DIY: EARTH DAY 2016 BUTTERFLY GARDEN

EarthDay2016: Happy Earth Day!!!

So last year I put together a blog for Earth Day, and I would like to continue the Earth Day Blog tradition, because this is a pretty important day in my book. I mean without our earth, no other holidays would matter because we wouldn’t be here right?

So this year, instead of giving you tips on how to help the planet today, I am going to just focus on Composting. With the up coming moving date to our new house, my fiancé and I have been having many discussions about what we are going to be able to add to our house and garden, and one thing that we both agreed on was a compost pile. Growing up my parents had an open compost pile, which made it much easier to find additional soil for our huge garden.  So now we have decided on an open compost for the new house. We are going to use a tarp probably to help dampen them smell for the neighbors, but personally I never minded the smell.

Here is how we are making our open compost pile:

Materials:

• 7 lengths of 2 x 6 wood, each cut to 3'. Your lumberyard will make the cuts for you. Get exterior, rough, unplanned wood. The wood does not need to be treated with preservatives - untreated lumber will last many years. 


• Four lengths of 2 x 2 wood (or 4 x 4 ), each cut to 3' lengths.


• Galvanized common nails, 2 3/4" long. 28 nails. 

Putting it together:

• Sharpen one end of each 2 x 2 to act as stakes. This will keep your bin in place.

• Set stakes in place and drive them down into the ground with a sledge or heavy hammer.

• Nail the 3' boards to the 2 x 2's. Leave space between the boards to help aerate the pile. Pre-drilling the nail holes will make nailing easier and prevent the wood from splitting. This is where you can get creative and make your bin taller, or more air space) Make sure you keep the front low, so only nail one board on in the front so that you can easily dump into, scoop out of, and turn your pile as you need.

• Check your stakes, and drive them down to secure everything. 

What can you put in a compost pile? (From: http://www.plantea.com/compost-materials.htm )

Paper napkins 


Freezer-burned vegetables 


Burlap coffee bags


Pet hair 


Potash rock 


Post-it notes 


Freezer-burned fruit 


Wood chips


Bee droppings 


Lint from behind refrigerator 


Hay 
Popcorn (unpopped, 'Old Maids,' too) 


Freezer-burned fish 


Old spices 


Pine needles 


Leaves 
Matches (paper or wood) 

Seaweed and kelp 


Hops 


Chicken manure 


Leather dust 


Old, dried up and faded herbs 


Bird cage cleanings 


Paper towels 


Brewery wastes 


Grass clippings 


Hoof and horn meal 


Molasses residue 


Potato peelings 


Unpaid bills 


Gin trash (wastes from cotton plants) 


Weeds 


Rabbit manure 


Hair clippings from the barber 


Stale bread 


Coffee grounds 


Wood ashes 


Sawdust 


Tea bags and grounds 


Shredded newspapers 


Egg shells 


Cow manure 


Alfalfa 


Winter rye 


Grapefruit rinds 


Pea vines 


Houseplant trimmings 


Old pasta 


Grape wastes 


Garden soil 


Powdered/ground phosphate rock 


Corncobs (takes a long time to decompose) 


Jell-o (gelatin)


Blood meal 


Winery wastes 


Spanish moss 


Limestone 


Fish meal


Aquarium plants 


Beet wastes 


Sunday comics 


Harbor mud 


Felt waste 


Wheat straw 


Peat moss 


Kleenex tissues 


Milk (in small amounts)


Soy milk 


Tree bark 


Starfish (dead ones!) 


Melted ice cream 


Flower petals 


Pumpkin seeds 


Q-tips (cotton swabs: cardboard, not plastic sticks) 


Expired flower arrangements 


Elmer's glue 


BBQ'd fish skin 


Citrus wastes 


Stale potato chips 


Rhubarb stems


Old leather gardening gloves 


Tobacco wastes 


Bird guano 


Hog manure 


Dried jellyfish 


Wheat bran 


Guinea pig cage cleanings 


Nut shells 


Cattail reeds 


Clover 


Granite dust 


Moldy cheese 


Greensand 


Straw 


Shredded cardboard 


Dolomite lime


Cover crops


Quail eggs (OK, I needed a 'Q' word)


Rapeseed meal 


Bat guano 


Fish scraps 


Tea bags (black and herbal) 


Apple cores 


Electric razor trimmings 


Kitchen wastes 


Outdated yogurt 


Toenail clippings 


Shrimp shells 


Crab shells 


Lobster shells 


Pie crust 


Leather wallets 


Onion skins 


Bagasse (sugar cane residue) 


Watermelon rinds 


Date pits 


Goat manure 


Olive pits 


Peanut shells 


Burned oatmeal (sorry, Mom) 


Lint from clothes dryer


Bread crusts 


Cooked rice 


River mud


Tofu (it's only soybeans, man!) 


Wine gone bad (what a waste!) 


Banana peels 
 


Chocolate cookies 


Wooden toothpicks 


Moss from last year's hanging baskets 

Stale breakfast cereal 


Pickles 


'Dust bunnies' from under the bed 


Pencil shavings 


Wool socks 


Artichoke leaves 


Leather watch bands 


Fruit salad 


Tossed salad (now THERE's tossing it!) 


Brown paper bags 


Soggy Cheerios 


Theater tickets 


Lees from making wine 


Burned toast 


Feathers 
and Animal fur 


Horse manure 


Vacuum cleaner bag contents 


Coconut hull fiber 


Old or outdated seeds 


Macaroni and cheese 


Liquid from canned vegetables 


Liquid from canned fruit 


Old beer 


Wedding bouquets 


Greeting card envelopes 


Snow 


Dead bees and flies 


Horse hair 


Peanut butter sandwiches 


Dirt from soles of shoes, boots 


Fish bones 
Ivory soap scraps 


Spoiled canned fruits and vegetables 


Produce trimmings from grocery store 
 

For some other ideas as to what you can do for earth day, check out The International Business Times 2015 Earth Day activities.

Bye Bye DTCC

For the past 2 1/2 years I have been in school non-stop. Summer semesters, spring breaks, internships, you name it. I have spent every waking minute of my life at Delaware Technical Community College working on becoming an Entrepreneur,  and before that a personal trainer. So with the ammount of time I spent there, I decided that it would be the perfect place to hold classes. Last Jan is when I started my YTT and it was suggested that I start teaching small groups so that I could get the hang of it, so I did. I started a volunteer program at my school where twice a week I would come early and hold a yoga class. Every Tuesday and Thursday for 4 semester now I have holding morning yoga classes from 7:45-8:30. 
I am so grateful to those students and faculty who have been there with me a incentives the brining of my yoga journey. Who put up with the terrible akostics of the racket ball courts where we practice. To those who took a chance with me and tried some of my other classes, even if the studios were way out of the way for you. Over this stretch of time I have taken many a photos of you all and your progress, and so I am compiling all of the pictures I still have so that I can share these wonderful memories you all have given me. That I will hold and cherish as I continue this journey. 

Lets get Class Started!!!

The Time that Step aerobics left out their steps from the night before and I was really debating weather or not to try to turn our class into step-yoga...

Walking in on Thursdays and seeing this meant today is going to be a good day.

When I set out on a mission to get everyone to try acro... starting with Connor

Spinal Twists are always great!

The times we had a really full classes, with new people...

And the times we had not so many.

Im serious Spinal twists are the best!

Savasana is my fave!!!

Drews first time doing Acro!!!

Hamstring Strength Building

This years Power Yoga Flyer

This years Restorative Yoga Flyer

The time we turned class into Meditation time

Tim and I used to practice Acro Yoga a lot!

Core Work

That time everyone got really mad at Utkatasana 

The time I got hot computer guy aka Peter parker aka his real name is Craig guys... to do some acro with me!!!

I am finally graduating and these classes will unfortunately be coming to an end as of Thursday, April 21. I will miss you all!

Yoga: Child's Pose Balasana

Thoughts for 4/11/16

Wow, we are almost ½ way through April. I seriously feel as though I have done nothing this entire month. The only things I can honestly remember doing this month are being really tired and thus taking a lot of naps. This bums me out though. It makes me feel like I am not doing my job right or that I am not cut out for what I do, so I decided to take a more serious look at what I have accomplished this month so that I can get a better idea as to how productive I have been so far.

1 Prepared and finalized 2016 first Quarter taxes

2 Finished my business plan or when I up and move everything to Media

3 Finished every project, assignment, and homework for every class up till graduation day (so all I have left is exams)

4 Programmed two 4 week workshops, and 1 workshop by myself, and I have one more in the works

5 Programmed an additional 2 workshops with friends, and have 2 more in the works

6 Branched my company out to a new product line and am now offering retail

7 Started my summer deals for personal training

8 I didn’t die

I always add the didn’t die, because with my anxiety, no matter how much I shut down those fears and know that my stress isn’t going to kill me, I’m always happy to say that I didn’t die as an accomplishment.  I was hoping to come up with a list of 10 accomplishments, and if I add the house parties, and mommy duties to that list I would have 10.

As someone who constantly looks at the situation with “what is the worst outcome possible” it is nice to look back sometimes and see that the worst did not happen, and that everything is still ok.

Forever Easter Eggs

Personally I like to keep mementos of holiday crafts from one year to the next and Easter eggs are the same. For years  I have spent teaching my friends about how to create ester eggs that wont spoil or go bad and that you can essentially keep forever, and now I would like to pass this on to everyone else I know. 

Things you will need:

-Something sharp (if you have a needle this is ideal) if you so not a small and sharp knife will do the trick.

- raw eggs (because I do these every year, I try to only make 2-3 that will last forever otherwise my house would become over run with eggs, but remember they are super fragile so if you are clumsy, make a few more)

Optional: markers, paints, dye, stickers, rubber bands, crayons,

Step 1: Holding the egg as it comes in the crate, create 1 large hole at one end of the egg and a slightly smaller hole at the other end

Step 2: Blow into the smaller hole pushing the yoke and white out of the larger hole (if this becomes difficult, try enlarging the bigger hole, or sticking the needle in further to break up the yoke) and into a bowl.

Step 3: Rinse your eggs under some water or try blowing water through them as well. Then let them dry.

Step 4: Paint!!! We use all the same techniques as we do with other eggs, like rubber bands, stickers, crayons, dye, markers, and paints. Be creative with these guys, they will last you a lifetime.

Here are some eggs we used crayons to write a message on or draw lines

Here is one we used rubber bands on (be careful with the rubber bands not to wrap them too tightly, because these eggs will break more easily than hard boiled ones)

Here are some we markered on.

Yoga: Dos and Don'ts of Downward Facing dog aka Adho Mukha Shvanasana