50 simple things kids can do...

As many of you know, my minor at Baylor was Environmental Studies. My first semester at Baylor I took the intro class and fell in love. Later, I realized that I was actually falling in love for the second time in my life. I could now remember my environmental efforts as an elementary school student that included going door to door to collect change for "pennies for the planet" and me begging my parents to cut the six pack rings!

I have recently blamed Nickelodeon for this strange interest(and maybe my family of Democrats, but they take no credit). You may remember the "Big Help." each year I would call in and pledge to Ren or Stimpy how many hours I would spend helping the planet that summer. From here I started my own "recycling club" with my friends. Needless to say, that didn't work out. How come no other 4th grader cared that that glass container that his applesauce was in will never decompose?

So this past weekend I went to Abilene to stay with my parents for a few days. They have been remodeling and cleaning so I had a box waiting for me of stuff my mom couldn't toss out. And in that box I found the true culprit for my love of the Earth:

Over the last week Britt and I have both read through this. It was published in 1990 ( i was 6) and it blew us away. The content of this book is the same of articles being published today in shiny magazines about "Going Green."

At first I was surprised about this and now I am disheartened. Why did it take 20 years to make the things in this book "hip"?

icebox

Several months ago Britt and I purchased a little old icebox from our neighborhood junk/antique shop, Laverty's. Apparently this little gem once had a handle on top instead of drawers. In this compartment is where you would put in your block of ice to cool the food in the lower shelves. Well, we stripped it, sanded it, and painted that sucker! This was quite a task considering the 5+ coats of paint on it. It took us forever, but here it is:
I really like how it turned out and how it fills out some of the space in our gigantic dining room.

When we were done painting, I went back in and lined the drawers and shelves with Martha Stewart wrapping paper. Isn't it cute?

click away!

go HERE for a good time....

teehee.. i saw this link posted on http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

before and after

Britt's grandmother gave us a gorgeous table and chairs to match that she used back-in-the-day. We are using the table as a desk and now have chairs "floating" all around the house. When Anna Maria Horner's "Drawing Room" fabric came out, I wanted any excuse to get my hands on the gorgeous textiles. I decided we must recover the chairs. Britt and I covered 4 in this teal print. (It ironically resembles the original fabric, but oh well)

Then we were left with 2 to cover in this beautiful "sketch book" print. These are in the dining room.

I love this fabric so much that i would consider wallpapering my walls with it. You can't help but smile when you see all of those bright colors!

Now the question is what to do about the chair color. I don't really want to go through the trouble of painting them, but that wood is a bit dark don't you think?

Well my cheesecake was not quite as beautiful as Martha's but it was yummy!


The 4th was a great day! It consisted of sleeping in, swimming, Wall-E, cooking out, fireworks, and great friends!The pool was so warm that Ben put ice in it.


Britt as Micheal Phelps.

Anna and me.

Avery whacked me in the face with her festive headband.

Happy 4th!

yummm...

I hope you have a great Independence Day!

(i plan on making this glorified cheesecake. Hope I don't end up eating it all by myself!)

the new milk jug is here:

I have some reservations about this design. Why is it white? Doesn't this use more resources to make it this color? If it is sturdier in order to be stackable, doesn't this use More plastic?

After reading more, I realize that my thoughts are on a rather small scale.
Apparently, you can stock an 18 wheeler with twice as many of these jugs than the former because it they do not require the plastic crates that traditional jugs do. This has a few benefits including less trips to and from the distributor equaling less fossil fuels.

For a while now I have heard the buzz about how a redesigned milk jug could be beneficial for our culture by cutting down waste. There have been talks about getting rid of the traditional handle to significantly reduce the amount of plastic needed to make a milk jug. (Reminds me how Nestle recently engineered a design for their Ozarka water bottles that uses 30% less plastic than their former bottle.) What's funny to me is that the actual container does not seem to be made of any less plastic. I guess it is made up for in other areas like external packaging and fossil fuel consumption?

Keep an eye out for these jugs at your local Sam's, Wal-Mart, and Costco.

Ironically, I only buy milk in a cardboard carton. :)