Sustainable & Creative Living
I’ve never really made a bucket list before. For me, I’ve just always done the things I wanted as they come along. If an opportunity comes up to visit a friend or do something fun, I take it without thinking I’m going to cross it off a list later. However, with my trip coming up, I thought it would be fun to start a bucket list (among my many other lists) to drum up ideas and get even more excited about our adventure.
I was born with a wayward heart. My entire life I have loved to travel. Some of my first memories as a child are those of a family vacation. I truly believe that traveling is not only good for the soul but necessary to have a full life.
As a kid, my parents always took vacations and trips. When I was a teenager I was fortunate to be able to take a trip to Europe. Since the beginning of my adult life, I have always made it a point to find a way to travel at least once a year whether with my family or my now husband. We’ve been up and down the east coast and bits of the west.
Last year I did a post all about my favorite podcasts. Well, it’s been a year and I find myself listening to a whole new set of podcasts. I absolutely love them! I listen to them on long drives, while I get ready in the morning for work, and pretty much any time I have spare time.
There is literally a podcast for everything. If you like TV there is probably a podcast all about your favorite show. If you like politics there are no shortage of those. There are mommy podcasts, there are feminist podcasts – whatever you can think of I bet you can find a podcast about it.
I was recently inspired to do a post like this by Amber from XOXO, Am. Since I’m always interested to know what people are into, I thought maybe you all might want to know what I’ve been into lately. I haven’t done a post like this in forever! Since I canceled my Ipsy subscription (in an effort to save money and cut back on consumption), I realized I haven’t reviewed much of anything either. So this week I’m just going to catch you guys up on what I’ve been doing.
Spend Valentine’s Day (or any gift-giving holiday) with the one you love waste-free!
Here are 5 zero-waste gifts that still express love and thoughtfulness as well as care for the environment. Your gift doesn’t have to be an eco-friendly “thing.” It can be a digital gift or even the gift of your time and attention (those are my favorite).
Like I said, time and attention are so valuable, especially in the age of smartphones. So plan something fun to do – go on a hike, go bowling, go on a bike ride with a picnic!
As long as it’s not a traffic citation kind of ticket, most people love tickets. Get tickets for a play, a movie, a concert, or a sporting event!
There are so many great classes you can take online. You both can learn something together or choose something just for your person. Maybe they’ve always wanted to take a photography class? This way it can be done from the comfort of home and without waste!
Audible is amazing because you can listen to thousands of books! This is a great gift because if your person loves books they can listen in their free time or you can listen to books together!
Related: Eco-Friendly Gifts
Most people already have access to a streaming service, but it never hurts to buy one for a period of time as a gift. Whether it’s Netflix, Hulu or something like HBO. There are so many different ones these days that you can access from anywhere. This way you both can enjoy binging movies and TV shows together or apart!
Related: 5 Digital Gift Cards
These gifts also make great last minute gifts for Valentine’s Day or whichever gift-giving holiday is upon you!
Related: 6 Eco-Friendly Holiday Gift Wrapping Tips
Do you have any other zero-waste eco-friendly gifts you like to give? Let me know in the comments below.
This post contains affiliate links. Affiliate links help support From Under A Palm Tree and help pay for web hosting, email delivery, domain registration, and other various fees that help keep From Under A Palm Tree operational. We appreciate your support!
When I first imagined my wedding I had dreams of buying vintage china and using recyclable paper for my eco-friendly wedding. In reality, there are some things that are just not always feasible. I definitely had the environment in mind when planning my wedding but I also had my budget in mind. But being frugal and eco-friendly aren’t mutually exclusive – they can work together. And it can be easy! You just can’t be afraid to break the mold a little bit. Once you get past the traditional or more commonplace wedding “essentials” you can move into the creative and eco-friendly zone.
On December 9th, 2017 I got married! If you’ve been following along with our blog, you know it’s been a long time coming. I’d been planning for over a year, and now I want to share it all with you! So if you’re interested in some nerdy barn wedding ideas or just love wedding stuff like I do, you are in for a treat!
Photography by Lifelong Photography Studio
I recently got married and I could not have picked a better venue. It was absolutely perfect for me and my husband. It totally checked all of our boxes because we knew exactly what we wanted. It’s funny because some friends of ours got married about 5 weeks after us in one of the venues we looked at and almost booked. And even though they are both farm venues, they were completely different feels. That’s why it’s important to ask yourself what you really want when choosing a wedding venue. In our case, we knew we wanted something outdoors and rustic but not too fancy or too country.
Just over a month ago I got married! And now I can finally share all the intricate details.
Related: I Got Married
One thing that was really important to Nate and I when planning the wedding was to get the ceremony right. We’re not religious people and we didn’t have the traditional officiant so we planned the entire ceremony ourselves. From the beginning, I knew that I wanted unity ceremony. But not just any unity ceremony, I wanted something that truly reflected Nate and I’s interests as a couple – in other words – something nerdy.
One of the best compliments Nate and I received in regards to our wedding was how great our ceremony was. We tried with every aspect of the wedding to make it our own, but we really spent a lot of time on the ceremony. Neither one of us are religious or very traditional so we knew it was going to be different.
Typically the ceremony is perceived as the part of the wedding guests just want to get through as fast as possible to get to the reception. But we really wanted ours to reflect us as a couple and to be special. We didn’t want it to just be over in 10 minutes and no one remembers it. So we broke it down to every part of the typical ceremony and planned every piece of it, down to the words and music.