Veggie bags

So long little plastic annoyances in the produce section! I got you licked!
For $1 at Dollar Tree I found Blink Tidy Totes. They weigh .4 ounces with their drawstring. The plastic produce bag I had weighed .2 ounces. I am good with the slight weight increase of my mesh bag.
Costco finally had their killer cooler bags for $7.50. It is huge, zippered, and insulated to the max. My grocery collection of bags is finally complete.
And Mike sounds his sigh of relief! hahaha

Clean your dryer

Today is Earth Day.
Have you cleaned your dryer out lately? It will run better and you will help prevent a house fire. Pull it from the wall, remove the lint duct, and clean-clean-clean! Remove that lint monster!

Also, if you use dryer sheets, using liquid dish detergent gently wash your lint screen. The softener tends to build up over time on that screen and reduces the effectiveness of the machine, therefore using more energy. That adds up to money savings!
Run home now! Don't wait! I(Take the day off, you deserve it. So does your dryer. The boss will understand.) Save the Earth! Save your wallet! Save your tumble-tumble-tumble dry!

Rag rug

We need a few rugs in the house and I have old crib sheets that desired to be more. The elastic had worn out and they gathered together and voted unanimously to become rag rugs.
The starting point was cutting up the strips. I used my green self healing sewing mat and a rotary cutter to make them 3/4" wide. (notice the ink stains that came out with Dyson carpet remover and some detailed scissoring.)I started crocheting and adding the strips in, but I really didn't like the weird little tails hanging out that weren't caught in the stitch. I decided to assemble all the strips and make a ball of rag yarn. I cut slits into each end, overlapped two strips, fed one up through the cut, gave it a good tug, and got a longer length. Detailed instructions are at Craft Stylish.
I used this pattern for the rug and stopped when I ran out of 2 crib sheets of yarn. It was a perfect size to put in front of Phoebe's bathroom sink. I put a piece of slipper sole fabric I have in my stash under it too keep it from shifting or slipping out from under foot. It is cool stuff because it has little rubber bumps all over it.
There is the finished product! Super cute!

The First aRRRR

Okay, I had to go a little pirate speak with the title which references Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, Renew. Often, I only see three of these four, and the one that gets dropped is reduce.
With the current economic climate (geez, that phrase aint' gettin' old, huh?), reduce is paramount! Isn't it great, you can help your pocketbook and the environment by not getting that cheezy piece o' plastic crap?
Having a baby sure does add to the list o' junk, too. I have been working hard on getting by with the bare minimum and finding new ways of making that which essentially would fill a landfill otherwise.

For starters, of course, are the cloth diapers. These bad boys are all the rage now-a-days and the price reflects. Even a regular old flat fold can make you think twice and wrap your baby's butt in an old t-shirt. I did in fact do that when I made my own from recycled garb, but really, I need flat folds. How can I reduce and still get my flat fold?
Solution, I got some rags from the diaper service so danged cheap it'd make your head spin. Unfortunately, they were indeed rags! I washed them initially and there were little cotton hairs all over the washing machine! Little good they did in that state. Ingenuity to the rescue: they started their diaper lives as 4x8x4 but will live out the rest of their lives as 2x6x2 because I removed the top damaged layer. Now, used with her EC belt, Renée enjoys their slightly diminished size.

Her play area is currently decorated with the fabric crawfish boil, Louisiana felt book, doll houses, and gifts. But, she needed a bit more fun and after reading some theory of Montessori, we implemented the mirror from off our wall and mobile made of paper plate and ribbons. That mobile hangs from a heating vent and has a clip on the end. When we need a change, unclip and add-on. Phoebe is currently coloring in patterns for the next paper mobile. Beware, though, fountain pens get easily mixed into markers and cause messes.

Some other ways we reduce is to ask for glassware at restaurants instead of the kids plastic cups, use our stainless steel water holders instead of hormone altering, bad molecule leaching Nalgene (no, I'm not bitter), and use the library and Netflix more for our entertainment needs. What else can we do?

Wrap Rage

Wrap Rage (wrapping rage or package rage) is the common name for heightened levels of anger, frustration and violence resulting from the inability to open hard-to-remove packaging.-Wikipedia

I just viewed the front page of Amazon and they are implementing some changes in packaging. This is something that I have wished to see happen for so long! I wouldn't mind seeing a bunch of cardboard boxes on store shelves-no over-visual stimulus! The same with board games. I really wish they would quit with all the cheesy plastic holders for cards, little wooden pieces, dice, etc. Just give me the box with pieces! Geesh!