The GREEN post

Green... weird how one word can take on so many different meanings... color, young, jealous, earth friendly, money...

Green Breakfast

Spinach for breakfast? Sounds inviting right?  Ya didn't think so. I had a hard time just pulling the bag of spinach out of the fridge before 8am until I tried this super yummy but extremely healthy drink.  Even those who don't like spinach will like this because well, you can't taste the spinach but you will reap the benefits of eating it! Sounds like a win win to me.

 Gather your ingredients

Combine in blender until smooth

Enjoy

Green Smoothie Recipe
1 banana (previously peeled, sliced and frozen)
1 spoonful of peanut butter
1 cup of almond milk (you could use regular milk but why not up the health benefits with the almond milk?)
1 single serving container of vanilla Greek yogurt (once again you could use regular yogurt but why not make it more healthy?)
2 handfuls of spinach

Put all ingredients in blender in order they are listed and blend until smooth.

Original recipe found at:Iowa Girl Eats

Green Nail Polish

Seeing as mint nail polish seems to be one of the in colors this season I figured I'd give it a try.  Since I wasn't quite sure I was going to like it I just picked one of the cheap-os up at Target.  I got the Sally Hansen Extreme Wear in Mint Sorbet. I painted my fingers and toes.... While I'm not an overall fan of this particular brand of nail polish (it's thick and clumpy) the end result isn't too bad. 

While I didn't love it when I first applied it, I must say after a day or so. It's starting to grow on me.  It definitely won't be my go to color but I think it will make it into the rotation of a fun spring/summer color.

Green Cleaning

As I mentioned in a previous post about vinegar, I would like to start cleaning my house with more earth friendly products.  I have since then started to switch over to homemade 'green' cleaners and I must say the switch has been a lot easier then I thought it would be.  As a matter of fact over the weekend I cleaned with my store bought 'chemical' cleaners and I didn't realize how much I prefer the homemade ones.  Here's the recipe for the glass cleaner that I'm loving!

Glass Cleaner

¼-1/2 teaspoon liquid detergent (I use Mrs Meyer's dish soap in the basil scent seriously this must be the best smell on earth as far as clean goes)

3 tablespoons vinegar

2 cups water

Spray bottle

Put all the ingredients into a spray bottle, shake it up a bit, and use as you would a commercial brand. The soap in this recipe is important. It cuts the wax residue from the commercial brands you might have used in the past.

At first I found this recipe to be too "wet" and I thought oh no that's going to streak my mirrors right up. In fact it does the opposite.

Also, try using newspaper instead of a paper towel to clean windows and mirrors... Much better results! No matter what cleaner you are using.

Green with Envy

My brother and sister in law moved into their new house this past week and I must I am green with envy of how much space they now have... Mostly all the closet space! Congratulations on the new house!! It's beee u tiful!

Behold the power of Vinegar

I may be a little late to the whole green cleaning world, but I have been thinking of making the switch for awhile now and after all it's the thought that counts right?

I really like the idea of cleaning the house without all the harmful chemicals but in my mind it's those harmful chemicals that I feel get my house clean.  But after doing some research over the past few months I think I'm ready to take baby steps into the green world of cleaning.  Now, I can't quit all the traditional cleaning products cold turkey and I may not ever be able to give up certain ones... We'll see. However, I am going to try out some "natural" products and ways to clean and hopefully I can make my cleaning routine a little bit better for my family, the environment, and my pocketbook. 

I'm finding vinegar can be used to clean just about anything.  I recently started using it in place of my fabric softener.  When I first heard about this I was a bit, ah yea not gonna walk around smelling like a jar of pickles, but I was assured once my clothes were dry they would not smell like vinegar. I was intrigued, but not convinced. So I figured I would first try it out on my sheets and towels because if in fact they did smell I could just rewash them quick (cuz you know a load of clothes would be so much more difficult to rewash them some sheets or towels).

Anyways... I washed four beds worth of sheets and blankets, and a house full of towels and NONE I repeat NONE came out smelling like vinegar!!

I add  ½ cup to 1 cup of white vinegar to the fabric softener dispenser of my washing machine.  If you don't have one just add it to your rinse cycle or you could get a downy ball and put it in that.  The vinegar will deodorize, soften clothes, and prevent static cling.

Vinegar is a lot cheaper than traditional fabric softeners and you won't be using all those harmful chemicals.  My family also deals with sensitive skin issues, my daughter especially, so I can't really use any fabric softener on her clothes anyways so this works wonders for her stuff.

Now there are some other "recipes" for natural fabric softeners that I may try out, but for now I'm liking the plain vinegar.

*Make sure you do NOT use bleach and vinegar together as this is a very unsafe combination. You shouldn't really mix bleach with anything except water.

Do you do any "green" cleaning?

Getting Her to Clean Her Room

My daughter loves to clean but she hates cleaning her room. I can't say I blame her though I've never been a fan of room cleaning. Why is that I wonder?

Everytime we tell her she needs to clean her room she moans and complains (but yet she'll go organize the silverware or tupperware drawer without being told). So I started setting the kitchen timer to 5 minutes and have her pick up a specific item, like her crayons. If she has any time left after picking up said item I add that to the next 5 minutes for the next item to get picked up.  So if she had 3 minutes left to spare, she will now have 8 minutes to do the next task, maybe putting her clothes away.  I keep this up until her room is clean.  She thinks this is great fun.  How awesome is that for me? :)  I know this will get old for her one day but for now it's been working like a charm to get her to clean her room without complaints so that makes me one happy mama!

Under Kitchen Sink Makeover

It's funny how one simple little idea can turn into a full afternoon project.  It was this cute little bag dispenser that did me in.

After looking at the original inspriation of this bag dispenser on the House Of Grace I decided my cabinet under the sink was in DESPERATE need of a makeover. So, I rounded up the fam and off we went to the home improvement store. Here is how it all turned out:

BEFORE
YUCK! Unorganized mess!

The bottom of the cabinet had old contact paper that was peeling and water stained.
I scrapped most of that up and vaccuumed.

I put down new contact paper.
Although not a fan of most contact paper, I liked this particular design. 

I added a shelf for more storage and when I say I added the shelf I installed it with my own two hands, not the hubs. I'm pretty proud of my home improvement skills here. (Let's hope they stay up)

Another shelf 

 My version of the plastic bag dispenser. 

I actually made two since I had TONS of plastic bags. 

One is metal the other is cardboard. 

First I removed the paper label and washed them out.

Then I spray painted them grey.

(You could leave them as is or paint/decorate them however you like)

Cut hole in lid and stuff with bags.

Complete Finished Project
Yes, that's a HUGE container of vinegar...
I buy my vinegar in bulk.. Don't hate.



All in all I'm happy with the way it turned out.  Much better than the mess I had going on before!  Did you do any home makeovers this weekend?

Source:House Of Grace

The Great Decluttering Act

Every so often I look around and realize we have waaaaay too much stuff laying around... or simply not enough room for it all.  After the holidays is usually one of those times.  I get all ready to sort through stuff and as I look around I just don't know where to begin (seems to happen the most in my daughter's room) and my motivation goes right out the window and I am back to where I started. In a house full of clutter.

However, while browsing pinterest I came across this and thought, Hey I can do this! It's a full year of things to do to declutter your home.  It has specific tasks assigned to each day and most really shouldn't take more than 20 minutes (I said most, I'm personally not looking forward to the storage shelf week).  I have printed this out and taped it to the inside of one of my kitchen cabinet doors so I can easily keep up with it every day.  Click on Complete Calendar below picture to get the calendar for yourself. 

Complete Calendar

Hope you find this as helpful as I did!

Source: MySimplerLife