DIY hand sanitizer

I always love getting emails from Melissa, whether it’s cool music recommendations, knitting advice or something “green” that she knows I’ll appreciate. She sent me this recently and I am going to try it out soon. I’m all about the DIY!

Here’s the recipe for DIY hand sanitizer!

“You can earn those eco-friendly DIYer brag rights with instructions from Eco-centric blog, EcoSalon:
In a small bowl, mix ¼ cup each of pure aloe vera gel and grain alcohol with 5 drops of tea tree essential oil. To make it smell less pungent, add 5 drops of your favorite fragrance oil. Using a funnel, pour this blend into a bottle small enough to stash in your purse. (Rinse out an empty tube of makeup or lotion to make use of waste.)
Check out EcoSalon for more info on this DIY hand sanitizer as well as a recipe for a DIY surface disinfectant. And after your hands are reasonably clean: tell us about how you’re keeping the germs at bay (or about how you prefer to tough it out in the battle with them).”

Green knitting…

     For about 6 months I’ve been knitting. I’m slowly getting the swing of things. I think I could spend a good hour or so just searching through skeins of yarn at one of our local yarn stores. A year ago I would have never even have thought I’d be blogging about that. But here I am suddenly interested in the world of knitting and that includes the idea that I can use “green” materials when knitting. I really dig the bamboo needles and I love that you can buy recycled cotton yarn!  In fact, I am going to pick up more for some Christmas projects I am going to work on. Along with the sugar scrubs I make, I want to make a washcloth to go with it. I’m definitely still a beginner but I look forward to learning more and creating different projects using recycled materials!

Recycling 101

This is actually a post from My other blog. Once a month I participated in a blogging event called Project Support Beauty in Nature. It was where bloggers like myself would post how they were making changes in their daily life to help the environment. This one in particular was a favorite:

I have mentioned how we have started recycling a lot. A LOT! And although it can take a little time and effort to read every single label and separate everything accordingly, it feels good to know that i am making an impact and not sending quite as much to the landfills. The kids have gotten in on the act too! My oldest sets some of the recyclables aside for me and has begun asking which things can be recycled. Then once every two weeks we drive to a collection center.
Recycling is great but pair it with buying products made from recycled materials and you are helping the environment even further! Here is a list of products that can be made from recycled materials:

Paper Towels
Calendars
Concrete Blocks
Toilet Tissue
Wrapping paper
Carpet
Facial Tissue
Garbage Cans
Garden Hoses
Envelopes
Landscaping Mulch
Floor Tiles
Notebook, Printer, Copier, and Writing Paper
Aluminum gutters, down spouts, and siding
Printer Ink Cartridges and Toner
File Folders
Insulation
Shoes
Pencils
Building Materials
Cardboard
Cereal Boxes
Paint
Binders
Aluminum Cans
Clothing
Bulletin Boards
Motor Oil
Furniture
Rulers
Plastic Lumber
Crayons
Mouse Pads
Plastic bottles
Wallets
Wallpaper

Just look on the labels when you make a purchase. what better way to conserve resources?

Recycling Glass
• Glass can be recycled virtually forever. It never wears out.
• For every 2,000 pounds of glass that is recycled, we save more than 2,000 pounds of other resources
(1,330 pounds of sand, 433 pounds of soda ash, 433 pounds of limestone, and 151 pounds of feldspar)
• Most bottles and jars that you use contain at least 25% recycled material.
• The energy saved by recycled just one bottle could light a 100-watt bulb for 4 hours
Recycling Metals
• Recycling an aluminum can saves 95% of the energy needed to make aluminum from bauxite ore
• In the United States, the amount of steel that is discarded and not recycled every year is enough to build all the new
American-made cars
Recycling Paper
• 75% of each tree that is cut down for paper is not used in a paper product
• 98 tons of various resources are required to make one ton of paper
• Paper made from recycled paper uses 70% less energy
Recycling Plastic
• Americans use 4 million plastic bottles every hour, but only 25% of plastic bottles are recycled.

***Thanks to the Washington State Department of Ecology for this valuable information.

Go here to get some other great ideas!

You can also find a lot of useful tips here.