Style by Nature Blog

Has everyone picked up their copy of The Coast’s “Green Guide”? Put together by the Coast team, the Green Guide is an exceptional guide to businesses in Halifax that are green-commited and making it easier for everyone to do the same. This guide makes it simple to find green alternatives to the businesses you use in your daily life. It can be found everywhere The Coast paper is found, and is a free resource. The Green Guide was printed by the Advocate Printing in Pictou, which is the industry leader in environmentally sustainable printing. With categories including services, restaurants, transportation, shopping, beauty, and home and garden; you`ll be thrilled to find some new places to shop and local businesses to support.

Style by Nature is proud to be in the Home and Garden section – on page 36.

up their

Greetings!

So we are starting to see a few days which are resembling promise of spring ahead! That means it is time for my spring newsletter! I am actually proud to announce that my spring article has been published by Clean Nova Scotia in their spring magazine. This is available online – as they are trying to cut down on paper waste (kudos!). There will be a few hard copies of this soon, though. So please visit this magazine online at http://issuu.com/cleannovascotia/docs/candgspring08 . There are many other great articles – and you will find mine on page nine, ‘The Mean Green Spring Cleaning Routine’. For those of you who do not have Flash Player you can email me and I will send a copy of the text!

On another note – if any of you ever have any questions related to eco-friendly design or decorating in general please don’t hesitate. Email me with your question and I will respond to it here on my Blog.

Precycling is preventing unwanted waste before it happens –simple as that! As you may have guessed this happens before we recycle. By reducing and reusing we can minimize the amount of waste we create and reserve our resources. Although recycling is ethical, it makes even more sense to minimize what we send to the recycle depot. This is what we call Precycling! There are many ways to do this at home, at work, and at school.

• -Reduce on packaging while grocery shopping to minimize waste – think before you buy
• -Use old t-shirts as rags while cleaning to save on paper towel.
• -Donate all your old clothing, appliances and toys to your local Salvation Army.
• -Remove your name from any unwanted mailing or catalogue lists and encourage others to do the same.
• -Buy lunch items in bulk and pack in recycled containers instead of individually wrapped snacks.
• -Buy in bulk as opposed to packaged items.
• -Avoid disposable items such as razors and dust cloths.
• -After using tinfoil wipe it clean and store for re-use, or use a pot lid for oven use.
• -Invest in a coffee travel mug. Most coffee shops will give a discount if you present your mug for refill!
• -Challenge yourself to find ways to reuse your recyclables around your home – from twist-ties to glass jars

Reduce your recyclables by one half through precycling! It’s easier than you may think!

Another Valentine’s Day – another day to buy, eat, give and talk chocolate. One of the most common ways to express your love to someone on Valentine’s Day is with this desired treat. Sustainable Harvest International would like to help you give your special someone chocolate with a goal. Help chocolate farmers reverse rainforest destruction by planting an acre of chocolate in the honour of your loved one.

There is a variety of other ways you can give through Sustainable Harvest International year round. Provide families with the seeds, nursery materials and training to plant 100 trees for only $25.00. In addition to providing families with food and income, you will protect soils, lessen global warming and provide a home for wildlife.

For more informations visit
http://www.sustainableharvest.org/giftofhope.com
or call 207-669-8254

Although humans currently comprise only about one-half of one percent of the total living biomass on Earth, the human effect on nature is disproportionately large. For example, the average Westerner today consumes over 100 times the resources of a person living 200 years ago at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Over the same period, the population has increased by a factor of ten . Quoted from Blaise Pascal;

“The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble.”

To understand how your actions can influence the state of our planet earth, consider yourself a pebble in the ocean. By changing a few aspects of your life, a chain reaction will occur. Implementing eco-friendly concepts into your living space is not only healing for our planet, but also for yourself and those around you. So next time you consider buying a new piece of furniture for your home – think about a refurbished item. And when it comes time to repurchase some of those cleaning products, take a walk down the organic isle and realize that you can take small steps and contribute to a big movement.

Hello! I’m not certain how you have found my site - but you have somehow stumbled here and I’m glad you did. Most importantly - you stuck around! And now that you’re here you’re probably wondering who I am and how I got to doing what it is I do…

The easy answer would be that my name is Claire and I’m an interior decorator. But that doesn’t really seem sufficient does it? I’ll elaborate. I’ve always believed that the Earth was a very generous woman for letting all of us live here in her home - not just a source of gravity. So when a friend charitably invites you to stay in their house– do you not take it upon yourself to tidy up behind you and maybe even offer to do the dishes? My point exactly. Not only should we protect our Earth – but find ways to give back as well.

At a young age I became interested in architecture, community planning and our personal environment. After studying a few of these disciplines I came upon interior decorating. I realized that I wanted to create spaces which were eco-friendly and also rich in natural materials. So I took it upon myself to start researching products, procedures, cities which all have the sustainable and eco-friendly concept at heart (which I will share with you over the coming days). Now I get deeply excited every time I come across an inventive product or every time I open my Natural Home magazine and find a new sustainable home. So that is me and this is my passion. Stay tuned for my daily findings, adventures, accomplishments, discoveries, and play…

Welcome to the new Style by Nature blog. My name is Claire Maybee and I’ll be authoring this blog that will cover a variety of topics including the interior decorating and home staging industries, organic and eco-friendly lifestyles, and Halifax, Nova Scotia in general. I have comments disabled due to a lot of spam, so if you need to get a hold of me please contact me here