Growing up, my family only bought what we could not make ourselves. Mother made all of our meals from scratch, even while we were on the road. She sewed curtains, crocheted blankets, even made soap by melting down all of our soap scraps. My father had a wood shop in our garage and knew how to use it. He would produce coat racks, toy chests, shelves, desks and other furniture as needed.

Bring your own bag or pay a fee.

If a new bill passes, California will require retailers to charge 15 cents for one-time use plastic shopping bags.

Now, here is a clever solution to recycling. If you're crafty, you can probably make your own, but if you feel like supporting innovative, creative, cool as can be independent business, then you should consider spending $16 for these fabulous post-post-consumer waste notebooks.

As we speak, there is a big plastic bin from the Post Office sitting by the front door. It is filled with junk-mail. Catalogs. Coupons. Crap. Crapola. And more crap. It is not mail that I want, that I requested, that I will use. I will not, in fact, even open it.

I hate to shop. Except that I love it. I don't think of myself as being a particularly girly girl. By in large, although I have my own (occasionally questionable) sense of style, I'm not much of a fashionista. At the same time, sometimes I just need a new something-something to put that spring back in my step.