3 Ways to Reduce Plastic Waste Daily – Foodie Edition

Earth Day is fast approaching! I initially planned to have a post a day in April with environmental facts, sustainable life hacks, and eco-friendly product gift guides, but life happened & I was busy helping mom every day after work so I didn’t have time to blog, as her cancer treatments have been really rough on her and she had some exceptionally tough past few weeks, requiring a lot of additional care. ♥

But today, I’m present & prepared to share in a series how I have been cutting plastic waste out of our life daily & how a few simple little changes to your daily habits can have a huge impact on the environment, starting with the foodie edition!

Switch to Stainless Steel Straws

Over 500,000,000 plastic straws are used each day in the United States. That is enough straws that if they were put end to to, straws would wrap around the world two and a half times – EVERY SINGLE DAY of the year. You can read more facts about plastic straw pollution, The Last Plastic Straw and the #banthestraw movement here.

I ordered my gorgeous rainbow Stainless Steel Straws from Pretty Candy Pin Co – look at how flipping beautiful they are! They turn every beverage into an instantly Instagram worthy #unicornlife photo!

There are several distributors of stainless steel straws, and you can buy accessories like PUL lined zipper pouches to keep them in your bag on the go! Care for them is so simple, too – a bit of soap on a pipe cleaning after each use, rinse well!

Say NO to Plastic Lids

Instead of grabbing a to-go or a kid’s drink with a plastic lid, go topless – and put on your own!

SipSnap has silicone lids that stretch to fit over any cup, in either sippy top form or to hold a straw. They are usable for decades, easy to clean to prevent spills! Here is a video demonstrating their spill proof tops!

In addition to ditching the plastic lid, don’t forget to bring your own reusable cup to get coffee or beverages in when getting take out!

Bring your own Bamboo Ware

Heading to a restaurant you know uses plastic ware, or out to a picnic? Skip the plastic and bring your own portable & sanitary cutlery from To-Go Ware! Each set is dishwasher safe, has it’s own carrying case and you can order a single set, a family pack of 5 or a kid size set! Kid size set shown here.

Portable cutlery? Not gross at all! Bamboo is naturally antibacterial, antifungal and odor resistant, easy to clean & safe for children to use! Plastic ware – including plates, straws and cutlery – make up the majority of the 269,000 TONS of plastic waste in the oceans. More than 100,000,000 plastic dining wares are used in America alone every year, and switching to bamboo cutlery can drastically cut down that number! You can even make the switch for parties & buy biodegradable bamboo cutlery in bulk! 

Together, we can save the world

(literally!)

What disposable plastic foodie items do you plan to replace with reusable items this year?

 

CoffeeSock: it is not as weird as it sounds, and you totally need one

If one of your New Year’s Resolutions was to go a little more green, use a little less paper, or drink better tasting coffee, you will LOVE this radical invention I am about to introduce you to!

I ordered a set of CoffeeSock reusable coffee filters about 4 months ago, and I made the switch from paper filters to cloth. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and was worried it would make my coffee taste a little funky, but honestly, I have never had coffee brewed at home that tasted so good! Add in the fact using CoffeeSock filters reduces paper consumption & waste, and you can see why any sustainably minded mama who loves coffee needs these in their lives!

This company gets some extra bonus points for being handmade in America – you can “meet” each team member & learn about them on their maker page. You can also take a virtual tour of their maker space. The transparency and personality behind this brand/product is what sold me on testing it out – and what will keep me coming back!

Care for them is super easy – rinse with hot water after each use & hang to dry, and boil once every 6-8 weeks. They last up to a year with proper care. I can honestly say, I doubt I will ever go back to paper filters! A set of two filters is just $13, so they actually save you a bit of money if you drink coffee at home regularly. Paired with their sustainable production and reduction of paper waste, that makes them worth every penny, in my book!

I wasn’t paid for this post, and I bought my CoffeeSock filters with my own money, no discount, so this is not an ad in any way – I just really adore this eco addition to my morning routine and wanted to share with other sustainably-minded individuals!

What do you think? Will you try out reusable CoffeeSock filters, or stick with paper?

Made for kids, by a kid – Handmade Monster Scarves by Gauge!

One of my favorite things about homeschooling has been how Gauge has been able to pursue his passions & come up with new ways to learn on his own – like becoming an entrepreneur.

It all started last year, when he was still in school, and he told me about an idea he had for a monster product he wanted to make – kid size monster scarves with mouths for pockets to keep your hands warm while you wait on the bus, or between throwing snowballs. But with being in school, and then homework, we never had time to really suss it out. Over the summer, when we started homeschooling (since I was pregnant, we started in July to get a headstart for the inevitable break when she arrived and those days when we just wouldn’t feel like doing school work with a new baby in the house) he mentioned again his monster idea. A few weeks later, he sketched up a design and showed it to me, and we brainstormed how to convert it into an actual product.

Then the fun stuff started! His first prototype, he sewed the mouths in backwards. His second, he wasn’t happy with how the teeth were sewn into the mouths, and his third, he didn’t like his eye stitching. All part of the learning process. He got upset when he discovered how hard creating a new product from scratch was – but learned how to channel his frustration into action to resolve the issue at hand.

By his next round of monster scarves, he had worked out pretty much all the kinks and was whizzing through a scarf or two a day!

This was a great opportunity for many lessons, besides sewing. He learned about pricing for profit, structuring a sustainable business model around his products since they are seasonal, future planning, budgeting, measuring, graphing sales, targeting a demographic of potential customers, creating a marketing campaign, writing product copy, utilizing keywords to maximize SEO (search engine optimization), projecting ROI (return on investment), taxes and so much more. Skills he would most likely never have learned in public school, but that will aid him in a variety of professions. (plus taxes, why don’t they teach taxes in public schools?!)

The end result? One proud, accomplished, educated, driven, hardworking, enthusiastic, passionate little person who isn’t afraid to follow his dreams, set goals, and is dedicated to working hard every day to make things happen and learn through life.

Now, thanks to all his hard work, he is launching his first ever product line into the world at age 11 – kid size monster scarves! I listed them in my shop, and you can check out his work here. Thank you so much to everyone who cheered him on through social media as we posted photos of his progress – you have NO idea how happy you made him, how much you encouraged him, and how proud he is thanks to all of your support!

500 Monsters in 2016 – Update!

So I totally failed at the weekly updates, oops! So here is my 3.5 week update, haha! Between custom ordered Mon-stors (get yours here!) and working on lots and lots of stuffies for a huge promo launching next week, I am up to 24/500 Monsters. Not where I want to be but I do have 20 stuffies and some Mon-stors on my table in various stages of production – waiting on tags so I can complete the majority of them! I’m at just about 5% of my goal which is no where near where I want to be right now, so here’s to the hustle! I’m hoping to get to 15% of my goal by the end of February. Wish me luck!

And for a visual update – a goody-goody gallery of monsters!

There is ONE surprise mini monster missing from this count because I didn’t photograph it before I sent it off to it’s new home. Oops! But other than that, there’s the cuties from this month!

I’ll post another update soon! (hopefully, in one week, lol!)

500 Monsters in 2016: Week 1 Progress

My monster making goal for 2016 is to make at least 500 monsters total. Last year and the year before, I made just over 350 each year, so it’s quite the inflation from previous years – but also as my first year relying 100% on my monster making income to pay rent, bills and buy food, I felt like I definitely needed a much loftier goal. (Muchly much more loftier).

To hold myself accountable and visually record the process, I decided to upload photos each week of the year showing what I completed! Unfortunately, since this was the first week, not much to show besides a custom-ish monster (get your own here!) for Elva E. and a purple Mon-stor I’ll be listing in my shop next week.

That’s all for this week! Check back on the 14th to see how many more monsters I’ve made and how much closer I am to my goal!

Maker Made Monday – Lee Wolfe Pottery

Today’s Maker Made Monday feature is Lee Wolfe Pottery – who I also discovered from the #madeinasheville hashtag on Instagram!

Can I just get a collective “WOW!” for these awesome poppy platters & bowls? Once I get my own place again, I’m totally saving up for a set of these!

Every piece she makes is just gorgeous, from the organic, hand crafted shapes to the vibrant, food safe glazes & even the styling of her images is just breathtakingly lovely!

 

If you want to see more of Lee Wolfe’ wondrous work, visit her shop, Instagram or Facebook page.

What maker are you currently loving? Share their shop in the comments & they may just be featured next week!