So with the Glitter Workshop retail store closed for business, I am shifting gears and focusing more on home, health, and family. A big part of that to me is to make our home as ‘green’ an environment as possible. Maybe it is because of seeing this for months…

…taken two days ago after the most recent round of snow and ice…. the world’s longest winter with almost no sun.. and realizing I have to make our home environment as bright and cheerful as I can since the outside at this point is certainly out of my little hands..

Or, maybe it’s because of having two little ladies plus another little bean on the way, but I really have a total need right now to act on all of this. Or, the fact I was raised in an environment where my mother wove recycled rugs, grew a huge (mostly) organic garden, and even for a while milked the family cow for our milk!

We are finishing our basement right now too, which many of you know is probably not the most environmentally friendly thing in the world to do. We are trying to make as many green choices though as possible (well, as many as our bank account allows us to do!). A couple things we have done so far is to reuse supplies that Jerome’s sister had from finishing her basement, using only water-based stains where needed (don’t worry, I’m not doing any of this!!), choosing zero VOC paint (I found a lovely one at Sherwin Williams. Not the Benjamin Moore or milk paint that I wanted, but $10 to $20 a galloon less, although still $20 more than conventional latex!) for the walls, and the decision that we have spent the most time going over, a cork flooring! We knew we weren’t going to do carpet (blech, yuck, toxic toxic toxic), but were considering laminate because of the price and the fact this is just a basement after all. But, after spending most of yesterday researching more about the cork, I decided this is the way to go. It is a sustainable resource, mold, mildew, insect and fire resistant, warmer and softer on your feet, and looks really neat when installed! It is quite a bit more expensive, but I feel worth it.

Another big project coming up soon enough will be the nursery. While organic mattresses and all sustainable hand-crafted furniture is certainly out of my budget, I am researching away and will try to come up with the best options we can. Any ideas???

Basically, day to day we do our best. We buy organic when we can, we are getting better at shopping local and once the weather improves and I’m not working every weekend this will be easier to do with the great local farmer’s market. We recycle and reuse what we can, and even my ten year comments how sad she is when she sees more buildings and houses going up all around us while there are so many empty that aren’t being used. Both Darby and Zoe are also great about thrift shopping and thank goodness have not reached the ‘ I need to shop at the Gap because everyone else in my class does’ phase. Hopefully, with any luck at all, we can teach them well and avoid that all together. Of course, I was just telling Jerome how in middle school I would sit very carefully so people could see that my socks were Benetton…ugh.

This is quite the rambling post, but I will leave you with a little bit of sunshine that brightened my day when I picked it up. No, it most likely was not grown local, and I’m sure it was sprayed with pesticides, but like I said, I am doing my best.