Eco-Friendly Things That Are Rockin' My Universe!

These random thingies are rockin' my world as of late, so I thought that I would share...

Every once in awhile I re-evaluate our little household's sustainable, green practices and I try to tweak things, and make things run a little better. My latest tweak has been trying to cut down the amount of paper and plastic disposable products we use in the house.

My latest target has been paper towels. People lived for centuries without paper towels. And what did they use? Rags. Cloths. Highly absorbent. Highly re-usable. Another target has been sponges...I've not used "natural" sponges to wash my dishes in the past, instead I've used the freaky yellow plastic kind which eventually get thrown "away," wherever that is...



In an attempt to fight the good fight I made my first ever dish cloth! Oh boy, this works like a dream. I used a free pattern for a bobble stitch wash cloth that I found on Ravelry. I used fingering weight cotton, instead of worsted, because it's what I had handy, and it made a lacier cloth, but it gets the job done. Those bobbles are awesome for scrubby action, and I'm already working on a second one!

Next topic, off to the laundry room! My French friend, Stephanie, was asking my mum and I if we knew where to get "laundry nuts" in the United States. We had never heard of such a thing. A few weeks later, I was browsing Flickr user Graygoosie's photos when low and behold: laundry nuts, and a source to buy them online!

Also from the pages of graygoosie's photos, GMO FREE cooking oils in bulk. Want to cook with oils pressed from vegetables that haven't been genetically modified and sprayed with pesticides? Then give a big ole' middle finger to Monsanto and check out the info in graygoosie's photo!

Lately I've become obsessed with the notion of building our own green home like hardworkinghippy via Flickr. Thanks to links from These Days in French Life I now know that that dream home would be insulated with sheep's wool. Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking...and no, this isn't some sicko knitter fantasy I dreamt up, you can actually insulate your house with wool. The website I linked to has some very interested facts. For instance, did you know that sheep's wool has a very high burning point? It will singe away from fire and extinguish itself. So cool!

Lastly a little local excitement. My beloved Beach Pea Bakery has released a cook book! To quickly recap the article that I linked to - Beach Pea is a fantastic bakery in Kittery, Maine that uses organic ingredients in their baking and is a champion of sustainable business practices. Now you can bake their treats no matter what part of the country you are in. The cook book is available from Blue Tree publishing company.

Well, that's a lot of things to explore so I'll leave you all to it. Hope you enjoy!

Today I am grateful for a yummy local dinner: burgers in buns that were baked in my bakery and corn. I'm grateful for beautiful movies like Persepolis. What are you grateful for today?