Living Green

Cue up Jack Johnson's 3 R's song (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) from the Curious George soundtrack.

One of the things I try to do in my daily life is be green by making choices that are good for our environment.

I am not perfect by any means. I used to be so much better about recycling than I am now.

Where I can, I use energy efficient light bulbs.

Biodegradable cleaning supplies and I get along very well. I have not been able to switch to dish washing or laundry products just yet though.

I unplug appliances and always turn a light off when not in the room.

I prefer organics.

I either choose to not take a bag from a store or I use a canvas tote/my TJ's bag. When I do get plastic bags, I either recycle them back at store level drop off locations or use to take out the kitty waste.

I will use a piece of foil over and over until it falls apart. Saran wrap and Ziploc bags too.

I make two sided copies at work. If I make a mistake on a printed out file, I flip the paper over in the printer and use it again. Sometimes to the chagrin of co-workers.

I write on envelopes and also use them over and over to tote stuff to and fro. I donate magazines to hospitals, leave them in the office breakroom, or use them as "paint catchers" when I am creating with paint and paper.

Inspiration came in a few other forms recently. More ideas of going green. Thank you Noell Hyman and Ali Edwards!

Noell has a great idea of reusing the subscription cards from mags. Before I saw her idea, I would recycle the little cards but only in the form of recycling the paper. One of the first things I will do with any publication is tear those suckers out.

Ali's use of envelopes with her daily something idea/project provides inspiration as well.

Y'all watch out because the possibilities I see are endless. You just may see something from these inspirations in a little something something I make and send your way.

Since it is getting to be fall and these are some of my favorite colors, I selected fall colors this morning on my first go 'round. Instead of using just one color for each, I got a little crazy and thought outside of my normal box and mixed the paints up from one sheet/envelope to the next, which made for some very pretty combinations.

In case you are wondering what colors those are, I used maroon, bittersweet orange opaque, stonewedge green, latte opaque, and vintage wine semi-opaque. All are from Delta Ceramcoat.

And the reason for the jambox instead of the ipod, surround sound, or digital tv music choice? It was after 1:30 AM. I wanted to be respectful of my neighbors and I hadn't imported Paolo Nutini's These Streets cd to my iTunes yet. By the way, that is a great cd and I recommend it just as Ace did.

They are almost all the way dry, on both sides now but I am going to wait until tomorrow to play around with them some more. In my mind's eye I already see a September cash flow list for the cork board and something to incorporate with an art journal page.

I hope you might be inspired to see everyday things and what we would normally discard in a new way too.

Peace and Love Peeps.