Car Seat Covers

Once again, we have ordered custom organic car seat covers for our new car seats. I cannot say enough good things about Kate at Sassy Stork! She is wonderful to work with and I am just enormously grateful that she provides such a wonderful service. 

Natural Fiber Rugs

I have been very happy with our natural fiber rugs. They offer neutrality and durability, and offer a stylish look to a room. We've purchased seagrass, jute, washed jute, and braided jute versions in the past several years. 

They have all been good purchases but after living with them for a while, we definitely have a preference for some over others. 

Our old living room had a washed jute rug with a very thick wool rug pad underneath. We purchased this rug instead of seagrass because it is much more comfortable to sit on. 

We found that the washed jute stained very easily- just plain water in fact. For this reason alone, I probably won't purchase a washed jute rug again.

One of our sweet peas decided it would be fun to spit their cherry smoothie out onto the carpet, throughout the room. Surprisingly, the red stain came up fairly well, but the water used to clean it left a dark spot. Also, water spills from sippy cups or from watering the Christmas tree left dark spots. 

The plain jute rug in our old bedroom was similar in that regard. It was very susceptible to stains, even simple water spills. 

Photo courtesy of Country Living magazine. 

Seagrass on the other hand, which we had in our old dining room, has been indestructible. 

Things that have been spilled or mashed into our seagrass rug are: 

tomato sauce

blueberries, blackberries, raspberries

avocado

banana

cherry smoothies

sweet potato 

All of these cleaned up stain-free. 

Our only complaint with our lovely seagrass rug was that it left dent marks on the fir floors, which is a soft wood. If we had used a rug pad underneath that could have been prevented I'm sure. Also, the texture of the seagrass is coarse, so this type of rug may not be the best choice in all settings. 

Photo courtesy of Country Living magazine. 

The only form of jute that has been as indestructible as the seagrass has been the braided jute, as seen here in our old kitchen. It has received various food and cooking spills, and has always cleaned up really well - with no water marks. It's been relocated to our new kitchen here.   

We just purchased this sisal rug for our new dining room last week. We found it on clearance at our local Home Goods store. I like the fact that it is so light, as this is the darker of the two front rooms in the house. We'll see how it works for us over time.

This photo also shows tremendous progress in our effort to settle into our new home. It may not look like much, so I've attached a glimpse of what the room looked like just a week or so ago. 

A Taste of Summer

A bouquet of fresh basil has an especially summery fragrance during the winter months.

We bought this bouquet, which was grown in a hothouse on an organic farm here in the Pacific Northwest, to enjoy as a mid-winter treat. 

And a jar of garden tomatoes (our last jar canned from this past summer's crop!) possesses an especially sweet summer taste as the cold outdoors whisper nothing but quiet in the still sleep of winter dormancy. 

One of our favorite meals to make with fresh basil and summer tomatoes is Pizza Margherita. 

For the sauce, we simmer tomatoes down to preferred thickness. 

As the tomatoes are simmering, we add salt and pepper and Italian seasonings. 

Pizza dough recipe (makes two crusts): 

1 package yeast

1 tablespoon honey

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 cup wrist temperature water

2 1/2 cups or so of flour (we use a combination of all-purpose and spelt)

olive oil to drizzle on top

Combine yeast, honey, and water in a large bowl. Once the yeast has activated, add salt. Then add flour in 1/2 cup increments and knead until dough is very slightly moist on the surface. Place dough in large bowl, drizzle with oil, and place in warm spot to rise for an hour or more.

Roll out the crust onto floured pizza pan and bake at 425 until just slightly golden. 

Remove from oven and drizzle olive oil over crust and top with fresh tomato sauce. 

Add fresh basil. 

Top with shredded Italian cheeses. 

Bake at 425 until done. 

After reading recent articles such as this one in the Huffington Post, we've held off on buying food packaged in cans. I stopped buying tomato products packaged in cans several months ago but just recently learned that all canned goods may be in danger of absorbing the BPA lining. 

See New York Times article here. 

I thought I'd pass the information along to anyone who may be interested. 

Cooking with Cast Iron

We have been cooking with a cast iron for over a year now. Our reasons for switching from standard non-stick cookware were based primarily on health considerations and the confusing information we had read on the chemicals used in the non-stick coating.

Before switching to cast iron, we had been using a 'green' non-stick version that had eliminated the controversial PTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene)  and PFOA (Perfluorooctanoic acid) coatings. But we didn't think it held up very well and just started worrying all over again about the various other chemicals used to create this new form of non-stick.

So we made it very simple for ourselves and went back to the 'original non stick' - cast iron.

Cast iron possesses no potential dangerous coatings, will not chip or scratch and is also a great way to introduce trace amounts of iron into your diet.And if that wasn't enough incentive, cast iron is also very affordable. A twelve inch skillet for example is less than $30 (here) and it will last forever.

Cast iron is also great to cook with as it distributes heat evenly. We primarily use a pair of large and small skillets for everyday cooking. We also use a cast iron dutch oven in place of a crock pot for stews, slow roasts and soups. Our remaining cookware consists of copper-bottomed stainless steel sauce pans.

We purchased our Lodge cast iron skillets pre-seasoned.  Every several months, we re-season them by coating with oil and baking in the oven at 350 for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, we turn the oven off and let them cool on the oven racks.

For daily maintenance, we soak the pans in warm water after each use. We then scrub with a scouring sponge, rinse with hot water, and pat dry. Occasionally, we also rub a light coating of oil into the skillets while they are still warm from rinsing. We follow the same care with our Dutch Oven.  With cast iron it is recommended to not use soap and to not soak in water for long periods of time as this promotes rust and deteriorates the seasoned condition of the cookware (which makes the cast iron non-stick). In the worst-case scenario, you just have to re-season the cookware as described above.

Like all choices we make in life,  we strive to find ways in which we can live by the healthiest means possible. Some choices are easy to make, some take effort. But we are passionate about creating the healthiest life for ourselves and our babies, so the transition to cast iron does not feel like extra work. In fact, it offers quite the opposite for nothing outweighs peace of mind.

A Green Nursery

Creating a healthy home has been a priority of ours since we began our renovations five years ago. Our motivation was due, in part, to the fact that this was a home in which we hoped to raise children. So naturally, creating the healthiest nursery possible was also main priority for us. It motivated all of our choices, from furniture and wall treatments, down to the rug.

These are the choices we made:

The Cribs: We chose the Da Vinci Jenny Lind crib because it is made with wood harvested from sustainably-managed forests. It's also lead and phthalate free, and stained in a non-toxic finish. Also, the teething rail is BPA free.

The Crib Mattresses: We chose Naturepedic organic mattresses. They offer a non-toxic waterproof surface that includes 100% food-grade polyethylene. They are also hypoallergenic, filled with organic cotton filling.

The Crib Sheets: We chose 100% organic cotton crib sheets.

The Armoire: It was important to us to not purchase any furniture for the nursery that was made with manufactured wood, that may contain glues, adhesives or other compounds which may off-gas over time. Antique furniture provides this safeguard, as well as the opportunity to recycle beautifully-crafted pieces made long ago.

Mike created shelves for the armoire using solid tongue and groove pine floor planks. My Mom then covered them in 100% cotton fabric.

Nursing Chair: We selected the IKEA Jenny Lund slipcovered arm chair for nursing. I was really nervous about bringing a new chair into our nursery, as most new furniture is constructed with manufactured woods that may off-gas. So, I was happy to learn that IKEA strictly procures wood from sustainably-managed forests, and their pressed wood products comply with low formaldehyde standards.

The Rug: We narrowed down our rug choices quite fast in knowing that we would only buy something that was made with natural fibers (with no rubber or plastic backing). We initially looked for 100% wool rugs, but ended up ordering a 100% jute braided rug for its style and shape. It's also reversible, so it should stand the test of time.

Wall Treatments: Like the rest of our house, the nursery was painted using Benjamin Moore's no-VOC line. Everything from the ceiling and the mouldings, to the doors and walls, were painted with the color Simply White in either flat or semi-gloss finishes.

Choosing white for the plaster walls was a natural choice for me as it was the color of my childhood room, from birth until I left for college.

White also has the added benefit of having less pigment added to the mix (pigments most often contain VOCs). I did just recently learn however that Benjamin Moore is one of the very few lines that uses VOC-free pigments. Thus their VOC-free line truly is VOC-free, no matter what color one chooses.

When Mike created the paneled wainscoting, he used solid wood mouldings, assembled and secured in place with a finish nail gun instead of glue.

The Closet: To create extra storage, we relocated the antique dresser from the guest house. We preferred using the dresser for the same reason that we chose the antique armoire. Also in the closet are the toys and books in waiting....until the babies are older.

Purchasing two cribs, two mattresses, two car seats, clothing, diapers, etc.... added up as you can imagine. So we focused our budget on the things we knew we would need from birth through the first several months. Any toys and books we have were ours from childhood, or were given to us by family and friends.

When we do start buying toys, we will focus on brands that offer phthalate-, BPA- and lead-free products.

Baby clothes: We have been very lucky in that we have received lovely hand-me downs from my friend Karen, and my brother Steven and his wife Marna, who have a son and two sweet daughters. The above knit sweater was my adorable nephew's.

This sweet outfit is a combination of a hand-me down (the white cotton onesie) from my niece and a purchase from a baby consignment store (the 100% organic cotton jumper with pink velvet piping). I've found consignment stores to be a wonderful resource for beautiful clothing, often hardly worn, at much lower prices than retail (organic knit jumper was $11).

I hope that everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday! I managed to stay on my feet long enough to make the pie crust... I spent the rest of the day on the couch nodding off and listening to the bustle of kitchen activity made by my mom and Mike.

Happy Holiday Season to everyone! xo

A House Plant

We have a new house house plant living with us. I thought our Eastlake plant stand could use some company as I couldn't keep it appointed with fresh bouquets as often as I would like. The fact that I chose a spider plant is quite funny because as a child, I was deathly afraid of my parents' spider plant. This was because my young imagination believed that actual spiders (most likely thousands) made their home in it.

This house plant acquisition (which I couldn't help but thoroughly examine for spider inhabitants) was instigated by my Mom, who sent me the following note not too long ago.

It read:

Now just to give some history, my Mom and I talk on the phone often (almost daily). She lives in California. Nevertheless, I think my Mom still thinks I'm off at college and getting something in the mail makes me feel loved. Ok, it does.

The things she sends in the mail vary...health tid bits like the above, articles on river and wetland restoration (for Hubby), recipes, and then there's the hard goods such as holiday decorations, clothing, books, pruning shears and twine...and most recently, lots and lots of baby clothes.

My Mom is actually coming to visit next week and truth be told, I'll miss getting that little something special in the mail. Although I wouldn't put it past her to mail something on her way to the airport.

Love her. xo

Water, Pure and Simple

Shortly after our indoor plumbing was updated, I sent a water sample out to be tested. Although the test results were good, we felt more comfortable taking the cleanliness of our water one step further.

Our concerns were centered on the old water lines that supply our house. Despite updating our all of our property's water lines, the main line that runs to our house is old, very old. And old pipes aren't the cleanest.

So Hubby installed an under counter filter. It is plumbed into the cold supply line under the sink so now every time we get a glass of water, fill up the tea pot or steam rice...the water is filtered. Even our little Lucy will reap the benefits of cleaner water.

We opted for this model here, from Best Filters.

I like that this model allows you to have the benefits of filtered water without the visible hardware that usually goes along with it. We prefer sparse and simple in our kitchen so using an under counter filter was the perfect solution for us.

Filters are replaced once a year.

Cheers!

The Living Room: Before and After

Just to review...this is how we found it.

The single-paned window, and perhaps even the deck, were most likely added sometime in the 80's. When the contractors put in the new Marvin window, they had to tear down the deck in order to put in both the headers and footers. We'll rebuild something more period looking to the house - a balcony with a wide center staircase going down the middle and into the back yard.

This is the opposite wall. See all that brown trim? That's all covered in faux wood tack paper to assimilate wood trim. It was horrible to remove.



This room has evolved over the three years we've owned our house (we once had our bed in here). It was the very first room we tackled when we bought the place (the picture of Hubby was within hours of taking ownership) and so it was the first room we finished in terms of the bare bones part. The actual decorating would come much later, as in now...and it's quite serendipitous as again, we're 'moving' into this room just before Christmas.

Here's sort of another 'before' picture that shows our previous color scheme, dictated primarily by the furniture and rug we had on hand at the time.

And here are the 'afters.' I took these pictures on the darkest days of the year as we're having lots of fog and rain - hope they turned out alright!

As you can see, I painted the room white. It's Simply White by Benjamin Moore (Eco-Spec line), which is the same color we've used on all of our house trim and many of our walls. The old color just felt too ruddy looking and I realized (no agonized over) that I'm most drawn to that classic white wall farmhouse look where the color of the walls isn't what the room is about.

I wanted the room to be more about the fireplace, the windows, the view, the light coming in, the furniture, and the artwork. And I just thought that white allowed these things to shine more than any other color. Also, Janet (hi Janet!) over at The Gardener's Cottage just painted her living room Simply White and it completely inspired me!



The mirror over the mantle is such a better fit than our other one. I found this several weeks ago at an antique store for $120.



I picked up the brass sconces at an antique store for $20 each. I had been looking for some sconces online but found them to be very expensive. So these were in our price range and I've always loved the look of a pair of sconces over a mantle.



The seagrass rug is a 9x12 (it hasn't quite flattened out yet after being rolled) and will be relocated to the dining room once I decide what size seagrass rug I want for this room. I know it will be several feet bigger but still trying to figure out exact dimensions before I order it (the first one I ordered had a mid-January delivery date so I cancelled it).

The furniture is by a company called Rowe Furniture. We knew we'd choose something from their line because they are committed to natural fiber fabrics, eco cushion cores and wood from replenished forests. They are also members of the Sustainable Furniture Council (SFC).

This was all very important to us as we have made great efforts to make our home as green and healthy as possible. We also liked the price - due to a special sale that they were having at the time, the couch was just $1,099 and the chairs were $599 each (and we chose the highest grade fabrics).



The velvet couch is extremely luxurious. We love the high curved arms (much like a sleigh bed) as it provides the perfect support for reading a book, sipping a cup of tea or snuggling up next to the warm fire - especially on days like today.

I picked up the brass easel a few years ago for $40 - a price I just couldn't pass up. The antique frame was my Great Great Grandfather's and I'm in the process of ordering a beautiful print for it. I can't wait as I've always loved the artist and will be absolutely delighted to have a piece of hers in our home.

The cabinet used to be in the dining room. It got bumped from there because there will be two new windows going in this spring/summer leaving no room for it. It's sad but I absolutely love it in the living room. It's gone from dining cabinet to secretary, a look I have always loved.

I also like the height it provides and think it really adds a nice finishing touch to the room. We found this piece at a local antique store that used to get antique furniture shipments in from England. During my semester abroad in college, I lived in England and would spend hours going through all of the gorgeous antique stores looking at beautiful cabinets very similar to ours. So it's sort of serendipitous that this piece found me after all of these years.

The cabinet came with black oriental pulls on the drawers, which I don't believe were original due to the lovely brass button knobs on all of the cabinet doors. So I switched them out for Eastlake pulls which offer it more of a country look (and of course, I absolutely love all things Eastlake).

So there it is! I'm sure it will continue to evolve as all rooms do! I hope you like it! We just got our Christmas tree today so we'll be putting that up tomorrow night...so more photos to follow!

Photo updates:

Reduce Your Catalogs

Many months ago I came across a non-profit organization that enabled you to stop delivery of unsolicited catalogues by mail. I jumped at the chance because the number of catalogues we were receiving at that time was staggering.

The web site is very user-friendly. You just sign up and then select from an existing database the catalogs you no longer wish to receive. I stopped everything we were receiving since the stores we shop at provide paperless versions online.

The results have been great, which makes for fewer trips to the recycling station!

Go here: http://www.catalogchoice.org/

For the Love of Ladybugs

This is hubby with a handful of Ladybugs. I love , love, love Ladybugs. Every time I come across one, my day is always better. So you can imagine how overjoyed I was to release hundreds of them last night when we sprinkled them over all of our hedge roses.

Our local nursery sells them for natural pest control...those darn sweet Ladybugs will eat up all of those nasty little aphids, which I've had my fair share of this spring. The Ladybugs come in a perforated little bag, and as you can see above, hubby is shaking the last of them out on to the rose bush.

This isn't our first Ladybug release. I guess we're about on our fifth - this spring. You see, Ladybug lovers have a very hard time paying for their flowers while there are bags of Ladybugs sitting next to the cash register, just singing to come home with you. Oh, it's very difficult and I've tried to avoid eye contact (yes, with the Ladybugs) but it just breaks my heart to leave them behind when they could happily come home with me.

And I have to say, as I lay in bed at night thinking of all the Ladybugs living here on our little farm, a smile overcomes me as I drift off to sleep.

I love you Ladybug.

Green Living

When we bought our house, we knew we wanted to make it as healthy as possible, both for us and for the environment. The first step we took towards that goal, was to hire an environmental survey firm to establish potential health hazards (lead, asbestos) in our home. This is significantly important to people such as us, who were about to set off on a major home remodel.

The environmental survey firm, who came recommended by our local Health Department, started by coming out to do a site visit. We could have sent floor and paint samples to them directly, but I think it's most beneficial for them to come to you, primarily because they test everything - things that most people (including myself) would never even think to test.

They took lots of paint samples from all of our rooms, samples of dried up adhesive on our walls and flooring, samples of our several layers of linoleum, wall insulation, plaster and to my surprise, window mortar from our original windows.

Our results were invaluable and helped us navigate the next steps of our remodel. In rooms where paint contained any levels of lead, extra precautions were taken to not disturb the paint. For example, we plastered and painted over all of the glue marks from the paneling rather than scrape it off the painted walls, which would have created a lot of harmful dust.

We were fortunate in that the only asbestos found in our home was in the skim coat of our plaster ceiling in the living room and some linoleum squares found in a few of the kitchen cabinets. The skim coat was a practice used to soften the rougher surface of plaster and was often found in the most formal of the homes rooms. Due to the size of the living room, we chose to hire a separate firm to do an asbestos abatement. This firm was certified in asbestos removal AND proper disposal, which is also an extremely important component to this process.

The cost of the environmental survey was $840. The cost of the asbestos abatement (which included removing the living room ceiling plaster down to the lathe) was $1,000. Of course, two thousand dollars can buy a lot of things, but for the peace of mind of living in a healthy home, it was priceless.