Going Green Part Deux

You all had such great ideas on my last post, that I wanted to compile those in their very own post.

Two things happened while I was reading the comments:
1. "Oh! I do that too, but totally forgot that I do it!"
2. "Oh! that's a really great idea, I should do that!"

So here is a compiled list of all of your green doings:

• Recycling
• Using cold water in the laundry
• Using halogen or curly light bulbs
• Reducing car usage--taking public transportation
• Shopping the local farmer's market (I LOVE doing this one--have you ever had an emu burger? They're delightful)
• Energy efficient appliances
• Composting
• Reusable shopping bags
• Cloth Diapering
• Using cloth wipes
• Repurposing old items (another one of my faves--we got a great rocking chair for my first son this way)
• Gardening (another thing I love--growing up on a farm, you learn a lot :)) 
• Green cleaning products (I use vinegar and baking soda when I can)
• Turning down the heater and water heater (I do this when I can stand it!)

I love it all! As I said in the last post, I have been making t-shirt yarn for quite a while and hope to crochet a rug from it very soon. I'm really excited for that project to be under way.   There are many many wonderful projects that anyone can do to repurpose old materials. Have you done a repurposing project lately? I'd love to hear about it!

Earth Day

So I'm a little late to the party, but hey, you don't have to go "green" on any specific day. You can do it ANY time.  I do my part as much as I can--here are some of the simple things I do and I hope they inspire you as well!

•  I don't use paper towels but on very rare occasions
•  I use my washable plates and cups
•  I bring coffee cups with me to school instead of buying a cup at the store.
• I type notes for school on my netbook instead of in a notebook
• I repurpose all old t-shirts
• Some become rags
• Some become underwear for my son
• Some are made into yarn and crocheted into hot pads
• No clothes go to waste! :)
• We recycle plastic, paper, cardboard and metal

We keep a relatively modest household anyway--we use our stuff until its dead and then we recycle it or repurpose it. I don't really feel like its "on purpose" or a conscious decision, I just think it comes with being a poor college student and being raised in a farm country where you save everything because you might need it elsewhere. My dad has jars of assorted nails and screws "just in case" and sometimes they came in handy.

Don't misunderstand. I'm not a hoarder. I have no problem getting rid of stuff that I flat out will never use BUT the difference is I don't tend to accumulate a lot of stuff like that in the first place. At least I try not to. Probably someday that will change, once I begin my career and have my own home and not have to rent and move things from place-to-place every few years.

Now for the good part! In the spirit of Earth Day, I'm trying to build up my inventory of items for the home. Including my new reusable cotton dishcloths.  I have several other items in the works to decorate your place that I'm so excited to start on!  In the meantime, I'd love to do a giveaway of a set of my dishcloths to YOU.

Visit my facebook page for a full range of colors :)

I loved making these because some of them are knitted, some of them are crocheted, and I freestyled all the patterns. Each cloth is unique in its own way. The cotton allows them to be machine washed, although I would probably wash them in cold water alone the first few times as I am unsure of the colorfastness of this yarn. These can be used for facial cloths in the bath, or for washing dishes! They are very versatile. They are also quite large--each is 9" x 8" so they are a bit rectangular. Sizes vary slightly due to the different patterns of each cloth, but as you can see from these pictures they fold up nicely and the size difference is undetectable.

There are three ways to enter (and you can do all three)--

• Leave a comment on my kitchen color poll on facebook 
• Here is a direct link to the post http://www.facebook.com/bowrene/posts/10150167935522086?notif_t=feed_comment
• Become a follower of this blog
• Leave me a comment on this blog post about what you do to go green!

***Just leave one comment stating what all you have done to enter the drawing***

These are the three entry methods, then I will draw a winner at random.org next week and that lucky winner will get to choose three of my dishcloths for their very own!  Please share with your friends as we need to have lots of entries to make things interesting ;)

Have a great week!