29th March, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Check out this Austin Business Journal article, which states that:
“Austin ranked 18th on a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency listing of metropolitan areas with energy efficient buildings, falling behind both Houston and Dallas. Cities were ranked according to the number of building that earned the EPA’s Energy Star rating by the end of 2009. Houston took the highest spot in Texas, No. 6, with 133 star-rated buildings. The Dallas/Ft. Worth area also breached the top 10, coming in No. 8 with 113 Energy Star buildings.”
29th March, 2010 - Posted by carsi - 1 Comment
This website, published by the City of Austin, is a great resource for info about how to make your garden greener by using less water and chemicals. It includes scaled drawings of nine plant bed suggestions and info about installation, irrigation, and how to hire a professional if you don’t want to go it alone. Demonstrations of the garden templates can be found at several locations around town, including Zilker Botanical Garden, Howson Library, and City Hall, so you can check out what the project will look like before you plant it in your garden.
29th March, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 2 Comments
I saw this craft idea in the Martha Stewart magazine (a little embarrassing, but I love me some Martha) and wanted to try it out using some old gift wrap, and something more environmentally friendly than mod podge.
Since I save any wrapping paper I get when people give presents to me or my husband, I had this gold and purple tissue paper on hand…
and I used a mixture of flour and water rather than mod podge – usually 2 parts water to 1 part flour works well. I used the purple tissue paper for the first layer (the inside of the egg), some strips of ads from my Martha Stewart magazine for the middle layer, and the gold tissue paper for the 3rd layer.
The flour ended up showing on the surface of the eggs – I’m not sure if mod podge would have shown up less. But if you tried to make eggs using the off-white paper shown in the magazine, the flour probably wouldn’t show as much on the surface anyway. This was a fun project and it would be fun to do with children, and then have them set their eggs out for the Easter bunny to fill.
Rather than filling any baskets or eggs with that green plastic fake grass, try using shredded paper, which is what I am going to use. Check back on Easter Monday and I’ll have a picture of the egg in all its chocolate filled glory – like I said, it would be a good project to try with kids, and will look festive filled with candy, but mine didn’t turn out as pretty as the ones from the magazine.
29th March, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
Recently, the Downtown Austin Blog expressed its very justified frustrations about the terrible recycling situation downtown. The post points out that the city provides no single stream recycling downtown, so most complexes offer very limited and usually not-so-convenient recycling options. Additionally, only 10 bars downtown have opted in to a glass recycling program, which means most of the beer bottles and cans produced each night are just thrown away. The city has taken on the task of reforming its recycling ordinance, so let your council member know that recycling downtown needs some help, or email Jessica.King@ci.austin.tx.us if you have a question or suggestion for the city staff.
29th March, 2010 - Posted by carsi - 2 Comments
Whole Foods has a part of its website entitled Let’s Retake Our Plates that provides info about where their food comes from and how you can do your part to make your meals sustainable, ethical, and healthy. They also have a film series coming up with several (free!) showings in Austin. Here are the details:
- Food, Inc., April 19, 7:00pm at Alamo Village on Anderson Lane
- No Impact Man, April 21, 7:00pm at the Whole Foods Lamar Plaza
- Nourish: Food + Community, April 22, 7:00pm at the Whole Foods Lamar Plaza
