i have to admit...

we've lost track of the paper towel count. i know you're all heartbroken! i blame it on the party last weekend--a big rush and whir of people in the kitchen and next thing you know, the tally just stopped being tallied. we've got at least half a roll left, so it's not like they were just flying off without purpose or anything, but we've certainly lost count of how many we've used. paper towel watch stops here, people. now on to the good news--what we learned!

i really see no need for paper towels anymore. it's hard to believe, as at one point i'd estimate we went through a roll per week. they're certainly convenient--especially for draining bacon and other greasy foods. you all left great suggestions on replacements for paper towels in greasy situations, which are all going to be tried as soon as we go on another BLT kick around here. but other than possibly being helpful for bacon and the like, i really see no use for paper towels any longer. that's a great feeling--and another thing i don't have to spend money on! 

paper towel watch...

#16 & #17: used to drain bacon

#18: compost bucket

#19: more bacon (blt's w/ avacado & cheese--so good!). 

thanks to some smart comments from you readers, i now have a plan to start using newspaper in the indoor compost bucket to absorb some of the "food-scrap runoff." no idea if this will work as well as paper towels, but we'll see! we don't take the paper, and i meant to grab an old one last time i was at my parent's house, but forgot. 

another reader tip i can't wait to try is using warm bread to pick up those miniscule glass shards that come every time we get a dish tossed over the side of the highchair. while i love not having to worry about popping lucy's plates & bowls into the microwave, or transferring warm food into them, there sure is a risk involved with handing baby something so very breakable. she's getting much better about this though--it only took 6 months, but today she ate cereal out of her glass bowl without so much as picking it up. till the food was gone, anyway. then all bets are off:

mmm. trader joe's organic raisin bran crunch. good to the last drop! 

now, what do you non-paper-towel-users do for draining bacon & hash browns? 

let's play catch up...

someone's been MIA for a moment. oops, i guess it was me. here's a catch up post to get us back on track:

we had a fantastic easter. lucy was in the greatest of spirits all day long, and looked simply adorable in a vintage dress and bed jacket with little embroidered bunnies on it. her hair is finally getting long enough for little pigtails. they stuck right up, but kind of resembled bunny ears--perfect for easter. babies can pull anything off...

lucy's easter gifts were small and sweet: shoes, socks and a book from grandma, more tub toys from me. instead of plastic easter grass, one of lucy's baskets was filled with scraps of organic bamboo velour leftover from diaper-making. the other was filled with crumbled strips of paper kept from a previous year. i have to say, the scrap filling didn't quite work out the way i envisioned--it wasn't fluffy enough or something. no matter, lucy didn't seem to mind. i wish i'd gotten a better photo, but she tore everything apart soon after laying eyes on her baskets. 

we did happen to get a real easter egg this year, thanks to porter, our brown-feathered hen. those girls have never yet failed to deliver us an egg on easter!

if you look carefully in the background of the above photo, you'll see that lucy's party banners are starting to take shape! thanks to my mom, we have nearly 30 feet of colorful little flags we'll use as decoration for her birthday in years to come. now they just need to be sewn to a piece of binding (they're currently hanging on my clothesline w/ clothespins).

in other party news, i have to thank you all for your suggestions and other comments regarding our party utensils! i'm happy to say that my wonderful friend (and diaper-making business parter) molly has volunteered to bring 60 sets of flatware to the party. this is saving us money, not to mention resources, and i am incredibly thankful for her generosity. 

in paper towel news, we have used up a few more. here's the breakdown: 

sheet #11: compost bucket

sheet #12: used to dry off a colander full of fresh berries for fruit salad. in retrospect, a clean dishtowel may have been just as effective. 

sheet #13: used to drain bacon grease for eater brunch. i can't believe we only used one, for 2 boxes of bacon? no wonder i am feeling large... 

sheet #14: compost bucket again

sheet #15: used to clean up teeny bits of broken ceramic off of the floor (lucy dropped her dish of blueberries). i have always used a paper towel to help pick up the teeny fragments left behind from shattered glass, as an extra measure to sweeping and vacuuming. with little hands and knees all over my living room, i want to make extra sure i get every last splinter of sharp stuff. 

one more thing to report. it's time for old navy's stuff and save promotion again, and i did receive a card in the mail instead of a plastic bag. if you've followed my blog for awhile, you'll recall that i wrote old navy asking them to "green up" their promo. not long after,  a friend told me that she'd gotten a card in the mail from old navy, good for a reusable tote in-store. i was excited and called to company to find out more detail, their customer service team told me that this improved promotion was demoing in select markets. it seems that they're making another go-round with it. good news. i only very rarely shop at old navy anymore, but i have to applaud them for their continued attempts to improve their stuff & save promotion!

i think that's it. for now. 

ptw...

sheet # 05: compost bucket

sheet # 06: jeremy swatted a bunch of flies (someone left the door open all day... oops) and used it to pick them up off the floor

sheet #07: compost bucket

sheet #08: i have a little tray that i throw lucy's things (bottle nipples and sippy cup parts) into when they come out of the dishwasher still wet. i feel like the paper towel is really good at soaking up the moisture, but in thinking of it now, a cloth towel would probably be even better. 

sheet #09: was used by jeremy to grab a spider's nest off of the wall

sheet #10: compost, of course

could it be? are we already 1/8 through our last roll of paper towels?

ptw...

sheet # 04 is living on the bottom of our indoor compost bucket. hmmm. this is already getting repetitive.

two sheets in one day...

sheet #02: found a home on the bottom of the indoor compost bucket.

sheet #03: has been folded into a neat square and is sitting beneath 2 bottles of olive oil, to catch drips. the old sheet was starting to get kinda funky, with dust sticking to all of the oil it had absorbed over time...

and yes, i do realize that i am probably the only person who cares where each sheet of my last roll of paper towels is going... :)

would it be too much...

to do a paper-towel watch? 

jeremy opened our last roll of paper towels today. i don't know the exact number of rolls we've been through since lucy was born and we started making all of these eco-friendly changes, but have haven't purchased paper towels at all in the last 10 months... we've just been using up what we've got stashed in our garage (leftovers from a costco pack). 

can i just say i cannot fathom buying paper towels from costco ever again? i can't believe how we used to blow through them--wiping down the counters, cleaning spots on the floors, cleaning the windows, using them as napkins, cleaning off the dog's muddy feet... we'd probably go through a roll at least every 2 weeks. not anymore. but i'm curious to know just how long we can stretch a roll. so today marks the beginning of paper towel watch (from here on out known as PTW). we've got an 80 sheet roll, people. big sheets, too, not the kind that you can rip off any size, depending on the mess at hand. i'm going to try to account for each sheet used, and see just how long it takes us to reach the end of the roll, as well as what the heck we're still using them for. want to take guesses on how long it will be?

paper towel sheet #01: has gone to line the bottom of the indoor compost bucket. there really is no better way that i've found to keep the pail somewhat clean--the towel absorbs all of the gross juicy stuff that comes from the food scraps while they sit in the pail. no nasties get stuck to the pail--everything slides out nicely into the compost bin. plus, the towel ends up getting composted, so i feel a little less guilty about using it for my own convenience (laziness?).  

of course, in place of all those single-use paper towels, we're using an assortment of old washcloths, cut-up t-shirts and super-stained dishtowels. i keep a huge stack of them under the sink and probably go through about 3 or 4 a day between wiping down the floor, the high chair, lucy's hands, the counters, etc. i just throw all the dirties in with towels whenever i have a full load. on occasion i wash them with a bit of oxyclean to get them really clean again. so far, it's working. 

some people buy really fancy "unpaper towels, " which are made to be super absorbent, but also pretty enough to have setting out on the counter in a basket or something. i love the idea, but realistically, mine would be looking super raggedy looking within a few weeks, so i just stick with the ugly rags and keep them hidden out of sight. but i'm thinking that this month's giveaway might have something to do with pretty "unpaper" to celebrate the start of PTW. stay tuned!