About Emily

Like many moms, Emily began her journey toward natural living when she found out she was pregnant with her first child. From cloth diapers to homemade green cleaners, she began making small changes toward a simpler more natural lifestyle. When her husband lost his job a year later, she scrambled to also learn how to live as frugally as possible. She quickly realized that many things that save money also save the earth, and began chronicling her journey toward living "frugally green" at Live Renewed. She is now the proud mama of two little ones, and although her husband sometimes wonders what she has done with the woman he married, she is passionate about helping her family live differently and responsibly as they strive to be a good steward of all of the resources God has provided them with.

Spring Cleansing with Juice: 3 Delicious Homemade Juice Recipes

by on March 28, 2013
in health, nutrition, & food · 9 Comments

3 Delicious Juice Recipes

Written by contributor Emily McClements of Live Renewed.

Spring is here, even if only on the calendar; where we live in Northern Indiana we still have snow and freezing temperatures. But still, Spring is a great time to think about refreshing and detoxing your body after the long winter months.

Juicing is a great way to reap the benefits of eating, or actually drinking, large quantities of fruits and vegetables. Juice fasting has become popular due to documentaries like Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead and Hungry for Change. My husband did a ten-day juice fast in January as a way to kick-start his weight loss goals, train his palate to enjoy more vegetables, and help him move toward a more healthy, whole foods diet. He lost fourteen pounds in ten days, and has kept the weight off as we have been continuing to drink juice together as a family on a regular basis since then.

While there have not been specific studies done to show the benefits of a juice fast, some sources state that drinking juice from fresh fruits and vegetables allows you to intake more vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients than eating whole fruits and vegetables, boosts your immune system, helps your body to remove toxins and can even reduce your risk of cancer.  [Read more...]

How to upcycle a dress shirt into an infinity scarf

by on February 20, 2013
in sewing · 19 Comments

how to upcycle a dress shirt into an infinity scarf {tutorial}

Written by Emily McClements of Live Renewed

Today I want to show you how to turn an ugly dress shirt into a super cute scarf. This project has quite a few steps, but let me assure you it is an easy beginner project. If you can cut and pin material and sew a straight line (or semi-straight in my case), you can make this scarf. And if I can do this, you can do this, because I definitely don’t have any special crafty or sewing skills.

I found this tutorial for making an infinity scarf before Christmas when I was looking for easy gifts to make for my family. I made a few scarves for gifts out of material that I purchased, and got the hang of the pattern. Then, I was shopping at a thrift store recently and stumbled upon this ugly shirt. But, I was drawn to the fabric for some reason, and I thought it would make a cute scarf. So I bought the shirt, upcycled it into a scarf, and am really happy with the way it turned out!

I followed basically the same method that I used to make scarves out of a long piece of material, but this time using material that I cut from the shirt. Read on for the tutorial.

[Read more...]

A Creative Life: Finding Your Creativity and Making Time to Create

by on January 16, 2013
in inspiration & creativity · 13 Comments

finding your creativity and making time to create

Written by contributor Emily McClements of Live Renewed.

If you’ve followed along with me on my blog, Live Renewed, for any length of time you’ll know that I consider myself an un-crafty mama. What this means to me is that I don’t have a natural crafting ability. And, when I do attempt projects that I see on blogs or other websites, it usually goes badly for me, meaning it takes way longer, is way harder, and makes way more of a mess than it did for the original crafter, and the end results look nowhere near as wonderful as theirs.

My other issue is time. Because it always seems to take me much longer to complete something, I get overwhelmed with the amount of time that creating can take away from my day. And these days time is not something I have an abundance of.

It’s disappointing to me, and actually kind of depressing. The fact is, that despite my lack of ability, I really want to be able to create beautiful stuff with my hands. I like the idea of crafting, and I do wish that I was better at it.

Can you relate? Maybe you don’t consider yourself very crafty. Or maybe you’re also struggling to find the time it takes to craft. If that’s you, I’d like to take a minute to offer you some encouragement and inspiration. [Read more...]

Christmas Keepsake: Salt Dough Ornaments

by on December 19, 2012
in sewing · 9 Comments

salt dough keepsake ornament

Written by contributor Emily McClements of Live Renewed.

Christmas is right around the corner and we are getting excited at our house. This will be my baby’s first Christmas so I wanted to make a special homemade keepsake for her. I saw the idea for making a footprint impression in salt dough on Pinterest, and thought it would make a great Baby’s First Christmas ornament so we can remember how little she was on her first Christmas as the years go by.

Of course, my two older kids wanted to get in on the fun, so we made cute hand print ornaments for them too. Here’s how you can make your own keepsake ornaments for your kids this Christmas. [Read more...]

Easy Ways to Simplify this Holiday Season

by on November 12, 2012
in living mindfully · 6 Comments

Simply for the Holiday Season

Written by contributor Emily McClements of Live Renewed.

It’s the holiday season, a favorite time of year for many of us. But, the holidays often also hold the stress and busyness of trying to get a lot of stuff done – shopping, decorating, cooking, baking, holiday parties, making homemade gifts, gift wrapping, and more, in a short amount of time – Christmas is only six weeks away! And I didn’t even mention spending quality time with family and loved ones and celebrating the real meaning behind the season.

Over the past few years, my family has really been striving to simplify this season so that we can do the things that matter most to us, and skip out on the many of the things that our culture tells us we are supposed to do, and the stress that those things can bring.

If the holidays bring more stress than peace for you, it may be time to consider simplifying your holiday season. [Read more...]

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