marytaylor – Page 24

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Eco-friendly Home Swaps

Did you know that having an eco-friendly home can actually be easy? You might think of eco-friendly as more expensive or even more difficult but it doesn’t have to be.

Here are some really easy and inexpensive eco-friendly swaps that you can do at home:

Swap out your paper towels for unpaper towels. Unpaper towels are just as they sound. There are so many ways to do this depending on your budget. The most favorite (but also most expensive) option would be to purpose pre-cut and pre-rolled unpaper towels (find here). But if you’re like me and can’t afford (or don’t want to spend) $x/paper towel, there are a few other options. These paper towels are actually recycled bamboo. They last a super long time and they’re easily rinsable with just soap and water in your sink. I love these because they look like real paper towels and they don’t need to go in the washing machine. My last suggestion if you want to use unpaper towels is to make your own. You can learn how to make your own here. Plus bonus tips on other things we use instead of paper products.

Now that you’ve gotten rid of paper towels you should also replace napkins. You can find cheap and beautiful reusable napkins online. Then, just throw them in the wash with your other items.

Cleaning products in plastic containers. Although you might be buying the eco-friendly cleaning sprays and cleaning products, they’re still usually in a plastic bottle. To save money and reduce waste (like throwing away the plastic bottles afterwards), you can make your own cleaning products and store them in glass containers. You’ll still need to purchase the ingredients to make the cleaning products but try to buy in bulk, refill your own containers at a bulk store, or buy powders in recycled cardboard boxes. Check out this blog for a DIY all-purpose citrus spray cleaner. See and click on the images below to check out a couple of great glass container options.

Straws! You definitely have seen this one before but I thought I would just throw it in anyways. Ditch the plastic and even paper straws and purchase reusable metal straws. You can find some here.

Going out to eat and usually bring home leftovers? Don’t forget to bring your glass watertight container to put your leftovers in. This way you don’t need to rely on the restaurant to provide a throwaway container that might not be recyclable.

Buy in bulk & use your own containers! This doesn’t just go for cleaning products but also your food! Did you know that bulk stores often allow you to bring in your own containers such as jam jars? If you don’t have any reusable glass jars on hand or want an upgrace, check out a few of my favorite eco-friendly glass container options here.

Say bye-bye to ziplock bags! These reusable ziplocks are my FAVORITE swap of all! I used to try to wash and reuse regular ziplocks (because I hated the thought of throwing them away after one use) but they never dried and were such a hassle. Plus, they never looked clean. Now I have several sets of different reusable ziplocks! For clear, regular looking ziplocks click here. For watertight, large, silicon ziplocks check these out.

Glad wrap or sad wrap? Glad wrap, plastic wrap, or cling film. However you want to say it, it’s a huge waste of plastic and can easily be replaced with beeswax wraps. Once you’re done using them, just give them a rinse and use again. Check out these gorgeous designs.

Baking paper ➡️ baking silicon! We use this tray liner that can be reused again and again. Nothing ever sticks to it so it’s a great replacement for baking paper or tinfoil.

Skip the plastic toys, decor, and household items! Although most of these items aren’t one time use plastics (like takeaway containers and straws are), they’re still contributing to the pass amount of plastic production and waste in the world. Opt for wood items such as toys, toothbrushes, hooks, hangers,

Check out these inspirational home images below and click on any of them (or click here) to see my shopping list of eco-friendly home items.

Do you have any other eco-friendly swap ideas for us? Tag me in your eco-friendly home inspiration on Instagram @its.mary.taylor and on Facebook here. I can’t wait to see how you use these ideas and your own ideas to create your eco-friendly, green home!

If you enjoyed reading this and would like more information on home, lifestyle, advice, tips, tricks, and more, follow me on Instagram @Its.Mary.Taylor and on Facebook at Mary Taylor! I can’t wait to see you there!

Signing off,

Mary Taylor <3

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Coconut Chocolate Pudding Recipe | Vegan Coconut Frosting Recipe

One night we were making a chocolate cake when I realized we didn’t have anything to go on top! We didn’t have cream cheese, butter, sour cream, or whipping cream.

As usual, I looked around the kitchen trying to see what I could turn into frosting. I wanted something creamy and rich. That’s when I thought of a vegan coconut chocolate frosting using coconut cream. There are so many ways you can change up this recipe too. Make it vanilla flavored instead of chocolate, add in a different kind of sweetener (like maple syrup or stevia), or even use other extracts or essential oils to make it peppermint, strawberry, or citrus flavored.

Feel free to experiment and let me know what you do to make it yours! Do you prefer it to be stiffer and colder? What additions or changes did you make to the flavors?

If you want to use coconut milk instead of coconut cream, just put your coconut milk in the fridge for 1-3 days before you use it. There are a few benefits of using coconut milk instead of coconut cream. Coconut milk hardens more when chilled and yields about twice as much as coconut cream. I used coconut cream for my recipe and loved it. Plus it was the perfect amount for a full cake. But, use whichever you prefer or have around.

As an Amazon associate, I may earn from qualifying purchases. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and I cannot see who makes purchases.

Where can I buy what I need?

Canned Organic Coconut Milk & Canned Non-Organic Coconut Milk

Organic Coconut Cream & Non-Organic Coconut Cream

Shredded Coconut

Freezer Safe Glass Containers

To read more about my recipes and why I create them the way I do (without specific measurements, times, and temperatures) check out this blog post.

Print Recipe

Vegan Coconut Pudding Recipe | Vegan Coconut Frosting Recipe

Course: Dessert

Keyword: cake, chocolate, frosting, pudding, sweet

Equipment

Stovetop
Pot
Something to stir
Freezer safe container
Oven (optional)
Whisk or Electric Whisk (optional but preferred)

Ingredients

Unsweetened Coconut Cream or Coconut Milk Chilled
Cocoa Powder
Coconut Milk / Liquid from Coconut Cream
Chocolate To Melt
Sugar
Shredded Coconut Optional
Vanilla or Other Extract Optional

Instructions

Make sure that your coconut cream is chilled. If you weren't able to put your coconut cream in the fridge overnight, place it into the freezer for around an hour. Make sure that it isn't mixed or shaken.
Scoop off the top of the coconut cream and place it into a freezer safe container. Leave the liquid in the bottle of the can.
Turn on oven for shredded coconut (you can toast the coconut now or later - see below).
In a pot on the stove, melt chocolate with a little bit of coconut liquid from the coconut cream can. You can also use coconut milk if you prefer.
Add in cocoa powder. Continue to constantly mix!
Add in your desired amount of sugar * you can use coconut sugar, powdered sugar, or regular sugar. For a smoother texture, make sure if you use a coarse sugar, like regular sugar, that it melts completely. You can do this separately to make a simple syrup and add that in. If you're using this as a frosting, you may need more sugar but if you're eating as a pudding, you may want less sugar.
Let cool for a little while (but make sure the chocolate doesn't solidify).
While the mixture is cooling, put your shredded coconut into the oven to bake. It will be done once it's at a golden brown color. Watch it closely!
Then, pour the chocolate mixture into the bowl with the coconut cream and whip/stir.
Even if the coconut cream melts, keep whipping/stirring until all of the ingredients are blended. Now is a good time to taste test it and see if you need more sugar. Then, place the mixture into the freezer until it solidifies more. If you want it to be fluffier, you can take it out and whip it more or leave as is (depending on your preference and what you're using it for).
Then, sprinkle toasted coconut ontop and enjoy!

If you make this recipe, please tag me on Facebook or Instagram so I can see your creations!

Signing off,

Mary Taylor <3

DIY Natural All-Purpose Cleaning Spray

While we lived with grandparents (and parents), I kept thinking about the day we would finally be in our own place so I could start living as eco-friendly as possible. One thing about being an adult is getting excited for weird things like organization and DIY cleaning products. Surely I am not alone! There’s just something special about an eco home. In our rental, we tried our best (only produced 7 bags of trash a year and used “eco-friendly” products) but I wanted to take it the next step. This meant no paper towels, no tissues, no makeup wipes, and no more purchasing cleaning products that I could make (which is pretty much all of them)!

As an Amazon associate, I may earn from your purchases through my links; however, it doesn’t affect how much you pay and I cannot see who makes a purchase.

So the journey really began. I stocked up on glass bottles, which if you’re US based, you can purchase here. And I set out to make my own DIY natural all-purpose cleansing spray with what I had at home. You’re going to be shocked at how easy this recipe is.

Here’s what you need to make your own DIY citrus cleaning spray:

✧ Glass Jar With Lid – buy here

✧ Citrus Peels (we used lemon & orange) *tip below

✧ White Vinegar – buy here

✧ Spray Bottle – buy here

✧ Strainer

✧ Purified Water (optional)

✧ Essential oils (optional)

And here’s what you do with all that:

✧ Put your citrus peels in your glass jar

✧ Fill the jar with vinegar to cover the peels

✧ Put the jar lid on & shake

✧ Let sit for up to 7 days (minimum 3 days) in a cool, dark place – Shake the jar every day if you remember

✧ Strain the vinegar into your spray bottle

✧ Toss out the peels (or even better, put them in your insinkerator/garbage disposal to clean the inside of your sink & freshen it up)

✧ Optional: add in water to fill your spray bottle or if your vinegar is too strong you can add water

✧ Store in a cool, dark place and use on everywhere from your kitchen to your bathroom

** Extra tip… Enjoy the fruit first! To create even less waste, make this from orange and lemon peels you would have otherwise just thrown away.

If you learned something new and enjoyed this blog, don’t forget to like me on Facebook and follow me on Instagram. I would love to see your homemade DIY cleaning sprays you make so tag me so I can reshare!

Signing off,

Mary Taylor

Pantry Inspiration

Being an adult can get weird sometimes right? To be honest, one of the things that I was (and am) most excited about for our new house is our pantry organization. Don’t worry, I totally know how weird it sounds.

I am going to dive right into my first home inspiration blog post since I released our home building process blog last week.

If you haven’t seen on Instagram, we actually recently moved into a temporary apartment until our home is built. So, we got to dive into pantry organization before our new house – granted, this apartment has NO storage so it doesn’t quite feel (or look) the same that I want it to. But, I know it will some day!

To see where you can buy similar (or the same) products that are featured in all of my home inspiration posts as well as all credits on images, head to my inspiration shop here.

What’s your favorite room in the house? Are you like me and the kitchen is your favorite spot? It’s probably because I love cooking, hence why I share recipes on the blog! When we finally decided we were going to build a house, I was super excited about all the things I could do in the kitchen. Given that our home won’t actually be THAT big and definitely lacks some storage space, I want to make sure we have amazing organization and a place for everything.

Check out my inspiration board and ideas and let me know what you think! What does your kitchen organization look like? I’d love to see your before and afters – especially if this blog helped you to find some tips, tricks, or a company that you now love! Check below for tips on making your kitchen pantry organized, beautiful, and maximized.

My number one tip for organizing your pantry is having designated, labeled baskets. This will help you sort items so they’re easy to find. It also reduces the look of clutter!

One thing we recently did was have a basket for opened “snacks” (chips, candy, nuts, etc) and one for unopened snacks. This not only helps us stay organized but also helps us reduce waste and buy less. If our opened snacks box is full, we should not be opening up more snacks!

My next suggestion is to have stackable containers so that you can maximize your space – especially if you have small cabinets or cupboards. If possible, purchase matching containers and stick to a theme (color, material, and style) to create consistency and elegance.

If you have deep corners or deep shelves, think about getting a lazy susan for inside your pantry. This not only helps with cleaning (because you can easily wipe, wash, or remove the lazy susan) but also helps you to be able to see everything without removing what’s in front. This is particularly handy for tall items such as sauces, oils, and vingers.

These few tips will help you take your current pantry from unorganized, sloppy, and difficult to utilize to clean, professional, and usable.

Signing off,

Mary Taylor <3

A Review of Our Home Building Experience so Far

My first post about buying and building our home is going to be all about the process so far (or at least some of it). Let’s face it, I have been putting it off because that’s kind of the boring and stressful part (unless you’re new to building as well – then, it would actually be really useful). It was supposed to be fun but I will preface this by saying it most definitely has not been fun the last 10+ months.

About a year and a half ago we decided we wanted to buy a home so that when our rental agreement expired, we could move into our own house! It would have been perfect timing since our wedding (which you can read about here) and month away in California was going to be the month after we moved out. We searched for months but didn’t come across anything that was the right fit. If you’ve bought a home before or you’re currently looking, you know when you see something that’s “perfect” but then it already has offers on it or it’s the right house but it needs to be moved in right away and you can’t do that yet? There’s a fine line between planning ahead and looking too early. If you’re in the same situation we were in, don’t worry! It’s not just you – it’s actually really common. Like many other things in life, timing is everything but it doesn’t always work out as you might hope.

One day while looking for homes online, I saw the option for a land and home package. It was a bit more than our budget at the time but it was exactly what we were looking for – three bedroom, two bathroom home in a good neighborhood. I got in touch with the company and found out that that particular home wasn’t available anymore but they had similar homes in the same area.

When you buy a land and home package, at least with the company we went with, you get one week to decide if you want to move forward with it before it moves onto the next person/people. The problem was, it was the last home available and had people who were interested in it. They had a few days remaining to give their answer and we were next on the list (with a whole list behind us who wanted the property). To our surprise, they didn’t respond so the home got defaulted to us. In that first week we weighed up all our options, talked about specifications, viewed their showhomes again, and spoke with the developer. We finally made our decision. We were buying land and building a home!

I should note before we get into too much that we are extremely lucky to have found a land and build project in the area we did for the price we did. Our builders subdivided three pieces of land to create four pieces instead. Meaning each of us get our land and home package for cheaper. So although our neighbors have bigger properties and homes, we still get to live in the same neighborhood for less! Thank goodness because it was the only way we would have been able to afford it!

Everything felt like it was aligning well. A brand new home, only slightly more expensive but comes with more guarantees and warranties, in an amazing area with a brand new school, customized to fit our lifestyle, and so much more. Although it wouldn’t be done by August 2019, it was supposed to be done by January 2020 which meant our month in California we didn’t need to pay rent and when we returned home from our wedding we would have to/be able to live with grandparents until January. As March moved into April and so forth, we were starting to hear that my mom and step-dad wanted to come visit us in summer 2020 (which is January/February/March). We talked with our building company and they said the home would be done in March at the latest. We shifted our thinking and planned to be all moved in by March 2020. A few more months for our “dream” home… we could do it! Everything was signed, finalized, and major deposits made in August before we headed to Cali for our wedding. They said they might even start building while we are away (which is why they said we needed to get everything done before we left). We had both been traveling around the world for a few years so settling into somewhere we could call our own meant the world to us. This was the home that we pictured having our first child in, bringing a dog home to, and really, officially, settling into New Zealand.

Now come October is when things began to get tricky. Less communication from the building company, lots of money (and time, hope, excitement) invested at this point, and nothing but a contract (which we didn’t quite understand to the extent we thought we did) to show for everything. We still hadn’t been able to purchase the land due to the title being held up in council (because remember how I said that they split the original land? That meant that our land didn’t even have a title yet!).

Fast forward a few more months of disappointment and little to no answers, it was time to make our decision regarding our sunset clause. “Simply put, a sunset clause stipulates the date by which the sun sets on the agreement allowing the property contract to be voided and the deposit be returned to the buyer. It is commonly inserted into agreements over properties that are not yet capable of being conveyed – i.e. in the absence of a title (new development or subdivision),” (https://www.apia.org.nz/apia-blog/what-is-a-sunset-clause). We couldn’t find, remember, or get in contact with anyone to let us know when that date was. Until our lawyer called up and said something like, “Today is your sunset date. You have 24 hours to decide if you’d like to keep the home or pull out of the contract and receive some of your money back.”

That 24 – 48 hours were some of the worst hours of our lives. How do you make that big of a decision – something you’ve spent almost the last year designing, hoping for, and getting excited for – without knowing anything exactly? No one could tell us how much of our deposit we would get back or if we waited (extended the sunset clause) when title would come out. Dates were being flung around on when we would move in but changed each time we had a call with our builders. How do estimates change by months in a matter of a week?

Ultimately we couldn’t make a decision that huge without any real information so we decided to allow the sunset clause to be extended. There’s a few big parts missing from the story but given that it’s just additional heartbreak and frustration, I will leave it out for now. Long story short, we extended the sunset clause. Luckily, right before Christmas break, title came out. We thought, “Finally! Things will start to progress!” But right when you think the building process is going to start to look up from here, it smacks you back down.

We officially received title in mid-January (2020) and we were meant to be able to start building, “Right away!” However, consent was filed incorrectly (i.e was missing information) from the building company and here we are the middle of May still without consent and unable to build. We are hoping that consent will be approved within the next week (although it’s already at least a week late…go figure).

Anyways, thanks to those that have stuck around to read this and those that have offered their love and support (and even their homes). It has been a really long, tough, and unfortunate journey. We continue to search for hope and try to make other aspects of the process fun whenever possible (right now that means creating vision boards and designing spaces virtually – see above). You can check out my home inspiration shop to see where to purchase items from my inspiration boards and see where the images came from within the boards themselves. Look out for more blogs about inspiration, where we are at now, etc.

I’m always looking to connect with local New Zealand businesses who specialize in home decor, eco-friendly products, or organizational products, I would love to follow them on Instagram! If you know of anyone that fits that description or something similar, feel free to reach out and mention them in this Instagram post.

To read about where we are at now search the building tag here to see the latest blogs about our building process!

Signing off,

Mary Taylor <3

Chickpea & Bean Tomato “Curry”

I shared this recipe on my Instagram story a few weeks back and I got so many people asking how to make it! This recipe is super easy, quick, gluten-free (unless you eat it with naan), vegan, and versatile. You can make it spicy (or not). Feel free to change it up by adding more veggies or beans. It’s easy to save and eat cold or reheat. It’s the perfect meal prep dish!

To read more about my recipes and why I create them the way I do (without specific measurements, times, and temperatures) check out this blog post.

Print Recipe