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Give the Gift of Experience This Holiday Season + 5 Ideas

December 10, 2024 0
Give the Gift of Experience This Holiday Season + 5 Ideas

Hello, Friends! Can you believe Christmas is right around the corner? If you’re anything like me, hitting the mall this holiday season isn’t going to happen! No worries, you can still surprise everyone on your holiday list and those gifts can be eco-friendly too! Read on to discover five of my favorite holiday gifts that don’t require you to even leave the comfort of your sofa.

1. Give the Gift of Experience
One of my favorite gifts to give is the gift of experience. A few years ago I gave the mister scuba diving lessons and this year part of Eben’s holiday gift is art lessons. I have given the gift of annual memberships to botanic gardens and science museums. The possibilities are endless, just consider what your recipient enjoys and go from there.

2. Give a Gift that Helps Someone Else
Have a do-gooder on your holiday list? Consider giving a gift certificate to Kiva – your recipient will go through a list of loan applicants and pick a hard-working borrower to give a micro-loan too. This is a great way to help entrepreneurs in other countries who need a little help, the best part when the entrepreneur pays the loan back, you get to re-loan the funds to another entrepreneur!

3. Give the Gift of Your Time
I was telling the mister the other day that the best gift that I could ever receive is the gift of someone offering to take Eben for the weekend. Since we live very far away from most of Eben’s grandparents, we have never left him for a long weekend. Wouldn’t a romantic long weekend with your loved one be the perfect gift! The possibilities here are endless as well, just think of something that you can do for someone else and wrap that up as a gift.

4. Give the Gift of Nature
I love to receive a gift in the form of a living plant or something that can be planted in the yard. Even better when the plant is of edible variety. Eben and I gave the mister a lemon tree one year as a birthday gift – and it is a gift that he seriously enjoys every day. He is always watering, pruning and checking for lemons – and seeing how much the tree has grown is a delight. Plus, giving him lemonade all year long has been a sweet gift that he really enjoys.

5. Give the Gift of Your Expertise
Are you a fantastic chef? Can you sew a mean pair of pajamas? Are you great at web design? A beautiful photographer? Whatever it is that you are an expert at consider giving that as a gift this holiday season. If you are a fantastic cook, arrive at your recipients home with all of the ingredients necessary to cook a fabulous meal for them. Spend the time teaching your recipient how to prepare and cook the meal and then enjoy it together!

Do you give the gift of experience during the holidays? I would love to hear about the gifts you are giving this holiday season.

Green Your Thanksgiving With Edible, Organic Place Cards

November 16, 2024 2
Styled Stock Photos for Instagram and Social Media, Flatlays, Social Squares from the SC Stockshop

I am having a lot of fun planning how the dinner table will look this Thanksgiving. Especially since it will be super small which means less pressure and more relaxing! 

First on my list of things to do to prepare is to decide on place cards for our tiny family. I really love, love, love these pear place cards from Sunset. I think a beautiful, delicious organic pear with a lovely recycled name tag would be perfect. I am also considering giant pomegranates with recycled name tags attached. (You know how I feel about pomegranates!)

What type of place cards will you be using on Thanksgiving?

5 Eco-Friendly Ways to Plan for Thanksgiving Dinner

November 15, 2024 2

Hello, Friends! I am pretty excited, Thanksgiving is right around the corner. To get you started, there are many eco-friendly ways to green your Thanksgiving dinner – all of which are easier to implement if you plan ahead. Many of these ideas will save you money and time while cutting down on the amount of waste that can accumulate from a big family dinner. Read on to learn my 5 favorite eco-friendly ways to plan your Thanksgiving dinner and start planning today!

1. Decorating 101
You don’t have to spend any money when decorating for Thanksgiving, instead use items that you already have or consider bringing natural items indoors. We always have a handful of pumpkins leftover from Halloween that we use as Thanksgiving decorations. And Eben and I like to take a nature walk to collect natural elements (pine-cones, acorns, branches, and leaves) to display as our Thanksgiving table centerpiece.

2. How Much is Enough?
It is really easy to go overboard when planning the Thanksgiving menu. Consider the dishes that you will be serving and ask yourself if you are making more than is necessary. Choose a few dishes that you are sure your guests will love and skip the rest. Also, consider which parts of Thanksgiving dinner you want to or can afford to purchase organic and whenever possible, avoid pre-packaged items.

3. Consider the Table
Do you have enough dinnerware for everyone at your dinner party? If not, consider borrowing place settings from close friends or family members instead of purchasing new. If you aren’t a china and tablecloth kind of family and choose to go with disposable place settings, choose a great compostable version that is made from 100% recycled materials.

4. Think Seasonal
When choosing fruits and vegetables for your Thanksgiving menu, think seasonal. You want to avoid purchasing produce that is imported from far away. You may consider joining a local CSA for the holiday season – not only will you have delicious, local foods to serve this Thanksgiving, but you will be supporting a local farm too.

5. Plan for Leftovers
What do you plan to do with the Thanksgiving dinner leftovers? If you are planning on sending goodies home with your guests, have glass reusable storage containers ready to go. If you made more than your family can consume, you could donate some of the leftovers to a local food bank, freeze them for later or have a menu plan for the days after Thanksgiving so all of the leftovers will be used.

How do you green your Thanksgiving dinner? I would love to hear – please share your thoughts in the comments!

7 Sustainable Ways to Welcome Fall with Your Family

September 20, 2024 0

 

Fall is my favorite time of year. It seems like we start to slow down as a family and spend more time reconnecting with each other. (This seems especially important now that Eben is off to graduate school and only comes home occasionally!)

Since the days get shorter and it gets dark outside so much earlier, Jayson and I have been using this time to reconnect as empty nesters! Our dining room table used to be filled with card games and brain teasers, but now we’ve been finding ourselves doing puzzles (are we old or what??) and playing Scrabble. The nightly dinners are still full of long conversations and hot, steamy beverages for dessert! (Which is my favorite!)

To get you in the autumn mood and excited about sustainability, check out my 7 favorite eco-friendly ways to welcome fall.

1. Make it Family Dinner Night
One of my favorite fall family traditions is having make-your-own organic pizza night a few times a month. I bought Jayson a Gozney last year as a holiday gift, so our pizza game has been ELEVATED!

There is something fun about kneading the dough, cutting up vegetables, and pulling hot pizzas from the oven. When Eben was little, we’d create sweet, smiling faces, and it always ended in a night of laughter and fun! 

2. Green Your Overall Health
Fall is the perfect time to amp up your healthy lifestyle before winter hits – because with winter comes sniffles, colds, and the flu. You can start by boosting your immunity, packing healthy, organic school lunches, adding some superfoods to your marketing list, and doing a whole-body cleanse. You want to stay healthy through the fun fall and winter holidays.

3. With Fall comes Leaves, Lots of Them
When it comes to the leaves that fall in your yard, how you dispose of them can significantly impact the environment. The best option would be to mulch them and use them as ground cover for your garden. The worst option would be to blow them around with a noisy, emission-polluting leaf blower. If you want to have fun with leaves, consider making leaf prints for your family room, or you can always jump in piles of them.

4. Enjoy Your Natural Environment
A bike ride is one of my favorite ways to enjoy a lovely fall day with my family. We tend to bike a lot more when fall hits! Another fun thing to do this time of year is to visit your local botanical garden – you could try one of these surprising ways to make it a day full of fall fun.

5. Prepare for Winter
Before you know it, winter will be here – and fall is the perfect time to prepare. Now that we live in North Carolina (on top of a mountain), I liked to stock up on non-perishable organic goods, so we didn’t have to go marketing as often. It is also a great time to weather-proof your doors and windows and prepare your garden for the cold winter. I also like to think of fun ways to cozy up our home – this usually means bringing out stacks of books, blankets, and pillows and sipping hot organic tea, coffee, and cocoa.

6. Green Your Halloween
Whether you plan to make your own Halloween costumes and decorations or turn your home into the ultimate eco-friendly haunted house, now is the time to get started. We like to scour our local thrift stores and tag sales for fantastic Halloween decor well before the holiday. It always gets us in the mood for Halloween, and when the holiday comes, we are completely ready!

7. Go Local 
The farmer’s market season in North Carolina is now popping – the perfect time to stock up on those yummy fall vegetables. I love it when the mister whips up a batch of one of his fantastic soups or seasonal salads in the fall using local vegetables from the farmer’s market. And pumpkins from the farmer’s market, oh my, they are my favorite. 

How do you welcome fall with your family?

4 Eco-Friendly Picnic Must-Haves for End of Summer

August 26, 2024 0
4 Eco-Friendly Picnic Must-Haves for Summer

 

As summer ends, I’m determined to squeeze in ONE more picnic! When we lived in Florida, my family spent most of our weekends picnics at the beach. My most precious memories include Eben and a picnic blanket – the perfect setting for mother-son chatting.

Now, he’s a grown man (23! WHAT?), I make sure that when we do spend time together, I’m in the moment (and yes, we still chat like never before!)

Here are some eco-friendly picnic goodies to inspire you to get outside for one more summer picnic:

1. A Cozy Picnic Blanket:
I love a good picnic blanket, and now that we are empty nesters, I’m determined to have more romantic picnics (just the husband and me!). I love these picnic blankets. How do I choose which one?

2. A Hydration Station:
The essential item to pack on a picnic is water—it’s crucial to stay hydrated on hot summer days (even these end-of-summer ones!). These are our favorite glass carafes; we always use them for multiple flavors of tea in the fridge!

3. A Good Read:
Snuggle up with my boys is my favorite (we do scary movie nights when Eben visits from grad school), and next, snuggling up with a good book! This one seems up my alley; I love a good charcuterie board!

4. A Picnic in a Basket:
Of course, I will need something to pack all the goodies in. This eco-friendly picnic basket is on my list! I have wanted a formal picnic basket forever!

Do you have a thing for picnics, too? What is your picnic must-have?

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