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Date Night Boxes–Fun DIY Christmas Gifts that Anyone can Make
When giving gifts, I love making things and I also love giving experiences. Both stem not only from my desire to keep waste and clutter to a minimum, but also my hope to give a personalized gift that will be enjoyed and cherished. Leading up to this Christmas my boyfriend and I were talking about finances and inflation and fun, embarrassingly adult topics like that. Since making gifts can be more affordable than buying them, we also talked about how we would love homemade Christmas gifts from each other. That got my wheels turning and I came up with a way to combine my love of experiences and making things…
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Transportation and Sustainability: 4 Starting Points for Big Issues
The transportation we use and how much we use it impacts our planet. That’s a fairly obvious and indisputable statement, but one that doesn’t necessarily get talked about often or in depth. While it’s a wide-ranging topic that can be overwhelming, I’m breaking down some of the issues with transportation and sustainability as well as some practical things we can do about it. Transportation and the Climate The topic of transportation and the climate is not new to our blog. You may remember Krista sharing how our travel choices can help the planet last year. The topic, however, is huge and has a long history. In his post Travel With…
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How to Make Sustainable Lanterns from Upcycled Materials
Last month, my friend and I attended a local lantern festival called the Still Moon Arts Renfrew Ravine Moon Festival. In the lead up to the event we were inspired to create our own lanterns to take with us. I wanted a more sustainable lantern project, so looked around my house for items I could upcycle into a lantern. I was really happy with how they turned out, so wanted to share how to make my sustainable lanterns from upcycled materials. An added bonus is these sustainable lanterns are really easy to make! How to Make your DIY Sustainable Lanterns It may look like a number of steps, but they…
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Welcome to Circular Economy Month!
Background October is Circular Economy Month! Circular Economy Month is a new, expanded program emerging from Waste Reduction Week, a national program run by the Circular Innovation Council. Waste Reduction Weeks began happening around Canada back in the 1980’s but, 20 years ago in 2001, Waste Reduction Week became official. Waste Reduction Week, which has been held in the third week of October, continues to focus on the following daily topics: In previous years we’ve posted our experiences with Waste Reduction Week and the theme days: Waste Reduction Week and the 7 Important Theme Days #WRW2020: 3 Ways to Upcycle T-shirts In an expanded program, Waste Reduction Week is now…
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3 Ways to Preserve Summer Produce
The plan for freezing summer produce It’s officially the end of the summer season, though it’s been an extended summer here in Southwestern BC! As a result we’ve still been seeing some amazing summer produce in the last month or so and the question is – how best to keep a taste of summer to enjoy through the winter? In the past many people canned peaches, pears, beans, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes… and I’m just not confident enough to do it! I had attempted pickles once and a couple of the jars went bad which made me nervous to try again. So this year I’ve decided to freeze some of our…
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Second Hand September: How you can join in!
What is Second Hand September? Second Hand September is a campaign, started by Oxfam in 2019, to encourage purchasing only second hand clothing items for the 30 days of the month. We’re a couple of weeks in to September, but it’s not too late to join in. And continuing Second Hand September practices beyond the 30 days of the month is, of course, a great idea as well! Fast fashion has sold society on the idea that people constantly need new clothes, which results in the world consuming 80 billion new pieces of clothing each year–a 400% increase from 2 decades previous. Source: The True Cost Why purchase used? The…
