cultivating a sustainable life
I popped into a new thrift shop that’s gone in where a great furniture consignment store used to be, and was thrilled to find a couple of things that I’ve been wanting for awhile. I’ve always adored these little copper butter warmers but have never …
I’m feeling rather sorry for myself tonight, and for a pretty pathetic reason, unfortunately.We found ourselves a gorgeous set of used kitchen cabinets on Craigslist last weekend, just the colour and style we were looking for, and for only $500. We drove out to take …
I bought about 10 pounds of beeswax earlier this fall, but haven’t had time to make anything with it until now. Last night, the kids and I made some votive candles for the teachers of their various activities, and I decided to melt some extra …
Food isn’t the only thing that I like to buy local. There’s a great potter’s club at one of our city’s community centers, and every 6 months they hold a sale where the members sell their gorgeous creations for very reasonable prices. Yesterday was the …
I snapped this photo from the car while we were out today. This is one of the city’s most popular beaches. In the summer, it’s usually jam packed with sunbathers and people playing beach volleyball.I think I like it better this way!
The recent snowfall has been wreaking havoc on local plants. Trees everywhere are breaking from the weight, including a beautiful old willow tree just up the block, and I noticed today that my rhododendron has several broken branches. Some things are holding up though, and …
We got some window-insulating plastic off of Freecycle a couple of weeks ago, but we ran out of double sided tape before we could do the small side window in our bedroom (all of our windows are single paned and very breezy). Since we keep …
The snowfall that we’d been promised arrived with a bang on Saturday night. We tend to get a few sprinklings of snow every winter, but the temperatures are rarely cold enough for the snow to collect, and it usually melts within a few hours. That …
Our November weather has been absolutely crazy. We’ve had flooding, severe winds that knocked out power and destroyed several houses, and landslides that have filled the city’s reservoirs with silt, resulting in a boil water advisory for the past two weeks (and counting).Today’s forecast includes …
As committed as I am to reducing my impact on the environment, I’ve always had a hard time with the whole compact fluorescent light bulb thing. I know that they use a fraction of the power and last 10 times longer than regular bulbs, but …