Author Archive | Jennie

How to Upcycle Wine Corks into Thanksgiving Place Card Holders


When Eben was little, I would encourage him to spend some time creating something fun for the Thanksgiving table. Over the years, he has made apple printed napkins, pine cone turkey centerpieces, and floral arrangements. Several years ago we really wanted to utilize the corks we have saved – so we started brainstorming fun crafts. We decided to use the corks along with a handful of other supplies from the recycling bin and craft closet to make turkey inspired place cards.

This project is super simple and will keep your child busy Thanksgiving morning while you are cooking, baking, cleaning, and getting ready for the big day. At the end of the project, your child will have these fun colorful place cards to offer as part of the Thanksgiving table decor. Then, as your guests leave after the feast, they can take their turkeys home with them as a memento of a cherished day together.

20 Best North Carolina High Country Fall Family Activities!

 

Since we have lived in the North Carolina mountains full-time since May, I’ve been craving fall! It can’t come soon enough. 

Here are my top 20 favorite activities—the ones I’ve been dreaming about—and now that we live here, I get to enjoy them all season! 

  1. Bouldering at Hebron Rock Colony
  2. New River pumpkin patch and corn maze
  3. Boone Farmer’s Market
  4. Stopping to shop for antiques in quaint little shops (they are everywhere!)
  5. Smores on the fire pit
  6. Caramel apples at Kilwins’s in Blowing Rock
  7. Grabbing a pretzel (or the Falafel!) at Lost Province Brewing Co.
  8. Shopping for stocking stuffers in Blowing Rock (I like to get a jumpstart!)
  9. Mast General Store in Valle Crucis
  10. Apple Picking at The Historic Orchard at Altapass
  11. Dinner on the patio at Over Yonder
  12. Hiking, Hiking, Hiking
  13. The fall colors! Need I say more?
  14. A picnic on the grass by the New River
  15. Grabbing a Dutch Creek icecream
  16. Music in the Park at a variety of places! 
  17. Spending time with the boys (Eben is off to grad school, but I look forward to him coming home for fall break!) 
  18. Cozy movie night with the giant sliding glass doors open and the fireplace roaring
  19. Going for long bike rides! 
  20. Sitting in the hot tub by the creek!

Do you have a fall family tradition that you look forward to? I would love to hear it. Leave a comment below!

Green Your Labor Day Weekend BBQ

Inviting friends and family over for a leisurely BBQ with good company and even better food is one of life’s simple pleasures but it isn’t always the greenest option. Don’t panic, though – you don’t have to give up your precious BBQs – there are so many things you can fo to make your next cookout a lot more green…

Buy food from the farmer’s market

Cut down on food miles by purchasing your BBQ meats, veggies, etc., from a local producer. Farmer’s markets are the ideal place to find locally produced food and you will probably find that it tastes even better than the stuff you buy at the store too, which means not only will your BBQ be greener, but you’ll be able to blow your guests away with the quality of your cooking too. What’s not to love?

More meat-free options

You may all be meat-eaters, but why not throw a few more veggie recipes on the BBQ than you normally would? Meat tends to have a much higher carbon footprint than delicious veggie options like grilled corn and cauliflower steaks, so even if you replace a small amount of meat on the BBQ with fruit and veg, you will be lowering your footprint, and you know what – ith the right marinade they’re just as delicious.

Switch straws

Chances are you’ll be making up a pitcher or two of your favorite cocktail, but instead of serving it with plastic straws like you normally would, why not go straw-free or if you can’t manage that, use biodegradable straws instead. Straws are greatest for sipping a delightful drink, but if they’re plastic, they’ll still be around polluting the environment long after you’re gone. By making a simple switch, you can still enjoy your drinks, but in a far greener way.

Set up a recycling station

If you’re BBQs and to result in a lot of trash, one thing you could do is set up a recycling station that you can encourage your guests to use. This can be as simple as setting up an area with cardboard or plastic boxes each labeled with the type of trash they’ll take – paper, plastic cans, etc.. Then, you won’t end up with a trashcan full of perfectly recyclable stuff, nor will you have to sift through said trashcan to separate it all out yourself.

Use a wood-burning stove

If you already have a grill, there’s no sense in going out and buying a new one – that would just be wasteful – but if you’re in the market for one, consider going for a wood-burner instead of a grill that uses gas. That way you can use reclaimed or sustainable wood to cook your food, which is a little greener than fuel that has to be extracted from the earth.

Use fuel sparingly

Using only just enough fuel to cook your food is a great way to make your BBQ a little greener without compromising on the taste of your food. Even turning off the gas hen yo0u aren’t in the process of grilling will make a huge difference and if you do this, cover the grill when cooking and watch fuel consumption, you’ll use less and produce less pollution.

Enjoy your greener grilling!

7 Great Ways to Run a More Sustainable Business (& See Success)

Sustainability has become more and more of a focus around the world in recent years. Countless people now make it a priority in their daily life, and this affects which companies they buy from. Because of that, you could need to run a more sustainable business. 

Doing this offers more than a few benefits, like:

  1. Bringing in more customers and increasing customer loyalty
  2. Helping to reduce your overall costs and increasing your profit margins
  3. Letting you attract and retain top talent in your industry
  4. Developing a competitive edge in your market

As appealing as all of these are, you’ll need to actually put the time and effort into achieving them. That’s where many companies could struggle, as it seems like a lot of time and work.

While there’s no getting around the work you have to put into it, it doesn’t have to be as much of a struggle as you could think. Using the right strategies could be relatively straightforward, and they’ll have much more of an impact than you’d expect. They’re worth diving into.

Run a More Sustainable Business: 7 Great Strategies

1. Make Sustainability a Mission

There’s no point in just putting a little bit of time and effort into sustainability. You wouldn’t end up doing much if you’re not taking it seriously.

By making sustainability a part of your mission, you change your mindset about it. You’ll take it much more seriously, and you’ll end up actually giving it the time and effort it deserves. As part of this approach, develop a sure-fire strategy to become more sustainable and make it a part of your company’s culture.

While this takes a bit of time and effort up front, it’ll reap dividends in the long-term.

2. Consider Your Back Office

When you’re trying to run a more sustainable business, it’s natural to focus on some of the more customer-facing areas. These are far from the only areas you’ll need to consider.

You’ll also need to think about the back office. There are more than a few steps you can take here to be more sustainable. Reducing or completely getting rid of paper usage is an obvious idea with this. The same can be said for more than a few other steps to take.

Figure out what you can change and make more sustainable in your office going forward.

3. Manage Chemicals Safely

There’s a decent chance you use chemicals in your business, especially if you’re in manufacturing. These can have a significant impact on the environment.

Make sure you properly manage your chemicals throughout your business operations. The proper disposal of them, as per legal guidelines, is a large part of this. At the same time, it’s worth using EPA-approved chemicals wherever you can. These wouldn’t harm the environment nearly as much as other options.

Don’t overlook your cleaning products when you’re doing this, as these could have more of an impact than you might’ve thought. Go with the safest options you can.

4. Properly Manage Your Waste

Your company will inevitably produce waste as it does business. This isn’t often sustainable, but the trick is to actually manage your waste the right way.

Investing in a commercial waste management software and taking steps to reduce your waste is a great step in the right direction with this. With the right tools, you can figure out exactly how you can cut down on your waste going forward.

After that, it’s a matter of actually putting the time and effort into these strategies.

5. Give Back

There could be plenty of times where you’ll need to replace older equipment and other company assets, despite the fact they can still be decent to use. Do something good with this.

By donating them to charities or nonprofits whenever you can, you elongate their lifespan. This is much more sustainable than simply throwing them away. Even donating a percentage of your profits to environmental causes can be a great way to give back and look after the environment.

Figure out the best strategy for you to give back, and you shouldn’t have much of a problem.

6. Improve Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency is always a great area to focus on when you want to run a more sustainable business. It’s also one of the easier areas to get through.

There are more than a few ways you can do this. Replacing older equipment and electricals with more energy efficient counterparts is a great start. A lot of machinery is rated for this, so you can find them easily. Using LED lights instead of more traditional options is also a quick and easy way to help with this. 

Once you put the effort into this, you should even see your company’s utility bills come down.

7. Get Certified

While you mightn’t have thought about it, you can get certified for your sustainability. Once you’ve implemented various initiatives, this could be worth focusing on.

There are more than a few agencies and nonprofits that focus on giving this certification. Each of them will have their own criteria you’ll need to meet first. By looking into these and meeting this criteria, you’ll make your business more sustainable long-term. It gives you goals to work toward.

At the same time, the certification you get can help with your marketing and branding, helping to bring in more customers in the future.

Tips For Running a More Sustainable Business

As much as each of the above strategies can help you run a more sustainable business, they mightn’t be the only areas to focus on. Sometimes, it could be worth adding a few tips into the process, too.

These could help you get through the process a lot more effectively than you’d think. Some of the more notable of these are:

  • Embrace Customer Feedback – Customers can often have preferences when it comes to sustainability in the companies they buy from. It can often be worth getting feedback from them to help you find the right sustainability initiatives for your company.
  • Work With Your Suppliers – Your suppliers can have an impact on your environmental friendliness. Take the time to work with them to develop a relationship that’s actually sustainable. Focusing on environmentally friendly suppliers also helps with this.
  • Get Employees Involved – While you’ll be the key decision-maker in your business, it doesn’t mean others shouldn’t have a say. Let employees have an input on your sustainability initiatives, and it’ll help more than you’d think.

Adding these to the strategies above should help you run a more sustainable business much better than you would’ve thought. You shouldn’t have a problem getting there, though it’ll still take some time and effort to get there.

Run a More Sustainable Business: Wrapping Up

It’s always worth putting the time and effort into becoming a more competitive and profitable company. It helps you succeed more and more long-term, and there are several ways to do this. One of the more notable of these is to run a more sustainable business.

It helps you bring in new customers, attract top talent, and increase your profit levels. You’ll even care for the planet a lot more than you currently do.

Many entrepreneurs struggle with actually doing this, though. They’re not sure where to start, and they mightn’t be sure about the best path forward. Thankfully, this doesn’t have to be too much of a problem. With the right strategies, you’ll get there before you know it.

You’ll end up with a more sustainable business than you would’ve thought.

Are You Promoting Your Long-Term Health?

Being healthy is clearly an important goal for all of us, and one that you will definitely find beneficial to aim for. If you are trying to be healthier and you want to make sure you are doing it effectively, you might need to think about what kind of long-term health plans you can make. In this post, we are going to discuss a few of the most important things to aim to do if you want to promote your long-term health as well as you can. The following will all be really important for you to bear in mind as you try to improve your wellness.

Fight Inflammation

This is one of the main things you should aim to do if you want to be healthier for longer. Inflammation is the cause of so many of our common health problems, so if you are able to keep this at bay it’s going to mean you have a much healthier body overall. You can fight inflammation through having a good diet and working out enough, so that is something to think about here. Also, the better your immune system is, the easier it fights inflammation, so building that up benefits you here too.

Boost Immunity

In fact, that is something you’ll find is worth thinking about in its own right. If you can effectively boost immunity, you are going to find that you are so much more likely to actually help you to live longer, and to be healthy as long as you live. You can boost your immune system in a number of relatively simple ways: improving your diet and diversifying it, drinking more water, and keeping stress down just to name a few. However you do it, it’s definitely something you will find beneficial to your ongoing health.

Focus On Longevity

In truth, anything you can do to improve your longevity is also going to lead to an increase in your health, and this is something that you will really want to think about here too. Having a longer life usually means you have managed to stay healthy as well. To aid with that, you can shop Longevity enhancers and see if you can find any products that can help you, or you can simply opt to take better care of your health in those essential ways: focusing on the heart in particular.

Get More Sleep

One of the most important things of all is that you are getting plenty of sleep, so this is something that you should certainly look into as well. The more sleep you are able to get, the more likely it is that you are going to have good health in the long-term. Work on your routine at bedtime, limit your caffeine and alcohol intake, and you should find that you are going to sleep so much better and more soundly every night. The benefits of that can be quite considerable.