Friday, December 17, 2010

Warming Up On A Cold Day DIY (Green Style)

In the January issue of Martha Stewart Living I found an article on how to make fire starters out of newspaper and twine. So simple it was hard to resist! Tightly roll a sheet of the paper length wise, fold in half and then braid. use a piece of rope twine to tie it at the bottom. Easy and a very pretty addition to the bundle of wood I have resting in the big basket by my fireplace. This project prompted me to look for similar ideas and here is what I found- Herbal fire starters as seen above: Dry out a few of your favorite herbs and spices (mint, rosemary, cinnamon, etc), twist them up, add to fire. Makes the house smell incredible.

Next: I've always liked the Java Logs and have been curious to try and make my own seeing as we drink a ton of coffee in my house and always have grinds to throw away. The recipe for this sounds extremely easy and can be found here- http://www.ehow.com/how_4866384_make-log-using-coffee-grounds.html I will let you know how mine turn out.

Last, I stumbled on to this idea by accident and cannot wait to try it out... Dried orange peels for kindling the fire. I can only imagine how amazing this must make ones home smell. You can save the peels and dry them in a paper bag or you can set them on a roasting pan in a warm oven set to a very low temp. From what I've read, they get very hot and in the old days were used as a substitue for coal to heat stoves. How cool is that?!
Incredible scents to fill your home on a cold day, good for the planet and good for your pocket. :)

2 comments:

  1. (I'm going to murder Google; I'm having a hell of a time commenting.)

    These are some really great ideas. I can only imagine the smell. Mmmm.

    I was reading that issue of MSL before bed last night and I was avoiding the chicken recipes because I was hungry. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lol, those roated chickens looked so good that I'm making the rosemary one tonight! Gotta love Martha Stewart. :)

    PS- I tried the orange rind and it smelled amazing!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...