Herbs Contained!

This morning Megs sent me a photo on Pininterest:

via Townmouse

I was so excited that I told her I was doing it!  Today!  I have oregano in my current garden that is completely out of control and I was contemplating just getting rid of it all together.

But we also put a patio in a few years ago and I've always disliked how it met up with the lawn:

It just looks like a mess and the lawn overtakes it and the leaves get stuck etc. This looks a lot like the picture above, ha!  Listen, It's spring things are a little haggard.

THIS will be where my herb pots will go!  Yes, I can see it now!  

So, I dug some holes as best as I could because I'm weak and our lawn is filled with giant tree roots and rocks.  Then I put some weed blocker down to hopefully really just kill the grass (this is wishfull thinking which I do often).  I'm glad I am doing this project when husband is not here because Iknow he would have me leveling these pots.

I filled the pots with dirt and put the herbs I had in.  and mulched around the pots. I really love it.  Now just a few more holes for mint, parsley, thyme, cilantro... oh boy!  In a few months I'm sure it will look like that chateaux's!

Planning for Spring Gardening

Little Man helping me start impatiens for the front of the house
it's a very shady section

The weather has absolutely been so inspiring... my gardening bug is twitching.  It was further fueled by my Mom's gift of a flower gardening book for my birthday.  It shows how to plan out your beds, talks about different kinds of gardens, and really makes you dream of the secret garden in your backyard.  

Last Year's Tulips outside

I know from experience that this does not happen easily.  The hardest part is weeding!  Keeping up on weeding with a child under 3, not the easiest task.  I don't like to use weed killer or anything of that nature.  So, last year I basically gave up after a wonderful bright display of tulips came up, I just watched as the weeds took over.  Ignoring it almost all together.

But, it didn't make me as happy as I thought it would, the not weeding.  This year I plan to get back on my diligent weeding path.  I'm a little worried about my tulips because they are already totally coming out of the ground, and it being February, I just hope they make it.  My husband plans on doing a little vegetable gardening (which most likely means I will be doing some vegetable gardening).  I plan on sticking to my flowers.  Maybe trying to change up the layout in the backyard, but mostly concentrating on starting a cutting garden which will make me pretty happy(beyond the weeds).  We are attempting to start some impatiens from seed for the front of the house, they really did well in the shade.

A few of last year's tulips
so bright and beautiful proving these colors exist in nature!

<3 Anna

Snack Pouch

My Little Man has to bring a snack each day to his pre-school.  For awhile I have been just slipping things into a ziploc bag and trying to remember to save it and use it again each day.  I fail at this.  So, I decided I needed to make something specifically for his snacks so I could cut down on my waste.  This spawned the snack pouch!

I decided I needed to have the word "Snacks" embroidered on it... just one small problem, I don't know how to embroider.  I didn't let this stop me!  I just thread the needle with some embroidery floss and went at it.  I'm sure there is a correct way of embroidering things but since we are talking about a pre-schooler's snack bag I figured I'd be safe in just going for it.  The orange color I was using had been left over from the blue booties.  I thought little goldfish would be cute on the bag because he always likes goldfish mixed with almonds for his snack!  I just drew the little fish on the bag with colored pencil and stitched back and forth to the outer edges of the line I had drawn.

I wanted a secure closure so I decided to sew a velcro closure.  It's really tight and nothing will be falling out.  I'm a little weary that crumbs might get stuck in the velcro but I'm hoping they will wash out when I wash the bag on the weekends.

This was really simple to put together. You basically cut a rectangle double the size of the actual bag you want.  Sew your velcro on the top of each side.  Then with right sides together just sew up the sides and secure your seam with a zig-zag stitch.  Done!

<3 Anna

I'm linking up here:
Craft-O-Maniac
Sumo's Sweet Stuff
Polly Want a Crafter?
Sew Can Do
Making the World Cuter
Marvelously Messy
Sew Chatty

And You Can Put It In Your Pocket

Here is an ingenious little illustration that you can actually print out and keep in your purse or pocket if you've been having trouble keeping up with all this do I or don't I organic shopping.

If you visit Cool Hunting you can print it out.  I really love when things are pocket-size! (via texturism)

Addictive Food Site Alert!

I meant to add this to my Earth Day Green list mainly because of it's name: Green Kitchen Stories.

Megs first brought this to my attention when she sent me a link to this amazing looking and perfect for spring/summer birthdays Strawberry Pancake Cake:

Lately I have been having overwhelming cravings for smoothies!  This Coconut Coffee Shake looks beyond scrumptious:

Take a look around Green Kitchen Stories and start drooling!

You Know My Love For Planters!

Ok, so you know my love for make-your-own (also known as D.I.Y, lol) planters : here and here.  I'm also pretty sure you have now gathered that my love of TOMS shoes is running pretty deep these days.  Well in honor of earth day they have combined two of my favorite things!!

Ok, so I'm aware that this is kind of funny!  It will also take me awhile to actually have some TOMS that I even want to not wear!  I think it would be really cute with the board painted the right way and in a bedroom setting.  Seems to me it could be done with a lot of extra shoes lying around that you aren't on your donation list and that you want to look at for awhile.

Kids & Caps

So, to follow along with my last post, I came across a program brought to us by Aveda (via good eggs) in which you can enroll your school in a program to collect rigid polypropylene caps that they send out to be made into new caps.  Seems like a great way to get our kids involved!

For those of you who don't know, you cannot put the lids and caps of your products in with your recyclables.  It is really annoying and makes you wonder where they all go (perhaps to the 5Gyres)

Image via: LowCarbonHome

David Letterman Taught Me Something?

I was recently watching a segment on David Letterman's show featuring Captain Charles Moore.  It was pretty eye-opening regarding the massive amounts of plastics being used and trashed by the world.  There is trash in an area of the Pacific called the North Pacific Gyre (Great Pacific Garbage Patch) that is basically filled with shards and pieces of plastic waste.  The plastic pieces are even filling beaches in Hawaii.  It's pretty disturbing and the outlook on it frankly, looks bleak.  


Please visit Fake Plastic Fish because the site has a great outline of the episode, some unbelievable facts:


- After just 3 days of tracking trash down the L.A. and San Gabriel rivers, Captain Moore found 2.3 billion pieces of trash weighing 30 tons on its way to the ocean.

- Ultimately, we consume these pollutants when we eat fish.

Visit 5 Gyres website which really explains Marine Pollution thoroughly and gives a lot of information for those interested.

What can we do?  Plastic has changed our world and will never go away and is really quite useful, but you can make a bit of difference by trying to use reusable plastics as much as possible and also take an extra minute to recycle your plastics, bring your own bags to the grocery, and avoid buying products with excess packaging.  You are the consumer... what you buy matters!  

Stay tuned for the next post and I'll let you know about a great program for those pesky caps that can't  go in your recycling bin!

It's Earth Day!

In honor of Earth Day, I'm going to try and post some Green inspired posts.  It's one of my favorite topics anyway!

Google's Take very pretty jungle/ rain forest fairy land. 

Shampoo Warnings: Know what You're Scrubbing With

I recently embarked on my own soap-making adventure.  The results have been less than stimulating so far, but I will try a new batch once I reach my new home in Queens.  I will be certain to update here with any results of note.

The reasons are vast to make your own soap, cosmetics and even cleaning products.  Although there are a lot more options out there it seems to me that reading the labels and knowing what to look for (just like with food) is a good place to start.  Herbal Essences, a brand I used a lot as a teenager is taking steps to cut down on 1,4 dioxane... which according to most sites is a carconigenic chemical and is bad, bad, bad. " Herbal Essences contains so much dioxane, in fact, that it should carry a warning label required for cancer-causing chemicals under California's Proposition 65." (via fast company).


Don't just trust a shampoo if it says "herbal", or "cruelty free" read this buying guide from National Geographic's, Green Guide for more answers.  Beware of 1,4 dioxane, diethanolamine (DEA), formaldehyde, fragrance and parabens and check all your cosmetics for the Green Guide's Dirty Dozen.

You can get a triple pack of  Burt's Bees Shampoo on Overstock for $22.99 which isn't bad and passes!

You know it's really questionable whether the amounts of these chemicals can really effect you or not.  I think it is a viable assumption that using any with regards to a little child's body is probably not a good idea.  And really if you have to question it do you really want to?

Hummingbirds LIVE!

My absolute favorite thing right now is watching these hummingbirds on Ustream.  The Mom hummingbird is named Phoebe... and she is sitting on her little one named Sassy.  Sassy was just hatched on January 19th!
You have to check this out for yourself.  It is so soothing and beautiful.  Follow this link to view: http://cam.dellwo.com/
Enjoy!

Roofs of Green!

July 15, 2009: We took a stroll around the The Wild Center in Tupper Lake, NY and noticed this “Green” roof.  As you can see there are living plants growing atop the building’s roof.  Upon further investigation I learned that: A green roof stays cooler during the summer than a traditional roof, and reduces a building’s energy consumption. A thirsty roof also soaks up rain to reduce the amount of water running into storm sewers.

Just so you know I will someday convice my family that living in some sort of hobbit house with a “green” roof would be ideal. 

The Results Are In!

I know you all were dying to know how the Herbs turned out. Well, they are all growing like crazy and love their window sill! I'll be cooking with these in no time!

A Springtime Bag

So, I've been having what I would describe as Painter's Block. So, I decided to finish up some sewing projects. First thing on the list was this lined satchel/grocery type bag. I made it out of a linen type fabric. It's really soft and I love it. I printed my own little design on it using my Gocco printer (yes, finally!). It was a good first attempt, but I think I will make one more just to iron out the kinks.

Flowers in March!!

A Rogue Crocus bloomed at the house yesterday! This one snuck in behind the garden against the basement!

Herb-tastic Spring Fever!!

Things are getting crazy in my indoor plant zone! I decided I wanted an indoor herb garden to partner with the outside veggies I'm going to plant this year. I attacked target for bowls, yes, I'm telling you this is the thing to do (each one was $1.99 and the matching dish was $.99)! I priced little planters, and none were modern enough or the perfect size for the small amount of room and herbs I really needed. So, I found these bowls that came with their own little dishes to sit in... drilled a hole in the bottom... perfecto!



I also made signs for each herb because if you are anything like me, I can't tell the difference between these suckers! I drew little pictures of each herb and cut out the paper. I was going to attach them to toothpicks, but we didn't have any so I just used chop sticks! I think the chop sticks actually work a lot better! I just taped the stick to the back of the paper and voila!


Now all they have to do is grow! I'll keep you posted... two weeks we should see some action!

Homey Herbs

via (http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/)

Keeping up with a small green theme today, I would also like this indoor herb holder complete with it's own scissors (you know I love those but would totally steal them from myself all the time). I had herbs growing during the summer but would love to have them growing year-round.

Non-Pricey Planters

I really enjoy gardening, and I have begun to bring my horticultural habit indoors. As I began my journey to find cute planters I realized they all are kind of pricey. I am not sure if it is just me or if other people have noticed this, but I found myself wanting much more than I could afford for a hobby.

It finally dawned on me to look for plastic mixing bowls with neat colors and shapes, especially during the great sales in the Dept. stores. I ended up being able to get three "planters" for the price of one real one (and my mom got this one for me so double bonus). Totally proud of myself,



and had the husband drill a hole in the bottom with a regular drill bit for drainage. Totally fun and modern planter for 1/3 the price!

Tiley Fauna

Water Tiles, Christopher Raymond
These are pictured on The Royal College of Art website. I am not sure what exactly is going on, but I believe they are tiles with plants growing on them which is wonderful. It leads me to my next activity of the day which is to re-pot my houseplants which are completely out of control and struggling to remain alive. Stay tuned for the outcome which will look nothing like these awesome tiles, but I'm not that cool.

An Earthy Defense

via(http://hafsteinnjuliusson.com)