kim through
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These two handy snack bags took me around 1.5 hours to complete.

Finished dimensions are 6.25 inches x 5.5 inches.

Aren’t these prints cute??

This summer, we’ve done a lot of planning for ways to grow our own fruits and veggies and taken many steps toward becoming much more self-sustaining. Our housemates have a large vegetable garden in the back and although they have offered for us to partake of the veggies/fruits grown therein, I didn’t feel up to doing that much gardening just yet … I don’t really know much about it and when the planning was happening, I didn’t feel up to helping even with that, since it was at a rough Gwen-time.

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Wow. It’s been a while since I took the plunge, and I have yet to update you!

So here we are. I think it’s been three weeks. (Seriously? Where does the time go?) My hair looks GREAT after I wash it - bouncy, shiny, healthy, and it’s actually got some volume. I’m currently doing 1 tbsp baking soda in some water, pouring it over my hair, scrubbing, and rinsing and then doing a 1 tbsp: 1 cup water apple cider vinegar rinse, just a little bit at a time, since my hair isn’t too long. My hair feels so clean!

I’m trying to be a big girl and not wash every day. I’ve been washing every day for years and years and years because I’ve got fine, thin hair … and let’s get serious - it gets greasy the day I don’t wash it. I’m hoping, though, that if I stick with washing every other day, eventually my scalp will figure out how much oil it needs to make. It’s actually looking better the day after the wash than it ever did when I was using shampoo, so I think we’re getting somewhere … it’s just not as quick as I’d like! If I have to go somewhere and it’s looking particularly bad, I rub some cornstarch into the roots and massage it into the roots and comb it through.

One thing I never thought about - a great way to conserve water is to not shower every day!

So, in the same vein as when I decided to make my own deodorant, I’ve decided to do a little something crazy. Just like with the deo, I revisted Christine at welcome to my brain and re-read her posts on going no-poo - basically, not using shampoo anymore.

I know, I know. It sounds crazy. But every source I’ve read says it works!

I read this, this, and my favourite site on the subject, babyslime.

Apparently, ‘real’ shampoo strips EVERYTHING out of your hair, so your scalp over-produces oils to compensate … so when you go no-poo, your hair kinda … rebels (?) … and might get a bit greasy. To counteract this, you can use a baking soda wash and apple cider vinegar rinse - basically your shampoo and conditioner. Most people who go no-poo do their baking soda/vinegar routine a couple of times a week and just rinse their hair with water the other days. I don’t know how this will work out for my hair, but some of the comments I’ve read from people with lifeless, fine, thin hair say their hair is healthy and shiny and has more volume!

I’ll let you know how it works

There’s a few things that I’m excited about for this new plunge: shampoos contain GROSS chemicals (basically laundry/dish detergent with pretty smelling stuff …), shampoos - especially if you’re trying to buy organic - are expensive, and shampoos come in bottles that, although we recycle them, are still more manufacturing, shipping, and waste. If I can cut shampoo out of my budget, I’ll be saving a little money and a lot of environment!

Wish me luck!

(p.s. Today is my 25th birthday! What a weird thing to be excited about on my birthday …)

Oh that’s right. I joined Greenpeace.

Brad and I very brokenly (ie. interrupted 4 times between 7:30 and 10:30) watched Garbage Warrior last night. If you’re interested in sustainable living, being off-the-grid, and would love to watch a movie that makes you want to yell at a politician, this is the film for you!

This documentary film follows Mike Reynolds, an architect who is based out of New Mexico, and founder of Earthship Biotecture - a design and construction company that specializes in passive, off-the-grid, temperature stable homes and buildings that are made of recycled and natural materials. The film shows some of Mike’s early designs (still standing 30 years later!) and some of his latter ones, detailing his journey into sustainable building design, and - most frustratingly - his fight to have a law passed that would allow research into the same field.

At just under an hour and a half, this film is a quick glimpse into the realm of sustainable living and is just enough to whet your whistle and get you excited to learn more about it. About halfway through, I asked Brad, “Can we go live there?” when they were discussing their sustainable communities. What a shift from our current lifestyle that would be!!

I give this film a 5/5. I loved it and am going to wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone I see in the next few weeks … because that’s what I’m like.

I would have scored SO. MUCH. HIGHER.

Are you dying to know yet?

I make my own deodorant. Yep, you heard me right. And it works ten times better than any store-bought antiperspirant I have ever tried - and believe you me, I’ve tried a LOT of antiperspirants!!!

I found the recipe over at Christine’s blog, welcome to my brain. I read it and giggled. Three weeks later I went back and made it and have been using it ever since.

Recipe

Ingredients:

1. 1 tbsp corn starch
2. 1 tbsp olive oil
3. 1 tbsp baking soda

Directions:

Mix. Rub into armpits. Enjoy your odour-free, relatively moist-free pits. Add a few drops of your favourite essential oil if you’d like it to have an odour. I’ve never done this, mostly because I couldn’t come up with an essential oil that I liked enough to smell like, plus, I kinda like smelling like nothing.

Honestly, people, this stuff works. And it works GOOD.

(p.s. Our boiler works again - YAY!)

Crunchy is a term used to denote something that is environmentally friendly, healthy for the body, or just plain hippy-ish. Wikipedia defines ‘granola‘ (same concept) as “a slang term describing a person who is hippie-like, a modern bohemian, environmentalist, or leftist in outlook.” Take this quiz to find out how crunchy you are!

I scored 139 - Super Nutty, Ultra-Crunchy, Granola Earth Mama! How did you do?