Ziploc Bags: A Wonderful Solution!

Stay up to date on the latest posts. Subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Just a quick check in to let you know things are still in place as far as a cleanup around here. You’re about to witness a new face here at RYD and other changes. Basically, it will be a bit more organized and focused…not so scattered like my brain these days!!! At least that’s the plan anyway- LOL!

I’m pretty pumped about the change and hope you will help me embrace it. I hope to bring you more surprises as we revamp…stay tuned!

Aside from the new look- I have a question for you…

Read more

Happy Hallogreen: 2009

This is T dressed up for Barnes & Noble storytime on Tuesday morning!

He’s dressed up as a cowboy but he’ll tell you he’s a “Bullrider”- LOL!

We carved pumpkins last night, baking the seeds today- our chickens at the guts out of it…we will compost it when Halloween is over!

Our decorations are from a little old lady in Pasadena who cleaned out her garage and probably swallowed a spider while doing so! They’re old 80’s decorations but they are like new and still intact. I love the skeleton one the best- reminds me of the good ole’ elementary days!

We have hanging ghosts and a bat- they’re actually pretty cool- the eco tot loves them!

We will reuse them until they shred and are no longer…

We plan to BOONESTLE and have a SPOOKTACULAR night!

We are actually going to be Reverse Trick-Or-Treating for the first time—wish us luck!

The hub and I may even get the privilege of going to a Haunted House!

HAVE A SAFE HALLOWEEN!

(You’ll get to see the finished product tomorrow!)

A Greener Shaving Solution: RetroRazor

Okay, so it’s been a month since I’ve discussed my experience about the Ditch the Disposables challenge. Just a reminder in case some of you are new… I challenged myself to do away with disposable razors. I’ve found the perfect solution too! My goal was to try and find an eco friendly wax of some sort…which I did come across at the Whole Foods Market.

It sounded like a great solution until I realized that it too was disposable in some way. After a few uses I’d have to buy a brand new box again. Plus, I’m still leaving trash behind (if not more)…wax paper- the tin the wax came in, the paper box etc. (all recyclable -but still!)  One method came with a plastic applicator just depending on how you wanted to apply it.

Read more

Extra, Extra- New @ ECP: Support Fair Trade- Get Coco-Zen!

Find out what Reverse Trick-Or-Treating is and
where YOU can get your FREE kit today!

Hint: 20 pieces of chocolate involved…

Be part of the message…

Think green this Halloween!

8 Question’s for Derek Markham: The Natural Papa

Derek Markham is an environmental freelance writer, a father and a tree hugging dirt worshiper. His popular blog Natural Papa offers lessons on homebirth, fatherhood, and food. He also writes for many successful green websites such as EcoChildsPlay, Twilight Earth, Planet Green, and Blue Living Ideas to name a few! In his spare time he ride bicycles, goes bouldering and slacklining, and drink lots of organic coffee. Follow Derek on twitter and see what he’s up to: @DerekMarkham

I’ve always been a writer, but until last year, it was just for myself – filling lots of notebooks for future projects. When I started reading more blogs, I realized “Hey, I can do this too”, and because I saw so many mom blogs, I wanted to write for dads, specifically ‘eco-dads’ like myself. So I started a free blog on Blogger and started trying to put out a post each day about issues that I felt were pertinent to fathers.

Read more

the {upcycled & recycled} Giveaway!

Yes! That’s right help RECYCLE these cloth diapers and find a new home for them!!

I’m hoping this will de-lurk some of YOU…

So, let’s get right to it! 

Here’s what’s up for grabs!!

Read more

Totally Bummed

This is a guest/cross post by Stephanie Precourt from Adventures in Babywearing. Stephanie blogs about her daily life adventures on being a mom to 3 handsome little boys and 1 beautiful baby girl and of course, she also writes about babywearing and the like!

It’s been a little over two weeks now that we’ve been cloth diapering and I love it.
I think I still might be in the honeymoon period, as it’s new and fun and the diapers are oh so cute. But I do hope it lasts!
I can’t say that I suddenly feel better as a person for being more environmental friendly or crunchy or anything like that.

To be honest, by the fourth kid I was just finally tired of that plasticky crinkly diaper and all the leaks (and I really all this time thought that cloth diapers would be the worst with leaking and have to say that not once! have we had a leak and last night when I had her in a disposable, she leaked!!)

But, it is a great plus that I might be doing something more eco-conscious and better for my baby at the same time.

So, I started off with the Bum Genius 3.0 pocket diapers (pictured on Ivy) that are one size- they adjust as baby gets bigger thanks to snaps on the cover and insert. I love these. They are by far my favorite so far to use and clean and change and for her to wear. I bought 6 at first from Cottonbabies and then ordered a few more through Mom4Life because they had a big sale.

If you don’t want to wash diapers every single day you’ll definitely need 10 or more of these diapers- at least that’s my experience with a 3 month old.

In between using the Bum Genius I also use unbleached Indian prefold diapers with a Bummis Super Whisper Wrap or Thirsties cover. I started out trying to use a Snappi to hold the prefold in place but then lately have just been laying the prefold in the cover’s pocket and it’s stayed in place just fine. I think this is easier clean up, too. I am not sure how long it would stay in place, especially once she starts moving around. Then I might have to go back to using the Snappi. I bought all these items from Jillian’s Drawers and I have to say that they have great service as well as the best instructions with how to care for your diapers- all brands and kinds and etc. I found that incredibly helpful.

Read more

A Local Article: BYOB!!!

No this isn’t a post about beer. It’s Bring Your Own Bag. Say no to plastic bags at grocery stores and businesses. Bring your own cloth bags instead or heck reuse your old plastic ones. Why say no to plastic and bring you own?

Consider the following shocking facts about plastic shopping bags:

Plastic bags are made of polyethylene
Polyethylene is a petroleum product
Production contributes to air pollution and energy consumption
Four to five trillion plastic bags are manufactured each year
Americans use over 380 billion polyethylene bags per year
Americans throw away approximately 100 billion polyethylene bags per year
Of those 100 billion plastic bags, 1% are recycled
It takes 1000 years for polyethylene bags to break down
As polyethylene breaks down, toxic substances leach into the soil and enter the food chain
Approximately 1 billion seabirds and mammals die per year by ingesting plastic bags
Plastic bags are often mistaken as food by marine mammals. 100,000 marine mammals die yearly by eating plastic bags.
These animals suffer a painful death, the plastic wraps around their intestines or they choke to death
Plastic bags choke landfills
Plastic bags are carried by the wind into forests, ponds, rivers, and lakes
There are alternatives to plastic bags. All of this death and pollution is unnecessary Read more: www.environmentalactivism.sutie101.com

Read more

Make Your Own Organic Butter~

Growing up, my husband made butter using a mason jar. Yep! Butter. Fresh and creamy sweet butter. No real method just pour and shake. There’s nothing else to it…except the heavy cream that is. After pouring the heavy cream into a jar tighten the lid and shake away! My hubby is quite the butter shaker…so I let him take care of it, usually. The picture’s below were taken a few months ago when we decided to photograph the butter making experience. Not really good photo’s I know. Yesterday’s butter making process did not get photographed… I thought of it after the fact. The heavy cream came out looking like a “stick” of butter is was pretty amazing! We used a peach jar (2 1/2 cups) that we recycled and also use a daily drinking cups (they resemble mason jars).  Were not usually precise unless were baking…  this is what we did yesterday though- an entire one pint carton of heavy cream was poured into a mason/peach jar. Hubs shook for 20 minutes or so maybe a litte less and a ball will start to form. The liquid will also seem heavier and start to clump together…and viola’! You’ll need to pour out the excess liquid (buttermilk), drain or use a cheesecloth and squeeze out. The buttermilk can be used, but there won’t be much.  This process work’s for us!  It makes approx. 8 oz of butter- a fair amount. We haven’t bought packaged butter in months. No packaged butter for us… means no waste and also means were not contributing to the energy consumption required to produce it.  We like knowing our butter has been produced here at home, with our own two hands! While we don’t have a cow to actually get it from the source, were hoping to have a goat soon! More on that soon!!!! Making butter is also a great actiivty to do with your kids. Get them to do all the shaking. I’ve had my sister’s kids participate and they thought it was really fun. Be sure to have warm muffins ready to slather the homemade butter onto -because the kids will want a quick taste!

It you’d like a recipe on butter making…check out the link below!

http://crunchychickencooks.blogspot.com/

What do you enjoy making from scratch?