Sustainable & Creative Living
Every Christmas I love making special holiday-themed crafts with my son so that he can give them to grandparents and other family members. Sometimes we make handprint Christmas cards or festive DIY ornaments. This year I decided to combine the two and make a Christmas Tree Handprint Ornament. [Read more…]
My 3-year-old son is finally at an age where we can do crafts together. I have found that over the past 6 months while teaching him the alphabet, I have used crafts to not only teach him letters but to also connect with him. Over Thanksgiving, we took a break from the alphabet to just focus on fun holiday activities. One of which is this [Read more…]
With Thanksgiving just about a week away, I’ve been doing some fun turkey crafts with my 3-year-old. One of my favorites is this Thanksgiving Turkey Magnet. Making this with J brought back some fond memories from when I was a kid. I don’t remember much from my early childhood but I do remember doing holiday crafts with my mom every year. I think that’s one of the reasons I make such a point to [Read more…]
Christmas is just around the corner! Yay!! I just started my shopping the other day at T.J. Maxx and as I bent over the jewelry counter to look at some earrings, I said to myself, “ NOOOO…do not buy any of the girls another pair of earrings! They don’t need them!!” (Of course, I considered getting them for myself, but that’s another subject). I got to thinking about what gifts I could get the special people in my life in the way of experiences instead of [Read more…]
When I asked my 3-year-old son what he wanted to dress up as this Halloween, he said with confidence, “A racing car driver!” So I thought, ok this should be easy. I’ll just get a costume at Target or on Amazon and we’re set. Jumpsuit—check. Helmet—check. I thought I was done but to my surprise when my little firecracker tried on his new racing car driver costume, his next question was, “Where’s my car?” I LOL’d because he was right—how could I forget the car! So, I scoured the internet for boxcar costume ideas and found this No-Hassle Racecar Box Halloween Costume. [Read more…]
It’s been almost a month since my husband and I started our van life adventure. It’s definitely been a whirlwind of change. Our whole world has been turned upside down and all the comforts of home have just been completely changed. We now find comfort in simpler things. Like a quiet place to sleep or a private place to shower.
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.
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Every year I try to incorporate as many eco-friendly practices as I can into my gift wrapping routine. This time of year is already a stressful time but that doesn’t mean we put our eco-friendly practices on hold. It just means that we get a little more creative with our holiday wrapping.
This year Christmas kind of snuck up on me. If you haven’t been following our social media, you may have missed that I just got married. For the past year, wedding planning has just consumed my life. Now I’m finally ready to get into the Christmas spirit, and I wanted to do something a little different this year.
Instead of buying more (expensive) wrapping paper from all over, I wanted to make my own. And what better way than to use some materials I already have at home. First of all, a roll of kraft paper from the Dollar Tree or Walmart is perfect and will go a long way! It’s so much cheaper than a roll of traditional wrapping paper that won’t last the season. Secondly, it’s just a little more heartfelt to make your own paper. You can do all kinds of variations of this design but I thought Christmas trees were a good place to start.
One of my favorite things about the holidays are the smells! I love everything from the cinnamon scented pinecones to the all the smells of Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner.
So this year I wanted to make something that encompasses some of my favorite smells of the holidays as well as a nice hostess gift for one of the many holiday parties this season.