Oct 29, 2018 | Create, Sustainable Living
I’ve never put much thought or care into how I’m supposed to clean and condition my wood cutting boards, bowls or utensils… but this super easy homemade wood butter is everything I need to get shiny buttery wood! Lollllllll
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Ingredients:
Natural beeswax
Cold pressed coconut oil
Lemon
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Mix 1 part beeswax with 3 parts coconut oil in a bowl. Heat in microwave for ~30 seconds until it’s all melted. Squeeze the juice of a lemon in the bowl and stir. Pour into a wide glass jar. Let it cool for a few hours, and voila! Apply a thin layer to condition your wood to give it a brand new sheen so it lasts longer and prevents mold. Plus it’s totally food safe!
Oct 28, 2018 | Lifestyle, Sustainable Living
Feast your eyes on this tropical zero waste party idea!
My best friend Gabby Faaiuaso hosted a sustainable baby shower party for her oldest sister Siumu (who works for the local Environmental Protection Agency), and I was so impressed with the ingenuity of it all! Also impressive is the fact that she planned it all within a week’s time and got everyone together to make it eco-friendly.
It was a beautiful setup, and the best part is – everything was sourced locally! Remember the elei cloth napkins I made in my previous blog post? I made it especially for this day. Gabby (also known as Alafaga on social media) herself, is an amazing creative, videographer, and photographer in American Samoa and always advocates for local talent. She banded some of us together to create special details that brought it all together.
Venue: Faletalimalo, Utulei Beach Park
Decorations & Styling: Alafaga
Pallet tables & center pieces: Alafaga
Tropical backdrops: Alafaga & Ammon Fepulea’i
Coconut bowls: Pua Tofaeono & Alafaga
Elei cloth napkins: Nerelle
Baskets & ma’ilo plates: TheMindofMo & Guests
Desserts: Koko Samoa Bliss & She Bakes Too
Papaya stem straws: Alafaga
Chairs: Skyview Rentals
Game prizes: ASCC Land Grant plant starters, Mailelani coconut soap bars, & coconut shell earrings from Samoa
Follow Alafaga on Facebook, Instagram, and check out her photos from the event on this gallery!
Oct 27, 2018 | Create, Sustainable Living
A couple of weeks ago, Gabby told me she was planning her sister Siumu’s surprise baby shower and she might need some help. She said she was inspired by what I’ve been doing to live a more sustainable life and decided on an eco-friendly tropical theme for the party. What?! How cool!! This made me very excited to hear her list out all the ways she was opting for a zero waste event. I immediately offered to provide cloth napkins (instead of paper towels), and before I knew it, Gabby came over to my house with a giant bundle of orange fabric. I just had to cut and hem. But it seemed too plain, and Gabby was already pulling all the stops, so I had to level up (yassss to Ciara + Parri$).
I finally had a good reason to use this elei stencil I bought in Samoa over New Year.
It took a looooong time but once I set up my workbench and did a couple of test prints, I found my groove. I cut the long fabric into pieces that could fit 4 napkins, taped the stencil down and placed two 2×4 blocks to keep the fabric from warping, poured and painted with a roller, took it out to the balcony to dry, and repeated this… about 15 more times! With less than 24 hours before the event, I couldn’t leave them out to dry, so thankfully Ian helped and ironed all the pieces to heat set the fabric paint. Then I cut out the 4 napkins from each strip, and took it to my sewing machine to do a raw hem edge.
Like I said, it took foreverrrr. I started on Friday afternoon and finished at 5am the next day, just a few hours before the surprise baby shower! Oh man, if it weren’t for Gabby, I don’t think I would have done any of this but I’m glad they turned out. I’ll be posting photos from the beautiful baby shower super soon!
