Fall is coming...so much to do!

I must admit this has been a long summer, one I have not balanced well.  I had not anticipated the difficulty of balancing full time employment, full time school, and full time single mommy duties.  By the looks of it, my blog and my home has suffered massive neglect!!! Yikes!!

 

I am ready for much cooler weather, and some much needed projects to be accomplished.  I am up for a promotion at work that will allow for some funds to go to more things other than bills...YEAH!!!! 

 

I have a rather long list of TO-DO's growing and I am attempting to decide which receive top priority.  Let us just say the top ten things to do keep rotating on the list depending on my mood or wants.

 

One of the many things I want to complete is a rather long planter bench.  I have a covered porch that is about 20 feet long and I want a planter bench to run the length of the porch separating the yard with the porch.  I just cannot decide on what kind.

There it is my porch...ignore the surroundings.  I know, I know what a sad looking back yard.  I have done nothing to it.  I have had high hopes for it when I moved in...well life got in the way, things happened.  Things are looking better and soon my yard will too.
 

See where my porch ends then there is a no-mans land running end to end then the curb edge where my "grass" would be if I believed in planting grass in a desert.  I have not found a ground cover that withstands kids and dogs yet.  Anyway that 3' x 20' no-mans land is where I want the planter bench to live.





I want to use as little virgin material as possible by using eco-friendly, recycled products instead like products by design recycle inc timber or Turn Green Solutions NuChoob Timber.  Both companies use recycled material to produce timber like products.  However I love the look of brick and cement too.  That maybe a bit more challenging to find eco-friendly versions of brick or cement.  I have not looked into it yet.  Here are some different designs I am tossing around.

via belson.com

 

via keeping it simple crafts

 

via masonjar champagne

 

via chiefs shop

 

via hendon creation

 

 

 

What are your thoughts?  Have you created your own planter benches?  Let me know because this girl needs to get her backyard in order!!

 

~Deanne



1 step forward....several steps backward

yes this illegal dump is near a school

Typically I am a glass half full idealist type, but lately I feel like getting people aware that their actions have consequences on the environment which will impact our health is a losing battle. 

Don't worry this is a temporary feeling....I will be back to my normal environmental tree-hugging hemp wearing Goodwill shopping self. 

Recently I was out with my son and dogs when we walked upon this lovely open field to run and play in!  Until we were faced with this dump, not a legal dump but apparently the place for every person driving by to just dump their trash. 

The things we have found are: construction trash, automobile trash, household items including furniture and a hot tub plus of course landscaping waste.  There are environmental hazards in this illegal dumping trash, potential fire hazards and lurking in this waste that is growing every day are newly formed very aggressive colonies of bees.  They do  not appear to me to be honey making bees and thankfully me and my son saw them before we were too close for comfort.

The two pictures to the right shows how it grows after every weekend and is growing out into the road, a narrow road in fact!

lots of construction waste!

Of course tires, it wouldn't be a dump without them!

 Even a hot tub and concrete tubes make it to this location.

 Pictures above and to the left, are batteries, auto parts and plastic containers, none of which are biodegradable.

This could have been donated, but now it is beyond that ability unless you are a master upholsterer.

Now the frustrating thing is twofold; I am frustrated that people and/or companies think this is okay to dump anything they want anywhere they want and that I have contacted the city and county with nothing done thus far to rectify this problem. 

I wonder if the people who are dumping this trash would be happy if I just back my vehicle up to their yard and dump waste all over their yard and driveway.  I just do not understand people why anyone thinks this is okay.  Many of the items my son and I found are recyclable, there were items that could have gone to Goodwill or charity.  But no, people are too lazy, to self absorbed to think of anything outside of their own convenience or themselves.

If I was to take pictures of the entire vacant property that is located on a dirt road where there are no street lights, near a farm, by a new residential developement, near a school. ...this post would be ridiculously long.  When you walk further in you will find little burn areas where people are making "campfires", you will also find shotgun shells, large porch umbrellas, doors and many people ride their 4 wheelers and motorcycles. 

We all need to care, we all need to be responsible for our actions because the have consequences that impact us all!

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."

                                 Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

~Deanne

Composting....natures recycling program!

I have been trying to decide on composter.  I considered building my own out of used pallets but then I found my dogs like to dig and roll in it....they smell awful when I get them out.  This type of composter would work for me if I wasn't going to throw kitchen scraps, which attracts my dogs.  I will probably keep that design for larger scale composting if need be.  But then I remembered how much I love worms....yes I said it!  Worms are awesome! 

I really find composting one of the best ways to reduce the amount of trash being sent to landfills which just adds to our loss of natural resources such as land for the use of a dump!  Not only is composting a fantastic option for reducing landfill waste it also saves you $$$ by no longer needing to buy fertilizer to enrich your soil.  Yes you need to add nutrients to your soil.  As you plants whether they are edible or non-edible plants they use the nutrients from the soil to grow.  To keep your plants (edible and non-edible alike) healthy, disease resistant and growing, use your own fertilizer made from your own yard waste and kitchen scraps.  At least you will know exactly what is going into your soil, chemicals or no chemicals...it comes from your home.

Okay, back on topic! I may have found a company who I will buy this fantastic worm composter unit from because of what they offer when you buy it and it is



 

And it has been

Here are some facts and features straight from their page:

Description:

Composting with worms allows you to turn kitchen scraps, paper waste and cardboard into nutrient-rich soil for your plants. The Worm Factory® 360 composting system makes the entire process quick and easy.

With a thermo siphon air flow design, the Worm Factory 360 increases the composting speed. Now you can produce compost much faster than traditional composting methods. Master Gardeners agree, worm castings are one of the richest forms of fertilizer that you can use.

The Worm Factory® 360 can be used indoors or outdoors allowing year round production. Now composting is no longer limited to backyards. The Worm Factory® 360 is odorless making it great for apartments, kitchens, garages, porches and more.

Unique Features:

• New Thermo Siphon Design
  How it works:
  • Air enters the base on all four sides
  • Worms burrow through the compost creating air passages
  • Rising heat and compost gases create a thermo siphon, pulling the air upwards through the trays
  • Air exits under all four sides of the lid
  • Allows 10 times more air circulation than similar composters.
• The Worm Factory® 360 has a standard 4-Tray size which is expandable up to 8 trays, giving it the largest volume of any home composter.
  
• Now only 1 step assembly out of the box.
  
• The redesigned lid converts to a handy stand for trays while harvesting the compost
  
• Included instructional DVD with step-by-step guide for managing your Worm Factory® 360.
  
• The accessory kit provides basic tools to make managing the Worm Factory® 360 easier.
  
• 20 year warranty.

How It Works:

Simply add a handful of worms and your organic waste to the bottom tray. The worms will start processing the food. Once the bottom tray is filled add another tray. The worms migrate upward to the newest food source leaving the bottom tray full of nutrient-rich compost.

As waste is broken down, moisture filters through the system, taking nutrient-rich particles with it. This makes it possible to harvest organic liquid fertilizer right from the spigot.

 

Features:

• Year-round production
• Odor free operation
• Small footprint at 18x18x14"
• Expandable up to 8 trays
• Easy to assemble and manage
• Built in "worm tea" collector tray and spigot for easy draining
• Includes a 16-page easy-to-use instructional booklet with photos and illustrations
• Comes with "Quick-Tips" lid for easy reference
• Houses eight to twelve thousand worms that consume 5-8lbs of food per week
• 20 year warranty on parts and workmanship
• Made in the U.S.A.
• Made with post consumer recycled materials.
• 30 year life expectancy.

Included:

• 4 Stacking Trays
• Collection Base
• 16-Page Instruction Book
• Ventilation "Quick Tips" Lid
• Coir Brick
• Worm Bedding
• Spigot
• Accessory Kit
• Instructional DVD

Great information....Right?  I think so! If you are interested in saving money, have rich yummy soil your plants will thank you for get yourself as many or as few as you like depending on your needs.  I know that I will buy two for sure!

Above all have fun, get some dirt under your nails and experiment with your yard.  what is the worst thing that could happen....something not grow? Oh well failure succeeded...try try again!!! 

Happy Gardening

~Deanne

What composting ideas are you trying? Leave me a comment I would love to hear all about them!!



jars...love 'em

I have been collecting jars; even my friends and family have been collecting jars for me! I have a huge mess of them all over my house just waiting for me to complete their projects and make them useful again.

I have been on the lookout for some counter top jars for my kitchen. To my dismay I have not find any that are a style or color I wanted...

So why not paint some the color I want.

Here is an easy and fun one:

Both sets of jars were found at the best place ever....Goodwill! My son says that each and every time we go to Goodwill.

• Wash super well either by hand or dishwasher: either way make sure they have rinsed all soap off. Remove all labels if possible, if not make sure to sand them smooth prior to painting.
• Use the surface conditioner: NOTE it is eco-friendly and must be used in an open well-ventilated area and it cannot go in regular trash (check with your waste management company or go to Earth911 to find proper disposal locations). You can also use vinegar to prep the glass to be more eco-friendly. I like to lightly sand the glass prior to using conditioner just to make it as porous as possible for the paint to adhere. Make sure the surface conditioner or vinegar is completely dry or your paint may run a bit.

PermEnamel Surface Conditioner

• I used Krylon for this project this time because they can be used on glass. Not a fan typically of spray paint because of the chemicals used in the product. However, it works rather well. I did apply 2 coats of the paint to make sure it was fully covered.
• I did have a couple of jars that had some drip marks. I simply sanded lightly and re-sprayed.
• You could opt for the PermEnamel paint also from Delta because it is specifically for glass. You could try some left over paint from cans too. The key is the prep of the glass and allowing ample dry time!!!

NOTE: you cannot through spray paint cans in regular trash they are an environmental hazard and must be disposed separately. Check with your waste management company or go to Earth911 to find proper disposal locations.

After 24 hours of drying in the garage.....

Here are the finished jars in Oil Bronze! I love the dark color of Oil Bronze because I love the look of dark metals, it feels earthy to me.

I have not decided on a color to write the lettering on the face of the jars...white eh maybe....sage green, possibly....mustard yellow, hmmm, or black, will it show????

What color do you think I should use for the letters?

~Deanne

Up next in my jar escapades....making lights with JARS!!!

Preserve: Nothing wasted. Everything gained. Made in USA!

Kitchen products

Storage products

Your berries will love you!

Cool sandwich container that can even handle the larger slices!

Oh yes toothpicks!

Last but certainly not least razors and toothbrushes.

I have commented and reviewed this company before but I love them so much I just had to speak about them again now that I have used even more of their goods!

But first here are some words copied directly from their own website.

Preserve Products

Preserve® makes stylish, high performance, eco-friendly products for your home. As a company, we strive to combine socially and environmentally responsible business practices with groundbreaking design to create products that people feel good about having in their homes. We believe that choosing eco-friendly products doesn't mean having to sacrifice quality, price, or performance.

In 1996, founder and president Eric Hudson was committed to the need to use our earth's resources more efficiently and responsibly. The developing plastic recycling market represented a great new opportunity to reuse our earth's resources (plastics are made from oil and natural gas—making up roughly 9% of the world's petroleum usage). However, at the time that Preserve was formed, there was a lot of concern that recyclables were not necessarily turning into new products. Seeing an opportunity, Eric started Preserve to reuse Earth's precious resources and turn them back into products that people wanted. He worked with dentists, scientists and engineers to create Preserve's first high-quality product from recycled plastics—the Preserve Toothbrush. Since then, Preserve has grown into a dynamic, green lifestyle company offering a range of everyday products for almost every room in your home. Using innovative methods, we turn used materials into razors, colanders, cutting boards, tableware and more!

As we grow, our core principles remain the same

• Preserve products are made from 100% recycled plastics and 100% post-consumer paper. By using recycled materials, we save energy, preserve natural resources and create an incentive for communities to recycle.
• All of our plastic products are recyclable, either through our postage-paid labels and mailers (toothbrushes and razor handles) or at the curb in communities that recycle #5 plastic.
• We make our products in the USA, so that we can ship them shorter distances, using less fuel and limiting our environmental footprint.
• We don't test on animals. Period.
• Preserve products are made to last—and to look good doing it.

The Preserve team is made up of 11 people and a host of talented interns who bike, walk, train, and drive (some in hybrid cars) to our office outside of Boston intent on bringing Preserve and our mission into more homes everyday.

Learn more about Preserve's Earth Efforts.

Their Principles

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Those are the principles that have driven our company since 1996 and that motivate us to encourage more households to choose our 100% recycled and recyclable products over conventional products.

Our plastic products are made from #5 polypropylene plastic collected from individuals via our Gimme 5 program and from companies like Stonyfield Farm®. We take this plastic, sort it, clean it, test it, recycle it, and turn it into new Preserve products.

Choosing Preserve Plastic (in the form of a toothbrush or razor, for example) means a sizeable reduction in greenhouse gases emitted, and significantly less water, energy, oil, natural gas, and coal used in making plastic.

How much of a difference? Preserve plastic requires:

• At least 54% less water than virgin polypropylene
• At least 64% less greenhouse gases (in CO₂ equivalents) than virgin polypropylene
• At least 75% less oil than virgin polypropylene
• At least 48% less coal than virgin polypropylene
• At least 77% less natural gas than virgin polypropylene
• At least 46% less electricity than virgin polypropylene 

What an amazing USA based company!  I am constantly on the lookout for companies that provide a solution to reducing waste and Made in the USA.  Not because I don't believe in importing goods, I am a proud environmentalist American doing my part to promote USA companies!

As you can see by the labels below they only take plastics with the #5 (I would love them to take all the #'s) because most states still do not recycle #5.   Their products are BPA free, so important, dishwasher safe and of course recyclable.

Sadly I must say my state (my state is so backwards on many things)  has no locations for Preserve's Gimme5 program so I personally send Preserve they #5 items.  I am trying to get my son's school district to have the bins in their lunchrooms or part of their school fundraising program.  Think about the amount of recyclable items a school wastes not just plastic so why not get our kids on board with recycling from kindergarten on!

I hope you give them a chance to win you over too and grow their company from 11 wonderful staff members to 100's!  Please support this fantastic company and try to get your kids school to use their recycle bins too!

~Deanne





Upcycling

I recently received a headboard from a friend who no longer needed it.  It of course is a pressboard covered by a thin sheet of wood so it is not a solid wood headboard.  However no reason to just toss aside especially since I currently do not have a headboard.

Step 1: find yourself a cute little helper who enjoys sanding.

You need to sand down the piece of furniture you are deciding paint because you need to take off the top coat of sheen. We first used a coarse piece of sandpaper to get rid of any rough spots.

Step 2: finish sanding with a super fine sheet of sandpaper to smooth out the surface.

Step 3: wipe clean and let it dry prior to painting.

Step 4: get some paint/primer combo of the color you want.  I got an eco-friendy 0 VOC paint but as soon as the dye was added it became a Low VOC paint.  The dye was not a 0 VOC compound, make sure you are aware of that when purchasing paints.

Step 5: let it dry very well before moving inside.  I also put felt on the back side corners to prevent my wall behind my bed getting scratched.

Really hard to make out just how dark and yummy this color is with my cheap camera, dang it!!!

The chocolate espresso color will look amazing against my sage green wall when I get it hooked up to my bed.

I love chocolate espresso brown, sage, red and purple colors so this looks great against my sage green wall.

So here it is behind my bed.  I have not attached it yet because I realized when I put it in place I need to raise the height about 8".  I will need to get off to the store or find some scrap wood and raise the height but all in all I like it!

Next time you think of tossing that old piece of furniture try a new color instead.  I have 5 more pieces of furniture I am refinishing, I can't wait!!

~Deanne



Oh those pretty little nails....

image by

I may be the only female on the planet earth that doesn't run out and get her nails done.  Although I love a good mani and pedi, I am not a polish person.  However on occasion I have worn some color now and then.  So for my lovely girlfriends who enjoy a weekly splash of color on them digits and little piggies here are some quick thoughts.

Nail polish and nail polish remover is consider hazardous waste by the EPA and to think we put that hazard on our nails.....  If you happen to use brands that are not organic or non-toxic make sure you are at least disposing of them properly.  They can not be put into the landfills be no-no!  I can only pray our nail salons are treating them as hazardous waste.

If you have such items in your home try the following links for best options on how to dispose of them.  I use both resources for multiple things when I get stumped on an item that I am not sure how to trash!  Then get yourself some non toxic nail polish remover and nail polish.  FYI did you know you can bring the non toxic versions to your favorite manicurist and they can use them instead of their toxic version.

Earth911

Recycle Hotline 1-800-CLEANUP (253-2687)

So now that you have dumped the bad bring in the good! Check out some of these versions of the healthy stuff!

Organic Nail Polish

On a side note each time a see the words clean up I think of the song I use to sing with my son.  "Clean up clean up everyone everywhere....clean up clean up everyone do you share."  So appropriate for a greenie like me if we all just did our share....

~Deanne