Eco-Cupscious » Household

Welcome To Norwex!

Cups — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 20:47:55 +0000

I’m so excited to tell you all about Norwex! I am in LOVE with their cleaning products – I seriously want to clean all the time! I’m always in search of the best eco-friendly cleaning products and I’ve finally found them! The best part is that their antibacteria microfiber cloths clean with just water! NO chemicals! Crazy but so true!

Descaler

The tiny fibers in the cloth grab all the bacteria on a surface and what isn’t washed away during rinsing, is killed within 24 hours by the tiny bits of silver imbedded in the cloth! The make-up remover cloths even take my mascara off with just water! The kitchen cloths are insanely soft and absorbent – you’ll be amazed! But there are so many other fantastic products to try - I’m loving the descaler for the glass doors on my shower – they make cleaning them a breeze!

Make-up remover cloths

Click on the logo above to find out more and do some shopping – contact me if you have any questions or you want to host a party (you get free stuff) in the Chicago area. Additionally, I have a Norwex page link at the top of this page – it’ll always be at the top of EcoCupscious so you can access it anytime

Antibac Cloth

Winston Wednesday: Autumn Decor

Cups — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 23:19:06 +0000

Winston and I had so much fun decorating the outside

Honeymoon in Greece Canvas Art

Cups — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 19:45:00 +0000

For our wedding gift from my parents we received an amazing camera but they mentioned they were debating between that and a huge print for our entryway/living room wall and if we’d rather have that we could return the camera. That sparked an idea that we would keep the camera, take an awesome photo while on our honeymoon and then then have it put on a canvas and have that be our gift from Eric’s brother who was waiting for us to come up with something special we wanted from him. So, a year later we finally cashed in on that gift and it looks beautiful. We’re so so happy with how it turned out. We took the photo in Mykonos and one of Eric’s co-workers changed it to black and white and isolated the colors on the buildings. After a lot of research I found www.CanvasPrinters.com to do the rest of the work. Paul at Canvas Printers was great to work with. He helped with the finishing touches – cropping and a few more color adjustments. The finished product is beyond what we expected. One of the great things about working with Paul is working with Paul – instead of uploading a photo to a website and not being able to talk to a person! It’s great, we emailed him the photo and talked to him via phone and email to get it perfected. His prices are also VERY reasonable and well worth every penny for the quality. It makes us so happy to pass by this canvas – great memories and a beautiful addition to our home

Earth’s Berries

Cups — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:00:05 +0000

$43 - includes shipping and lasts 350 loads - big savings from jugs of detergent!

I’ve been a HUGE fan of my Green Wash Ball for the past couple of years but I think I’ve found something new to try when my GWB retires in April after 3 years of use. The GWB is fabulous and is just a very small amount of plastic in comparison to the many, many plastic bottles of detergent I’ve avoided purchasing over the years but Earth’s Berries are plant matter that when finished with can be composted! These little berries do the washing for a year – 350 loads. They are grown naturally organic in the Himalayas and are harvested in a small Indian village giving employment to 130 people. They’re not quite as simple as tossing the GWB in the washer and walking away. For hot washes yes, you toss them in but for cold washes (which is normally what I do) you have to soak them in hot water for a few minutes and then put them in, along with the water from soaking. A few more steps involved but well worth it. Read more about them – they really do sound fantastic!

Greening Your House with eBay!

Cups — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:57:42 +0000

eBay has been a fabulous way for me to green my home lately. I’ve always been big on donating things that I no longer want (I really don’t throw anything out) but there are those items that were on the pricier side and thus I hate to part with them – even if I haven’t used them or worn them in years! So silly I know. However, now that I’ve rediscovered eBay I’m cleaning out closets like crazy! I’ve sold clothing, sunglasses, books, and more. For some reason I’m totally ok parting with those Coach sunglasses that my husband hates and I haven’t worn in 2 years as long as I get money for them – otherwise I just wasn’t willing to part with them. Getting rid of the clutter feels great – I love the feeling when I free up more space in my closet. Yes, this could mean more room to buy more stuff, but for now I’m enjoying that light feeling. Another great thing is that I’m selling some designer goods at prices that allow someone who wouldn’t be able to afford to purchase them new, to get them slightly used but in great condition for a great price. It’s great to know that my items will be re-used when someone opts against purchasing something new from the store and shops on eBay instead.

Consider doing a bit of mid-summer cleaning yourself – you’ll find eBay is rather addicting – it’s so fun to watch the bidding wars on your stuff!

Lavender Dryer Packets

Cups — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 13:00:35 +0000

sorry for the bad blackberry photo - I was too lazy to pull out the good camera

Over the weekend I was organizing my sewing stuff and came up with this idea. I had some bits of fabric left from the napkins I made for my parents for Christmas and had gotten two bunches of dried lavender as a wedding shower gifts so I made some lavender dryer packets. I’ve used them already and they made everything in the dryer smell wonderful! What an easy thing to make and a great way to use fabric destined for the trash and to avoid using dryer sheets!

They were very easy to make. I cut a strip of fabric, folded it in half and sewed together both sides. I turned it inside out and filled it with lavender then rolled the open edge in to put the frayed ends inside and then ran the top of it through the machine – I could have hand sewn the top to avoid seeing a hem but it didn’t really matter to me since they’re bound for the dryer.

Things You Didn’t Know You Could Recycle

Cups — Tue, 31 May 2011 13:00:58 +0000

Care2 posted 8 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Recycle – four of which were new to me…

1. Wine Corks

2. Books, DVDs, and CDs

3. Shoes

4. Foam Packing Peanuts

5. Carpet

6. Holiday Lights

7. Bras

8. Prescription Medication

Check out their post to find out exactly how and where to recycle these items…

Wool Dryer Balls

Cups — Wed, 25 May 2011 13:00:12 +0000

I just came across these in Whole Living Magazine. These wool dryer balls are made from recycled sweaters and will help to cut drying time and keep your laundry soft and fluffy. I currently have plastic/rubber dryer balls but these are awesome! I normally wouldn’t buy wool but since they’re made out of old sweaters that would otherwise be tossed I wouldn’t feel so bad purchasing them. I love the various patterns and colors – they add some fun to an otherwise boring job of laundry. Check them out at Ela’s Idea on Etsy.

ReUseIt Coupon Code

Cups — Tue, 24 May 2011 14:50:30 +0000

ReUseIt.com is a great resource for reusable bags, food containers, water bottles – basically they have loads of great things to make your life more eco-friendly. I’ve gotten some great things from them over time and now they gave me this coupon code to share with you – use it for $5 off a purchase of $50 or more: rca7z3l

The Flip & Tumble from them is definitely one of my favs…

Bedroom Updating

Cups — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:32:37 +0000

Eric and I did a bit of decorating in our bedroom recently. I’ve been wanting to make a headboard for quite some time so we finally made the time to do it. I’m very pleased with the results!

It was pretty simple to make - we used this tutorial from HOUSEographyas an inspiration. We used a piece of peg board since it’s light, around the edges Eric glued a trim of something a bit heftier to stabilize it, he cut out notches to allow for the chair rail we have on the wall, I covered it in thick cotton batting and then my beautiful fabric with a heavy duty stapler and then Eric hung it on the wall behind our bed! So easy! It makes a huge difference and looks lovely with our organic cotton bed set from West Elm.

We also finally got around to putting something on our bedroom walls! We used scenery photos from our wedding and honeymoon…

(I even made the brown and blue curtains you can kind of see around the window behind the TV!)