Green Options » Becky Striepe

Fab Fabrics: Organic Prints from FLUF

Becky Striepe — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:00:02 +0000

Canadian duo Nathalie Butterfield and Terra Kushner launched their fabric line when they were frustrated with the limited selection of sustainable fabrics.

Nathalie talks about how their company evolved:

Read more of this story »

Transforming a Pair of Old Mens’ Sweaters into a Dress [video]

Becky Striepe — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:00:27 +0000

This amazing video tutorial is a lesson in more than just sewing. Annika Sanders of UK clothing shop Junky Styling shows that green crafting is all about your mindset.

Read more of this story »

Fab Fabrics: Screen Printed Yardage by Danielle Stewart

Becky Striepe — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:00:43 +0000

Australia-based designer Danielle Stewart hand screen-prints her fresh, modern designs onto linen/cotton or hemp/cotton fabrics using environmentally friendly solvent-free inks.

Read more of this story »

Eating Vegan: Tasty Milk Alternatives

Becky Striepe — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:00:00 +0000

Conventional dairy production is a lot different from the idyllic farms you see in those Happy Cow commercials on TV. Real dairy production forces cows to live in close quarters, involves nasty growth hormones, and is just a pretty cruel business overall.

Milk’s quite easy to cut out of your diet, whether you’re using it to cook or drinking it straight out of the glass. If you’re thinking about avoiding dairy for animal rights or for health reasons, there are a slough of delicious options out there for you!

Read more of this story »

Eating Vegan: Answering the Egg Question

Becky Striepe — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:00:05 +0000

Last week, a commenter on my post about giving up cheese mentioned that eggs are a real stumbling block for her. She didn’t specify whether it was eggs in baking or the whole egg that she missed, but either way it’s a topic that bears addressing!

While I can’t promise that there’s a reasonable vegan equivalent for something like deviled eggs, there are lots of options to satisfy your eggy desires without any animal products!

Read more of this story »

Five Recycled Valentine’s Day Craft Projects

Becky Striepe — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:00:26 +0000

Valentine’s day will be here before we know it, and if you want to do the whole thing handmade, it might be time to start planning! Here are some awesome recycled projects to get you going:

Read more of this story »

1BOG Brings Power of Group Solar to New Jersey

Becky Striepe — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:03:59 +0000

It’s the secret that so many big box retailers already know: prices are lower when you buy in bulk. San Francisco-based 1 Block off the Grid has taken that mindset and applied it to solar power with amazing results. Now, the company is adding its very first east coast solar campaign in northern New Jersey.

Read more of this story »

Fab Fabrics: Geo Grand Collection by Daisy Janie

Becky Striepe — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:00:37 +0000

We’re big fans of Daisy Janie fabrics around here, so you can imagine that I jumped at the chance to check out her brand new line: Geo Grand!

Read more of this story »

The Great Agave Nectar Debate

Becky Striepe — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:00:58 +0000

When I went vegan years ago, agave nectar was one of the first things on my shopping list. It’s commonly used as a vegan substitute for honey - you can substitute it in recipes that call for honey 1:1. It’s also been touted as a healthy natural sweetener that doesn’t affect blood sugar levels in the same way as conventional sugar.

Agave nectar has come under some fire lately, and a recent report from The Weston A. Price Foundation basically says that it’s as bad for our bodies as high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

Read more of this story »

Recipe Roundup: Eight Hearty Vegan Soups and Stews to Keep You Warm

Becky Striepe — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:00:10 +0000

Goodness gracious, this has been a crazy winter! Things have warmed up a bit around here, but we’re still craving steamy soups and stews to keep us toasty from the inside out.

Often, folks associate a vegan diet with light, salad-based meals. Not that I’m dissing on salad - sometimes there’s nothing better than a big bowl of raw veggies topped with tasty dressing. At this time of year, though, when you can’t feel your toes and fingers, something with a little more substance is in order. Here are some great vegan recipes to get you going!

Read more of this story »

Video Tutorial: Make a Rockin’ Record Wrist Cuff

Becky Striepe — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:00:10 +0000

Crop Suey has an awesome video showing how to make a record into a custom wrist cuff! Once you make sure your second hand record isn’t a rare one, you’re ready to grab your scissors, head to the kitchen, and get crafting:

Read more of this story »

Fab Fabrics: Organic Cotton and Recycled Quilt Batting

Becky Striepe — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:30:14 +0000

We’re committed to repurposed, eco-friendly fibers around here, and that means we want our crafts to be sustainable from the inside out!

Here are some resources for organic cotton and recycled batting that you can use in your next quilting project!

Read more of this story »

Orange Juice: What’s Really in the Box?

Becky Striepe — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:40:10 +0000

Before you feed your libido with a vitamin C-packed glass of orange juice, you might want to consider reaching for the whole fruit instead.

In her recent book, Squeezed: What You Don’t Know About Orange Juice, Alissa Hamilton tells you what’s really in that not from concentrate box from the grocery store.

Read more of this story »

Eating Vegan: The Cheese Problem

Becky Striepe — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:00:27 +0000

Probably 80% of the time, when I tell someone that I’m vegan, the first words out of that person’s mouth are, “I could not live without cheese!” The other 20% are usually a comments about steak or bacon, sometimes in a mean-spirited way and sometimes not. Today, though, I wanted to talk a little about the cheese thing, since it seems to be what gets folks the most.

Read more of this story »

Study Links GM Corn Consumption to Organ Damage

Becky Striepe — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:39:33 +0000

A recent E.U. study found that rats who’s diets included different strains of Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) corn experienced kidney, liver, and other organ damage.

Read more of this story »

Supporting Small Business with the 3/50 Project

Becky Striepe — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:30:57 +0000

Not to be confused with 350.org, the 3/50 project is all about making a conscious effort to keep the little guy afloat.

Read more of this story »

Crafty Reuse: A Scarf from Discarded T-Shirts [VIDEO]

Becky Striepe — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:30:02 +0000

When the weather gets cold, the cold get crafting! It’s been in the teens and twenties here in Atlanta, and cozy clothes and blankets are basically all I can think about right now. You can imagine my delight when I was browsing on You Tube and came across this handy tutorial from Whitney Sews for turning old t-shirts into a reversible scarf!

Read more of this story »

Fab Fabrics: Vintage Finds from The Tin Thimble

Becky Striepe — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:00:11 +0000

A commenter on our 2009 Fab Fabrics Retrospective mentioned that she’d been seeing more and more crafts from repurposed vintage fabric, and we thought it would be fun to kick off Fab Fabrics for 2010 with just that!

Emma Farrell and her mother, Sharon Mansfield, came home from a trip with a dream of opening a sewing store that was “that was different than your standard quilt shop.” Rather than the usual offerings, their Loomis, CA shop offer vintage patterns, scrap packs, and notions and vintage and organic fabrics.

Read more of this story »

The Hazards of Sugar: Complete Lecture [VIDEO]

Becky Striepe — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:00:33 +0000

[Image Credit: Sugar. Creative Commons photo by Uwe Hermann]

If you’re an avid Eat. Drink. Better. reader, you know sugar’s not exactly ideal. You probably also know that we’re eating an overly-sweetened diet due mostly to corn-based sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. In a recent lecture, University of California San Francisco professor Robert Lustig dug deep into the real hazards of sugar, from its effects on our bodies to its strong link to the obesity epidemic. The complete lecture, Sugar: The Bitter Truth, is below.

Read more of this story »

Save Energy By Cooking With Your…Thermos?

Becky Striepe — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:00:38 +0000

A friend recently hipped me to thermos cooking, which takes advantage of the thermos’ insulation to trap and use food’s residual heat for cooking. I was intrigued and immediately starting looking for more information on the subject. Here’s what I learned.

Thermos or vacuum flask cooking is an easy way to save energy. It’s as simple as using a crock pot but requires a fraction of the energy.

Read more of this story »