Green Valentines

Valentines Day is coming. Just a few short days and our children will be coming home from school with loads of cards and candy. I'd like to suggest just a few simple ways of making your Valentine's a little bit greener.

1. Instead of buying paper cards, see what you have at home. Get creative with old card stock you've previously used and aren't using anymore.

2. Bake homemade treats instead of cards or boxed candies.

3. If you're really brave, go ahead and make homemade recycled paper with scraps at your house. There are numerous places you can find recipes for this. Make Stuff.com offers a recipe. I haven't tried this one, so I don't know how great it is, but it's worth a shot and a fun activity for the kids!

4. Print small notes, 20 to a sheet, with a short message from your child on the computer and stick it to a sucker as an easy way to save paper in the process.

5. Recycle your old magazines to make cute messages. This project is for older kids, but it's a fun one. Lay a strip of clear packing tape down, cut small clippings from old magazines, laying each piece along the tape to create a fun message. Then, lay another strip of tape on top of that, trim the ends, and you've got a fun message that used your old magazines.

Have a Happy and Greener Valentines Day!

Some ideas were retrieved from The Green Guide where you can find more ideas like this!

It's time to Freecycle!

I know we've talked a lot recently about recycling, but really it's so important. It's also one way every single one of us can contribute to helping the environment. There is a group out there called Freecycle. Many may have heard of it. It's thousands of people that join together forming groups online to recycle many of their household items rather than throwing them away.
I love this idea! It's amazing the things I've seen be offered. Not only are people offering free items for others to have, but we are saving enormous amounts of space in landfills. This is one organization I highly recommend for anyone within the US.
Take a quick minute to visit the Freecycle main website to see if it's something you may find benefit participating in. I've sure enjoyed it!

Recycling Fever

With Faythe's most recent en devour at her school, I think it's time we all implemented some new recycling techniques at home. For many, I've been told, the idea of recycling is a bit overwhelming. It seems like a ton of added effort and many times it's hard to make the distinction in your mind that each and every bottle, can, etc. is worth that effort. So, put together a system that works for you. I'll go ahead and tell you how I've done things, but make sure you do it at your home in a way that reduces the amount of effort it takes for you to recycle. The easier it is for everyone in your home, the more likely they will be to participate.

For the longest time I kept all of my recycling bins outside. I'd have a small bag in the kitchen that I'd fill with recyclables and when it was full I'd go out and sort it. Not only was this small bag always over flowing, it made my kitchen look messy all the time. Half the time my dear husband would end up just throwing it all away, rather than dealing with it. There had to be a better way. Then, I moved here to Germany where we had no choice but to find a solution!
I've now got several small trash cans lining one area of my kitchen. One is for food trash, quickly degradable things. The next bin is for regular trash, the items I can't recycle and aren't food. Next is my recyclables. I combine all my tins, foils, and plastics because it is removed all together. Lastly, is my paper. I've color coded each can either by the bag I put in it or the can itself, so even my 3 yr old can figure out exactly where each item should go.

My kitchen is fairly small, but with these neatly lined up cans the room doesn't seem cluttered with recycling or trash as it once did. It's also already sorted for me. I don't have to sort everything once I take it outside. Top it off, I'm no longer going behind the children to dig out of the trash all the items that should have been recycled. I've found this to be a whole lot less time consuming and frustrating for every member of my family; but, like I said, develop a system that works for your family. And please do let us know what works for you! Happy green living!

Name Change!

Hello!  Wow, Darcy has been doing a wonderful job of contributing to this blog!  Thank you for that!  Your posts are wonderful!  Since I am now sharing this blog with you, I've changed the name of it to reflect that.  I have enjoyed blogging more frequently and I am happy to share that with you.  Now I feel a bit of competition tho...I can't let Darcy out blog me! haha

Some of the readers of this blog may know that my "real" job is that of elementary school teacher.  I do what ever I can to be "green" in my classroom.  Since I am "techie" some of my assignments are paperless.  I reuse every piece of paper I can.  If we are practicing something that may require a lot of paper, we use dry erase boards.  But there is still a fair amount of waste school wide.  I've spoken to our lead custodian about recycling and our school does some recycling to a point.  But it kills me to walk by a trash can and see a can or bottle in it.  We need to do something more.  I've wanted to do something more for a while, but my excuse has been that I just don't have the time to take on a huge recycling effort at my school as I am involved in a great deal of other educational endeavors at school.  This one is important though, so I have to step up and do it already.  I can't wait anymore for someone to do it for me.  So my new homework assignment to myself is to research the existing programs or piece one together of my own.  Not only would something like this help the earth, but in these tight economic times, we could earn a little money for our school through our recycling efforts.  Now I am off to start researching.... more to come!

As the Heat Rises...

Here we are, in the midst of winter, and if you're anything like me you're counting down days till summer can return and bring with it that glorious sunlight and warmth! Before you get too nostalgic for last year's bikini season and start turning up the heaters in the house, I've got a small tip for you.
Instead of turning up your heaters, try instead, to close the doors through out the house. We've taken to closing all the bedroom doors to keep heat only in the areas we want it. We even have a door separating the house's entryway and the living area. We are no longer paying to heat the areas that are coldest (near the front door) or the areas that don't need it (hallways, pantry, etc).
I understand for many this won't work too effectively, as your heat dial will monitor temperatures in some of those areas I just mentioned not to heat. But, for those of us living in older homes that rely on separate heating structures in each room, this is a great way to save a bit of money on your heating bill, as well as cut down on whatever resource your heating system uses to heat your home.
Get creative about how you can lower your heating costs. And until next time...happy green living!

Lights, Camera, Action!

You know that question your parents were always asking? It's the same rhetorical question you've adopted now as a parent. It comes in many forms or variations, but it all boils down too, "Who keeps turning all the lights on?"
With all the children running around my house, I used to spend a ridiculous amount of time walking from room to room, just to shut the lights off. My husband, who has been dragging his feet like you wouldn't beleive when it comes to changing our lifestyle to be more eco-friendly, was constantly frustrated that we were paying to light rooms that no one was in. So, I appealed to the monetary skimping side of him and formed our own makeshift solution.
Since all of our children are young, there's hardly a way we can tell them to just leave the lights alone. Instead, I determined which light were absolutely necessary and which were not. For those that were not necessary (hall lights, pantry, added lights in the living room, things like that) I removed the bulbs and used painters tape to tape a small piece of paper over the switch. Now, no one in the house even bothers to turn those lights on, so when I walk around to flick off lights I can mostly concentrate on bedrooms. It was a win for all of us. The dear husband is no longer complaining of the money being wasted and I was able to make a small, easy change in our home that reduces our family's footprint just a bit.
Happy green living until we meet again!

Small steps and away we go!

I just want to take a minute to introduce myself. Some know me already, I've worked closely with The Going Green Store in Second Life(Tm). I'm excited to become a contributing writer to this blog and hope I can do as great as job as Faythe does! She and I have been working together for many months and I've enjoyed every minute. I've been a sort of business consultant for you within SL. In the process she has taught me and inspired me in my personal search to live a greener life.
I have a relatively large family, 4 young children, and I've always found it hard to convince the rest of my family to join with me. With a recent move to Europe, though, things became easier and I've had Faythe to help me remember easy ways to implement more eco-friendly practices in my home.
If you're like me, and have a hard time convincing the rest of your household how important it is to keep our environment healthy, keep an eye out for my posts. I'm going to try and focus them on simple, small steps to help introduce the more reluctant members of your household to join your efforts. It doesn't have to be a huge burden for any of us. We can make a huge difference by just doing small things here and there.
So, take it one step at a time, and we'll keep it green together!
**Keva(RL)/Darcy(SL)

What's New at TGGS?

Well I took a couple days off from blogging due to various real life things, but I am back! I am not going to let weeks or months keep me from blogging. I've got the writing ball rolling and I can't let it stop!

Let's see, I am planning a HUGE sale at my online stores (ebay & regular). So stay tuned for that one. I am planning on revamping my product lines and I am very excited about that too. New, fresh, and exciting green offerings coming your way! If there is anything you would like to have me carry in my online stores, let me know and I will look into it. I would love to hear what my readers would like to green up their lives!

In SecondLife I have some exciting news as well! I was able to arrange to have Damian Carbenell and Dann Numbers perform at TGGS in SL! Damian will be there on Saturday, February 21, and Dann on Saturday, March 21! (Both shows are 7pm slt.) I am so excited about this! I have been a fan of both of these wonderful musicians for a while now and if you are in SL, you have to know them as well! The performer this month (January 31) is still to be determined. I am working on it! :) We are also going to be hosting monthly roundtable discussions on green subjects of interest. The 1st one was supposed to be on Saturday, January 24th, but I realzied as I wrote this that I was called int o RL work that day so I will have to reschedule it. Stay tuned for an update!

And finally I am pleased to announce another contributor to this blog. My wonderful business consultant and great friend Darcy Earnshaw! She is the creator of InWorld Solutions Group (IWSG) and has been a powerful force in keeping me encouraged and motivated. Without her I doubt I would have gotten this far. She is just wonderful and I know you will enjoy reading her posts as well!

Reducing Paper Waste

Writing this blog is really helping me to constantly think green! Was I was contemplating what I would blog about today I decided I wanted to reduce my paper waste that comes to me via the post office. I get a lot of junk mail, which I have reduced by using some site to take my name off mailing lists. I don't recall that site at the moment, but I will do some research on it and post it here soon. I have noticed I've gotten increasingly techie and prefer my reading materials delivered to my inbox, rather than my mailbox so I will be cancelling those old fashioned newspapers and magazines and opting for their online versions. There is always going paperless on the bills too, which I have done, but not to all because I worry that having them delivered to my inbox makes them easy to ignore and I don't want to do that! But I think it is time to stop being a baby about it and switch everything to paperless and just get over the fear I have of overlooking a bill. It will not only make me greener but more responsible!

Canvas Bags

I saw a great post today from Green Options about canvas bags. I guess people still get a strange look from those around them when they use them. I use mine all the time and I have never really noticed any strange looks. The checkers at Food4Less are used to us and you have to bag your own stuff there anyway. I have been using my bags at Target more lately and that is where I have noticed some strange glances from the checkers. It seriously seems like they don't want to touch my canvas bags for fear of some contagious eco-disease and I end up bagging my own stuff. It is hilarious. I have noticed that there still aren't many others who use canvas bags at the store (any store). When I do see one I almost always smile at them in recognition of their choice to be green. I have noticed almost every store has some kind of reusable bag for sale, but not many in my area seem to really use them. I don't live in a big city, it is essentially suburbia here with track housing for miles. I also tend to notice hybrid cars. We drive one (Mazda Tribute) and it still seems as though the Prius continues to dominate the hybrid market. It was too small of a car for our family, but I digress. Thoughts on canvas bag use anyone?

I'm back!

As I have mentioned before I have virtual version of my real life business in Second Life. It is on the island of Etopia, which is an awesome eco sim. Essentially it showcases the many environmental and sustainability concepts available to us in real life. They have their own blog and you can get to it by clicking here. It was on this sim that I first opened my lil virtual shop, and I've grown into a larger space, where sell items for both SecondLife and real life and host musicians monthly. I will begin seeking guest speakers and hosting roundtable discussions in the very near future. Etopia is a vibrant sim with a wonderful community of like minded eco-people who are constantly sharing ideas and supporting one another through the many events the sim has to offer. If you are in SL and haven't been here you must come! Look me up in SL (Faythe Zauber) and look in my picks and you will find your way to Etopia. Hope to see you there!

Another post

Ok, so let's see if I can get better at this. Maybe it should be a New Year's resolution...blog every day... Hmm, sounds like a lofty resolution, and I don't really do resolutions...

So you should know I LOVE Second Life (SL), probably too much, but I do enjoy it very much. If you don't know what Second Life is, it is a virtual world where people create an avatar (or avatars...hehe) and make it look however they like. You can also build pretty much whatever you like there. In rela life my business, The Going Green Store, is merely an online retail business. In SL it is a virtual brick and mortar store that I could never afford in real life. I have met wornderful people in SL that I would have never met otherwise, including a business consultant that has kept me invigorated with her interest and enthusiasum.

So if I am going to blog every day I should have some "green" message right? Well I have been working toward living a greener life. I would be a hypocrite if I haven't! For starters there is my business, being online and virtual it takes up way less resources than a traditional business. In May we traded in my husband's Ford F250 for a Mazda Tribute hybrid, which we are enjoying very much. The sticker said it could get up to 34 mpg, but we have only seen about 30 mpg. I admit my driving habits have a bit to do with that, but I am working on it! We've also already done the green 101 stuff: compact flurescent light blubs (CFL) through out the house, canvas bags for the store, turning off unnecessary lights, unplugging appliances, recycling... We have fully embraced the green lifestyle and are always looking to do our green best!

Ok, so I will end this one here, and I really hope I will be back tomorrow blogging again!