Due to the fact that it is midterms, I did not have a ton of time to make anything for my friend’s birthday. In an attempt to make it as sustainable as possible with very little time or resources I ended up having to make cupcakes in papers as well as from a mix (which I am strongly against). Even though I did have to make them from a mix (and they do not taste as good as if I had made them from scratch), I made sure that they were organic and not full of preservatives or other unnecessary chemicals. 


What I could have done to make them more sustainable:
– Buttered the pan or used reusable silicon baking cups instead of cupcake papers.
– Made them from scratch to remove the plastic bags as well as the unnecessary waste from shipping the mixes. 
– Put them in a reusable container that is easy to cary and that my friend could keep.


Although they were not ideal, these cupcakes were still a way to celebrate his birthday without having to buy store-made cupcakes and waste even more resources and plastic packaging (plus all of the staff in the newsroom enjoyed them). 

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This is one project that was much easier in my mind than it was in reality. A few months ago I decided I wanted a bookshelf that I could use anywhere (including my room at home and my dorm during the school year). My dad use to make furniture when I was younger, and for some reason I remember it being pretty easy. I enlisted his help, and we got started.

One of the main reasons I thought it would be a good idea to build my own bookshelf was that I would know exactly what went into it and I could avoid some of the dangerous materials in furniture (like formaldehyde, and VOC’s in paint). I also wanted it to be the exact measurements I thought would be best and I didn’t want to deal with the cheap furniture sold at most places.

But as it turns out, it’s difficult to turn this:

Into this:

(I’m sadly proud of my beadboard back, I wish the picture would have shown it better.)

It was a great lesson in knowing what is going into a product you want, being willing to do something yourself if you want it, and learning a new skill I had no real knowledge of before. All in all it was stressful, it took much longer than expected, and my dad and I had a great time building this piece that will last me for years and years to come.

If you are interested in having furniture that is safe for the environment and your indoor air quality, consider buying pre-made furniture that just needs to be sanded and painted. It is a great way to be sure you are getting quality wood that will not gas off harmful chemicals into your air. You can also paint it however you want.

I feel like I just need to get this out so we can move on — I’m not a big fan of chocolate.

With that said, I really like these cupcakes. They are incredibly chocolaty, moist, and light (I find really dense cupcakes disappointing, so the airiness of these is one of the reasons why I like them.)

Ingredients (cupcakes):
2 cups sugar (preferably organic and fair trade)
1 and 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup fair trade, organic cocoa
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk (I used soy)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Recipe:
1. Heat oven to 350 F. Prepare cupcake pans.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl (or with your mixer).

3. Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed of mixer for 2 minutes.

4. Stir in boiling water. (Word of caution, the batter is incredibly runny. By runny I mean it seems as thin as water. I used a measuring cup to pour the batter into the cups. Not to fear, however, they will turn out.)

I filled the measuring cup to the top and tried to fill the silicon cups about 1/2 – 2/3 of the way full.

1. Melt butter.

2. Stir in cocoa.
3. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency.
4. Frost!

Sorry about the poor picture quality. I don’t know if I was on a sugar high or what, but this picture is horrible. Cupcakes were yummy though.

Recipe courtesy of Hershey’s.

The ingredients on the back of most cleaning products are truly frightening. The sheer amount of chemicals alone is enough to make me nervous, but it is really the chemicals themselves that are the most toxic. Many household cleaners contribute to poor indoor air quality, and expose you to dangerous chemicals that often have negative impacts on our health and the environment.

For a cheap, easy, and effective cleaner, I make an “all-purpose spray” from Gorgeously Green. The recipe is incredibly simple, and it can be used on countertops, fridge, walls, toilet seats, sinks, doorknobs, and tons of other things. We use ours daily to wipe down the sinks in our bathrooms as well as a cleaner for our counters when they need more than what a wet rag can do. We also use it any time we need to disinfect anything (like the counter before we bake or roll out dough).

Ingredients:
32 ounce spray bottle (or multiple bottles that add up to 32 ounces)
2 cups water
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon castile soap
3/4 cup hydrogen peroxide
20 drops tea tree oil
20 drops any essential oil (I like citrus, and my mom likes lavender, so we add the essential oils once they are in the spray bottles so we can customize from the same recipe)

Recipe:

One of my favorite things about summer is all of the time I have to read. During the school year I do not have time (or the brain power) to read “fun books” (basically anything a teacher did not assign to me).  Two of my favorite do it yourself sustainability/environmental books are Sophia Uliano’s Gorgeously Green and Do It Gorgeously.

My battle with laundry soap has been life long. I am allergic to most brands to the point where I would sometimes get rashes after putting on clean clothes. My mom would struggle to find a detergent that would not give me or her an allergic reaction, and it seemed like as soon as we found one it would be discontinued.

As we changed our household to being more environmentally friendly in every aspect, one of the first things to go was our laundry soap. All of the detergents, coloring, optical brighteners, bleach, and other chemicals are not only terrible for your clothing, but also for your health and your local environment. Wastewater treatment plants are unable to filter out all of the chemicals we put down our drains. These chemicals are pumped out with the grey water into our local environments.

In my hometown the grey water is pumped into the ocean. This means that all of the chemicals in our cleaning products, including laundry soap, are being directly pumped into local habitats where animals absorb them or eat foods laced with these materials. This is especially dangerous in areas near the ocean or lakes where the local wildlife bioaccumulates or carries these chemicals until we eat them and absorb them as well.

Instead of “cleaning” our clothes with a laundry list (pun intended) of chemicals, my family decided to start making our own soap. Although you can easily buy environmentally friendly soap, it is expensive, and often comes in wasteful, non-recyclable packaging. By making our own laundry soap we have ditched the dyes and other harmful chemicals. We also know exactly what is going in to it, its significantly cheaper, we are not allergic to it, and our clothes come out clean.

Homemade laundry soap ingredients:

1 (or more depending on how much you wish to make) bar Fels-Naptha or Ivory bar soap
Washing Soda
Borax

2. For every 1 cup of grated bar soap, add 1/2 cup of Washing Soda

3. and 1/2 cup Borax

One of the best things about this recipe is that you can choose how much soap you want to make. When I am at school I make a significantly smaller amount because of storage issues. At home we all pitch in to try to make as much as possible (your arms and hands get tired from grating the soap) so we do not have to do it again for a while.

I have to admit, I am not very creative when it comes to creating things or decorating. I have been itching for something to organize my jewelry, but I did not really know how. I almost gave away one of my bulletin boards that I have had since I was a kid when I realized it had potential to be something better. My DIM (Do It Myself) project this weekend was to turn this hideous piece into something functional and beautiful.

I simply used white push pins that I already had lying around my room to hold everything up.

I have had acne for what feels like forever now, but is probably more like 10 years. I have tried nearly all dermatologist prescribed medications with little to no results. So when I say this oil works, I mean it.

I know it seems completely counter productive to put oil on an oily face that is prone to acne, but just hear me out. Because jojoba is actually a liquid wax and not an oil, it behaves differently than we expect. The jojoba “oil” is very similar to the oils that your skin naturally produces. Because of this similarity, when you use jojoba your skin responds by not producing excess oil.

The oil soaks in quickly, and then you have skin that is not shinny, but well moisturized all day. You have to give your skin about 2-4 weeks to get used to the oil before it will stop producing extra oil. After a month my skin no longer got oily, even if I forgot to wash it in the morning.

This recipe has been a lifesaver for me. In the summer I swim and lifeguard which means my skin gets so dry it peels. The jojoba helps keep my skin hydrated while not increasing my breakouts all year long. Another reason I love this recipe is because of how cheap it is. The oil is 8oz for $16, and it has already lasted me more than a year.

Ingredients

4 oz bottle with dropper (cleaned and boiled)
jojoba oil (organic is preferred)
1 teaspoon vitamin E (as an antioxidant as well as a preservative)

Use a funnel to add the 1 teaspoon of vitamin E. Add the oil until the bottle is nearly full and shake to mix it.

If you would like you can add essential oils for smell or other benefits, but I like to keep anything that is going on my face as simple as possible. Be sure to test any oils slightly diluted behind your ear to be sure you will not have an allergic reaction as well.

I ran out of vitamin E a while ago, and so far I haven’t had any problems just using the jojoba oil straight. If you use the oil fast enough and want to save a few bucks, I would recommend leaving it out.

You can find all the ingredients and necessary materials locally, online, or at mountainroseherbs.com.

Enjoy!