Posts Tagged ‘ kids ’

Transform Recycled Jars into Holiday Decor

Transform Recycled Jars into Holiday Decor

Stop! Don’t send that glass jar to the recycle bin quite yet. Instead, doll it up, pop in a tea light, and add a bit of shine to your holiday. Use them scattered to brighten the household, or make eight short jars with one taller one and use the set as a menorah. This dotting technique is super forgiving and very easy for kids to do. Materials: Recycled glass jars Several colors of 3-D paint (I used Scribbles brand) White paper Instructions: Soak jars in warm soapy water to remove labels; dry. Slip a rolled up piece of white paper inside the jar. This will make it easier to see what you’re working on. Add a simple shape – such as a flower, circle, or star – with one color using dots of paint. Repeat the shape in several places on the jar. Another easy way to start is with a line around or across the jar. Outline the shapes in a different color with more dots. Continue adding dots, either outlining the original shape or creating new patterns until the entire jar is covered. You may need to take a break to allow the paint to dry as...

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Guest Post: Victory Garden

Guest Post: Victory Garden

You may know Christina Le Beau from her excellent blog, Spoonfed. Or you might follow her on Facebook. But today, I’m happy to have her guest posting about her recent experience with vegetable gardening. Here’s Christina: I’ve gardened for years, but always flowers, never fruits or vegetables. We’ve had token edibles — containers of tomatoes and herbs, squash sprouting from the compost bin — but no proper vegetable patch. Not that I haven’t wanted to plant one. I just… haven’t. With our CSA, several farmers’ markets and lots of u-picking to keep us seasonally sated, it just wasn’t a priority. But, as happens around here, my daughter had other ideas. For her 7th birthday in December, we’d given her Lanie, the tree-hugging, butterfly-loving, camping-happy American Girl doll that Tess had decided was her vinyl doppelganger. Soon after, we read the Lanie books, and before March was over, Tess (and Lanie) had spent hours plotting a tiny stone-bordered garden and building a compost pile. Never mind that both were dismantled for other projects. The proverbial seed had been planted. As spring brought rain and mud, Tess scrounged some old pole-bean and lettuce seeds (that we never got around to planting...

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October Challenge: Make it a Homemade Halloween

October Challenge: Make it a Homemade Halloween

I have a confession to make: my kids have never had a store-bought Halloween costume. Also? Neither did I. Call it a family tradition or call it frugality, but in the end it makes for a more sustainable holiday tradition. Think about it. If you need to buy a new costume for your little darlings every year, you’re depending on someone else to provide that costume – a costume that’s more likely than not made from plastic and synthetic materials. The challenge this month: make your own Halloween costumes and skip the imported, low quality disguises. But I don’t have a creative bone in my body, some of you are saying. So get zany. A flowing skirt, some scarves, and copious amounts of costume jewelry makes for a gorgeous gypsy. Slip your kiddo into jeans and a flannel shirt and tuck some loose straw into the arms and legs for a scarecrow. The thrift store is your friend. If you’re still stumped, check out my easy last minute Halloween costumes from a paper bag. If you’re comfortable with a hot glue gun and paint, you can get the whole family involved in crafting costumes from recycled cardboard boxes. Have...

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Win a PlanetBox Lunch Box!

Win a PlanetBox Lunch Box!

If you send kids off to school every day, you know just how hard it is to pull together a zero-waste lunch. And if you’re trying to skip plastic? That doubles the difficulty. Enter PlanetBox! Made of stainless steel, the hinged lunch box opens to reveal five individual compartments of various sizes. It kind of resembles an institutional food tray (or, to date myself, one of those old fashioned TV dinners!). The raised compartments in the lid allow you to fill the bottom tray generously and still close the lid. When closed, each food is sealed into its separate compartment, keeping the sandwich from touching the fruit for finicky eaters. The one drawback to the compartments is that the space where a sandwich would fit is pretty small. The grainy bread we eat comes in slices too large to fit in there. Slip the latched PlanetBox into an insulated carrying bag and kids are all set for a zero-waste, environmentally sound lunch break. The carrying bag has two pockets – one will fit a water bottle and the other has a flap that closes with velcro. The simple styling of the PlanetBox will last a kid through years of...

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Welcome

It’s one thing to think, “Hey, I’d love to be more self-sufficient!” and quite another to implement a lifestyle change that might require learning some new skills.

Attainable Sustainable is about bridging the gap between wanting change and making it happen without becoming overwhelmed. Nobody’s saying you have to go get a tractor and a cow. Attainable Sustainable is about discovering – one step at a time – how to make changes in your life to support a sustainable lifestyle.

The Author

Kris Bordessa has been gardening for most of her life. She's been authoring books and writing features for the past ten years or so. It's about time she combined the two, don't you think? [More about the author]