AT On... Not Going It Alone
Recently, I was listening to my mother describe the quilt square she had sewn for 350.org's International Day Of Climate Action on October 24 (that's tomorrow!). As I learned about the quilt and saw i...
Recently, I was listening to my mother describe the quilt square she had sewn for 350.org's International Day Of Climate Action on October 24 (that's tomorrow!). As I learned about the quilt and saw i...
In my effort to be a greener human being, I've seriously curbed my urge to purge. Throughout my life, I've been the opposite of a packrat—always happy to toss things rather than hold onto them. ...
I've never been much of a shopper. I'd argue that I'm not cheap (I like to occasionally pick up the tab at dinner with friends; I buy organics; I like to travel), but I've never been big on hitting ...
Each morning as the trip to the office nears, we turmoil about stopping at a coffeeshop on the way in. For months, we brewed our joe at home, but over the hot summer that fell out of favor and the cof...
Yesterday we showed you some of our favorite thrifted collections, where one person’s trash became another’s treasure. We’re fans of collections with value, sentimental or otherwise, but what ab...
Before summer began, we shared our energy saving success with you. Little did we know then, during a verdant spring, that we were in store for the record-breaking hottest Texas summer on record. But t...
A couple of weeks ago, we lugged home 20 pounds of fresh pears from a coworker's farm and, using a decades-old recipe, turned them into jars upon jars of spiced pear butter over the weekend. We love t...
Despite the fact that I have nicknames like "Green Police," "Energy Czar" and "Organi-girl," and have earned quite the green living reputation around my office, there are people —many people&mda...
What's the most useful piece of furniture in your home? That's something we've been thinking about this summer as we travel to visit friends and accommodate weekend guests. As far as our home is conce...
Most of our green acts are done consciously: we recycle, we watch our power usage, we eat locally and organically... But all of a sudden, we're in a situation that's left us with no other choice but t...
This week, I'm spending some quality time with the fam in Southern California. When I'm home visiting my parents, I spend most of my day doing two things: cooking with my mom and watching the Food Net...
Small is cool. Small is also green. A small bedroom can be cozy. A small kitchen can be efficient. A small home in general presents an opportunity to use space creatively, to tread more lightly on t...
Recently, I've been giving a little thought to the way my parents ran their house and how that has affected the way I try to run mine. All in all, I would have to say they set a very good example (whi...
I had a revelation in the shower at 6 AM: the trademark text-heavy label on the Dr. Bronner's bottle makes me dizzy. It's not just the excess of exclamation points and quotation marks! Also sentence...
Years ago, a boss of mine told me she was taking a vacation and that she'd be gone for a week. I asked her where she was going. She said "Nowhere." She was staying home to relax and accomplish a few t...
Recently, my partner and I have been looking more seriously at the open houses and for sale signs in our neighborhood. We've always rented, so the idea of updating or changing anything (other than the...
We went away this past weekend. Along the trip, we stopped our rental car at two big box stores to pick up groceries and some supplies. We’ve lived in New York City for the past 5 years, and now, ...
I have a confession to make. Some Most days, I drive a half-mile up a big hill to my bus stop. Yep, I do. Usually just because I'm running late to catch the bus, and I've convinced myself that driving...
We've been living in a one-bedroom apartment in Northern California for just over two years now. We have two chubby cats and less stuff (we think) than the average couple. However, things have been fe...
Over the weekend, my boyfriend and I stopped to look at a tiny house in the middle of the city. We fell in love: there, in the perfect neighborhood, was this sweet cottage with refinished hardwood flo...
Are you a sharer? As cliched as it sounds, growing up, my mom often sent me off to our neighbor's house to borrow an egg, a cup of sugar, a stick of butter. That same neighbor sent her son to our h...
Last night, during a volunteer shift at the midweek farmers' market, I struck up a conversation with one of the other volunteers. She works as a dietician for a hospital, and I asked her what made her...
Can you build a green home in the suburbs? Here's an answer from a Wall Street Journal column by Roger Lewis: "No matter how green individual homes are, suburban sprawl is intrinsically anti-green. I...
Typically I'm not one who gets any joy out of the green guilt trip — I don't like to give them, I don't like to get them. However, that doesn't mean that little green regrets don't haunt me no...
Last summer we attended a weekend long workshop on straw bale construction – which really meant we helped someone actually build their straw bale house. We were hoping to use straw bale construction...