Sustainable Holiday Shopping | Gift Guide For Him

On Tuesday, I shared my Christmas Gift Guide for Her, and today, it's all about the dudes in your life!

I feel like I don't focus enough on guys' products on the blog, but next year, I plan to include more all year long. This guide was pretty fun to put together!

http://www.ecocajun.com/2017/11/sustainable-holiday-shopping-gift-guide_30.html

So without further ado, click through to find some eco-friendly gifts for guys.

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Sustainable Holiday Shopping | Gift Guide for Her

Now that Thanksgiving is over and I'm back from vacation, it's time to focus on holiday shopping! How is your shopping going so far? Aside from a few Hawaiian gifts, I haven't even started yet.

For the past couple years, I've put together some eco-friendly gift guides, and this year, I'm giving you THREE gift guides! One for the ladies in your life, one for the guys, and one for the children.

Today, we're starting with the ladies.

http://www.ecocajun.com/2017/11/sustainable-holiday-shopping-gift-guide.html

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Photo Black Friday

So, how are you spending your Black Friday? Have you hit up the doorbuster sales, or are you choosing to avoid the shops and spend a little time in nature? Or are you decorating for the holidays?

I personally can't wait to get some decorating done this weekend, and hopefully getting our tree!

As I'm currently in an airport en route back home, I'm thankful for the time I got to spend in nature this past week. It's been a nice break from the day-to-day routines, and I'm feeling recharged for the holidays.


How is your Thanksgiving break going so far? Let me know in the comments!
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Happy Thanksgiving from Eco Cajun!

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all! I hope you are all having a joyous holiday, however you may be celebrating.

There's so much negativity in the world that can consume us, but today, think about what you're thankful for. There's still a lot of good, immediately around you and all over the world.


Every year, I say I'm thankful for all of you who read and follow along, and most importantly, follow eco-friendly principles in your own life. I'm thankful for the environment and everything it gives to us, and I'm thankful for those who are dedicated to protecting the environment.


In case you missed it last week, check out some tips on how to celebrate Thanksgiving and the following big shopping days sustainably!

Now, back to prepping for Thanksgiving dinner!
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Stretching the Life of Candles

My husband and I love to keep a year-round supply of candles in the house, so we pretty often have a collection of candles that are almost-fully burned out.

But instead of throwing out glass jars that have a little bit of wax left in them, my husband has embraced an awesome repurposing project - combining the wax to make new layered candles!


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Photo Friday | Why Are You Littering?

I know we're all gearing up for holiday mode, so I'll keep it short and sweet today!

A few weeks back on Instagram, Polly from Green Indy Blog shared this sign from NICHES Land Trust in Indiana. The organization works to protect public lands in their area, and recently put up new signs for litter prevention.


NICHES' mission is to protect, restore and sustain northern Indiana’s ecosystems by providing habitat for native species and offering natural places for education, appreciation and enjoyment of current and future generations.

I'm quite a fan of snark, and this sign makes me laugh every time I see it. It's sadly true, and hopefully it makes people stop and think a minute about why they may be littering. Thank you to NICHES for bringing a little humor to a serious problem!


If you're gearing up for some Thanksgiving week travel, I hope you have a safe and fun time. Be patient and be thankful this week. :)

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Planning Your Eco-Friendly Thanksgiving Weekend

Are you guys ready for Thanksgiving and the official start of the holiday season? Yeah, me either. The holidays are one of my favorite times of the year, and while the 2017 holidays will be very bittersweet for me, I'm choosing to focus my efforts into the things I love. I'm so ready to put our Christmas tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving!


I've got some fun content planned out for the holiday season - be sure to come back the week after Thanksgiving to check out some new holiday shopping gift guides! I'm so excited to share some eco-friendly and fair trade gift ideas for anyone on your list.

But first, let's talk about how to have a more sustainable Thanksgiving.

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America Recycles Day 2017

Happy America Recycles Day! Every year on November 15, Keep America Beautiful puts the spotlight on the importance of recycling.

While it's important to reduce and reuse first, recycling is a better way to handle items that we already have.

There are thousands of local events planned across the country today and all month long, but even if you only take a few minutes out of your day, you can celebrate individually.





http://www.americarecyclesday.org

  • Take the pledge to recycle a particular product, maybe one you don't recycle now. 

  • Recycle as much as you possibly can! Especially on November 15, make it the highest priority. If you collect your recycling inside, make sure to bring everything to your outside bin or community dumpster for pickup.
  • Bring any plastic shopping bags to a recycling collection point. Many local grocery stores have a bin for plastic bag recycling. 
  • Grab some bags and get outside. Use your lunch break to go on a litter hunt and pick up and recycle as much as you can, or take a walk after work to clean up the neighborhood.
  • Take your children around the neighborhood to clean up litter, and teach them about the importance of recycling in the process! In the spirit of the day, make sure to recycle anything that can be recycled, from plastic bottles, to cans, to cardboard. Don't just throw all the litter into the trash can.
  • Offer to recycle for others - whether your office or neighbors. Offer to take any of their recyclable waste and put it out for pickup. At work, go around to everyone's desks and offer to collect any recyclable waste, or leave a special bin for them that you can pick up later.
The first version of my office recycling bin, back in 2014!
  • Visit the America Recycles Day website and look for a recycling event in your area. There are 2,460 registered events across the country! This year, there are no organized events in Louisiana, but don't let it stop you from doing something on your own.
  • Share the message with everyone! Let your friends and family know about America Recycles Day and encourage them to participate too.

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Photo Friday | Cleanup Before & After

Before last Saturday's Better Block Johnston Street in Lafayette, Project Front Yard hosted the Downtown Deep Clean Block Party. While most of the focus was on mulching the flower beds along Jefferson Street, a few of us concentrated on cleaning up litter. One parking lot in particular was in dire need of a cleanup.


  

The Saturday morning after Halloween week is quite the interesting time to be cleaning up litter. In addition to the usual suspects of liquor and beer bottles, straws and cigarette butts, I found a lot of fun size candy wrappers and even a pair of vampire teeth.


Because I go out about once a year, I hadn't noticed Jefferson Street Pub's clearly recent mulch and flower bed project until now. I'm a fan of red mulch, and the flowers added a beautiful pop of color to the sidewalk, brick building, and parking lot background. However, the cigarette butts aren't helping any matters here. (Five seconds later, they were in my trash bag.)


I know it's odd, but I honestly enjoy picking up litter. It feels so productive, and you can immediately see the benefits of your work. The flip side is the knowledge that your work usually won't last for 24 hours. With the amount of bars downtown, I know this parking lot didn't remain this clean come Sunday morning.

But we'll keep on keeping on fighting to keep our community clean!
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Style for Social Good | Sseko Designs

One of my new year's resolutions for 2017 was to really focus on making sustainable style choices. I'll be posting a full recap of my year next month, but today, I'm excited to share a little about one of the brands I've discovered!


Sseko Designs focuses on providing work to women in Uganda, enabling them to earn money to go toward a college education. Sseko products are all made in Africa and create jobs, empower artisans and help end the cycle of poverty by building healthy communities and economies.

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Photo Friday | Upcoming Events in Lafayette

If you're looking for a fun way to get involved in Lafayette, November is your month! There are already a lot of sustainability-focused events on the schedule, so I'll give you a quick roundup. Click each event name to go straight to the Facebook event page.

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