Clothesline update...as promised

We had a HUGE storm after Shinerman fixed the clothesline and one pole ended up a few feet away, but nothing broke and the line itself actually stayed connected. I'm just glad that there weren't any clothes on it! He fixed it again and it's been serving us well since then. We haven't used the dryer since May! So, I think we're doing very well for this year's Clothesline Challenge.

I left you hanging a bit on the Green Party Plans, though, didn't I? It was great, a little less green than I would prefer, but not too bad.

We did do paper napkins, with a pirate theme, of course. Unfortunately, we had a whole package left over - I hate that! I guess they'll be used at a later date though. For the plates I used Chinet. They are 100% recycled material, not post-consumer material, but better than the competition. And they can be composted at home - double nice! The tablecloths were these really cute striped indoor/outdoor fabric that I think will really get used - I bought them at Target.

The Man asked for chocolate cupcakes for his class party. I'll have to find the recipe to post - they were apparently the BEST CUPCAKES EVER. The frosting was for sure, I just used the recipe for cream cheese frosting in my Joy of Cooking book. I finally had to pour water in the food processor because I kept putting my fingers in there to taste the leftovers! Step away from the frosting, mmmmm... I used the same recipe for his party cake, just used a cake pan. I found some India Tree sprinkles and food coloring at Whole Foods. The colors weren't as bold; I couldn't get the water to look blue for the life of me, so lavender it was - I think I was the only who noticed. Even then, I love that they are all natural and will use them from now on.

No change in the favor bags, except I did get some organic lollipops from Yummy Earth to put in there. I used small paper tote bags (yeah to no plastic!!) and we put stickers on them.

So like I said a little less green than I would prefer, but not too bad...

Earth Day

So, what did YOU do to celebrate Earth Day? I took the day off… really. I took the littlest man to the Dallas Arboretum for Tiny Tot Tuesday. They have crafts and face painting, music and games. We had a great time. I really enjoyed spending time with him just having fun, and what better day to be out in nature than today? Although, I must say for such a green space it's not a very 'green' place. No recycling anywhere! So, we just kept our water bottles and recycled them at home. No I didn't plan enough in advance to be able to actually take our own good-for-you food – oh well, maybe next year.

On another note: How many paper towels do you use in a day? Before we made the switch to dish towels, we easily used 10. We now use ZERO and haven't bought any in a couple of months. Shinerman isn't completely on the bandwagon for this, but he doesn't do the shopping so he's kind of at my mercy whaahaahaa… I've got a friend working on some napkins so we'll start using those instead of the dish towel. That should make him feel better.

For those of you still using paper towels, here is an article you should read. It's a product test of different eco-friendly paper towels.

I'll save you the suspense…365 Everyday Value (from Whole Foods and cheaper than Bounty) and Seventh Generation Natural (you can get this almost anywhere) won the day.

So, maybe the thing you can do today is use more earth-friendly towels? Here's to you if you make that choice!!