{Easy} Reduce Plastic with Plastic?

Now, here is a short story:

I am a gardener.

 I'm also a huge recycling fan, a compost enthusiast, and a chicken-keeper. 

Here is our garden with one month's worth of plastic bags strewn hither and thither. Disgusting, huh? I recycle plastic bags and strive to use paper or reusable grocery bags, and now I also do this:

Scene II (Enter new characters:)

"What is it?" clucked Lucy Loudmouth.

"Looks like a flower," suggested Cupcake.

"Another flower we get to look at, but not eat?" 

asked Little Bo Peep.

"Let me at it!" demanded Big Meany.

Sorry girls, it's just me making a point.  

Epilogue:

This, dear reader, is a daisy silicone lid, inspired by nature. It fits on any smooth rimmed bowl, pot, or pan, creating an airtight seal. Yes! You read that right. It can go in the oven! It is microwave safe. It is BPA free, food grade silicone. I bought ours at a kitchen gadget store to help me use less plastic. Here is a link to an online shop where you could buy your own, if you'd like.  Charles Viancin, Inspired by Nature. 

About 31 days of EASY: 

So many things in life are hard.  And some of those hard things are necessary. But why make things harder than they need to be?  For 31 days, I'll be writing about ways to bring ease.  I would be honored if you came along on my journey.  Pack light. 

If you want to know more about the 31 Day Blog Challenge, click here:
Nesting Place: It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful.
or here: Why 31 days?

Many Blessings to you.

Clipboard Wall Art

Our office is a long and narrow room.  When we began a remodel this spring, exchanging twenty-something-year-old carpet for wood, olive green for hummus colored walls, and adding a skylight, we also took down a giant map of our city.  I know, maps as wall art are all the rage now but in this room it took over.  It had to go. We were left with a 15 foot expanse to fill.  In short: We had a wall conundrum.

In addition to the long wall, three other factors had to be considered:
Cost...under $100.
Contrast...the need to keep things calm with low contrast is my home decorating M.O.
Capture... since what we do in the office is run our landscaping business, I wanted the wall art to capture, relate and inspire the garden theme.

For months I looked for inspiration on Pinterest and Houzz, while also searching in the usual places, like Target, Home Goods and Goodwill, finding many likable candidates, but nothing that jumped up and down saying, "choose me!"

Then, one Saturday morning, a few weeks ago -- inspiration appeared in the form of a photograph of three botanical prints hanging on clipboards in a kitchen.  I knew in a heartbeat that this was my answer.  It fit right in with all my design musts.

www-livelovecreate.tumblr.com/

All I needed to do was figure out the placement, find inexpensive clipboards, and locate some beautiful botanical art.

The art search came first. I have always been an admirer of  people who can create pretty pictures with talented strokes and dabs.  My mom can do it and so can my sisters. I have attempted to develop this skill, to no avail.  Instead, I paint pictures with objects, plants, flowers, rocks, trees and shrubs, words, love, and my camera; the draw and dab skills do not belong to me.

Not yet  but still hoping...

As I often do, I went shopping in my own home and found a book filled with botanical drawings from over 100 years ago.  It didn't take long to find the eighteen pieces of pure inspiration that I needed. They all depict lovely birds and plants; twelve also name the months of the year.

 NO I did not cut up the book.  I Could NOT.  Instead, I made color copies on card stock.The traditional and inexpensive clipboards are hanging on clear push pins... genius. Right? Not easy to get just right, however.  It took about an hour of planning and measuring to get things lined up.

Notice how the colors blend with the wall color? One of the unintended results of using the clipboards as frames is that the paper flutters a bit in the breeze of our ceiling fan.  I've considered using photo corners to secure them, but I'm mesmerized by the fluttery movement on the wall, like leaves on a tree or birds in flight.

While hunting for art, I remembered my mom's old easel, stored in a closet, waiting to be used again.  It still donned a few splashes of blue and white from the brook in this painting she did in 1949. The overflow of love -- and the easel sang to my heart.  Then there was some re-measuring.

My prince helped me figure out how to assemble the easel.  It adds just the right elements of whimsy and drama, as well as vertical movement to balance the horizontal movement of the grid on the wall.  I found this botanical in the closet too. I'm planning on picking up a canvas or a painting in the future, but for now, this one works just fine. Who knows; the wall, now replete with examples of nature drawings and the splotched old easel might inspire another attempt to draw or paint one on my own. Just Maybe.

and just maybe not.

(My prince suggests cutting up a pair of jeans and some old boots for the other wall. )  Ummm...nope:-/

2013 update: We re-purposed an old dining table.  You like?

~Blessings~

If you would like to read more stories about people gardening, creating, loving family,homesteading, homeschooling, and making things for under $100:

The Lettered Cottage

Here: Under the Table and Dreaming

wildly-original-linky-party @ I Gotta Create

 click here:  My Simple Country Living

and here:  A Rural Journal

 and HERE: Beyond the Picket Fence Under $100 Linky Party

OH, and HERE as well! The Shabby Creek Cottage Transformation Thursday

and here as well...there are so many creative people out there!

Creativity is Where Needs and Interests Collide

Today began as usual -- a blessed morning filled with possibilities.  While cleaning up breakfast -- my prince's yummy blend of fresh eggs from the backyard, potato, peppers, green onion, garlic and cheese -- I noticed that our spice cabinet looked like it needed some attention. The lazy Susan's were jumbled and be-specked, and upon investigation, I found that a few jars of  herbs were  past their "use by" date.  I have fresh herbs growing in the garden, so I decided to recycle them.

Not so long ago, I would have sent these expired items into the trash without another thought.

 THAT WAS BEFORE...  

...before eight chickens, compost bins and recycle bins offered better options for kitchen scraps and trash. So, this morning, the old dill and black pepper went into the kitchen compost catcher under the sink. The oregano and sage added their aromas to the nest box with Miss Piggy, the broody Orpington hen.  As I prepared to put the plastic containers into our recycle bin... I had an idea: why not make them into plant starters?  Their shaker tops would make great little "frogs" to hold cuttings for the new herb plants I've been wanting to start.    

I got to work removing the labels clothing from their old life.

Three jars found a new home in our garden window, filled with basil, mint and lemon balm stems.

Aren't they great?

This one had a flip top that I snapped off, leaving me with a pretty blue screw-on lid. 

Another one spent the day in the kitchen with my lemon water.

Isn't it amazing how many ordinary days, or old things can become extra-ordinary when we begin to think about other ways they can be useful? An old thing, myself, it makes me happy to think of new uses for things; it gives me hope that I may continue to be useful in new ways too. May your life grow new shoots today as you consider your options.

To read more stories like this, head on over to Deborah Jean's Dandelion House: http://deborahjeansdandelionhouse.blogspot.com/2011/03/farmgirl-friday-blog-hop.html
And also to Blessed Beyond a doubt:
http://www.blessedbeyondadoubt.com/weekend-blog-hop-july-6/
~Blessings~

Right Under My Nose All the TIME

Up to the shoulder inside a cow.

Last week my daughter wrote a book review that got me thinking. She tells a story about picking up a book several times, even purchasing a few copies over a period of months, only to read it at the right time and the right place. Which, by the way, was on a cattle ranch where she had to have her wedding ring cut off to save her finger.


Later in the week, while cleaning out some stuff in her house she found a document linking her husband to a toy store we used to frequent when the girls were little. I have a faint memory of a friendly, tall, dark, and handsome boy chatting with us.  But Rachel didn't meet John then, at least not in the way that led to their marriage.  She met him while shopping for a truck at a dealership where he worked as a salesman and where he is now General Manager.
After they met, Rachel learned that he lived right around the corner, which means she probably saw him many times as a girl riding her bike or gazing out her window.  I recall driving her to work one day; when we stopped at a traffic light, we both looked up into the driver's seat of a truck, where a handsome young man smiled back at us.  It turns out it was her prince -- the chatty toy store clerk had grown up! None of us knew it then.  All three of us still remember it now.

By the way, this is the ring that needed to come off to save Rachel's finger.

Rachel's story is amazingly similar to my own story of knowing Jim since kindergarten, never imagining that he was my prince.  More about that in a previous post. (My Husband, My Prince)

And her story is a lot like the one told by my grandparents,who were born (1899 and 1900) on different levels of the same house, who met and fell in love in their teens.  My grandfather used to reminisce about watching a beautiful girl walk down the sidewalk, a huge bow in her long brown hair, her coat and hair blowing in the wind.  Many years later, he learned who the girl was -- my grandmother.

I can tell a similar story.  I remember at about 12 years old I was standing outside a 5 & 10 cents store, wondering who I was going to marry.  Many years later, when I wed my prince, I realized that this store was right at the end of his street.  I would NOT be surprised if he was in the store while I was thinking this.

Why am I writing about these events?

Because Rachel's blog got me thinking and because they happen all the time!  Because time, although it seems 1-12, is not  exactly linear -- or even cyclical -- to our Creator.  It just appears that way to us in order to facilitate our life experience.  I am coming to understand more about time, now that I am old and gray on the outside.

My post didn't start as a philosophical rant. It started with thoughts of  my garden window.   Many years ago we built a much needed addition onto our home.  While designing the addition, I received input from my parents.  Bill suggested we add a bathroom.  At the time we had four young children at home, all girls.  He had raised all girls too... thus, the inside knowledge of the need for extra bathrooms!  (He was so right!)

Mom suggested a garden window. Her love of gardens and eye for beauty perceived it as useful as well as beautiful for us to have.  Then, Jim and I went to a home show and saw a garden window for the first time. YES!  I have always loved everything "garden," so I drew it into the plan.

Our three room addition was constructed by a man we met in the same 'serendipitous' way described above.  He is married to one of my dear friends who I met through another friend, who I met when looking for a home to buy. My grandmother's neighbor knew a couple who had just built a home in Tucson; and they introduced me to a friend who then introduced me to the wife of the man who installed the garden window. Cathy ended up being my daughter's preschool teacher, and her yet-unborn child would be one of my yet-unborn children's first and dearest friends.  Some would claim that these things are accidents.  I've learned otherwise.

Did I fail to mention that my father, "Bill" is really my stepfather?  Yes, he is the natural father of one of my close friends from high school.  I knew him for years before he met my mom?  And that reminds me of when I saw his daughter for the first time, combing her flaxen hair in the junior high girls bathroom.  I was admiring her straight hair.  Mine was frizzy.  And I was thinking Wendy was the prettiest girl I had ever seen.  It was months before we "met." -- and years before we became sisters.

I know I am losing some of you................ I promise I'll tell about the garden window now.

For all of its 20 years, this window has been a home to  ornamental houseplants. Recently, I've become interested in using spaces to produce more than "beauty."  Our landscaped yard now houses egg-bearing chickens and compost-bearing bins.  Our pots are full of yummy things to eat.  I'm also planning rain barrels, and worm factories.

The garden window will now get to fulfill its purpose on Earth. There is a train traveling backward toward sustenance, and our pretty, little 4x5 garden window and I are on it!

Can you see him?  I was taking a photo of the garden window to add to this post. My prince, the landscaper, was cutting about 6 feet off the top of our Oleander shrubs.

I can't wait to find out what else is right under my nose that will become a crucial and special part of life's experience!

Love,
Becky

Going the Distance, Backward

Hold on, just a minute!  Before you throw that orange peel, onion skin or dryer lint in the trash...or the vacuum dust, or the eggshells, the bbq ash, or the spaghetti sauce jar -- does it belong there?  Are you sure?  I have learned the answer is often NO!

I used to throw all these items into a plastic bag, together with all the other "useless" stuff I needed to discard -- to keep things clean and orderly -- and so does most of our society!  In fact, that is one reason we live longer than the previous generation. We throw trash away and keep things clean.  We go to the store and get new stuff.

Right?

Yes, right!  That's because most of us grew up that way. My generation had everything we needed and most of what we wanted.  Until recently, when we discovered the truth expressed by the word UN-sustainable.  (No, I am not writing on a political theme, here; at least I don't think I am.)

It's simply that I've rediscovered a few of the old ways.  I started to toss kitchen scraps into a container under the sink, instead of stuffing it down the disposal. Dryer lint is collected in a rescued container that sits on top of our dryer; and all of these items are turned into food (compost) for my garden and Kelly's garden as well.

Look what I'm doing with toilet paper rolls today.

Newspapers now go to a recycle bin, along with cardboard, office paper, soup cans, and plastic containers of all kinds. Glass!...I'm having a lot of trouble throwing away glass.

A few weeks ago, I was rinsing out one of three Classico spaghetti sauce jars after a big family dinner, when I noticed that the manufacturer had gone to the trouble to mark the jar in 4 ounce increments!  Can you think of other uses for this jar? (above) I can.  When I told Rachel, she said, "Great, I use 4 a week, you may have them."  Four a week, I'm not sure I am able to re-purpose 208 of these!  Many could end up in the recycle bin to be made into more glass.  Who knows, though?  I might just learn to can this year and use them all!

I now tuck lettuce into the flower bed.

Since we began to make compost, and recycle, we have significantly reduced our trash. We used to take out one or two tall kitchen bags daily; now it might only be a weekly thing. I jam plastic shopping bags into a pretty tote in our car trunk and drop them off monthly in one of many recycle bins available at most stores that use them. Want to see our trunk?

I'm taking these magazines to the used bookstore to trade for great books.

There is a real opportunity in trash.  Making use of stuff we used to throw away is the new, new! People are re-discovering the old ways of making use of what is available to supply what is needed.  Some people are turning trash into beautiful objects, others are turning it into new business ventures.  The old English proverb, "Waste not, want not" has endured for a reason.  The stuff that meets our need is all around us. At leas,t that is what I'm discovering as I learn how to waste less.

My word of the year is "STEP"...I'm taking some more steps backward to see what else I find.  Will you join me?

Check out a few of these links to see what I'm talking about.  We Upcycle , Thrifty and Chic,Homework, today's assignment: be inspired!  But before you go...take a look at what I did with old calendars and fabric.

I just HAD to  fit my new passion into this post. Raising hens, now 7, is such a joy. Oh, and guess what they give me back?

Photo ops!

Now go check out what some other people are doing. And have an eggcelent time!

Love,
Becky

Bone Broth, By Any Other Name...

Jim has been asking all week long what I'm doing ...and when will I be done? I've been telling him," It is an experiment."  And each morning, Libby has barked and wagged, expectantly, as I ladled the steaming essence of life onto her Blue Buffalo kibble from my simmering pot.

I've been making Bone Broth.

What is BONE BROTH?  Merely bones and veggies, water and a jalapeno, simmered for a long time! So long, that the nutrition is pulled out...so long, that the bones become soft enough to crush between your fingers.  So soft, that they can end up here:

Encouraged in my experiment by a fellow blogger, I've sipped the broth  for breakfast with a dollop of coconut oil, while rolling my eyes with delight!  

       

....BONE BROTH...

Our adult children would prefer another name for this new fascination of mine, I've suggested a few alternative titles: bone stock, bone soup...but bone is the objectionable word, I think.  Just as well -- it is the best name for something that used to be trash at my house.

I used to throw all sorts of things in the trash that I now see as treasure!

I found out that kitchen scraps don't go down the disposal...they now go here:  as treats for the flock of 7 chickens that nest and play behind a 30' span of our 15' tall Oleanders. 

 ( And , no...the Oleanders have not poisoned the birds...They didn't poison the kids, the dogs, cats, rabbits, ducks or the goat... either.)

I've learned in the past year --raising chickens, recycling, and composting -- how wasteful our modern society has become.  A "ton" (literally) of stuff that I used to throw away has been recycled.  If it doesn't go to the Hen Pen,  It goes into one of two compost bins, along with grass clippings, weeds, leaves, dryer lint, newspaper, chicken droppings.  And it gets turned into this: 

Thus, the essence of life continues to  be a blessing in places like this:

Kelly and I planted a veggie garden last year in her backyard that went crazy! We learned what to plant and what to plant less of, namely spaghetti squash!

I'm showing a small fraction of our squash. All from a few small seedlings!  Much of it was given away.  Some was fed to the hens.  

Hens, who gave us these.

After our eggs are boiled and peeled they go all sorts of places.  By now, I think you can guess at least three locations for the shells.  

Here is one of my favorite uses of the edible parts of our eggs.  

Now more of my story about bone broth. Last week I discovered another 2+2=__.

The eggs that I collected went right into the broth.  And after simmering 40 minutes, I ate them, rolling my eyes again with joyous delight...because they tasted like jalapeno and soup!  Guess where the jalapeno came from?  Yep...the garden.  This basket is full of bounty from our backyard...all produced by the very items in the basket...life!  

And that is what Bone Broth is!  A bowl of life!  

Try some. 

Next time you have a roast chicken, or ribs or steak ... plop it into your crock pot, add water and simmer  your brew for days and days...add herbs if you like, veggies in the freezer too long?...Plop them in...?  Sure!  Add water as the week progresses.  Spoon some broth onto your pet's food.    

Then strain.  If you don't have chickens, you will have to throw away the bones. So sad...  

But you will still be able to enjoy a cuppa...

BONE BROTH with a dollop of coconut oil! 

In fact, here is my breakfast!

YUM!

And here is a link to more from my teacher: (http://butterfliesandbumblebees.org)  Blessings upon you!