Happy Earth Day 2014

Happy Earth Day! 

 

 

It's this simple ... 'Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the the trees".  Revelations 7:3.  This  artwork by Mary Engelbreit spoke to me long before I was officially in the "Earth Business". I have had this poster framed and on my wall in my offices (in Bonham, Dallas and now Mckinney) most of my professional career. It's not your typical office art, but it continues to be my mantra and inspiration every day.

 

Hope you have a great day!  

Keep America Beautiful National Conference

The last week was extremely busy.

I traveled to Charlotte NC for the Keep America Beautiful National Convention.  I have always wanted to attend this conference and this year was able to make it happen.

The main reason I got to go is because one of our nominees won an award.  I am so proud of McKinney's partner Lee Howe from the Collin County Sheriff's Department receiving the National Award for Litter Law Enforcement.  He is instrumental in helping me with our litter pick up event and our national drug take back

Here is part of the Texas delegation at the Keep America Beautiful National Conference in Charlotte NC.  As you can see, there was a bunch of us...   Proud to be with these people!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Spoons

We provided snacks for Micaela's class a couple of days ago.  I HAD to provide individually portioned store bought snacks (per school district policy) but reduced the carbon footprint by using real spoons instead of disposable ones. I think a couple of Moms thought I was crazy but it's the green thing to do.

 

 

All in all, I spent 5-10 minutes and less than a gallon of water to hand washing these and now there is 30 less spoons in the landfill. 

Busy Weekend

I've been sewing but my time to post has been non existent.  This week I was responsible for our city's Drug Take Back Event.  It was a HUGE success but requires so much preparation. 

Here is a collage with a few pictures. 





























We had 38 bags/boxes of solid drugs. Incredible! We are recycled TEN 95 gallon bins of plastic/paper packaging and a small truckload of boxes. Plus... we managed to have only one half empty container of trash. Eight people really "Making a Difference" in McKinney today--- I couldn't do this without the help of volunteers,  the support of the Public Works Department and the Collin County Sheriff's Office.

Rainwater Harvesting

We've had an unusual amount of rain this July here in North Texas.  One of the seminar topics I host several times a year for work is Rainwater Harvesting.  Over the last four years I have become an somewhat of an avid "harvester" (that is a word). 

This is my most recent addition to my rain barrel collection.  I am so happy with this barrel because our HOA isn't sending me letters about it since it's pretty.  I had a painted plastic barrel and got a "get rid of it" letter, but with this one... not a word or a letter.  LOL.

The hobby has become very fun and somewhat addictive, I would have more barrels if I had more space.   I try use to rain water for all our flowerbeds, flower pots and trees, that helps us conserve the treated water we purchase from the city.  This  barrel is located at the front of the house and collects the water from a major roof valley, as the barrel fills, I use a pump and a 75 foot hose that is hidden in our flower bed and along the side of the house to transport the water to less fancy barrels behind our fence in the back yard.  (One of these days I am going to film of video of the process).  I actually have a total of 9 barrels and collect approximately 500 gallons of water per rain event. 

I have a Pinterest board dedicated to rainwater harvesting ideas, if you are interested in learning more.  And, if your local you can register for my next Build a Rain Barrel workshop on September 19.  More information at Green McKinney web page.  . 

Hope you are having a great weekend. 

Modern Earthy Zipper Pouch

Here is a zipper pouch I made as a thank you gift for one of the speakers a couple of weeks ago.  This is the pouch I gave the person who presented at my rainwater harvesting seminar. 

I absolutely (heart) this fabric.  It's from Michael Miller's Eco Collection and called Save Water & Energy!  I love it because it's everything I try to promote in our city.

Here is a close up of the Earth charm I attached to the zipper.  I found these earthy charms at Oriental Trading and went bananas because I thought they were so darn cute. 

I used a bright yellow gingham for the seamless lining because it's easier to find stuff when you have light colored lining.

I wish I could buy a bolt of this fabric and keep it forever (yes, I am crazy like that)!  Thanks for stopping by! 

PS:  If you love this and want one, they are available in my Etsy Store. 

Earthy Zippered Bag

Made yet another zippered bag.  This one is for my boss who is leaving. Her last day is next week-not by choice.  

This Timeless Treasures fabric called "Save the Planet" couldn't be more perfect for her and those of us who work in Environmental Sustainability.    The entire print throughout the fabric features great earthy quotes in bold fonts.  I fussy cut the fabric to feature "Respect the Planet" on the front of the bag and "Green is not just a color" on the back.  

I used an owl for the charm because 'owls give a hoot!'.  Corny I know but she'll appreciate the thought and humor. 

  In case your keeping count, we WERE a dept of 7. 4 interns left @ end of summer, 1 coworker left last month & boss leaves next week. Do the math & sadly that leaves me only! 

Halloween Party

We had our second annual Halloween Party on Sunday! We celebrated Micaela's 6 1/2 birthday since we never got around to celebrating with friends during April. Here are a few of my favorite pictures!

The girls made a pumpkins out of old fence posts. When we replaced our gate recently, my husband thought I was crazy when I asked him to save the wood for craft projects. After much convincing, he saved a few pieces. These little pumpkins are made from the posts. Hubby cut the post into blocks, sanded them down, added a light coat of pumpkin orange paint and a little stump made out of a dowl. The girls cut faces out of felt and glued them on, it was cute and very inexpensive! Ahh, our sweets table. This is what happens when you forget to take a picture at the begining of the party before everyone arrives. Some of the letter candy dishes had already been refilled a couple of times by the time I remembered the camera. Nothing too elaborate here. I used fabric for the tablecloth, covered the drink bottles with Halloween scrapbook paper, did store bought cookies, cupcakes and a little 3 inch cake for Micaela. Most of all, I love our new letter candy dishes (I wish I could by several alphabet sets so I could spell out many words for every occassion).

The Pinata-- a total Mexican tradition! I found this cute pumpkin pinata at the party store and thought it would be fun to add an M monogram. I cut out the M with the Storybook cartridge on the Cricut, I think it turned out cute!

All in all it was a great party-- me and hubby were very tired but our little girl was happy and that is all that counts. Thanks for stopping by!

Allen USA Celebration

Last night we went to the Allen USA celebration. Allen is the next city south of McKinney on Hwy 75. This is a huge event that draws more than 75,000 people and what is most impressive about the event is they make it extremely green by having a ZERO WASTE policy.

Here is a picture of the bins they have throughout the park.



Here is a video of the fireworks. Thanks for stopping by!

Earth Hour

Earth Hour is tomorrow. If you are not familiar with Earth Hour, check out their website.

Our city is encouraging residents to participate in Lights Out McKinney! If you are local, check out the website. We're having a flashlight party at our house!

Birthday Gift

Since our daughter Micaela has attended two different preschools for the last two plus years, we know alot of little girls and get invited to MANY birthday parties. Sometimes, it's more than one a weekend. I used to really over-think the birthday gift, it drove me nuts. Does anybody else do that or is it just me?

Now that I embroider, we do a personalized item and Ta Da, done! This season we've done beach towels for all the parties we've been to. I've posted several here. Here's one I did this past weekend for her little friend Isabella.This towel is from Kohl's and it's so cute. You can see the whole towel design on the label.

As much as I like to wrap boxes and do fluffy tissue flowing out of gift bags, I am really trying to make the packaging of the gifts we give as 'green' as possible. We either reuse a gift bag we've received before or we package in something the recipient can reuse again.

We packaged Isabella's beach towel in a plastic container with a lid. These hot pink boxes are available at Wal-Mart and are $5-- yes more than a gift bag but way more useful!
I 'refrained' (very painful) from adding tissue to the inside (gotta think about those trees), placed the handmade card inside (so it wouldn't get lost) and tied a simple satin bow.
I know Isabella will find something like Barbies or Little Ponies to put in the box and hopefully she'll reuse the ribbon too. Thanks for stopping by.

Linking to Made by You Mondays, Making the World Cuter.

Green Tip

Invest a few hours to make your home more energy efficient. Caulk or weather strip the leaks around your windows and doors. Add gaskets to your outlets and switches. With $25 in materials you can save hundreds in heating and cooling costs.

Green Tip

Switching to CFL (compact flourescent lights) eliminates 300 lbs of CO2 a year. If everyone switches to CFL, that's like eliminating 7 million cars from the road.