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Eco-Friendly Hair Care

Hello! I've managed to get on the internet from work and wanted to squeeze in a sneaky blog post while I had the chance!

Earlier I saw an article about a shampoo bar by Lush explaining it's eco-credentials and it's had me thinking all day about the hair care products I use. I've heard of shampoo bars before but it's never been something I thought of using. Having read this article I'm seriously considering investing in some to see what it's like. I especially like the look of their Reincarnate Shampoo as it might revive the colour in my hair. :)



Up until now it only occurred to me to save water during a shower, but this has brought a whole new aspect in for me. I love that you just get a re-usable tin to store the shampoo, saving on hundreds of plastic bottles over the years! Plus they've come up with a solid conditioner bar too, so the entire hair care process becomes plastic free.

I love that it's called The Smell of Weather Turning!


This has even lead me on to discover solid perfumes! So I'm guessing there are a whole host of products out there that I could be switching to and saving on packaging. As a result, this blog is now my pledge to replace any products I can with a solid counterpart as and when I run out. I still stand by my original aim: to become more eco-friendly without sacrificing the quality of my lifestyle, so if they really suck I'll be switching straight back! But if they do as good as/better than my current products there's no reason not to go Green!

Have you tried Solid Shampoos/other products before? Does anyone want to join me with this experiment? Let me know what you think. :)
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3000 Views!

I only have about 30 seconds for a post, but I couldn't possibly let 3000 views go un-celebrated! That's amazing! :)

Once again I am super sorry for the lack of posts lately. This morning I waited in for 5 hours for someone to come and install internet for us and at the end of the 5 hours when I rang to complain no one showed up they told me they had changed our installation date but hadn't notified us! So now the new date is 12th July. I will be trying to find ways to post more before then, as I'm getting blog withdrawal!

Hope you're enjoying the sunshine while it lasts! :)
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Fascinating Facts

We all want to be more Green but without knowing the effect we're having it's hard to keep up motivation. So as promised I've put together a few interesting facts about recycling and the actual impact it has on the environment so we can keep the momentum going. :)

Laptops use 80% less energy than a desktop.
They're portable, last hours without being plugged in and can connect us to the internet on the go so we already love our laptops. Now you can also be smug that you're helping the environment at the same time!

If everyone re-used 2ft of wrapping ribbon just once it would save 38,000 miles worth.
That's enough to tie a bow around the earth!

A tumble drier uses 3x more energy than the washing machine.
So if you wash and dry your clothes with machines it's the equivalent of washing them 4 times over. An airer is more environmentally friendly and can be hidden out of sight if necessary. :)

85,000 litres of rain fall on your roof every year.
A water butt will allow you to use this water for your plants and washing your car instead of fresh water from the tap.

It takes 80% less energy to recycle an aluminium or steel can than make a new one.
To make it even more impressive; cans can be recycled endlessly so if everyone started recycling we'd never need to make another can again! (Unrealistic I know, but I'm a dreamer...)

A car club takes approx. 20 privately owned cars off the road.
If you're very car-reliant it may not be for you, but if you can rely on public transport a lot of the time and only need a car now and then car clubs can be extremely useful.

Glass milk bottles are reused approx. 13 times before they're recycled.
That's 13 times more than a plastic bottle! Plus the milkman delivers using an electric car so you can be smug when you don't have to go buy fresh milk instead of feeling lazy!

80% of the energy a washing machine uses is to heat the water.
Turn down the temperature and you turn down your electricity bill!

An urban cycler reaches speeds of approx. 15-22km/hour.
An urban driver reaches speeds of approx. 22-35km/hour in traffic. Add in time for searching for spaces and parking, then walking the 2 miles to work because you couldn't get closer... it could be quicker to just cycle!

You can save approx. 5000 litres of water a year if you have an old toilet.
Fill a 1L bottle with water (or 2 500ml bottles) and put them in your cistern. This will save 1L of water every time you flush, which accumulates to approx. 5000 litres of water over the year! (This only works if you have a normal flush - push buttons use a different mechanism.)

Insulating your roof will save approx. 25% more energy each year.
For the full details on insulating your loft check out this post.

Filling in draughts around the house - especially doors and windows - can save up to 10% on your energy bill.
More information is also in the link above - it's well worth getting draught excluders, lining thin curtains and keeping doors shut wherever possible!

Cotton production takes up 2.6% of our water usage.
Fixing up old clothes, donating those you don't want and buying from charity shops will all reduce the amount of new clothing that needs to be made and will cut down our water usage.

In the UK appliances left on stand-by use 2 power stations worth of electricity a year.
Some of the appliances can use up to 90% of their normal power use even on stand-by, so it really is worth turning them off at the plug. Some of the worst culprits are TVs, stereos and games consoles!

In 2010 hydropower accounted for approx. 16% of global electricity production!
Add to that solar energy, wind energy etc. and we can see that our efforts are making a global impact. :)
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New Flat: Week 2

It's officially 2 weeks today and the flat is starting to look like people live there rather than a dumping ground for boxes! ;)

We bought a cabinet for our bathroom yesterday so soon we can put all our things away instead of just in a box on the floor. It'll be nice not to stub my toe when brushing my teeth! We also got some lampshades for the lounge and our bedroom so we don't have plain hanging lightbulbs anymore. :)

This week we've learned valuable information ready for the winter. This may sound a bit random but the sucky weather has caused our neighbours to use their heating. As a consequence we've found just how hot our flat gets when they do! We've been watching tv in strap tops and joggers at 10pm this week because it's too toasty for anything else. :)

I know I haven't written any eco blogs for you recently, but I have plenty planned for when I return to modern technology! Including 180 uses for 9 every day items and some facts about just how much our Green efforts make an impact.

Until then I leave you with this incredible fact: A cyclist can travel 644 miles and use the same amount of energy as it takes to make just 1 litre of fuel.
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New Flat: Week 1

Hello lovely people!

We have officially been in our new flat over a week now and it's been pretty interesting! Moving in was a bit of drama which I won't bore you with, but suffice it to say that we have none of the furniture we were planning to move in with. It's all worked out well, but my plan of using all pre-loved furniture went a little down the drain thanks to some weather mishaps and sizing issues!

We have a new IKEA bedroom set, although I chose one that will be with us for many years to come so I had sustainability in mind there. A new tv, which will also be dead before we replace it - had no choice with this one since the old one got rained on in transit. We also have a brand new sofa and armchair, second hand! Crazy as that sounds, someone a family member knew had the 3 piece set in his garage because he'd bought it and it wasn't right. Still in its wrapping, it had sat there for over a year and after hearing our situation he was happy to give it to us for the low price of: our old sofa that wouldn't fit! So we have a brand new cream leather sofa and it didn't cost us a penny. :)

So minor furniture issues aside, everything has been beyond amazing this last week. I've suffered a few health issues (understatement of the year!) but Tom has been fantastic at looking after me and sorting all the official stuff I've not been able to take care of. We've had great fun playing board games, putting furniture together and moving it around to make it perfect, playing on the wii and generally just enjoyed having our own space. :)

One thing I've been having fun with is finding ways to cut down on our bills, not that we've had one yet! We're on a water meter and our heating is on the electric so we've been cutting back in every way we can without actually sacrificing anything. The heating hasn't gone on except to dry out the mattress when we moved in (seriously - weather mishaps!) and to give the washing a boost drying when it was particularly wet outside. It's actually pretty toasty in the flat until 8/9pm, at which point we pull the blanket off the bed and snuggle up. :)
We're also turning absolutely everything off when it isn't in use - including the oven and washing machine (at the wall that is)! The only things that are running 24/7 in our house are the hot water heater and the fridge/freezer. I'll be really interested to see what our bills come to at the end of the month. I'm hoping they're not that high because I'm not sure we could cut back much more without sacrificing something!

Today's post was a bit of a lengthy one, but I felt I owed you a decent post since I haven't been on much lately! Internet is arriving in our flat on the 25th June and I can't wait! Until then I'll be updating you as and when I can. :) I have a few ideas for some interesting posts so watch this space. ;)

Much love
xx
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Quick update!

Hello lovely readers, I've missed you!

It's lovely to see I'm still getting views even though I'm not posting. :) I've had such a busy few weeks - first of all I got a severe case of tonsilitis which was not fun at all. I had quite a few trips to A&E and more than once I had to argue with them to avoid being admitted! But in the end I won the battle, got some antibiotics that actually worked and now I'm better. :)
We also moved into our new flat which was quite an ordeal in itself. I was still incapacitated with tonsilitis, so my mum and Tom had to pack up our entire house in just a morning. I'm still incredibly impressed that they managed it! I'll have to give you a more detailed run down of the events of the last week later on, I'm on borrowed internet at the moment. But the short of it all is that I have a very amazing partner. Tom has taken every problem thrown at us in his stride and fixed them all, while I looked on in despair (and usually tears). He's made us a lovely little home and we're very happy now. :)
We still don't have internet at the new flat yet, so I'm afraid I won't be posting regularly yet. But the good news is we officially get internet on the 25th of June (providing Virgin don't delay it at all!) so I'll be back to posting for you for definite then.

Sorry for the short post, but I missed you all and wanted to keep you updated! :)
Much love to you all,
Ami
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