Spring Forward 1: Edible Bird Decorations

Materials:

• 18 oz lard
• 3 1/2 oz coarse oats, nuts (peanuts are a good choice), dried fruits, seeds (sunflower seeds)
• Garden Wire
• Old tennis ball or similar, sliced in 1/2 & with a small round hole cut out of the top. Resealed by wrapping a length of wire around the ball and twisting the wire ends together, securely.
• Garden String

Directions:

• Put the lard in a saucepan & melt it gently over low heat, mix the dry ingredients together seperately
• Add handfuls of the dry food to the melted lard and mix them toether. The dry ingreidients should be well-coated in the lard.
• Insert wire which is a little longer than the mold into the center of the mold. Pack mix in around the wire.
• Leave the seed mix in the molds to cool completely, then remove the molds, attach string to the wire and hang up high.

Remember if you start feeding birds that they will believe you will continue, so don't do it if you don't plan on continuing to feed them throughout the year. Hang high enough that squirrels and rodents can't get to it but the birds can. There are bird feeders available that sense when the weight is too heavy for a bird and will drop the squirrel.

You can also try any of the awesome ones on Pinterest (so many different ideas). This is a great way to start off spring, helping out   

**Please note this isn't my recipe, I have had it in my collection for a few years and the journal I had it in was damaged so I don't have who the recipe came from. If you know please leave it in the comments and I will add the attribution. **

Happy Crafting My Loves

It's not easy being Green:

Yeah I said it. Don't gimmie those looks, it isn't easy confessing this mess. When I lived at home, I ate organic, recycled never used plastic bags, heck I even taught several girlfriends all my nifty tricks that helped save the environment and them some serious cash. And who doesn't love keeping green in their pockets??

Well now I have different priorities, paying my bills, keeping a roof over my head those take precedence over purchasing high priced organic over the cheaper stuff, and to be real I kinda just got lazy. It's true, without friends who loved the green lifestyle, or books, or movies, or even tv shows that validated my feelings I begun to fall back into old rhythms. It was easier to just take the bags at the grocers since I would use them as trash bags as well, but eventually even I had to admit defeat beneath the onslaught and back to green bags I went.

©AishaO 

Because I'm a crafter and I would find any excuse to use my yarn stash, I was so excited when I saw a pattern for a market bag in my yarn magazine.  I loved that idea so much that I made small ones to get the fruits and veggies that normally go in a clear plastic bag.  I used Lily Brand Kitchen (cotton) yarn, which is easily washed and reused as often as you need it.  This of course save plastic bags from going into the landfill and the added benefit of some awesome looking groceries.

Here are a few different ideas for y'all to try:
Recycled Plastic Bag,

©Lion's Brand Yarn

Lion's Brand Market Bag

©Sugar n'Cream (Lily Brand Yarn)

Lily Brand Yarn Market Bag

Don't have a crafting bone in your body?? Love your plastic bags too much?? How about saving the bags in a container, like another bag, or a old lysol cleaning bottle like this one:

©Lysol

You can wrap it with your favorite wrapping paper to hide the label. Place plastic bags inside and pull out new bags when you need them. This makes it easy to carry in the grocery store.

Want to get rid of some of those bags?? Don't toss them in the trash, take them with you to the grocery store, many of the larger chains have a recycling bin set up right at the front door, just dump your bags in there and they send them off to recyclers for you.

Many stores also now give you money back for having your own bags, and a few (at least here in CT) are now starting to charge for bags, so save that .05c and bring your own. That adds up fast.

So there, that's how I have started to kick the green slump I have been experiencing.  How do you do green daily?? Share in the comments please.

Happy New Week

Product review

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share some quick reviews on beauty products. Yes I know that this isn't a beauty blog but its a blog about whatever is going on in my life that I feel the need to share about. One of the things i have been doing for years is attempting to go green in as many aspects of my life as possible, so first i went to unscented regualar deodorants, then i switched to Tom's of Maine whole line, then a crystal deodarant called naturally fresh roll-on.

Yeah ok here's what I have found. Tom's of Maine is great for a few hours, unlike regualar anti-perspirants you will need to re-apply this after about four or five hours, or earlier if you tend to move around alot which i do and it failed on me, so I learned to bring it along and re-apply, since then I haven't really had any issues.

The naturally fresh roll-on Yeah take a pass on that one. This didn't work at all. After about twenty minutes, I began to feel myself sweating, and about two hours I could smell myself. I work in a high stress job and I move around quickly alot, so not having adequate deodarnat coverage is a no-no. So this one is still on my dresser slowly drying itself out because I refuse to even use it again. I mostly purchased it because it was on sale (a sign i should have heeded) like clearance level sale, only sane thing I did was purchase one to try before I stocked up.  If I had found the reciept before the 30 days were up i would have brought right on back,. this on gets a big fat FAIL.

As for toothpaste, I have stoped using convental toothpaste and have found that i physically can't go back, I'm not sure what it is that's in them that do this but if i use a 'regular' toothpaste i break out in sores in my mouth. I switched almost 9 years ago to Tom's of maine and haven't looked back, I generally stock up when they are on sale and have plenty of back up so I never run out, just because I know I can't take the risk of using anything else. I love their entire line of toothpaste, i really love the baking soda formula, it's fresh and gets your mouth ridiculously clean as well.

I also enjoy their floss, I have tried many floss, but their's has no wax on it and it actually feels really good and worked a whole lot better than the smaller flosses, I have stocked up on these too just to make sure I have a few on hand, because they go fast.

I love to recycle, I love yogurt (especially before i seemed to become lactose sensitive), so when I was shopping for a new toothbrush and saw these on sale in target i almost fell over. They are the Preserve toothbrush, made from recycled yogurt cups. How sweet is that? they have them in levels of hardness much like 'regular' toothbrushes and they work amazingly well I love them and haven't gone back since purhasing they three years ago. The company is doing big and good things check them out on the link provided.

that's my reviews for now, yes I am aware that Tom's of Maine is no longer a small company but have been purchase by a big conglomerate, somethings have changed like the labels, but so far I haven't seen a big change in the recipes(hopefully it won't change), I tend to be loyal to a brand until they fail me for whatever reason, so for now I'm still a Tom's girl. Please check out and support any of the companies in whatever way you can. Let me know what products you love and how you too are going green.

I hope you enjoy the products as much as I do, be blessed

Happy Day

On the Christian calender today is Good Friday, one of, if not the Holiest Day for Christians. Today also happens to be Earth Day. One of, if not the biggest day for environmentalists, because today everyone does something to be green, even if they normally don't do anything else all year. Many companies stress today as a big day, news channels cover more "green" ideas today, and it's all over the internet, just check out Google's homepage, or even Yahoo, they are all green today.

Yahoo green a great little homepage has some great ideas on how anyone can help the environment without going crazy.

I love this song by Circle of Women called "Earth My Body", I think this fits perfectly in with today, don't you??

What are you doing to celebrate Earth day today??  Today I'm going to be doing this:

Happy Earth Day

Seasonal Eating

courtesy of cityseed ct,gov

There are many different diets out there one of the ones I have really enjoyed is the 100 mile diet, which advocates eating as much of your fruits, veggies and proteins form within a hundred miles of your home. Which would mean you have to shop more in the farmers market, since most those are local and generally within a hundred miles of the farmers market. Luckily for me I live in CT which is dotted with hundreds of pick your own farms, and tons of farmers markets, or side of the road markets (close to many of the farms).  Not only is it a good diet, it is an excellent 'green' movement as well.

So I thought I would show you what you should eat this season as part of connecting to the seasons ans working with the energy of Spring, which is counted from April to June.


Herbs:
Chamomile, Chervil, Lemon Balm, chives, chive blossom, lovage, lavender, dill, cilantro, french tarragon
Veggies:
Cucumbers, asparagus, snow pea, sugar snap pea, english pea, rhubarb
Mushrooms:
 button, cremini, portabello, shiitake, morel, chanterelle, oyster
Edible flowers,
viola, johnny jump-up, zucchini blossom

Hot and Sweet Peppers
lettuce
salad greens
tomato
strawberry, apple, cherries

Eggs: chicken, duck, goose, pheasant, wild turkey, guinea hen
Poultry: chicken, cornish game hen, soup pheasant
Fish and Seafood: boston mackerel, flounder, porgy, sea bass, shad, whiting, freshwater trout, oysters, clams, crab, smoked fish

I will also be sharing recipes to go with these so look out for those.
Be Blessed

Repurposing the Old into New

Just a quick post to share about the things you can do with those old yuletide cards that you won’t be hanging on to. The Michelle over at truebookaddict who has an amazing Christmas Spirit page has up a great post about way in which to repurpose the used yuletide cards here.

At my old job they collected the fronts of used cards for the Saint Jude’s Ranch which was big because the amount of cards that would show up was amazing.  there is a listing here of other organizations that collect the used cards.  The address is listed on this page.

And as always wiki has the answer too, as there are organizations in the Uk that also collect.

Serious side-eye to some of the old cards on the bottom, especially the 1920’s card ugh but I guess I can see as a “how far we have come moment”.

Whatever you choose to do. happy recycling & 
Blessed new year

Book Haul

Yesterday I went for a walk downtown in my town. I had errands to run, and I happen to be passing our local library. and I just couldn’t resist the small book sale they were advertising.
Small is relative

These boxes contain many books, sometime two layers

….and there are plenty of boxes….and shelves

upon shelves of books donated from libraries and people, some old, some new. The low lights make it such an intimate affair, searching through the books, was such a great time. I got lost in this room for over an hour..

These are my haul from this amazing sale,

the money not only supports the library, they get to buy extra books not covered in the budget, but they use the money to overhaul the children’s area and bring in toys and such to help build imagination.
I get to indulged in my guilty pleasure of “trashy” romance

without feeling the pinch in the pocket

I got new cookbooks for a fraction of the price

I knew I was supporting a good cause while not feeling the guilt of spending money in this tight economy,
And I found a witchybook I have wanted to read for a while

My haul came up to

              
guess how much?  11 books for $6.50, yes you read that right $6.50
I love a bargain don’t you?? Also, this is very green because these are "used" books, which don't go into the landfill, and your recycling them into the general public. Buying new is great!! Buying used when you can? Even better.
I will be posting delicious recipes from my cookbooks, since I haven’t done any recipes for a while.. Of course almost all the books have a witchy theme, so I will be doing reviews on those also.
This is my haul why not check out your local library and see if they have a cause you can support?


Blessed Be

Have you heard

apparently we Americans don’t know out own mind and we need big business and the FDA to make our decisions for us.

In the next few days the FDA (otherwise  known as the Food & Drug Administration) will be making their decision on whether or not to approve Genetically Engineered Salmon into the food market.

Despite the fact that EVERYTIME they ask American would we eat the food if we KNEW it was engineered or cloned & 69 % of  Americans resoundingly saying “NO”, I’m pretty certain some people said “Hell to the Naw”, the FDA didn’t approved the labeling laws ( score 1 for big business)
Now they are considering allowing GM Salmon into the market. Some of you maybe saying why  is this a big deal?
Well let’s think on it:

• Genetically Engineered food is a new science and the ramifications to humans can’t be completely known.  We do know that many humans have begun to have allergies that have never been seen before and have increased sensitivities to more foods, as well as an increase in drug resistance due to certain drugs and viruses being used to “mark” GM products.
• Whenever someone is resistant to labeling due to liability it is an indication of known or unknown issues they simply do not which to have responsibility for.
• these companies KNOW that Americans which to have labels but fight tooth and nail to prevent it because they KNOW we won’t buy it.
• it only takes 10-15 GM salmon getting into the wild population to reek havoc on the Natural populace.
• There is now real NEED to GE Salmon. Other than …. well Greed. Salmon is one of the most popular fish to be purchased due to its high Omega 3 content
• Americans would be the only market since most of the other countries in Europe and the Middle East REQUIRE labeling which clearly states that the food is GE or made from cloned meat.

To learn more about fighting for label laws check out
Responsible Technology
To learn more about the differences between farmed and wild-caught fish check out
Sara Snow’s blog

As Well as Food links on
Linktv.com  this is where I fist learned about what was going into our food

Food focused movies:
1) Super Size Me
2) Food Inc
3) The Future of food (the movie that changed my life, watch for Free here on HULU.com
4)Fast Food nation
5) The Beautiful truth

I wish for you to know all that you can about the food you feed yourself and your family
Don’t despair my loves, as long as we know we can fight.



Images: Courtesy of Bing.com

Books they are

like crack for nerds

for years i would spend a good deal of my paycheck on books, (didn't help that i worked in the bookstore) and got an amazing discount. But when I began to run out of room, i found the most amazing thing. Amazon.com sell my stuff!!!

I sold tons of books, books i got when i was in the Harlequin books club and never read; books i like but didn't love, some books i loved but knew i would never read again, books i have no idea how the heck they became part of my collection, and books that i loved but needed room for ones i loved even more

I had (have) an extensive library of books that I re-read regularly, books I have as reference, ones I only pull out for certain holidays, and books I'm still wondering how they became a part of my collection.  I looked around my home the other day and realized apart from the bathrooms, every other room in the house had a bookshelf groaning beneath its weight.  I use to joke that books replaced the walls in my home and actually held up the roof.

When too many book became a nuisance, I would sell them on amazon and make money to purchase books I really wanted to become a part of my collection.

With the decision to live simple floating around, I have made the decision to go through all my books, anything that i haven't read, didn't love, didn't finish by now or books I really didn't like I am getting rid of.  For the ones I know I won't get anything for on amazon. since they are literally too old (as in published not in looks) I am giving away, either to the salvation army or to local libraries.  This has aided in freeing up the feel of the house and alleviated some guilt I have associated with books I always promised to read and never got back to.

So do something for yourself and for others my loves, get rid of books, clothes and other items that you haven't read, worn or didn't remember you had. This is both a tax break and a mental break also. And will earn you some quick money

You can even host a swap meet as several friends and I will be doing this weekend, its great if you have kid stuff and want to get rid of them, but need other things.  With so many people selling stuff no a days, its hard to hold a good sale that will net you much unless your getting rid of some serious big ticket items (TV, furniture, lawn mowers).
Its a chance to simplify, reduce, reuse and recycle all in one shot.

That's my Green tip of the week  (hahaha get it, green as in money, green as in saving the earth, ok yeah I'm going to stop now)

Love you guys