My Cheerful Little Chico Bags

I was just telling my hubby the other day how happy it made me to roll my shopping cart to the car with all my cheerful, colorful little bags holding my groceries.

Do you have any of these yet? If not, get some. They are great, compact, and light to carry. I love my Chico Bags but until recently they were doing me no good because I always forgot to take them to the store with me. Duh! Yeah, I know.

Now I just keep them in the car so I can actually use them. Once I unload all the groceries from the sacks, I stuff them into my HEB bag and throw them back in the car.

They make great gifts too. Get yourself and a loved one some at Reusable Bags.com.

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Fight global warming with just the shirt on your back

Could saving the planet be as simple as wearing one little T-shirt? Probably not, but if it's this T-shirt, you've found a good place to start.

Here's mine:

A ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees and 7,000 gallons of water. Trees are natural CO2 sinks (removing CO2 from the atmosphere). Recycling 1 aluminum can saves enough energy to power a television for 3 hours!

This tee is made from 100% certified organic cotton. It is grown, woven, and sewn in the USA using sweatshop-free labor. Your tee will come custom hand-printed with YOUR unique number on the front. This number represents your place in the sequential global count of people committed to helping stop climate change.

On the back of each shirt is a word or phrase that describes an action almost anyone can take to reduce their carbon footprint. You choose which action you are committed to doing and get counted in. No one can do everything. Everyone can do something. And, WE ADD UP.

Get yours: We Add Up.com

Ideas for a Greener Easter Basket

Looking for something other than the same old Easter basket filled with tiny, toxic trinkets and loads of refined sugar? Want to avoid the less-than-original, mass-produced baskets so easily found at "Big Wally?"

My daughter has had the same Easter basket for the past 3 years and it's one she uses every day. As an alternative to a store-bought Easter basket that just gets tossed the next day, consider buying one of these bolga baskets from A Toy Garden lined with green wool roving for grass.

And what should you put in it? I'm so glad you asked! Here are a few ideas from a couple small, independently-run stores that offer fun, safe alternatives.

• hand-knit Easter eggs, wooden eggs that you can decorate or leave au naturale, or, for an older child, glass eggs
• organic cotton toy bunny
• spring flowers reusable Sigg bottle
• rolling duck, bunny, or turtle toy

For even more springtime fun, check out A Toy Garden's selection of toys that honor the season and Our Green House's picks for a green Spring celebration.

Mortgage Discounts for the Energy Conscious

Want to be the green house on the block? As more industries jump on the "green-wagon," conscious consumers can enjoy the benefits of a wider selection of eco-friendly solutions at lower prices. Even prospective home owners concerned about conserving energy can benefit directly by getting a discount on their mortgage. Lenders across the US and in the UK are beginning to offer deep discounts to borrowers who want to install solar power in their homes among a variety of other energy saving ideas.

In Ireland, Ulster bank offers what they call a "Solar Mortgage" giving borrowers a 50% discount off the bank's variable mortgage rates. Their hope is to help free up the money home owners need in order to be able to install the latest solar technology. The bank has partnered with solar energy company Solarcentury to provide this convenient service at a low cost for the growing population of energy-conscious home buyers.

If you are in the home-buying market and are wondering about your energy-saving options, begin researching lenders who offer incentives to make your home more friendly to the environment. Mortgage companies are offering more and more incentive programs and creative solutions for home buyers than ever before, and a free quote is easier to obtain than you may think. Begin taking advantage of the green trend by getting your free quote and contacting a mortgage lender today to ask about their environmental programs. Even if they don't yet offer a service similar to Ulster's, the more borrowers express interest the more quickly they may begin such a program.

Eco-friendly Paper Made from Elephant Poop

The Problem: In Sri Lanka, where agriculture is the dominant form of land use, elephants are being killed because they destroy the crops.

The Solution: Create a way to use elephants as a sustainable economic resource.

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Who: Mr. Ellie Pooh's Handmade Poo Products

What: Lovely notebooks, notecards, stationery sets, journals, scrapbooks, photo albums, memo pads, and craft paper all 100% recycled and 100% handmade from 75% Sri Lankan elephant dung

When: Anytime you want to send your sentiments and a statement at the same time

Where: To shop, go to the Mr. Ellie Pooh shopping page; to learn more about the human-elephant conflict, elephant orphanages, and how poop turns to paper, go to the Mr. Ellie Pooh home page; to find Pooh paper in stores across the US, Canada, or Puerto Rico, go to the locations page.

Why: Because it helps save elephants by making them an economic asset that contributes to the welfare of the Sri Lankan people. And it's just plain cool!

What else: I bought the 5x7 cardstock packs in white, kraft, and green to make "blessing cards" to send to family and friends. They were 50 cents for a pack of 5 sheets which is cheap enough to get a good assortment of colors. Because I can never find paper when I need it, I'm planning on buying one of the pooh paper boxes or a pooh pad.

What now: Go buy some! It's a perfect gift for your favorite stationery aficionado and for everyone else too! The paper's sturdy but still soft and supple, just like beautiful handmade paper is supposed to be.

Top 5 Green Home Goals for 2008

I'm always working toward making my home healthier, both for my family and for my planet. A few green goals I was able to accomplish last year were using more natural cleaning solutions, shopping with reusable bags, and recycling. I have recycled everything my nearby center would take and have managed to stick with it. Yeah, it piles up sometimes, but at least it's not going into the landfill. It's pretty disgusting to dig up the recyclables that end up in the trashcan, but you gotta do what you gotta do. This year, my hubby plans to build me a full-fledged "recycling center."

Some of my other 2008 goals are carry-overs from 07 so I already had a beginning idea of what I wanted and where to go. For others, I consulted The Green Guide when I didn't know where to turn. You can use their search feature to look up the specific topics you need.

1. replace as many plastic containers as possible
   
2. try reusable & biodegradable party supplies
3. more recycling bins
4. start a compost
   
5. shop organic, local & gently used

That's just the top five. I have a ton of other ideas swirling around in my head on any given day, given whatever new information I've heard or old information I've remembered. To keep from getting overwhelmed though, I just keep a list of all the eco-cool stuff I find so I can get around to it one day in the near future. It helps to go wherever the flow is though, wherever my interests are at the time so I don't begin to feel like I have to save the whole world right this instant. And so you don't feel that way either, below I've got some earth saving gear I've found to get us on our way.

Don't forget you can always count on Our Green House and ReusableBags.com to have lots of what you need. And if you haven't already, sign up for Ideal Bite's newsletter so you can get your daily dose of eco-tips in bite size pieces.

save these tomatoes from my evil green thumb!

These sprouted without any help from me. I just left them there, intending to use them, then one day I noticed THEY WERE GROWING. And that's what worries me, that once I touch them, they will die. Any tips?

Buried under a sea of Christmas catalogs?

Found this helpful little article over at Mothering Magazine.

Stop the Catalogues, Save the Planet

By now, we all know that our environment's got problems. Uncontrolled logging and rainforest decimation have brought us to the point where we have lost roughly half of our planet's trees. The catalogue industry alone is responsible for the destruction of more than eight million tons of trees each year.

Now, thanks to a project sponsored by the Ecology Center and endorsed by both the National Wildlife Foundation and the Natural Resources Defense Council, there is a way we can control the flood of unwanted catalogues in our mailboxes—Catalog Choice...

You can read more about how to stop your flood of catalogs by visiting this link at Mothering.com for the rest of the story.

For mail that's actually useful and regular doses of Motherly wisdom, subscribe to Mothering Magazine today! Mothering is printed on paper that is 30% post consumer waste and the rest PEFC certified for Sustainable Forest Management. There are even digital subscriptions so you can get this great magazine with little or no environmental impact at all.

future tree hugger

Can I get another earth or two please?

If everyone in the world consumed as much as I do, we would use up 3.8 earths each. Wow! Considering we only have one earth, that seems way too high. I was feeling a bit smug when I logged in to play the Consumer Consequences game. The game evaluates your consumption habits in each of 6 areas: home (the building itself, how many people live in it), electricity, waste generated, public and personal transportation, food, and use of goods and services, i.e., shopping. At the end of the game, you receive a score that tells you how many earths it would take to sustain all the people on the planet if everyone lived like me.

Yeah, I recycle. So much that we only put our big trash can out on the curb once a week, if that often. Go me! And I use cloth grocery sacks too. That is when I remember to actually take them to the store with me. Gotta work on that. I save as much energy as possible and now that I've played the game, I learned that I need to unplug my cell phone charger when my phone isn't on it. We have only one car and manage to cram 5 people into a house less than 2000 square feet. (Below is a pic of a typical recycling day for me. You should see the inside of the car!)


My score was 1.1 until we got to the part that asks how much of your food is organic and locally grown. This is an area that my husband and I have been talking about more lately, making more of an effort to buy from local farmers. Heck, we live just outside the woods anyway. I know I've passed some farmer's markets and stands on my way to HEB. Next time, I'll stop and see what's up. I did really well in all the other categories though.

One interesting thing I found out was that, in Texas, almost 90% of our power comes from coal and natural gas. I was just wondering about this the other day. Fortunately, we have the largest wind farm in the U.S. and the 2nd greatest wind energy potential. Switching energy companies is definitely something I will be looking into.

When you finish and get your profile, you can even compare yourself to others like you who have played the game too. For example, the score for other females was 3.7, others with Master's degrees was 3.8, others in Texas was 4.2, and others born in 1975 was 3.8. It seems I'm just about average, which isn't necessarily a good thing. Since this is a huge interest for me, I think I should do as much as I can to live below the norm. Now I know the areas I need the most help. Go check out Consumer Consequences for yourself to see if you're living a sustainable life and tell me how you scored.

Here are some other quizzes to help you learn about your impact on the earth.

• Best Foot Forward
• Ecological Footprint Quiz
• Carbon Footprint
• Fight Global Warming's pollution calculator

Did you take the Handmade Pledge?

I did! See.

But so far, I've elected not to buy anything at all. Mostly out of perfectionistic procrastination. What? You didn't know that procrastinators are really perfectionists?

Well anyway, BuyHandmade.org gives us some good reasons for giving handmade gifts this holiday season. Even NY Times has caught wind of this grassroots movement. Of course, I don't need to be convinced. Last year, in October I bought a box of 40 handmade soaps off Ebay and gave them as Christmas presents. I finally had enough presents to give to people I usually can only afford to give cards to. As I've mentioned before, my family has decided to make a switch from giving each other individual gifts in favor of family-oriented gifts such as museum memberships and things that will afford our family an experience to remember such as play tickets and digital cameras given with the intent to do photography projects together. Of course, the grandparents will give whatever they want to whoever they want and we won't deny them this. For giving to those outside our household, we are working toward making our own gifts, from decoupaged photo frames to homemade pasta and BBQ sauce a la Chef Curtis (no, not from Food Network, from my hubby Curtis). Alternatively, if we find ourselves feeling less than crafty, we will opt to buy handmade or buy a craft so the recipient can make something by hand.

Here are the reasons BuyHandmade.org says to join our club:

Buying Handmade makes for better gift-giving.

The giver of a handmade gift has avoided the parking lots and long lines of the big chain stores in favor of something more meaningful. If the giver has purchased the gift, s/he feels the satisfaction of supporting an artist or crafter directly. The recipient of the handmade gift receives something that is one-of-a-kind, and made with care and attention that can
be seen and touched. It is the result of skill and craftsmanship that is absent in the world of large-scale manufacturing.

Buying handmade is better for people.

The ascendancy of chain store culture and global manufacturing has left us dressing, furnishing, and decorating alike. We are encouraged to be consumers, not producers, of our own culture. Our ties to the local and human sources of our goods have been lost. Buying handmade helps us reconnect.

Buying handmade is better for the environment.

The accumulating environmental effects of mass production are a major cause of global warming and the poisoning of our air, water and soil. Every item you make or purchase from a small-scale independent artist or crafter strikes a small blow to the forces of mass production.

I wholeheartedly agree. I will admit that my heart sinks when I find out a gift-giver speed-shopped through Walmart on Christmas Eve, Birthday Eve, or Anniversary Eve. (For my daughter's last birthday, I registered at Target but because everyone we invited to the party shopped on the day before, the registry didn't show that 3 people bought her the same exact pair of shoes.) I have however worked to look past all this into the hearts of the gift-givers while still encouraging them to come around to my way a bit. I've been using the recent toy recalls as a foot-in-the-door to get my parents and inlaws to consider buying from my favorite children's stores. Nothing like a touch of fear to teach Grandma some new tricks eh?

fundraising with a conscience

Calling all parents of school age children. Calling all people who know parents of school age children. Calling all people who get harassed every year to buy useless or fattening junk from other people's kid's schools.

Every year we dread the barrage of fundraising catalogs my step-daughter will bring home. You know, the ones with every scent of (petroleum-based) candle you can think of, tubs of cookie dough, and tons of dull, uninspired (or 70's-inspired) gift-wrapping paper. It brings back ugly memories of my school days when the pressure to sell and win a "fabulous" prize was more than Little Me could handle, so my parents would trudge off to work to pimp my school to their coworkers. At least the cheap plastic, probably lead-coated bike horn I won was worth it. For the whole two weeks it worked anyway.

Enter Fundraising Green. Eco-conscious parents everywhere rejoice! Fundraising Green's My Green Spark coupon book provides

"schools, clubs, non-profits and organizations of all types an eco-friendly, zero administration fundraiser that teaches students, supporters and their families how to live greener, healthier, more active lives.... Our program is fun and educational. We give away prizes and leave people feeling good. Our users will make an educated choice to make these lifestyle changes. They will never feel like they were “guilted” into it. "

With a book featuring SoCal retailers as well as a national retailer book, there are savings for whatever you're interested in and wherever you are. There are coupons for major discounts at Blue Penguin, Sprout Kids Clothing, Manduka, Green Nest, and so many other green retailers. I'm in the process of signing up Houston BabyWearers and I can't wait to get started. After you look around their site, also check out their blog. Cool stuff huh? Is anyone else out there doing something this cool? Let me know!

Dreaming of a green christmas

Being green seems to be higher on many people's lists these days, from corporate sponsors to rock stars to... me. I've always been a little green anyway but since having my daughter it seems to have kicked in gear even more. The thing is, I have habits that I don't even realize I have, ones that are certainly not too planet-friendly. I've really come to value the tips from Ideal Bite because they get me thinking in a new direction and show me all the cool new (and sometimes old) ways of staying green.

Like many Americans, every year, it's a tradition for my family to buy a real, live Christmas tree. For me, an artificial tree just won't do, no matter how much "Scent 'O Pine" is emanating from its PVC branches. So, real it will be. My goal now is to find a tree recycling place near where I live. Thanks to a green tip of the week from Crunchy Domestic Goddess, I found Earth911 where I searched for a tree recycling location using my zip code and found one about 5 miles down the road. Cha-ching!

If you are dreaming of a greener Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or other Holiday, you can hit up Ideal Bite for some good ideas. Subscribe to their newsletter and you can get your bites emailed to you so you don't have to rely on your memory to help you stay green.

Mr. Green

I know lots of mamas out there will be "degreasing" their homes over the next few weeks, franticly cleaning everything in sight and some things out of sight, to get ready for family visiting for the Holidays. An an article from The Green Guide gives us tips for getting squeaky clean with recipes for safe, non-toxic cleansers for your home.

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"What should a clean house smell like? If you said "bleach," it's time to rethink your housekeeping routine. Many cleaning products contain chemicals that pose human health risks and pollute our waterways after they disappear down the drain. Fortunately, there are plenty of all-natural, highly effective products on the market that don't contain harsh ingredients like chlorine (toxic when inhaled), ammonia (which irritates lungs and airways), phosphates (which harm aquatic ecosystems), and alkyphenol ethoxylates (suspected hormone disruptors). But there's an even easier, more affordable solution: make your own gentle, nontoxic cleansers at home. These recipes from The Green Guide will get your home sparkling-clean without the harsh, unhealthy additives."

What's in your kid's lunch?

I've been quite a busy bee lately getting my kiddos ready for school. (With tax-free weekend last week, I'm even more convinced that online shopping is the ONLY way to go. I digress. Again.) I'll get back to the benefits of babywearing very soon. As soon as my mind returns to its natural state Monday am when Big Yeller rolls up to the front door.

And when Big Yeller does come... here's what will be in my kid's backpacks. Sigg's reusable bottles that I bought them for Christmas from ReusableBags.com. Even though the kids make fun of mom sometimes for bein' green, they love the looks of these bottles and get lots of envious glances from their school chums.

Did you know that people throw away trillions of disposable plastic bottles and cardboard juice boxes each year? How yucky is that?

Did you know that bottles made from #3, #6 and #7 plastic can leech harmful chemicals into what you're drinking? What's grosser than gross? That is, for sure.

How cool and easy would it be to send your kid to school with one of these bottles instead of buying and throwing away dozens of juice boxes and plastic bottles every week? How much money would you save? And don't worry, Sigg bottles are super durable and can withstand whatever your toddler or teen can do to it. Kleen Kanteen makes a sleek and stylish monochromatic bottle too. Give them a try and come back to let me know what you think!

Also, give some thought to exactly what you might be packing in your kid's lunch. Google it. You'll be surprised.


ReusableBags.com now offer reusable bottles as another smart, sustainable alternative to "use once & toss" disposables. They save you money while saving precious natural resources by cutting down on the trillions of cans and bottles trashed each year.

Want more back to school shopping tips?