A Deeper Green

So, we’ve all made it to 2010. Yay!

I spent the last couple weeks running around like a crazy person, visiting with all of my family and all of my boyfriend’s family.  I love the holidays, but they can be pretty stressful.

In similar news, project “Make Christmas” was a resounding success. Everyone seemed to like their baked goods and I’ve only heard good things about my mix CDs. The one think I will probably change for next year is to spread out the baking. I fit all of my baking into one 24 hour period, and it was pretty crazy.  I think making Christmas is an idea that will work well for every year from now on though

Now with that recap of the year in place I would like to get to the meat of this post. I recently became aware of this great blog, Green Mama’s Pad. Some of the most recent posts are looking back on green goals for 2009 and creating new goals for 2010. As the whole point of this blog is to illustrate my journey to a greener lifestyle, I thought that maybe setting some green goals for 2010 here in this blog might be a good idea. I also encourage you, my readers, to make a green goal or two for yourself this year or to put a link in the comments about green goals you’ve made and worked for in the past.

So without further ado, my green goals for 2010:

~ Shop the farmer’s market, co-op and organic delivery first. I’ve been doing pretty well with this lately, but want to make more of an effort.

~ In line with that, try to phase out some of the prepackaged frozen foods that me and my boyfriend rely on so much for lunches and quick meals. We love those Amy’s frozen burritos; why not make more of our own!

~ Do better at food preservation. Freezing was fine for last year, but this year I am canning, no excuses.

~ To expand my small and successful container gardening operation to include actual vegetables, not just herbs and flowers. (I’m thinking peppers and tomatoes!)

~ And lastly, to do a better job documenting my efforts here. Last year was my best year yet with this blog and I want to keep pushing upward!

Share your green goals with me in the comments! I’d love to know what others are interested in and maybe even try to help

So as it is December I know many of us are starting to get into crazy gifting mode. I previously did a green gifting post, but decided that I wanted to do something a little different this year. I won’t be buying much in the way of gifts as I really don’t have the income to afford gifts for all my many many family members.

But I will still be giving presents and I thought I would share some of my thought processes with you, my lovedly readers. These thought processes are not to give you a “guide” to anything, but are an effort to encourage you to think outside the box when it comes to green holiday-ing and gift-giving.

Since the holidays can always be a little overwhelming for me on the money front, and I really can’t foresee not giving gifts to the special people in my life (especially when they are always going to give me nice gifts) I spent a lot of time this fall thinking of alternatives.

In my gift giving in general I have tried to move away from stuff based gifts to a more experience based gift giving philosophy. It’s worked pretty well, and honestly its made gift giving easier for those few people in my life who seem to already have everything. But the problem with experiences as gifts is that they tend to add up in price. Which is something I can’t really handle financially this year.

So, after spending a lot of time thinking about my best solution, I decided that I should move to a more “create-a-gift” approach for this year. Lately, I’ve been flexing my baking skills (made a pumpkin and apple pie from scratch for thanksgiving this year with stuff from the farmers market!). And I always like a good excuse to be crafty. So with those powers combined I think I’ve managed to come up with some really good gift ideas.

I will be baking mini breads and cookies. I’ve also concieved of an idea to make scented and colored bath salts (Epsom salts and essential oils, combined!). I will be making mix CDs and using old wrapping paper and cards to decorate. I’m using my creativity to put together the best gifts for everyone that I possibly can.

Will I still buy a few things? Yes, of course. I plan on buying baskets and probably a few crafty materials. The farmer’s market also has some great local honey and bee wax items that will flesh out my gifts nicely. But despite these purchases, I am feeling really good about the thoughtfulness, environmentally friendliness  and tastiness of my holiday gifts.

What kind of gifts might you be able to give that reflect your personalities and views while still being exciting to your… um… giftees (?)? What changes can you make in your holiday routine that will help you to be a greener and happier person this holiday season?

I know that if I came up with some ideas you can too. So think about it, and feel free to share your ideas here.

Also, in the green community there was a nifty push last week to celebrate Buy Nothing Day as a counterpoint to “Black Friday”. This fits nicely in with this post, so I gathered together a couple posts I saw about “Buy nothing day” for you to read at your leisure:

Boycott Black Friday and celebrate Buy Nothing Day, via Twilight Earth

Thanksgiving, Buy Nothing Day & my travel mug, via fakeplasticfish

Have a great day

I just found out today that my local farmers market (the Logan Square Farmer’s Market) will be going on all winter long!

For those of you who remember my post about preserving local harvests, you know that I was a little bummed about the end of farmer’s market season, but now with this great news I can’t wait for next Sunday.

It is actually really interesting, because the market will actually be meeting in a theater that is much closer to my apartment that the outdoor market, making it even easier for me to go and share in the local bounty.

Hopefully the next time I go I will be able to take and share some great pictures with you guys!

Until then, have a great day.