Happy Earth Day 2012

Happy Earth Day!!! I hope yours was as awesome as mine! This is one of my most favorite days, a day when we can focus on making positive change and when people band together through individual small acts to create a huge difference! Today it has been very windy and chilly, but the wind died off a bit by this evening so we were able to do our big Earth Day Clean Up! We picked up litter in our neighborhood (which we do every day when we walk our dog, but today we put extra emphasis on it, took a new route and went further into the woods by our house than we normally do, and talked a lot about littering, recycling and eco-systems). At the end, we had about two trash bags full of trash from the woods and fields by our house, and we only walked the equivalent of two blocks. I hope the people who saw us bagging up garbage take it to heart and keep paying it forward and pick up litter when they see it! A little bit of effort goes a long way!

Some photos of our Earth Day clean-up! I apologize for the poor quality, we were using a camera phone. :P We combed the fields and small section of woods by our house, found two grill covers, cat litter bags, plastic food containers, five gallon buckets, lots of fast food trash, and lots more nastiness choking up the growth. We made a pretty good dent in this area, but plan to do another clean up next Sunday! :)

Gauge starting the clean up from his bike!

Gauge and Trace cleaning up a field behind our neighborhood

Me picking up shopping bags and a cat litter bag

This bag had a lot of dryer sheets and dryer lint in it - we took the dryer lint out and threw it back into the field. Birds use it to insulate their nests. ♥

We had a lot of fun doing this today! Looking around with fresh eyes and stepping off the walking trail and sidewalks opened our eyes to environment hazards we may not have noticed otherwise, and from now on we will make an effort to take new routes on our daily walks and veer a little off the path to take our daily clean up efforts a little further! ♥

Last Earth Day, I put up a post about Lu & Ed's green movement. I wanted to write an update about my efforts to continue being as green and environmentally friendly with Lu & Ed as possible! Saving the world and leaving a lasting impression of good environmental habits on my son is very important to me.

In last year's post, I touched on how we had started buying fabrics at thrift stores - sometimes I find raw yardage there (several times with the cut tag still attached to it from the fabric store! Crazy!). My favorite finds are sheets, curtains and blankets that I use to turn into Mon-stors! Sometimes I even snag fluffy robes to make super cuddly plushies. Purchasing from thrift stores reduces a lot of waste that comes from production factories, which is then packaged and shipped to distribution, where it is opened, separated, repackaged and shipped to stores, which throws away the packaging and then has the product on their shelves. A lot of energy, fuel, and waste. Buying from thrift stores reducing the waste from big box factories, plus the lower cost of using found fabrics over new, off the bolt fabrics keeps Lu & Ed Mon-stors awesome and affordable. Today, about 80% of all Mon-stor fabrics are found fabrics! Woot!

Last year, I had just started to recycle boxes by turning food or product boxes inside out to ship in, and recently, if I need to pad a package, I started to use junk mail and fliers to stuff around the product to keep it snug during shipping. Win win on the green scale. :)  While doing this, I have learned that it is the most cost effective way to ship packages, because most boxes sold specifically for shipping tend to be odd sizes, which make the cost of shipping run a bit more. So, my green efforts are also another way to save my monster loving customers money! ♥ I love it! ^_^

I still use the polyfil/diced fabric/thread bits blend to stuff plushes, and I now use my larger scraps to stuff dog beds that I donate to the local animal shelters and rescues, so Lu & Ed is a waste-free operation! I save the fabric bits from monsters and fill bags with them, and when I have enough to use, I sew a large rectangle of fabric and leave a small opening, and stuff the pillow full of scraps, then I sew it shut. It creates a lumpy nesting bed for dogs, that they love to nose around and roll on!  (Cats love them too!!) Here is one I made for Ripley, our dog. Ignore the messy floor around her in the first pic. :)

She tested it out....

Then gave me her seal of approval!

One small change in your habits can make a big difference on your impact on the Earth.  Reducing waste, recycling, picking up litter, composting and being a more conscious consumer are simple ways that help you make a positive impact on the environment, and with every purchase from Lu & Ed, you know you are supporting a green movement with my waste-free production methods and second life found fabric shopping! :D I want to thank you all, as always, for adopting my fun storage Mon-stors and helping me continue to do what I love! I couldn't do any of this without you. ♥  Happy Earth Day!