Favorites – Sustaining Sara

2022 Faves

We don’t always take a year-long hiatus, but when we do we share our [insert year] Faves post two months late…okay we always do take weird hiatus’s but that can change! I just want to continue the trend of sharing my favorite things from the year past and this year is no different.

To be honest, I was thinking about this post back in December 2022. With that bit of information you may be asking “Sara, if you had this post planned so well in advance, why are you so behind and lazy?” And to that I say “lazy; yes, Planned; no.” To be honest this year I was having a hard time conveying my fave items into a post simply because the things that made my year great were not things I can simply give you a link to or even readily available to you.

Take that information with a grain of salt. Without further hesitation, the things that romanticized my 2022, my 2022 Faves:

My House

In 2022 my husband and I bought our first house (can you see what I mean by things I cannot “give you a link to or even readily available to you”)? I wish I could give you a link to your own, personal dream house, but unfortunately I cannot.

All obvious aside, we had so much help, love, and support that lead to us getting the most perfect house for us! We have continued to improve it with our own cozy furniture, bold paint, and appliances. There is still a lot of work to do (kitchen remodel, basement bar installation, installing more electric outlets), but our house has seriously been the most amazing addition to my family’s lives and I do not take that for granted.

“The Window” during Christmas festivities.

Wine

So this one is for the 21+ crowd. I have always enjoyed wine and the past few year my husband and I have become serious about learning about wine and wine tasting. Well this year I have been able to take my knowledge and experience to the next level and now I am a buyer and consultant for a local grocer! This has been so much fun and my desire to learn more about wine has only become more insatiable!

Here are a few wines I recommend:

La Vielle Ferme Rouge: ‘Quality exceed price’ – a wino colleague

Z. Alexander Brown Uncaged Pinot Noir: for a celebrity wine this Pinot Noir is classy and floral, I love it!

Teruzzi Isola Blanca Vernaccia Di San Gimignano DCOG: I was given this in a wine tasting and FELL IN LOVE. Just a great balanced white with citrus and floral notes.

Flowers

I don’t care what anyone says, this is the period in my life were I need to romanticize the little things the most and flowers are a huge part of that. Our house came with a beautiful rose bush of some kind memorializing a pet cat and we tend to keep the flowers healthy and beautiful! Last fall I planted tulips and irises, but with the literal hot-and-cold winter weather, I fear they both started to pop out of the earth just to be frozen in the most recent ice-storms.

Anywho, this summer I plan to plant as many dinner plate dahlias as I can as well as many other pollinator-friendly flowers. Make sure you are following me on instagram for all the beautiful, and sometime unsuccessful, flower pictures!

Well, that’s a wrap for my 2022 Faves. This was was different from the previous, but I would not change it for the world! I have so much to be thankful for and these things continue to make me happy. What are your fave things, people, or places right now? What is giving you feelings of gratitude?

Honorable mention to my lovely partner in life; my husband. He is always on these adventures with me and I am lucky to have him as my best friend.

2021 Faves!

I will never not say ”fave” when talking about my favorites. I do not care about how lazy or untrendy it sounds, I will always talk about my faves as “faves!” And while this post is months late and I have a great backlog of adventures to talk about, I will start my 2022 posting on Sustaining Sara with these faves:

Nemo Hornet Elite 2 Tent

I hope everyone followed my tent escapades when planning for last summer’s Pictured Rocks Backpacking adventure. After much thought and help from my sister Rachel, in Gear Shakedown #3, Charlie and I decided to borrow a real backpacking tent.

This tent was so easy to set up and carry! Charlie and I liked it so much that when we found one in the REI Garage Sale, we coped it for ourselves!

AreoPress

A very exciting thing I did in 2021 was become a barista! When I first started I wanted to learn everything I could about coffee and TRY ALL THE COFFEE DRINKS!

Since Charlie got me my AeroPress for my birthday, I have been making my at-home espresso with it. It is super-simple to use and there are so many instructional videos online to get you started!

My Toiletry Bag

Due to some life stuff, I was moving around a lot in 2021 and having the OMYSTYLE Cosmetics, Makeup and Toiletries Organizer came in so clutch. I always had what I want with me (as long as I had this bag packed lol).

Trello, these are my fave things from 2021. I hope you can see that these things are all useful based on the lifestyle I live. While I may not be using the tent everyday, the other two items are very important parts of my everyday life! Anyway, what has been your fav useful gadget? I would love to know what things make your life easier!

Love,

Sara

Sustainable Living – Products and Services

Well y’all, this is the post that finally starts to cover how I practice a more sustainable lifestyle. I want to share with you a few products and services I use that help me decrease waste and things I look forward to utilizing in the future. I hope that these are helpful and feel free to click on some of these links for offers to start utilizing the same services!

Things I currently use:

Imperfect Produce

First off, let’s start on something I am passionate about considering my own bad habits. Did you know that rts.com is projecting 80 billion pounds of food waste this year? Yikes. I feel bad about throwing away part of my lunch or letting potatoes go bad (who even has time to let potatoes go bad!?), but there is a substantial amount of good food that cannot even make it to market because it looks funky or is of inadequate size. This is where Imperfect Produce comes in for me. Imperfect Produce gets their hands on the produce grocers won’t buy and not only sells it to you to deter food waste, but will deliver it to your doorstep.

Y’all. I don’t drive. But I love grocery shopping and ugly produce/overstock food items. This service is so convenient for me and I love opening up my box on delivery day. And to be perfectly honest, I have not gotten any of the funny looking produce that they advertise. Most of the items are overstock or abnormal size; for example my favorite item which was a giant 3 lb. carrot! I just love this service and am so happy to always have fruits and veggies to incorporate in my meals.

If you are enticed by Imperfect Produce, check out this link for $10 off your first order!

Who Gives A Crap

I purposely did not make this the first topic because some people do not like to talk about toilet paper, but here we are. Who Gives A Crap is a 100% recycled toilet paper subscription service. Yes, a subscription service for toilet paper. They also have add-on products like facial tissue and paper towels made from recycled materials if that is your thing.

On top of being eco-conscious, Who Gives a Crap is also dedicated to making a social impact. Who Gives a Crap uses 50% of proceeds to create sanitary toilet options for areas in need of them. Plus, they are certified Carbon Neutral and a B Certified Corporation meaning they meet the highest level of social and environmental impact.

I just love never running out of toilet paper while also supporting a socially-conscious business. I really think this is the best way to buy toilet paper as a capable and responsible consumer. Plus, when the shelves were cleared of TP in March 2020 I was un-phased! Who Gives A Crap did not take on anymore customers during the TP shortage, but I was able to keep my subscription and give away this “currency” to family and friends in need. I love it!

For a piece of mind when it comes to this bathroom staple, here is a link for $10 off your first order!

Fillaree

By now you may have noticed that I LOVE subscription services and am in a blessed position to be able to afford the upfront investment of bulk supplies (aka large produce box, 3 month supply of toilet paper). Fillaree is also just like that but is a refill subscription service for soaps. REFILL SUBSCRIPTION. You are sent a container of whatever soap you choose from – dish, hand, body, hair, all purpose spray, and other eco friendly accessories – and you can create a refill subscription where they send you a new bottle and you ship back your empty. Easy-peasy!

Products and Services looking forward:

Dropps

I would like to get a Dropps subscription for dishwasher and laundry pods…but I do not have a dishwasher yet and want to bundle the two. Dropps packaging and pods are biodegradable which I think is awesome. As you can imagine though, once we switch to drops we will look to dropping Fillaree dish soap. For now we are a Fillaree and Charlie’s Soap household.

Girlfriend Micro Plastics Filter

Y’all have not heard about my absolute LOVE for this brand! I bought their leggings at launch (anyone remember that annoying “$20 luxury leggings” ad from 2016?) and am now a devotee to their recycled bottle leggings. As you read this my next order is on the way with my new micro plastic filter for my washing machine! Since we are slowly moving from one house to another I decided this was a perfect time to get a micro plastic filter to do my part in making sure little pieces of plastic crud do not enter our water ways.

If this pumps you up as much as it does me, check out Girlfriend and use this link for $10 off your order over $95.

Compost

No secret, I currently don’t compost. I am learning about household composting and a sustainable practice for my household.

No Buy/Eco Minimalism

I am trying to stop shopping for things I don’t need. These things are filling up my life and are destined for a landfill or the back corners of my closet. When I think of this fate I am pretty confused as to why I spend my money on frivolous things. I DON’T LIKE IT. This will be an ongoing adventure but one that I am sure will give me the piece of mind that I need.

Thank you for checking out things I use to be more eco-conscious and please let me know what products I use that you are interested in or alternatives you utilize! Comment below!

Love,

Sara

2020 Faves…and 2019!?

I am humbled to share with you that by clicking any links in this post I may receive a kickback. Thank you for your support!

I think we would all be surprised how much weight our recommendations have to those closest to us. Sometimes our interests overlap with the people we know more than we realize and that is what I found out in 2019 when I decided I needed to tell people about items that I truly loved and made my life easier. With those posts buried in the Facebook archives, here is a list of things that I loved in 2020 AND 2019!

2020

Marmot Trestles Elite 20 Sleeping Bag

With 2020 not meeting anyone’s expectations, I started to finally feed my desire to start backpacking. That being said, one of the first things I bought was my sleeping bag. For this I researched bags used for backpacking and a handful of qualities that were important to me; warmth and comfort, compact-ability, and affordability. The Women’s Marmot Trestles Elite 20 Sleeping bag caught my eye for its price compared to other backpacking sleeping bags and the partner compatibility – meaning I convinced my fiancé to also get this bag so we could zip the bags together!

This bag is so warm that it is chihuahua approved!

IPad Pro

I have not had a personal laptop since college and on top of that I tend to over-flood my IPhone 7, so I remedied this by buying and IPad Pro. I have been able to separate work and fun (a big struggle for me) by moving game and social apps to my IPad, leaving my phone to its bare necessities. With the addition of the Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil my IPad has become my laptop and has even enabled me to start this blog! While it is definitely a luxury item, it has really made my life easier.

Hammock Accessories

Once you decide to start backpacking you realize there are many choices in gear, but I dare say picking a shelter provokes the most research. There are so many varieties of tents or even just a simple tarp for the brave, but I chose to evolve my hammock kit as my backpacking shelter. I have had an Eno Eagle DoubleNest Hammock for 2 years and coveted my sister’s Eno Hammock for years before that. Since I already had the hammock and the straps it was easy to start building this shelter. All I needed was the bug net and rain tarp. This is by far the most comfortable sleeping setup outdoors, has room for cutting costs to fit a tighter budget, and all the components can even be purchased at once with the Eno OneLink system.

Later on I even bought and under quilt for Midwest fall camping!

2019

Yeti Can Koozie

My fiancé had gotten me one of these can koozies and I can hardly drink a beer without using it. This koozie keeps your drink cold for hours (if it lasts that long). It is a little heavy, but you get used to it. They even have a slim can koozies that I think I may need to invest in!

Carhart Leggings

First clothing item! When I got these leggings I was working in warehouse management and my high-visibility vest would burst from holding so many pens, radios, and notebooks. But when I wore these leggings I felt like I had myself put together. There are no shortage of pockets, fit true-to-size, and are reinforced in the knees. A lot of my girlfriends that work outdoors, on farms, and other labor positions swear by these leggings!

National Geographic Road Atlas

In 2019 I had the pleasure of being on two road trips. One was from Michigan to California and the other was California to Michigan. On the first road trip my sister had me help navigate some of the no-service areas with the National Geographic Road Atlas. Then when my fiancé and I drove back to Michigan I just had to have my own Road Atlas! We even used this on a Northern Michigan trip. The maps are easy to follow and the states are even in alphabetical order. I just cannot recommend this enough for your car or recreation vehicle.

Bonus points that my uncle said he was so proud of me for acquiring map reading as a skill!

These were the things that were most useful for me, but what were your favorite items in 2020? Comment below or in the Sustaining Sara Facebook Group!

Love,

Sara