Earth Hour 2011

This past Saturday, March 26th at 8:30pm, was Earth Hour. There are many opinions on whether or not turning lights off for one hour each year actually accomplishes anything, because burning candles still releases carbon dioxide. Regardless of any environmental benefits, I think it is nice to unplug from technology for a while. I set up some candles in the front room, bathroom, home office and kitchen. The boyfriend played some acoustic guitar and friends came over with wine which we drank by candlelight. It was a nice night and we even went beyond the hour because the candles just looked so nice and I was talking and lost track of time anyways.

Environmental Enlightenment #11 (The Diva Cup)

Let me preface this post by saying that this one is for the ladies. More specifically, this post will be about environmentally friendly feminine products. Boys feel free to stop reading now, or keep reading, but know that I warned you!

When I started reading Sleeping Naked Is Green I was hoping for a chapter on how to green that special time of the month and I was not let down. There was a chapter about The Diva Cup. This was the first time I had heard of menstrual cups and I was instantly intrigued. I had a feeling that a large amount of waste in my life came from disposable pads, tampons and their packaging. The following statistic is taken from the Diva Cup website:

"Women, on average, experience a lifetime menstruation span of 41 years (11-52). From use of disposable feminine hygiene, an estimated 12 billion sanitary pads and 7 billion tampons are dumped into the North American environment each year (1998). More than 170,000 tampon applicators were collected along U.S. coastal areas between 1998 and 1999."

Environmental Enlightenment #10 (Natural Bath Products)

I promised a post in which I would share my love of Lush products and here it is! I'd like to start out by saying that I haven't used many of their products, but the ones that I have used I love. Lush has a wide selection of bath bombs. I enjoy a soak in the tub a couple times a month so I decided to try two of them out. My favorite was the French Kiss Bubble Bar.

I have a soft spot for Lavender. It smells so good! One day while I was out shopping with my sister we stopped in Lush and started sniffing all of the bath bombs. Picking up their products and smelling them in the store is totally acceptable and quite fun. The woman working at the time was very helpful. She asked what scents I liked and directed me towards the French Kiss Bubble Bar. It contains Lavender oil, Rosemary oil and Thyme oil. Then she performed a demonstration on how the bubble bar works. She plopped a small piece of a bubble bar into a pitcher and started to pour water into it. My sister and I watched as the water began to bubble up. Then she poured the bubble-y water back and forth between two pitchers and the bubbles became fairly thick and soapy, just as a regular bubble bath solution would. This demonstration was supposed to mimic the act of filling up your bath tub with a piece of the bubble bar in it. I took it home and tried it out and it worked so well. I also have jets in my bathtub so when the bubbles popped I just ran the jets and it stirred it back up into bubbles again! I used about 1/4 of the bar for one bath and it was plenty. I love this product and would recommend it to anyone who wants to take bubble baths in an environmentally friendly way.

Mongolian Beef w/White Rice

This is one of my favorite dinner recipes to make. I developed this from a combination of a couple different recipes that I found online. I tried a few different recipes and then took the parts that I liked from each to make this. One of the recipes had a good sauce, but the meat wasn't all that flavorful. Another recipe marinated the meat prior to cooking which added a lot of flavor to the meat, but the sauce wasn't so great. With a few adjustments this is what I came up with...

My First Freecycle Transaction

I completed my first Freecycle transaction today! I've been perusing the OFFER posts for something I've been wanting/needing, but I haven't found anything. So I started going through the WANTED posts to see if I could find a post for something that I had laying around and wasn't using. I came across a post for a floor length mirror.  I responded to the post yesterday and set up pick-up for today. Like Vanessa in Sleeping Naked Is Green, I was a little apprehensive, but I live in a condo building so I advised my fellow Freecycler to ring the buzzer and I would come down with the mirror. I ended up getting rid of this mirror...

Going Car-less

I've been fantasizing about getting rid of my car, but there is a part of me that loves the convenience of having it and is a little afraid to give that up. I've been doing some research, looking into alternative modes of transportation and trying to apply the idea of not having a car to my current lifestyle. I live close enough to the train to take a short walk, hop on and go pretty much anywhere I want in the city.

I haven't owned a bike for a while so I started looking into buying a new one and the choices are endless! For the first time I discovered folding bikes. The CTA does not allow regular bikes on the trains during rush hours (7am-9am and 4pm-6pm), but folding bikes are allowed during these times. This is a plus for me because if I get rid of the car and getting on the train with my bike is the only option to get somewhere then it would be much more convenient to not have to worry about avoiding the rush hours.

Environmental Enlightenment #9 (Natural Deodorant)

I realized after I wrote my last blog that someone out there may be asking themselves why I didn't mention grocery shopping at Whole Foods. I have a confession, I've only been inside of a Whole Foods once. That store is so huge and overwhelming (and I am pretty easily distracted). I ventured into Whole Foods with a purpose, to purchase a Diva Cup, which I will write about in a future blog in as lady-like a way as possible. But of course I got distracted and ending up buying a natural deodorant also. I had been looking for a good natural deodorant for a while. Burt's Bees makes a spray natural deodorant, but I couldn't find it in stores anywhere and I couldn't bring myself to have it shipped. I tried Lush's solid bar natural deodorant, which smelled fantastic and worked well, but it wasn't very easy to apply. It was powdery and broke into chunks. So when I found myself at Whole Foods in the Personal Hygiene aisle, I took a sideways glance towards the natural deodorants and came across this little guy...