live from sublurbia

PS, happy Earth Day.

But when did it turn into earth week? Are we going to see countdown signs for Earth Day and Arbor Day? Mixing it with Mother’s Day? “Tell mom you love her with the gift of planting 100 seedlings in former Amazon rainforest.” Or fashion? “Get this years hot new reusable bag and repurposed shoes!”

On the one hand = spreading the radical idea of buying less crap, keeping it for longer than a millibleen, and recycling our reduced consumption is good. On the other hand, the first “R” is reduce, too. We don’t need to go buy six million new things. And some of the ideas are better than others: ending the distribution and use of plastic shopping bags at some stores, or the suspect advice to “sweep fertilizer off of the driveway”.

Maybe I’m biased, but that advice from Scott’s smells more of greenwashing to me. “Hey, look, we have an environmental campaign!” Or you could use fertilizers (not from Scott) that are more environmentally friendly in the first place.

Then again, maybe we need a little ammonium phosphate in the water supply to offset all the prozac in the water.

But whether you celebrate Earth Day, Week, Month, or life, Happy Earth Day! I’ve been swamped at work and home lately and haven’t had a change to give my diapers a good line dry in ages, so I snapped a shot of a couple that needed a little sun the other day. I’m a bit wistful about it, as this is probably the last diaper line I’ll post on Earth Day. This time next year I expect we’ll be diaper-free. Ah well, more room on my line for other things!

We’ll be spending/celebrating tonight eating some green spinach tortilla wraps I prepared last night, along with snacky foods, out back on a picnic blanket. Should keep the kids happy while I tend the weeds without Monsanto’s help.

How did you/ will you celebrate this year?

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Welcome Spring and Summer - and to the Spring Bloggy Giveaway Carnival, organized by Don’t Try It. Many thanks to them for hosting this Carnival.

As promised last week, my giveaway is the grocery store bag I blinged up in last week’s T.O.A.S.T. (Think of a Something Thursday). The winner will be chosen from comments placed by users on this post (I’ll find a random number chooser online) and will receive one free shopping bag, shipping included (no wine, sorry).

Just comment on this post; let us know how you found the site, link us a favorite post at my site or yours or someone else’s … just say hi. I’m feeling spunky enough to try conquering international shipping, so we’ll throw caution and postal codes to the wind.

Good luck and happy Carnival!

Thanks to everyone who has stopped by! I’ll close comments on Friday night, midnight (by the post stamp on your comment). One entry per person please!

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_{Author’s Note: I wrote this out a long time ago, before I came up with the original TOAST (Think of a Something Thursday) format. We’ve come a long way, baybee!}

TOAST: Think of a Something Thursday

Long before I acquired my stable of shopping bags, and when I bothered to remember, I’d tell a store clerk trying to bag one or two items: “No thank you”. A habit borne of managing to accumulate too much junk (which I still do, adventure-girl/packrat that I am) but a habit that also fit in nicely with the Reduce part of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

When I was a kid, the grocery stores in my area were dominated by paper sacks. And that was it for a long time. They were great, useful - book covers, art papers, shipping paper, patterns, “canvas”. When plastic bags started coming around along with the advent of “bag your own” stores in my neck of the woods, the bags were your typical two handled affair seen today. Us kids adapted and used them to make simple box kites. Tie a string, find a gust of wind, and go. No sticks, no tails, no tape and paper and glue … But no sharks teeth or dragons, either. Nothing to paint or enhance. I think after one or two gos we were done and bored.

I started out my latest foray into self-bagging and non-plastic bagging like I do most things. In fits and spurts. (The hub asked me the other day how long my to-do list was. I asked in return, “which volume?”.) But I rounded up a sampling of totes I had anyway (I prefer simple totes instead of most diaper bags) along with the inexpensive reusable bags I mentioned the other day.

Surely there was one perfect bag to hold my ‘fancy’ cheeses, wines, crusty loafs of bread, and swirly pops for the kids, right? Be it a quick trip for a parents-only dinner or the restocking of the hurricane pantry, just grab a cloth bag and go, yes? No, not so much. Continue Reading »

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Mare noted that she picked up a small foldable bag that fits in the glove box. I’ve got those in my eclectic collection; they make great diaper bags for the daily tote to and from school. Diapers go in the bag to school, are dropped off, and the bag is shoved in her cubby bucket without taking a lot of space. It even crams back into its own clip-on bag if I get the notion to stuff things in things (or need a diversion of “magic” for the little ones). I got these (I have two) at Claire’s during a buy X get Y sale.
Continue Reading »

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Standing in line at a lunch counter the other day, I stopped the cashier from bagging my lunch box. “Going green, eh?” asked the guy in front of me. I just nodded and smiled; on the one hand I’m kinda green, on the other hand, I just drove 3 miles to pick up a plate of chicken, beans, and rice I could have crocked up myself if I’d planned the week a little better. But that better planned week would have meant my next stop wasn’t the grocery store, either.

Last winter, I popped into a women’s fashion store to pick up a glittery little shawl to spruce up an older little black dress for the company holiday party. When I asked the cashier to not bag it, and put the shawl in a cloth shopping bag I’d brought with me, her eyes got wide and she warned me that people might think I was shoplifting. I reminded her that I had the receipt and that I was sure I’d be fine.

My local JCPennys stores started selling lovely large cloth bags for $1.49 (now 79¢). After raiding the clearance racks for bargains , I added a bag to the top of the pile. The cashier scanned it in, folded it up, and put it in a plastic bag. “Um,” I interrupted as she started to scan my other purchases. “Could you just put the clothes in the shopping bag I just bought? Please?”

“I don’t think we’re supposed to do that,” she responded.

“Well, that’s what they’re for,” I replied.

She checked with her supervisor, who gave her the go ahead, but it was clear she thought I was completely nuts.

Two years after I bought my first 99¢ cloth bag at an Albertsons store in Southern California, they’re finally everywhere. Before the cheap, convenient bags became widely available, I toted around various random cloth bags, usually give-aways from conferences or picked up at garage sales and thrift stores. They bewildered and annoyed the baggers and clerks, but in general, people are starting to come around.

My friend Mare recently asked for opinions on cloth bags, so here’s my reusable round-up. Continue Reading »

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