Tag: green living

{in the garden} april 23rd

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with our mild spring and winter we got an early start to our garden.

and, when i say “we”, i really mean ryan.

ryan is in charge of our veggie garden, and he started planting in early march!

he added our backyard compost that has been “cooking” for a year.

the strawberries are already coming up and flowering. they are always fun for the kids (and us) to pick.

he planted three more blueberry bushes, so we now have a total of six.

he planted a second artichoke plant…maybe this year we will actually get an artichoke!

he planted greens, which we have already started to harvest and eat.

the tomatoes are in the ground and are already starting to flower.

he also planted asparagus, potatoes, and italian oregano.

and, he planted hops.

yes. hops.

maybe he’ll be brewing his own beer soon, too.

{and, he calls ME the hippie.}

we still need to plant our basil, maybe a few peppers, some cucumber, and carrots.

we always go organic for fertilizer and pest control.

this year will be no different, but  i am hoping to integrate essential oils into the pest control.

i promise a photo tour by the end of the month…we’ve got another project going on that is taking a lot of my time…stay tuned!

are you interested in learning more about young living essential oils?

click here

To join:

  • go to the member sign up page
  • select wholesale member (not retail customer)
  • enter my member number in the sponsor and enrolled ID if it is not already there: 2365060
  • create your account, enter your personal information
  • select your starter kit (the premium starter kit, $150, is the best option)
  • welcome to the world of essential oils…it’s awesome.

YL_ID_2014_logo_fullcolor with member number

 

home is…in the garden 2015.

*i am not a medical professional, and cannot treat, cure or diagnose you. always consult a doctor first. more than likely your doctor will not be trained in essential oils and will not know all the facts about them, so do your own research first. we are our own advocate.

 

why i pin a pillowcase up on the wall

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in november we finally got around to painting our bedroom.

a long overdue home project.

we painted it the same white that we have been using throughout our home. it all started when i got the crazy itch to paint the walls in our kitchen, that then turned into the cabinets, that then turned into the hall, that then turned into the entry, playroom, and upstairs hall.

each time i painted, i also got crazy hives on my hands…a reaction i have had all my life when my body doesn’t get along with something well.

painful welts that itched and burned…on the palms of my hands, between my fingers and up and down my fingers! it hurt to do anything with my hands, and nothing would help except to not paint again.

i wore gloves, and i would still get hives.

needless to say, i wanted to get the bedroom painted as quickly as possible and be done with the paint.

once the room was done, we also got rid of our bulky headboard. so, our bed was (and is now) pushed up against the freshly painted wall.

well, all of my hives eventually settled down except for the pinky finger on my left hand and the ring and pinky finger on my right hand.

i thought it was bug bites.

i thought my skin was just dry from the cold dry december we were having.

i tried benadryl.

i tried steroid cream.

i tried antibiotic cream.

i tried extra moisturizer.

nothing worked.

this all started in november and lasted until sometime in january when i finally figured out.

one saturday morning my hands were hurting and i took some benadryl and went back up to bed.

i’m a stomach sleeper and put my arm under my pillow. when i did this, my hand touched the freshly painted wall.

my left pinky rubbed against the wall when i faced right and my right pinky and ring finger rubbed against the wall when i faced left.

exactly where my hives were.

the paint.

even the DRY paint was giving me the same hives that i got each time i painted a new room in our home.

the thing is, when we first moved into this house i made sure to use low-voc or no-voc paint. i cared about what we were breathing in…i didn’t want our babies breathing in toxic fumes.

8 years later, i just wanted to slap up paint that would stick…and be easy. so, i chose a paint with the primer…talk about lots of chemicals. {i’m not going to get into which paint, because i don’t even know WHAT chemical i react to}

it’s no wonder that my hands were reacting WHEN i was painting, but when i realized that it was still causing a reaction, just from contact, when it was DRY.

wow.

and, what about all the off-gasing that has been happening in our home for the last two years?!

ugh.

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so, now i pin a pillowcase up on the wall until we figure out our headboard situation.

the timing worked out great, and my young living premium starter kit showed up at the end of december. i have been diving into all of the uses for them…including detoxing our home.

i am back in the game as far as “green” interiors are concerned. thrifting, reuse, recycled and  sustainable materials are all back on the plate. and i will be sharing information about them here.

we don’t have a lot of control over things in this world, but we DO have control over what happens in our homes.

let’s keep them healthy.

i can’t wait to share more of this journey with you.

home is…taking control of the health of your home.

hippie at heart

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when i first started this blog…actually, it was another blog, that turned into another blog, that turned into this blog, but i digress…

when i first started blogging it was because i missed my job in interior design and wanted to keep my feet in the world of design…particularly green design.

recently, my husband mentioned to my daughter that i was a hippie (he actually said that i am “37.5% hippie”). i responded to him that i have been thinking the same thing lately.

you see, i’ve always been a hippie at heart. born in boulder, colorado in 1975, it was bound to happen.

i went college in boulder in the 90’s and received a bachelors degree in environmental studies. it boggles my mind that some of the information that is FINALLY becoming mainstream (facts about GMOs, plastics, organic food, etc) are what we were studying 20 years ago in my classes, but it was considered extremist back then.

i ended up going back to school in 2000 to earn a degree in interior design. when i graduated in 2003 my final project was focused on residential green design.

at any rate, green design is in my hippie blood, and it’s here to stay.

i have some stories to share and some learning to do, so i’m going to do it here.

first, i am working on earning my Green Classroom Certificate. i spend a lot of time in my kids classrooms and would love to be a able to help educate the teachers and staff on how they can make the classrooms environmentally safe for our children.

second, i will be working on becoming a REGREEN Trained Professional. this is where i hope to focus my business in the future (when both kids are in school this fall). i am excited about this program and hope to share more information as i go through it.

third, i have recently become an independent distributor for young living essential oils. the chemicals in our environment and that we put into our body can wreak havoc on our health…mentally and physically. i hope to implement essential oils into every aspect of my daily life and share with you in the journey. if you are interested in more information please contact me at youngliving (at) stephanytaddeo (dot) com.

YLEOC - stephany taddeo

i am excited to get back to my roots…what i am passionate about. and, you can be sure there will be more creating and thrifting involved in this journey…both are integral parts of my green living.

home is…living green.

Green Living is Just Living

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I have been immersed in this “green” movement for at least 15 years since I majored in Environmental Studies while going to the University of Colorado at Boulder.  It probably started before that, though.  I remember picking up trash while we were out on hikes as a family, and leaving our campground better than we found it when we went on weekend camping trips.  My parents grew fresh fruits and veggies in our garden, and while some may disagree with this, we ate organic meat that my dad shot each hunting season.  My dad would also remind us to to turn the thermostat down to “6-0” before we went to bed at night. 

In addition to the things I learned as a child, these days:

  • I drive a hybrid.
  • I recycle more than I contirbute to the landfill.
  • I bring my own bags…to every store.
  • I buy organic.
  • I shop at local farmers markets.
  • I have replaced every bulb I can with a CFL.
  • I use a programable thermostat.
  • I plan and group my outings…even using right hand turns in my routes as frequently as possible. 

These things, and more, are just living, and I don’t even think of them as being a part of  “green” living.

Currently, I am struggling with the term “green”.  I have been fighting with it while updating my “Services” page on the Stephany Taddeo Interior Design website…how do I market “green” without using the word “green”?  To me, just like “green” living is just living;  “green” interior design is just interior design.