Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Earth Day

I'd like to say that as the years pass, I've been trying to make more of a conscious effort to do my part for saving the Earth.

Now that the snow is gone, we try to bike most places in town for errands, etc, instead of driving the van (Of course, my boys still balk at this quite a bit... even today at lunch, they asked if I'd drive them back to school, because it was cold out. I'd sent them with two jackets and a pair of mitts this morning. They only came home with a hoodie. *insert rolleyes emoticon here.)

I also carry my own bags when I go shopping (& reuse the few plastic ones I have for garbage.)

I've started buying green cleaners, as I've run out of my old ones.

And I recycle. Even in my scrap space, I have different containers one for garbage and one for recycling.

And I try to reuse things if possible.

For instance, I rooted through our leftover paint yesterday and found some that was a nice colour (Benjamin Moore Brandy Cream), so I used it to paint the basement bathroom. I tried it on one rec room wall, too, but Cameron thinks it isn't bright enough for a basement. I think we're going to go with Pittsburgh Paints Sugar something (this we'll purchase). But, there's also almost a gallon of Benjamin Moore Bradstreet Beige which will use for the long wall as a feature wall and we have some leftover Benjamin Moore Cloud White which I'll use for trim.

I have to say though, a lot of my reusing strategies probably have more to do with saving money than with saving the environment. ;)

So, today, I have the fun jobs of painting a second coat in the bathroom, removing some wallpaper border (I think they used super glue to put it on initially!) and painting some trim.

Before I go, I wanted to share a layout that I made on Saturday.

With my scrapping supplies, I really try to use most of my patterned paper on as many layouts as I can. If I decide I don't like it anymore, I give it to Sage or sell it at MSS's scrappy garage sale. My scraps I save (I actually reorganized these by manufacturer recently and am finding that this system is really working well for me!) & reuse on other layout or for cards.

I love this Fetching line by Pink Paislee Fetching line by Pink Paislee:




Thanks for stopping by!

*Edited to include this: check out Paper Trunk's blog to see what super fun thing they're doing for Earth Day.

9 comments:

ellen s. said...

great layout, Leigh! we do a lot of the same things here at our house. i wish i could do more but i think the most important thing you do is show your kids how important is so they can pass it on

Anabelle O'Malley said...

Awesome page. Love those colors. ;) We do a lot of the same things as you. How nice that you can ride your bikes to run errands. And your kids come home for lunch??? That's awesome!

Audrey Pettit said...

Sounds like you are definitely taking some strong steps towards being green, even if you're just trying to save some green. I do a lot of the same things myself.
Love your page with the PP papers. I've just been using that line myself, so your page really caught my eye.

dstandard said...

Great layout and good for you for working to save the environment! How cool that you can ride bikes around to get errands done!

Leah said...

We try to reuse allot around here too. I've been shopping at MCC for years. And in return I also donate our clothes that are in good shape so someone else can have a great find!

Norma Kennedy said...

Great layout ...its great to be conscious and if we all do our part we can make HUGE changes !

Chrys said...

Great layout!!! I'm a stickler when it comes to recycling! I recycle whatever I can! :) In our town we even have a recycling bin and a yard waste bin besides our garbage bin. Oh, and happy anniversary to you too! :) :)

Julie Overby said...

Wow, your photo matches that paper so well! Great layout, Leigh!

carol said...

Oh Leigh! I just had to laugh when I read that you were going to paint Bradstreet Beige! When we moved it our entire main floor was painted that colour! It was like living in a paper bag! Not to scare you, a bit here and there would be great but I mean EVERY WALL here was beige. Hope you love it!