Button Up

Vacations are just around the corner and organizing jewelry can be tricky, especially small earrings. Put some loose buttons you have lying around in your sewing box or junk drawer to good use.

Take your post backed earrings and put them through the holes of the buttons. Attach the post behind the earring to keep it secure. This method is best used for post backed earrings.

It saves you lots of time from fishing around in your make up bag

or luggage looking for both earrings.

An Eco-Alternative to Keurig Cups

I love that this is a time when entrepreneurs are percolating with ideas. Yesterday, I read an article in my local newspaper, The Morning Call about an eco-alternative to K-Cups. I'm not sure if this is worldwide thing but locally the popularity of the Keurig has exploded despite how costly it is to buy the machine and the refills. Unfortunately, unnecessary waste has also gotten out of control.

The silver lining is a company called Ekobrew which sells reusable baskets specially designed to fit the Keurig. It's a cheaper alternative than buying new cups and you are free to use the brand of coffee you prefer. And you can easily throw the coffee grounds into your compost pail. The plastic is BPA free. Love it!!

To check it out, go to http://www.ekobrew.com/wp/

Happy Earth Day!

I'm excited to tell you that Sunday, April 22nd is Earth Day. I started early today and planted blackberry bushes, currants, and blueberry bushes. While shopping, I refused plastic bags and carried my items out to my car in my hands. My newest change is to replace my toxic cleaning products and only use non-toxic, natural cleaners. I was pleased with the natural smell instead of the strong odor most cleaners have. It makes it more pleasant to clean.

How will you celebrate Earth Day? If we all only did one thing, think of the positive impact on our planet.

Upcycling homes

I recently read an inspiring article in Better Homes and Gardens Magazine about Nancy Welsh who has made it her mission to upcycle homes that otherwise would have succumed to demolition.

"Each house we save from demolition becomes someone's dream home," says Nancy Welsh.

Her non-profit, Builders of Hope, has saved 150 homes so far. They try to keep as much of the home intact as possible and then upgrade them with energy smart features. They've restored single homes and abandoned rental units in six different cities. You can check out her website at http://www.buildersofhope.org to learn more about her mission.

Multi-tasking Kitchen Tool

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter or Passover holiday this week.

We went a little overboard with the food but it sure was good.

This makes me think of some cooking tips I read in Real Simple Magazine about having multiple uses for Jelly Roll Pans. We all have them in our kitchens and they take up a lot of space in our cabinets. But jelly roll pans can be used for so much more than making lasagna. For instance....

• If you are one of those cooks who doesn't mind a little help in the kitchen, this tip will save you lots of time. You can use the larger ones to corral ingredients for side dishes or a few main dishes. Each helper can grab their pan of ingredients and it helps reduce time wasted searching for what you need.

• Pans are great for catching drips in the oven or I fill my glass ones with water when making cheesecakes. This increases the humidity in my oven and prevents my cheesecakes from cracking.

• Use them for making a deep dish pizza Chicago-style.

• It's also an ideal tool to freeze cookie dough or berries for later use.

I hope at least one of these tips help my fellow cooks and bakers out there. The first one helped me the most.

Recycling Beauty

This morning, I was leafing through my grocery circulars and I was pleased to see an Garnier ad about recycling their beauty product packaging. What can I say...it made my day.

Garnier has partnered with Terracycle to make new products from all types of packaging. So if you tend to use a lot of Garnier products, this is the program for you. One thing I really like about Terracycle programs is that it's free to ship. In other programs, it's common to have to pay a fee or at the very least...cover shipping costs to recycle things.

Just note that they don't accept hair spray cans, nail polish bottles, and nail polish remover bottles.

For more information, please click on the following link:

http://www.terracycle.net/en-US/brigades/personal-care-and-beauty-brigade.html

Recycling Landline Phones

At my day job, we have landline phones that break a few times a week. It's a big organization. Anyway, I was horrified to learn that instead of our engineers fixing the phones, I was told to throw them away instead. With the popularity of cell phones, I'm sure that landline phones will eventually be obsolete.

I couldn't believe how few recycling programs there are for landline phones. I mean there's a million recycling programs that take cell phones which is great. Part of the problem is the plastic used for many regular phones isn't recycleable.

I read that Best Buy will take old cordless phones and recycle them.

Staples will take your old landline phone and you get a discount to buy another one. http://www.staples.com/sbd/cre/products/110508/merch12185/index.html

Donate to charities who can use the phones for fundraisers or their office. Also thrift shops might take them as well.

Lastly, check out your local municipality to see if they will take landline phones. Many will have electronic recycling drives a few times a year so be sure to find out when the next one is.