Earth Friendly Gift Wrap. Furochic It!

So much fun... Plus you can use towels and other things to wrap your gifts for eco-friendly wrap.

Reusng those bulk bags

I got somethings in bulk and get some nice bags from Earth Fare  that have the zip type tops.  I usually have a bag in my reusable bag I got from them so I get the same things again.  BUT sometimes I forget to put it back in the bag... so I have a few sitting around.  I also work at a warehouse club were I get some good deals on things like berries. You know when they have too many and more coming in at the height of the season. So I got some strawberries and thought I freeze some for later.  I saw my bags and thought ok it might have a little bit of the sugar in them but then it won't hurt the strawberries. Why not?  I also have a raspberry and  blueberry bag.

Pet Accidents Spray

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Oh yea Pin it!! First Home Love Life post about Pet Oder Be Gone..With animals it's a good thing to pin. Wait after reading the comments I see that many have found that if you add something it to it can make it even better....

So even better write a blog post about it!!! So I don't have scroll threw the comments.  And I can share with my readers.....



2 parts water 
1 part mouth wash
squirt of Dawn
 splash of vinegar
splash of hydrogen peroxide

The mouthwash is said to help lift the fats out. Dawn helps remove them.  I am hoping that eco-friendly dish-soap will work too... Vinegar cuts the ammonia. Miss Animal rights hate the smell of vinegar hopefully lemon will work too.   Hydrogen peroxide cuts the proteins.

Some are saying to use Scope some say use original Listerine. Mint washes are said the menthol or other mint extracts help remove the orders. Listerine has thymol and eucalyptol make it similar to the "thieves oil".

But I say use what you have on hand to try it....


 

Burn Baby Burn!

There is talk that Cleveland is getting a new plant that will burn the trash they collect and convert it into electricity. Of course there is a group fighting this saying it not good for the environment. Stated the closed site in Columbus. But the fact is the plant in Columbus burned everything and puffed toxic smoke into the air. This plant they are proposing to build with federal grants will protect the air. As many of the Europe sites are already.

So is burning trash bad? Well Earth 911  states that it is very clean combustion under very controlled conditions. The trash is sometimes burned just to make it a smaller amount. That the trash we produce is so large they need to make it smaller and many times burning some of our trash will help reduce the amount of trash in our landfills. Because burning 1,600 pounds of trash becomes 240 pounds of ash.

PLUS the fact on the same site I learned that Dayton; which is close to Columbus for non-Ohioans, has a plant that burns trash for energy. With no smoke!

 Britain is going to start using trash for energy on the Isle of Wight. Denmark has built what they call waste-to-energy plants. There is over 29 such plants, serving 98 municipalities in a country of 5.5 million people. With plans to build more (or have been built this was written in 2010).    Europe has over 400 waste to energy plants.

I agree that waste free would be the way to go, the end that is  we want to get to.  BUT we are no where near that. Not in the least.  So a trash burning plant that would produce electric is better than nothing.  Maybe even produce heat like in Europe. So if this country already has these sites that burn just to reduce the amount of trash for the land fill why not make them work for us.

I mean we really wanting  the future to look like  in Idiocracy? Really that was a horror story from the eco-friendly view.  Trash piled up everywhere and nothing growing? NOT  my idea of a future I would like to see.

 

Earth Quake...

Yesterday; New years Eve, the area had a 4.0-magnitude earthquake that was centered in Youngstown .  It has been found to be the result of the brine water from fracking into the earth in the area.  SO the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director says that the fact the company stopped for a few months (sorry can't find the true time online) but it happened and they were not drilling, so it not the fracking that cause it.

  Oh it not the thousands of gallons of brine are being injected into the ground.  The fact that we have fault lines in the area and that they have been pumping this water in the ground for YEARS, so why would it happen now?  they ask.  Wow like really wonder why after years of  thousands of gallons of brine were injected into the ground every day.... it's not the brine; it's just the fault lines... I wonder if they live in the area? Do they want that in their back yard?  Plus have you read the comments on this article? People going on about this being a ecoterrorist propaganda scare piece. Wow just how far do people think we can abuse the earth and not expect a reaction? We have approximately 1,000 wells between Ohio and Pennsylvania.... 1,000 wells plus 1,000 gallons a day. DO the MATH! It equals 11 earthquakes in 2011. Wonder what 2012 will bring? Hopefully a shut down of the brine wells in the area, but then people don't want to believe that it's ecoterrorist propaganda scare.... Still I have to keep my fingers crossed for the fact that the area near my dad's house doesn't start fracking. I thought when I read year ago that the suburbs would become the new "ghetto" and to think trucks driving 24/7 and bright lights on all night... I think that the suburbs where not going to be prime property after that......
Sigh...

 

Wrapping gifts...

Furoshiki
 is a traditional Japanese wrapping cloth. It is used for light travel, shopping and gift giving. When you click on the link it will take you to the part of the site that shows you what type of wraps you can use for different items. Scroll down and see some wrap for your body of course that would work better for a sarong then a tea towel...

I have been looking for some holiday towels to wrap gifts in but I can't find some nice ones. They are stiff
or have some very childish looking design.  And it is one of those things that having moved out I don't want to get a gift that makes her think I think of her as a child you know.  Guess I think to much.

Yea I have made a few gift bags this year. Some are smaller for smaller gifts.  Some of them are the gift to the people at Church....


Some I made tote bags for.  Or got a shopping tote at one of their favorite store!

My fudge is going into re-useable containers that can be used over and over.

what type of eco-friendly wrapping are you using?

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!

Something to think about during the heat wave...

You can save money by buying CFL bulbs....





Check out more money saving ideas at energysavers.gov

You tell her Ken!

Poor Barbie she get so many people in a frenzy over her body shape that it isn't healthy for our young girls to compare themselves to. But this time it's her packaging that has Greenpeace and Ken upset.



People flooded Barbies facebook page with comments, Mattel had to block comments.
Ken got his own facebook page

BUT they did listen.

Quote from a press release: "Mattel announced the company is developing a sustainable procurement policy for all of Mattel's product lines which will address the important issue of deforestation. The policy will include requirements for packaging suppliers to commit to sustainable forestry management practices. In addition to addressing current concerns about packaging sourcing, Mattel's policy will also cover other wood-based products in its toy lines, such as paper, books and accessories."

Love can change the world.... And supposedly Ken is taking Barbie on a special date... Maybe to the beautiful rain forest to say hey sweetheart this is what you saved....

Eco-friendly lights

Batteries contain heavy metals like mercury, lead, cadmium, and nickel. When just tossed they will leach into the environment.
So the answer to flashlights and batteries? A hand cranking flashlight. Use your own power to power up a flashlight. I found this very cool flashlight that is also a radio that includes the weather band, a charger for your MP3 player or cell phone. Plus you can charge it with the solar panel! How cool is that. Yeck you could let  the solar panel charge up during the day and then if you stay up late and need some extra power, use the crank!!

how great would that be for camping.  Plus it can come in handy for when the lights go out.... or any type of bad weather....

Plus I have my eye on that lantern  they also have.....

Cooking up Anti-Ant Spray

So Miss Animal Rights now is now dealing with ants in her place. I thought yea I don't miss them... LOL but I don't really miss coming home after work to see the sink filled with dishes cause both girls glazed all night. But she tells me she washes the dishes every morning after Tech goes to work. But she still has ants. I don't get freaked out about them like she does. Guess it is just something you have to deal with every summer.
So guess what I saw this morning? Yep ants, at my house.... so off to find my lemon juice.

Yea I hear/read that ants don't like the taste of lemon or anything citrus. So cleaning with vinegar and/or lemon juice will help get rid of them. It is that you need to keep doing it after all... but I will do that every time I do dishes. Just add some lemon juice to the dish towel and wipe counters. My mudroom is a different story. It get the little buggers all summer and yes the lemon juice works but not for long. I guess that citrus kills the type of fungi the ant eat. Extra bonus with the great smell killing fungi.

One site I found has borax used with jelly. Any flavor jelly will work. The problem is we have cats. Oh yea my one cat the physic one, she loves PBJ. Yep she has been know to steal my sandwich from my plate..... PLUS if you have small children it not a good thing to have borax jelly traps in pop caps all over your house. Cause it can make them sick. Borax can be used in your mop water for the floors, just keep the animals and small children off the floor until it dries. If your kids that are older; you can enlist them to help you keep the pets off the wet floor. "Sweetie I need help keeping Rover off the wet kitchen floor cause it might make him sick" was all I had to say to Miss Animal Rights. She was like that since she could walk....

Now the mudroom isn't air tight that is how they get in I know it..... It is said that you can lay a line of baby powder where they get in to keep them from entering. I also hear coffee grounds can do the same thing.
They don't like the smell of coffee! That just us humans, that need it to wake up... SO hey I got some of them right now in my coffee maker!! But then I will have drink coffee all summer for it is great for my tomato plants and my roses.... Plus roses like citrus peels too....

So in my search I found a site that has a all purpose organic pesticide for inside and out. Gotta love Instructables! Where you use things like onions, hot peppers and garlic to make a pesticide for your plants. Hey it might work on your ants or other nasty crawling pest inside like the article said it works on the pest on your inside plants......

Home Cooked Meal!

The way to a man's heart my momma told.. was threw his stomach... LOL

But mainly for fussy taste of my family I have been cooking from scratch, getting away from packaged meals. But lately I been seeing in line and hearing on many TV shows that has many benefits. Including saving money and being eco-friendly.

Now that I think about hey it is eco-friendly to cook from scratch.

You are using fresh ingredients at times. No packaging at all... just the fruit or vegetable of your choice. Yes organic is the best but hey you have to do what you gotta do. Frozen is the next best thing and still have larger amounts in just one bag. Which brings up the next point:

Using less packaging.... One envelope equals one meal. Where one box or bag of rice equals many meals!! Plus you can season it any way you want.... If I had kept making those envelopes I would have ever know that adding pineapple to rice can be delicious!! Or that the recipe I found for Spanish rice tastes so much like the "hot sauce rice" of that chicken restaurant we used to go to years ago that now is closed for business..... that everyone would eat like mad crazy people. And not the stuff they ate little of cause it wasn't the best, but ok.....

NO High Fructose Corn Syrup!! Ok maybe if you don't check the labels on our condiment's but still you will use less..... just like the commercial says "ok in small quantities" There is high-fructose corn syrup in packaged chicken nuggets, make chicken strips in your oven, with flour and spices.... or grill it!

Less salt, sugar and or preservatives! You control the amount. Have you ever looked at the label and saw large numbers of sugar or the sodium level???? Goodness sometimes it can be high in sugar things you never would have taught..

Use your leftovers as a lunch for work the next day. Using a reusable container you have a very green and tasty meal. I have noticed that I really do cook a little extra for lunches the next day.... AND I enjoy them more!! I don't have to pick out the peppers or peas.... I just don't put them in!!

Plus this will help save money! Less waste and better for you...

Plastic State of Mind....

Bring your own don't you forget dude
And let your reps know too
Ban single use plastic toxic bags!

Wow Really? Charlie Manson?

Can you believe that Charles Manson had came out and is telling people to be more eco-friendly?  He goes on to say that the polar caps are melting.....

“Everyone’s God, and if we don’t wake up to that there’s going to be no weather because our polar caps are melting because we’re doing bad things to the atmosphere," telling  Vanity Fair Spain. "The automobiles and fossil fuels are destroying the atmosphere, and we won’t have air to breathe. If we don’t change that as rapidly as I’m speaking to you now; if we don’t put the green back on the planet and put the trees back that we’ve butchered, if we don’t go to war against the problem…”

hummm ok... I mean he is right and all but then having Charles Mason as a spokes person well... doesn't realy seem like a match does it? But hey more power to the man, who is declined parole, he can speak his truth.  Guess it gets people talking.

Good for your hair recipes

Rinses

Lemon juice
Juice of 1 lemon
1 cup of water
Makes hair shine

Beer
For body and softness - doesn't matter if it is stale!

Rum
Light conditioning.


Cider Vinegar
1/2 cup vinegar 2 cups of water
For shine and bounce

Tomato Juice
1 cup tomato juice
Removes odors

Baking Soda
1 Tablespoon
1 cup of water
Removes the sprays and gels.



Highlighting Rinse
2 cups water
Chamomile tea
Steep Chamomile tea and cool

Darken Hair Rinse
5 cinnamon sticks
2 cups of water
Put broken sticks into boiling water.
Steep until cool
Strain before using.

Deep Conditioning
Dry Hair
Coconut oil, banana, avocado, Mayonnaise

Normal Hair
Mayonnaise, egg, olive oil, Plain yogurt

Oily Hair
Mayonnaise with lemon juice added,
Plain yogurt with lemon juice added,
mashed Cantaloupe

Beauty From the Kitchen

Non-Petroleum Jelly
1¼ oz. grated beeswax
3/4 cup sweet almond oil (or olive oil)

Place in a microwave proof container and heat till the wax is almost melted about 1 minute. Mix until wax is melted and pour into containers

I love this stuff. You can had herbs or flower petals to the oil and let steep for a day or two if you want a nice smell or the healing properties of the herbs and flowers. Plus you can always add vitamin E for open sores and healing... Pour oil with herbs or petal threw a cheesecloth before heating with the bee wax.



My Make-up Remover
1 tablespoon Castor oil
1 tablespoon light olive oil
1 teaspoons almond oil
Add together in a glass bottle. Mix together.
Some times I have used vitamin E oil and once I got for a good price some Jojoba oil (very good for dry skin I used it in the winter time) and did 1 tablespoon and 1 tablespoon of almond and the rest of the oils 2 tablespoons.

My Face Scrub
2 part ground oatmeal
1 part wheat germ
1 part corn meal

Ground to a fine powder. I use the blender. I have sensitive skin so I use more oatmeal then the recipe calls for just to be safe.

Things I use for a all body scrub:
Sugar
Brown Sugar
Ground oatmeal (great for sensitive skin)
Coffee grounds (used coffee grounds will work)

Honey Mask

Honey
Apply honey to face
Pat face gently until tacky
Rinse with warm water

Fruit Masks
And some vegetables and others......
Add fruit mashed up directly to face.

Dry to Normal
Apple, Grapes, Oranges, Honeydew, Pears, Watermelon, Nectarine, Avocado

Normal
Tangerine, Banana , Peppermint , Cantaloupe Citrus, Carrot, Peach, Zucchini

Oily
Banana, Cherry, Lemons , Grapefruit, Strawberry, Avocado, Tomato, Peppermint

All skin Type
Yogurt, Cucumber, mayonnaise , eggs

Carrot Yogurt Acme Mask

2 tablespoons carrots
2 tablespoon yogurt

Slightly cook carrots
Mash with yogurt

(Can also grade carrots into yogurt Blend in blender until smooth)
Apply to face Rinse with tepid water
Tepid= kinda like room temperature

      

Yea it's like That!

If Mother Earth could she would do that !

Look what I Found

Signs of Spring in my front flower garden............

Nice to see after a hard winter...
But then I see I do have some work to do with the flower garden...... sigh.... But I can't wait till the weather is warm and I can dig in the dirt!!

Plant Bottles!

The heinz ketchup bottle is becoming Green!!!
Heinz press release  where the company that will make 120 million PlantBottle™ packages in 2011.... they plan on production to start soon and the bottle hitting the shelves in June!! I just wonder if they will do this for the ketchup made without the high fructose syrup... the organic or the Simply Heinz ketchup.... That would be great the organic ketchup in a plantbottle....

They also state on their site that they use NO genetic-modification, that just traditional breeding techniques.  But as many gardeners will tell you that tomatoes are hearty plants.... for the most part.  Plus they have had years and years to get this right! They started making ketchup in 1876....

Really how can you turn down a sassy label like that? Unless you want the labels that says things like Take me to your Burger.... I never saw a french fry I didn't like  or I'm your secret ingredient!!

Shampoos

The best green shampoo......Liquid Castille Soap! Wrong... it breaks me out... I have very sensitive skin that includes my scalp! So most homemade shampoos use this ingredient..And most green health food store brands shampoo use chamomile... Chamomile is part of the Asteraceae plant family, which includes ragweed and chrysanthemum, If you have  allergies, chamomile  may cause some reaction.... If I use chamomile on my face or hair.... My eyes swell up and I can't breathe..... fun times trying to find a herbal shampoo!  I was using a unscented shampoo but then it stopped working.  So really they say that the shampoo doesn't stop working your needs -your hair needs change.... but hey I have to switch...  Found one that I missed the chamomile.... it was like smack in the middle... I read right over it... and I learned even a little amount... judging by the fact it wasn't one the first key ingredients... I will not be able to breathe normally..and look like I cried for days.. grrr....

So many health food store shampoo have chamomile and or are over $10 a bottle.... too rich for my budget.  The grocery isle of healthy organic shampoos are the same thing....

When I first started to use the organic shampoos I would have to wash my hair every day or my hair would look so greasy. Now I wash my hair every couple of days and looks fuller.  Well that before trying to find my shampoo.... there are some that dry out my hair (ok I saved it for summer, for those sweaty summer days..Worked great them!!) Then the ones that made my hair look even more greasy...  

I tried the no poo -hummm I couldn't do it.  I know there is a adjusting period but I couldn't do it...my hair was too greasy. It made my head itch. I "washed" with conditioner, that too made my hair look too greasy and flat.  Then I try to make my own... yea the liquid castille soap allergy was uncovered after my first homemade herbal shampoo...  green tea shampoo..... I had bumps that inched and hurt! So no more Castille soap, I did try straight castille soap on my body and got the same rash... and it really hurts!! 

So my last recipe.... thing is I found this from a baby shampoo recipe and a regular shampoo recipe with milk so I thought I make a hybrid of the two.....


 Milk Shampoo

• 1/4 cup Non-Fat Dry Milk
• 1/4 cup Whole Milk
• 1 tablespoon Corn Starch
• 2 tablespoons of honey

Combine ingredients in a clean container.;It makes a thick paste.  Use just as you would a mask for your hair.I left on for about 5 minutes.  I used it on my face and my windburned arms....... nice and soft soothing...
I did rinse for longer then normal  just cause I don't want to smell like spoiled milk later...
The only problem is I found was my hair was a little snarly.  So I did use some coconut oil that I use on my hands.  I rub my hands with a small amount, you only need a very small amount; and then I  ran them over the ends of my hair.  My scalp I very lightly ran my hands over the hair... and soon my comb was going threw my hair without a problem.... You can use your hair conditioner or hand cream like that too...

Guess we will see how this plays out...........