Library book-Jamie at Home

For many things that went wrong in this country (like health care system and etc), one thing that the US got it right is public library system. You can almost always find great selections of books in any city's public library. Librarians are always very helpful and if you can not find the book you need, you can request them to buy or borrow from other libraries.

Bravo to this! I love reading. My father is a book collector and force me and my sisters to love reading. (Thanks Dad!) My father probably spends countless of dollars on books. This is great for us. My country is doing a poor job on public library system. It is really non existent. I dont recall visiting one when we grew up. (I have no idea where they are, if they do exist--how terrible!) Good thing we have library at home (from my dad's collections).

Anyhow, I dont have to do that for Erin. Public library here is FREE!!!!. I dont have to spend a lot of money on books. We just have to visit the library. I think this is considered great for environment. We can all share great books without everyone has to keep buying books and killing more trees unnecessary.

My New Year's resolution is to read more books. I have been lagging since Erin was born. (Too busy with baby, no time sitting down and read) Since she is a little bigger now, she starts reading to herself (rather than mummy reading to her) I can sit next to her in bed and read my book while she reads hers out loud.

Ok, back to the recommended book - Jamie Oliver at home. It is quite an interesting cookbook.

He talked about how we should grow our own vegetables for cooking. One very interesting point is that how he campaigns readers to stop buying "factory" eggs. (Non -organic eggs) I've never thought about this. He shows how the hens are cooped up in cage, never let to walk and never seen Sun's light, forcing to produce eggs. It is basically a sweatshop for chickens. He made the point that if we stop buying factory eggs, farmers will turn to raise more organic eggs instead. (Reduce demand on factory eggs, increase demand on organic eggs- Law of demand and supply)

Very fun and easy to read, I am half way through and I love this book :)

Dish Towel at work

My work provides plastic utensils, cups and etc in the kitchen. when i bring lunch to work, I try to use my own set of eating utensils ,wash and reuse them. (In stead of using disposable ones)

I used to use paper kitchen towel to dry it. In an effort to help company reducing cost (not to have to keep reordering paper towel) and being green, I brought my own dish towel from home.

I sew the ribbon (got it from Gap Kid shopping bag) with the towel to hang it dry. (I didn't really do a good job on this- Need to acquire sewing skill :))

Condiment jar and peanut can transformed

I cook with lots of Asian ingredients that come in glass jars. I feel quite wasteful to toss the nice containers away. I reuse them for pencil holders. These two are Erin's pencil holder and paint brush holder. I used picture from Erin's B-day card and Pottery Barn catalog.

Oh my juice!

My mum has been telling me about the benefit of juicing but I have never bothered to try it.

Until recently, my aunt visited me here in the US. She saw that I have an orange tree full of oranges. She recommended me to juicing instead of buying juices from the grocery store.

I agree to this. I love drinking orange juice but orange juice from the store here is full with added sugar. I tried using the frozen one and diluted it with lot of water to cut down some sugar.

I used to think that juicing machine costs a fortune (seeing from ads in TV that costs like $100)

It turned out that I could get one for $30 at Wal-Mart. My aunt went and helped me pick one up.

I have been juicing ever since and loving it. My favorite recipe is carrot apple ginger juice. I found out that I can use any vegetables and fruits in juicing. I love fresh great taste without any added sugar!

I read from one of Thai blog

that I can use the fiber from carot to make scramble egg. So here I try it with the help of my DD. (she will be eating this for her lunch tomorrow)

Close-up for Green Wrapping

Green Wrapping

Got this idea from Danny Seo,Simple Green Living book.

Materials:

* Potato Chip bags. (Crisp for British people)

* Grocery paper bag
* Gretting cards. (I used Erin's b-day cards)

Ta--da--- Nice looking X'mas wrapping. Feeling great about not buying and ending up throwing away gift wrapping papers on X'mas day.

It was fun working on this project with my kid too.

Cheap and Cheery Green Living

I create this blog to share how you can live cheap and cheery green life style...
I came from Thailand where people make do with what they have. (and you will be amazed how creative they are.-- I will blog about this later)

When my mother visited me in the US, she was very irritated that people keep using disposable containers. (everyting from paper/plastic cups, plastic utensils, food packagings and etc.)
she said that you know how much does it cost to produce all these plastics and papers. What a waste!

When I grew up, I used to be embarrased by her stinginess. Later on in life, when I become more aware of the environmental issues, I start to think that her stinginess actually could save the world. If we all are willing to change our habbits and start living a green life style!