Why the blog?

My concern for the environment and its inhabitants (feathered, furry, scaled, human, etc.) has never been greater, and I have been feeling lost. I sign petitions. I request donations to environmentally-geared organizations in lieu of gifts. I recycle. But as the attacks on our environment continue at what seem like unprecedented rates, I have been feeling a need to fix something over which I have slightly more control. 

I recently got married, and as my husband and I re-assessed our daily purchases, this provided me with the perfect opportunity to really figure out how our household can do better - how we can reduce our impact on the planet and support companies with similar values.

For years I have tried to buy earth-friendly, human-friendly, creature-friendly products when I can. But honestly, until this point, I had done very minimal research on the products I used. I figured out some of the "better" brands in a typical store, trusted the labels, and stuck to them.

I quickly realized there are a lot of awesome companies out there developing products that are better for the world. As my husband and I tend to fly by the seat of our pants for everyday purchases (e.g. "oh man, we're out of laundry detergent and we need to do laundry tonight"), finding stuff that you can actually get in a store without waiting a week for it to arrive by mail has been a consideration in some of this. It also helped that my work schedule gives me an occasional weekday off, which allows me to peruse the internet to my heart's content and wander local stores staring at products. My husband is not fond of change, but he's rolling with it beautifully.

I never intended to start a blog, but as my notebook turned into a jumble of thoughts, and my ramblings to my mother intensified, I realized I needed to write this stuff down in a more "formal" manner so that I could make sense of it all. This isn't meant to push a certain lifestyle or product. It's really just to share my synopsis and interpretation of the research/product testing that I have done in the hope that it provides a little less work for someone else down the road who may also be interested in this kind of stuff (hi mom!)

Thoughts? Send them my way: f2aliving@gmail.com