a gallon which equates to 2 cents an ounce. Here is another great reason to give up that bottled water. Still want more?

Most bottled water is just filtered tap water. Plain and simple you are paying for tap water to be bottled in a container that causes cancer. Not really a smart move is it? You can purchase filters for your own tap water and reap the benefits of clean, great tasting, and cheap drinking water. This is a much more cost effective way to quench a thirst. Want another reason?

Giving up bottled water is probably the easiest way to go green. I understand if you are traveling and need to a safe, portable way to bring your drinking water but for the everyday use try a refillable bottle. They sell refillable water bottles at about every store out there. These refillable bottles are cute and cost about the same as a case of water. What I am trying to tell you is, Go for it! TRASH the plastic bottle!


Would you like some additional facts? Check out the link below.

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/bottled/

Healthy Home Tips: Detox for Your House

Did you know your homes air is filthier than the air outdoors? You may have heard that a/c units contribute to dirty air inside homes and according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency the air inside a typical home is 2-5 times more polluted than the air outside and in some cases as much as 100 times more polluted. This is largely due to the cleaning products and pesticides being used.

If you are purchasing and using the regular cleaning products from your local grocer you are adding to the toxicity in your home. You can cut back if not completely eliminate these dangerous chemicals by simply making your own cleaning products with a few simple ingredients.

Check out this website http://eartheasy.com/live_nontoxic_solutions.htm for safe cleaning recipes that you can make yourself and at the same time save some money too using simple ingredients like vinegar and baking soda.

Air fresheners are another pollutant in your home. A much simpler and cost effective way to give your home a clean, fresh scent is to use essential oils and spices. You can add some spices like cinnamon and cloves to a pot and simmer on the stove to get a nice scent throughout the house. You can also put a few drops of essential oil on a light bulb and while it is on it will heat the oil up and spread a nice scent throughout the air.

I hope you give these changes a try and breathe in a deep breath of fresh air:)

Start of a journey.

Here I am beginning my journey to a greener, healthier life. I feel that I already do many things to live healthy and help the environment but I am going to continue to add to those basic principles. It is my hope than in this quest I will learn to do more that will in essence save our health as a family and the health of our natural resources.

I think that my family's eating habits are better than the average American household but when I see my recycling bin at the end of the week I realize we are still purchasing way too many pre-packaged foods. I know that if I cut down on these already prepared foods I will be feeding my family healthier foods with no preservatives and cutting back on the harmful effects of consuming products stored in toxic plastic. When I make these changes not only will I be able to visit the recycling bins less often (I don't, but my supportive husband does it for me:) but I will be helping by not contributing these items for recycling which even though it is better to recycle it still consumes energy.

I know everyone is busy and prepackaged is easier but easier is not always better. I know this style of living takes more time but I will try to prove it to be well worth it. I also know that money is tight for most Americans at this time so I will prove this lifestyle to be better for the budget too.

Join me on this quest and take the baby steps to a better and healthier life.