Walking Fido? Pick Up Some Trash While You Do It!

Every day I like to take my dog for a walk. Its good for him and it clears my head of all my worries of the day. A while ago I noticed that there was a lot of trash around my neighborhood and it really started to bother me. Whenever I see trash I always pick it up to throw away later but lately I've been collecting handfuls of trash. To make it easier on me I attached on of those doggie duty bag holders to the back of the leash so that whenever I see trash I can pull out a bag to put it in so I can throw it away later. I've started to notice a remarkable difference in my neighborhood; it looks a lot cleaner. It makes me feel so good when I know I'm doing something good for the environment. Now whenever I walk anywhere its an instinct to pick up trash I see on the ground! What small things do you guys to do help the environment?

Put Your Clothes On A Line!

Its Summer and its hot in most places. This Season is probably one of the hardest to eco-ofy. The reason is its hot which means people are going to be cranking up the AC and running water hoses 24/7. Every time I see a water hose left out running in the grass it makes me flinch and I think how many gallons of water are being wasted! Anyway, I have found a great way to save some energy (and money!) that will hopefully make up for some of that water being wasted! Instead of drying clothes, just hang them up on a line to dry. This will help cut your energy bill quite some bit! The problem with this tip is that it really only works in places that are dry and hot instead of humid and hot (sorry Floridians). But, there is a way to save money and the Earth even in those humid climates. It may not work to hang out your clothes (considering it'll take a good three days for them to fully dry!) so try drying (and washing) during off-peak hours. Off-peak hours are the hours that are priced cheaper because they aren't being used as frequently. To figure out the times click here.

Filtered Water Bottles

When I'm at School I like to bring a reusable water bottle so that way I'm not wasting plastic. I have a 24 ounce water bottle and I found that sometimes I will drink all of the water in the bottle before I get to my third hour. I usually just refill my bottle with the water from the water fountain and I'm fine. I'm not too picky with what water tastes like so the flavor doesn't really bother me, but I know it does bother some people. I was shopping at Target and I found this new thing called a Filtered Water Bottle. It has a filter that is connected to the lid of the bottle and the water goes through the filter before you drink it. It is made with BPA Free plastic and its proven to remove 90% of chlorine, bad taste, and heavy metals. So that mineral taste that you get when drinking from a faucet or water fountain will be almost diminished. Its good for 200 uses or three months, if your not much of a counter you will be able to tell by the taste of the water when its time to change the filter; the water won't taste as pure. The water bottle itself comes with one filter and costs 13 dollars and the replaceable filters cost around 11 dollars, which isn't to high if you think about it. You would have to buy four filters a year which would be about 44 dollars. Think how much you would be spending if you bought a years worth of bottle water, there is a major difference. So not only are you keeping thousands of plastic water bottles out of landfills BUT you are also saving yourself hundreds of dollars! If you want to check out the water bottle click here!

Would You Like A Spot of Tea?

Now, I am a huge tea lover. I like it iced, hot, sweetened, unsweetened, anyway you can make tea I drink it! So for all you tea lovers, like me, I'm going to share a few eco tips about tea! One is, if your gonna drink it opt for organic. The reason you should drink organic tea is because other teas have the possibly of being treated with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The conventional way of growing tea is pretty harmful to the environment as well, it leads to soil erosion and disease. Not to mention that the pesticides being sprayed on the plants are harmful to workers who have to harvest it. Teas that are certified organic do not treat the soil with pesticides or anything harmful to the environment. A few great brand of organic teas that I recommend are Tazo, Yogi, and Stash Teas. If your not into any of these brands check out your local Trader Joes or Whole Foods. All of their teas on the shelf are organic! Another great way to go green with tea is to compost the tea bags! They make a great natural soil for your garden! Using tea will allow your flowers to flourish without the need of any chemical fertilizers.

EOS Lip Balm

One night after my Ballet class I stopped by Walgreen's to pick up a leg wrap (I have terrible shin splints), and I was just shopping around and I came by an awesome little lip balm. I read the back of the product package and I found out that it was Eco-Friendly, had Shea Butter in it, was Paraben-Free, Gluten-Free, Petrolatum-free, and Phthalate-free! That won me over right there, plus it was 2 for $5 at my Walgreen's! Right when I got into my car I tore open the packaging and put some of it on. It was soooo soothing and smelled amazing. There are a total of four scents which are, Lemon Drop, Honeysuckle Honeydew, Sweet Mint, and Summer Fruit. I bought Summer Fruit and Honeysuckle Honeydew. Each flavor has a very nice, light scent that isn't over powering. I also found that these lip balms glide on so smoothly and it kept my lips moisturized for over two hours. So when your trying to give your lips some relief in an Earth Friendly way, check out EOS Lip Balms!

This Disaster Puts Oil In The Word Turmoil (Literally!)

As you guys may know right now, the oil spill is one of the biggest environment disasters as of right now. I have been keeping myself updated every single with this frenzy. It hurts me to think that there is millions of gallons of oil leaking into the Ocean. So many amazing things are being destroyed it! Such as animals, underwater plants, and spectacular coral reefs. There has already been a reported 23 Sea Turtles found dead, these Sea Turtles are endangered and there is only a reported 20,000-40,000 left IN THE WORLD. Those familiar creatures could sometime in the near future be gone forever! Its so scary to think about that those aren't the only animals that are in danger of being extinct! If more environment disasters occur, it could cause the Earth to lose amazing things. I mean, the Great Barrier Reef is basically disintegrating away! It makes me feel so antsy like I need to hurry up and visit all of these before the die away! Anyway, the point of this post was to explain ways YOU can help the clean up the oil spill! Now I don't mean flying all the way to areas that are affected by the oil spill although, that is an option! (Visit Here For More Details) An awesomely easy way to help is to donate your hair.Yes, I'm talking donating your hair. Organizations are collecting human hair and animal fur to use to absorb the oil. Sounds weird but it actually works! Just think about how much oil your hair absorbs after a couple of days of not showering! (Gross, I know, but now that can go toward a good cause!) Mats are being made out of hair and then placed on top of the oil, once they absorb as much as they can they place a special type of oyster mushroom that absorb the oil and turn it into a nontoxic compost! Amazing, right?! I'm thinking about cutting some of my hair right now! If you want to get involved visit http://www.matteroftrust.org/programs/hairmatsinfo.html!

Earth We Love You!

As you guys may know, today is Earth day. A day were we celebrate our beautiful Earth and all it has done for us. Its truly amazing if you ever stop to think about it. Our planet is capable of so many things, so its great if we just take this one day to thank it. It could mean turning off the lights and opening the blinds for natural light or just turning the AC up a few degrees. Even if you are just getting started to the whole "save the Earth" thing there are still plenty of ways YOU can help! A great way to started is to recycle! You can buy special trash cans from target that help you separate your recyclables. Most of them seperate Plastics, Paper, and Glass. You can find this adorable one here! Another great product that I have and personally love is the EVOLVE Shower head. Now what's cool about this thing is when you turn on your shower and let it run for a while to heat up it automatically turns to a trickle ones it gets to the perfect temperature. I love this because it saves so much water for when your not quite ready to jump in the shower yet but you still want to keep the water on to keep it warm. One your ready to hop in the shower, all you do is pull on a tab that hangs down to start it again. Another useful feature on this product is it has amazing water pressure and instead of the typical 3-5 gallons of water per minute flowing out of a regular shower head, it only uses 1.5 gallons of water per minute. That will save an amazing amount of water that is used during your shower. It also save you money on your water bill! This is a great low cost way to save the Earth and your wallet! Click here to learn more. I hope that these products will give your Earth Day a kick-off to a good start!

Eco- Friendly Friday!

From now on, every Friday I'm going to share with you guys some quick tips and Eco-Friendly stuff about my week! Sort of like a Tips of The Day but there will be more than just one! Like the picture? I made it especially for this (: I thought I did a good job! So for this Eco-Friendly Friday, I'm just talking about things that interested me this week. 

At my gym, they have a huge jug of water. Now, I usually bring my own reusable water bottle but I ran (literally) to the gym. So I just got water there. When I went to go get a cup I realized that they were using cups that were made from 20% recycled materials. It made me smile that they actually cared! So I searched online for good eco-friendly disposable cups and I found great ones! They are made from all corn and you can check them out here! They are called Green Stripe Corn Cups!

Right now is the perfect season to plant Strawberries! My mother and I were shopping around for a good strawberry pot! Oddly enough, we actually found one at TJ Maxx for 14 dollars and it was a good sized pot! We bought that right away and then we bough some strawberry plants. We haven't quite planted them yet so I can show you what it looks like but we will try to plant them this weekend. Then I'll keep you all updated! My mother and I have never actually grown Strawberries but we have grown Tomatoes and they have turned out great! Just make sure if and when you buy any type of fruit or veggie read and see how much sunlight and water they need! Well that's all I have for this Eco-Friendly Friday! Be sure to check back next week!

Anybody Out There?!

Hey everyone, just checking if anybody is out there! I haven't been getting any feedback so I wasn't sure if my posts were boring or if you guys are just shy. Anyway, I wanted to see if there were any requests. I really enjoy finding out what you guys want to see on this blog. Comment below telling me what you'd like to see! For instance, Eco-friendly yoga mats or Organic Lip gloss. I'm excited for what you guys have to say!

Gotta Gas Station In Those Roots?

Many of us girls always have to deal with either flat lifeless hair or greasy hair at the end of the day. It gets so frustrating because it doesn't matter how much time you spend on your hair, it could still happen! Many dry shampoos out their are either very expensive or they aren't very friendly to the environment. Once again, Google being my best friend, I researched homemade dry shampoo recipes. Each one of these recipes are easy and organic! So go ahead, give them a go!

Cornstarch and Cornmeal Shampoo

1 cup of Cornstarch

1 cup of Cornmeal 

Mix them together and place them in a container. If you want, you can add essential oils to them to make them smell good.

Oatmeal and Herb Shampoo

1/2 cup of any favorite crushed fragrance herb

1/2 cup oatmeal

1 teaspoon of baking soda

Mix all the ingredients together and store in a cool dry place.

Eco-Friendly Ways To Dye Easter Eggs!

Happy Easter everyone! Whenever I dye Easter Eggs the first thing I notice is the smell of the dye. Its smells so disgusting to me because of the vinegar mixing with all those nasty chemical ingredients. Of course, once your done dying the Eggs you usually dump it outside or down your sink and then it leaves that icky smell for days. (Yuck!) So for all my lovely readers, I did some research and found a great eco-friendly way to color eggs! 

Materials:

Grape Juice (For Purple)

Red Cabbage (For Blue)

Spinach (For Green)

Carrot Tops, Lemon Peels, or Orange Peels (For Yellow)

Coffee or Black Walnut Shells (For Brown)

Yellow Onion Skins (For Orange)

Beets or Cranberries (For Pink)

Red Onion Skins (For Red)

Water

Stove

Boiling Pot

Vinegar

Eggs

Directions:

First boil your eggs in water with a bit of vinegar and one of the materials for the colors above. Then allow it to simmer for 15 minutes. Then your all done! Simple, right?! Hope you all have an amazing and environmentally-safe Easter!

Earth Hour 2010

Guess what, its that time of year again! At 8:30 on Saturday March 27th everyone around the world is going to turn off all of their lights! That's right, its Earth hour! I believe that this day should just be created a Holiday for everyone to use as little electricity possible! I love when I go outside and look around my neighborhood at about 8:45 on the 27th and almost everyones lights are out! I feel its an empowering experience because when you see lights out you know that someone cares enough about the Earth. If you feel your going to be bored for an hour without electricity, then plan something fun to do that doesn't involve any power! If you can't think of any ideas, I have some suggestions for you! If you want more information about Earth Hour then click here!

• Play a board game with a flashlight
• If you have an outside fire pit, sit around it and roast marshmellows
• Have a late picnic outside in the grass under the stars
• For people with a pool or hot tub, take a dip in it!
• Light candles in one room (be careful not to set anything on fire!) and read a book by the candle light!
• Go outside and play a sport with your friends and family
• Plan a small block party outside, where everyone brings food and drinks to share!

Go Organic!

Have you ever bought an apple and thought wow this thing is the size of my head! If so, that's defiantly not an organic apple! An apple is suppose to be around the size of the palm of your hand and when I mean palm, I mean that you can actually close over half of your hand around it. Now, that may seem small to you, but it is the natural size of the fruit. Natural size is the size of the fruit without growth hormones added to it. Growth hormones are added to fruits, vegetables, and meats to encourage excessive growth in a small amount of time. These are very unhealthy to the Earth and your body. When you eat produce or any food in that matter that has growth hormones in it, it adds unnatural substances to your body. Over time this can be very damaging on your immune system. The way it harms the Earth is it adds chemicals to soil which makes it become tainted and infects everything that grow in and around that area. Now, if this information is new to you this may sound pretty scary, but no worries there's an easy solution. Its pretty easy to figure out if something is Organic or not. You can tell by the size and most of the time if its truly Organic there will be some sort of label that says USDA certified. If you want to avoid the guessing game with your food then search around for a local farmers market. You can find all of your favorite in-season fruits and veggies. Sometimes you can even find meat there too!

Eco-Friendly Homemade Glass Cleaner

Here's a great tip I found from SparkPeople that I thought I'd share with you. Its a recipe to make your own glass cleaner (i.e. mirrors, window, tables). All you need is vinegar and water. Yep, that's it, just those two common household items. You mix 1/4 cup of vinegar with one cup of water and there you go, your new environmentally friendly cleaner. If your not digging the vinegar smell of it you can add 4-5 drops of any essential oil such as lavender or peppermint.

Feeling Creative?

Once again I was surfing Internet and I was just thinking about random things. Like how much I spend on haircare products a year or how much plastic is wasted from the containers and bottles of the haircare products. Then I though, well I wonder if you can make your own hairspray. So I research some more and found out you can! Its so simple too and it will be saving tons of plastic and money! All you need is a lemon (or orange for dryer hair), water, rubbing alcohol, and a plastic spray bottle (a reusable one, of course!) First, you chop up the lemon or orange but leave the peel on. Then you place it in two cups of water and heat it on the stove. Allow it to boil until there is only half of what you began with left. Once it gets to the right amount, strain it a few times until all the extra pieces are out. After, add one ounce of rubbing alcohol in it as a preservative. Then place it into your spray bottle and keep it stored in your fridge. You can leave it in your bathroom, but if you keep it in the fridge it allows it to last longer. It only lasts two weeks when it is unrefrigerated. If you plan on making your own hairspray for a while, then go the extra mile and decorate your spray bottle! It'll keep it fun and cute, plus if your storing it in the fridge then you will know that its your hairspray and not something else! If your not too sure where you could find a plastic spray bottle, check out your local drugstore or target and check the travel section! Remember, using this tip will help the Earth and your wallet! I give credit to free-beauty-tips.glam.com for this tip!

What do you think?!

I was trying to think of ideas for this blog over the past week to spice it up. So I decided that I was going to start doing themes or try to weekly. Meaning, one week will have the theme be fruit and research all the ways you could use fruit in a eco-friendly way, where to find organic fruit, and more things! Then the next week would be another theme and for that whole week all the tips and reviews would revolve around that theme! So let me know if you guys like this idea! I love getting feedback, it allows me to improve my blog and make it the best it can be! Also, if you enjoy this idea give me some ideas for themes! Another thing I wanted to talk about was I was looking for a symbol or a logo to represent my site, that I could place on the site, on pictures, and mroe! If you guys have any ideas for that or want to make me one please comment below! Thanks for all the support!

An All-Natural Way To Clean Your Toliets

I was watching the news the other day and a segment came on about being a "smart shopper." Which has tips about saving money and being economically aware. They started talking about ways to clean your toliet and keeping it clean. It included simple household items such as a lemon and table salt. They sliced a lemon in half and sprinkled a great about of salt on it. Then they rubbed it all around the inside of the toliet and the outside. Not only did it sanitize it but it removed that nasty, rusty ring around the inside of the toliet. Now that truely amazed me because not many cleaning products can remove that. Also, you don't have to worry about inhaling the cleaning product chemicals anymore! All you smell is pure lemon! There is no reason you shouldn't try this tip! It saves the Earth from nasty chemicals, plastic (from the container a toliet cleaner would come in), and money! Don't be afraid to try this all around the house, it works on everything!

Gaiam

If your looking for great eco-friendly and organic products you should check out Gaiam. They a great variety of things such as bed spreads, candles, fitness products, clothing, and more! I love to spend hours just browsing through the website. I buy a majority of all my fitness products from this site. Everything they are selling is cruelty-free and 100% eco-friendly. Although the website is sort of high priced, there is a money-back guarantee and just think of how good you are doing the Earth. If you sign up for their emailing lists, you will get sales, clearances, and new deals sent directly to you!

Eco-Friendly New Year's Resolutions!

I know this is sorta late but better late than never! If you still haven't decided on a good New Year's Resolution that you could stick to then try some of these!

• Stop using and buying plastic water bottles! Invest in a nice, insulated water bottle. This is one of my resolutions and I've been sticking with it ! I've noticed that since I've stopped using plastic water bottles that I've been drinking more water, weird right? If all you buy for water is in plastic water bottles, then you can buy a nice Brita Filter (These are so fun! You can get special filters if you want flavored water!) or start buying the huge jugs of water. (Which is a lot cheaper!) Click here to learn about delivery of water to your house!
• Start using reusable canvas bags when grocery shopping. Like this one!
• Eat more organic food and less processed. Even if you eat only 5% organic food and 95% processed food, it still helps the environment!
• Have a recycling bin for everything!
• Watch the news daily. This will allow you to see what the traffic is like so you know what highway is congested and where there has been accidents so you can avoid them and save gas!
• Carpool with a friend or co-worker
• Use recycled or reusable lunch bag and utensils for lunches.
• Switch your light bulbs to environmentally friendly ones!

Tired of Hand Washing Dishes?

Well, now you have an excuse to use the dishwasher or to buy one! When you wash dishes by hand you use around 5-10 gallons of water depending on how many dishes you wash. With a dish washer you only use 5.8-8 gallons of water. I know that doesn't sound like much of a difference but think about it, your washing a huge load of dishes with a lot less water. Plus, its less work for you! Its easier on the environment oh and not to mention your hands! If your still not convinced, don't forget that you won't have to dry the dishes either! They are steam dried by using the left over water!