January Cross-Stitch Update

I have actually been making quite a bit of progress of late. Here is how far I have gotten as of today:


At least being unemployed is good for one thing. :)

The Greening

As you know I am trying to become greener, as in more eco-friendly.

This xmas we only had 2 gifts to wrap. I couldn't see the justification for buying a roll of paper and having it sit around and probably get lost between now and next year. I remembered hat I had lots of brown packing paper from when we moved. But how to make it feel wintery?


Paper Snowflakes!

I just used scratch paper from the printer that I had saved. I buy printer paper that has a high recycled material content. If only I could find tape made from recycled plastics.


I have been replacing the plastics in my kitchen with metal and glass. The first thing I do is look around for used items when I need something. Craigslist, Goodwill & the local antique shop are the closest resources in Port Orchard.

Recently, I went to goodwill and got various sized glass bowls for storing food and dinner preparations. I was even able to find a set of matching 4 oz ramekins! They were even brown tinted glass to match my nice dish set. There were only 7 and I was hopping to find 8 but there was a similarly sized and shaped pink one that I got to complete the set. I even found a dish that exactly matches a set of plates we use everyday. I ended up with 12 bowls at $1 apiece.

I have been saving food jars and lids to store dinner leftovers. The best candidate I've found are pasta sauce jars. They use un-laminated paper labels and just a bit of glue so it washes off pretty easily. One night I made stew and used 2 different forms of protein, one for Ben and one for me. The jars were perfect for storing the leftovers:

Marinated Chicken, Pennsaltuckey stew, and marinated tofu crumbles.


I have been trying to find a way to green up our lunch boxes and here is what I found:


They are made from food grade steel and are dishwasher, but not microwave, safe. The square boxes are Lunchbots. They come divided (duo) and undivided (uno) and in 3 different sizes. I got two uno's and two duo's in the same size. The uno's fit the wide loaves of bread I use for sandwiches perfectly. The uno's came with blue lids and the duo's came with orange lids, I just swapped one of each so that we would remember whose is whose. That way we don't contaminate the meat with the non-meat sandwiches and we only have to wash them on the weekends.

The tiffins are for us to keep in the car to pack up leftovers at restaurants in order to eliminate using plastics and styrofoam.

I was so glad when I unpacked these items and my husband didn't make fun of me, but was actually excited to eliminate waste! Thanks honey!

2010: Looking Ahead

Yesterday I assessed how well I achieved my goals for last year. Today its time to set goals for the new year. Some of these may look familiar.

1. Compete in at least one 5K run.

2. Finish cross-stitch project.

3. Make working on my quilt a regular part of my routine (once the cross-stitch is finished).

4. Workout consistently. Run/Cardio 3 days/week. Relax with Yoga on off days.

5. Practice music 3 times/week.

6. Take swimming lessons.

7. Set up long-term savings account by March 26th, 2010 (Update 3/26/2010: Ben and I have a plan, but need to save a couple thousand more to implement)

8. Have dog so well trained she can be off the leash.

9. Learn something fun and new, like skiing.

10. Make my life and home greener. Reduce plastics, buy more things second-hand, eat local, eat organic, plant some herbs and a container garden.

11. Read More Books

12. Blog more, at least once per week

13. Become more Fluent in French, reading, writing, and conversing.

14. Improve posture

I am sure that I will be adding to and tweaking this list as the year progresses.