IKEA Stainless Tumbler!

I was so excited about those stainless cups I found, for what seemed to me a reasonable price, and then look what I stumbled upon at IKEA today? A stainless steel cup for only $1.99! Its called a SEMVIK tumbler. The trick is, it isn't located with the other dishes. Its part of the bathroom collection, so you have to look by all of the other bathroom accessories. Hope this is helpful to someone and you can get an even better deal than I did.

BPA-free Kid Cups!

So, I just ordered these cups yesterday. I've been trying to gradually get rid of as much plastic from my home as possible (If you want to know why, one of the reasons is BPA. For info on this toxin click here) but with a bunch of young kids having only glass and ceramic is exasperating at times! When we were in India several years ago all the dishes were stainless steel but I've had a hard time finding them in the states. A year or two ago I found a bunch of stainless steel bowls at the dollar store (they are actually pet bowls LOL!) and bought 12 of them but the only cups I've found were really expensive restaurant/bar shakers that weren't a good size for kids. I was so excited to find these. I ordered 12. I must confess my other motivation; in our new kitchen there is a lot of open shelving. Stainless will look a lot better than plastic! If you are looking for other stainless options for sippy cups, water bottles, etc. here are a few good links- The Safe Sippy, Soft Landing, and Klean Kanteen.

The Green Building Center

So, for anyone in Utah looking for green building ideas you've got to go to The Green Building Center in Salt Lake. I love going there just to see the quality craftsmanship of the products and the staff are quite knowledgeable and friendly. They also have a great selection of books that aren't typically available at local bookstores or libraries. So far for our house, I've bought some American Pride no VOC paint, some soy gel paint stripper (that I've not used yet as I'm pregnant and while its less toxic than the typical stuff it still says it causes reproductive harm. If anyone knows of a truly non-toxic stripping method that works PLEASE let me know! They have an infrared stripping machine. Anyone ever tried that?), some dark tung oil and citrus solvent that I've used on a cutting board and plan to use on refinishing an antique table (once I get it stripped!), as well as some OSMO Polyx-oil that we used as a finish on our reclaimed oak floor. They also sell green fiber cellulose insulation. We've used a ton of this but, I have to admit, we got ours from Home Depot. It was cheaper and they let us use the blower for free. Be sure to check out this great resource if you are in Utah. Coming soon...info on our geothermal heat pump and my adventures installing a greener kitchen from scratch.

Our Latest Adventure

So, I just started a different blog yesterday to keep my friends and family updated and realized that much of what we are trying to do will have an appeal to a much wider audience (and, in fact not be of much interest to many of our friends and family). Just within the last 2 weeks we finally moved into our new home in rural Utah, affectionately called the little red cabin. It is an upgrade/downgrade for us. It will be a little smaller than the house we sold last year and quite a bit less expensive but has a lot more land (almost 2 1/2 acres), which is something I've been wanting for several years. This blog will track our adventures as we attempt to finish our home, create our own little homestead, and just live, all as sustainably and toxin-free as we can. I hope this blog will eventually have a large audience and hopefully help others avoid some of our mistakes and learn from our successes along the way.