Nature Can at Craft:

I just realized my Nature Can tutorial was posted on the Craft: blog earlier this month as part of their lead-in to Earth Day. This was the project I was eagerly awaiting to appear in print before the magazine ceased publication. It was scheduled for the next issue. Not quite the same having it online (versus in print compensated with a paycheck!), but here you go:

This is the new online tutorial.
This is the rest of their Crafting with Nature round up (which included the Nature Can).
This is my original Nature Can blog post (April 2008).

Hope your weather is warm enough to start collecting!

Cereal box globes for Earth Day

I didn't plan well enough ahead of time to do anything particularly special for this year's Earth Day, but I figure a little recycling project and a reminder on taking care of God's Earth is good for us. Luckily, caring for our home is something we can practice every day. If you're looking for some tips on "going green," as we tend to call it these days, this article at Simple Mom may be a good place to start.
The instructions for these globes can be found here at Martha Stewart. Great for old greeting/holiday cards.
Happy Earth Day! If you feel like sharing how you celebrated today, I'd love to hear about it and be inspired. Thanks!

Earth Day

The Lorax is such a great book for teaching your children about caring for the Earth, I can't believe I didn't think of it today (yes, I can, what am I talking about??) I was reminded of it when I found this new earth-friendly edition and this related website full of earth-friendly activities. (Adding this to my book wishlist).

I'm really not on-the-ball when it comes to finding activities/events for our family to attend and missed a slew of great Earth Day happenings, but we did participate in one meaningful activity today with our playgroup friends. One of my girlfriends brought Target reuseable shopping bags (by Green Bag) for each of the kids in our group. After a brief Earth Day themed story/discussion time, we sent them shopping in the pretend grocery store where they collected pretend food items (used, empty boxes) and real food items (their portioned snacks for the afternoon). They practiced emptying their bags on the counter, paying the 3-year old cashier's dictated amount ($5.05, repeatedly) and filling them again to take outdoors for our picnic.
Now to tackle that old item on my to-do list: make more reusable shopping bags for myself.