Sustainable & Creative Living
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). [Read more…]
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.
I’ve been taking the last few days, like a lot of other people, to think about goal setting for 2018 and beyond. But this year, goal setting is more of a struggle. Most of this is due to the fact that I’m going through a lot of transition and change in different areas of my life. There have been so many milestones in my life this past year—finally finishing my bachelor’s degree, my youngest graduating high school and then starting college, and of course Christina’s wedding and all the preceding festivities.
After over a year of planning, stressing, and more planning – we did it! I got married on December 9th, 2017! It was on a farm with a big red barn and animals everywhere, and I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day. There were so many times during the planning process that I literally said: “can we just elope?” But in the end, it was more than worth it. I wish I could just relive it.
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.
The holidays can be a crazy time of year. There’s so much going on – decorating, holiday parties, buying gifts, trying not to buy gifts for ourselves… it’s just a lot all at once. But it’s important to remember the bigger picture this holiday season. We are always trying to be our best selves especially with our sustainability practices and that shouldn’t take a back seat during the holidays.
So I have compiled a short list, that doesn’t end here, of eco-friendly brands and potential gifts for this holiday season!
In case you don’t already know how Ipsy works – it is a monthly makeup subscription service in which you receive 5 makeup products, usually sample size, and from a wide price range – but it only costs you $10 a month! You also receive amazing discounts on the brands and have the opportunity to earn free products as well.
