Fireflies Art

earth month: reusable bags

this picture is from 3 years ago...

this is one of the easiest things you can do to make a big impact!

i've been using reusable bags for a few years now...and while it took me a bit to get into the habit i rarely have to get a bag from any store now.

jim actually just told me he thinks that we have enough reusable bags for the entire city to use. he's exagerrating really.

if you watch yard sales and thrift stores you can gather enough for yourself very quickly! i keep a stash of them in each of our cars and i also keep a couple of really lightweight ones that fold up into a little pouch in my purse all the time.

do you use reusable bags? :)

pretzels + feathers + kristin

kristin sent me the link last week to these incredible

garlic butter soft pretzel bites and we made them tonight.

they were INCREDIBLE. i posted the recipe and a couple more pictures on the recipe site my sisters and i have.

(lindsay and amy are the best at posting!)

while we were waiting for the dough to rise sage got feather extensions.

she has been begging for them! (she loves kristin's and steven tyler's)

kristin is the best.

and sage is a very, very happy girl.

i actually ended up wanting a couple myself...and i love them too.

i'll post a picture of mine soon.

and kristin and i made cute feather dangly decorations to hang from our rear view mirrors while we watched tangled with sage. 

it was such a good night. kristin also brought oreos and nutella. bliss.

thanks kristin for everything. you are very loved around here.

 

earth month: clothesline

i am so happy to be using my clothesline again!

it was a little over 80 degrees today and breezy...perfect weather for line drying laundry.

i did washed and line dried 3 loads today...and i would have done more except i wasn't feeling so hot and took a nap this afternoon. (right after my bedding was freshly dried in the sunshine)

a clothesline is an easy way to save energy (and money!)

especially all you az folks! your clothes would be dry in 5 minutes during the summer!

except for during the winter months i line dry everything. when i can i try and watch the weather and just do my laundry on days that it's not raining. of course i do have use my dryer sometimes...but it's pretty rare during the summer!

do you have a clothesline? if not...what's stopping you? :)

 

it was a crazy warm day here today...the kids had the sprinkler under the trampoline at 10am this morning! they should sleep very well tonight!

farm.

we had a wonderful couple of days up at the farm.

sunshine + nature + happy kids + good food + family

i'll post more pictures tomorrow...

earth month: compost

we were really good at composting for awhile...

then for whatever reason we just stopped.

but we're back at it! when we were visiting the wade's in wisconsin this past fall i noticed that they were using a big plastic cat litter container for their compost! i LOVE it because it's big enough that it doesn't fill up in one day and the front part of the lid lifts up so it's easy to dump stuff in there! i just keep it under the sink. and with the lid shut it doesn't stink. :)

this is our compost bin. we got ours at home depot. and it was under $100.

if you google composting you can get tons of information...

HERE is one site that i think is laid out pretty nice.

and HERE is a pretty good list of what you should and shouldn't compost!

even the cupcake liners we use can be composted!

jim even brings home the coffee filters and grounds from work to compost...which is awesome because we're not coffee lovers and that stuff is awesome for the compost pile! i do compost my tea bags though!

do any of you compost? i'd love to hear your tips!

happy composting! :)

the best day ever.

sage keeps saying today was the best day EVER!

it had been quite awhile since she's gone horseback riding...

but she got invited to go today with one her friends from school.

she was in HEAVEN!

thanks tasha for the cute pictures

and for helping sage have the best day ever!

earth month: cleaning

note: once vinegar dries it has no smell! so no worries about your house stinking like vinegar all the time! thanks linds for asking...i'm sure you weren't the only one wondering!

this bottle of vinegar is what i use to clean most of the time!

it's so cheap and effective! seriously. click HERE to read more about all the great things vinegar can do! i also use it in place of fabric softener. and no. your clothes won't smell like vinegar when they come out of the wash!

sage hates the smell of it. so i do have a bottle of seventh generation cleaner for her to use when she wants to help me out.

i usually use seventh generation dish soap. (although today i bought ecostore usa because they didn't have seventh generation where i was at)

for laundry soap i've been making my own for a few months now and i'll never go back! check out my post HERE for more info on how i make it.

i love that i don't have to worry about the kids getting into this stuff. and i love that my house doesn't smell like chemicals! :)

i'd love to hear any natural cleaning tips you have! and if you have any questions feel free to post them in the comments and i'll try my best to answer them!

my house.

i don't think i ever shared my final drawing for school last year.

i chose to draw our house. i still can't believe that i drew that.

it took me over 40 hours if i remember right!

the sad thing is i haven't drawn anything since that semester ended.

i'm hoping to go back to school once emerson is in school all day.

jim's schedule changes constantly so it's just too hard right now.

for now i need to practice...before i forget everything i learned...

have a beautiful day...the sun is shining here and i already went running + i'm heading out soon to run some errands. it's a good day.

ADDED: here is a picture of my house!

earth month: buy local

something that we've been trying to be better about is buying local!

one thing that i always do is buy farm fresh eggs from a farm that is just a couple of miles from my house. i love it because not only are they only $1.50 a dozen...but i know where they are coming from! the kids can watch the chickens in the summertime...it's awesome. the other thing i love about that is that there is no waste! i return the egg cartons to her every week when i get my eggs so she can reuse them.

during the summer months i visit the local farmer's market here and also drive to jim's uncle's house to buy organic veggies from his stand.

i am of course excited to be growing some of my own food as well this year...

another thing i'm hoping to do in the near future is buy a freezer to put in the basement so that we can buy fresh local beef...as it's cheaper to buy it in bulk!

what do you buy local?

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note: i put a new catergory on the sidebar that says tree hugging so that all the posts i do on earth friendly topics will be easier to find!

random!

i asked emerson to go get ready for bed and this is how he came downstairs! ha! he did end up tossing the gloves and glasses off before actually going to sleep. :)

sage made this cute smiley out of blocks tonight and said, "mom! take a picture and put it on your blog!"

sage in her sassy new unicorn t-shirt we made yesterday...her and her friend have matching shirts now. so cute. she's also sporting her gorgeous sweater and hat her granny made her!

the sweet slide projector we scored at goodwill a couple years ago to look at jim's grandpa's slides...

and this is a huge box of slides that i picked up at goodwill last week for 30 cents.

there are some realllllly sweet pictures! i have a stack set aside to scan!

they are all from the 1950's and 1960's!

the kids got quite a kick out of them! these people traveled ALL OVER! 

how was that for random?!