10 Things to Do on Black Friday Besides Shop

Ah, shopping! A great American pastime. Got a day off of work? Why not wake up early and get all fist and elbows on thy neighbor to score door-busting deals?

As you've probably heard, we have a limited amount of resources left on this planet. If we use them all up we're in trouble. Why not choose to save these resources for stuff that really matters, instead of buying ourselves and our loved ones things we don't necessarily want, need, or have space for?

I'd understand all the hoopla if holiday shopping were actually fun, but my experience in retail sales has taught me that the customers with the longest lists are usually the most miserable, frenzied, and (sadly) worried about debt.

Instead of shopping, I invite you to participate in Buy Nothing Day 2012. Buy Nothing Day is an international day of protest against consumerism celebrated annually just after Thanksgiving.

"Buy Nothing Christmas: Rethink the Season" (image via AdBusters)

Here's my list of ten things to do on Black Friday besides shop:

1. Nothing much. Continue eating, sleeping, and enjoying the company of your friends and family. It's okay to chill out and refuel. You can call it "Do Nothing Day 2012."
2. Sort through your belongings. Fill a box of useful, but unused things, to donate to your local Goodwill or other charity thrift store.
3. Look at your family's belongings. Is there something you can repair yourself or have repaired as a holiday gift, instead of buying a new one?
4. Watch Reverend Billy & The Church of Stop Shopping documentary, What Would Jesus Buy? It's available on Netflix Watch Instantly. You can also watch the entire movie on YouTube.
5. I love Adbusters' idea of offering free a credit card cut up service outside the shopping center!
6. You can use credit cards and gift cards for art projects, instead of shopping. Check out Art Journaling 101 on Daisy Yellow Blog and get started exploring your creativity today!
7. You can also make jewelry from old credit and gift cards if you don't cut them straight away. Scavenging blog has a tut for making a credit card bracelet and I love, love, love Clossette blog's tutorial for making a credit card name necklace.
8. Start taking charge of your finances. Make a budget and plan to pay off debts. Read Suze Orman's book, The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, & Broke, or poke around the internet for other personal finance education resources.
9. Create a list of charities you'd like money donated to in your name. Be sure to share it with people who usually buy you crappy presents.
10. Write and mail holiday cards. Extra points if you make your own!

Check out BuyNothingChristmas.org for more alternative ways to celebrate the holidays and resist excessive consumerism.

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

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How to Remove Holiday Food Stains

I hope that you're having a superfantastic Thanksgiving celebration teeming with loved ones and delicious food.

"Gurl! You betta not let that stain set!"

In case all the delicious food doesn't make it into your face, I thought I'd share this:
Holiday Stain Removal Guide from Martha Stewart Living. There are tips for combatting hard-hitting offenders like cranberry sauce, chocolate, gravy, and wine. You can thank me later.

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

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Last Minute Vegan Thanksgiving Ideas

On my way to the supermarket, I realized Thanksgiving is this Thursday. Somehow it went from being this abstract holiday in the semi-near future to being something I needed to actually buy groceries for. Yikes!

Holiday Kale Salad via BHG.com

Fortunately (?), I plan to spend the holiday alone for the first time ever, so there is no pressure to pander to the tastebuds of the masses. I just get to eat some of my favorite foods while re-watching every episode of Freaks and Geeks. Yay!

Here's what I hope to eat. If I make even half of this I'll be happy!

• Field Roast brand Celebration Roast: I don't wanna talk smack about Tofurky, but this is my favorite turkey alternative. It doesn't taste at all like turkey, but it doesn't even need to try to. I like to always have at least one in the freezer. It's that good! I like to serve it with golden gravy from Vegan Vittles cookbook.
• Holiday Kale Salad via Better Homes and Gardens or, more likely, a simple raw marinated greens salad. 
• Butternut Squash and Macaroni Casserole: I love this!!!!
• Whole Foods Market brand Organic Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce, in a can: Perched on the end of the aisle, it was a total impulse item that reminded me of my childhood. Ha ha! Let's ignore the BPA for now. It's not like I never eat canned food anyhow. #RealTalk
• Whole Foods Market brand Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies: Straight from the box and oh-so-yummy! My new favorite seasonal snack.

What will you eat for Thanksgiving? I hope compassion is on the menu!

At Farm Sanctuary's Celebration for the Turkeys. Image via their facebook page.

If you have $30 to spare please Adopt a Turkey from Farm Sanctuary. You aren't expected to take a critter home with you (although turkeys are so loveable you might want to). You just make a one-time donation to the non-profit org and support their advocacy work for farmed animals.

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

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How to Keep Your House Warm

The romantic feeling I got when we moved into this cute old house flew out one of its seventeen windows once the outside temp dropped below 40. It's cold!

I'm doing everything I can to resist cranking the thermostat from 65 to 80. So far, this includes wearing a hat and sweater indoors. Some evenings, I sit next to a space heater while I work. I also swaddle myself in a blanket while I watch movies on the couch. (These are just habits you pick up after living for 2 years in an apartment where you don't get heat until January.)

Still, I feel like I should be doing more. There has got to be a way to make better use of the heat we're pumping into this place.

Jasper at Energy At Home blog shares some great practical Fall and Winter Energy Efficiency Tips. Here are a few of his suggestions that we'll be implementing in our apartment:

Kit for Winter Weekend Window Warriors

Cover drafty windows with plastic. 
This stuff really works so I can't wait to get it up. Last winter, I cleaned a small apartment while the handyman covered the two windows with plastic and instantly it got at least 10 degrees warmer! Check out this video on how to use a window insulation kit to weatherize windows (via the Green Dream Group).

Weatherstrip doors.
It's so drafty downstairs near the entranceway to our apartment. If this works, I'm pretty sure we'll save a million dollars. Hello retirement! Again, the Green Dream Group has a how to video for this. Love these guys! 

If you don’t use certain rooms, keep the vents in these rooms and doors to these rooms closed. 
Our attic isn't insulated. Since we don't own our house and I'm not sure how long we'll even live in Providence much less this apartment, insulating it isn't going to happen-- at least not on our end. Instead, I'm putting a hook and eye on the doors of our laundry and guest room so all the warm air doesn't fly up there.

Lands' End Electric Blanket via landsend.com

Use an electric blanket or mattress pads.
This wasn't on Jasper's list, but I think mattress pads and electric blankets are brilliant. According to the Lands' End website, their electric blanket allows you to turn down the thermostat 10-15% while you sleep and save up to 10% a year on energy and heating bills. They say the same savings can result from their mattress pad. I've had the pleasure of enjoying these things during sleepovers and oh my god... I hope Santa brings me a heated mattress pad this year!
These things aren't cheap but Lands' End usually has good sales. Right now, use promo code JOLLY and pin 1112 to save 40% on a single item and get free shipping. No, they're not paying me to write this, but they should. LOL!

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

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Fun Ways to Use and Reuse Coffee

I passed this city tree and saw coffee grounds, still in their filters, surrounding it. My guess is the tree's caretakers are using the grounds to repel passing dogs from peeing on it. (Did you know dog pee is bad for trees? I must admit, I just recently discovered this and feel terrible for all the times I let little Cocoa have a go at Brooklyn trees. Oh well. Live, learn, repent!)

Used coffee grounds keep a city tree and its plant friends healthy.

I've used coffee grounds to make my own facial scrub and to eliminate fridge funk. I've also used coffee beans to clear my scent palate (I may have made up this term, but you know, to reset my sense of smell) when choosing essential oils to work with. I wondered how else spent coffee grounds could be used.

I discovered this list of 20 Unusual Uses for Coffee at EcoSalon. The article describes home, beauty, and pet care uses for spent coffee grounds as well as unused whole or ground coffee beans. Other interesting coffee uses I look forward to trying are:

• scrubbing food grime from pots and pans
• making a coffee air freshener
• filling in scratches on wood furniture
• as a hair rinse
• to dye/age paper for art journaling projects

Have you used coffee for anything interesting lately?

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

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How to Remove the Smell of Perfume

Putting on too much perfume is something that happens to even the best of us. The good news is you can remove it with vinegar. Yup! I tried using vinegar to remove three different types of  "natural" perfumes.  Here were the results.

Pacifica brand, Tahitian Gardenia scent alcohol-based spray

Image via Pacifica Perfume

It's so effing easy to use too much of this perfume! The website says they're made with essential oils, but they don't list the ingredients. I suspect there's artificial fragrance mixed in there too, especially since it gives me sinus headaches.

Anyhow, for the sake of science I sprayed my wrist with this stuff. About a minute later I sprayed pure white vinegar on a cotton pad. I wiped my wrist and most of the smell went away. I would say things went from 11 to 6 on a scale from 1 to 10. Once I washed my arm with unscented shea butter soap and water, it went down to 4.

The Goddess Line brand, Isis Fragrance oil-based roll-on

Image via The Goddess Line

This perfume is my guilty pleasure! It's made with rose essential oil, but it also has rose & white floral fragrance oils so it's not entirely natural. It's my all time favorite and a little bit goes a long way due to the fragrance oils, which explains why I've crossed into over-perfumed territory with it so many times.

I did the same test with this as I did with the Pacifica. The scent started off full-force at 10. The vinegar left behind just a hint of perfume (about a 4), and a lot of vinegar funk. Once I washed my wrist, you couldn't smell anything.

Auric Blends Temple Essence brand, Golden Vanilla solid

Image via Nature's Tapestry

I believe this solid coconut oil and beeswax based perfume is all-natural, but I couldn't find a listing of its ingredients so who knows. Anyhow, it started off gentle but noticeable, about a 7. It's kind of perfect. The vinegar quickly removed all traces of the perfume and the soap and water got rid of the vinegar stench.

P.S. While researching this post, I became extra annoyed at how little information manufacturers of even "natural" products disclose about their ingredients. Ugh! At some point in the near future, I hope to share a blog post on how to make your own perfume using all natural ingredients. It's pretty easy!

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

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How to Get Stuff Done

Meet Kyle!

This week I sewed my very first sock monkey ever. I'm giving myself a high five because making a sock monkey has been on my mental list of things I've wanted to do for twelve friggin' years! Eeee! Can you believe it? I can.

I'm a total dreamer. I have always had long lists of things I've wanted to do someday. Nothing big like become a lawyer or anything. (Sorry Mom!) Just "totally important, unimportant things" (to quote Joy the Baker) like plant a garden, frame some prints, and preserve my summer CSA surplus.

I haven't done everything on this list, but in the last year or so I've been seriously dedicating time to working my way through it. After years of abandoning my path to get lost in the current of other people's momentum, social and work obligations, and (embarrassingly) CSI Miami, the following idea presented itself to me:

If doing something is important to you, giving yourself the proper space, time, and tools is absolutely necessary for making it happen. Your to-do list isn't going to do itself. You've got to do it!

This isn't groundbreaking. I'd always know it to be true for work or school projects. Still, it never occurred to me to apply it to my personal life until I recognized how doing so allowed me to start a legitimate small business, something I knew nothing about. I figured maybe I could do the same thing for my totally important, unimportant things.

A huge step toward living out this idea was keeping a To-Do List Book. (Thanks Leonie Dawson!) How would I describe a To-Do List Book? Oh my god... Imagine how good it feels to strike something like "Take down the recycling" from your list and multiply it by ten.

My To-Do List Book helped me prepare for my move without going insane.

Basically you take a notebook and write down one goal that makes your spirit glow on the top of each page. Be sure to make pages for the goals that seem ridiculously overwhelming and those that seem just ridiculous. If it will make you happy to accomplish it, put it down!

Once you've done that, go back and write down the little to-dos that will help you reach each goal on the page below it. Mark the ones that are actionable. Then add them to your daily to-do list or agenda. Plugging in actionable tasks a week in advance (or month ahead, if you're a good planner) is the easiest way to make sure stuff makes it there. As you go along living, you can strike the little todos and eventually you'll be able to strike your big todos too. Yippee!!!

One great thing about my To-Do List Book is it has the ability to grow and I can easily flip through it to remind myself of ideas and dreams. It wipes away those moments of boredom or listlessness. I'm either doing something or inspired and adding something new.

My To-Do List Book also keeps me open to awesome opportunities. For example, one of my goals is to grow my circle of female friends here in Providence. As dorky as it may seem, this made me remember to look out for the next PVD Lady Project Event. (It's tonight and I can't wait!)

Kyle dreams too.

The best thing about my To-Do List Book is it puts my dreams out there in the Universe. It makes me acknowledge my desires. It recognizes their importance and symbolizes my commitment to them. If nothing more, it's a wish. And really, wishes can't even begin to come true unless we make them. My To-Do List gives the Universe something to work with. I can't help but think if I had known to put the sock monkey on my to-do list 12 years ago, he might have been made sooner.

Obviously, to-do lists are only good if you stick to them. That's why I've perched Kyle on the fireplace mantel in my office. He is my mascot for doing things that make my soul shine, hopefully before a decade passes. (If you need ideas for overcoming procrastination, check out my five tips.)

What's on your to-do list? What do you dream about getting around to one day? How will you do it?

Olivia Lane is a Blogger, Green Living Educator, and Health Coach trained at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's also author of Baking Soda & Bliss: The Healthy & Happy Guide to Green Cleaning.   

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