Fireflies Art

earth month: decorating eggs

jim had to work this afternoon/evening and the kids and i didn't have any plans...so we finally decorated eggs! sadly this is the first time we've ever done it!

when i saw the idea to reuse old silk ties to dye eggs i knew i wanted to try it!

i picked up the ties we used for about 10 cents a piece at a thrift store!

so for the full instructions on how to decorate eggs while reusing something old go HERE. (i meant to do this before easter...so bookmark the link or print out the instructions to try it next year!)

how cool are these?! we'll definetly do this again next year!

 

 

earth month: personal care products

We use Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Castile Soap...

If you have a Trader Joe's near you the 32 oz size is only $10!

We don't have one close by...but we either have someone (Thanks Ry!) pick it up for use when they are by one or buy it when we are near one. This bottle lasts us quite awhile.

I also put this in our soap dispensers most of the time.

Note: If you're making your own laundry soap now the bars of Dr. Bronner's are under $3 at Trader Joe's as well!

This is the toothpaste that we've been using for years...

Tom's of Maine Fennel Toothpaste

We have bought the mint on occasion too...I think all of their flavors are great though. Fennel is just our favorite!

And we use Preserve toothbrushes...well the kids of course use all the free toothbrushes they seem to get from the dentist, school etc. as well.

It's awesome because they are made from recycled plastic and you send them back in a little postage paid envelope so that they can be recycled again! Click the link above to read more about them!

Do you have a favorite earth friendly personal care item? I'd love to hear about them! :)

earth month: CFL light bulbs

i'm guessing the majority of you have already switched to CFL light bulbs...right? :)

the picture shown above are the ones we use!

they are from home depot and are only $1.85 for 4 of them!

click HERE to read more about the package that we use.

THIS site has a simple explanation and Q&A about CFL bulbs. 

and things have definetly improved...there are tons of different watts and styles of bulbs now!

happy earth week! i'll be back wednesday with another tip!

 

earth month: gift wrapping

i know i posted about this at Christmas...but I decided it was worth mentioning again!

this past Christmas we didn't use wrapping paper for any of our gifts at home! even santa was earth friendly and put all the kids gifts in the giant red bags we left out for him!

my new goal is to not use wrapping paper for birthday gifts either!

i've been continuing to pick up cloth bags whenever i find them at goodwill.

cute pillow cases work great too! i also made some simple ones!

we have a pretty good stash now!

i have a baby shower to go to today...and i'm going to wrap the gift in a baby blanket! (i'll add a picture of that later.)

i'd love to hear if any of you have earth friendly gift wrapping ideas!

earth month: repurpose found objects

i LOVE it when i can find a way to repurpose things that i find...especially when the things i find are FREE!

last fall on my way to get sage from school i stopped by a yard sale.

when i pulled up to the house there was a free sign.

seriously. everything was free. i had seen an idea somewhere right before this to make these cute trays! so i snatched everything you see here + more.

i made this for my friend whitney!

it was SUPER easy! you just take different sizes of plates + candle holders + use some really strong glue and you have a sassy place to set treats out for a party!

what have you repurposed lately?

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? :)

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!

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! :)

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!

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!