Archive for June, 2011
« Previous EntriesBar Laundry Soap
Thursday, June 30th, 2011I recently returned from a meditation retreat, and since the ones I attend are 10 days long, it’s inevitable that somewhere in the middle of the course I’m going to be bent over a sink, washing clothes by hand. When I hand-wash clothes at home, I usually just use a few drops of the machine [...]
How does your place affect you?
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011I’m at a conference this week in Reno NV, and it’s so crazy to look out the window and see this view: The whole trip out was thought-provoking. I flew from the airport nearest my house over some rolling hills and into Detroit – where I was fascinated as we flew over the shipping channels [...]
DIY Dried Fruit
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011After a month-long spell of recently feeling exhausted, spacey, and generally blah, I finally figured out that I might have low blood sugar– hypoglycemia. And while I learn more about it, from the initial reading I’ve done it seems like I should keep healthy snacks handy at all times, dried fruit and nuts being the [...]
Repairing what’s smashed
Monday, June 27th, 2011We do talk a lot here at team TinyChoices about repairing what’s broken – from shower curtains to bicycles to boots. So when I smashed my iPhone touchscreen by carelessly dropping it onto a curb face first, I knew I had to live up to our hype. It looks terrible, doesn’t it? The phone worked [...]
Easy Peasy Tip: Stay Healthy!
Saturday, June 25th, 2011It’s pretty simple: healthy folks use less resources than sick ones: less medication, less disposable medical paraphernalia, more walking/cycling = less driving, and healthier food = less packaging waste. So the healthier we can stay, the lighter we walk on momma earth. Have you noticed your eco-impact corrolating to your health? [Image via Rubbermaid via [...]
Happy Eco News Friday!
Friday, June 24th, 2011If you have an iPhone or Android, check out this awesome app! LeafSnap takes your picture of a leaf and applies facial recognition technology to determine what kind of a tree it is! A new documentary called Queen of the Sun follows honeybees and the global bee population crisis – it opens in limited cities [...]
Buying Stuff To Help People
Thursday, June 23rd, 2011I’d love to hear what you fantastic Tiny Choosers think of the current trend towards the “buy one, help one” consumer model, where for every product a retailer sells, they send another of that product (or the aid in some form) towards helping a person or community in need. The most well-known of these retailers [...]
Wheaty Kitty Litter
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011We’ve got a temporary cat right now – a friend and colleague of mine is traveling for the summer, and we agreed to look out for fuzzy little Book while she was gone. It’s so fun! Book is a fairly self-contained individual – no fussy eating habits, but he will take a swipe at your [...]
Eating Animal Parts
Tuesday, June 21st, 2011I recently had a conversation with a friend who’s been living in Mexico and has been learning the ancient art of butchering. She works as a personal and event chef, and so along with adding traditional Mexican cooking to her resume, she asked her neighborhood butcher if he’d teach her his craft. After expressing shock/amusement [...]
Electric Motorcycles!
Monday, June 20th, 2011I had a super exciting day last week – the kind of day that I can’t stop talking about. It started out pretty reasonably, I had a day full of errands so I worked at home in the morning, then rode my motorcycle to the shop for a maintenance appointment. Instead of getting someone from [...]
Easy Peasy Tip: Make your Dishwasher Most Efficient!
Saturday, June 18th, 2011While the lines are usually clearly drawn between those who think a dishwasher is the best-most-efficient or the worst-most-wasteful way to clean dishes, people usually decide to use whatever it is they have at home – the dishwasher, or their own two hands. As always, there’s usually a best way to use your appliances to [...]
Happy Eco-News Fridays!
Friday, June 17th, 2011Father’s Day crafts: 9 eco-friendly ideas Home gardening in the U.S. (Infographic) A Seattle development that is greener than green Websites help you choose a walkable, low-commute home California could ban Styrofoam Ken is leaving Barbie over her deforestation habit Companies Recruit Rock Climbers to Repair Wind Turbines
Tiny Choosing Positivity
Thursday, June 16th, 2011Tiny Choosers: you know how sometimes it seems like we’re overwhelmed by the bad news– everything that’s wrong with the world from the huge (global warming) to the local (murders, mayhem)? It’s the reason I’m horrified when I watch most TV news broadcasts– if you didn’t know any better, you’d think there was absolutely nothing [...]
Storing CSA veggies
Wednesday, June 15th, 2011Our Community Supported Agriculture share (CSA) started last week, and once again it’s the most delightful, exciting, and nerve-wracking experience. We are getting strawberries! delightful! and tomatoes! from the greenhouse! exciting! And OH NO what are we going to do with the piles of lettuce and kohlrabi?! nerve-wracking! Here’s our haul from this week: That [...]
June Bikey Links
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011Kid Learns to Ride a Bike, Feels Happy of Himself (best video ever!) People Are Awesome: Anonymous Donor Giving Cash to Toronto Cyclists for Their “Leadership” Bikes Used To Sell Everything (while I’m not pro-shilling, I am pro-biking…) The Yike Bike could make bike commuters of us all (in between fits of Yike-related giggling, that [...]
What if everything ran on gas?
Monday, June 13th, 2011That’s the question that this Nissan Leaf commercial asks: It’s pretty cute, and also pretty scary. I think it’s important to remember, though, that this is a really good illustration of TAILPIPE emissions – if you flip this message around, it can easily represent localizing the effects of electricity generation for all of your daily [...]
Easy Peasy Tip: Ditch the CD!
Saturday, June 11th, 2011You don’t need to buy a CD to enjoy your favorite band – there are a lot of less-material-intensive ways to enjoy their music and support them! Not only do CDs get scratched, if you buy them new they’re wrapped in lots of plastic – which contains PVC and other toxins – and are hard [...]
Happy Eco-News Fridays!
Friday, June 10th, 2011Chevrolet Volt Owners ‘Charging on Sunshine’ Krispy Kreme Switches to Cage-Free Eggs Bolivia enshrines natural world’s rights with equal status for Mother Earth Weekday Vegetarian: Asparagus Namul New York State’s Fracking Ban May Be Extended For Another Year 8 Easy Ways to Grow a Gorgeous, Useful Herb Garden (Slideshow) Can 1 miracle plant solve the [...]
Reusing Acupuncture Needles?
Thursday, June 9th, 2011At the end of a recent visit to a possibly under-the-radar acupuncturist, the needles were plucked from my arm, dropped into a little screw-top container, and handed to me. I was instructed to bring the needles back for my next visit the following week. I looked at this surprising-to-me event in two ways: first, as [...]
Shea Butter Styling Wax
Wednesday, June 8th, 2011I got my hair cut last weekend – SHORT – check out the picture! – and it’s super fun to have shaggy short hair that I can mess with and play around with. PLUS, as Jenn has noted before, I’m using less of everything – less shampoo and conditioner – so it’ s much more [...]
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