2009: What’s New for You?

Happy New Year, everybody, and I hope Santa was good to you! We’ve been goofing off since First Christmas, which landed on the weekend before Actual Christmas this year. Up to that point, our schedules were a little hectic and, in typical me-fashion, my schedule has fallen behind. If I haven’t yet, I promise I’ll catch up with you.

I spent the last month of 2008 seeking a niche, some place to “belong”, and quite frankly, I still haven’t a clue. Reading Kim’s post from Christmas Eve was truly heart-warming … and inspiring. This is it, I thought afterwards, this is how I feel about my planet. I know I’m WAY too lazy to become fanatical about environmentalism, but through deeper introspection, I realize there’s a need to work today — now — towards a future that inevitably won’t include me. It’s my One True Legacy™. The rest is just clutter someone else will have to sort through once I’m gone.

So again this year, I renew and deepen my commitment to both frugality and the impact I have on my environment. I challenge everyone to do the same. Choose thought over impulse; respect and conservation over indulgence; enlightenment, experience, and wisdom over instant gratification. Share your experience and wisdom. Freely.

My Short List of Expectations for 2009:

• Learn how to compost.
• Limit the amount of magazines (and other media) I purchase to those I know will still be useful to me 2 or 3 years from now.
• Spend more time at the library.
• Spend even more time outside.
• Continue learning how to keep a garden well and living.
• Support my local farmer’s market, farms, and hand-crafting community.
• Beautify my space with a focus on green alternatives and sustainability.
• Indulge in Oreos at least 4 times a year!
• Seek out and replace art & craft supplies with as many eco-friendly alternatives as possible.
• Find more thrift and second-hand stores to haunt (woot — shopping!).
• *sigh* Yeah, okay … spend less money.

I’m open to thoughts, ideas, and other suggestions.

It seems that Kate over at Living the Frugal Life and I read the same article recently, or she found a back door into my head. I’ve been thinking our next step here should be insulating the water pipes in the basement. Most of them are exposed and accessible via the laundry room, which resides in an unfinished state. I wasn’t sure whether or not insulating them would make much of a difference, but it takes a long time and a lot of water to get hot water upstairs to either the kitchen sink or dishwasher, and the shower. The basement, not being insulated, is consistently at least 7 – 10 degrees colder, and the laundry room even more so being northern-facing and a brick wall. I asked the engineer of the house and he seems to think it will help. It certainly can’t hurt, right?

On the subject of CFL bulbs, I was browsing online today because I bought an odd-sized pack of Sylvania CFLs from Lowe’s last month and had to take them back because they wouldn’t screw into the ceiling fans in my studio. I was concerned that the ballast configuration had changed and that none of the 75 – 100 watt equivalents would work (because the 13w/60w do still fit), but it appears I bought Super Mini Twists instead of Mini Twists (noteworthy only if you own ceiling fans, too). In my perusal, however, I stumbled across the Environmental Working Group’s Guide to Green Lighting which offers tips about Energy Star rating, who produces the bulbs with the lowest mercury content, disposal for broken bulbs (mercury is a health hazard), and where one should (or shouldn’t) use CFLs. On the same site, ewg.org also offers a 1-page printout, handy for those of you, like me, who suffer from CRS.

The color temperature of CFLs is determined by the amount of Kelvins. As far as I can tell, it breaks down this way (feel free to correct me): Daylight = 2700k and will give you a warm, yellow light; soft white = 3000k and seems the most incandescence-y to me; bright white = 5000k is stark and rather blue (like office lighting). Packaging isn’t always clear, but the kelvins should be printed on the ballast of the bulb. Just look for the number (in the thousands) followed by a trailing “k”.

Next time on Everwild: Art and the Sustainable: Elephant Poop Paper! Oh yeah.

Happy crafting!