VEGAN Fresh Peach Cobbler Muffins

Peach season!  Ahhh, I love them.  On a recent trip to visit my husband's family we picked up a big bunch of peaches from an orchard.  We ate them fresh, froze some, put them in oatmeal but my kids and I were itching to bake with them.  Being almost 9 and almost 5, they are starting to figure out what ingredients are necessary for baking so they helped me come up with this recipe!  I think one of my favorite things in my day is having a child or two in the kitchen with me.  Not only are they good at assisting, but they really do have some great ideas about what would be tasty.  I find that it is much easier to teach them about healthy eating by chatting about why I cook the way I do while letting them be hands on with the good stuff.  Just the other day while fixing lunch my youngest commented that I put chia seeds or flax seeds in almost everything.  Perfect opportunity to explain the "why".  Now he reminds me!  Awesome.  Anyway, back to the fresh peaches....

Disclaimer: as always, my recipes are not exact.  You need to pay attention to what you are making and adjust if you see a need.  It is heavily adapted from another recipe we used to use for muffins (non-vegan and not as healthy overall).  If you make it, let me know what you think!

These muffins were super moist and tasted just like peach cobbler.  YUM!

 VEGAN Fresh Peach Cobbler Muffins

½ c applesauce (less if your applesauce is on the watery side)

1/3 c sugar or your preferred sweetener

1T ground flax+ 2.5T water whisked together and refrigerated for 15 minutes, then whisked again

½ c vegan sour cream, vegan yogurt, or nut milk mixed with chia seeds until thickened

1t vanilla extract

1t cinnamon

½ c + 2T almond flour

½ c +2T whole wheat flour

½ c unbleached flour

2t baking powder

1-1.5c fresh chopped peaches

1c chopped pecans

1.     Grease muffin pan and preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2.     Combine first 5 ingredients. 

3.     Mix baking powder into flours first, then stir flours into wet mixture just until combined.

4.     Fold in peaches and pecans.

5.     Fill muffin tins at least 2/3 full and bake for 20-25 minutes.  Let cool 10 minutes before eating.  Makes 12 muffins.

How to keep and store food scraps for worm composting

I cannot believe that I am typing this, but one thing I missed over the past 2 years was our worms!  They are just so amazing at eating our scraps and giving us beautiful and rich compost.  Managing a worm composter is almost easier than a conventional compost bin… seriously.  

This time I wanted to give our 1000+ new best friends a strong start and also a quick one, so I began saving food scraps in a glass jar in the freezer before they even arrived.   It filled up fast.  Now what? I don’t know about you, but I just did not want to take the time to cut all the peels, etc into tiny pieces, which the wiggly things can consume easier.  One day after cooking I saw my dirty food processor sitting on the counter.  Hmm… it’s already dirty.  Why not use it?  I threw all of the peels, stems, and veggie ends in and gave it a whirl.  Niiiiice.  Perfect.  It wasn’t yet feeding time, so I put that back  into the glass jar and in the freezer it went.  

(Yes, it looks nasty.  Can you tell I had been processing lots of kale from my garden?)

On feeding day I simply placed the jar of frozen scraps on the counter until it was thawed enough to scrape out.  Oh man! I cannot even begin to tell you how FAST they ate it up!  Now, not only can I store more in my glass jar, but I can get them to eat more of our food bits!!!  And faster!!!  

Because they go thru chopped up bits quickly, I have virtually no flies now too.  Bonus.  If you can keep your worms indoors you should not have fly issues at all but, if you are like me and have kids and a puppy that love to peek in on their little friends, you will keep them outside in a sheltered location.  As long as the food is eaten in a reasonable length of time and you keep it covered, you should also not have problems outside.  I always cover the new food with 1-2 layers of newsprint, preferably printed using soy ink. 

(Yes, my worms live in my messy garage...the main place in this house left to unpack and properly organize.  There's something about garden season that makes us just ignore the mess in this space.  Hopefully we'll get to it by winter.  But wait, neighbors tell us we can keep growing things almost all through the winter here.... uh-oh!)

Do you vermicompost?  Do you want to?  Leave your tips, tricks or questions in the comments.  I'd love to hear from you!

Overflow

It's zucchini time!  My husband and kids are not big fans, unless it is baked into muffins or bread.  This year I decided to grow 4 plants, thinking that would be just right.  Yea, I hear you laughing from over here!  Not nice!

So, you’ve cooked and grilled it, shredded and baked it, frozen it…now what?  Kale chips are all the rage but it doesn’t have to stop there.  Zucchini chips are easy peasy to make and delicious to eat.  (I also tried yellow summer squash - not nearly as tasty or as sweet.)

1. Thinly slice your washed zucchini.  My dehydrator held about 3-4 medium zucchini.  

2. Arrange on dehydrator  trays so that no circles touch.  Heat several hours at a medium heat setting - your preference.  I usually set mine somewhere around 105-120 degrees.  

3. When the top is starting to crisp and the bottom is chewy in texture flip them over.  Dehydrate until crisp!  

4. Often I let mine cool overnight or at least several hours before placing in a glass jar for storage.

I’m not certain how long these will keep because we eat them quickly!  Typically, if you have fully dehydrated a food, it will last for months.  (Update: our leftovers lost their crunch.  I'm not sure if it has something to do with the humidity here or something else, but they're still tasty.)  

Try it and tell me what you think!

Knock, Knock....

....anyone there?

For real.  Somehow I forgot about this space.  Well, my little family moved from the mountains to a city, to a small urban spot that we knew was temporary... just didn't know how long temporary would be.  After yet another move we are finally settling in to SustainableHomestead 2.0, the more urban version.  Settling in means building garden beds like mad so that we could have some sort of harvest *this* year because we cannot, just cannot, wait another minute to grow things in dirt once more.  Most other things have been neglected because of all of this activity.

So.  Here I am.  Possibly back again.  Hi.  How have you been?  I'd love to sit and chat gardening, urban homesteading, and living in the moment with you.  You game?

Old Fabric, My Roots

My grandmother called me one day a year ago to ask me if I might like some fabric that she found in her attic. "Just a box or so" she said. "I'm not even sure if it's usable. It's just leftovers from a church quilting bee." SURE! I said. I didn't want her to throw it out, but it's not like her generation to throw something out anyway. Little did I know what treasures I'd discover when I later went to visit.

My grandmother was born and lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains, part of the Appalachian mountain range. This woman is my source for how-to on reuse/repurpose! My grandparents were part of that wonderful culture WAY before there were cool green living catch-phrases. However, one thing my grandmother does not do is quilt (but she sews clothes beautifully!) She says she's always had too much energy to sit thru quilting bees. Yes, both of my grandparents still rarely sit still. They have a LARGE garden, though they'll tell you it's considerably smaller than it used to be. They can and freeze their harvests. They are very active in their church. They bake and cook like crazy (yum!) and have big hearts for helping out their neighbors. Her mother, my Nana, was the quilter. I have a few of her creations. They're nothing like the fancy quilt blocks you see today. Simple large and small blocks mixing a few different fabrics, lovingly hand-quilted by a bee of ladies from long ago. Even though everyone says I am a lot like my grandmother, I do have the patience to quilt. In fact, I taught myself when I was given my first sewing machine as a graduation gift... about 12 years ago.

When I went to visit and also pick up this box of fabric I was in for a shock... they were boxes. Plural. Several. Most of the fabric was pre-cut into large and small squares. Only a small amount of it was faded or otherwise damaged. A MIRACLE! Beautiful vintage patterns. Soooo many different ones. Ahhh.

She promised me this was NOT my Nana's fabric, but from a neighbor. Well, imagine my shock when I started noticing the SAME printed squares on all of my Nana's quilts that live in various family member's homes! After chatting more with my grandmother, I find that thes squares originated from large end-bolts at a local manufacturing plant. They made shirt-weight items such as pajamas. Once the fabric gets too short to feed through the machines, they generally throw out the remnants. This plant saved it to give to quilters.

Right away I promised to make and donate large lap quilts. I also have several quilts to make for family members and for our home. Then what? I'd love to share this fabric with you, a little taste of times past. Because I did not have to buy fabric for the quilt tops or spend time cutting the little squares you will find my quilts less expensive than many others out there. This does not mean that they are of a lesser quality. They are made to be in your family for a long time. The colors are soothing and beautiful. The styles are timeless. I am listing them as BODO which means that for every quilt that sells on Etsy, I will give away a similar quilt to an Elder in need of warmth and love. BuyOneDonateOne. If you purchase a quilt as a gift, I am more than happy to wrap it in a pretty ribbon and attach a card explaining the charitable part of the quilt. Even though I am donating these quilts to Elders, they make BEAUTIFUL baby blankets. They are a bit larger than the average baby throw. They also make great additions to a favorite reading chair.

This is also the same fabric featured in my doll blankets. My daughter loves hers for her American Girl dolls and my son still has to have his wrapped snugly around his favorite stuffed bunny every night before he falls asleep.

There are also a few other different fabrics in the boxes that I am working on using. More to come on those.... another time.

Weekend Crafting

My kids are crafty. I guess they can't help it with a mama and papa who love to create things. Yesterday I was making my first attempt at mashing 2 clothing patterns together. A grown-up sized pullover and the button down Kai shirt from Weekend Sewing. I am just starting to feel comfortable with making clothing, which means I was deep in thought, in the zone. So was my husband. He had a bunch of wood, some springs and tools. Understandably, the kids chose to be with the wood and tools outside on a pretty pre-Spring day.

First, they got 2 shims.

Then 2 nails.

Next came the hammer. Note to self - must research a high-quality real kid-sized tool set!

My youngest, he's 3, came inside for a minute and asked me for a fabric scrap.

Then he came in again and asked to borrow the scissors for a minute.

SAILBOAT!

Next my oldest arrived at the back door, deep in cloth planning thought. She asked for a "nice" scrap and then asked me to help her sew it into a triangle with a L.

She did NOT want to cut holes. I helped her push it onto the nail.

Ahh, refined SAILBOAT!

I admire their creativity. I love letting them loose and seeing what will happen. Maybe I'll start letting my kids write crafting tutorials?

Now, for my sewing friends... I *know* what you're thinking. You want to see the shirt. Here it is. It came out fantastic, if I do say so myself!

::Friday::

{this moment}

a friday ritual. a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.

a simple, special, extraordinary moment.

a moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

- Amanda Blake, SouleMama.com

my daughter's extra math project turned craftiness turned decoration!

i think she has an eye for it *sigh-love*

Favorite Spots

One thing I've learned from my recent moves is that, no matter how tight a space is, you can still carve favorite spots out. For instance, I'll show you my little sewing nook:

Once upon a time I had what I would call a studio space for my sewing. I am very happy to still have room for my sewing desk, though. VERY happy. And you can tell it's getting plenty of use by how, um, messy it is! I now have to keep my fabrics, yarns and other supplies in a different room, but that's ok. I'm currently trying to draft a special shirt pattern for my son to match a shirt I made for Daddy.

I LOVE having my children's art work on display. Our current abode doesn't allow a suitable wall space for it though. I'm a girl who loves simplicity and clean lines so I had to draw a line at clutter to allow some space (white walls, bleh) to remain PLAIN. But this spot, the back of a door... it beckoned for some color, some handmade goodness! I LOVE it. I need to update it as these paintings are a few months old.

And here's another favorite spot...we decided against putting our kitchen table in the dining area that has off-white carpeting. Seriously, what was someone thinking? Thankfully, the kitchen is large enough to squeeze the table in too. We created a reading nook in the dining area with a favorite old comfy chair. A friend gave me this mobile. This photo does not do it justice. Seriously. It is so soothing and beautiful. We hung it above the reading chair. Perfect. Their company is Wabi-Sabi Studios. You can find them here on Etsy. They also sell through several local shops.

I'm starting to feel settled here. Even if the walls are white.

Do you have favorite spots in your home?

Happy Love Day!

Honestly, I've never been a big fan of Valentine's Day. As a teenager I always wore head to toe black. Just because. Having kids has changed many things for me, including this day. It's more about them, less about commercialism. More about how to tell those around us that we love them and less about gross chemicals-disguised-as-candy. Last year I saw this post and I knew exactly what I hoped my kids would agree to make for the day THIS year. Yes, I have been planning this for an entire year! We saved all of our broken crayon bits and peeled them... and peeled and peeled and peeled them.

It was so easy and they turned out so cute. I really enjoyed seeing my 7 and 3 year olds making up their own color combinations and then giggling with excitement when the new crayons were cooled enough to take out of the molds!

My sweetheart and I had several weekend dates of running together on a beautiful trail in some beautiful weather but this morning he managed to surprise me with a BEAUTIFUL box of handmade chocolates from a local shop that has been at the top of my list to visit! They're too pretty to eat. Almost.

What are you doing today? Feel free to link to your blog if you posted about it there!

What's In Your Smoothie?

You're going to think I've totally gone off the deep end. This weekend I made a smoothie for my lunch. Yea, that's not nuts. I put 2 cups of fresh spinach in it. That used to be thought of as crazy, but now green smoothies are more commonplace. My kids were having sweet potato for their veggie so.... it sort of just jumped into my blender. And I LIKED it!

Here's my usual smoothie un-recipe. 1-2 cups fresh or lightly steamed greens, 1-2 frozen bananas, 1/4-1/2 cup frozen cherries, squirt of Barlean's Vegan Omega Swirl, small scoop of vegan rice protein powder and water. I change up the fruits all the time but this is my favorite - the cherries are strong enough of a flavor to calm down the amount of greens that I put in.

Here's the part where you're going to think I've lost it. Today I added steamed cauliflower. I'm not talking about a small bite but close to 1 cup full of it. My son was totally perplexed as to why I was putting the white snow-trees in the blender...but then he made sure that I was going to share. That's my boy! Adventurous eaters unite! I'll be honest. This is NOT my favorite veggie by any means. I have a curry cauliflower soup recipe that I love, but that's about it. I can certainly taste it in my smoothie - but it's OK!

I know you're saying "why, why, why?!?" at this point. Maybe you're not. Perhaps you're as nutty as me. Anyway. Remember my post yesterday about my plan for the year? About how I want to use up what I have? I hate throwing away food. It makes me feel so bad when something sits in the fridge for too long. Today I had cauliflower in the fridge that needed to be eaten. I think I found my new favorite way to eat up steamed veggies!

Here's another idea I had a while back - It's rare that I eat up all of the spinach that I get from our local farmers or the grocery store before it goes bad. I started very lightly steaming it and freezing it for smoothies in individual servings in freezer bags. I am not a fan of plastic bags by ANY means but my freezer is too small to hold everything in glass and I wash and reuse the bags until they fall apart, then I can usually find another use for them still. Anyway, to use less bags, I put the steamed greens onto a pan in little smoothie-sized piles. Then I flash froze it and put them into just 1 bag! I wasn't sure if it would work or if they're freeze together. Let me tell you, it worked! Yay!

I'd love to hear your ideas for reusing and making sure what you have in the kitchen gets used up. And if you do try a strange smoothie, tell me about it!

New Year

Happy New Year!

Wow. That's a little late, eh? Did you make resolutions? I usually don't. I do, however, like to set the tone of my year by it's first few months. This year, I'm going to work more on living my life with what I already have. Less consumerism. Less waste. I know, building a beautiful fabric and yarn stash is fun, and believe me, I have my stash. I want to do my best to use what I have already. This will be good for me. I do not mean just crafting, though. I want to do this in my food/grocery planning, with our clothing, with my family's other needs... I also want to blog about it when I have a minute and, as always, I *LOVE* reading your responses and ideas! Ready to jump into the year of use what you have, upcycle, make do and make it new? I am!

You get the chance to benefit from some of this too. It also means DESTASHING what I know I'm really never going to use. Take this:

I've never opened these. Back when I was knitting custom woolies by the doze

n I had grand ideas of dying my own yarn. Then I got more into sewing and less into knitting. While I'd love to give it a try, it hasn't happened and it's probably not going to. They'll be listed (at a much reduced price than I paid for them) in my shop soon.

And this:

This is a great and fun and easy to follow quilting book and is in fantastic condition. It has 10 cute patterns in it. My very first official quilt was the turtle you see on the front. I also had plans to make a few others in here but...it hasn't happened so... it is ready for a new home.

As I go through my crafting stash, I will likely find more gems. I'll try to post them here first to give you a heads up.

My kids and I have also being practicing this concept with their crafting. Namely, their valentines. What we did is not a new idea, but I can't wait to write about it and share my photos with you soon! I'm working on ideas that will prevent my family from wasting food as well. And I already have several clothes sewing projects in the works for Spring/Summer that involve upcycling, stash busting, and repurposing. Yay!

Treasures

I am NOT a collector or saver. My husband might disagree, seeing my bins of fabrics and yarns. But really, I'm not. This is why I am always surprised when, at this time of the year, I feel giddy and excited to open our stashed-away boxes labeled "Coat Closet - Christmas." During other parts of the year I forget the treasures these boxes hold. Like this beautiful, simple Nativity. The angel measures almost 6" tall and it's home in this new house is on top of the well-loved piano. I don't even mind packing away my brother's pottery for a while to make room for it. My grandmother, the one who my family says I am just like, gave it to me when I became a mountain mama. A friend of hers made it for her. I distinctly remember playing with the little baby Jesus as a little girl. He comes out of the manger! My own children discovered this fact a few days ago. What joy!

This is another Christmas treasure. I think this chiming rolly-polly Santa was given to me on my first Christmas. That would be somewhere in the 1970s. I *suppose* that makes it vintage. Oh my. Some of his paint is chipping off, but he has taken some beatings and still is well-loved. I am quite sure he will see even more rough play in the years to come. Sorry, Santa!

I almost always add a new handmade treasure to our small collection every year. Two years ago I saw this fabric and fell in LOVE. Our recycled, embellished old tree skirt was starting to really look bad and I knew it was time to make another. Well, life happens and 4 yards of Christmas fabric sat in my collection... until this year!!! So, I introduce to you my family's new tree skirt!

I wonder what memories and treasures will fill my children's memories in the years to come. What fills your's?

Why Wait?

The BIG sale starts TODAY! Many items have reduced prices and any order that has at least 1 set of lunchbox napkins in it ships for FREE*!

*this will be refunded to you via paypal. international shipping will be at reduced rates.

Black Friday preview

I'm working out the details of what I want to do, but there WILL be sales in my shop starting Thanksgiving and running thru Cyber Monday. I will be listing the exact totals of colors and fabrics that are available to make shopping easier.

Please remember to shop handmade for the Holidays!

Friday - again

Oops....It's Friday again and I have not posted anything all week. Sorry. Between having my husband away most of the week to dealing with interesting metal objects in the washing machine (that got it to stop working with a full load of laundry, water, and 4 more loads patiently waiting their turn!)... just not much time or energy to write.

I couldn't decide on a pic this week. My first thought was to share with you the quilt my daughter made - her first project on *my* baby, um, sewing machine. But that's listed in my shop. Well, then I remember that the actual baby doll quilt she made is NOT for sale - I'll happily make more if someone purchases the listing. And I'm really, really proud of her for piecing and sewing her quilt. Not trying to spam but.... So.... I'll give you 2 pics. The first is this baby doll quilt my 7 yr old made with little help from me. Apparently she's been paying lots of attention all of these years!!! The second is a beautiful circle I found in my boxes of vintage upcycled fabric. Gah, I love finds like these!!! A few pieced stars will be for sale soon in my shop but this one.... nope. My fabric-loving daughter has claimed it!

Happy weekend!

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{this moment} a friday ritual. a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. a simple, special, extraordinary mome

nt. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

- Amanda Blake, SouleMama.com

{this moment} a friday ritual. a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. a simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

- Amanda Blake, SouleMama.com

Not as much vibrant Fall color here as where we used to live...but these bushes at our house are beautiful!

Greener Holidays

Are you thinking about the holidays yet? Wondering how you can add more sustainable practices and also help others make positive changes? Here are a few ideas...

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The Green Grocery Bag Challenge: A Holiday Sewing Project Benefiting Mother Earth

Fact 1: US consumers generate 4 million tons of wrapping paper and shopping bag waste during the holiday season alone.

Fact 2: The US goes through 100 billion single-use plastic grocery bags every year.

Fact 3: This year, you can make a difference! How?

The challenge is this: Wrap your holiday gifts in reusable cloth grocery bags.

(SewMamaSew.com)

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The cool thing is that you don't have to be able to sew to use them. There are many ways to wrap gifts in reusables. Before you use reusable grocery bags, though, make sure the recipient needs another one. Some of us are overflowing with them! If they are like me and already have their own abundant stash, get creative. Consider a drawstring bag like those in my shop (btw, I'm always up for custom orders of these!) After they have received their gift, they can use this bag in sooooo many ways. My kids love the little ones I keep in my purse because they know I always have some interesting toys hidden in them. The larger ones make great knitting project bags, lunch sacks, shoe bags.....Another one of my favorite ideas is to use reusable sandwich baggies as gift bags! This cute bunch have handmade biscotti inside. These are available in my Etsy shop in assorted colored ripstop nylon (the material is made in USA!) and also in upcycled cotton prints and organic cotton solids.Or consider wrapping a gift in a reusable produce bag. Many people already have cloth grocery bags - help them totally ditch single-use plastics at the grocery store while also reducing your wrapping paper use! I think these would be beautiful tied with a BIG fat ribbon.There's also the amazing Japanese art of furoshiki, wrapping things in fabric. Use a scarf and it's 2 gifts! Here's a website with a great instructional pic of many of the basic techniques... http://xorsyst.com/japan/how-to-tie-furoshiki/

Happy wrapping!

Featured on a GREAT blog!

Check out FakePlasticFish.com!!! Not only is it VERY informative about kicking the plastic habit, but there's a great giveaway going on right now including my upcycled cotton sandwich baggies!

{this moment} a friday ritual. a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. a simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

- Amanda Blake, SouleMama.com

My 7 year old daughter took this pic. Not only do I adore her perspective, but I think she might have an eye for it!

CONTEST WINNERS!

You all had some great ideas! I loved reading them and I hope you did too! Drumroll please... And the winner is....

JAIMEZEE!

You get 10 extra entries. I've added them to the end, #s 10-19.

Now for the random number generator for the prizes....(I use random.org)

3

Jaimezee...that's you too! Wow, your FB post won. I'll be in contact with you so you can choose your napkins and send me your address. Thank you to all who entered.

I will post pics soon of some ways I've already begun to use the containers. I put a dry bean mix into a small hot coco mix container for my 3 year old son's creative, sensory and fine motor play. The large coffee containers will be decorated by my kids and used as gift-giving containers!

{this moment}

I still have a giveaway contest going on. Please scroll down to see how to enter and what the prizes are. You only have 1 more week to try your luck to win stuff! Here's my favorite State Fair photo from last weekend.

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{this moment} a friday ritual. a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. a simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

- Amanda Blake, SouleMama.com

{this moment}

I HAVE A CONTEST GOING ON RIGHT NOW...SCROLL DOWN TO SEE HOW TO ENTER AND TO SEE WHAT THE PRIZES ARE!!!

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I've read SouleMama.com for a long time now. It's about time I start participating in this beautiful Friday ritual to remind myself to get my camera out more often. Happy Friday everyone!!!

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{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. (taken from Soulemama.com)

My 3 favorite people hunting for fairy stones on a recent camping trip... in honor of my oldest child's upcoming birthday. Yes, this isn't a moment from this week but it's been on my mind (and I can't find the cord to upload yesterday's photos!)

contest update

I didn't mean to scare you off. You don't have to have the coolest idea out there just to enter the giveaway. Just jot down any idea in your comment and it'll count too!

I also wanted to add that these aren't the stronger metal cans that coffee used to come in...if it matters at all. Loving the ideas!

CONTEST!!!!!

That's right! It's a contest! Get your repurposing and upcycling creative juices flowing for this one!

But first, let's get real, what's the prize? Because there always should be a prize....

A SET OF 4 NAPKINS in any available fabric from my shop (SustainableHomestead.Etsy.com) **AND** A SET OF 2 PRODUCE BAGS!!! nice.

SEE THESE?

I'm starting to collect quite a few of these now that we live near a Trader Joes and hours away from our favorite roasters (who would let us reuse bags or just put the beans right into our glass container). I've washed them out and kept them. And spent some time trying to figure out the perfect use for them. For me, for someone else....whatever. I just don't want to add them to the landfill.

Here are the contest rules:

• Required First Entry: Describe a fantastic way to reuse these coffee cans in this post's comments! Get creative!
• Additional Entry: Share my blog on Facebook, then comment that you have done so.
• Additional Entry: Become a follower of my blog, then comment here that you have done so.
• Additional Entry: Become a fan of SustainableHomestead on Facebook, then comment here that you have done so.
• Additional Entry: Share my blog/this contest on twitter, your own blog, etc, then comment back here what you've done.

The details: Make sure I have a way to contact you. If I do not get a response from the winner within 48 hrs then another winner will be chosen. This contest will be done via random number generator BUT my favorite idea will be given 10 extra entries.