Merry Christmas…a bit late
yes, i realize that once again i’ve been a bit absent from the blog. i just started a new job a few weeks ago and it’s eating up even more time than i have available in the first place. i’m still trying to find a …
Natural Living (all)
These days, more than ever, many people are starting to feel the need to turn to a more natural way of life in order to live more healthily and to protect the planet. Sometimes all it takes are small choices to make a big difference, such as repurposing what you have, using reusable products, or making your own products to avoid harmful or unethical industrial ones.
Click on any of the following natural living categories to check them out, or browse all the relevant posts below. And feel good about doing your part for a better world!
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Gift scarves
these days i have precious little time to spend on my own things, even if they’re christmas gifts. luckily i’ve found a way to snatch a bit of time to knit. when i go out in the morning with the little guy, he almost always …
100% upcycled rugs
i don’t know about you, but we get our bathrugs filthy constantly. the ones that i’d gotten at the market a while back were falling apart (and i never could stand them in the first place) so all i had left was the rug i …
It’s that time of the year again!
i’m still without a camera, can you believe it?! i’d love to give the store that’s making all these problems a bunch of negative publicity, but i’ll refrain… so let’s talk about christmas gifts! in my opinion, the best choice is to make them yourself. …
Foam puzzle rugs, part III
a while back, i wrote about how i transformed a little foam alphabet puzzle into stamps and a bulletin board. the reason was that apparently that type of plastic contains substances which are hazardous to your health. i don’t know if it’s really true or …
Travel watercolors
how cool are altoids tins (you know, those “curiously strong” mints?)! as i now read the wikipedia page on altoids, i’ve found that people use those tins for loads of things. i’d seen two ideas of how to use them that i really liked: a travel …
100% upcycled pot
first of all, i’d like to thank all the italians who voted in the referendum. i’m so happy with the result! i don’t know about you, but i always need more plant pots. i feel like i’m constantly buying new ones. so i decided to …
Decorated and renewed chair
one day last summer i walked into my daughter’s room to find her and her cousin busy coloring every inch of one of her chairs (these ones from ikea that they used to sell with this) with crayons. i stood there a moment with my …
Placemats for weddings 1 and 2
last summer two of my friends got married and i decided to make each of them placemats, cloth napkins and chalkcloth coasters. i started with chiara’s. except…it was really damn hat and humid, i was pregnant and was having issues not only with low blood …
Handmade Bookmark with Portrait (Gifts by Kids)
One of the first craft books that I bought and that I’ve loved very much is Handmade Home by Amanda Blake Soule*. This book was the inspiration for my repurposed towel and bedsheet bathroom rugs. But it also inspired me to make a handmade bookmark …
December 1st…break out those advent calendars!
yesterday i took the advent calendar that i made last year out from storage and my daughter put all the gift-holding ornaments on it. we made these ornaments mostly from the plastic containers inside kinder eggs. she was thrilled to see all the eggs again …
100% recycled containers from old sheets
i had some very used and loved bedsheets (we’re talking decades of continuous use by my siblings and me) with peanuts vignettes on them which i have always loved. except that the fitted bottom sheet was very worn out in the center and was a …
Bananas become cloth pads with SHE
a friend of mine sent me a link to a very interesting bit of news: one of the winnders of the Curry Stone Design Prize 2010 was a certain Elizabeth Scharpf and her SHE (Sustainable Health Enterprises). why, what did they do? they created a …
Inserts for cloth pocket diapers
these days i make two types of cloth diapers: all-in-ones (AIO) and pocket diapers. AIOs are the easiest to use because they’re the closest thing to disposables in terms of structure and use. pocket diapers, on the other hand, are empty on the inside and …
Christmas already?!
yep, i’m already thinking about christmas. i generally start thinking about gifts around december 20th, but not this year! seeing as my munchkin should in theory make his debut december 30th, i’d rather get everything taken care of earlier for once. i knit this necklace …
Charity: giving back those “lost” days
last april i became part of a very interesting initiative, that is the donation of cloth menstrual pads to girls and women in developing countries. without any access to such products, women in these areas are forced to use tree bark and leaves and newspaper …
Vinegar and baking soda
i’ve been reading recently about ways to clean the house and do lots of other things without using cleaning products from the supermarket, full of chemical ingredients with names i can’t pronounce. my mother has always remedied a blocked sink drain with baking soda, vinegar …
banana bread
despite francesca from equazioni’s protests (she wrote “enough of these recipes that make me so hungry!”), here i am with another recipe! this time it’s a more or less healthy cake using up all those hideous old, black bananas you have hanging around. this recipe …
Summer recipe: zucchini ribbons with tomato and olives
Our family really loves eating zucchini in the summer, so I’m always looking for interesting new ways to make it. My mother made this dish for me one time that I was visiting her, so I asked her for the recipe. It turns out that …
Insalata avenale: Carrot salad with a twist
and here i am with another recipe! i go nuts for salads and the more stuff is in them, the better. i’d already written a while ago about the winter salad made with fennel and oranges, and i’ll soon be writing about summer salads, but …
