This will be the first article I have published using my solar powered iPhone (which is an article in itself!) and I am hoping it works well.

Today we decided to give our three big dogs baths but in the cold and wet outside conditions I wanted an easier alternative to the hosepipe and soap method!

A quick visit to our local pet store and I found some great grooming wipes made by a company called EarthBath. They won’t get a dog as clean as a full bath but I was just aiming to freshen them up a bit!

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Precycling is becoming a buzz word amongst greenies like us and the Our Everyday Earth family wanted to share the following top 5 ways to boost your eco-friendliness with some waste stopping precycling….

Precycling is the practice of reducing waste by attempting to avoid bringing into the home or business items which will generate waste.

The practice of precycling includes buying essentials and groceries in bulk to reduce packaging, buying products that use recyclable packaging over non-recyclable packages, reducing or eliminating junk mail, and using the internet for reading instead of buying books, newspapers and magazines etc.

Method Number 1: Eliminate Junk Mail!

As a household we receive a lot of junk mail, advertising leaflets, promotional newspapers, credit card applications etc. and it all has to be recycled or shredded. Our favorite site for reducing or eliminating junk mail is DMA Choice;

Eliminate Junk Mail Being Sent to Your Address

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Do you own an outdoor composter or have a compost heap in the yard? If you do then you will know that collecting compostable fruit and vegetable waste can be a difficult routine to maintain. You need to collect the scraps of compostable food and take them out to the compost heap after every meal is prepared. I often find myself asking;

I wished there was a way to store compostable fruit and vegetables in the kitchen until I was ready to take all the scraps out to the main compost heap!

I was given this perfect solution by my Mother and Father in law for my birthday and it makes the routine of collecting compostable food waste so easy… It is a counter top kitchen compost bin with a built in odor filter and it works great.

Counter Top Compost Bin

How about using a living tree as your Christmas Tree this year. I am talking about an in the pot, alive when you decorate it, alive at the end of the holidays tree. Living Christmas trees are becoming more popular because of their many advantages over other types of Christmas trees.

Some of the biggest advantages of using living Christmas trees are the lessening of fire hazard, their future use in the landscape and the fact that they may often be used more than one year as a living Christmas tree in the home. Living Christmas trees offer year-round beauty when planted in the landscape after Christmas and can also serve as outdoor Christmas trees for many years to come. Planted in the landscape living trees also become a yearly source for cut greens to use during the holiday season.

Left planted in containers, the living Christmas tree may be moved from one area to another during the holiday season. However, because most living trees used for Christmas trees are fast growing, they should not remain in a container for more than two years.

The fragrance of many of the living trees is very pleasant when they are used in the home. The varieties of pines have an especially nice aroma.

There are a few important steps to follow for best results in caring for a living Christmas tree in the home.

1. Line the tub or container in which you place a living tree with plastic, waterproof paper or foil to keepexcess water from dripping through onto your floor or carpeting.
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Have you ever wondered whether you could track how efficient your driving style is? Well now you can! It was my birthday today and my beautiful wife bought me a Garmin 1350 GPS system, and I love it, partly because I always get lost here in Texas but also because it features Garmin Eco Route which calculates how “green” my driving is for each trip.

The idea behind the technology is that the Garmin GPS unit can track how fast you accelerate / decelerate and how fast you are driving, how much fuel you have used based on your vehicle MPG rating and then it can give you feedback on how efficient your driving style is…

Garmin Eco Route

The whole idea behind the Garmin Eco Route is to promote a greener driving style and actually give the driver constant feedback on how efficiently they are driving…

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Twin Mix II

This work is a collaborative effort between Karen and I. Our inspiration, the Gulf Fritillary Butterfly and the beautifully intricate passion flower.  We have so many of these Fritillary Butterflies in our side yard, the reason we have them, is because we have several passion vines planted. These butterfly lay their eggs on the leaves of the passion vine, they are very small yellow spheres, which eventually produce the caterpillar. These guys have a ferocious appetite and could easily strip all the leaves on the vine. The leaves grow back, and the vine continues to produce its beautiful flower, as the chrysalis transform into the Fritillary butterfly. It is spectacular to come out in the morning and have 30 or more butterflies scurrying about our yard. Plant some passion vines, if they will thrive in your area,  you will be providing much needed habitat for many varieties of Fritillary butterflies. Check out this web site for butterfly conservation www.butterflyrecovery.org

Check out www.lunaazulstudio.com for more of our artwork.

Passion flower and Fritillary in side yard

Do you have lots of old newspapers or magazines waiting to be sent off for recycling? As the holidays draw closer we wanted to share some of our tips on how to make paper decorations using recycled paper.

How to Make Paper Decorations From Old Newspaper

You will need:

• Some old newspapers or magazines
• A couple of used wire clothes hangers
• Strong wire clippers
• A pair of pliers
• Paper glue (We used water based non toxic Mod Podge)

Once you have these basic ingredients it’s time to let your imagination run wild! You need to think of holiday decorations that you would normally buy to decorate your house. We picked some of our favorites to recreate from newspaper;

• Candy canes
• Poinsettia Flowers
• Christmas trees

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