Happy Earth Day! What’s in Your Closet?

With earth day approaching, I decided to start by doing something motivational, that actually doesn’t really help the earth… But it gets me in the spirits of earth day! I created a fake outfit on a shopping website. More on that in a bit. I actually treat every day like Earth day, trying to recycle, buy organic food item, pick up garbage on the street to throw away, don’t buy things that I don’t need, and don’t throw too much garbage out. I like to make things I need instead of buying too many impulse items, and I look for used items before new things, if the case permits. I digress.

So, I got an email from Polyvore, a clothing and design website where you can easily create a board with clothing items, or home design items, to get your creative juices flowing with a simple drop and drag method, and you can also shop from the site with the items you see. It’s pretty fun. They are having a contest for earth day, with contestants creating an outfit for for the occassion. I chose all organic items for my outfit. Organic cottons, beeswax lip balms, organic tea, and stones. No leathers, weird unnatural plastics, or polyesters. I know it’s easy to just choose green colored items, but I wanted take it a step further to choose actual earth friendly items. Which has me thinking about my real clothes. How earth friendly am I?

I’m pretty earth friendly, actually, and here’s how I know:

• I buy from thrift stores at least 50% of the time. (Some things, you shouldn’t buy used…)
• I buy from places like TJ Max, where they buy overstock items and keep them from being wasted. (I got Teva’s for $40 instead of $135!)
• I don’t by what I don’t need. I don’t “go shopping” for the sake of doing so. If I’m bored, I watch TV, read a book, clean the apartment, or go for a walk.
• I buy things that are comfortable, usually made from cotton. I should take the time to check labels of clothing more often, but I’m such a picky shopper, if I actually find something I love, I will buy it. It’s a rare occasion.
• I’m not an impulse shopper. I’ve never had the urge to spend money for no reason. I’m too practical for that.
• I recycle my old clothes, unless they are in terrible shape. Then I try to make something out of the old fabric.
• I shop for what I need in person, instead of buying online, cutting back on shipping. I know, I know, clothes are “shipped” to a store in the first place. But let me have this one.

So here’ s my outfit I put together:

Organic Earth Day Outfit by roxanne-hembd featuring slim straight leg jeans

My fun outfit! It’s got layers for any weather. Of course the umbrella is nesessary. You never know when it’s going to rain in April, or in Wisconsin in general. There’s another fun site, www.practicallygreen.com where you can take a little test to see how “Green” you are, and find out what you can do in almost every situation to become a little more earth friendly. I recommend it to everyone. Especially home owners.

Happy Earth day!

2 Ingredient Winter Soup

The other week the Design team and I went to the bosses house for a wine and TV night, and the boss presented all of us with her favorite soup. After we were all raving about how delicious it was, she shared with us her secret recipe, and we were shocked to find out it only had 2 ingredients! I’ll spill the good news with you:

Step 1: the Soup-

This delicious soup is Organic, and available at local grocers in the organic/ all natural section. I got mine at the World Market in their food section.

Step 2: Add Pesto-

Once you bring your soup to a nice simmer on the stove, you add a few scoops of pre-made Pesto, to your taste specifications. I added 3 small spoon-fulls stirring well after adding. I got this Pesto at the World Market too. This is the BEST store bought Pesto I’ve ever found, and at only $4 it was a steal!

After your yummy soup is all done, you can add shaved italian cheese to the top like a nice parmesan and have some sliced toasted french bread for dipping and you have a delicious gourmet meal right at home. So fantastic for a cold night. We had it last night after we put our Christmas Tree up. What’s your favorite family recipe?

The Truth Behind Food Labels…

Do you ever wonder what it really means when you see things on food in the grocery store like “Free Range”, “Organic” or “Antibiotic-Free”? I’d like to believe that they mean what I want them to mean. Cool, it’s organic! It’s all natural, and good for me, and yay, no pesticides! But does it really mean all of those things? Well, thanks to a little article that I found in a stack of papers, I found out! And I’ll share my fresh found knowledge with you…

Organic: Food with an “Organic” label comes from a  farm or a plant that uses no synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, or hormones, and is certified by the USDA inspector.

rBGH-Free: This means the animals were given growth hormones that could possibly raise your risk for cancer. It’s also a good sign, but not a guaranty- that you are buying from an eco friendly farm.

Antibiotic Free: Giving farm animals antibiotics too often contributes to water pollution and creates drug resistant bacteria in animals like cows- causing more cases of tough to treat food borne illnesses, like e-coli.

Pasture raised: This applies to animals that grazed on grass and weren’t fattened on grain, so it cuts down on large scale, waste producing agriculture needed to grow feed.

Free Range: Unfortunately, the chickens didn’t have the fresh air, wandering through the fields life that we all hoped they did. The USDA considers just 5 minutes of outdoor access per day enough.

Hormone Free: This is legit when it comes to meat and dairy, but don’t pay more for poultry with this label: The government prohibits the use of hormones on chickens anyways.

 A little inside look into food labels. Thanks Glamour, April 2007!  Happy shopping, and healthy eating!