Junk Mail Gems now on Facebook!

I finally gave in to peer pressure a little while back and got on Facebook...now I have just created a page for Junk Mail Gems! I had to be a total nerd and become a fan of myself, but it's a little lonely over there right now. If you're a Facebook member and would like to become a "fan," check it out and be among the first to keep me company!

Have Yourself A Green Little Christmas!

It's hard to believe we are approaching Thanksgiving this week already, especially when I see that my last blog posting was on Halloween! Shame, shame on me. But, I have been busy putting out our holiday e-newsletter, fulfilling Junk Mail Gems orders for those of you who are early holiday shoppers like me...and, doing my own holiday shopping! (I've also been making a lot of fun gifts this year, but I can't tell you about those yet in case any of the receivers are reading!) Here are some ways to green-up your holiday!

Green Gifts:
Junk Mail Gems, of course, has a ton of cool gift ideas:

Hand rolled paper beads for the crafty beader,
One-of-a-kind junk mail jewelry for those eco-conscious women in your life,
Recycled speaker cable jewelry for the stereo guru,
Hand woven junk mail wallets great for men, women, teens & adults,
Woven junk mail bookmarks for the bookworm,
and many cool magnets for anyone who has a fridge or cubicle!

Be sure to check out my links page for a bunch of my favorite places to find unique and green gifts online!


Got friends who already have it all? Why not give to a charity in their name through places like Charity Gifts? You can even give a goat! I have a few of those people on my list who have everything, but I bet they don't have an adopted polar bear.

And don't forget that you can always make a gift! There are many great ideas out there on the web for making gifts and hand made gifts are always extra special. I know my family looks forward to my husband's home made wine every year, and I've always enjoyed making ornaments and personalized items for my friends and family. Check out my DIY project links on the right hand column of this blog for more ideas!

Gift Wrap:

National Geographic says, "...if every family reused just 2 feet [0.6 meter] of holiday ribbon, the 38,000 miles of ribbon saved could tie a bow around the entire planet." Some things that can easily be re-used are bows, gift bags, tissue paper, ribbon, and boxes! A lot of the gift wrap itself can be used again too if it is not shredded when opened. Gift tags can be made out of last year's holiday cards as well. There are many great ways to recycle and make your own creative gift wrap here!

Decorations:

I could not imagine Christmas in my home without a real tree. Maybe it's because I grew up with a real tree every year, or maybe it's just because my hyper-active sense of smell just loves fresh pine. Christmas trees are grown in farms, specifically for that purpose, so you are not chopping down forests. While they need to be purchased annually, a locally bought tree is much greener than their artificial counterparts, which consume a lot of energy and petrolium-based materials to make! And, who says you need to toss it to the curb when you're done? You can find a local tree recycling facility using Earth 911, or recycle it yourself by turning it into mulch or firewood. Still not comfortable chopping down a tree? Why not plant one in your front yard and have an outdoor tree year after year?!

How about lights? Whether you put up one string of lights or go all Grizwold on your property, you can cut down on the energy you use by plugging your holiday lights into a timer.

And don't forget about our tutorial for turning old holiday cards into ornaments!

Holiday Cards:

Botanical Paperworks has some really beautiful seed cards. If you are not familiar with these, they are cards made out of hand made paper, with real seeds embedded in the paper...meaning that you can actually plant the card and have it grow! They also have plant-able gift tags and party favor cards that look like they could double as little paper ornaments.

Other alternatives if you want to completely eliminate the whole physical card thing would be to send an e-card. If you don't want to use one of those free e-card sites with ready-made cards, you can always make your own electronic newsletter or email with photos and news. Or, how about actually picking up the phone and wishing everyone a merry Christmas "in person?" It may be time consuming if you have a huge list, but would surely be memorable to those people you don't see very often!

These are just a few ways that you can green your holidays...feel free to share your own suggestions with your comments, and have a happy Thanksgiving!

How to "Recycle" your Pumpkin!

Happy Halloween everyone!

I hope you are enjoying the day, hopefully preparing for a fun time tonight! After all the fun is done and November starts tomorrow, what will you do with your jack-o-lantern?

a) Let it sit out on the front step until it shrivels into "old man pumpkin"
b) Toss it in the garbage can
c) Turn it into a fall feast

Since this blog is all about turning "trash into treasure," I am going to share how you can do the same with your pumpkin! While it does sound like hard work, option "c" really is not as hard as it sounds and can be a great family activity, and a way to celebrate the coming of Thanksgiving!

My mom has always made pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving out of, you guessed it, our Halloween jack-o-lanterns. So, I have developed a taste for this REAL pumpkin pie and have never had another pie that was nearly as good. Then again, I've never met anyone else who makes pumpkin out of real, fresh pumpkin, not the canned stuff. I have concluded that it's because of the real pumpkin. That, and maybe every mom's secret ingredient of "love."



Don't waste your pumpkins this year!! Here's how you can turn it into delicious pumpkin pie, bread, and roasted seeds!

How to cook the pumpkin:
This takes a little time but you can freeze it, and bake yummy pumpkin treats whenever you're ready!
1) Cut your clean, hollowed out pumpkin into chunks, 6"-8" or so. (Best to do right after Halloween so you don't have a dried out pumpkin!) Leave the skin on.


2) Lay pieces, skin side up, in 2-3 layers in a large turkey roaster pan with 1" water in the bottom.

Cover tightly with foil. Bake approx. 1/2 hour at 350 degrees, until tender. (test, if knife slides into pumpkin easily. My Mom has some magical powers, because I find mine takes a LOT longer than a half hour this way. so I prefer to steam in a pot on the stove:


...or cook it in the microwave (also covered with water added):

Choose whatever method best suits the amount of pumpkin you have, and amount of time you have.)

However you choose to cook it, when you can easily slide a knife, fork, or spoon into the flesh, it is done. Here's what it looks like done...the skins get darker and the flesh gets a little more translucent:


3) With a large spoon, scoop soft pumpkin out of skins. Discard the skins.


4) Place pumpkin chunks in blender about 1/2 full (or 1/2 empty if you're pessimist!). Add water to fill blender. Puree.


5) Pour into colander and drain the water.


6) Move on to recipes below! Or, if you aren't going to bake your goodies right away, freeze in 1 or 2 cup portions. (1 cup = 1 pie or 1 loaf of bread) I like to freeze it labeled, in a baggie:

If you want to be more "green," you can even freeze it in empty food containers.

Gretchen's Mom's Pumpkin Pie (makes one 10", or two 8"-9" pies)

Crust for TWO 8" or 9" pies:
2 C flour, 1 tsp salt
2/3 C + 2 Tbsp shortening
4-6 Tbsp cold water

Crust for ONE 10" pie:
1-1/3 C Flour, 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C shortening
3-4 Tbsp cold water

Measure flour and salt. Cut in shortening. Add water. Shape into ball, roll out, place in pan(s). Do not bake or prick the bottom.

Pie Filling:
2 C cooked & pureed pumpkin
1 C sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground ginger
1-1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
3/4 C milk

MIX pumpkin, sugar, eggs, salt and spices. Add milk gradually to keep smooth.
POUR into unbaked shell. Mixture will be sloppy at this point. To keep edges of crust from burning, cover the edges with foil.
BAKE 10 minutes at 450 degrees. Reduce heat to 350. Bake 50 minutes at 350 degrees.
Cool, cut, top with cool whip, and enjoy the fruits of your labor! You can also do what my mom does, and freeze the pies to enjoy on Thanksgiving.

Gretchen's Mom's Pumpkin Bread: (makes 2 loaves)
Sift together dry ingredients:
3-1/3 C flour
2-2/3 C sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger

Add 1 C oil and 2 C pumpkin.
Beat 2 minutes.
Add 2 eggs and 2/3 C water. Fold in 1/2 C chopped nuts if desired.
Pour into 2 greased, floured loaf pans.
Bake 1 hour at 375 degrees. Cool 10 minutes, remove from pans and cool on rack.
Enjoy warm, sliced with butter, or freeze the whole loaf to enjoy later!

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds:
Wash seeds and drain in colander. Melt 4 Tbsp butter and mix with 1/2 tsp garlic salt, and 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce. Toss with seeds, coating well. Spread seeds on a foil lined pan. Bake at 275 degrees, stirring about every 5 minutes, until toasted and lightly browned. Keep an eye on them so they don't burn. Do not refrigerate...store in a sealed bowl on the counter...if they last that long!

The Trouble with Tribbles...and left-over yarn

I used to have so much fun making these pom poms out of yarn when I was a kid. Maybe it was because I was an artistic kid who like to make stuff...or maybe it's just because they remind me of the only Star Trek episode that I really remember as a little girl..."the Trouble with Tribbles!"



Not only are they fun to make, but they are a great way to use up the yarn you have left-over from past projects.

Check out this great rug on the ReadyMade blog made entirely out of yarn pom poms! I just want to dive into it, it looks so cozy!



There are many, many cheesy projects online that use pom poms, but this is by far the coolest. I don't think I have enough extra yarn in my stash yet to make something this big, but maybe someday I will give it a try! I often see whole aisles of left-over yarn at thrift stores as well, which is a great way to get a bunch of colors for small projects.

DIY - Make snack storage cans out of old formula cans

Since having to switch to formula lately, I've been wondering what to do with the cans once it's all used up. Here's my first project, which has used up a couple, turning them into snack canisters!

First, take off the labels. Mine came right off:

Next, cut some paper to cover the cans. I wrapped mine in construction paper first, although you could just leave them as-is and glue on the snack name or picture if you like the metallic finish. I just cut the Cheerios box down to just the name:



Then, glue to your canister, and voila! A snack storage can! Here's a tip if you are glueing something like the Cheerios box cut-out...curl the cardboard a little so it takes the shape of the can more easily before adding glue, and put a couple rubber bands around it to hold it down while the glue dries.


For the Goldfish Cracker can, I just did a Google Image Search for "goldfish cracker," found an image, and printed it out. You could use the packaging too, or just make your own label.

One very simple way to use your empty formula cans to store other baby stuff! I like these because it's better than having to roll and unroll a bag of snacks...the lid makes it easier to keep them fresh and access them quicker. Plus, they are more customized than just using a Tupperware. I also stored my bottle nipples, rings, and caps (before I switched to Adiri) in a paper-covered Crisco can.

So, I only have so many baby snacks around...what else to do with future empty cans? There are many other ideas out there on the web...

How about a cool gift box?

Or a pencil holder?

These are great ideas and you can cover the cans with all kinds of other recycled materials...old maps, gift wrap, photos, or even junk mail of course!

There are some more ideas here, and here! Get creative...there are so many more "things" we buy that we could actually make, quite easily, out of recycled materials that we already have around!

Hmm...now I just need to come up with some creative ideas for recycling the little plastic scoops that come in the formula...

DIY - Make your own tote bag out of recycled fabric!

I have accepted the fact that my cool little seatbelt purse must be stowed away for the rare occasions that my hubby and I go out by ourselves, and that I must now sport the "giant mommy bag." So, the other day I was online trying to find a cool tote bag-slash-purse to function as both a diaper bag and my purse. I found several cute bags, although they were all pretty pricey.

So, I thought I'd go on a search for a pattern to try and make my own. I found a perfect little free pattern with a nice downloadable tutorial here. If you're not a sewer, then they have some really cool bags you can purchase on their site!

I headed out to the fabric store, and decided why not go to the thrift store instead, and pick up some fabric there to recycle?! Here is what I found:



The wine colored fabric on the left is actually a tablecloth, the one in the middle is a pillow sham, and on the right is some cool patterned corduroy that was sold as raw fabric. I've never really explored these aisles of the thrift store before, so it was very eye opening seeing how many cool fabrics you can find and what you can re-use!! They have aisles of placemats, tablecloths, towels, blankets, sheets, pillow shams, and even raw fabric remnants that can all be turned into something new! Many places even organize them by color, so it makes it very easy to find several patterns/colors that go together.

The only other things I had to purchase were some interfacing, which I got at the fabric store. I also bought a zipper, which is not shown in the instructions, but was something I wanted to add. You could even recycle a zipper from another piece of used clothing or old purse.

I cut out all the pieces one night while watching tv with my hubby, started sewing that night, then finished it the next morning. It really didn't take that long, although you will need to know how to operate a sewing machine. Here's my end result:



I ended up getting the wrong kind of interfacing, but it seemed to work out okay. I think if I make another it'll turn out better. I found some great canvas-like hand towels with wine glass illustrations on them that I might try making into another bag.

So, check out the tutorial...make a trip to your local thrift store, and turn something old into something new and one-of-a-kind!

Product Review: Adiri Natural Nurser

I'm going to do another little product review for you green mommies out there. Nobody pays me to do these, but hey, if anyone wants to send me some kickbacks for it, I won't argue! Since my baby turned 9 months and has been demanding more food, I have had to switch from the little bottles that attach to my pump, to something larger.

I did not know to look for BPA-free bottles when I first purchased my Medela ones...I just bought them because they went with my pump. (Luckily the Medela bottles are and have always been BPA free.) But, now that I am no longer breast feeding or pumping (thanks to my little guy's 6 sharp, new teeth...I'll spare you the gory details), I did a little shopping around.

Frankly, I was getting tired of cleaning all of the parts on my old bottles...stuffing a big bottle brush through the narrow opening and then having the bristles spray soapy water all over me when I pulled it out, getting soap and a brush inside the nipple, cleaning the rings, caps, covers, etc...


I've seen these Adiri Natural Nursers written up in several of my design publications (besides running Junk Mail Gems, I'm an industrial designer), and decided to give them a whirl. Above is a photo of the two that I ordered...a stage 2 (blue) and a stage 3 (orange). I got mine from Web Vitamins because they had the best deal that I could find at $10.85.

Being a product designer and wanting to touch and feel everything, those online shopping sites never really show enough photos for me. So, for those of you who are like me, I am including more detailed photos for you...


If you're a technical product material geek like me, you will like to know that the cover, cap, and main body of the bottle (the blue part below) are made out of a polypropylene copolymer. The colored hard part of the bottle is over molded with a type of TPE, which contains some silicone (the soft clear part on top). This makes the base of the bottle more rigid, while the breast shaped part is soft (like nature intended!). The overmolding process results in a smooth, continuous feel as the nipple blends into the bottle.

Here's a close-up of the numbers (ml and ounces, they hold up to 8 oz or 240 ml)


The two bottles I bought, out of the packages:

The only difference in the 3 stages are the color of the bottle, and the number of holes in the nipple. Stage one has 2 holes, stage two has 3, and stage three has 5 holes.

Each one comes with three parts: the bottle itself, the cap, and the clear cover.


Here is a close-up of the cap with the vent:

There is a vent cover under the cap. They say you don't need to remove it to clean, so that's one less part to lose!

Close-up of the nipple...this one is the stage 2 so it has 3 holes in it:


Okay, time to try it out!

1. Slide the clear cover over the bottle and make sure it's snug against the nipple to fill it, so it doesn't leak.
2. Screw on the cap tightly.
3. Shake, if you're mixing formula like I was. (otherwise skip this step)
(step 3.5. Warm it by submerging in warm water or using a bottle warmer, although to do this you have to use the warming cap, which does NOT come with the bottle! You have to get this separate. boo!)
4. Turn the bottle over, THEN remove the cover. (Apparently doing things in the other order will make it more leaky.)

5. Give to baby and observe happiness and a full tummy!

In the past when I've given my little guy a new bottle, he has had to inspect it extensively before putting it to his mouth, sometimes resulting in a rejected bottle being thrown across the room. I was surprised at how quickly this one went straight to his mouth the minute he got his hands on it. Much like his mommy, he's a very tactile little guy and I could tell he liked the feel of this one!

I've read a lot of reviews online, a few complaining that the bottle "leaks all over the place." I really didn't notice that it leaked any more than any other bottle I've used. Of course, my baby seemed to like it so much (or was so hungry) that it really didn't leave his mouth much until it was empty. There are several things to check on the Adiri site if your bottles are leaking too much... In defense of fellow industrial designers everywhere, make sure you are actually following the instructions before posting bad reviews online! Don't assume a totally re-designed product should be used in the same way as the old one.

So, to sum things up...

The Good:
- BPA and Polycarbonate free, not to mention COOL looking!
- Breast shaped...why should it be shaped like anything else?!
- Top rack dishwasher safe (not with the heated dry cycle)
- Much easier to clean than traditional bottles
- Less parts to lose & wash

The Bad:
- You can submerge in warm water or put it in a traditional bottle warmer, but you have to buy the warming cap separate. Why doesn't it come with that?! I wish I had known when I bought them, as I would have gotten these at the same time. (FYI, as I just learned, don't just use warm tap water)
- While the packaging, cover and cap are recycleable, the bottle itself is not (the soft material). Adiri says on their website that they are working on creative recycling solutions.
- Like most GOOD design, pricier than the competition, but then it was totally worth it to me!

Overall:
Love it! Just wish it came with the warming caps!! (duh!)

For more green mommy reviews, check out my extensive cloth diaper reviews:
Cloth diapering part 1
Cloth diapering part 2
Cloth diapering part 3
Cloth diapering part 4