Thanksgiving came and went. Â We gathered with friends, gave thanks, ate food, and took lots of pictures. Â Well, I took lots of pictures to share with you. Â Because the only thing better than preparing and eating beautiful food is looking at pictures of it, right? I mean, just ask your Facebook friends. Our Thanksgiving meal […]
Happy almost Thanksgiving, Americans. Â For those of you for whom Thanksgiving just wouldn’t be right without green bean casserole, I present: DIY organic condensed cream of mushroom soup that honestly tastes better than Campbell’s. Â It’s so good, I was eating it straight out of the pan with a spoon last night. Â I hope I still […]
What are you doing for Thanksgiving? Michael and I are going to a potluck feast at the home of our friends David and Nancy. Our contributions will be baked yams, mashed potatoes, and a persimmon orange pomegranate salad. And nearly all of the ingredients will be plastic-free: Salad greens, orange, pomegranate, persimmon, lemon, yams, and […]
A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from Gabriel Lamug-Nanawa (Gabby), a Jesuit priest in Cambodia, who has a proposal for churches in his local area to promote Plastic-Free Lent this year.  Last year, Gabby went on a plastic fast for Lent and found the experience to be not only good for the planet […]
For those of us working to reduce the amount of plastic we consume and the plastic waste we produce, the holidays can be challenging. What do we do about plastic gifts and wrapping we might receive from well-meaning friends and family? First, it’s important to have some strategies for avoiding acquiring a lot of holiday […]
Halloween Plastic can be scary!  But blogger Amber Dohrenwend has one solution to Halloween plastic.  She’s the author of The Cardboard Collective, a blog about using recycled cardboard (the kind you would fish out of the cardboard only recycling bin or dumpster) to create toys, crafts, and furniture. She lives in a small apartment in Tokyo, […]
Ah, the seasonal aisle. It’s always full of some kind of plastic. This time of year, we’re confronted by walls of brightly (some would say garishly) colored plastic Easter eggs, and bunnies, and baskets, and plastic grass, and all that stuff. Because what’s a holiday without plastic, right? After running into the plastic egg wall […]
In my post on green holiday gift giving last month, I mentioned donations to nonprofits. Several commenters suggested charitable gift cards, so I decided to look into them. Giving directly to an organization that you know your giftee supports can be a great idea, but if you’re not sure in what way your recipient is […]
I’m starting to feel anxious already. The start of the holiday shopping season is upon us, with the stampedes of Black Friday coming up in just a few days, followed by the Internet shopping frenzy of Cyber Monday. I tend to put on my Grinch Face and hide at home during the holiday shopping season. […]
Do you enjoy decorating your home for the holidays? I’m kind of a scrooge when it comes to anything holiday-ish. It seems Michael and I find ourselves in denial from October through the end of the year. But I realize we are in the minority. My friend Lisa Sharp, who blogs at Retro Housewife Goes […]