Sustainable & Creative Living
Road trips are tough on everyone. Especially little kids. Wait, no they’re tougher on the parents. When my little J was an infant, he hated his car seat so car rides were very stressful for Mommy. Even a 2-mile ride to the grocery store felt like a 20-mile ride. I tried everything that I could think of to soothe his cries and keep him entertained. Mirrors, squeaky toys, rattles, teething toys. Nothing worked.
I even took one blogger’s advice and made a [Read more…]
I’m always on the lookout for a quick and easy dinner recipe. My wheelhouse is 5 ingredients or less! After working all day and taking care of a 2-year-old, I desperately need a quick and easy dinner recipe or odds are I’m not cooking.
To be honest, I don’t do a lot of the cooking. My husband and I share a lot of the responsibilities when it comes to the housecleaning, laundry, and grocery shopping. But when it comes to meal prep, [Read more…]
I’ve been wanting to try making my own DIY makeup remover wipes for a while now. Meagan has used DIY baby wipes for little J since he was a baby and I always thought that DIY Makeup remover wipes would be a great idea. Not only are they beneficial for the environment, but they also save a lot of money.
Plastic free July finally got me motivated to make the switch to these wipes. The other day I was pulling out a makeup wipe from its packaging, and I realized I’d cut down on a lot of plastic use if I eliminated that package from my life (not to mention the wipes themselves, of course).
I came up with this easy to make DIY makeup remover wipe because, if you’ve read any of my other posts, you know I’m all about simple and easy.
My fiance and I spent a week in Colorado, our first trip out west. A trip like that makes you never want to leave. Colorado is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited and one of the few places I have thought that I could actually live.
We spent the first few days in Boulder, CO which I wrote about in Part 1 of this series. Then we spent a few more days in Copper Mountain for our friend’s wedding (Part 2). The last part of this series we packed a few more activities into the trip.
The weekend was so filled with constant activity and moving around. We spent Sunday morning moving to another hotel room with the Mother of the Bride and her son/our friend Will. It was so nice to be able to spend more candid time with not only Will and Mary but also the bride and groom – our friends Nick and Kelly.
After we changed rooms, we took most of the afternoon to just eat and hang out. We had to save up our energy to go on our next adventure that night: The Continental Divide and Red Rocks!
On our way down from Copper Mountain to Red Rocks, Will wanted to show us the Continental Divide via the Loveland Pass. He described it as the divide between the oceans – in which on one side water drains into the Atlantic Ocean and on the other side it goes into the Pacific Ocean. The Great Divide, or the Continental Divide of the Americas, runs through western Canada, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado, even Montana and down into Central America. It’s the most well-known continental divide. And we got to see it!
It was probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in my life. We were so high up in the mountains – 11,990 ft! It was cold and windy and I was definitely huffing and puffing through it. But it was completely worth it to see such an amazing natural phenomenon.
After seeing one natural phenom, the three of us were on our way to Red Rocks to see Portugal, The Man in concert. Going to a concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre has been on my bucket list for years. But Red Rocks isn’t just a concert venue – it was once listed as one of the seven wonders of the world! It’s a natural geological rock formation where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains.
“Red Rocks Amphitheatre is a geological phenomenon – the only naturally-occurring, acoustically perfect amphitheater in the world.” – http://redrocksonline.com
While it’s my all-time dream to see the Dave Matthews Band at Red Rocks, it’s just as fun to see pretty much any concert there. I always enjoy live music and this was no different. I would love to go back and participate in some of their other activities. They host movie nights, do yoga in the mornings, there’s a restaurant, it’s even a park that you can take tours of and walk trails. Maybe when we live there someday.
The last day of our adventure in the mountains was actually the next day, on Monday. (Thinking back, I can’t believe we did so much in only a week!) Monday we met back up with Nick and Kelly to go white water river rafting in Idaho Springs. It’s not too far from Copper Mountain, where we were still staying.
If you have ever been white water rafting, please tell me in the comments – do they always try to scare the crap out of you and make you think you’re going to fall out? Because they sure did to us. I was legitimately afraid of falling out of the raft as they went over all the safety instructions. I kept thinking what the heck did I get myself into??
The water was so cold, it was 38 degrees of pure snow melt off the Rocky’s. AND because it had snowed in May, the water was even higher – putting the water table at 1000 feet. The guide told us 600ft is considered high. Thankfully, no one fell out of our raft or anyone else’s raft. They also gave us wetsuits, otherwise, we would have been frozen.
On the last day of our trip, we were able to spend Tuesday hanging out with Will. We stayed the night in his apartment in Fort Collins. We watched Game of Thrones and took a walk down the street to see his view of the mountains. I will never get over that you can be 50 miles away and still see the Rocky mountains looming in the distance.
I could go on and on about this trip! It was seriously one of the best trips I have ever taken. Nate and I are already missing the mountains. It just showed us a completely different lifestyle where people just slow down a little bit and they care about the environment. I will definitely go back someday!
Have you ever been to Colorado? Do you have any recommendations for anyone going back? Have you been to Red Rocks or white water rafting? Let me know in the comments below!
We here at From Under a Palm Tree always strive to be more eco-freindly in our personal and professional lives. We have made it our mission to decrease our footprint by living more sustainable lives, reducing waste, and conserving resources.
In efforts to improve the quality of our Earth, I have signed the Plastic Free July Challenge and committed myself to Reduce Household Plastic Waste. Single use plastic bags and bottles can take up to 500 years to decompose in landfills, however, most don’t even reach them. A large amount of throw-away plastics end up in our oceans, leaving behind chemicals and toxic particles, destroying marine life all over the world. There’s actually a place called Garbage [Read more…]
Meagan, Christina, and I decided to take the Plastic Free July Challenge. The goal of the Plastic Free July Challenge is to encourage people to stop single use plastic product consumption and reduce plastic packaging (at least for the month of July). It’s also to help people become more aware of issues surrounding plastic use in our lives and to encourage new consumption habits moving forward.
With the fourth of July just around the corner, I know a lot of us will be visiting family and friends for pool parties, cook-outs, camping, and probably fireworks. Ahh fireworks!! As a kid, I loved them and always looked forward to the family outing at the local mall where our town gathered to watch the beautiful display of what we, as Americans, associate our Independence Day with. But as an adult and new mom, I’ve come to [Read more…]
Now that summer is in full swing, many of us are spending a lot more time outdoors enjoying picnics, beach days, and just hanging out in the backyard. Unfortunately, outside activities can expose us, and our loved ones, to all kinds of dangerous situations—some minor and some not so minor.
One of those situations that may seem minor, but sometimes isn’t, are Mosquito bites. Mosquitos carry and spread all kinds of diseases such as malaria, dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, West Nile virus, and Zika—to name a few. Over one million people worldwide die from Mosquito-borne diseases. Mosquitos also transmit diseases and parasites to dogs and horses.
One of the best ways to control Mosquitos is to prevent them from breeding in the first place. Because thousands of Mosquitos can breed in only a few inches of water, one of the best ways to control this insect is by keeping your property free of standing water. Here are some tips to accomplish this.
Always be on the lookout for any container or containment that will collect water and find a way to eliminate this possible Mosquito breeding ground.
While the best way to keep Mosquitos away from your property is by preventing them from breeding in the first place, a good second line of defense is to use sound Mosquito repellent measures. Here are a few:
While all these methods will go a long way in the prevention of Mosquitos on your property, it’s always a good idea to use insect repellent when the need arises. After all, you can’t control Mosquitos in other locations. Be sure to use organic insect repellents such as Babyganics.
Once you’ve done everything you can to protect yourself and your family against these insects, go out and enjoy yourself!
Please share your Mosquito fighting tips in the comments section.
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!
Summer is the time of year for light, fresh, and tasty salads. They can be served at lunch or dinner. They can also be served as an easy stand alone meal or a yummy side dish at a summer holiday party or picnic. My whole family loves this Veggie and Feta Pasta Salad, especially my husband. We’ll definitely be mixing up a big bowl of it for Father’s Day. Why not make some for the special man in your life.
About a month ago it was Earth Day and us here at From Under a Palm Tree attended a local Eco-Fest. I have been writing a four-part series about different things we learned from the eco-fest and this is the final part in that series.
One thing I love about going to festivals of this nature is meeting and talking to everyone. I also like to get free stuff! And vendors love to give away free stuff because it helps promote their business or organization. The best part is that a lot of the freebies were things that help the cause and spread the eco-friendly message.