I wasn’t always such an ardent fan—but motherhood helped me discover that the thrill of the thrift-shop hunt.
My first venture into buying secondhand duds for myself involved maternity clothes.  After all, it’s not worth investing hundreds of dollars in a wardrobe that lasts just a few months.  Then I thrift-shopped for a transition wardrobe while [...]

First, take a square piece of paper and fold it in half. I usually just start cutting out the spider freehand, but if you prefer, draw the spider on the paper first, like this:

Then cut out everything surrounding the spider’s body and legs, leaving a border around the edge.

Open it up and there you have [...]

I am an addict.  My blood pressure rises ever so slightly when I walk through the doors of my favorite second-hand shop and get ready to hunt for treasures.
It wasn’t always like this.  When I began my adventures in thrift store shopping there was hesitation. I thought most things were scuffed up, stained and shrunken [...]

In the summer we like to obsess about hanging laundry in the sunshine, in the winter we brainstorm ways to save on heating bills and conserve those fossil fuels. Well, what should we obsess about this fall? I’m going to figure out how to compost the leaves I rake up and prepare my garden beds [...]

As I mentioned in this post, we had a few pangs of eco-guilt about using our wood fireplace.  Wood not only emits more pollutants into the air than other fuels, it doesn’t even do a good job of keeping our house warm during the cold winter months.  We started looking into a fireplace insert that [...]

Who needs a nursery?  We thought we didn’t. We moved the changing table and dresser into our bedroom, co-slept for the first few months, and stubbornly held onto our idea of having an office in our home.
It worked for awhile, but we reached a point of frantic sleep deprivation when our baby girl reached four [...]

 Step 1: Fold a piece of orange paper in half. Draw half of a pumpkin on the paper if you don’t want to cut it out freehand.

Step 2: Cut out the pumpkin, the mouth, and the nose.

Step 3: Fold the pumpkin in half again for the eye. Draw on half of a triangle and cut [...]

When we fill out those long registry lists and stockpile our homes with newborn garments, our thoughts often fall along the lines of “I want the best for my baby.”  After all, how could you scrimp on your infant?
The funny thing about babies, however, is that the monetary value we assign to things is totally [...]

Last year we had some DIY Halloween costume ideas. For Audrey’s first Halloween, I dressed her in $2 pajamas and a homemade hat and called her a pumpkin. My sister-in-law carved holes in the side of an actual pumpkin and plopped her baby inside. (Now there’s a Halloween costume that’s actual compostable!) What are your [...]

When our new house came with a wood-burning fireplace, I envisioned us cozying up in front of the fire reading books to our delightful young daughter.  Of course, in the back of my mind I knew that wood fires cause more air pollution than other types of fuel.  They also lower the air quality in [...]