(flickr pic thanks to hamedmasoumi)Those of you that live in the Rochester and surrounding area can rest assured that our beloved local Starbucks are staying put (atleast for now).
7.18.2008
7.17.2008
100 blue lake organic green beans
We have now harvested approximately 100 green beans!!! My little green is LOVING every single bean :)7.12.2008
story. soul. home.
A while back I joined Em on her art journal challenge and for the lack of exscuses I have been a slacker. Tonight I made time for my self and my art journal... 3 more pages! Word prompts: Story, Soul, and Home. It is nice to just create for the sake of creating something - makes you feel happy!!!
home sweet home. (I missed you garden.)
We are back from our big camping trip! I LOVE camping! I must admit though, I stressed the whole time we were gone about our container garden. We didn't have anyone watching or watering our veggies for us... I did flood them with water and filled some 2L. bottles with water and put them upside down in the containers so they could self feed until we got home. We have picked about 30-40 green beans since we've been home! I really had no idea how many 2 containers of green beans would yield, so this was very exciting to come home too. Little Green has eaten about 25 of the beans so far, as well he decided the birds needed some and threw a handful off the balcony. As of this morning we have 3 in the fridge... THREE doesn't make a side dish :) I LOVE that our first year of container gardening is a success and that Little Green has been inspired and is LOVING to garden! Over the next few days it looks as though we will have another 30 to 40 beans to harvest! The tomato plants look AWESOME (but no mato's yet). Same goes for the Pepper plants. I am getting so ancey waiting on these two plants - we really love our tomato's and peppers around here! Then there is the eggplant and cucumber plants... I don't know what is going on here. For the longest time we didn't have sprouts or anything and now we have about 6 or 7 large plants/weeds??? Maybe I shouldn't have put them in the same container... I will be curious to see if we end up with either eggplants or cucumbers, or perhaps EggUmbers! Wouldn't that be strange? Lastly we have the zucchini plants - these things are out of control!!! I am pretty sure I mentioned this a post or two ago, but we had to move two of the plants to my Mom's yard since the zucchinis busted out of their containers. We have one last plant here and it is HUGE!!! On that note, not having any zucchini of my very own (along with some blueberries), I caved and bought some from a local farmer yesterday. Tonight I will be baking my famous Blueberry Zucchini Bread!!! My mouth is watering just thinking about it :)
7.04.2008
7.01.2008
forgive me, as it has been 6 days since my last blogging...
OK, so how tall is a mato plant supposed to be????? Ours is just as tall as me... we are talking about 5'2"! How organic were my mato seeds?!?!?!? Ha, ha, ha :) I have to charge my camera battery and get some pics up of these amazing plants!
Seriously, nothing happening here. We have just been doing a lot of family time and getting ready for our big camping trip!
It is nice to not always be glued to this screen!
More to come!
Seriously, nothing happening here. We have just been doing a lot of family time and getting ready for our big camping trip!
It is nice to not always be glued to this screen!
More to come!
6.24.2008
the garden grows...
This little balcony garden is not so little anymore. This garden is now taking over our balcony... don't get me wrong, I LOVE our garden, but I did not expect this! I am going crazy waiting for the tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, zucchini, and beans to be pickable!6.22.2008
hello creative me.
So, here and there I have still had creative moments :) I just haven't been photographing and posting everything. Here is a painting/collage I did for one of my best friends baby (& before I get it in the mail I thought I should take a snap shot of it) - it is a take off of a print I have seen. And, here is a card I made using my fun petal stamp set (in 3 colors).
Tonight, I have scrapbooking waiting for me....
I LOVE to create!
6.21.2008
organic on a budget and avoiding greenwashing...
So, I have spent many postings talking about being frugal, CVSing, cutting our grocery budget in half and I am more determined than ever to shop Organically on my budget. I found this great article Shopping Organic on a Budget in combination with a great organic coupon post here by the Centsible Sawyer. Just "google"-ing shopping organic on a budget is apparently talked about a lot online :) So the basics are...
1) Shop around. Do your research. The best deals may not be at your local grocery store. Perhaps joining a co-op, farmers market, or buying in bulk (aka BJs, Costco, Sam's Club) may offer you more organic food for your hard earned dollar!
2) Prioritize. OK, so perhaps purchasing ALL of your food at the organic level will empty your wallet, so the foods that you eat the most or out of the foods you eat which ones have the most pesticides/toxins, etc... will be the ones you purchase at the organic level.
3) Stock up. Nothing new here... when it is on sale, in season, or you have coupons Stock Up! Utilize your freezer, your freezer is your friend! To tell you the truth, until just the other day I would not have thought about putting bananas in the freezer. My Mom said, what are you going to do with those bananas once they are too brown to eat? (They were pretty bad at that point...) I said, banana bread. After snickering on the fact that it would make a lot of banana bread she had suggested freezing the bananas and taking them out when ever I am ready to bake with them. What would I do without my Mom!?!?!?! Thanks Mom!
4) Grow your own. That one is pretty self explanatory.
With all of this being said we also need to be knowledgeable ( I guess this goes back to doing our research and knowing our products...). Green-washing is everywhere. It is so easy for a company to label their products with words such as all natural, Eco-friendly, etc. and so on. I could go on and on about this topic and how it gives me a headache, but I won't in fear that I'd just be giving you a headache. How does the saying go... "buyer beware!"
1) Shop around. Do your research. The best deals may not be at your local grocery store. Perhaps joining a co-op, farmers market, or buying in bulk (aka BJs, Costco, Sam's Club) may offer you more organic food for your hard earned dollar!
2) Prioritize. OK, so perhaps purchasing ALL of your food at the organic level will empty your wallet, so the foods that you eat the most or out of the foods you eat which ones have the most pesticides/toxins, etc... will be the ones you purchase at the organic level.
3) Stock up. Nothing new here... when it is on sale, in season, or you have coupons Stock Up! Utilize your freezer, your freezer is your friend! To tell you the truth, until just the other day I would not have thought about putting bananas in the freezer. My Mom said, what are you going to do with those bananas once they are too brown to eat? (They were pretty bad at that point...) I said, banana bread. After snickering on the fact that it would make a lot of banana bread she had suggested freezing the bananas and taking them out when ever I am ready to bake with them. What would I do without my Mom!?!?!?! Thanks Mom!
4) Grow your own. That one is pretty self explanatory.
With all of this being said we also need to be knowledgeable ( I guess this goes back to doing our research and knowing our products...). Green-washing is everywhere. It is so easy for a company to label their products with words such as all natural, Eco-friendly, etc. and so on. I could go on and on about this topic and how it gives me a headache, but I won't in fear that I'd just be giving you a headache. How does the saying go... "buyer beware!"
6.17.2008
Q&A: Ask Loving Green Anything, Part II
Again, I wanted to thank everyone for reading my random rambles, green rants, and other various postings! I am going to split up the questions that were left in comments, sent by e-mail into 3 postings. (If you still have a question send 'em my way!)
Why are you so interested in being "green"?
I am not sure if it is the artist/art teacher part of me or the nerdy side, but I have always been into reusing & recycling! For no other reason than some things always seemed odd to me, I have always been against using toxic cleaners, anti-persparant, and items of this nature. Then when I became a mama the importance of being "green" just overtook me. Can we say OCD?!?!?!?!?! Ha, ha, ha!!! So on top of all the serious reasons why it is important to be environmentally friendly & environmentally conscious - for me the most important reason is for my babes and for their whole generation (and my grand kids, etc..).
What does Mr. LG think about all of your crazy challenges?
He usually just goes along with it... He is all for being conservative, ec0-friendly, and frugal! On some of the more let's say crazier ideas he just nods his head and smiles, but he always comes along for the ride :)
Why are you so interested in being "green"?
I am not sure if it is the artist/art teacher part of me or the nerdy side, but I have always been into reusing & recycling! For no other reason than some things always seemed odd to me, I have always been against using toxic cleaners, anti-persparant, and items of this nature. Then when I became a mama the importance of being "green" just overtook me. Can we say OCD?!?!?!?!?! Ha, ha, ha!!! So on top of all the serious reasons why it is important to be environmentally friendly & environmentally conscious - for me the most important reason is for my babes and for their whole generation (and my grand kids, etc..).
What does Mr. LG think about all of your crazy challenges?
He usually just goes along with it... He is all for being conservative, ec0-friendly, and frugal! On some of the more let's say crazier ideas he just nods his head and smiles, but he always comes along for the ride :)
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