Go Green: March 2012

Happy Earth Hour Day!

Posted by Jen 3.31.2012 2 comments

I'm not going to lie. I have a love/hate relationship with Earth Hour. I love how different each person makes the hour and how they choose to celebrate it. I hate that it is only an hour and how some people think 'hey I participated in Earth Hour I am good to go for the year'. But let's focus on the positive shall we?

This morning I was checking out the Twitter and loved watching as the different countries started to celebrate by shutting of their lights. That is exactly what we will be doing at 8:30 EST. The lights will go off and out will come the candles.

There are some things I wish would happen during Earth Hour. I wish:

* More businesses would participate (in fact I wish they would power down every night)

* Street lights would be turned off (not all though....for public safety)

* There were more community activities involving the local impact
* More people would treat every day like Earth Hour

Have a great hour my friends. Come back and share what you did. I would love to hear about it.

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Making Mental Movies

Posted by Jen 3.28.2012 3 comments

Living the green life can mean doing more with less. We don't buy a lot of stuff so to most it probably appears like B does not have a lot of toys and frankly he doesn't. But he has enough toys because he never asks for anything new and he plays with everything he has (except his Buzz Lightyear...because he is terrified of him). Tonight we ditched the toys and had a dance party in the living room. As I danced around I took it all in and just watched in awe as B went back and forth between dancing like crazy and running a race with his wolf puppet. I thought about grabbing the video camera to capture the moment forever but I stopped myself when I realized that I was capturing the moment forever....just not on film. I am still laughing/smiling/crying as I replay in my mind him dancing around shaking his booty (like I showed him....he is soooo doomed) and getting so into the music as he spins around on the floor "break dancing".

Typically on Wednesday's bloggers are posting a Wordless Wednesday post with a single picture that conveys something they love, find funny or conveys what they are thinking. Today obviously I am not doing that but the movie I have in my head from tonight is so very very awesome.

I find that being eco-minded has helped us to have more moments worthy of a mental movie. There is less "stuff" cluttering our lives and more just enjoying the world around us. Sometimes that world is a trail into the woods, sometimes it is campground and sometimes it is a living room turned dance club. Shake your groove thang friends...shake your groove thang.

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Hidden Water - Part 4

Posted by Jen 3.26.2012 2 comments

We have been sitting here for over an hour debating how much cereal in kilograms we each eat each week (say that 5 times fast). We are using this calculator to determine our water footprint. Here are our results (water consumption from each of the following, food, domestic use and industrial):

                      Food          Domestic        Industrial        Total
Jen                156m3           23m3            759m3           938m3
Joe                339m3             153m3         1011m3         1503m3
B                   115m3          12m3            126m3           253m3
TOTAL      610m3        188m3          1896m3       2694m3

The calculator allows you to enter your the amount of your gross salary that you spend each year to determine the amount of water you consume from your industrial goods consumption. We found their explanation to be very confusing so we just ball parked what we think we each spend each year (including mortgage, vacations, car payments, clothes, food etc).

The average Canadians annual water footprint is 2,333m3. As you can see by our numbers above we are all well below this and our total for our entire family of 3 is just above this number at 2,694m3. Not too shabby! The global average is 1,385m3 and B and I are still well below that with Joe coming in just above it.

The US average is 2,842m3/year and the UK is 1,258m3/year.

What do we do to reduce our families impact?

Food
* We eat a lot of fresh food vs processed foods
* B and I don't drink cows milk. We drink almond milk.
* We have several meals each week that are meatless. I have more than Joe does.
* I drink tea instead of coffee

Domestic
* We don't wash our cars often
* We don't go crazy watering our gardens (and we have a rain barrel)
* We have low flow showers and toilets
* B and I turn the water off when we brush our teeth etc.
* We only turn our dishwasher on when it is full

Industrial
* We don't really buy all that much 'stuff'
* B's clothes are mostly hand me downs or otherwise bought used
* We buy some of B's toys used

You can see other tips for reducing your Hidden Water consumption in Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

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Hidden Water - Part 3

Posted by Jen 3.22.2012 2 comments

This week I have talked about the hidden water in electricity and clothing but there are so many more things we use daily that consume hidden water and some might even surprise you. Not that there is water used in their production but probably just how much water that is exactly.

Chicken - 12 eggs = 2400L, whole chicken = 6600L

Tea - 30L to grow tea leaves for 1 cup of tea

Beef - Over its lifespan a cow will use 3.1 million litres of water. Most coming from the growth and production of its food.

Gasoline - 2.5 barrels of water are required to produce 1 barrel of oil.

Wine (nooooooooooo) - 120L of water is required to produce one 125ml glass of wine.

Coffee - 130L of water to produce 1 cup of coffee.

You can find more more information on the rest of the graphics in this water footprint here.

Want to reduce your hidden water consumption? Here are some ideas that can help:

* Become a vegetarian or vegan. If you love meat too much to do this then have at least one dinner a week that is meatless.

* Drink tea over coffee. For each cup you switch you will save 100L of water.

* Do what you can to reduce your consumption of gas.Ride a bike, carpool, take public transit.

* Go paper free! For every sheet you don't use you will save 10L of water.

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Hidden Water - Part 2

Posted by Jen 3.21.2012 0 comments

Yoga pants and an I heart NJ shirt is what I am currently sporting. Neither are eco-friendly. In fact I barely have any eco-friendly clothing. There are a few reasons for this. They are next to impossible to find in a store here (It is really hard for me to buy clothes online because I need to try them on first - the curse of having boobs). They can be hella expensive and I don't trust a lot of what companies are selling as eco-friendly clothing

I have come across some fantastic companies and love how they are shaping the sustainable clothing industry. Check out Rapanui who is by far my favourite and is a Help Me Save Langley Premium Sponsor.

I am sure you have thought about the labour involved in making your clothes and if it is ethical. I am sure you have thought about the chemicals involved in dyes and bleaches. But have you thought about the water involved in the production of clothing?

The global average water consumption for each kilogram of cotton is 10,000 litres. This means a typical t-shirt requires 2500 litres of water in its production and jeans will require on average 8000 litres. Since this is a global average it means where your cotton shirt originates from will impact the amount of water used to produce it. India uses the most water (22,500L) followed by Pakistan (9600L), the US (8100L) and then China (6000L).

This is a great infographic from Waterfootprint that shows the breakdown on type of water used in cotton production. Green water is the precipitation on land that does not run off or recharge the groundwater but is stored in the soil or temporarily stays on top of the soil or vegetation. Eventually, this part of precipitation evaporates or transpires through plants. Blue water is fresh surface and groundwater. Grey water is an indicator of freshwater pollution that can be associated with the production of a product over its full supply chain. It is calculated as the volume of water that is required to dilute pollutants to such an extent that the quality of the water remains above agreed water quality standards.

What can you do to reduce your impact?
* Buy second hand!
* Buy locally made and sourced
* Look for companies like Rapanui where you can trace the materials used
* Treat your clothes right so they last as long as possible
* Look for clothes made from sustainable materials

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Hidden Water - Part 1

Posted by Jen 3.20.2012 1 comments

I think we probably have a good idea about how much water we are using in our homes because we most likely see the bill each month. I have offered many tips over the years on here for how you can reduce your water consumption at home. But what about your hidden water consumption? Water is in or used in the production of virtually everything we wear, eat and use. I mean think about it...what around you right now has not been touched by water? And exactly how much water do you think was used?

Lighting, computers, TV's, appliances, air conditioning all use water each time you use them. Hydroelectric power makes up 19% of the total world electricity production (with Canada being the 2nd largest producer and the US being 4th). But what about the other 81% of electricity produced? Did you know that even more water is involved in producing electricity from other sources?

And this is where the math comes in.....

Let's look at your lights and say that you have a 100w bulb in there. This is the number of litres of water it will take to power that light for 10 hours (which is 1 kwh) based on the different kinds of electricity generation.

Hydroelectric: 0.26
Coal: 0.53 - 2.1
Geothermal: 1.68
Solar Thermal: 2.97 - 3.5
Fossil Fuel Thermoelectric: 14.2 - 28.4
Nuclear: 31 - 74.9
Biodiesel: 180.9 - 969

If you know how your electricity is generated you can easily figure out how many litres of hidden water you use each month (the chart above is L of water/kwh of electricity used).

Do you have control over the type of electricity you use? Does this information make you want to change? Keep in mind there are other environmental impacts for each generation type and those obviously have a huge impact on the overall footprint of each option.

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Kick Off to Canada Water Week

Posted by Jen 3.19.2012 0 comments

The start of Canada Water Week was interesting in the JnJ household. It kicked off with me waking up to Joe running the water in the bathroom tap for 40 billion hours (17 minutes in real life time) and it ended with it being so bloody hot outside (it is only March FFS) that I so so so so want to jump in a cold shower.

In the hours in between we have had to use more water than normal due to a few factors:

1. Potty training

2. Potty training

3. Potty training

We flush and wave bye bye to pee every time he pees on the potty and in a new non-eco twist we also do this for whenever his teddy bear BlueBerry uses the potty. (Note - I fully plan on teaching the If It's Yellow Let It Mellow concept to B....it just doesn't work well into potty training right now). There was also The Incident this morning that involved an unexpected shower for a little boy, a floor mopping and the potty seat being washed down.

Did you know that the average Canadian consumers 6400 L of water every day? This includes water used to make your food and clothes which is the bulk of this number. This week we will examine what Joe, myself and B use individually. I know Joe will come out as the highest user but I am interested to if B uses more than I do. Also I plan on offering tips on how you can reduce your water consumption and facts on water usage. So let's get talking about water and how we can help to reduce our consumption of this precious resource. Yes it is probably easy to overlook because it seems more renewable than it actually is (heck it falls from the sky which has got to be like money growing on trees right?). But friends we are in a water crisis in many parts of the world so we all need to roll our sleeves up and examine what we each can do to reduce our consumption. Let's think about things differently. Let's think about what we use locally that has a water impact elsewhere in the world...perhaps somewhere that doesn't have that much water.

I think it is going to be a fun week (OMG I am such a nerd).

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Green Stuff I have Pinned

Posted by Jen 3.15.2012 1 comments

Things are hectic around here right now with all the potty training going on so I thought I would share with you some of the best green things that I have Pinned. What are the favourite green things that you have Pinned?

Make your own covers instead of using saran wrap.

Great meal idea for BBQ weather and meat free meals

We were just talking this week about needed a green solution for cleaning our stove

You will never forget to take your reusable bags when they are this cool

With the rate that we go through avocados I am totally going to try this.

Want to make natural orange cleaner?

Ummmm YES!! Yogurt covered blueberries! (only not the ziplock bag because COME ON)

*use local blueberries and organic yogurt

If you are going to buy new furniture look for something that has been re-purposed

* I bet this smells like delicious wine

Stuff | |

Vinegar FTW

Posted by Jen 3.13.2012 4 comments

I have talked about my extreme love of vinegar before and this week solidified it even more. I have a hate hate relationship with the tile on our main floor. I mean sure it is nice in theory but it is a cleaning nightmare. All those decorative divots make a great hiding place for dirt and grime. In the 5 years we have been in this house I have yet to feel like I have gotten the entire floor perfectly clean. On Sunday I had had enough of it. I had finished washing the floor and still felt like it looked dirty. I stood there look at the floor and realized that some area's looked much worse than others. That was my AHH HAA moment. It is the grout that really makes it look dirty. In the most traveled areas it is darker than those less traveled areas.

So I found myself on my hands and knees with a shot glass full of vinegar in one hand and a toothbrush in another. It took about 5 seconds to see the results and I screamed and called Joe over to see.

I mean just look at the difference!!! I got about 2 rows done going through 2 shot glasses of vinegar. So I have like 9000000 more rows to go.

The point of this post is that natural cleaners can even do the toughest jobs. I know a lot of people use bleach to clean grout and so I am ridiculously happy that vinegar had these results. You can feel comfortable using it and then having your kids and pets walking/crawling/licking the floor.

Check out our Norwex offer. Use the code HelpMeSaveLangley to have all proceeds go directly to Langley's grant account.

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What's in your popcorn?

Posted by Jen 3.12.2012 5 comments

A few months ago I was in my boss' office and she showed me a picture of someone popping popcorn in the microwave in a simple brown bag. I was skeptical that this could be done because why then do we even have microwave popcorn bags??? I googled to see if there was video evidence of this magic trick and there were several and they all seemed to work some even without having to use butter. Here are the step by step instructions I followed.

Photo from Squawkfox.com

On Saturday I tried it out for the first time. I used a brown lunch paper bag and 1/4 cup of popcorn kernels (buy them from the bulk bins to save money). I sprayed a bit of non stick spray into the bag just in case, folded the top of the bag down 2 times and placed it standing up in the microwave for 3 minutes. The result was a full bag of popcorn without of any of the nasty crap that you get from the store bought microwavable popcorn. I would say that we even got a higher ratio of popped to unpopped kernels than when we have used microwavable popcorn in the past.

What exactly is in microwavable popcorn bags anyways?

* PFOA - Perfluorooctanoic acid. This is the same shit in Teflon and Gortex. The EPA has declared it to be a toxin and carcinogen. It can impact your liver, thyroid and have affects on the development of babies.

*Diacetyl - this is in the butter flavouring that the popcorn kernels are coated in. Inhalation of diacetyl has been linked to lung disease. The good news is that some popcorn manufacturers are starting to phase out the use of diacetyl.

Did you know that manufacturers and experts suggest that you don't touch the bag until it is cool and that when you open it you do so under a vent so that you are not exposed the whatever toxins have been heated up.

I think that these are 2 very good reasons to stop buying microwavable popcorn bags and start DIY'ing it yourself! Plus then you also have control over what you put on your popcorn. I like a little bit of salt and Joe like butter and popcorn seasoning. This offers us the perfect solution where we can pop our popcorn chemical free and then season to our own taste after.

Have you made the switch to making your own popcorn? Will you give it a try?

Food, Healthy Home | |

Spring has (almost) Sprung

Posted by Jen 3.08.2012 5 comments

There has been a lot of talk about gardens in my world lately. It started with Joe and I discussing our plans for the backyard and it snowballed from there...turning into somewhat of Pinterest obsession. Gardening isn't easy...even though it looks easy right? I mean it looks like you just plant some stuff and then you water it every once in awhile and then stuff grows and you eat it. If only it was that simple. Okay it kind of was that simple when I had a small garden but I know I got lucky. So let's talk about gardens and how to make them successful. At least how I am hoping our expanded garden will be successful this year.

Deciding what to grow

How do you even pick when there are so many delicious things that you can grow??? There are lots of things to consider including the type of soil you have, the plants growing season and how much sun your garden gets. And if you are in this house then you also have to consider that your husband insists on planting at least one thing that will grow "really big". Last time it was watermelons and I feel like this year it will be pumpkins.

I am leaning towards planting tomatoes, cucumber, beans, peas, lettuce, carrots, onion, garlic, peppers...what else do I want???

Seeds

It is cheaper if you start your garden from seeds. Most need 6-8 weeks to germinate so you need to figure out when you want to plant (based on your climate) and count back from there. For me that time frame is the end of March or beginning of April. Seeds NEED to be non GMO and non Monsanto. There are lots of companies out there so look for one that meets your needs and price range. I found the Sustainable Seed Company through Sam.

Once you have your seeds you need to start growing them. Rishma posted this on my Facebook wall and it looks like a great eco solution and yes I Pinned it.

What a great way to use your toilet paper rolls!

Make sure your seeds get some light and water so they can grow grow grow! When you are ready to plant just plop them into the ground and hello instant garden!

Daily care

Don't over water your garden. Pay attention to what you have planted and what its specific requirements are. If you over water you can end up with mould growing on the soil. I am hoping that we can attach a pump to our rain barrel and use that water to water our garden automatically on a timer. If not then I will just manually water it from the rain barrel.

Watch for weeds and pull them carefully so you don't spread the seeds. When you are first creating your garden think about putting a barrier down under the soil. You can buy biodegradable barriers but you will eventually have to replace them as they degrade if you want your garden to remain weed free. You can also use cardboard which is a great way to reuse instead of recycling.

Animals

There is nothing worse than putting hard work into a garden and watching it be eaten by animals! Find out what animals you have in your area and look for natural solutions to keep them out of your garden. Ideas include:

* Mulch - it keeps all kinds of animals out of your garden. Go to a local farmer and buy some straw from them!

* Plant the perimeter of your garden with things that the animals won't like. Examples here.

* Sprinkle the perimeter of your garden with human hair, bacon grease, blood meal or fox urine (WHERE DO PEOPLE FIND THIS???)

* Build a fence around your garden. I have heard of lots of people using chicken wire successfully.

* Cayenne pepper - so many animals hate it so sprinkle some plants with it. One bite and they won't be back.

So...what are you planting in your garden this year? What are your tips to keep it eco-friendly and producing lots of goodies all season long?

Stuff I Pinned for the Garden
Raised Beds
Oh so Pretty with a stone walkway around it
Building a Fence
Herb Garden
Wine Cork Labels

Remember to check out our really amazing Norwex fundraiser for Langley by shopping here and using the code 'HelpMeSaveLangley'. Also don't forget about our Giveaway Fundraiser for Langley!

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My name is Jen and I am a planner

Posted by Jen 3.05.2012 9 comments

I have been praised for my planning skills and I have also been made fun of. Seriously I got made fun of because I plan vacations. Without that planning my Dad and I would never have crawled through a lava tube that overlooked the ocean. Without that planning Joe and I would never have discovered Belize via an innertube and a river through a system of caves. Without that planning we never would have found a secret beach in Bermuda.

I would be lost without Excel and the Notes app in my BlackBerry. I think this trait is what makes it easy for me to be green. Being ~~anal~~ a planner comes in handy when you are trying to reduce your families impact as much as possible:

Food

Meal planning can help to reduce your impact. I look for sales on organic and local items and stock up. I also plan ahead so that I have the right food prepped and ready to go (ie: cooking beans in advance for soup). Yes it is easier to just open a can of beans and pour them in but it is much better for the environment to buy your beans in bulk and cook them off as you need them. It is also healthier because you reduce the amount of BPA you are exposed to.

Having a Groceries note on my BlackBerry really helps too because then I am not buying things that we don't need. If it isn't on the list then I don't buy it.

Reusing Items

I am in the process of selling baby items and OMG the planning. I have a spreadsheet of what I have for sale, where it is listed and how much I am asking for it. I also had to plan out when I was going to post the items based on when I know I can do exchanges. I look up similar items on other sites so I know how much to ask for and if it is even worth listing. Some times it isn't so I just donate it to a local charity.

Home Renovations/Projects

Okay I will admit it....projects around the house make me giddy. I love looking for the best deal, scouring online sites for used items and for that item that just screams 'Jen & Joey!'. I think each major purchase through to make sure we are making the right decision so we aren't buying something then a few months later realizing it doesn't fit our needs or isn't what we want. So many items end up in the landfill for this reason (not from us) but with a little planning and research you can make sure you buy what you love.

It also takes planning to find and use sustainable building products. There are lots of options out there but their eco friendliness really varies so doing your research can help you determine what is right for you. I am already thinking through our house projects and the stores (like the Habitat for Humanity ReStore) where we can get some great repurposed items.

It took planning to steal that 2nd tube from Joey. But it was so worth it.

Top 5 things I am planning right now

1. My new veggie and herb garden!

2. Backyard makeover

3. Master bedroom makeover

4. Office makeover

5. Summer vacation

Top 5 spreadsheets I have in use right now

1. Items to Sell

2. Spring Cleaning List

3. House Projects

4. Finances

5. Langley Giveaway

Top 5 Notes on my BlackBerry

1. Blog Ideas

2. Skinny Bitch Notes

3. 101 in 1001 Book and Movie Tracking

4. Groceries

5. A note about the last time B nursed

Are you a planner? How does it help you on your green journey?

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No Impact Leap Day - The Results

Posted by Jen 3.03.2012 3 comments

It is amazing how an extra day every 4 years can be good for your soul. If only it feel in the summer though, it would have made my No Impact Leap Day much easier. Regardless I found the overall day to be easier than I expected and I think I owe that to my planning. I started the day with water in buckets, the thermostat turned down, lights off, wireless off and the car in the garage.

Commuting

I have the luxury of being able to work from home when I need to. So for this experiment I was able to cut my commuting to zero. By working from home I saved 0.01 metric tonnes (or 10kg) of CO2e emissions (calculator).

Water

I did drink water during the day because that is the healthy thing to do. I used the Brita jug in the fridge to fill my reusable water bottle throughout the day. I didn't have a shower at all (which means no working out), I didn't use any water to brush my teeth and I used my water stockpile to flush the toilet. I saved water from when I am brushing my teeth while waiting for the water to warm up so I can wash my face. I kept a bucket under the tap to collect the water. I suggest that you try this out. It is an eye opener as to how much water is wasted while you wait for it to warm up. I turned the water to the toilet off when I first woke up and throughout the day followed the 'if it's yellow let it mellow' philosophy. When I did need to flush I used the bucket of reserved water. It takes a bit of practice though as you need to make sure that you pour the water in all at once and not slowly pour it in. It is the force of the water going into the bowl that will cause the toilet to flush.

The result of all of this was that I was able to go the entire day without using any new water! On average we use 10 cubic meters of water a month. I would say of that my portion is about 25% (I think that may even be high). That would mean I saved roughly 0.09 cubic meters of water.

Hydro

Obviously I had to use some because the fridge needed to stay on. I also needed to work from home so my laptop was plugged in. I did my conference calls from my BlackBerry though so I was not using a phone that was plugged in. I also unplugged our wireless and used just the router for my internet. I only did work related items throughout the day and then the computer was off at night.

I did have to use the microwave to heat my homemade soup. I held off as long as I possibly could but I was sick and eating salad was just not doing it for me. I knew I needed some soup to make me feel better. I am actually shocked I lasted as long as I did considering I was not able to have my morning tea.

Food

I did not eat any meat and ate food that I had already prepared. Food was probably the hardest item for me because I have changed my diet lately and am eating more protein but in cutting meat out for the day my options were a bit limited.

Heating

I dropped the house temp by 2 degrees and put on a hoodie. When I got cold I put a blanket on. I made sure the curtains were closed in the house to keep all the heat in. Not using any water or doing any laundry helped with this as well since our water heater and dryer are gas.

Waste

I had a zero waste day and this includes recycling! I did put items into the compost (vegetable scraps, tissue, toilet paper). I sooo wanted some Shreddies but if I had had them I would have emptied the box creating waste and recycling so I didn't have any. I also scheduled a donation pickup with 2 boxes and a suitcase full of items going to a local charity.

***

So overall I think it was a major success and I feel like I had a real impact on the day! The major take away for me was water and how simple it was to reuse the water I had collected. It was also an eye opener as to how much water is wasted throughout the day. I may have convinced Joey to even do his own experiment where he does not leave the tap running in the bathroom and the kitchen for an entire month to see the reduction in consumption.

Maybe the Easter Bunny will bring me a gray water system this year. ::fingers crossed::

Make sure you check out my Norwex fundraiser in support of #helpmesavelangley.

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Help Me Save Langley - Update and a Norwex Offer

Posted by Jen 3.01.2012 0 comments

If you are here from Baby Rabies - Thanks for stopping by! This is our Help Me Save Langley Fundraiser. To find out more about Langley go here. Please check it out and help us save his life.

Our Help Me Save Langley Fundraiser is still on and so far we have raised over $~~1500~~ $2000. When you add in our matching dollars that is over ~~$3000~~ $4000 for Langley. You guys are AMAZING!!!! I'll be honest. I want to get his grant account to $10,000 because this is the number I believe it will take to make it more comfortable for someone to take the leap of faith and adopt him. His grant account is sitting at ~~$3526.50~~ $4006.50 so with our current level of matching that would bring him up to ~~$5026.50~~ $6067.50. That means we would have ~~$5000~~ $4000 more to raise. It really does seem impossible but I have faith that somehow it will happen. The fundraiser is staying open until April 29th so there is still plenty of time to donate and share share share.

ZOMG a new picture of Langley!

It is amazing how many new people you meet when you are hosting something like this. Rachel is one of those people. She and her family hoped to adopt another little boy in Russia but unfortunately did not qualify. I actually reached out to Rachel a few months ago to ask for help with my fundraiser and she has graciously offered to donate her Norwex commission to Langley!!! That means that 35% of her sales from you guys will go directly to help save Langley.

Okay so what is Norwex. They offer environmentally friendly and healthy solutions for cleaning your house. Using Norwex products will save you time and money and reduce your impact on the environment. Anyone I know who has used their products absolutely swears by them. There are lots of products to pick from whether it is their traditional microfiber cloths or their floor cleaning products or home essential cleaning accessories there will be something that you will need/want/love. There are loads of other categories of products too which you can find here.

Perfect tag line for Norwex and for our fundraiser!

So it is simple. Buy some Norwex products from Rachel and you can help us save Langley. You get some amazing products and Langley gets a chance at life. When you order please mention 'HelpMeSaveLangley' to ensure your purchased is marked against the fundraiser.

You can find Rachel on Facebook, Twitter and her blog Make Something Beautiful.