The Green 10

Because I recently read this book and have green living on the mind, today's Tuesday 10 is about being green. If you know me at all, you know I'm pretty fanatical about chemical free stuff and I'm pretty conscious of living green. Here are some of my favorite green life style choices.

1. stainless steel water bottles and filtered tap water-plastic water bottles are made of petroleum (not a renewable resource) and they leach chemicals. not good.

2. all natural cleaning products-better for the environment (this stuff goes down the drain and into the ground), better for your household air quality, better for your skin (which has to touch the stuff). I use method of seventh generation products. I also use a lot of vinegar, lemon juice and baking soda.

3. all natural, paraben free, sodium lauryl sulfate free bath and beauty products-I could really go on and on about the issues with the chemicals in your common bath and beauty products. I'm sure some of you are already saying, please don't get her started...so rather than drone on and on about the scary things you are putting on your body (which don't get filtered through your liver if they're coming in through the skin), I will allow you to do your own reading and research. Here are a few links:
The Good Human
Environmental Working Group
Breast Cancer Fund

4. reusable bags-I keep four in my car and two in my purse and I actually use them. All the time.

5. glass food storage containers-again, I'm not a fan of plastic. I have very little of it in my kitchen.

6. eat, buy local-I've been trying more and more to buy from local business and to support local agriculture. I've had a hard time finding a CSA here that works for me, but I'd love to be a part of one. There are plenty of farmers markets I can choose around here. Unfortunately, none that are too close by (being green means not driving all over town for stuff you know) or operate on days I'm able to attend. My favorite restaurants are local restaurants that use organic products and local goods and produce. I'd much rather eat at one of these restaurants than a big chain restaurant.

7. buy organic-organic is more expensive and not always easy to find. I don't buy everything organic and I don't always buy organic, but when I have a choice and I can afford to do so, I choose organic. When I don't buy organic, I use a natural fruit and vegetable cleaner to wash my produce. After reading the above book, I'm going to make more effort to buy organic cotton, silk and wool. I was shocked to discover that cotton is one of the worlds most heavily pesticide covered products. I pretty much live in cotton, from clothes to sheets to towels, its what I buy most. Gross. When I need new sheets and towels, I am certainly going to buy organic.

8. be a veggie-ok, here's where most of you say, whatever Erin. I know. It takes a lot of energy, space, synthetic hormones, byproducts, transportation costs, etc. to make our world's meat and chicken. Cows and feed lots produce tons of methane gas. It's easy for me. I DO NOT like the taste of meat or poultry. If its not so easy for you, try to eat less meat. Eat a vegetarian meal once and awhile and if you are buying meat, buy grass fed beef, free range chickens, sustainable fish and hormone free dairy.

9. reduce, reuse, recycle-you know the song...I'm big on recycling. We usually fill our recycle bin every week and the garbage bin every couple. Anything that can be recycled, I do it. I'm also a big fan of reusing things when you can. Rinse out jars, reuse plastic zip bags, use back sides of paper, etc. I know I'm a scrapbooker and therefore consume more paper than I should, so I make a conscious effort to use less of it elsewhere. I'm also a big fan of buying recycled products. In fact today I restocked our TP and paper towels, both with 100% recycled products. I'm also trying to be much better at thinking about purchases before I make them and not buy things that I don't need or love. We all make little silly purchases here and there and many times its just wasteful. Make more conscious decisions.

10. buy sustainable products-like bamboo floors, which I will have someday, when we can afford and have the time to pull out this chemical ridden, disgusting carpet. If you have the choice between two products, opt for the one that's made of natural, sustainable products versus the manufactured, plastic crap, I mean product.

Happy Green Tuesday!

More Alex

For Your Viewing Pleasure

My favorite So You Think You Can Dance contestant. Amazing!

Tuesday 10

A few things from my shopping wish list.

From Anthro:








From ModCloth:





I could never wear the yellow dress, not my color, but isn't it adorable?

Sigh.

Happy Tuesday!

Study Break

So I've been studying off and on most of the day. My study break this evening has consisted of lots of mindless internet surfing. In my blog hopping, I came across this page and decided to play along. Here's the results of my color personality test:

You are 61 % extrovert and 39 % introvert.

Independently of any order of importance :

You are strong-willed and active, your actions are determined by your own will, by the goals you settled for yourself, and by your need to act and to move forward.

You are also a leader, you know how to organize the groups of persons and give them your energy.

Finally you are able to listen to others, you show a good emotional intelligence, you know how to bring your support to others.

Your understanding of your environment : At first, at 38%, you are focused on the facts and on the reality, and your decisions are determined by your perception of facts. Then, at a ratio of 31%, you are centered on your thoughts and your actions are determined by your knowledge and your experience. Finally, at 30%, you are attached to moral values and feelings, and you have an emotional relation with the environment.

How you assert yourself : In your relations with others, your actions are determined by your will and your personal goals at a ratio of 57%. In 42% of the cases you take into account your own sensibility and your partner’s. Also, the dialogue and exchange of views with others influence your own ideas and points of view at 61%. Your knowledge, your personal learning and your preset convictions interfere in your decision-making at 38%. Finally, the bonds that you created with your family and friends represent 64% of your core emotions. Your creativity, your openness and your need to open up to renewal in your life have also an impact of 35%.

The qualities that characterize your personality at this time :

Your energy.		you are strong-willed and active, your actions are determined by your own will, by the goals you settled to yourself, and by your need to act and move ahead.
at 21 %

Your leadership.		you are a manager and a leader, and you know how to organize groups of people and how to give them your energy.
at 20 %

Your dynamism.		you are dynamic and active, you are determined in your actions, you know how to communicate your ideals and your energy, and thus, you know how to boost people.
at 20 %

Your management skills.		you are a manager and a structured person, you know how to take into account the needs of each person while leading them to the fixed goals.
at 18 %

Your contact abilities.		you are open and good communicator, you know how to attract people and engage them.
at 18 %

Finally, you are attuned to others and you show a good emotional intelligence, which allow you to give support to people, you are thoughtful and deep, you think before getting into action and you know how to communicate your knowledge.

Food for thought....

Sundays

Sundays for me are usually about the balancing act of getting things done around the house, while still having a slow moving, relaxing kind of day. Some days I'm better at finding this balance than others. Today has been a good mix of the to do list and the fun list. I actually woke up late this morning (well, late for me anyway) and spent the next hour in bed finishing this book. A good book, but sad. Once I got out of bed, I made myself a berry smoothie and spent a bit of me time on the computer. I did the last 3 loads of laundry, meal planned and made a grocery list (though I've yet to make it to the grocery store), before doing some fun stuff in the kitchen. I made peach/blueberry crumble for dessert tonight, chopped up a delicious watermelon and made some more gluten free muesli. I was tempted to bake some banana bread, but didn't really want the oven on for an hour, given the triple digit temps outside.

I decided I really should clean the house or at least check off a few of the cleaning to do's. Got the kitchen cleaned, floors mopped and bathrooms done. Vacuuming and dusting will have to wait till tomorrow. I finished my cleaning spree with a nice long shower in my sparkly clean bathroom. I really do love afternoon showers with the sunlight streaming through the solar tube in my cute green bathroom. Pretty close to perfect, if only someone else had scrubbed it clean for me.

The rest of my afternoon has been spent puttering around the house. Some scrapping done, new recipes printed, ribbon stash organized, photos uploaded, pages put into albums....now I'm all set to veg out a bit before making dinner. A pretty typical, work and play Sunday. Here's a few pictures from the day:






And couple scrappy pages. This first page sat on my table for at least a week before getting finished. Finished it sometime last week, but hadn't photographed it yet. The second one was started yesterday and finished this afternoon. Though the photo collage was printed last week with a free 8x10 collage coupon from Walgreen's.



I'm off to decide what book from my pile I should read next.

Happy Sunday!