Do One Green Thing: A Review

I recently finished reading Do One Green Thing: Saving the Earth Through Simple, Everyday Choices by Mindy Pennybacker. This book is presented as a manual of sorts and broken into sections like Food & Drink, Personal Care, Transportation, etc. For each section, Pennybacker provides easy tips for ways to make your purchases and choices in each of these areas more sustainable (as well as the options you should avoid altogether as they are the most environmentally damaging). Some examples are which plastics are OK and ones to avoid, which labels actually mean something (for example, something labeled "all natural" means absolutely nothing), and the best fabric choices for you and the environment.
One of my biggest problems with this book is that most of the green option it discusses are the more expensive options that your average person can't afford. Sure, I wish I could wear only recycled organic cotton, but it is definitely not in my budget. Pennybacker doesn't do much encouraging of reducing or reusing. For example, in my opinion, not buying any clothes and simply wearing what you have would be the 'greenest' option. When you do need clothes, heading to resale shops or garage sales are more sustainable choices that even the greenest new fabric. So, while I do agree that we should support these green-minded companies whenever we do make a new purchase (if we can afford to do so), I also think that encouraging reducing our consumption and buying used goods are so much more important, and affordable for everyone. I also completely disagree with her on her statement about cloth versus disposable diapers. She claims that both have an equal impact on the environment as cloth requires washing while disposable fills up landfills. She completely ignores the fact that both take raw material and water to make and transport, however, with the cloth diaper they will be used many many times (and last through several children) so that the impact of their fabrication is MUCH less for the cloth. My son wore mostly cloth diapers (one disposable at night) and so his 30 or so diapers were the same from age 1 to 2.5. Those diapers were only made and transported once!
However, Pennybacker does give some  good tips, like how to make your own cleaning supplies (cheaply) from non-toxic ingredients, how to choose a sunblock, and ways to cut back on your personal water consumption. She gives lots of great factoids and comparisons (like how much carbon you emit flying cross country versus driving) and some great information and resources. This isn't a book that you would want to sit down and read cover-to-cover, but it would be a great one to have handy to consult when you make everyday decisions.
I do feel like this read was worthwhile, and I hope to share some of Pennybacker's tips with you in future posts. Pin It Now!

A More Sustainable Birthday Party?

My little man turned 3 yesterday. I can't believe it has been that long since I gave birth to him. Obviously, he has changed immensely during this time, but I also feel like it has gone by in the blink of an eye. Before I know it, he will be moving out!
Finn had a big rocket ship themed party yesterday and man, planning a kid's birthday party is a little bit like planning a wedding... figuring out the decorations, cake, snacks, gift bags takes a lot of work, even for a simple party and then I spend most of the party running around instead of talking to the guests. But, the party was a success. No major injuries,  nothing broke, and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves (as much as you can with 15 kids running around). Plus, the weather was spectacular, allowing us to extend our 800 square foot house onto our back porch.
So back to the planning part..... I always feel a bit guilty having big parties because I feel like so much gets wasted or used once and tossed. And since I teach about sustainability for a living, I decided I wanted to try and make Finn's party more sustainable than your typical toddler gathering. I wasn't striving for perfection, but at least an improvement. And it was hard! So many choices, none of which are completely sustainable, and having to choose between the lesser of 2 evils. For example, plates. We definitely did not have enough plates for the 30-plus people who came over yesterday, so I knew I needed to purchase more. But should I go with paper, which would just get tossed after one use but at least were made from trees and not oil, or go with the plastic alternative? I finally decided on sturdy plastic plates and washed them and will use them again at our next party. I know those plates were made from non-renewable fossil fuels, but they didnt go into the landfill and we won't have to use any new materials next time we have a party. But was this the best choice? I can reason with myself, but I still don't really know....

 I found some rocket-themed cookie cutters and made sugar cookies. Boy, these sure did come in handy to cover up some of my decorating disasters on the cake!

 They're from a recipe my grandmother used to make. I debated not putting on the sprinkles because of the food coloring, but I figured a birthday only comes once a year, and decided to splurge.

For party attire, I took an old plain tee that Finn was about to outgrow, and some scrap felt, and using my handy-dandy cookie cutter made a quick felt applique tee. Nothing special, but definitely fit the theme!

I wanted to give out goody bags to the guests, but didn't want to buy plastic bags. So, I took a trip to the fabric store for some affordable space-themed cotton and whipped up some easy bags. It only cost about $4 to make 15 bags, so price wasn't an issue. The bags did take about 30 minutes or so to make all 15, but hopefully instead of being a one-time use, the guests will fins ways to reuse their bags (or re-gift them!) and nothing will be wasted.

 I wanted to also fill the bags with more sustainable choices so I made some recycled crayons from used crayons I found at SCRAP, Portland's goodwill for art supplies. I also made some home-made playdough, but then ended up having to wrap it in plastic so it wouldnt dry out. So even though I wasn't purchasing anything packaged in plastic, I was still essentially packaging it myself. And lastly a few space stickers. Not really sustainable, but I had to throw in something cute!

 For decorations I made Finn a birthday banner out of felt, ribbon and fabric. I figured that I can switch the 3 flags out in future years and have a reusable birthday banner!

 Hanging up....

 Finn and I also made cutouts for the holiday tree (thanks again to those handy multi-purpose cookie cutters!). This picture is terrible quality, but it ended up looking pretty cute.

 I also used construction paper and made some rocket ship cutouts to decorate the walls. I am guessing they will be up until I bust out the holiday decorations!

 The cake. It was hard to make, but at least its over with. I hated to use so much food coloring, and thought about trying to figure out a natural alternative, but in the end, the mom-side won and I wanted Finn to have an awesome looking cake. I'm not exactly sure that's what I made, but at least it resembled a rocket ship.

And here is Finn on the big day next to the rocket ship he painted for the party (ok, I helped him with the tail pipes and the number 3).

Birthday party done, now I can move on towards preparing for the holidays! If anyone has any comments on things they do to throw a more sustainable party, I would love to hear them! Pin It Now!

Happy Birthday Finn!

Hard to believe my little man is 3 years old today! Where has the time gone?

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This Moment...

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 
Inspired by Soulemama 

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Handmade Dish Sponges

For as long as I remember I have felt  surge of guilt every time I have thrown away a dish sponge. I do sometimes wash my sponges with my kitchen towels, or throw them in the dishwasher when I run a load of dishes, but I still get a bit nervous that all of those nooks and crannies could be hanging on to dangerous bacteria. Now, I am not any sort of a germaphobe, mind you. We refrain from using antibacterial soaps and we believe in the 5-second rule (well, depending on how its been since I have cleaned the floors). But, I do get nervous about e-coli and the other really nasty bacterias that can make a child seriously sick, or, in some cases, even kill them.
So, I decided it was about time to make my own hand-knit dish sponges that I could safely wash and reuse time and time again. I ended up making 4, each one a little different, as I experimented with what worked best.
I used 100% cotton yarn (The orange skein I had in my stash and the pink was leftover yarn that I bought really cheap at the used art supply store, SCRAP). The pink is not my favorite color, but hey, I am just going to washing dishes with them. The cotton makes them easily machine-washable and dryable.
For all of the sponges I used a size 9 needle and cast on 14 stitches. For the first 2 sponges I decided to make them scrubby sponges. To do this, I cut netting from a sweet potato bag (you may also find oranges or other produce items that come in these). You can also buy this material new, but I figured this project was a great way to use those bags that otherwise don't have a great use. I cut the bag into a long strip by making a spiral about 1/2 inch wide, and you can attach multiple spirals together with a knot. Then, I just carried this strip of netting along with my yarn and wove it into the sponge. This does not feel good on your hands, as the netting is quite scratchy, so I found I could only knit these for about 15 minutes at a time. For these 2 scrubby sponges, I stopped when my sponge was a size I liked and then bound my stitches off. The next 2 sponges I did not use netting in the weave. Again I cast on 14 stitches and I just knit until my sponge was twice as wide as I wanted it to be. Then I bound off my stitches, filled the inside with some cut up netting to give it some bulk, and then sewed up the sides so I had a double-thick sponge.
I like the scrubbiness of the scrubby sponges, but they feel too thin for me. I think next time I would make them double thickness as well. I like the feel of the double-thick sponges, but since the netting is in the inside, they aren't good for scrubbing. But, I sort of consider this an experiment and next time I can make the perfect sponges!
I don't feel like these knit sponges hold the soap quite as well as a regular sponge, but I guess they aren't holding on to the bacteria either... I do find that I have to add smaller amounts of soap more often, but that is a small price to pay knowing that these sponges won't be getting tossed when I am finished. I have washed and dried them and was happy with the results. Pin It Now!

Homemade Laundry Soap

I made homemade laundry soap for the first time a few weeks ago. It was relatively easy, except for the part where you grate bar soap... that was definitely an arm workout! However, Finn though soap grating was a great pastime (with my help of course) and has repeatedly asked me to "do more soap grating". Regardless, I think it will be cheaper in the long run, and it is nice to know EXACTLY what is going into your laundry (and back into our water supply).
We used peppermint Dr. Bronners and so far I have been pretty pleased with the results!
We use about 1/8 cup per load. The recipe can be found below:

1 1/4 cup baking soda
3/4 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
1.5 bars dr. bronners Pin It Now!

One Thing, One Month

So, at the end of September, I posted a challenge for myself to not buy anything new (except for craft supplies) for the month of October. And, I am here to report that my mission was a success. However, I don't exactly feel thrilled with my accomplishment....I feel like it was almost too easy. Sure, there were a couple of scrambles for last minute presents, and a few times I would have loved to run out and buy a new bra that fits my ever growing pregnant boobs, but holding off wasn't that hard. In part, our current budget and an upcoming new baby (along with my upcoming time off of work) doesn't really allow for any extra expenditures right now. Also, October was a fairly mellow month (birthday wise) and I also knew that my commitment was ending at the end of the month. If I were to have done this challenge in December, I think things would be a wee bit harder. I have joined handmade holiday 2010, in which I will try to make holiday gifts or buy them from local suppliers.... but this still allows me to actually purchase some gifts for those people who I am just not sure what I would make.
Anyways, I would like to take up another challenge soon, and hopefully make it one that will be more of a challenge and will make me feel more satisfied when I am through. In the meantime, I will be busy with my un-chosen challenge of trying to figure out how to stop the whining and tantrums that seem to have moved into my almost-3-year-old's body. Hmmm... Pin It Now!