Love Our Earth & Things Can Be Pretty! by golly!

Today I have a joonbeam blog first. I always make my own envelopes and packages when I can. The other day I was cutting a grocery sack so I could use the body. Normally, I cut down one side first and slice all the way to the base, discarding the bottom. Maybe it was my tired brain ~ I had seven packages to prepare that day! - or maybe it was celestial intervention, but, for whatever mysterious reason, I cut across the fold first instead. Then I looked down and, by golly, I said to myself, that is an instant large envelope! So I grabbed the camera and, by golly, I had brainstorm #5,067,876,439,274,183,201. My first blog tutorial. Woo Hoo!

Here you see the cut across the sack. Next, the item placed inside the envelope. I wrap things in wax paper, bubble wrap or glad wrap to protect my paper items from potential moisture.

Then, I place the collage (just my style. Not necessary, of course!) and address right over the folded closed opening. Viola! Instant sturdy envelope for your larger items and you saved money, energy, time, trees, the environment, the world! From now on, I will be using all size brown bags for this purpose! I mean you have instant four sealed sides. How great is this? Can you tell I am excited?

Here are the tools of my trade. I adoringly use Yes! Paste for all of my paper projects. And I reuse all kinds of paper and envelopes. Do you see my return address? That is a remnant of the postage kiosk stamp. It comes out of the self service machine as a sticker. And I found that I can make two self sticking return address labels with the leftover! I am hard core saving woman, but why not? It's easier and more efficient, too.

Here is the back of the envelope. That Pottery Barn catalog theme came in so handy!

This tutorial is dedicated to Mister Rogers. Just when I thought I couldn't love him more, we saw an episode where he was demonstrating how he and you can reuse envelopes by simply slicing carefully along the lines and turning it inside out. A little tape, glue or paste and... New envelope! Thanks for reading my post. I love everyone and everything ~ Let's all love our earth a little extra in celebration of today, the first day of spring! Try something new. Use something old. You'll feel great. Really. You will. Habits...the more good ones you curate, the less room in your life for the bad ones. It's a win, win, win situation.

Eco Etsy St. Patty's Day Hunt! Today at NOON EST

Good Morning World! Can you spot the birdie? Today at noon EST, the eco etsy street team is holding a Saint Patrick's Day Hunt! You can win a free item or two and find wonderful eco friendly shops in the process. You'll be looking for the team symbol seen above. It is hidden in chosen listings in the participating shops, of which joonbeam is one. For the official rules and details please visit our eco etsy team blogspot here. Get ready, get set, HUNT! Please leave comments here and let me know how it went. I'd love to hear. And here's to wearin' o' the green and to our little big green planet. I love our earth.

You Are What You Eat...

OK I guess that makes me sweet because here I am following up that lovely cheesecake with a fabulously delightful lighter than heaven lemon bar. Maybe it's the real March Madness. Anyway, the sun was shining and I had to take advantage of the photo op. Next stop, Bon Appetite world traveling food photographer. The lemon bars do lend their magic to day dreaming... ox to you all.

Bear's Visit

If you ever wondered what the most delicious cheesecake on earth LOOKS like, here it is! I wish you could taste it. We wish we could sell these. We've been asked many times. But, it is difficult because of the perishable ingredients and refrigeration requirements. Well, our eldest, Kristoffer, has a brief business trip here in Boston so we got to see him and spend the evening with all four of our children in our home at once! I love that. It is almost Bear's birthday so I surprised him with one of Evan's famous cheesecakes (seen above) that I made. It has been a long time since I did the baking for this one. As you can see, it turned out lovely and, rumor has it, tastes divine! We played scrabble and let him win ~ in honor of his birthday and all, you know. Scout played her Chopin piece for us all ~ Opus 10, #3 Piano version. She taught herself this! It is also known as Wakare No Kyoku which means Song of Parting in Japanese. She first heard it on an anime show called Fullmetal Alchemist.

This morning Bear called to say Dallas has snow. ??? His conference there was canceled and he has to stay another night. YiPPee!!! More good food, silly times, scrabble ~ and I think there is a quarter of this cheesecake left. Happy Friday, friends. Bon Appetite to you all, as well.