Category Archives: Green Ideas

Makeup remover

A makeup-related post on Tiny Choices, along with a recent survey on another site, made me aware that my makeup-free face is an exception in our culture, not the norm.  Not by a long shot.

I did wear makeup in the past, but never much, as explained in part of my comment on Tiny Choices:

“My mother was/is a wonderful role model for natural beauty with minimal or no makeup, and I have happily followed in her footsteps. At my most ‘makeup heavy’ (high school and college), I wore mascara, concealer, and powder (so my face wouldn’t be ‘shiny’), and possibly a bit of eye shadow. I never could stand how either foundation or lipstick felt, and I’m glad I listened to my body’s cues and minimized the chemical exposure.”

So what about that chemical exposure?Continue reading “Makeup remover”

Travel green

Ready to fly

If you’re flying it all starts in the airport.  You CAN bring your reusable water bottle with you, just make sure it’s 100% empty when you go through security.  To emphasize the emptiness, I usually leave the lid off.  Find a drinking fountain and refill once you get to the other side.  To further cut down on waste, bring your own snacks (we had some delicious pumpkin bread) — most of the food options in airports, especially smaller ones, are crappy anyway.  Security seemed to have no issues with our wooden utensils.Continue reading “Travel green”

Better than Cash for Clunkers

I just read about Canada’s cool Retire Your Ride program that allows people to trade in their old, higher polluting car for a newer, somewhat less polluting car.  Hold up, wrong program!  Wrong country!

Actually, Canada’s program is much cooler than that — it helps reduce the number of vehicles on the road and encourage alternate means of transportation by providing vouchers for bicycles or public transportation.  Neat idea, eh?

Click on the link above to find out more about the program — you can even view the presentation in French, if that’s your thing.

This kind of makes me wish I were Canadian — depending on how today goes, maybe we’ll move there.

 

Winterizing the bed

We survived October without turning the heat on in our apartment, which really wasn’t a big deal.  We might not have made it if we hadn’t been in Texas for the last week of October — in green terms, we would have done better to stay here and use a bit of heat rather than fly to Texas, but there were other considerations, like a good friend’s wedding and a visit with my grandparents.

Anyhow, we returned from our travels to a just above sixty degree apartment on Saturday night, and I knew it was time to pull out the flannel sheets and our (faux) down comforter.  However, after 12+ hours of traveling, I lacked the energy to change the sheets, so we just made do with the comforter.  Boy, did that keep us warm!

I rather expected Matthew to insist on some heat these past two days (at least to warm up the bathroom in the morning), but to my surprise, that hasn’t happened yet.  I’m happy putting it off as long as possible — in addition to energy saving considerations, forced air heating zaps any moisture in the air and makes things disgustingly dry.

I also have yet to put on the flannel sheets, but you can bet that they’re coming — they really do make such a big difference.  The tricky part is getting out of that nice, warm bed.  To make that at least a bit more appealing, I highly recommend a warm robe and good slippers 🙂

Wedding dress rescue

I’ll start with a brief recap of my wedding dress saga.  In an effort to be both green and frugal (i.e., not spend a ton of money on a dress that I would only be wearing once), I was determined to buy a used wedding dress.  After much hunting on Craigslist and Ebay, I finally bought a dress on Craiglist, paid for some alterations, and decided, about three weeks before the big day, that the dress was COMPLETELY wrong for me.

In a last minute attempt to correct the situation, I found another dress in an online-only department store collection, crossed my fingers, and placed the order.  Several days later, I held my breath as I opened the box, pulled out the dress, and slipped it on.  (Much more breath-holding ensued as I attempted to zip it.)

The girl who really didn’t even want ONE wedding dress ended up as a two-dress bride.  Ironic, no?

Although dress #2 (“the dress”) was, technically, a wedding dress, the fact that it didn’t scream “Wedding!” and could thus be worn on other occasions, justified the purchase.

Fast-forward almost two years, and I have yet to actually wear the dress for anything other than the wedding.  Matthew suggested we makes plans to get dressed up and go out to dinner.

I pulled the dress out of the closet, where it had hung, untouched (and unwashed) since immediately after the wedding, only to discover some serious stains.  There was my dress, my dress that was not going to be a one-time-only dressed, stained and unwearable.

I investigated dry-cleaning options, and a Treehugger article led me to this EPA list of dry cleaners across the country that offer alternatives to the really nasty traditional dry cleaning method that uses PERC.

Luckily I found a “greener” cleaner not too far away, but before I could get the dress there, I started investigating DIY options .  We were pretty sure the stains were either wine (maybe a rosé?) or beer — since the stains were almost two years old, I felt pretty pessimistic about anything, including dry cleaning, removing the stains — nothing to lose by taking a stab at it myself.

I started with a washcloth and some lukewarm water, gently washing the affected areas.  Lo and behold, it seemed to be working.  After treating all of the spots with the warm water, I tossed the dress in a large garment bag, grabbed a couple of other delicate items, and ran a small load on the permanent press setting.  I just happened to have some laundry detergent especially for delicate clothing.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a “before” picture of the stains,  so you’ll have to use your imagination — lots of brown colored splotches in a two-foot wide swath on the bodice of the dress.

I’m happy to report that after my careful home cleaning and air drying, my dress returned to its original glory, no dry cleaners, green or not, necessary!

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How green was my wedding bouquet?  Click here for the full story.