Earth Day

Happy Earth Day!  I thought I'd share a few ways I have "gone green" recently...

We revamped our landscaping and replaced all harvested mulch with rubber mulch.  It's basically old tires that have been shredded and colored.  It means that we no longer have to kill trees by re-mulching annually and we have saved many tires from filling up landfills. 

In specific celebration of earth day, I planted some aloe shoots from my aloe plant today.   It's my first time "multiplying" my plant, so we'll see how it goes.

I have been doing a few felt crafts lately, too, inspired by The Purl Bee and the felt that I use is made of 100% recycled plastic bottles.  Neat, huh?  Here is what I have so far:

Rose Barrettes

and Felt Aquarium Magnets

In addition, we are saving energy and water with our new LG HE front loader set.  Our old washer used 40-50 gallons per load of laundry, and this one uses 18 or less and a fraction of the detergent.  The dryer dried a full load of laundry in 21 minutes--my old dryer would have taken over an hour for the same sized load.  I am loving these new appliances!

And on a side note, how do you keep a 10 month old busy for a few minutes?  Let her watch the front loaders--now that's good "clean" fun!

We are really trying to make an effort to "be green" without buying into the trendy and marketed aspects of the movement.  I am experimenting with making my own cleaners (more on that later) and we're composting and trying to reduce our waste in general.  Going green also saves "green" (as in cold hard cash)--so get out there and hug a tree!