Earth Day 2011

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craft, Earth Day, garden, kitchen, postaday2011, recycle, reduce, repurposing, reuse, seasonal, Spring, upcycled

Spring. As the earth awakens and rejuvenates, mother nature reminds us of all the life teeming around us. What better season to celebrate Earth Day (that is, if you’re in the same hemisphere as me)?

Beside the obvious “plant a tree” or “pick up litter”, how do you honor our planet on Earth Day? Thankfully many people have already been making changes like switching to low-flow faucets or giving away old items on Freecycle. Last year, I shared a few ideas for green crafts (from reusable shopping bags to wine bottle torches) that were on my to-do list.. Yesterday Hubster and I took a long walk to enjoy the cool spring air, as I pondered what ideas to share this year… I decided to touch upon my three personalities, the outdoors woman/gardener, the crafter/clothing girl and the chef/homemaker…

Blue Butterfly Bliss

For the garden:
First of all, go organic, no pesticides or fertilizers, especially if it’s an edible garden. Do not make raised beds out of treated wood, the chemicals will leach out into the soil. If you don’t already own one, build a compost tumbler for quicker and easier compost. Create & attach a rain barrel to a downspout to help with water conservation. If you haven’t already, start your seedlings by nesting them in newspaper cups.

For clothing or scrap fabrics:
Preused or preloved clothing boutiques are becoming more popular. Many will resell your clothing, offering you a certain percentage towards store credit. Of course you could also donate it to Salvation Army, Purple Heart or another other charity shop.  Only donate clothing if it’s in good condition. If not, refashion it into something new, cut t-shirts into cleaning rags, or get creative and make something with your new fabric scraps. I like ow; softie, bean bags, dog chew toys, ruffle hedgehog softie… Possibilities are endless.

For the kitchen:
Reuse large mason jars to organize kitchen utensils and smaller ones to organize the dry pasta, rice, beans in the pantry. Use wine corks to make the trivet I mentioned in last year’s post. You can make recycled napkin rings out of scrap fabric, yarn, paper towel tubes and any embellishments you’d choose. Use old scraps of ribbon to weave placemats or sew scrap placemats. Or refashion a dress into an apron.

These are just as few ideas, but possibilities are endless. I hope you feel inspired in some way to go a little greener… Happy Earth Day everyone!

What is your favorite repurposing project?

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Earth Day’s 40th Anniversary

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be green, beach bag, Earth Day, green, grocery tote, recycle, recycling, reduce, reducing, reuse, reusing, tiki torch, tote bag, trash to treasure, wine bottle torch, wine cork trivet

Today is Earth Day! There are many ways to recycle things to make kid crafts… however I like to make things that I’ll use. I decided to share a few of my favorite green crafts… all on my to-do-list.

Green Grocery Bags:
I tried the tutorial to make my own, but I couldn’t get the hang of melting my plastic bags, they were too wrinkly and left too many bubbles in it.

Grocery Totes

Wine Bottle Tiki Torches:
For the garden… Keep bugs away during the summer with this cut way to recycle wine bottles .

Wine Bottle Tiki Torch

Wine Cork Trivet:
Why not recycle the cork as well?

Wine Cork Trivet

Disco Ball:
This is a great craft for a teen’s bedroom, bachelorette party, or party night.

What is your favorite useable object, made from recycled goods?

Disco Ball

Sugar Scrub Recipe

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de-stress, de-tox, home beauty, homemade beauty, natural beauty, pampering, rejuvenation, relax, relaxation, sugar scrub

I love using a sugar scrub to exfoliate and moisturize my skin. Whip up a batch of your own at home to pamper your skin or to gift a batch to a loved one.

To Make
Mix 2/3 c. dark brown sugar, 1/2 c. almond oil (you can use vegetable oil), 10 drops vitamin E (I puncture and squeeze a vitamin E liquid capsule) or glycerin, any 10 drops of any other essential oil you might want to add .

To Use
Mix ingredients together before use. Rub the sugar scrub mixture in small circles on dry skin. Concentrate on tough areas, such as elbow and heals (careful, shower may get slippery). Rinse off completely when finished.

To Store
Store in small plastic or glass jars. This is the perfect use for recycling baby food jars. I used metal tins I had on hand, I just need to get my hands on some baby food jars.

Brown Sugar Body Scrub

*If you have raw brown sugar, use 1/3 c. brown sugar and 1/3 c. raw brown sugar.

*Limit use to 3 x’s per week (I use once a week in the winter and 3 x’s during the summer).

*Continue pampering yourself with a soothing salt soak or cold eye pillow.

Green Sandwich Box

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food, food storage, frugal, Frugality, green, lunch, lunch storage, recycle, recycling, reduce, reducing, reuse, reusing

Hubster and I don’t pack sandwiches too often for lunch, I prefer to take leftovers from dinner. However, to eliminate our use of those plastic sandwich bags when we do (and to better protect our sandwiches), I made green sandwich boxes.

I removed the label from a 1 gallon plastic milk jug and washed throughly. With a few quick cuts, folds and an adhesive velcro dot, my sandwich box was complete.

Green Sandwich Box

Aromatherapy Satin Eye Pillow

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aromatherapy, de-stress, de-tox, eye mask, eye pillow, eye pillow tutorial, hangover cure, lavender, migraine relief, pampering, rejuvenation, relax, relaxation, satin eye pillow, self sooth, stress buster

As I mentioned in Soothing Salts, I need to focus on relaxing and de-stressing. I haven’t owned an eye pillow in years and decided it was time to make myself a customized one. I used an old satin camisole as the casing (perfect time to reuse a preloved item).

Eye Pillow

Step One
Cut two 5″x8″ rectangles and stitch three sides closed, leaving an 1/4″ seam allowance.

Step Two
Turn the satin pouch right side out and fill it with one cup of flax seeds (better than those plastic beads), a sprig of dried lavender and 10 drops of lavender essential oil (or you can create you own combinations).

Step Three
Folded the open side into the sack. Then stitch it close on the outside on the pillow, continuing across all four sides. This creates a finished seam.

In order to preserve the aromatherapy benefits of the lavender, store it in a plastic zipper bag in the freezer of the refrigerator (check your cold tolerance).

Other combinations to try: rose petals and rose oil or dried chamomile flowers and peppermint oil.

*If flax seeds aren’t available to you, try using corn kernels or uncooked rice.

*This is perfect for migraine relief, puffy or sore eyes, hangovers, etc…

Gift Bow Bonanza

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Being Green, crafting, crafts, gift bows, gift giving, gifts, green Christmas, holiday wrapping, present wrapping

A few months ago I had seen the idea about making gift bows from recycled magazine or catalog pages. I tried a few tutorials with no success, they were either more difficult than the directions and/or the end product didn’t look nice. We can’t have ugly bows, after all, the wrapping is the prelude to the gift. Finally I stumbled upon “how to” instructions on this blog and had success with the directions.

You can make the bows smaller by making the strips of paper smaller. I made a larger bow by adding a larger outer layer first, I made the original loops larger to allow this. My gardening bulb catalogues seemed to have the best colors for bows and the paper was thicker than some magazines, which also helped.

Gift Bow from Magazine Paper

Gift Bows

Frugal Green Teacher

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back to school, eco-friendly, frugal at work, frugal teacher, green at work, green pledge, green teacher

Today my summer is officially over, back to school I go. These are some frugal green (eco-friendly) things I do at school to do my share.

Stainless Steel Travel Tea Mug –  If I stopped by a coffee shop every morning to purchase my must needed morning tea, I would shell out… 192 days (including in-service) x $2 a cup = $384! There’s a chunk of change in my pocket! Plus that’s 192 paper cups, cardboard cozies, and plastics lids that are not going into the landfill! Of course my first year, I went through 3 travel mugs, but that’s still more in my pocket and less in the landfill.

Nalgene Water Bottle or Stainless Steel Water Bottle – Talking all day does dehydrate one! I stay hydrated by filling several bottles to lat me the day. If I do have to purchase a plastic water bottle, I refill it as many times as possible before recycling it. My plan this year is to store an extra bottle for the day I leave mine on the counter at home or when I’m running late. If I bought as many disposable plastic water bottles as I drink water, I’d shell out $4 a day x 192 days = $768 and 768 plastic bottles that didn’t need to be made.

Turn Off the Lights – I keep the lights off in my classroom as much as possible, by letting in as much natural light as I can. During the dark winter hours and sometimes on dark cloudy/rainy days I turn on one row of lights and leave off the other row to try to save electricity and cash for my school. It might not be a lot in one year, but in the long run it adds up. Imagine if every teacher did this!

Shut Down My Computer – I have two computers in my classroom, one for student use and my teacher laptop. By shutting them down before I leave for the evening I save some electricity and my school some money.

Lunch – Once a week I take a lunch that doesn’t need to be refrigerated and at least twice a week I pack something that doesn’t need to be microwaved. All my lunches are packed in reusable containers. If I don’t use a brown paper bag, plastic baggies disposable napkins or disposable utensils, I save myself some dough and the landfill.  Estimated savings $40 a year. Packing the cloth napkin is always the hardest to remember.

Saving Paper – I keep a bin for scraps of construction paper when we’re working on projects, I encourage students to find a piece in there before cutting from a new sheet. When my students are also using both sides of their paper. I’m also working on cutting back my use of post-its, by using reusing scratch paper instead.

In one year I’ll have saved $1,192 for myself, some dinero for my school, and a small piece of the environment. What would you do with that extra cash?