Posts Tagged ‘green’

Getting Married the Green Way II

Posted on June 2nd, 2010 by Tonia 7 Comments

Hey readers, happy June!  Do you love early summer as much as I do?  Right now our lilac bushes are at their peak, and our yard smells like heaven.  Our little garden is pumping out salad greens at a light-speed rate, and this makes Mike very happy.  His nickname is quickly becoming “Brontosaurus” as he basically eats nothing else but leafy greens. 

But June is more than lilacs and romaine, for us.  It marks three months until our wedding.  We have entered panic mode…in other words, “oh-crap-we-still-have-an-impossible-amount-of-stuff-to-do-to-get-ready” mode.  It is for this reason that the before mentioned videos/Cheri’s List posts have not been delivered. 

I’m very sorry that the blog has been pretty lame lately.  I have a bunch of awesome ideas floating around and I can’t wait to make posts out of them, but for now I need to focus on all the last minute wedding details that are demanding my full attention and spare time.

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{Our pretty wedding “logo”, made by Mike}

So in lieu of a real post, I thought I would update you on the wedding plans and all the things we’re doing to make the event as low-impact as possible.  During the planning process, so many challenges have arisen from the fact that we are avoiding disposable items like cups and flatware…and it has been a real struggle to not give in here or there/do things the easy way {read: the wasteful way}.  But we’re sticking to our guns on the following:

  • Rings: Our rings are custom made by Tamara McFarland, a vegan hobby-farmer in California.  She uses 100% recycled metals and fair trade stones in her jewelry.  The stone in my ring is man-made, which means they did not impact the environment or society in a negative way.
  • Glassware: We are providing mason jars for guests to drink water/beer out of instead of using the disposable plastic cups that the bar provides {they will be available in case someone breaks or loses their jar, but we will be making an announcement asking everyone to try to use their jar all night.}
  • Caterer: We asked every caterer in town whether they use disposable plates/flatware or not.  Only one said that they do not use disposable.  We went with them.  {It’s a small town…city folks probably have many caterers to choose from and this is a non-issue.  But we were legitimately worried that we wouldn’t be able to find someone who used real plates!}
  • Decor: Our decorations/favors are almost completely thrift-store finds, and we’re making everything else ourselves, so we’re not buying any plastic crap that will promptly enter a landfill afterwards.
  • Registry: Same goes for our registry…we are carefully choosing high-quality items that will last us a long time.  My parents are still using many household items they received as gifts for their wedding.  When something is made to last, there’s no need to ever replace it.  One concern we have, however, is that our registry has a lot of fairly expensive items on it.  But we would honestly rather not receive any gifts than get a bunch of stuff that will break in a couple years and get thrown away.  On our wedding website, where guests will RSVP, we state that attending the wedding is a gift in itself, since everyone is traveling from far away, so buying us something off the registry is definitely appreciated but definitely not expected.
  • More registry: I have to talk a little more about wedding registries…a little bird told me about MyRegistry.com and it has been such a great thing for us.  This website is easy to use, free to sign up with, and allows you to add items from any website {including Etsy!  Hip hip hooray!} and any real-life store your heart desires.  Mike downloaded the nifty iPhone app and we just walk around town scanning items.  It’s so easy, and you kind of feel like Harry Potter with a magical wand.
  • Save the Dates: We emailed our Save the Date announcements, expect for five of them because the recipients don’t use email.
  • Invites: Guests will receive a snail-mail invitation, but they will RSVP by going to our website.  This reduces the paper we use, and is more convenient for most people.  Our grandparents, and a few other guests who don’t use the internet, will RSVP over the phone.
  • Honeymoon: When it comes to the honeymoon, we can’t help ourselves….we are going to go to Hawaii.  You can judge us for supporting the over-development and commercialization of one of the world’s most fragile and beautiful environments…but before you get mad at us, we are going to be renting the vacation home of a couple from MA.  We won’t be staying at a big corporate hotel chain.  We won’t be going out to eat {ok maybe once or twice}.  We will be shopping at the farmers market {I already checked, and it is within walking distance from the house} and cooking our own meals almost every day.  That’s a pretty eco-friendly way to do Hawaii, if you ask me!

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Homemade Cleaning Solutions

Posted on May 11th, 2010 by Tonia 8 Comments

We’re whittling away at Cheri’s list. Today we’re going to make our own earth friendly cleaning solution, because commercial cleaners are heavy on toxic chemicals, and consistently buying the eco-friendly brands is really darn expensive.

Our recipe today is for an all-purpose multi-surface cleaner:

Ingredients {makes a 1/2 gallon}:

1/2 cup white vinegar {not the apple-cider kind that is used for cooking}

1/4 cup baking soda {or 2 teaspoons borax}

1/2 gallon {2 liters} water

Steps:

Mix all three ingredients together and use for cleaning windows, mirrors, counter-tops, shower walls/floor, etc. {If using on natural surfaces such as wood, test on a small hidden area first!}

{Note: in the video I shortened the ingredients a little, to make 1 quart instead of 1/2 gallon, so that it would fit in the spray bottle I had on hand.}

Long term health concerns for humans, and major environmental pollution, are caused by the manufacture and disposal of commercial cleaning supplies, so if you have not purged your home of toxic cleaning products yet…well, whatcha waitin’ for?  Let’s vow to stop buying these products!!  It’s so easy to do when there are so many alternatives…

And yes, there are so many alternatives that I never knew about before! While doing my research for this post, I found the following list of ingredients that can be used in place of commercial cleaning products {they’re environmentally safe, but some of them can still cause skin/eye irritation and can be harmful if swallowed, so please handle them carefully and keep out of reach of children}:

  • Baking Soda – cleans, deodorizes, softens water, scours.
  • Soap – unscented soap in liquid form, flakes, powders or bars is biodegradable and will clean just about anything. Avoid using soaps which contain petroleum distillates.
  • Lemon – one of the strongest food-acids, effective against most household bacteria.
  • Borax – {sodium borate} cleans, deodorizes, disinfects, softens water, cleans wallpaper, painted walls and floors.
  • White Vinegar – cuts grease, removes mildew, odors, some stains and wax build-up.
  • Washing Soda – or SAL Soda is sodium carbonate decahydrate, a mineral. Washing soda cuts grease, removes stains, softens water, cleans wall, tiles, sinks and tubs.  Do not use on aluminum.
  • 100 Proof Alcohol – an excellent disinfectant. Use in a solution with water.
  • Cornstarch – can be used to clean windows, polish furniture, shampoo carpets and rugs.
  • Citrus Solvent – cleans paint brushes, oil and grease, some stains.

Do you have any recipes for earth friendly household cleaning solutions?  Please share them in the comments, I’d love to try making some more!

Cheri’s List

Posted on April 29th, 2010 by Tonia 11 Comments

I received a really nice letter from a friend and reader, Cheri.  She shared with me some of the things her family does to decrease their daily impact on the environment.

All of the items on her list are easy to implement into our lives– there’s really no reason not to.  But because I know, from experience, that unless green lifestyle changes are easy as pie to implement, we ain’t gonna follow through with them, folks!

So, I have decided to not only share her list of great ideas, but to also do the things on the list.  Check back soon for a video series of me demonstrating the items on Cheri’s list, so that you can see how it’s all done, and hopefully also try it yourself.  I will begin to post the videos next week!

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cheri-list

  • I don’t use the hair dryer until my hair is mostly dry – then use it just for a minute for a final style.
  • I make my own laundry detergent
  • Dry our clothes on our drying rack
  • Make my own salad dressing {reduces plastic bottles coming into the house}
  • Recycle plastics, glass, tin, paper {reduced our outgoing garbage to a bag a month}
  • Grow our own veggies, and batch cook – for example I’ll cook a big batch of rice/beans and freeze separate portions for later meals….and cook from scratch as much as possible.

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  • Take my stainless steel mug with me – if I need to stop and get a cup of something I’ll have them put it in my mug
  • Mend clothes – I’ve even gone so far as to turn frayed collars on my husband’s shirts
  • My dad only uses recycled paper in his printer – he gave me his schedule the other day printed on the back of an old bill – made me smile
  • After I bring the water to a boil for pasta, I put the lid on the pot, shut off the heat and let the pasta cook – it only takes a minute or so longer.  If I am cooking something for a longer length of time (stew or soup) I put another lid on top of the lid that matches the pot.  The extra insulation conserves energy.
  • After I boil the water for my morning tea {I don’t like to microwave water – I know – weird}, I  pour the remaining boiling water over my oatmeal and set it back on the burner {which has been turned off, but is still warm}.  In ten minutes my oatmeal is cooked.
  • We use shopping bags I made for grocery shopping.  I plan to make some lunch bags too, out of fabric for those times we take a picnic lunch somewhere or travel.
  • I wash and re-wash baggies.  Haven’t bought any in years.
  • We are a one car family
  • Instead of buying cleaning products {even Seventh Generation} – baking soda and vinegar will clean just about anything.
  • I use a shampoo bar made by a friend of mine instead of commercial shampoo {which has tons of chemicals in it and comes in those pesky plastic bottles}
  • And…{I’m inordinately proud of this one….} I use the dashboard of my car as a food dehydrator.  I bought a bushel of apples for $6 from a neighbor down the road and after I got tired of saucing and pie-ing them – I sliced them, dipped them in diluted lemon juice and put them on baking racks and spread them across the dash.  We get plenty of full sun here and they were dry in a little over a day.

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Thank you so much for the inspiration, Cheri! {Check out Cheri’s encouraging and refreshing blog…she writes about gardening, simple living, family, and faith.}