Completely unrelated to anything Green.

But my dog waits for me to go to bed. He's laying in the hallway now.

It's sweet. <3

Why Organic Cotton? Another Simple Way.

My dear friend Nickie asked in my last post "What is the point of buying organic sheets?" Which is a very good question, my dear!

Conventionally grown cotton uses a lot of pesticides. I mean a lot. It's estimated that cotton pesticides are 25% of the world's uses of pesticides.

Why are pesticides bad outside of our food? Well, for one, it can leech into water.. cause cancer.. tons of nasty things you simply don't want to expose yourself to. And not to mention the harm it causes for the workers who have to work in those chemically sprayed cotton! :(

Organic cotton, much like organic produce is grown withOUT any pesticides, and it's all natural and just much better for the environment all around.

So when you can, get organic cotton stuff. I know it's 93583597 times more costly than regular cotton, but Earth will thank you for it.


Oh! And the Target sheets - while they feel nice, and they feel even nicer than they really are because it's organic cotton, I'm not head over heels about them. My regular old Egyptian cotton sheets felt better, but these feel a bit more serene to me too. I'm happy with the price though, and it seems the bamboo ones are really nice too so I'm wondering if I should get some... or should I just save my money?

Organic Sheets at Target!

If you love Target as much as I do, you must head over now, because their organic sheet sets are on sale!



Starting at $19.99 for a twin set, that can't be beat. :)

Needless to say I bought some of course :)

P.S. They also carry bamboo sheet sets online, and they seem to really have rave reviews! I'd pick some up, but I like buying in person vs online because I hate waiting!! :P

Environgentle

There's a store nearby that I like to go to called Environgentle, which sells the coolest things! Going in there is like going into Trader Joe's for the first time - you just don't know what you'll find! And it's so much fun. Everything is environmentally friendly, and I just love looking around. Whenever I'm in Encinitas, I try and make a stop there! There's also another store called My Organic House in Carlsbad that is supposedly similar (seems to focus more on home items rather than misc) and I want to try and go there soon too!

Here are some images from my last time at Environgentle :)

Red Hot and Green

If you don't watch HGTV religiously (like I do) then you may not have seen their newest show (special feature? full show? I'm not sure), called Red Hot & Green. The premiere episode showed a San Diego (yay!) couple trying to green their home and carpenter Carter Oosterhouse and eco designer Danny Seo headed the project! Lots of great ideas, I LOVED the kitchen and backyard - honestly, I WANT A BACKYARD!

In other news, our neighborhood did what I've been saying for the past few months - DITCH the two ugly huge waste bins and one tiny recycling bin for ONE big waste bin and ONE big recycling bin! Our recycling in the neighborhood was overflowing as it was, and it was IRRITATING to see recycling in the waste bin cause it didn't fit.

Massive Update

So, I needed to make a massive update. There is SO much that I want to post and etc, but I always want to post PICTURES! And it never happens that way. SO I might as well just update.

The Car.
So no, I didn't end up getting a hybrid. :( Unfortunately, it wasn't in the cards due to money. I probably could have gotten a used one, but for some reason, I felt uneasy about it, and I liked the new Civics a lot. I ended up getting a regular Civic, but I'm hoping that one day when money isn't so tight that I can get a hybrid. :)

The Pets.
Poor Moochie, he recently got a urinary tract infection and the vet's thinking it could be cystitis. We were originally using World's Best Cat Litter for him (which is still a great brand) but I found that it created WAY too much dust for my taste. I would find yellow paw prints everywhere! So I ended up switching to Swheat Scoop which is basically the same thing, but with wheat instead of corn. It produces much less litter, and I think it hides the odor better too.



On top of that, I found a litter box deodorizer (plain baking soda didn't always cut it.. my cat's stinky!) called Mrs Meyers that is basically baking soda with essential oils. I found it at Target too :)



On Food.
So my boyfriend has been having dietary problems and after some poking around, we thought it could be dairy related, so we've eliminated dairy from his diet. So far so good, but it is SO HARD trying not to eat dairy because our culture puts cheese on EVERYTHING. Plus that's his favorite food. :( So we've been experimenting a lot with foods, and tried Namaste Waffle and Pancake Mix which was really good! We used egg substitute too, and rice milk, which the recipe calls for, and the waffles were yummy! I'll try and post more recipes and things we're trying out :) Also, during my research, I found this website, Go Dairy Free. Lots of interesting information on why we should consume less dairy as a whole. I think ANYTHING in moderation is better for you.

On Relaxing.
For a while now, I've been wanting to get a massage just to relieve any stress and loosen up, and my friend wanted to take a spa day so I agreed and went with! We chose to go to Ecotique because of it's claim to "natural ingredients" although under further inspection, their products still contained parabens and other things that aren't good for you, their salon is very nice. Great service, although a bit disorganized. I enjoyed my massage a lot - she told me I was tight in my hands and feet, although it was easier to relax my feet than my hands. Perhaps it's due to using my hands all the time?? :P



For the record, none of these images are mine. :P

I guess that's all for now... at least, all that I can think of! I'm going to try to update more, and not feel bad for not always having my own images to post. :P

Yoga for the Mind

(image from nowandzenlodi.com)

Something that I've been trying to get more into lately (and I even got my boyfriend to take a class with me, which he really enjoyed!) is yoga! Yoga is really relaxing, but REALLY hard at the same time - it's so much about strength, flexibility and balance.

There's actually a yoga studio in Pacific Beach that offers free yoga classes on Sundays here in San Diego. I found out about the class through one of my brides, who said that she takes 4 classes a week after someone commented on her toned legs. This studio also offers surfer's yoga, which my boyfriend was all over, and would like to try the class out. :)

I think everyone should try a yoga class at least once! Some beginning classes are harder than others, but it's definitely worth trying!

Terrapassing

So since I've been researching about cars like mad the past few days (I just took my old car in today to get it diagnosed.. yea, poor thing is going to be leaving us soon), one thing I have been looking into are cars and their carbon emissions. One website that gives you awesome info about this is Terrapass.com. Simply go to the Road section, enter in what car you have, and annual mileage, and it will tell you how much lbs of carbon you're emitting into the air. It also tells you how to offset it by purchasing carbon credits.



You can also purchase credits for flights you take, and home usage. What's the point? Well they basically offset your carbon emissions by funding clean air sources. Neat, yea? :)

Awesome idea, and I found it VERY helpful regarding what cars to consider for having the lowest emissions. I looked at several cars, comparing mine to newer ones. Obviously, the hybrid would be the best bet, but after doing some number crunching, it isn't the most affordable bet for me either. I can actually afford a regular Civic, and something my boyfriend noted was that if finances get better next year, maybe we can trade it in for a hybrid.

*sigh* I test drove both the regular Civic and the Hybrid Civic today and oh goodness, I yearn for the hybrid WITH navigation. Why can't you be affordable?!

Here's a conversation I had with my boyfriend today in the car too which I found amusing.

HIM: Hybrid cars aren't affordable... you don't see poor people driving hybrids
ME: No, poor people take public transportation which is better.
HIM: .....
HIM: Well, you don't see lower middle class people driving hybrids.

:P

Time for a new car

I know it's been a while since I've posted.. things got busy for me doing weddings, and I wasn't able to upkeep this, since I really wanted to post at least one photo per post... and I want to have them be my photos as much as possible!

So, last week my car's transmission decided that it's time for it to die, and thus begins my search for a new car. I really want a hybrid - preferably the Honda Civic hybrid, but my brother, the sensible one, crashed all my hopes when he said "can you AFFORD IT?"



Honestly, with all that I wanted, (navigation and etc) I didn't know if I could afford a brand new one. I sure as heck wanted a shiny new one though.

So instead, I'm off to try and find certified used deals. Figure out what I can and can't afford. And in the end, he said "If anything, just get a regular Civic" Umm... nah.

Maybe I'll just get a car that takes bio diesel.

Dishwashing - Ecover vs. Seventh Generation

So ever since we went green, we immediately changed all our cleaning products. I put pretty much all my products up on craigslist for free, and they got snatched up instantly. I figured this was a better alternative than throwing them out (and down the drain which is a NO NO!) and adding to landfills - plus the people who would use them would probably end up getting new bottles of the actual stuff, so I'm reducing demand, yes? There are other options of disposing your household cleaners through your city's toxic waste removal program. Isn't that scary? To get rid of household cleaners, we need to get rid of them through a TOXIC WASTE program?? That alone tells you that the products used in cleaners are not safe!!

So use safer cleaners.. Seventh Generation and Ecover are the two most popular out there.

Anyway, one thing that I needed was dishwashing soap - for handwashing and the dishwasher. Did you know dishwashers are actually better than handwashing a whole load if dishes? Of course, if your dishwasher is full, and is energy efficient.

So initially, I purchased Seventh Generation's automatic dishwasher soap, and found that it basically SUCKED. I ended up having to do more work before the washing than the actual dishwasher (this is coming from a person who used Cascade Complete beforehand and basked in the barely-rinsing before putting the dishes in). It turned out to be a hassle! So I looked online for more answers, and found Ecover's dishwasher tablets!



I read good reviews, so I bought a box, and just tried it on a load, and I must say, I'm impressed! I did rinse and got major food off beforehand though, and I got into the habit of rinsing dishes when putting them in the sink (now, I just need to train my boyfriend to do the same!). But there wasn't residue and a non-plesant smell like there was with the Seventh Gen. Two thumbs up!



I also read an article in a magazine about the Ecover Aloe Vera dishwashing soap for handwashing - apparently they soften hands the best! I use gloves anyway cause I'm a touching-old-food-phobe. And it keeps my hands nice and clean. I hate wrinkly hands from water. Luckily I already had a bottle of this though! Lemon-scented too - I love the smell!