I Got Hooked!

Hi!
The ones who are regularly visiting my blog might have wondered why there are so few posts lately.
Well, I got a new hobby - I re-learned how to crochet, and I hot hooked :-)
A few weeks ago I got three bags of yarn from a nice lady who actually wanted to throw it all away (totally locked out!), and ever since I can't stop crocheting. This is the first little buddy that I did:

The pattern is from Ana Paula Rimoli, whose wonderful, inspirational books I both own (she's coming out with a third one in April). Ana also has a blog, check it out when you have a chance!

"WauWau", as my boys named him, can be seen at the go lightly shopping window for the next weeks, maybe months as I started doing another round of decoration (it's not completed yet).

I'm amazed at what you can do with very little leftover yarn. Get your hook out, get some patterns and get started - it's so much fun!

I Want You All To Know About Freecycle

Hello there,
A lot of you might know this already, but I still see many people raise their eyebrows in surprise when they hear about freecycle, so I thought I dedicate a post to this eco-friendly movement.
Here's the introduction from Freecycle's start page on their website:

"Welcome! The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,918 groups with 8,175,361 members around the world. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by local volunteers (them's good people). Membership is free. To sign up, find your community by entering it into the search box above or by clicking on 'Browse Groups' above the search box. Have fun!" 

A lot of my youngest outgrown clothes and toys found new homes, as well as lots of furniture pieces and tons of nic-nacs, such as candles that I didn't use, a jogger radio, clothes that didn't fit and were too good to just use for crafts, etc. etc.

If you have something that you don't need/want anymore, you post to your local group and then pick somebody that you want to give it to.
If you need anything you also post to your local group, and if you get lucky you'll receive the item you're looking for. I received an awesome, working Singer sewing machine this way!

You can subscribe to the group and receive a daily digest, which you can browse and see whether somebody nearby offers something you want. Because sometimes you don't even know what you want until you see it being offered :-)

This is such a great way to reuse things, keep items out off the landfills and help live a budget AND eco-friendly life. Check it out at www.freecycle.org and become a member!

Happy Freecycling!!!

What Do Elephants Have To Do With Greeting Cards and How To Repurpose Teabag Strings

I love greeting cards. A few days ago I got a sweet note from a dear friend in Malaysia.
She knows how important environmental issues are to me, so she picked a very special card, made of - GET READY! - elephant dung.

Imagine?! Elephant dung, yes! And no, it doesn't smell and yes, it looks absolutely beautiful, illustrated by an artist.
On the left you see some products offered by the company, beautiful cards I find.

Of course I had to check this out in more detail (click here for their website), and here's what they have to say about elephant dung:

• On average an elephant will eat 200-250 kg of food a day... from that we get 50 kg of dung

• One elephant provides enough dung to make 115 sheets of paper

• Elephant dung does not smell that bad

• An elephant's dung is just fiber. The elephants are kindly doing the first stage of any paper making process - getting the fibers

• Elephant dung paper does not smell at all

• Elephant dung paper is 100% chlorine-free and 100% bacteria-free

• Dung is a waste product and if not made into paper will contribute to pollution

Here's a collection of their greeting cards (I got "The paiter").

I just think this is such an interesting concept. I love it, and I love the card and learning about this. How innovative!

In the meantime, while we figure out how we can (or can't :-) make our own paper, here's an idea how to upgrade a simple blank card (I stock up on thrift stores!):
Do you drink tea? Ever thought about what to do with those teabag strings? Nay? Thought so. This is something only somebody like me can come up with :-)

This is what one of my creations looks like. Not quite as fancy as the elephant dung cards though :)

Well, I separate them from the actual bag, take letters (cut out from magazines, for example) and glue them to the string. Then I take a sticker (whatever you have will do) and attach the string to the upper corners of the open card. You can do anything from birthday cards to Thank You notes and it makes the card somewhat special.

Always good to come up with ideas how to re-purpose things from our daily life that would otherwise go to the trash, right?

Please feel free to share your ideas here.

The Secret Weapon for Ear Infections and The Healing Power of Onions

I don't know how, but we get struck by sickness like crazy these days. And, thanks to Murphy :-), it always happens either at night, on weekends or on holidays.
This time it's the youngest member of the family, our 18 month old, with an ear infection, spiking on a Friday in the late afternoon.
Due to a medical condition, I'm very reluctant to give him pain killers and fever reducers but of course it breaks my heart to see him suffer and cry so much. Needless to say we had a rough night with lots and lots of nursing (yes, we still nurse. Hey, remember - not only is it a healthy thing to do, it's also very green!) and I found myself taking him downstairs with me, sitting in front of the computer and searching for home remedies.
I landed on My Home Remedies  and saw some good stuff. Suitable for the night was one tip - boil water, put a washcloth in, then remove the washcloth and place it in a cup. Hold the cup against the ear (make sure the hot washcloth doesn't actually touch the ear or any skin!) and let the steam soothe the ear. I did that and it gave my poor baby some relief.
But I also eyed this post from a user named Darlene:

"Gramma Mary's Ear Ache Remedy

For ear aches, ear infections, even an infection of the inner ear that is un-responsive to antibiotics. I'm the youngest of eleven children and I had ear aches as a child and this always worked for me.

My mom would bake a medium sized onion(with outer peeling removed) in the oven @ 350 for about an hour or until it would prick easily with a fork.(I cannot vouch for microwave). Remove the onion, place it at the bottom of a canning jar, wrap the jar in a towel so as not to burn your hand, prick the onion to release the steam. Place the affected ear over the opening to allow the steam of the onion to sooth and penetrate the ear. You can use a smaller onion and a smaller jar for a small child, the opening will be better for their little ears) Leave it in that position until the steam is no longer being released, the heat alone feels wonderful. It almost immediately eases the pain.

I know of a child scheduled for tubes to be surgically placed in her inner ear for drainage due to repeated infections that were un-responsive to antibiotics, who responded to this treatment the night before the planned surgery. When the doctor checked her ear the infection was completely resolved and the surgery was cancelled. The childs mother wanted to know if she could pay my mom,just knowing a child was no longer suffering was more than enough payment. We know now that onions have a natural antibiotic property and the heat may also help to improve circulation. It won't hurt to try, and it just may help. So what have you got to lose, onions are cheap!
Happy Healing!
Make it a Great Day for yourselves!!
Darlene"

Well, when we got up in the morning, the poor boy was still in pain and just super cranky. I baked the onion and did as told in the post. At first, he didn't like having the cup against his ear (I switched sides every few minutes). Then he kind of fell asleep for a few minutes. Woke up shortly after like nothing ever happened!

Thinking about ear infections and that they are the most common childhood illness, this might be a thing to consider. Why not talk to your doctor about it next time you speak to him/her?
Ear infections are 80% viral. Yet antibiotics are prescribed in most occurring cases. That is totally contra productive,  since antibiotics won't work for viruses and we hopefully all know by now that over consumption of antibiotics is simply not healthy in the long run, for different reasons.
If you are also reluctant to work with pain killers and want your or your child's body to resolve the illness by itself, try this remedy.

Onions have strong healing power. They are green, always available, easy to prepare, wont' create any extra waste or require extra energy to be produced. Unlike prescription or over-the-counter medications they don't come in plastic bottles that add to the landfill and they won't pollute the water and the earth with more or less toxic chemicals.
I'm so thrilled I came across this remedy (Thanks Darlene!) and hope you find it as helpful as I do (hopefully you won't need to use it anytime soon!)

Stay healthy and warm :-)

I Am NOT Perfect. Are You? Plus, The Truth About Energy Saving Light Bulbs

I've been thinking a lot about being perfect, and how it can make your (and my, and everybody's) life miserable trying to be.
We all want a greener future, healthier environment, less toxins and fewer worries. And hopefully we all try to improve our lifestyles and be as green as we can.

But striving for perfectionism is just not the answer right now, at least not for me. As hard as I try, I can't be perfect. And the more I try, the more it becomes obvious that I'll never be. Let me give you some examples of my imperfectness (oh, my PC didn't underline this word, suggesting that I misspelled it???):

• On school day mornings, we're ALWAYS running so late that we NEVER make it to school walking (which we easily could), so my husband ends up driving our older one (I make up for this by picking him up walking at least,  99% of the time).
• The other 1% of the time I use the car because I was out running errands anyway...
• As hard as I try to exclusively compost all veggie and fruit scraps, eggshells and what not, at times I just can't do it. Our kitchen is way too small to store a compost bin (believe me, if you saw our kitchen you'd see that I'm NOT exaggerating). During the hot months we get hundreds of fruit flies, which makes the whole experience unbearable, and even recently they came back - in January!!! My family is not happy with the situation, so from time to time I take a break. Not perfect, but it keeps us sane, and we just aren't able to compost right here where we live.
• Sometimes I order online which doesn't support local businesses and adds to our carbon footprint because of shipping and delivering. But you know what? Our financial situation sometimes forces us to look for the best deals around, and I'm sure the same goes for many people out there.
• I stopped using energy saving lightbulbs. Gulp! What??? Yes, I did. And I tell you why: whoever invented them was not thinking the whole thing through and was just looking for yet another short-term solution, even though I'm not sure what kind of solution this was supposed to be. They're said to last longer (mine didn't). They're said to be practically unbreakable (I broke 2 of them within less than a year and know of many others who did as well). They're said to be so much better than the old kind - well, did you know they contain mercury? Did you know that you're not supposed to touch them when they break, leave the room and air it out, put a mask and gloves on, collect all broken pieces (and there's a million of those when they break!) with tape, put the whole thing in an airtight container and bring it to the recycle site, not in the garbage? Nobody knows what kind of impact these broken light bulbs have on our health, especially our childrens' and pregnant women. So think again. 

If I think hard enough, I'm sure I'd find a lot more to add to this list, but I hope you get the idea.
What are your environmental sins? Are you willing to share them with us?

At the same time, I try my best to be as green as I can in all aspects of my life:

• Leaving the car in the garage as often as possible and walk instead
• Shopping locally whenever financial situation allows
• Shopping at thrift stores (also local!), farmer's markets, food co-ops
• Cutting down on garbage by avoiding disposables whenever possible (home, school, parties,...)
• Reusing everything possible (boxes, gift bags, envelopes, containers, clothing,...)
• Eating an earth-friendly diet (organic, local, if animal products only humanly raised, no prepared, processed foods)
• Using green cleaning and personal products (better yet self-made) - cuts down loads and loads of toxins
• Break the habit of using water bottles!!! We use a filter and reusable steel bottles for many years. It makes my head spin when I think about how many plastic bottles we would have added to the landfill without this!

Again, this is just a short list of things to consider. What are your green tips? 
I know a lot of people from all over the world read my blog, and I'm especially interested in green living ideas from other countries - please share.


Happy green living!

My First Shopping Window Design Experience and THANK YOU go lightly

Today I took my whole recycled art theme a step further and designed go lightly's shopping windows.

For those of you who don't live in the area (or don't know the store even though you live in the area) - go lightly is located at 4 So. Fullerton Ave., Montclair, NJ. All merchandise is sustainably made with recycled or re-purposed materials, or is from organic, pesticide-free sources, or will help you live with less waste.Go check it out!

So a few days ago I talked to the owner, Jennifer Chaky, and asked her whether I could design her windows. This has been a long dream of mine and I figured why not do it for a friend who has the right shop with the right products (sustainable products are exactly my thing - I don't picture myself doing the window for a butcher, if you know what I mean).

Here's what we came up with (sorry for the reflection in the picture):

For the left side, we used a whole bunch of shoe boxes in different sizes and arranged them in the window. I had this old calendar with modern art prints and glued some of the images on the bigger boxes as a  background. We then filled the boxes with products from the store.

 The right window is totally dedicated to SodaStream - a machine that lets you make your own soda at home.

I painted this picture with acrylic paint, glued it to a lightweight cardboard and we hang it from a rod, centered in the window. I used old plastic take-out containers, pushed a hole so we were able to thread yarn through to hang them from the same rod. I cut out circles in different colors (from paper scraps) and glued them inside and outside the containers.

We then placed sample packs of different flavors for the soda maker inside the round displays.

Under this scenario is a crate, covered with a colorful old tablecloth, with the actual soda maker, some glasses and a plate with more sample flavor packs on it.

I had a lot of fun doing the windows - if you have a chance, swing by, take a look (at the windows, and inside the store as well!) and let me know what you think.

But the best part is that I worked with what I had already, nothing was bought just for this project.

I even made my own glue at home! You can find the recipe on the blog if you're interested.

It's really fun and easy to create something new out of something old - it saves you money and helps the planet.

Get creative and have fun!

P.S. One day after doing the windows I walked by and saw that all the colored paper circles have fallen out of the round containers :-( So I learned that my homemade glue will not work for plastic - only for paper (luckily the shoe boxes held up well...).
My husband was laughing and said "this is how you learn". I suppose that's true, embarrassing as it is.
I will fix the problem within the next few days.

Recipe: Super Easy Raw Almond Milk

For a 32 oz bottle "milk" you need:

* 3/4 cups raw almonds, soaked in filtered water overnight

* 1 date

* 1 pinch of celtic salt, optional

* 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

* about 30 oz filtered water

Put all ingredients in high-speed blender and blend for about one minute. Drain (I recently got a "milk bag" which works perfectly for this purpose).
Pour in bottle and enjoy!

The almond pulp can be used in cookies, cakes, breads, basically in all baked goods.
I keep mine in a glass jar in the fridge and use it within a few days.