Happy 2011!

I hope everybody had a happy and healthy start into 2011!
What is your resolution for the new year? Being healthier? Greener? More environmentally aware? Losing weight? Losing bad habits?
Mine for this year simply was to get healthy again. That's right - I was hit by the flu right around Christmas and just vegetated in bed for about a week. Yuck!
Honestly, at the end of the year I had that kind of feeling like what the heck is going on? Is the holistic, organic lifestyle working or what??? Why do I get the flu, and then so bad?

Then again, who knows how I would have felt if I didn't live so healthy... Don't even want to think about that, felt bad enough as it was :-)
In any case, I do start feeling better finally (yeah!) and wanted to share my mad scientist experience with you:
you know, when I had the flu, I was in really bad shape - my nose turned into a raw piece of meat (when I told this to my husband he laughed, saying what a nice analogy from a vegetarian. Haha!). Also, my usually full and hydrated lips turned into some kind of totally dry pieces of something, with the skin ripping off,  burning like hell and hurting all day, no matter what I did.
I spare you any more details, but these I think are the most common during winter, for everybody fighting a cold or flu.
Pure desperation got me in the kitchen, experimenting with different cures to help especially my super-dry lips.
I tried:
* a paste of baking soda and water
* salt peeling
* sugar peeling
* a paste of sugar and coconut oil
* pure coconut oil
* olive oil

And this is what kind of helped me a little bit: rubbing in the paste of sugar and coconut, and then applying pure olive oil. Olive oil also soothes rough noses :-)

I hope everybody else out there is and stays healthy. And for the green resolutions - just remember that every little step in the right direction helps. We can't be perfect (as my very wise father-in-law put it: no matter what you do, there's always people who do a better job), but we can start trying to make a difference!
Just at the end of the year I went to Starbucks with my older son  - usually we prefer the local stores, but that day only big chains were open. I didn't bring a cup, because the local stores serve in real cups. And then - SURPRISE! - the guy at the counter offered me my drink in a real cup when he heard that we were staying!
I didn't even know that option existed! I also looked around and saw nobody else with a real cup, even though the cafe was packed with people.
I jumped on that, saying to the staff that they should announce and offer this more clearly. I sure hope they will.

In any case, it's a good start. Again, every little bit helps! Oh, and if you can't live without your coffee-to-go, remember to bring your own cup, it'll save so much garbage over the course of the year.

To a green 2011!

Yes, It Is Possible To Have A Party Without Disposables!

Years ago, when I still lived in Germany, one of my best friends celebrated a big birthday.
She invited a whole bunch of friends, I don't remember exactly how many, but it must have been well over 30 people, and I was so impressed that she totally refused to use any other disposable item than napkins.
I remember how surprised I was when her parents came by to bring their extra set of silverware, as well as extra dishes, to make sure there was enough for the amount of people. Again, I didn't used to be the green person that I am today...

Now, years later, I found myself in a similar situation, and I must say it is SO possible to have many people over and still don't have a lot of garbage. I'm very pleased to say that I really don't care whether or not the dishes are all matching, whether or not I have to disappear in the kitchen for a little while to wash some dishes and put them back on the table or whether anybody cares that I use Preserve - the brand that uses #5 plastics to create cutlery, dishes and cups (among others, they also produce toothbrushes, razors and many other things).
It all worked out totally fine and it was so nice to not see a (or many) big bags of garbage as a result of a big get-together. Great when after a party you look into your garbage bin and there's... nothing. Just a bit leftover food that didn't make it into the compost bag. Oh well, we can't ask for too much for now :-)
I wished more people would stop being so afraid of a few dishes that have to be dealt with and just go the green route!

Happy Green Holidays to all!

Swap and Trade instead of Buy and Waste

A few days ago I started decorating our apartment.
I must say I'm proud that I have not bought a new holiday piece of decoration in years, and yet I think our place looks nice.

But I found that I wanted white-wired Christmas lights on the walls instead of the green-wired that we had.
Of course I could have gotten to a store and bought the white-wired ones for a ridiculous amount of money (I know how cheap the stuff is!). But instead, I posted on a local mommy board and asked whether there was somebody who wanted to trade with me.
Within a day, I had 4 boxes of used white-wired lights (the woman had used them at their wedding, and ever since they were lying in her basement), and she had my green-wired lights for her tree.
She thanked me for giving her the idea of "things like this".

It's so easy - you have something that you don't need anymore and need something else - just check with the community and trade. It saves you money, energy and the environment gets a break as well.

Oh, and thrift stores have wonderful holiday decorations this time of year! Go check it out in your local "second-hand stores" (as we call them in Europe :-)

Happy trading!

Craft: Beautiful and Easy To Make Fabric Gingerbread House

 Ok, it seems like this time of the year my blog turns into a craft blog. I have to say, I really enjoy being creative and crafty these days.
And hey, it's still a very green thing - I come up with uses for stuff that we have in the house. Except for the glue that I use (and I'm looking into making my own in the future!), nothing is new or store-bought.

So this is my little project that I did with my 4-year old this afternoon: our fabric gingerbread house.

 We took an empty box (the size of a tissue paper box), cut the lid into triangles (for the roof to sit on), cut out red fabric in the same size and glued it on.
We then cut a piece of cardboard that would fit as a roof and glued green fabric and some white lace onto it.

 After that we just went crazy cutting doors, windows and candy canes of small pieces of fabric and glued it all over the house.

 It was a real fun and easy project and I love how it looks!

It finally pays off that I keep some of our old clothes in the house and that I always keep my eyes open at garage and house sales for interesting fabrics!!!

These kind of houses can be done with all different sized boxes and fabrics. Whenever I come across a box big enough, I'm going to do a "real" house for our boys.

Happy crafting!

The Great Regift or Wrapped Crap Exchange

This is what our friends John and Kathy call their gift exchange with friends and family - every year.

I love it!
This is where re-gifting is not only acceptable, it's the rule.

"Players" are asked to wrap a previously received, but unused gift. No buying is allowed.

What a great idea!
Think about it:

• You have the perfect opportunity to get rid of all those gifts that you never wanted (including presents for your kids!)
• You save yourself some time since you don't have to go gift-shopping for friends and extended family
• You save yourself some nerves because you don't need to hit the mall - attics and closets are not crowded
• You save yourself some money
• You help the environment (no gas, no energy for new stuff, less garbage,... you get the idea)
• And, who knows what you end up getting? It might be something really good. Remember, what might be crap to someone might be a treasure to you (why, I would LOVE to get a food dehydrator. Seriously!)

Now get creative with the wrapping - we don't want to spoil the green aspect here (used wrapping paper - yes, that too can be reused!, fabric, packing paper, newspaper,... there are endless possibilities that don't require wasteful and expensive wrapping paper. And instead of a bow, you can use some yarn).

This is how I'll do holiday gift exchanges from now on. Get ready folks!

Let me know what you think about this, I'd love to hear your stories.

Enjoy the season and Happy Regifting!!!

Craft: Make Your Own Advents Calendar (Or Fancy Modern Art Project!) This Year

(This is an image of a typical advents calendar filled with chocolates, sold by amazon)

I grew up with "Adventskalendern" in Germany. These things where you get to open one window every day during the month of December until Christmas, you know.
When I was a kid, most of them were simple and filled with chocolates.
Nowadays you can find them in all sizes and shapes, filled with toys, candy, little books, or you can get them empty and fill them up yourself. 
Even though I'm not religious, this tradition has grown to me (or is it grown on me??? Whenever I'm tired my English is leaving me...) and I still love getting the calendars every year (I have to remind my husband, otherwise I'd be disappointed :-)

And of course I want our kids to enjoy them as well. But I refuse to buy the calendars and then, after one month of use, throw them out. Too much waste, money, and resources involved in that.
So I thought about how I could make my own. And one that looks interesting enough to be noticed and loved by our 4 year old boy.

And this is what I came up with:

Voila - our "hanging boxes from a snow-covered branch advents calendar"

It looks really pretty and our son was psyched when he discovered it hanging in the morning. Unfortunately I wasn't able to capture the real look of it - the pictures just give a slight idea of how it really looks.

This is what I used:

• Dry branch from outside (about 3 1/2 feet)
• 2 balls of white yarn (I usually stock up at garage and house sales whenever I see some nice yarn)
• Cotton balls 
• Illusion cord (optional)
• Scissors
• 2 ceiling hooks
• 24 paper boxes (made of old holiday cards - click on the link to see the post with instructions)
• Needle
• Glue
• 24 little surprises (get creative!)

This is how I did it:

1. I wrapped the branch tightly with the yarn
2. The ends that were still visible I covered with cotton balls
3. I hang the branch up on two ceiling hooks (put in place by my husband) with illusion cord (yarn will work just as well)
4. With a needle, I made holes in the lid of each box and threaded illusion cord (yarn will do just fine) through them
5. I then hang all the (filled!) boxes on the branch

Depending on how old your kids are they could get involved in creating it. I had a lot of fun doing this project, and I hope you will, too!

Craft: How To Fold Beautiful Boxes Out Of Those Old (Holiday) Cards

I don't know about you, but I love cards. Somehow it's still special to receive real mail, especially when it comes in form of a beautiful and meaningful card.
Whenever it's a birthday in our family and we get birthday cards or around the holidays, I'll always display all the cards in our apartment and I also save them - they're too precious to throw out, to me anyway.

Recently I came across a box full of old holiday cards, and just thought of something: what if I found a way to fold all those nice cards into boxes?

I looked online and came across a step-to-step guide at about.com how to do it, and it's easy. Try and you'll see.


You'll need a square piece of paper - so unless you work with a square card, you'll have to cut off some to make it a quare.
Once you have a square, fold the paper diagonally. Open up and fold the other side diagonally as well. You'll see an X when you open the paper.

 
In turn, fold each corner into the center of the square. Firmly crease the fold.

Tip: Use a folding bone to help make a crisp fold. A butter knife can also be used to score the paper or cardstock prior to folding.

 

Fold the first corner to the line of the first fold made, on the opposite side. Repeat for each corner.

Tip: Be careful when folding the third and fourth corners not to fold to the wrong line.

Fold each corner to meet the nearest fold line.

Make four cuts as indicated in the picture. It makes no difference which corners are used as long as they are opposite each other.

Tip: You'll see 4 squares in the middle. Make sure you don't cut anywhere near those 4 squares.

Fold the two corners without cuts into the center.

Tip: A dab of glue will help hold the folds in place, however this is not essential.

Fold edges up as shown, this forms two of the sides of the box.

Fold the cut ends in at either end of the box.

Fold the two remaining pieces into the middle of the box, this will securely hold the box together and there is no need to add glue.

Make a base in exactly the same way, however cut the square a fraction smaller so the base will fit into the top.





It's really easy, and once you get the hang of it, you can do it in less than a minute.

I use the front of the card as the lid, and make a slightly smaller box out of the inside (usually the part with the writing on it) for the bottom.

Have fun!