Swagbucks

Have you heard about Swagbucks? 

Swagbucks is an online search engine that allows you to earn virtual dollars that can be redeemed for various prizes including gift cards for Barnes & Noble, Starbucks, Amazon, iTunes, etc. I was so excited when I "bought" my 1st prize recently: a $15.00 iTunes gift card!

How It Works: 

1. Sign Up by clicking on the banner to the left or under my Swagbucks referral code (that way I earn additional Swagbucks too!)

2. Earn Swagbucks by searching the Web via the Swagbucks Search Engine as well as Finding Swag Codes, Voting in Daily Polls, Inviting Friends to Join, etc.

3. Redeem the Swagbucks for various prizes!

The website, Swagbucks.com, has a toolbar across the top that is very helpful and easy to navigate. The FAQs thoroughly explain each step and and the Winning Tips explain how to maximize the Swagbucks opportunities to earn!

Christmas is coming up as well as all of our family birthdays back to back!  I am building up Swagbucks to purchase gifts;  it'll be interesting to see how little we spend out-of-pocket. Saving money, frugal living, stretching our resources - that's all a part of green living!

A Girly Twist with Fabric Scraps

A fun project that can express itself in so many ways.  And of course, it's green because it's made with recycled fabric scraps (or for a more fashionable take: "reinventing fabric remnants with a creative flair."  Ha!)

The basic directions for fabric rosettes are:

1. Cut strips of fabric (an inch wide or so), longer strips if you want larger rosettes, shorter for smaller ones.
2.  Tie a knot at one end of the strip, then begin twisting and wrapping the fabric around the knot, placing a dab of glue between the layers occasionally to secure.  Try to dab the glue closer to the bottom of the rosette so that none of it is visible on the front/top of the rosette.  
3.  Either using a circle of the same fabric or a piece of felt, glue the rosette onto the backing and then to a barrette or pin or whatever you are making with the rosettes. 

I attached several rosettes to headbands.

This is a rosette pin, made from burlap.   

For another trendy accessory, rosette bib necklaces, here's a tutorial over at The Scientific Seamstress.  

The rosettes don't require a lot of fabric, so you can recycle your fabric scraps and clothing including t-shirts, skirts, scarves, pants, etc.  A friend used small pieces of tulle to make tiny rosettes to dress up a card.  Other fun uses,  besides hair accessories and necklaces, include a lovely wreath (like this one from Decor Chick), pillow accessories like this giant rosette pillow from Lemon Tree Creations), gift wrap decorations...the sky's the limit!  And the best part, bringing it around to why I love making these so much, is that you can repurpose textiles that you already own that may be heading for the trash and use them to make something lovely.  Being green is about so much more than being an environmental activist (which we are not).  For me and my family, it is our way to reduce waste and to save resources, including our money!    

Gone Fishin'

Inspired by this post from my friend Christianne (Little Page Turners), who was inspired by this post that was inspired by this post (I want to make sure I give credit where credit is due), I decided to throw my hat "into the fishing bucket" and make some fish.

A green fish project as a birthday gift. 

According to this resource about textile recycling, approximately 12 million tons of textile waste is generated each year in North America (amounting to approximately 68 lbs of waste per household per year), and 5% of all landfill production is textile waste.  Another article about clothing recycling states that "...the average American throws away 67.9 pounds of clothing and rags each year. With some 20 million people in the state of Texas, that’s 1.4 billion pounds of clothing thrown away each year in Texas alone!"

I went through a box of boy's clothing that was given to me by a friend and pulled out shirts that were either too small or too worn, ones that my boys wouldn't wear that had some life left in them.  But not a lot.  

 

I printed out fish clipart from the web and traced around them onto the shirts.  

Several important notes:  

1.  I forgot to turn the shirts inside out.  

2. These are not the fabrics in my final product - my sewing machine died, and I used a combination of fusible bonding and hand stitching on the first batch of fish. It was not pretty.

So I found some more shirts to recycle, turned them inside out and traced the fish templates onto them.  As you can see in the images above, the outline of the fish is larger than the templates.  That was done purposefully to give additional room for the seam allowance so that the fish wouldn't end up too small.  (Thank you to my dear friend for coming to rescue and letting me borrow her sewing machine!)

Next, I sewed the fish up (leaving an opening to turn them inside out), added some fill (you can use fabric scraps, etc.), looped ribbon through a metal washer and sewed the mouth shut.  Exhausted from my previous attempts at hand stitching, I opted to use the sewing machine to seal the openings at the mouth (and sometimes the tail), though a slip stitch would look more polished.  

I added buttons from a huge collection that my mother gave me.  She always salvaged buttons from one item to use for other projects...I have buttons from an outfit she made me in 2nd grade!  Hot-glued googly eyes (try saying that ten times!) give each fish a distinct personality.

Ribbon accents on the tails above.  The fabric for the fish below had a pattern on it, and I used fabric paint on the reverse side to match it a bit.

With the addition of fishing poles made out of wooden dowels, twine and magnets, the birthday gift was just about complete and fit nicely in a bucket from the Dollar Store.

These cute sunglasses were in the clearance bin at Michaels for 60 cents and were the perfect touch to finish off the gift.  I was able to find three, one for the birthday boy and each of his siblings.

Isn't this princess adorable?!?  This is baby girl after she was cleaned up.  Evidence of a great birthday party - frosting all over the clothes and up the nose!

I Got Stoned!

Even though the evening temperatures have been dipping significantly here in Colorado, the daytime highs are still in the 90s.  When you step outside, it is inevitable that you will  perspire sweat.   I have been on the hunt for all-natural deodorants for several reasons:

• Concern regarding reports that ingredients in most commercial products can have negative effects on long-term health
• My skin has been irritated by many of the products I've used in the past
• The same products haven't been consistently effective 
• My two oldest are approaching their tween years, and I want to start them off on all-natural products

I must admit that I was skeptical about finding a natural deodorant that would work as well as the popular ones I usually buy.  The few natural products that I've sampled in the past didn't do the job, no matter what the labels promised.  Last weekend, I purchased a deodorant stone made out of mineral salts.  My husband started using one a few weeks ago and kept telling me how effective it was on him.  I decided to get one for myself, and it's been working great!

This is the specific product I've started using, and the one my husband has been using is the Sprouts store brand.  Here's an informative and transparent article about a woman's journey to find an all-natural product, with resources listed at the end of it.  Like the author of this article, I've tried a few products that didn't work for me.  Instead of giving up, I needed to keep searching until I found what did work with my body chemistry.    There have been many commercial products that didn't work either, and using one with simple, natural ingredients brings me tremendous relief.

Recently, when I went into Whole Foods to peruse their selection of deodorants, I was surprised at the variety of choices!  I picked a spray product for my oldest to try, and she's says it's working great for her.  There are many alternatives available.  

We may not be able to make drastic changes to our lifestyle, but every time we choose something that is simple and more natural, I believe we are making a choice that benefits our health. Like making the switch to an all-natural deodorant.

I am sharing my personal experience and have not been asked to review products and have not been compensated in any way.            

I'm Nuts (About Soap Nuts)

For the inaugural post on this green/frugal/repurposing/recycling/use-what-you-have/living-more-with-less blog, I wanted to feature Soap Nuts.  

This is what I have been using for the last six months or so to do the laundry.  You put about five of these in a small drawstring muslin bag, tie it shut, and toss it into the washing machine.  As an active family with three children...our clothes get very dirty.  And yes, it totally gets the laundry clean!

What are soap nuts exactly?  From the website where we purchase our soap nuts:

"...soap nuts are the dried shells (or husks) from the soapberry (or soap berry nut). These berries are the fruit from a quite unique tree species. These shells contain a substance called saponin that produces a soaping effect. Saponin is a 100% natural alternative to chemical laundry detergent and cleansers. It can replace many chemical detergents such as those ontaining sodium laureth sulphate (SLS) that are becoming well known by consumers for being a skin irritant and health hazard."

Not only is it all-natural and good for the environment, it's an inexpensive alternative to chemical detergents.  I did a quick cost estimate of a popular detergent vs. the soap nuts:

Popular Detergent priced at a discount store: 64 loads (100oz.) @ $13.57 = 21 cents per load

Soap Nuts at regular price (where we buy them): 480 loads @ $48.00 = 10 cents per load

I love using Soap Nuts!

Because of a job lay-off and vastly reduced income, family members with sensitive skin, and a desire to use all-natural products to benefit my family's health, I am thrilled to share about quality products that have been a great benefit to my family.  

To be clear, I am sharing my opinion and from my personal experience and have not been compensated in any way for this post.