good karma...

at least, it seems like good karma anyway.

one of my five-thousand-and-eight new year's resolutions is to stop using a throwaway cup when i happen to purchase some coffee while out and about. despite my musings about this awhile back, i never actually... well... made good on my musings. instead of getting myself a to-go container for coffee, i just stopped getting coffee. this was in part a way to fund mom & me yoga classes for i. and, as with most things, once i cut out my daily starbucks/peets run, i found myself less addicted to my daily starbucks/peets runs. funny how that works.

still, i've been known to show my face in a coffeehouse around once per week. and while i stopped getting the plastic lid for the cup (picture me promising to the drive-though barista that i'm not the type to sue if i happen to get burned from a lidless latte...), i was still getting the cup. there. i admit it. your loyal valley girl was taking and tossing. sigh.

until today--day three of my resolution. my mom offered to treat me to coffee, and i started to mumble, explaining that i hadn't brought a cup with me. mom kindly offered up her coffee tumbler (filled with some sort of beverage from her house). good enough. off to starbucks we went. when i got out of the car, i noticed my klean kanteen sitting in the cupholder, and figured it would work just as well as my mom's tumbler--then we could both sidestep using a disposable cup.

would you believe that the barista filled my 27 ounce klean kanteen full to the brim? i ordered a grande--16 ounces. did i just get lucky, or can i expect this gift on a regular basis? only repeated visits will tell, i guess. but it sure felt like a treat. in addition to my bonus coffee, two baristas fell out over the cuteness of my canteen, along with another coffeehouse-goer, who even poked at it, if you can believe that!

now, the klean kanteen isn't insulated with a double wall--meaning that it heats up quickly to the touch! i was able to work around this by holding my canteen by the neck with three fingers (pinky out! it must have appeared quite dainty!) but something needs to be done for functionality's sake. i searched etsy and love love LOVE this upcycled cozy but for the moment i am saving my pennies. (or at least pretending to). i may get around to making one of my own, but jeremy gave me the wise idea of using a sweatband/wristband to make due until then. it's a pink one--with a mini skull--that i had stashed in my sock drawer. my kanteen now looks delightfully retro. 1980 all the way, baby.

there you have it, folks. just another eco-friendly day gone right. and as i will never again accept a plastic bag at the supermarket or mall, i will never again drink my coffeehouse coffee from a paper cup. not as far as i can see, anyway. you have my word.

cloth bag how-to

let me start by apologizing for the quality of the pictures. i am well aware that they are crappy! anyway, here are the is what i'm doing this year for some of my gifts--not all of them, i just don't have time or fabric to do them all. but i think this is a nice way to package a gift without creating more trash: 8,000 tons of wrapping paper and 2 billion cards are thrown away during the holiday season! and that's just part of the 300,000 tons of extra trash that piles up at the holidays. yikes.

here we go....

start with a piece of fabric that fits the item you intend to wrap--it should be roughly 1/3 of your fabric.

fold side each side of the fabric 1/4" and press. then fold again another 1/4". press. when all 4 sides are completed, make sure your item will still fit width-wise!



now sew all around the edges that have been folded under, so that they're nice & secure, and won't unravel through all the years of use that this bag is gonna get.

cut a length of ribbon double the length of your fabric. more is okay, if you are adept at tying big, fancy bows. i am not.

center the ribbon on your fabric so that the "extra" on both top and bottom are roughly equal. pin in place--think of your fabric in fourths--and do not pin ribbon in the top fourth section. leave it loose.

stitch down ribbon, making sure not to stitch the top fourth. this is where the ribbon will tie in a bow.



you now have a piece of fabric with nice edges and a ribbon sewn to most of it. congrats.

this next step is not needed, but it is all the nicer. take a bit of velcro and stitch it:

a) on the reverse of the fabric where the ribbon is stitched all the way to the edge (this will be the top half of the bag).



b) and on the front side of the fabric 1-2 inches above where the ribbon that didn't get stitched all the way leaves off.





fold the bottom of your fabric piece upward so that it will make the pouch to fit your item.

stitch the folded bit with a 1/4" seam--down one side, across the bottom, and up the other side--making sure to backstitch at both ends. again, this will make a pouch to hold the gift. an d remember, nice & sturdy. we want this thing to last forever.




slip your item into the bag. close with the velcro, if you used it. (if for some reason the velcro doesn't match up--because of the bulk or height of the item--you can simply curse for a moment, take it off and reattach where it should go).


tie a pretty bow. fluff said bow. give gift with love, eco-friendly, handmade (and only slightly wonky) holiday joy.

crunch confession #01

i am reusing ziplocks.

i thought this was something only little ol' grannies did. i should preface by saying that over the last few months, jer and i have seriously cut down on the number of baggies we use. most everything goes into a container of some sort... glass or the last few plastic tupperware-type things that we still have around. but here and there, i find that some things do warrant the use of a ziplock. for convenience, of course. i'm sure we could go totally without. but i bought in bulk at costco about 6 months ago and we've still got some laying around... what can i say? tossing them would be silly, right? right.

so when we have, say, a huge loaf of fresh bread that comes in a paper sack, i put it in the ziplock labeled "bread." then, when the bread is gone, i rinse, dry, and put the baggie back into the drawer. next time we have bread, i pull out the same baggie. and really, bread is all we're using ziplocks for at the moment. i guess they'd come in handy for the big, costco-sized blocks of cheese, too.

what else will i be using these final ziplocks for? well, they're great for keeping stuff dry in the cooler when we go camping. i also use them to hold dry dog food on camping trips, but i've been planning to make a "feed bag" sometime soon. they come in handy on airplane flights, but we don't fly much... and you could certainly reuse a toiletries bag, since the worst that could happen would be for it to get a little soap spilled in it. when i pack lunches, i tend to put everything into tupperware storage... a little bulky, yes, but easy enough. i've also seen these reusable sandwich bags... http://tinyurl.com/4k3ht3 and reusable snack bags are easy enough to make even for a non-sewer like myself. i've already made lucy one (complete with paci pocket) and she's a long way off from needing any kind of snack that doesn't come from my boobie.

so the real question is this: with all the simple & eco-friendly alternatives out there, what the hell are we using all these ziplocks for, anyway?