This Earth Day weekend, New York GreenFest will be at the Jacob Javitz Convention Center in New York. This Saturday, I’m going to be on a panel with Yoli Ouiya of Yoli’s Green Living and stylist Eden Di Bianco of Eden’s Hair and Makeup. The topic of the panel is “Green Your Beauty and Your Life” and we’ll each be demonstrating how to make several home and beauty products on your own the green way! In addition, Yoli is running a contest and is giving away 9 tickets to GreenFest! For more info about the panel and the contest check out the links below! Hope to see you there!

After finding out how toxic most cat litter is to cats, I have been trying for years, (YEARS, do you hear me?) to find a green cat litter that my cats would actually use. My youngest cat will basically go in any container you put him in, he’s not really picky. But my oldest cat, (he’s 12), liked his Fresh Step and wasn’t leaving it without staging a formal protest. (Meaning, strategically placed poop all over the house). I’ve tried just about every “eco-friendly” litter on the market.

They.weren’t.having.it.

I’m kind of addicted to “bling” right now as I noticed putting together this post! LOL. Here’s the latest installment of the Upcycle Digest. Enjoy folks!

I have a confession to make. I hate to clean my bathroom. I’m serious. If I can clean any other room in my house first I will. I think because I was doing these weekly and bi-weekly deep cleanings that seemed to take forever that it was making me crazy. So I started looking for ways to clean the bathroom quicker so that it wouldn’t such a chore. So now about twice a week, I do this:

In my New Year’s quest to simplify everything, I’ve come up with a few nifty ways of cutting time out of my cleaning schedule.

Use a Timer – It’s funny how we all work faster when we’re under pressure. I find I can clean up a room pretty quick if I know I only have 15 minutes to do it (and I pretend that my mother is on her way over). 15 mins: pickups only, 30 minutes: pickups, dusting and sweep, 1 hour: all of the above plus mop the floors.

Hey folks. I took a break from the digest for a minute, but I’m back with some really cool upcycle and repurpose ideas I’ve found. Hope you like!

I hope all of you who participated in “No Buy Month” during February learned as much as I did. Not only was I surprised by what I could actually do without for a few weeks, it really made me think about what I actually spend my money on. As outlined in the “No Buy Month Rules” I paid bills and bought groceries, but didn’t buy anything extraneous unless it was with points or on a gift card that I already owned. Below is a list of what “No Buy Month” did for me.

One of my favorite blogs on money and budgeting out there right now is Budgets Are Sexy written by J. Money. The thing that I like the most about his site is that he is an everyday guy (a husband and new dad) that explains money and saving in real world terms. (He was laid off from his job and still found ways to save). His site also offers interactive templates and tips that are really useful. (I still use a budget template of his from like two years ago).

All that being said, I was really excited when J. agreed to offer some of his budgeting tips and tricks in honor of No Buy Month! Check out this great interview, and check out his site!

Remember all those things I said you should buy before No buy Month started? Well here’s 10 things that you can do with those items instead of buying more stuff! (Click on the links below for more detailed instructions and alternatives).

Hi folks, here’s last week’s post for you. It’s late because Beyoncé caused a snowstorm in New York. (I’m gonna blame everything on that girl for as long as I can). LOL! Enjoy!