Happy Weekend.

Flickr photo by Tobi Firestone

Hello Lovelies :)

Although the temperatures have been in the teens this week, the sun has been shining bright. Isn't it crazy what a difference a little sunshine can make in your day? Our friends are coming up from Illinois this weekend, so we're excited to spend some time with them. Other than that and a possible card game with the in-laws, we have zero plans.

What are you up to this weekend?

Here are some interesting links from around the web, if you're interested;

Wickedly mind-bending optical illusion paintings.

Dogs who prefer to sit on other dogs.

Chocolate-coconut ice cream recipe. {vegan}

USA Today - 10 Best Costal Small Towns. Vote Saugatuck!

Homemade honey bubble bath.

Early blooming, fresh spring flowers for the garden.

Yay for elephants. :)

30-day home organization challenge (I will be (trying) to try this)

Plus, 4 "health kicks" you should kick, based on science.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Silly Poems

We did a major spring cleaning a couple weekends ago.

I'm talking we filled the entire bed of the pickup with huge boxes full of recycling and garbage, plus we have several bags to go to Goodwill. We emptied the attic and organized everything into totes that we moved to the basement.

It felt so good to purge everything. When I moved in, we kind of just threw all of my stuff upstairs and, since upstairs is out of the way, things just kept accumulating and piling up in the most unorganized of ways. (That's normal, right?) I have pictures and I'm not showing them because I'm too embarrased. 

I'm so stinking excited because when spring finally rolls around (March 20th at exactly 6:45PM if you care to know) we won't have to spend it cleaning inside, we can get right to work on outdoor projects!

Back to the headline of this post. When I opened one of my totes, this book was laying on top...

Find Your Birthday Song



Flickr Photo by Paige K. Parsons

There is a totally awesome site that allows you to search for the #1 song on the day you were born.

At least, I thought it was totally awesome until I found out that my song was Phil Collins 'Groovy Kind of Love'. (please...a moment of silence because Phil killed my rockstar vibe) 

So I couldn't stop there, here are a few more;

• Day the 1st Harry Potter book was released: I'll Be Missing You by Puff Daddy
• 1st Day of the New Millenium: Smooth by Santana 
• Day I got my Driver's License: My Boo by Usher and Alicia Keys
• High School Graduation: Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin') by T-Pain 
• My 21st Birthday:  Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) by Beyonce

If you check it out, I want to hear what your birthday song is. Leave it in the comments below :) I'll be crossing my fingers that it's better than mine! 

Environmentally Friendly Kitchen Compost Bags

Time for another com'post'. 

Get it... com 'post', because it's a blog post. And it's about compost....com 'post' ing. HA. Good thing I think I'm so funny :) 

Alright, onward to the topic. 

So we've been on this composting kick at our house. We had a plan for outside, but bringing the composting inside was a whole different topic. 

Part of the point of us composting is to reduce garbage in the form of food scraps. That means we need to either purchase or make a small indoor compost bin that's attractive enough to sit on the kitchen counter, or small enough to move from the counter to under the sink. Inside would go all of our potato peels, chopped carrot ends, banana peels..etc. That was the easy part.

The harder part was deciding what kind of bags to use. Do we purchase small garbage bags? Or maybe even use the old plastic grocery bags that we save after shopping?

What if we just leave it empty of a bag and throw the scraps directly into the bin? In that scenario, the scraps would sit in the bin for a couple of days because, let's be honest, who has time to empty it every day? So day three of your food scraps melding together in the kitchen bin rolls around and you finally decide to take it outside to your compost tumbler. When you empty the small container, you notice it's gotten nasty in there. 

Now what? Now you have to scrub out the gunk, clean it with hot soapy water, then let it dry before you're able to use it again.

That program wasn't appealing to me and my poor husband would probably be the one left cleaning the bin every couple of days.

So I started researching compostable bags. I wanted to find something that would biodegrade fast, and also that wouldn't harm our compost pile by containing any toxins. After quite a bit of research, this is what I came up with;

       
Below are some of the reasons that I chose to go with BioBag.

1. They are 100% biodegradable & 100% compostable. 
2. Made from non-GMO starches, vegetable oils and cellulose. 
3. The majority of the bags are made in the USA. One of their main production plants is located in California.  
4. High Water Vapor Transmission Rate (WVTR), which means, in Allison terms, less mold, fungus and stink because the bag can breathe.
5. USDA Certified biobased product. 
6. ASTM D6400 Certified, meaning it passed the test for it's ability to decompose in ideal composting conditions. Also, that the product will not have adverse impacts on the ability of the compost to support plant growth, which is a very important factor here. 

The bags will completely disintegrate in the compost pile without releasing any toxins, and the decomposed matter that's left in the compost will not hinder any plant growth, which is very important to us because we'll be using it for our vegetable garden.

The size is also perfect, they're 3 gallon bags, which just right for a small container that can be moved from under the sink onto the counter when it's being used.

They don't just manufacture kitchen compost bags, here are just a few of the other products they offer;

• Pet Waste Bags - perfect for taking to the dog parks or on walks around the city.
• Lawn, Leaf & Garden Waste Bags - to bag up your clippings for the compost pile. 
• Sandwich Bags
• Kitchen Cling Wrap - like the other products, made with zero plasticizers.
• Produce Bags - great for bagging produce at the farmer's market. 

                                        


As always, I purchased mine through Amazon. In addition to doing my own research, I love being able to see the reviews from real people before I make the purchase. Because all products are compostable, they need to be stored in a cool, dry area and used within one year.

Have you tried these before? If not, what do you use for your compostable bags?

*PS.
In case you missed it, check here for a 'how-to' on composting and check out our DIY compost bin.

Wedding Week: Extended Cut

Thank you for letting my share our wedding with you :) I hope you enjoyed this past week's posts, and thank you for all of your sweet and funny comments. It was fun to be able to go back and write everything down and sort of re-live it all, this time in a little bit slower motion.  Here is a picture overload, in case you missed anything...