Have You Discovered Glass Dharma?

May 5, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Glass Dharma Extra SmallI love these eco-friendly drinking straws from Glass Dharma – perfect for the kid in you!

Personally, I can’t think of a better way to brighten up a smoothie – especially My Favorite Green Smoothie! (recipe below)

What makes them so eco-friendly?

They’re made of clear, borosilicate glass!

(If you’re feeling adventurous, choose the straws that come with decorative multi-colored dots – so you can keep track of whose is whose).

Or, choose this unique bendable version.

Either way, these straws allow you to enjoy your beverage in a fun and safe way, that avoids those ever-present plastics found in your typical straws.

Plus they’re 100% recyclable!

 

Note: The links in this article are affiliate links, which means, in a nutshell, that should you choose to buy – both you & I benefit.

Filed Under: HEALTH & WELLNESS Tagged With: , , , ,

How To Travel Green

July 12, 2013 By Leave a Comment

TravelAh, the joys of travel.

Not only do we have to deal with the hassles of flying, but our normally healthy habits as far as diet and exercise often fly out the window, adding to our level of frustration and fatigue.

When you add a gluten-free, allergen-free diet to the mix, it gets even more interesting!

Here’s another thing I know to be true:

If you’re an eco-friendly sort of person, it can be very hard to maintain your eco-friendly ways while on the road.

After all, when we’re tired and hungry, and far from home it’s much easier to opt for convenience – especially when crunched for time.

Still, it is possible, and needn’t take too much effort.

So here are my tips on How to Travel Green.

 

Stay Hydrated

While it’s definitely important to stay hydrated while traveling, I think it’s equally important to consider the type of bottle you’re drinking out of.

Yet, how does one maintain proper fluid intake without going through gallons of water packaged in plastic bottles?

My method isn’t foolproof, but here it is:  I travel with a stainless steel water bottle.

I empty it prior to passing through airport security, then promptly request a refill at the nearest Starbucks.

A friend of mine gave me this tip a few years ago, and it really works!

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Filed Under: BREATHE, TRAVEL Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

GREENING YOUR HOLIDAY

December 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

‘Green’ has become quite the buzz-word of late.

You can live a Green, eco-friendly lifestyle, taking the time to Reduce, Re-Use and Recycle and remove toxins from the home.

More specifically, you can embrace Green Design by introducing eco-friendly, sustainable products to your home’s interior. This one simple act can ensure clean, fresh air and a healthy living environment for you and your family.

Then there’s the mantra to eat your Greens, relying on lots of leafy greens and vegetables as a mainstay of your diet.

This is even more critical for anyone diagnosed with osteoporosis or osteopenia. But then, leafy greens are important to include in your diet regardless.

There are lots of ways to sneak extra greens into your daily meals, whether adding a handful to a smoothie (it really doesn’t affect the taste, I promise) – or relying on oversized leaves as a wrap, in lieu of bread.

I’ll address that in a future article.

Meantime, here’s another idea for incorporating greens:  an easy home-made Pesto.

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Filed Under: EAT, HEALTH & WELLNESS, RECIPES Tagged With: , , , , ,

GLUTEN-FREE HOLIDAY BAKING

December 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The holidays are here and I’m in the mood for baking cookies!

This is my favorite time of the year for baking. Sometimes I need to reign myself in so I don’t overdo it. After all, who is going to eat all those cookies in a 2-person household?

Fortunately for me, my husband has quite the sweet tooth, and he’s only too happy to sample what I bake.

This year, however, I’ve decided to cut back on the excess of sweet treats – a bit of a challenge, given the holiday tradition in my family which goes back to our German roots.

This tradition involves an individual plate of Christmas cookies – yes, every member of the family gets their very own plate of cookies on Christmas morning, to eat as they choose.

Growing up, this was often the most exciting part of the holiday!

My mother would assemble the cookie plates on Christmas Eve, and we weren’t allowed to see them until morning. We even had special, Christmas themed holiday plates – just for the occasion.

As an interior designer, I understand how the needs of our families often change over the years, and our traditional way of doing things evolves – as new ideas present themselves.

Or, as so often happens in our homes, we simply want to ‘freshen’ the look.

Which is why, I’ve decided to make two changes this year:

  • The first, is to bake less.
  • The second, is to switch from paper Christmas themed plates to a more eco-friendly, re-usable choice – fine china. (Mostly because said paper plates, which have been re-used year after year, are looking a little ragged around the edges).

One thing, however, will never change, and that is my homemade Lebkuchen cookies – which I bake every Christmas.

For anyone not familiar with Lebkuchen, it is a German honey-spice cake – a thicker, chewy cookie filled with traditional Christmas spices like cinnamon and cloves.

In my pre-gluten-free days, we always had store-bought Lebkuchen.

However, years ago I came across this recipe from Sunset magazine, and I have faithfully baked these cookies every year since – to serve alongside the store-bought version.

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GREENING THE HOLIDAYS, 2011

December 16, 2011 By 4 Comments

This past week, my goal was to create my very first Video blog.

Unfortunately, this didn’t go exactly as planned.

In its place, I offer you these timely tips for celebrating the holidays with an eco-friendly twist, based on personal experience and advice I’ve collected over the years.

And if you’re really lucky, the video will still appear sometime this week.

 

TREES & DECORATION

The prevailing wisdom still dictates that a live tree is preferable to an artificial one, since the latter is made almost entirely from plastics, non-renewable petroleum by-products that can’t be recycled.

The bottom line is that while it can seem wasteful to have a living tree from one year to the next, it is actually more beneficial to the environment, especially if you support what is grown or manufactured locally

Another alternative is to plant a living tree, one that grows in a pot and can be re-planted later – a great idea, but one that requires a lot of acreage (or ingenuity) for the re-planting phase.

Especially if you still have many more Christmases to look forward to.

I literally cringed when I read that I should avoid using tinsel, because it can’t be recycled. In my family, tinsel on the Christmas tree is a tradition that goes as far back as I can remember. When it came to decorating the tree it was always my father’s crowning achievement. He would add the tinsel at the very end, ever so carefully and always very meticulously.

Other ways to invite the outdoors into your home, is by collecting pine cones and branches of holly berries, or whatever else you might find that suits your holiday decor.

If you have children, old standbys like strings of cranberries and popcorn continue to entertain; when the holidays are over these can easily go in your yard waste.

 

LIGHTS

Did you know that LEDs (light-emitting diodes) are at least 90% more energy efficient than regular incandescent bulbs? Cool to the touch, they also pose less of a fire hazard, and will last for thousands of hours longer than incandescent bulbs.

LEDs are widely available in many different colors, and shapes, and can be found at your local retailer. By switching to LED’s you will save electricity and enjoy a lower electrical bill!

Be sure you don’t throw away your old lights; check your local listings to find out how they can be recycled.

 

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Filed Under: HOLISTIC HOME Tagged With: , , , , ,

THE FABRIC OF OUR LIVES

March 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago, I attended an innovative & enjoyable interior design event, held at the Theo Chocolate factory in Seattle.

If you’re wondering what chocolate has to do with design, this struck me as such a fun concept I couldn’t resist the opportunity to learn more.                                                                    

As it happened, the chocolate fest was held in tandem with the viewing of a locally owned fabric collection from O’Ecotextiles.

What these two companies – and their products  – have in common is an environmentally conscious footprint. In other words, from start to finish, both the chocolate, and the fabrics, are sustainably manufactured!

On their website, Theo’s Chocolates boasts they are “the ONLY Organic, Fair-Trade, Bean-to-Bar Chocolate Factory in the United States!”

O’Ecotextiles describes their fabrics as “Opulent, Yet Organic” and “Sensuous, yet Sustainable”.

Tempting, yes?

Well, I’d like to share some sobering statistics about the many fabrics, luscious and otherwise, that we surround ourselves with on a daily basis.

What most of us don’t realize, is that there are over 2000 chemicals used in fabric production.

That’s right – 2000!

You can be sure that most of them are highly toxic, and harmful to both your health and the environment.

Yet the average person has no idea.

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