For those of you on the edges of your seats waiting to find out if we chose a gas stove, wood stove, or pellet stove insert for our wood burning fireplace, I’ll end the suspense: we went with the pellet stove. (Read my  wood fire post here and my fireplace insert post here.)  At first I was worried that a pellet stove insert would look strange in our 1924 house, but we found a model with a vintage feel to it.  Here’s what the fireplace looked like before:

(This photo is from last winter. Don’t worry; I haven’t hung up the Christmas decorations already!)

And now with the insert:

When I researched my options, it seemed like many people wanted a pellet stove as their primary heat source.  We already have a very efficient (95%) gas furnace, so that wasn’t our goal–we just wanted to be able to use our fireplace as another heat source and enjoy the cozy feeling of a fire during the winter.

Was this a frugal and green decision?  Not really.  With such an efficient furnace that burns natural gas–the cleanest-burning fuel around–there was no practical reason for us to get a pellet stove.  The greenest thing we could do would be to rely on our furnace for heat and never light a fire in the fireplace.   The pellet stove cost thousands of dollars, so it probably won’t ever pay for itself.

But, if we actually want to enjoy our fireplace in the winter months, we feel much better about burning pellets in an efficient stove than we do about burning wood in an open fire place.  Our pellet stove stays cool to the touch, so it’s safe to run even with young children underfoot. And while pellets don’t burn as cleanly as gas, they are actually a carbon-neutral fuel because they’re made from castoff materials.  Natural gas, on the other hand, is a petroleum product.

Does anyone else have a pellet stove?  How do you like it?

I wasn’t always such an ardent fan—but motherhood helped me discover the thrill of the thrift-shop hunt.

My first venture into buying secondhand duds for myself involved maternity clothes.  After all, it’s not worth investing hundreds of dollars in a wardrobe that lasts just a few months.  Then I thrift-shopped for a transition wardrobe while I’m working on getting back to my old size. But since I’ve found a fabulous secondhand shop that gets all of the stylish college students’ donations, I don’t think I’ll ever go back to buying new.

Shopping for chunky jewelry, flouncy skirts and fashionable jeans is ever so much fun when the total rings up at around twenty five bucks for a bagful of beautiful clothes.  Plus, I’m willing to take fashion risks when buying used that I’m too practical to pay for new.

Do you share my addiction?  Have you ever done clothing swaps with other mothers to refresh your wardrobe?  Are you open to getting secondhand clothes for your kids?

First, take a square piece of paper and fold it in half. I usually just start cutting out the spider freehand, but if you prefer, draw the spider on the paper first, like this:

Then cut out everything surrounding the spider’s body and legs, leaving a border around the edge.

Open it up and there you have it: A creepy paper spider to hang up for Halloween. Tip: If you want the spider to be a black widow, cut a diamond shape out of the abdomen and tape a piece of red paper behind it.

I am an addict.  My blood pressure rises ever so slightly when I walk through the doors of my favorite second-hand shop and get ready to hunt for treasures.

It wasn’t always like this.  When I began my adventures in thrift store shopping there was hesitation. I thought most things were scuffed up, stained and shrunken and that you always had to shlep through junk.

But when I started making thrift stores my first stop as part of a commitment to greener living, I was shocked by how often I could find what we needed at a fraction of the cost.  Night lights, bathroom scales, furniture, Tupperware, toys, and, most importantly, clothes.

My son has been dressed strictly in secondhand duds for the last two years and looks adorable on a daily basis.  I’m sure we’ve spent less than a hundred dollars total on all of his clothing and shoes.  Oh!  And the shoes!  Since they’re just two to three bucks a pair we spend less in a year than many people do on just one set of sneakers.

And it’s not just limited to kids!  Stay tuned for a post on why thrift shopping can be so great for moms too.  Are you a thrift shop junkie or do you prefer to get your high from garage sales?  We’d love to hear where you get your adrenaline rushes!

In the summer we like to obsess about hanging laundry in the sunshine, in the winter we brainstorm ways to save on heating bills and conserve those fossil fuels. Well, what should we obsess about this fall? I’m going to figure out how to compost the leaves I rake up and prepare my garden beds for the winter. I’m also planning on figuring out how to can tomatoes as my tomato harvest comes in. Any more ideas for saving the planet this season?

As I mentioned in this post, we had a few pangs of eco-guilt about using our wood fireplace.  Wood not only emits more pollutants into the air than other fuels, it doesn’t even do a good job of keeping our house warm during the cold winter months.  We started looking into a fireplace insert that would allow us to sit by a greener, cleaner fire.

First we looked into a gas fire insert.  We already have a gas line to our house, so we thought this might be the way to go.  Natural gas is the cleanest burning fuel out there.  However, we were not big fans of the fake-looking logs or coals that come with gas fires.

Then we considered a wood stove insert.  My dad got one of these years ago and loves it.  A wood stove burns wood much more efficiently and cleanly than a regular open fire place–plus it is an excellent heat-generator.  My dad enjoys finding free sources of firewood and keeps himself fit with hours of wood-splitting.  Somehow I couldn’t imagine myself thinning the forests or wielding a chainsaw.  Of course, here in the Pacific Northwest it would be easy to get a cord of split, seasoned hardwoods delivered and stacked for under $250.00.

What about a pellet stove?  My aunt and uncle and my cousin all professed undying love to their pellet stoves.  Pellets are a carbon-neutral fuel, made from sawdust and other castoff wood from lumber mills.  They burn cleaner than wood (though not as clean as gas or oil).

So what did we choose?  You will just have to tune in next week when I reveal the answer to our riveting, emotionally-fraught fireplace dilemma.

Did any of you decide to modify your wood-burning fireplace to make it more efficient?  Let us know!

Who needs a nursery?  We thought we didn’t. We moved the changing table and dresser into our bedroom, co-slept for the first few months, and stubbornly held onto our idea of having an office in our home.

It worked for awhile, but we reached a point of frantic sleep deprivation when our baby girl reached four months.  She needed to sleep in her crib and the co-sleeper wasn’t doing the trick.

We decided to opt for a creative solution.  It was tempting just to head out and buy several items to accommodate our new plan, but we decided to first try to work with what we had to avoid the expense or environmental impact of buying more stuff.

After moving all our furniture around like puzzle pieces and repurposing items in varying rooms, we ended up creating a nursery that also houses our file cabinet and bookshelves.  The computer now sits in the living room and our son’s room is packed with a few more toys.

We were surprised by how much we love the new arrangement.  We can listen to music on our computer in the living room and easily view a slideshow of our kids throughout the day.  Now our 1,000 square foot house functions for all of us quite efficiently and we feel like we’ve done a renovation in just one day.

The picture above isn’t from our nursery since we haven’t found anywhere near that cute of an arrangement at this point.  Actually I have to admit that I’m checking Craigslist rather neurotically trying to find a rug in the right shade and would like to make a set of curtains, but otherwise my baby is quite happy with her new digs and they didn’t cost a dime!

Have any of you been creative with your baby’s sleeping arrangements?  (My sister has had a few of her five children sleep in the walk-in closet or the bathroom in their playpen when they were babies!)

 Step 1: Fold a piece of orange paper in half. Draw half of a pumpkin on the paper if you don’t want to cut it out freehand.

Step 2: Cut out the pumpkin, the mouth, and the nose.

Step 3: Fold the pumpkin in half again for the eye. Draw on half of a triangle and cut it out.

It will look like this when you unfold it partway:

And then it will look like this when you unfold it all the way:

Here’s a goofy variation once you’ve mastered the basic jack-o-lantern. Go wild!

This post is a part of Works for Me Wednesday over at We are THAT Family. It’s another themed edition featuring cleaning tips this week. As usual, I am not on the ball with these themes!

When we fill out those long registry lists and stockpile our homes with newborn garments, our thoughts often fall along the lines of “I want the best for my baby.”  After all, how could you scrimp on your infant?

The funny thing about babies, however, is that the monetary value we assign to things is totally foreign to them. They’re like little aliens who perceive a wooden spoon as being just as valuable as a fifty dollar bamboo teether. Often they’re more impressed with a cardboard box and wrapping paper than they are with the pricey stuffed animal inside.  Most importantly, they would rather have our time and attention than any gadget under the sun.

Our purchases communicate our values.  Do we really think brand names are important?  Do we have to have the latest styles when they’ll look just as cute in last year’s fashions?  If we opt to purchase quality used gear, they won’t know the difference and we’ll also be gifting them with resourcefulness and creativity.

In fact, our babies aren’t deprived at all when we opt to buy less and buy used.  They’re learning that resources (natural and financial) need to be respected and used carefully.  Plus, they may see the positive results of delayed gratification as you have increasingly more resources to use on their education, travel and family time.

Do you under indulge with your baby?  How do friends and family react?  Do you ever feel guilty about spending less on your child?

Last year we had some DIY Halloween costume ideas. For Audrey’s first Halloween, I dressed her in $2 pajamas and a homemade hat and called her a pumpkin. My sister-in-law carved holes in the side of an actual pumpkin and plopped her baby inside. (Now there’s a Halloween costume that’s actual compostable!) What are your quick, easy, eco-friendly do-it-yourself Halloween costume ideas?