Looking for Sustainability ideas

I thought I find a way to keep costs down while still trying to stay eco-friendly. Trying to keep striving for sustainability. This a record of that journey.

Sometimes blunt and straight forward then sometimes sarcastic

This frugal crunchy hipster single momma is doing what she can to save Mother Earth while not breaking the bank!

Friday, October 28, 2011

Rainbow Hair Halloween

  Wow totally forgot that way back when we used to dye our hair with unsweetened kool-aide.....

What a great way to not use the toxic stuff they sell at the store.  Safer for younger kids and even should I dare say.... animals.....

But what I remember doing is adding enough conditioner to make a paste.  This paste is the hair dye, you add it the part you want to color.  We used to dye strands different colors.... You might want to wear gloves but it will wash out if you have to wash dishes afterwards... LOL.

I have heard of other people just using water. Or using water and a little conditioner.

But the longer you keep it on the better the color takes.  So many times you would wrap plastic wrap or use a shower cap and sleep with it on.  It does look brighter on lighter colored hair but many times I have seen brown hair girls do it and it comes out lighter or not as colorful but still fun!


ivy

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Halloween Recycled Crafts part 2



SO one night while bored I was lost on the web found myself looking at craft ideas for Halloween. Some how don't remember how I landed on The Swell Life. Where I saw some cool Candy corn bottles.  She used spray paint for the yellow and orange part but I used regular craft paint.  I couldn't find cheap spray paint, I mean I was dropping $6 a can for large colored spray paint. I went to the craft store and spent a dollar for each color....
I spray painted them white and let dry.  Then I painted the colored part.   I did have paint a couple coats to the colored part.  I let dry between coats.  I also sprayed the finished bottles with a clear glaze to help keep the paint from being washed or chipped off......


So even more bored I went and googled poison labels.  I found a few and got them from all different places.... a couple of bottles I spray painted black to look more spooky.  While others I keep clear to add crazy stuff to the bottle to match the label.  Like fairy clippings I have glitter and feathers in the jar.  A couple didn't make it to the picture, like swamp fog with used drier sheets; oh the girls never can hit the trash can for some reason!!! Plus a bottle with the label can of worms... I am going to cut up pieces of black and brown yarn for that... you know I looked for small rubber snakes and can't find them... but I have a bottle of juice that will be emptied soon and will have red liquid replacing it.  I have the label vampire blood  to add to it...


 Oh yea I go a little crazy on Halloween 

ivy

Sunday, October 23, 2011

There are ghost on my porch!

Recycled halloween crafts !

I remember seeing a craft from the magazine Family Fun. The thing is I didn't remember it fully. I didn't remember the lights inside... Some how I thought it was electric tape for the eyes and mouth... oh well they turned out great! I used empty oxygen boost bottle and a empty green cleaner bottle.  I even used empty milk bottles and cider jugs works well , even with the semi-clear bottles they look fine from a distance. I did add some off my rocks I used for drainage in my container garden to keep them on the porch and not to fly away to the neighbors yards...

I did lose a grave marker earlier this week due to the rain and wind.... I pulled in to the drive way noticed it in the neighbors yard.  By the time I got my cold stuff in the refrigerator.  It was gone.... Bummer....

I do want to make some jar cute-ies.  I don't remember where I saw them but jars being painted and decorated like pumpkins.  I thought I make some ghost too.  Plus the mummies like on  Family Fun  but with jars not toilet paper tubes.... but hey I have selective memory... but it still works out.

ivy

Friday, October 21, 2011

Chocolate and Peanut butter!



OH NO! They are saying now with the climate change we have had that there will be a shortage of cocoa... meaning chocolate.... between the spread of cocoa tree specific diseases and a drought.  Plus the fact that the demand for dark chocolate is up.  More cocoa is used when making the dark chocolate... With all the news of it's heath benefits. Come on Doc Oz sings it's praise! Less but not least, the fact that many trees are being planted in the full sun instead of the shade where they grow longer. So many trees are dying. They only grow 30 years or less in the full sun. They can grow for all most 100 years longer in shady understory. The mass production is catching up with the dangers. Many of the farmers are leaving their plantains due to low wages, not getting money they need to keep them going.

Earlier we heard reports of the peanut farms being in trouble due to the floods, droughts and hurricanes.   Many farmers are having less of a crop then they did last year.  And to add to the mess, last year they had a fungus attacking their crops.  After this news hit the airwaves we had someone at work;  a business owner, came in and  bought  up all the peanut butter off our shelfs. Stating that they had to raise prices already  and don't want to have to again fearing loss of business..... can't blame them.  I would do the same.  I mean we heard 300% increase... that's a huge jump in price.  Or worst then that running out of peanut butter.  Oh no not a good thing at my house.

I already have extra coffee in my freezer, after hearing that there maybe a coffee shortage.  I guess now they said that was wrong, but hey everything is going up.  So when the was on coffee sale I got a extra bag is something I can live with.   I also have a extra peanut  butter in the panty..... but I haven't got my chocolate for the holiday baking yet.... hopefully I can get some chocolate chips before the effect of the Ivory Coast hits the states.

PS the picture is fudge.  Hummm I make fudge for holiday presents.  Think people will mind if they don't a get a full pound or more this year??

But bigger picture then that: what's next? What is the next product we will hear is going to be the shortage? With prices going up and shortages.. kinda think we all are in for a ride with this economy.... Hold on, buckle your safety belt: keep your hands and feet in at all times......

ivy

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Eat well

I swear you can find anything on the web.... I am not sure how I got here but I found a site called Eat Well. From there site they describe their site: Eat Well Guide® is a free online directory for anyone in search of fresh, locally grown and sustainably produced food in the United States and Canada.

The stores that are in my area that are certified organic... Stores you know that they are labeled "health food stores". They didn't have the newest in the area Earth Fare. which if you have a local Earth Fare you have to sign up for the site and emails and you will get some great coupons. I have gotten free apples, tomatoes, ground beef and bacon. And chicken for a dollar a pound!! Love that store...

Of course there was the local Chipole Mexican Grill  that we have learned uses meat and products that has no antibiotics or added hormones. Using organic and local produce when they can...


BUT I was shocked to see Eat and Park! Yep Eat and Park! They won the Glynwood Harvest Award for Connecting Communities, Farmers and Food. They also use sustainable seafood. Hormone free dairy products and 20 percent is local produce and meat when they can. I live in the frozen northeast so I understand that statement. You can't grow anything in the icy winter.

ivy

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Making it healthier.

http://minovaarts.deviantart.com/art/Frankenstein-Apple-118517539
Things that are enriched can have added items you would never eat on your own. Iron fortified cereals can contain iron filings. Fiber rich foods can contain wood pulp. Rodent hairs, mites, bugs, flies or their eggs or body part are also allowed by FDA.

Carmine also called Cochineal, Cochineal Extract, Crimson Lake, Natural Red 4, C.I. 75470, E120, and Carminic Acid is the powdered bodies of dried cochineal beetles. The small item that the British used to make there red coats.....  is found in many red colored food products!  Real labels and check that healthy little carton of yogurt.... anything that is "red berry flavored"...

Shellac is made from the Kerria lacca insect's sticky excretions that is commonly found in the forests of Thailand. The insect secretes this sticky liquid to help it stay on the plant that is home.  Now when the substance is being harvested sometimes the the little bug gets in the mix.  Ok many of times it is added to make the shellac that make our candy so shinny.....  Oh and of course our fruits that are so shinny on the shelves...

Bone char is made from the bones of cows from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan that have died from "natural causes."  First the bones are used my the gelatin industry for the inner part of the bone to make gelatin. Then it is sold to the sugar company. Bone char is used to bleach our sugar to help it  look that beautiful white color. Sugar starts out as a brown color and companies use bone char to help make it look bright and white.

Now there are reports I have seen online and on the news.  That the "blueberries" in many of the foods we buy thinking that we are getting the antitoxin effect of these wonderful berries are really just a corn syrup sugar chemical chip..... AND I found out by researching this (there is a ton of sites that are reporting on this) that strawberries and raspberries are the same way.  Just chemical chips not the real berries dried for future use...

Speaking of future use... if you remove the oxygen from a items such as juice you can keep for  almost a year.  but this also get rid of the flavor and the companies need to add a artificial flavoring... Funny thing is the USDA will test it but not do anything to fix it....

Oh yea that why I make many things from scratch... plus I read many blogs of mom with the same ideals as me... you would be surprised at the recipe that you can find on line from moms that want to give there kids whole foods.  Recipes for pop tarts, and other junk food....

ivy

Friday, October 7, 2011

Proof that I was on the right track!

Shine on Yahoo has a slide show that debunks the Healthy Drinks claims! The blog post I entitled Local heros was right in the money! Don't you love it when you use your common sense and  the you see what you said (thought was right all along!! LOL
Yea I am purring out my chest braggin about myself.....
There are a couple things that are not local that are proven good for you but so is many of the local fruits we have!

ivy

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Oh Poop!

So there is a motorcycle in Japan that runs on poop.. Ok I not sure about this? I mean when would you use this? I mean where can you pull over to fuel up? Or are you going to just drive along and fuel the bike? Oh I am cringing as I type this... I could hear the middle school student (or younger) screaming out the window at a red light to the motorcycle rider "hey are you pooping??" And the mother turning red..

 General Electric is using cow manure for combined heat and power (CHP) plant. It can produces 625 kW of electricity and 686 kW of thermal output.  And then what is left over from the  manure process is used as fertilizer.

Pacific Gas and Electric and BioEnergy Solutions has biogas-to-pipeline injection project in Fresno County that uses animal poop! It basically uses the the methane gas produced as the manure decomposes.


 So there even is a plant that is producing a coal like substance that is used as coal would... and it is made from poop. It equals taking a million cars off the road..

This was a very interesting morning as I kept running into poop stories....

ivy

Pizza Pizza!

Wouldn't this be great? I can see places giving a discount if you return the Pi Pan!!

Cutting the waste and cutting the carbon that is put into the environment.

I do love pizza and would pay a deposit for my first pizza to get a discount if I return it on the next pizza... hey maybe that can be a incentive for places.............



ivy

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Gluten Free?

I understand those who have Celiac Disease But it seems there is reports and sites that are telling us that the wheat is causing things like depression, diabetes, ADD/ADHD, and more. But it seems like the condition of the year .I am not saying if you have been diagnose with it; your condition is not real.  I am saying that it seems that it is been said that most of us have it and don't know we do type of warnings..Like good god this stuff is dangerous.  So I have been asked so many times at work if we have gluten free cake.....

 It make me wonder if people keep looking for the easy fix on weight loss.. Ok yea they do.  But moderation is the better choice... you know cake once in a while is ok.  I mean if you tell a child that they can't have something (or do something) they will be draw to it.  I was the type that didn't remove the "bad foods" I just said it was a treat.  My famous saying was "you have to eat the good food to get the treat"....

 Then I think of the real diet... that how and where did we decide that wheat flour is a basic? Let alone yeast? That most of our meal needs to be bread products.. That our bodies need this powder...Oh yea I think way to much... So  I decided to see if that maybe there could be a difference if I cut down on my wheat products.  Yea that isn't as easy as it sounds.  My inner child wants peanut butter and jelly sandwich.. every morning....

ivy

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