Category Archives:Living

02
Aug

4 DIY Alternatives to Plastic

DIY Mesh Grocery Bags

Do your part to reduce plastic pollution with these alternatives to plastic that you can make yourself!

Plastic pollution is strangling aquatic life and polluting our waterways. Sure, you can recycle a lot of your plastic waste, but each time plastic is recycled you end up with a lower quality plastic. That means that eventually that plastic water bottle or food container is headed to the landfill, even if it does make a few pit stops as recycled plastic products along the way.

Avoiding plastic can feel nearly impossible, though, can't it? The stuff is everywhere! Want to get rid of some of the disposable plastic in your day to day? Check out these DIY, reusable alternatives to plastic disposables!

1. Grocery Totes

Bringing your own bag to the store is like green 101, but I think it bears repeating, especially if you're considering buying reusable bags. Many of those reusable grocery totes at the store checkout are made from - you guessed it - plastic. Instead of shelling out cash for yet another piece of plastic, check out this tutorial for making your own reusable mesh grocery bag from an old t-shirt!

2. Produce Bags

Reusable shopping bags are pretty common, but when you're shopping for fresh produce you often end up with those flimsy plastic produce bags, which are not even recyclable. It's easy as pie to make your own reusable produce bags instead!

Reusable Snack Bag

3. Reusable Snack Bags

Disposable plastic baggies, no more! With super basic sewing skills, anyone can create simple, reusable snack bags for packing things like chips, nuts, pretzels, and even sandwiches (as long as they're not super messy). Head over to my personal site, Glue and Glitter, for my snack bag tutorial!

4. Mason Jar To Go Cups

Who needs disposable plastic water bottles or even soda pops with a plastic lid and straw? It's much easier than you might think to make your own to go cup from a simple mason jar. Instead of a plastic straw, pick yourself up a dishwasher safe glass straw for sustainable sipping.

What crafts have you made to replace single-use plastic with reusable alternatives? Share your tips and ideas in the comments!

Posted:   |   Categories: alternatives to plastic, DIY, Living, plastic, plastic alternatives, single use plastic
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31
Jul

Green Decor: Flexible Cork Bowls from Bambu Home

green decor cork bowl

Who says you can't stay organized and have cute, green decor options at the same time? Not this gal!

Ever since having my baby back in March, I've been all about decluttering and organizing our house. My husband has made countless trips to Goodwill as we get rid of our tchotchkes, and I've been working on decorating with and organizing what's left. It's made our house feel a lot bigger and makes it so much easier to keep things tidy!

One method that's helped me a lot is using baskets and decorative boxes in bookshelves as hidden or semi-hidden storage. When the folks at Bambu Home offered to send me one of their new cork bowls to review, it gave me some green decor ideas!

Green Decor: Cork

Cork is a great material for designing all manner of green decor options. Much like bamboo, cork grows quickly and doesn't require a lot of water or pesticides to grow. That makes it much more sustainable than wood or paper, and of course it's leaps and bounds better than plastic. Cork forests also help preserve biodiversity, which in this age of monocropping is more important than ever!

These bowls aren't meant to be used as storage, but when I unwrapped my sample bowl a couple of weeks ago, I knew it would be wasted in my kitchen. It looks handy for serving, but we have serving dishes up the wazoo already. What we didn't have was something to wrangle my son's toys in the living room, and this bowl was the absolutely perfect size!

cork bowl

See how nice it looks loaded with persimmons? That is a product shot from the company, showing one of the ways you can use these bowls in the kitchen. The bowls are water- and stain-resistant, and you can wash them with the rest of your laundry. As you can see, since they're flexible you can fold the sides down to make them as shallow or deep as you need.

Because the bowl is flexible, it's also great for home decor and storage! We have one of those Ikea bookcases that's made of cubes in the living room, and the bowl fits easily into one of the cubes with room left over to stash a few books. The lighting in my living room is not super ideal, so I mocked up this storage situation to give you an idea of how I've been using my cork bowl.

green decor cork bowl with toys

Since the bowl is machine-washable, I can toss it in the wash along with the blanket and toys that I'm storing in there, which is great! My son has just reached a serious drooling phase, so all of his stuff gets gross pretty quickly. I also could probably fit one more book on that shelf, because the flexible bowl conforms somewhat to the area where you fit it.

You can find these cork bowls and Bambu Home's full line of products on their website. I poked around a little bit while I was working on this review and stumbled upon these super rad, colorful cutting boards that may just have to become part of my kitchen!

Posted:   |   Categories: cork, cork bowls, green decor, green home decor, Home+Decor, Living
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29
Jul

Book Review: Vegetable Literacy by Deborah Madison

Vegetable Literacy: Cooking and Gardening with Twelve Families from the Edible Plant Kingdom is Deborah Madison's newest book, and an epic book it is! Vegetable Literacy is an amazing introduction to the connections between the foods we eat. Madison writes lovingly and eloquently about the relationships between plant families and how to bring the beauty of those relationships into the kitchen.

20130720_183808

The book is divided into 12 chapters, each focusing on one plant family. Some, like the morning glory family, are short, featuring only the humble sweet potato as its edible species. But other, longer chapters include expansive stories of both unique and commonplace vegetables– the longer chapters include the carrot family (featuring parsnips, celery, fennel, dill and more), the brassica family (featuring kale, cabbage, bok choi, turnips and wasabi), the legume family (peas, beans and all manner of pulses) and the grass family (corn, wheat, wild rice, bamboo and oat).

What Madison has done in Vegetable Literacy is to combine the knowledge of gardeners and farmers and bring it to the table. In her chapter on nightshades, for example, she notes that by virtue of being related, plants like peppers, eggplant, tomato and potato have a natural affinity to each other, and make for wonderful recipes like in the Gratin of Tomatoes, Eggplant and Chard. And it's important to note that the recipes featured in this book are not terribly complicated. In fact, many of the recipes are actually just simple instructions to make the most of your fresh bounty: how to make your own tisane from fresh herbs from the mint family, how to dress a salad without making dressing, how to perfectly roast your Brussels Sprouts with just oil, salt and pepper, and how to make freshly cooked beans and grains. The Ivory Carrot Soup shown below is one of the recipes that really showcases Madison's vision for her veggies. This gorgeous soup features just a handful of ingredients (onion, herbs, stock) to really show off the beauty of the orange and white roots. E

The book features a startling amount of information on growing, harvesting, selecting and cooking fresh, beautiful produce. Some might find it useful as a coffee-table book, others as a cookbook beside the stove, while some might even read it cover-to-cover like a novel (guilty!). And whether you are a home gardener or a a full-time chef, this book will inspire you to learn more about these plant relationships and learn how to make the most of them in your kitchen.

Soup image from Serious Eats, other photos from Vibrant Wellness Journal

Posted:   |   Categories: book review, Books, Food+Drink, garden, Living, recipes, vegetables
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26
Jul

Mason Jar Party Time! DIY Mason Jar Party Decor

Mason Jar Party Lantern

Fancy up your next summer shindig and make it a mason jar party! Mason jars are useful for sassing up any party, from food and drink to decorations.

Mason jars are more than just handy. They're a great eco-friendly craft supply to keep on hand. You can often find vintage mason jars at yard sales, thrift stores, or on eBay. Even if you end up buying new mason jars, their durability still makes them very eco-friendly. Those glass jars and the metal lids that come with them will last you for years and years, unlike cheap plastic goods.

Because they're versatile and sturdy, mason jars work great for all kinds of party decor. Check out these mason jar party ideas for your next backyard party!

1. Hanging Lantern

Light up the night with lots of hanging lanterns made from just a couple of simple supplies that you probably have on hand right this second!

2. No-Spill Party Glasses

Grab some simple tools and turn a batch of mason jars into reusable cups! Just make sure you choose a paper, metal, or glass straw instead of a plastic one for healthier sipping!

mason jar cocktails

3. Mason Jar Cocktails

Instead of altering your jars to make sippy cups, you can also use them to serve pre-mixed cocktails with less mess.

4. Individual Cobblers

Make dessert extra special at your next throwdown by baking up a batch of cobblers in mason jars that your guests can grab and munch.

5. A Cooler Veggie Plate

A plate of crudites might look a little bit boring. Serve carrot and celery sticks, slices of sweet pepper, and other raw veggies in mason jars for a more appealing presentation.

Have you done any fun mason jar party crafts? I'd love to hear your DIY ideas in the comments!

Of course, I can't think about parties without thinking about one of my favorite songs by my very favorite band:

Posted:   |   Categories: Craft Recycled, DIY, Glassware, Home+Decor, Living, mason jar crafts, mason jar ideas, mason jar party, mason jars
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24
Jul

Mason Jar Cocktails for Your Summer Parties (+ recipes!)

mason jar cocktails

Planning a summer shindig? Serve up some mason jar cocktails that your guests can grab and sip with no messy mixing.

I love summer, you guys! The days of feeling cold no matter how many layers I'm wearing? Dunzo! It's shorts and sandals weather, and that means backyard summer parties! I've been getting really into cocktails lately, but at a party that can be a messy situation. Drunk people mixing liquids equals sticky spills that bake onto your table in the hot sun. Save the mess and wow your guests with these mason jar cocktails instead!

This idea was inspired by the photo above, from Flickr user Kelly Teague. Doesn't that cooler full of mason jars look pretty and refreshing? All you need now is a cocktail recipe that will fill them up. Unless you want folks getting wasted, I'd go with half-pint mason jars for boozy beverages. A half pint is one cup, the perfect size for serving up cocktails.

Worried that your guests are going to leave those lids and rings all over the place? Just stick a big bowl next to the cooler with a label on it, so they have a convenient place to stick the lids, and you'll have an easier cleanup later. You might want to do the same thing for the empty jars. Put a bucket or a tray out where folks can stick their empties to save you wrangling empty mason jars the next day.

If you're not sure what to serve, I've got a few cocktail recipe suggestions for you. Like I said, I've been getting into cocktails lately, and over on my personal site I'm featuring a different cocktail recipe every Friday. Some are my own recipes and some come from friends who have been kind enough to share their tried-and-tested drink recipes with me.

Dark-and-Stormy-Sunshower-cocktail

Mason Jar Cocktails: Recipe Ideas

One caveat about these: since you're mixing your cocktails up in advance, I'd skip the ice in the jar, because the ice is going to melt and water down your lovingly-prepared drinks. Boo! Just serve them up instead of on the rocks, and you're golden.

  1. The Sunshower - This is a lighter-tasting take on the Dark and Stormy.
  2. Pickled Peach Bellini - You can put the pickled peaches right into the jars or serve them on the side.
  3. Stone Fruits and Ginger Sangria - White sangria is so summery and delicious!
  4. Fruity Fizz - This drink doesn't have any booze, but it's a great way to have non-alcoholic drinks that feel more special than water or sugary soda pop.

Do you have a favorite cocktail recipe that would look good served up in a mason jar? Tell me yours in the comments!

Image Credits: Remixed Creative Commons photo by Jinx!; Sunshower Cocktail photo by Becky Striepe

Posted:   |   Categories: cocktail recipes, Food+Drink, Living, mason jar cocktails, mason jar ideas, mason jar party ideas, summer party idea
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24
Jul

Mason Jar Cocktails for Your Summer Parties (+ recipes!)

mason jar cocktails

Planning a summer shindig? Serve up some mason jar cocktails that your guests can grab and sip with no messy mixing.

I love summer, you guys! The days of feeling cold no matter how many layers I'm wearing? Dunzo! It's shorts and sandals weather, and that means backyard summer parties! I've been getting really into cocktails lately, but at a party that can be a messy situation. Drunk people mixing liquids equals sticky spills that bake onto your table in the hot sun. Save the mess and wow your guests with these mason jar cocktails instead!

This idea was inspired by the photo above, from Flickr user Kelly Teague. Doesn't that cooler full of mason jars look pretty and refreshing? All you need now is a cocktail recipe that will fill them up. Unless you want folks getting wasted, I'd go with half-pint mason jars for boozy beverages. A half pint is one cup, the perfect size for serving up cocktails.

Worried that your guests are going to leave those lids and rings all over the place? Just stick a big bowl next to the cooler with a label on it, so they have a convenient place to stick the lids, and you'll have an easier cleanup later. You might want to do the same thing for the empty jars. Put a bucket or a tray out where folks can stick their empties to save you wrangling empty mason jars the next day.

If you're not sure what to serve, I've got a few cocktail recipe suggestions for you. Like I said, I've been getting into cocktails lately, and over on my personal site I'm featuring a different cocktail recipe every Friday. Some are my own recipes and some come from friends who have been kind enough to share their tried-and-tested drink recipes with me.

Dark-and-Stormy-Sunshower-cocktail

Mason Jar Cocktails: Recipe Ideas

One caveat about these: since you're mixing your cocktails up in advance, I'd skip the ice in the jar, because the ice is going to melt and water down your lovingly-prepared drinks. Boo! Just serve them up instead of on the rocks, and you're golden.

  1. The Sunshower - This is a lighter-tasting take on the Dark and Stormy.
  2. Pickled Peach Bellini - You can put the pickled peaches right into the jars or serve them on the side.
  3. Stone Fruits and Ginger Sangria - White sangria is so summery and delicious!
  4. Fruity Fizz - This drink doesn't have any booze, but it's a great way to have non-alcoholic drinks that feel more special than water or sugary soda pop.

Do you have a favorite cocktail recipe that would look good served up in a mason jar? Tell me yours in the comments!

Image Credits: Remixed Creative Commons photo by Jinx!; Sunshower Cocktail photo by Becky Striepe

Posted:   |   Categories: cocktail recipes, Food+Drink, Living, mason jar cocktails, mason jar party ideas, summer party idea
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19
Jul

5 DIY Bath and Body Recipes

DIY Bath and Body Products: Homemade Sugar Scrub

Treat yourself right with these easy DIY bath and body recipes!

Shopping for bath and body products can be tricky. So many commercial beauty products contain questionable ingredients, and it can be tough to stay on top of what is and isn't safe, can't it? Instead of rolling the dice with bath and body products from the big box store, you can make your own with some of these DIY recipes!

1. DIY Sugar Scrub

With some kitchen ingredients and your favorite essential oil blend, you can whip up a homemade sugar scrub in minutes. The scrub pictured above there is one that I made using the Meditation Oil from Aura Cacia. It's my husband's favorite.

Click here for the tutorial!

2. Make Your Own Perfume or Cologne

You can use rubbing alcohol, like the recipe calls for, or substitute grain alcohol if you're not partial to rubbing alcohol. Either way, it's a simple recipe that's much cheaper and less toxic than store-bought colognes.

Click here for the tutorial!

DIY Deodorant

3. Homemade Deodorant

Check out my new favorite recipe for making deodorant with just a few ingredients! You can make it stick-style or lotion-style. The best part? No aluminum, triclosan, or other harmful ingredients here!

Click here for the tutorial!

4. DIY Bath Bombs

Nothing says decadent like a hot bath and a soothing bath bomb. The trouble is that those fizzy wonders usually include mystery ingredients to make them smell nice. Boo! Make your own bath bomb to skip the chemical fragrances.

Click here for the tutorial!

5. Sunburn Salve

Did you overdo it at the beach or by the pool? The faster you treat your sunburn, the lower your changes that the burn will do long-term damage to your skin and to your health. Soothe your sunburned skin naturally with a homemade salve.

Click here for the tutorial!

Do you have any favorite DIY bath and body recipes? Tell us about them in the comments!

Posted:   |   Categories: bath and body recipes, beauty recipes, DIY, DIY bath and body recipes, DIY beauty, DIY beauty recipes, Health+Beauty, Living
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17
Jul

DIY Deodorant with Only 4 Ingredients!

DIY Deodorant

I am constantly on the search for safe deodorants, so when I ran across a recipe for DIY deodorant, I knew I had to try it!

The recipe comes from Chocolate and Zucchini, and it's the first of two homemade deodorants that she's made. You can check out the other recipe here. The one I tested only called for:

  • baking soda
  • starch of your choice - I used corn starch, because we had some
  • coconut oil

You basically mix these up and either chill it for a stick deodorant or put it in a container for more of a lotion-style situation. You can see her whole recipe here. I had all of these things already in the kitchen, so I pulled out a bowl and a tablespoon measure, and mixed this up!

The mixture ended up way too crumbly for my taste. When I shaped it into my mold, it cracked, and at room temperature it was not smooth enough to apply as lotion. This is the recipe that ended up working for me. It has 4 ingredients.

4 Ingredient DIY Deodorant

  • 2 tablespoons baking soda
  • 2 tablespoons corn starch
  • 3 tablespoons coconut oil
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil

This chilled nicely into the mold, as pictured at the top there, and is nice and creamy at room temperature. To mold mine, I used a foil cupcake liner that I had on hand (a paper one would work fine, too). I pressed the mixture into the liner, dropped it in a teacup, and pressed some more:

DIY Deodorant in Mold

Let it chill for about an hour, and you're ready to use! If you're wanting lotion-style deodorant, you can skip the whole cupcake liner step.

But does it work?

I applied a bit of the deodorant and was very impressed! There's no white residue once you rub it in, though I'd definitely recommend applying before you get dressed, since it's a little messier than chemical deodorants. It kept me unstinky for the whole day, despite me skipping a shower. (Don't judge! I'm a new mom. I'm lucky to get sleep, much less to fit in a shower some days.)

Overall, I'd definitely recommend this recipe! It came together in minutes, not counting the time to chill. If you're doing it lotion style, there isn't even any chilling required.

Do you have a favorite DIY deodorant? Tell us your recipe in the comments!

 

Posted:   |   Categories: deodorant, DIY, DIY beauty, DIY deodorant, Health+Beauty, homemade deodorant, Living
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12
Jul

Spotted: Mysterious Wine Cork Chair

Cork Chair

Makezine's Laura Cochrane spotted this gorgeous cork chair at Lynmar Estate winery in Sebastopol, CA.

The cork chair's origins are a mystery. What's under all of those reclaimed wine corks? Did they cover an old chair that was past its prime? Did the build some sort of frame to cover? Cochrane wasn't entirely sure.

Whether it's made fro all corks or corks covering some kind of frame, I also wonder about what they used as an adhesive. There don't seem to be any physical materials holding the corks together, so they must have used a wood glue or maybe epoxy. It would have to be something strong to hold up to all of the drunken winery patrons having a sit-down on it, right?

This cork project may be a mystery, but if you want to get your cork crafting on, here are a few ideas for you:

wine cork heart

Do you have a favorite project for crafting with corks? Do you know more about the mysterious wine cork chair? Tell us about it in the comments!

 

Posted:   |   Categories: cork chair, cork crafts, DIY, Furniture, Home+Decor, Living, wine cork chair, wine corks
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10
Jul

Quick Green Tip: DIY Fruit Fly Trap

DIY Fruit Fly Trap

Are you dealing with fruit flies this summer? Make a DIY fruit fly trap that's inexpensive and totally non-toxic.

Since the weather has warmed up, the fruit flies have decided that they very much enjoy buzzing around our kitchen. Those icky drosophila melanogaster were fine in high school biology class, but I don't need them landing on my dinner plate. Yuck!

Related Reading: How to Get Rid of Ants Naturally

I'm not too keen on spraying poison anywhere in the house, and the kitchen even more so. That's where I cook food! That my husband and I eat! It's where I wash my baby's bottles. So, when I finally got fed up with swatting fruit flies away while I was making supper, I decided to whip up a quick trap. Here's how!

You need:

  • a mason jar
  • apple cider vinegar
  • dish soap
  • plastic wrap
  • a rubber band
  • kitchen skewer

Fill the mason jar up with about an inch of vinegar, and stir in a drop or two of the dish soap. Cover the jar with plastic wrap, secure with the rubber band, and use the skewer to poke holes in the top. Leave it out on the counter, and in a few days it will be full of fruit flies. Empty the jar and start again until the flies in your kitchen get the message that they're not wanted.

Posted:   |   Categories: DIY, fruit flies, fruit fly trap, Home+Decor, how to get rid of fruit flies, Living, natural fruit fly trap, vinegar fruit fly trap
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