Crisis? What Crisis?
August 27, 2021No, I am not referring to the 1975 album by the English rock band Supertramp but rather the climate crisis. It sums up how I believe many people in the Western world are reacting to the climate crisis. With nonchalance, a touch of surprise and denial. Or am I wrong on this? Is it…
New year, new goal: Low Buy Challenge
February 1, 2021How have you been coping with the COVID pandemic? I admit that I have been having a hard time and my 2020 consumption reflects that. Retail therapy, even secondhand, is not good for the environment. I ended up buying 27 items of clothing, including two linen dresses, three cashmere sweaters, two pairs of jeans, two…
10 Changes for the New Year
January 12, 2020Happy New Year everyone! I hope that everyone enjoyed the holiday festivities with good food, family and friends and a little Christmas cheer. As it is a new year, it is normal to reflect on the past year and think about the changes and improvements that we want to make in our lives. Clean air…
Thoughts about the Montreal Climate March
October 6, 2019I was one of the 500,000 people who attended the climate march on Friday September 27th. We were fortunate to have a gloriously sunny day with a bright blue sky and a pleasant temperature. It was heartwarming to see so many people from all walks of life attending the march: families, mothers with their…
Upscale Vintage Shopping for a Black Purse
August 11, 2019Although I enjoyed my experiment shopping at Value Village / Village des Valeurs, this is not a place that I intend to do all my second hand item shopping. I only want to buy items that I love and will keep a long time. I am also not afraid to spend a little more to…
4 Steps to Reducing your waste
June 13, 2019Spring is here and with the arrival of a new season, our thoughts also turn to personal changes. My colleague Fany is a busy, working mother of two young girls. The other day, she asked me to coach her on zero waste/reduce our waste living. It can be overwhelming. I used to be one of…
Practical Tips for Reducing Food Waste
April 25, 2019As I mentioned in one of my previous blog posts, reducing the amount of food that you waste is one of the best ways that you can help the planet. In North America, the statistics for food waste range from 30 to 40%, however, the bulk of the waste is institutional, from places such as…
Exploring Minimalism and Reducing my Stuff
November 19, 2018“Love people. Use things. Not the other way around.” – Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, The Minimalists While I haven’t focused much on it, simplifying my life by reducing what I own is one of my objectives in this 52 week experiment. The quote from the Minimalists really spoke to me. How many times have…
Making Luscious Lip Balm
November 5, 2018As fall is upon us and bringing drier weather, my need for lip balm has increased. Unfortunately, much like deodorants, the packaging for lip balms is pretty discouraging: It consists of a lot of plastic and very little lip balm. In reviewing the commercial formulations, I learn that lip balm is typically made of petroleum…
Reduce our Waste Halloween
October 28, 2018Zero waste halloween: quite the oxymoron. Bea Johnson,the priestess of zero waste, tells you to simply refuse the holiday. But since my goal is to reduce my waste while still having fun, I decided that I would look for ways to partake with minimal impact on the environment. My decorations have always been rather simple:…