Sweet Greens

Ever wondered how green you are? Jump over to Practically Green and take the test to find out. In just five minutes, you will get an overall green profile.

While you are there, check out my interview with Practically Green. How lovely to have been featured on such a fantastic site. {blush}.

Did you take the quiz? How did you do? How green are you?

Have you ever wondered how pine trees produce their pine cones? No? Me either. However, this spring I saw these little baby pine cones for the first time.

They are purple! There are even smaller ones that are red, like tiny wild strawberries perched among the boughs. Even though they are tiny, every little scale and emerging seed is there in perfect wholeness.

One poor little seed pea didn’t quite get buried in the garden.

So we saw his very beginnings, breaking out of the cold hard shell to begin new life.

These little beginnings don’t last long. The cones grow, and turn hard and brown. The peas get green and tall and climb up the trellis. Spring turns to summer and we’ll miss the little beauties if we run to fast through our days.

Have you taken the time to slow down and enjoy the little things?
What little things are growing your garden or yard?

As if I really needed another reason to visit Paris! Isn’t this Belleville Park Playground fantastic?

Do you have a fun creative playground in your area for the kiddos?

With summer, comes outdoor grilling and that means that you may have a bag of natural briquette charcoal at your house. Most natural briquette charcoal comes in paper bags, which is nice and re-usable, but also not very water-proof. And if you want the charcoal to be near the grill, outside on the back porch, you need some kind of storage option. You could easily spend $20 on a name-brand, dedicated charcoal storage box, but that would be wasteful, and single-purposed. And since I’m a registered multi-tasker I had to come up with something better, upcycled and creative: The Reusable Kitty Litter Container turned Natural Briquette Charcoal Holder!

The empty kitty litter container just happens to be the same height as the little chairs that fit around the little table the kids use to eat their picnic lunches. Ah-Ha! A dual purpose natural briquette charcoal container and children’s lunch stool, all in one! I made a little cushion with a skirt, from my fabric stash to sit on the top to make it comfy to sit on. It turns out that the 28 lb cat litter box held a whole bag (minus one grille’s worth) of natural briquettes charcoal.

How do you store your outdoor natural charcoal briquettes?
Do you find uses for other empty containers at your home?

Sweet Greens note: I think this is a great idea if you already have the large kitty litter containers at your home. However, when purchasing kitty litter, I highly suggest considering an Eco friendly option such as Nature’s Earth Feline Pine Scoop Cat Litter or Swheat Scoop Multi Cat Natural Wheat Cat Litter. Both of these brands are made from renewable resources that are biodegradable and contain no chemicals. They are also completely safe for your kitty too!

I love, love, love this Pavillion style floor model. I love that there is a main living structure and that the bedrooms are separate. I would eliminate the back bedrooms and make the living area larger. I would also make the right side room a bedroom with bath to match the left side bedroom. The last thing that I would do, is downsize the entire floor plan, since there is so much space for outside living on the decks. Isn’t it fantastic?

Could you live in a Pavillion style home?
Would you like having an open floor plan?
Would you like having the bedrooms separate?