go planet it's yo earth day!

Today is Earth Day - YAY! And if you already didn't feel I was hippie enough from my 4.20 post earlier this week, then maybe this will seal the deal for you. To be honest I'm not a hippie in any sense of the word. OK maybe that's a lie. I own a pair of birks (yep, birth control shoes) that I've been rocking since I was a sophomore in high school (circa 1992 - it was my surfer boy crush phase that I never really grew out of, Monique you will appreciate that), and I have owned at least two different tie-dyed shirts in my life, maybe even 4? And yes, one was a Grateful Dead shirt. I still wish I had that GD shirt (the other was a $5.00 DMB shirt purchased after a show in Florida - I currently use it as the t-shirt I wear while dying my hair at home). Don't judge me DMB fans, I gave up on him after he got married. It had nothing to do with his bride, I think I just out grew his music - when he went all electric a part of me died. I still love his first three albums and listen to them from time to time.

via bing • We miss you Jerry! ox

Anydoobie, let's see, what else makes me 'hippie-ish' in others eyes... AH! I only wash my hair about twice a week. True story. I usually air dry it at night and curl it later, or I take time to blow it dry straight and that will last me quite a few days. I'm tempted to go for the whole "no poo" method but I haven't braved that yet. What else... hmmm, I love granola and have started to think about making my own and lately I've been trying this new way of thinking to eat as little pre-packaged food as possible.

via bing • NOM! These make me hungry!

Bottom line is I don't really think of myself as a hippie, maybe a neo-hippie. And for the record I don't have an issue with earth loving, do good people who love nature and the like - I guess you might call them tree huggers. LOVE them! As a joke I always say I could never be a hippie, first off, I absolutely hate the smell of patchouli and if I brought it into the house M would die, he hates it too. It's too over powering for me, however I do like most scents that smell of wood, earthy scents, who knows. (That being said I'm not prejudice - I know all hippie folks don't smell like patchouli or like it - just making jokes here, please don't take offense). I think M can tolerate my hair not being washed all the time, but I doubt he'd take kindly to me not bathing or being opposed to deodorant. We would probably have issues if it came to that. No worries here... hair is one thing... B.O. is quite a different thing.

Lately I've been doing my best to reduce the amount of products we bring into our house. I have restricted myself from purchasing new shampoos or lotions just because I think I need it, or the commercials on TV tell me I do. I can now confidently say I have only one set of shampoo and conditioner in the shower stall, 1 body wash, 1 bar of soap, a razor and some conditioner (coconut for shaving), a bottle of Head and Shoulders (for flaky days) and 2 type of face wash. One for exfoliation and one for dry days/zit days. Seriously for me, that is great. I used to rock at least 3 different combos of shampoo and conditioner. We never had a shower caddy big enough to hold it all. Now everything M and I use fits on one nice shower caddy. I've decided that once my shampoo and condition are finished I can buy new, not before then. I stopped being the Girl Scout girl (always be prepared) that always had to buy stuff before the bottle was finished, or in bulk - this usually led to a whole closet full of half used shampoo, conditioner, shower gels etc. This same method applies to my face lotion and eye creams. I have to scrap the jar empty before moving on. This has helped keep our closets and medicine cabinets clutter free and more money in my pocket. (read: to pay bills).

This thought process also flows over into the kitchen and with cleaning supplies. We currently have about 4-5 different bottles of Frebreeze air fresheners in our house. I can honestly say two of them are for holiday scents and I will save them until Thanksgiving and Christmas come again. I will not however purchase any more until the other 2 have been finished. Hey, poop smells we all know this... you must deal with it, at least in my house.

That being said same goes for the pantry. Each week I try really hard to raid the pantry to look for items I can use up to make not only my grocery bill cheaper but make sure to use up all that I can without waste. M and I used to be really horrible about wasting left overs. I've been trying to get better about that lately. Instead of eating out all week for lunch we eat at home - usually sandwiches but when we can we try to get the most out of each meal eating the left overs for lunch.

We took it upon ourselves this year to plant some vegetables, herbs and flowers in our yard. I'm happy to say that our pumpkin seeds are going nuts, we have a tomato plant with blooms on it and a pepper plant that is thriving. Add to that all our sprouts of wild flowers and our herb garden that's growing I'd have to say that's pretty green of us. I hate purchasing herbs at the grocery store. Either they give you too much in a bundle and you never use it all, leading to waste - HATE! Or you don't get enough and have to purchase 2 packages, thus leading to waste again - I HATE IT! So now it's nice to go outside, snip off some cilantro, basil or rosemary, just enough for my meal and know that I'm not wasting a single bit of expensive store purchased herbs. It feels good.

via bing • lil' herb garden of my dreams

I've tried to take on this mentality with my clothing as well. I know I don't need to purchase the latest trend, it's fun but in the end I am wasting money. I try to buy accordingly, classic items I know I will use for a few years that are timeless - and every once in a while I will splurg on shoes or something fun that brightens up my wardrobe, without going crazy. (I had my 20's to do that).  I'm an avid donator to places like the Salvation Army and Goodwill. When I get tired of something or I know it won't fit - I take it there to help out someone else, instead of tossing it and filling up landfills. Currently I have 3 bags full of clothing, some items still with tags that I will probably never need again. NEED being the key word. I'm sure the trend will sprout again and I'll wish I still had that glittered t-shirt with handcuffs on it (don't ask) but the bottom line is I won't NEED it. Need and want are two very different things - I've had to learn this through my 20's and now finally enforce it through my 30's.

Lastly, remember my long winded blog about aluminum water bottles? Well I still haven't found a new replacement for the current 2 that I have but I've been using them all day, everyday at work. M and I haven't purchased any bottled water at home in over 3 weeks. After reusing the last batch we bought a few times we disposed of them, but instead of buying more we just filled up a regular pitcher full of tap water and set it in the fridge. This has eliminated us from using a ton of ice for ice water and stopped us from creating more waste for the city dump. The water stays cool and while it's not as convenient for on the go as our old plastic bottle habit was - I really haven't noticed the issue. I have a sports bottle to fill up for working out and otherwise a glass works just as well.  I thought about buying a filtered water pitcher and then realized that it was SO expensive and I drink tap water everyday anyway - why bother filtering it right now, right? I've been drinking tap water for 33 years and I'm still kicking.

I got thinking about all this after reading Lora's great blog, Fever, about Earth Day. If you get a chance stop by and see her. She has some GREAT tips and homemade beauty ideas that I am really ready to try. 5 CENTS FOR ACNE CREAM - I'LL TAKE IT! Thank you for that girl!

What are you doing to celebrate earth day and to better this planet?