If you’re a gardener or even just concerned about the flora and fauna in your area, providing a source of water for bees and other pollinators is one way you can help our pollinators. Here’s how to create an easy, DIY bee watering station for our fuzzy friends. Why Do We Need Bees? Bees are an essential part of our eco-system. Without bees, the human diet would truly suffer. We rely on bees to pollinate all kinds of foods like almonds, apples, avocados and even coffee! Both honey bees and wild bees are important to our ecosystem. According to the USGS, “In almost all crops, native bees a ..read more

Those little plastic eggs, that fake plastic grass, unethical chocolate and a basket that will inevitably tear the moment a precocious toddler steps in it– these are all parts of most modern Easter baskets. But it doesn’t have to be that way, here are some creative ideas to make an eco-friendly Easter basket: An Eco-Friendly Easter Basket: The Basket The most sustainable basket is the one you already have. If you’ve saved baskets from year’s past, use that. If you don’t already have a basket on hand, you can find secondhand baskets at your local thrift store or charity shop. I’ve even got a h ..read more

Spring is one of the most labor-intensive times to own a home. There’s so much to do! Your yard is springing into bloom and there’s a lot to clean up from those harsh winter months. But never fear! This home maintenance checklist will help keep you on-track and keep your home looking beautiful. Spring Home Maintenance Tasks Indoor Home Maintenance Tasks Check smoke detectors Check your smoke detectors twice a year. I do it on both the fall and spring equinox. Check/replace HVAC filters Check your HVAC filters monthly, but you may not have to replace them each month. Be sure to keep on top of ..read more

Vintage Christmas decor has a huge collector market. And it’s understandable! I, myself, want to decorate more sustainably and am not a big fan of modern holiday decor. I want color, I want bright, I want shiny, I want Bing Crosby tap dancing with Danny Kaye . Over the years, I’ve amassed a good collection of vintage holiday decor, but I have a rule: I never spend more than $25 on anything. And if it’s more than $25, it wasn’t meant to be. Here’s how I’ve scored the best prices on vintage Christmas decor. Do a little bit of research on what you like First, do a little bit of research on what ..read more

We’ve all got that crunchy, eco-friend, right? Or maybe, like me, you are the eco-friend in your group! We are, admittedly, very hard to shop for. We don’t want the latest gadget or even a plastic gift card, but we do appreciate a thoughtful gift. Here’s some eco-friendly holiday gift ideas for your crunchy friends. Eco-friendly Holiday Gift Ideas When possible, your eco-friend appreciates you shopping small and supporting local businesses, so I’ve included a lot of small and women-owned businesses in this list. It’s also been a really difficult year for small businesses and they truly need o ..read more

Let’s be honest, when we have a small home, we often have to make sacrifices. Maybe we can’t have that home gym or that dedicated home office space. Maybe we can’t have everything we want, but that didn’t stop me from creating a movie theater in my small home.  Blackout curtains, fluffy pillows and popcorn all help, but the key to creating a movie theater in your small home or small apartment is a good projector. A big TV is nice, but a projector truly makes the space feel as if it’s a small movie theater in your home. Alas, finding a projector that works in a small space and has a quali ..read more

I want my home, although small, to feel welcoming, happy and abundant. Here’s a few inexpensive ways I create a feeling of abundance in my home. Keep fresh fruit and flowers on display Both fresh fruit and flowers symbolize the harvest, abundance and earthly pleasures. I keep my fruit and flowers in a place that I can see often. This helps remind me of abundance and with the fruit, it also helps me remember to eat it! Keep essentials full I never let my soap dispensers or essentials like toilet paper run out. I personally even never let them get low, that way I always feel like there is a wea ..read more

With my new job at Wild Abundance, (an adult education school), I’m learning so much about wild foods and carpentry and gardening. It’s pretty much a dream job. Recently I learned about American persimmons and then, (like magic!) came across some when visiting my in-laws. I had tried Asian persimmons before (you can get those at the grocery) and to be honest, I didn’t like them! But it’s because I’ve never had a truly ripe persimmon before. Persimmons are ripe when they look almost rotten. American persimmons never make it to the grocery store because they’re more delicate and smaller than t ..read more

When I show videos of my home online, I often get comments from folks who can’t believe my home is just 800 square feet. And I take that as a compliment because I use a lot of tips and tricks to make my home seem larger than it is. Here’s some of my favorite tips to make my small home appear larger. Reflective Surfaces I use reflective surfaces like mirrors to bounce light around and make my home seem brighter than it actually is. But I don’t limit myself to mirrors, the feet of my couch are also reflective and help make this dark space appear brighter. If you don’t have much space on your ..read more

Organizing is all the rage right now. And I’m into it. I LOVE organizing and making my home a little more aesthetically pleasing. But I don’t love the trend of taking stuff out of plastic packaging and putting it into more (freshly purchased) plastic packaging. I get it, it looks nice, but to me, it just seems wasteful. Lately I’ve been having some health issues and my doctor’s recommendation is to… wait (not my favorite thing to do, but ok). In the meantime, she also suggested a bevy of supplements. Starting a new habit is always hard, but as someone with ADHD, new habits seem almost impossi ..read more