Just a little green in my wine glass.....

Thanks to my friend Audra, I have a great green find for you!  I tried several organic wines this past summer when our "green adventure" began.  And being a wine snob, I turned my nose up.

I really wanted to like them, but they just didn't measure up to my "regulars" no matter how much I wanted to like them.  After chucking a few bottles, I gave up, and decided I'd wait a little for the green movement to deliver me a really tasty bottle of vino.  Now I'm sure there are MANY out there, my local shop just didn't have a nice variety of them yet! 

I'm very happy to report that I found one that suits both my palette, and my green criteria! (Thanks Audra!)  Bonterra Vineyards. (I'm enjoying a very cold glass of Chardonnay as I write this.... ) Its yummy and buttery - so tasty.  The label states that the winery and grapes have been certified by the California Certified Organic Farmers.  

When we travelled to Arizona last year, we stayed at a fully organic resort, and they had many delicious wines to choose from.  Do you think I remembered to write down a single name... sadly, not.  Do you have an organic wine that you'd recommend? I'd love to hear about it!    ''

Thanks Audra, I'll bring a bottle to our next ladies night, you'll LOVE it!

Do you Freecycle?

Before I say one more word, thanks to whomever of you mentioned that my local Target has restocked on the "scentless" Whale Soap from Kiss My Face!  

I ran right out and grabbed more to have on hand.  I tell you, little man's skin has never looked better!  MWAH - I could kiss you, whoever you are.  Thank you!

Today, I wanted to write just a little note about something that we're going to try.  Freecycle. Several of my college pals use it all the time with rave reviews.  In case you're not familiar, think of eBay or Craig's list, only you're not selling the things for money, just saying "Hey, I don't need this anymore, anyone want it?" 

Now, as we get ready for Christmas, we've just got to pass along some of the accumulated things from the boys. And with money being so tight for everyone right now, I'm happy to share the love, and um, lets be honest, clear some space.  With two boys, we've got six years worth of birthday presents, Christmas presents etc.  If you have children, I'm sure you know where I'm coming from.

I've just now requested to join the local group in my town, so if you haven't done this before, you can join me... and if you're already a member of a Freecyle group, then you can share any helpful hints you might have for me!

Now I'm off to start sorting toys into groups of what they can keep and what we can share.  

Once the sun is up and shining I have two cards to share... but it will probably be late in the day before I have them posted.  A busy day with "thing one" and "thing two" today.  

Hope you have a wonderful day! 

A Whale of a Soap.....And a Great Green Friend

Its been a while since I've had a green post for you, and for that I apologize.  I just didn't have any new information for you...I was just trucking along with our composting, organic food shopping, recycling and trying to follow children around constantly turning off lights.  And well to be honest, life has been a little crazy. 

My newest mission is to try to keep the heat off whenever possible.  Suddenly it has become so cold in New England.  Striving to turn that thermostat down a degree or two and add a layer instead.  Works out well since I love sweaters!

Today I've got a fun product review for you that works for my family, so thought I'd share the love.   Coconut is the surfactant in most organic cleansers I've found, and with good reason... it does a great job, unless you're allergic to it like my little guy.

I was ready to head back to my old non-organic standby out of frustration.....but my husband went on a search high and low and hit several local Target stores until he was able to locate a few of these adorable babies...

Its the "Whale of a Soap" from Kiss My Face, and its made with Olive Oil instead of Coconut.  It is orange scented and just smells SUPER yummy too. 

The kids love it and it helps to ease my crazy cakes into the tub... he's generally not a fan of soap, um probably because till now it made his skin so itchy.  My only warning is that it isn't tear free so we're constantly reminding the kids to let US do the washing with the whale so they don't get soap in their eyes.

Between finding a lotion that works for him, finally having a correct diagnosis for his allergies, and of course this new soap, his skin has never looked better.  

In other news, I received the most amazing packet of green love from my friend Melanie!  (Mel, I hope you don't mind I swiped your photo because I missed the sun here today......)

Melanie found this fun package of buttons (ahh its real flair instead of facebook flair!) and used it to make a green birthday card for me which you can see here!  She also sent this really fun magnetic pad of paper that reads "Green is the new Black." Love it!  

Melanie is the illustrator of several sets of stamps over at Gina K Designs, and her latest is "A Year of Flowers."  Goodness is that girl ever talented, I love drooling at all her beautiful creations.  And, she's an amazingly sweet and generous friend to boot.  If by some rare chance you don't already read her blog, you'll want to tune in!  Melanie is so thoughtful in her stamp designs. She's all about value for your money and fills every inch of rubber on that plate with creative ideas.  

 Thanks for dropping by today.  Can't wait to hear what Green Things you've been up to.  I've got a few friends that I'll be inviting as my Green Guests in the weeks to come.  Have a green subject you'd be interesting in sharing with us?  Please email me at stampedbyhand at comcast dot net.

...just a little disclaimer( on my AC post) and an allergy free find!

I just wanted to follow up on my air conditioning post a few weeks ago.  I so hope I wasn't offending anyone with the AC thing.  Lucky for me, up in Boston, we have LOTS of days that AC is totally optional, but clearly for many of you -- it just wouldn't be practical, or hey, even HEALTHY to try to go without.  

In other news, thanks to some really diligent hunting by my husband, and a tip from my friend Ana, we've located some soap that **seems** to be okay for my allergy ridden three year old.  Kiss My Face makes a scentless soap in the shape of a whale.  They make a TON of wonderfula and yummy smelling things, however, our allergies are just complicated in that he can't have citrus (which rules out their orange and berry versions of this same soap) that is of course in addition to the nuts and coconut thing going on over here.

Its totally adorable and my boys LOVE it!  Unfortunately, it appears to only be available in Target.  My husband hit two of them this week and cleaned out the supply.  I'm going to start calling all the local ones to see if anyone else has it.  

I have one other organic and safe product for my boys that has been a huge hit around here!  I'm always so happy when I find a line of products that is created especially with allergic kids in mind.  Such peace of mind for me.  In this case, they make nothing but soybutter, and they test all their incoming ingredients.  I love that.  

Simple Food is actually based here in Massachusetts!  My very picky eater happily snarfs down his lunch now that he gets either a cinnamon soy butter sandwich, or as an extra special treat, a chocolate soy butter sandwich.  I brought sample jars to his open house at Kindergarten and many moms commented that their kids rarely try a new thing but that they loved it, and, wanted to know where they could find it.  

Okay, okay, I do feel a little badly that they fell in love with the chocolate version, but hey, now my kid isn't the "strange one" with the allergy, he's the lucky kid that gets a chocolate sandwich once a week!

Have a great day everyone! Back with the cards tomorrow.....

Back to School - Green Adventures Continue

Its back to school time, and it brings a few new green adventures into the mix.  But first, a quick card.....

I've really lucked out this year in that my son's kindergarten has a dress code.  I love that the code gets to be the bad guy, not me, saving me lots of money while school shopping so that I didn't have to buy all sorts of graphic tees that I'd never want him to be seen in outside of the house.  

The thing he's most bummed out about though, is not getting to wear a baseball hat to school.  (I'll be bummed out because I'll have to be more diligent with haircuts rather than slapping a cap on his head when it gets unruly!)  So to celebrate his first full week of school, and compliance with said dress code, I made him this card.  

Its green because 1)  Its his second favorite color.  2) We are from Boston - Go Celtics! and 3) I adore this Jack's World paper from Cosmo Cricket, just right for a school themed card...

As for the details, the stamp set is BRAND new from Gina K Designs and is titled "Just So Sporty."  This fun set was illustrated by my friend Melanie, who has such an amazing blog, I can't wait to see all the things she does with this versatile set!

Okay, so how about Being Green with back to school.  We decided to pay for the bus this year.  Not only is is massively more convenient for me rather than schlepping out all the daycare children to the school twice daily.  We also decided that it was both financially responsible and a good way to reduce our carbon footprint. 

The bus was going right by here anyways, so it isn't out of the drivers way.  And, otherwise, my car gets extra mileage each day and lots of idling time in the lot while I wait in the queue.  So, overall, despite the large payment we made to the town for the bus, I think it still in the long run saves money, gas and CO2 to have the big yellow bus stop by our house.

We're also **trying** to be really good about buying in bulk versus buying all those single servings for school.  For instance, single serve snacks, single serve applesauces etc.  Anything you can purchase with LESS packaging means LESS to throw away. 

So, if you shop at Costco or BJ's or any wholesale club, buy the bix box, versus the box with all the smaller packages.  I've got a little snack container for my guy to tuck his snacks -- trying to get away from ziplock baggies next.  

Tonight I'm off to search for a little sandwich container, and an easy open and close container for me to send yogurt in.  I'll admit, my green efforts backfired last week.  I tucked yogurt into a container he could open, but not close when he was done, and the excess leaked all over the lunchbag. Bleech.  My bad.  So, for this week, he was thrilled that he got the single serve yogurt (usually a big NO from me at the market.) I've actually seen the girl smile when she's heard me tell the boys "Sorry, we can't buy those yogurts, too much TRASH!"  

Another great example of this is the new soap I picked up tonight.  Kiss My Face is my new brand as it has no coconut oil, and some versions no citrus (my littlest has some really TOUGH allergies!)  My sweet husband and friend Ana both recommended this line and we're giving it a try. (Cross your fingers)  In addition to being allergy free for my family, I'm loving using the bar soap rather than a bottle of soap that then has to be recycled.  If you are using hand soap in a bottle, just be sure to add it to your recycling versus your trash at the end of the week!

Have a great week everyone! 

Adventures without Air.......(air conditioning that is....)

It was so fun to read about the green things you've tried so far, and I'm so happy that so many of you are joining me on this green-adventure!  Great work everyone!

The lucky winner is  #9 who is Claudia! Claudia, I'm off to email you to get your contact information!  

So, here's my green information for this week.  I used to be the QUEEN of Air Conditioning.  We're lucky enough that the home we purchased eight years ago already had central air, and boy was it just so easy to flick the switch and cool things down.  

In fact, I have a good friend who bought a home last year without AC and I remember asking her "Oh you're kidding right? New home with no air? Are you going to install it?"  So, she got a good laugh this year that I decided I was only going to run the air this year on days we really NEEDED it.  

I'm happy to report that most days it stayed off entirely!! Some times, I turned it only only for my little one to take a nap. Let me say, I got real creative with shades and curtains and which windows were open to maximize a breeze.  When I did turn it on, I had it set to several degrees higher than I would have last summer.  Looking back, it was an icebox in here last summer.  I'm so glad to report that we saved literally HUNDREDS of dollars on our electricity this summer compared to past years.  I felt pretty good about conserving all that energy as well.

I'm hoping to do the same thing this fall and winter with the heat.  I'm going to put on a sweater rather than bump the heat up a degree or two.  Obviously, we can't do without the heat like we did without the AC, but I can commit to being more energy efficient with it.  Maybe I'll even justify a new sweater or two for myself!!

Today we're off for some outdoor adventures.  Hitting another local farm, Belkin Lookout Farm, where it is rumored we can already pick apples, we'll also visit their amazing produce stand for some tasty organic goodness, and visit with the animals! HOORAY!  And for a nature walk with the boys at Elm Bank  My sister has raved about this place for years, and now we're finally going.  Got to clean out my memory stick for some photos!

Have a great, green day!

Clean and Green

The notion of me being a domestic goddess is just simply laughable.  Especially after the disaster that grew around me as I stamped all those Dirty Dare challenges a few weeks ago. 

I just need Melanie to create a stamp for these t-shirts that reads "Queen of Clutter" that's me. I just like to keep things, not so good at throwing anything out! 

This paper was sent to me as part of a recent swap I organized on Splitcoast for the Gina K Member company forum.  Several of us sent out supply kits to other stampers.  I recieved the most GENEROUS assortment of paper, ribbon, buttons, fibers, and more paper to boot! This only just scratches the surface!  Thank you Laurie SO much.  I'll be posting more creations with my "supplied" materials, but this is my first so far.

So, why am I using this Domestic Goddess stamp for my Green Sunday post anyhow???  I've got a few recommendations on green household products that I happen to love.

The first, is Mrs Meyers cleaning products. I just love that these are safe for my kids, and for the environment too.  And, they do an absolutely amazing job at cleaning and making my home smell fresh!  The general purpose cleaner is such a great value too.  To refill my spray bottle takes only a capfull or so of cleaner, diluted with water.  I've been using that refill bottle for MONTHS without having to buy a new one.  Toilet cleaners usually have such a vile smelling, toxic odor, but the geranium scented toilet cleaner I love. It does a great job, without making my bathroom smell toxic in the process!  

Another thing that I really love are the dishwashing and clothes-washing products from Ecover. My youngest, just has some real nasty eczema, so I'm always looking for a scent free cleaner for our clothes that will get the job done, yet be easy on his skin.  Additionally, I want a phosphate free product so that I'm not contributing to increased algae bloom in the water supply.  I won't recreate the wheel here with all the scientific jargon as to why phosphate free cleaners are a good idea, but please see this article from treehugger.com for more information.

What are YOUR favorite green cleaners? Anyone have a product they'd like to share?  I was anxious to try the Method floor cleaner, but its made with walnut oil. Boooo.  I'm sure it cleanse well and gives the wood a great luster, but with a severe nut allergy in the house, I'll pass on that one.  

Getting Green at CHA

Sorry I missed last Sunday's post.  I am without a laptop right now, it died, and we're sharing the family desktop.  Given the state of affairs with the economy and what not, it wasn't a great time to drop a chunk of change on a laptop.  Besides, travelling to Chicago without laptop lightened the load a little, and every little bit helps right? I tried my best to be a good green girl by packing only what I really needed on the trip..... no big bulky suitcases, just a small (okay, I fess up... medium) roll a board and a shoulder carry on.  

And then, I made a few fun green and papercrafting finds at the show....

The first is that Clearbags now has a line of products which are biodegradable ad made from corn!  These bags are both certified biodegradable and compostable.  Now, mind you, this is just a start, and they still have many of their standard products, but hooray for a good start right?

However, I was so excited when I saw this display over at the K and Company Booth.   The Amy Butler line has a new addition called Lotus.  I'm a huge fan of the details in all the Amy Butler products, but now, this line is printed with soy ink, and packaged in recycled materials - 100% post consumer waste!  

They also showed the Remake line.  I've heard that this has already been available to some of my friends through their local stores, but I haven't yet seen it at a store near me.  This is another recycled line from K&Co, but this line is more of the essentials, basics collection.  While personally the Lotus collection is more my speed, I think its truly fabulous that they're offering an eco product.

At their booth, for a five dollar donation, we received a reusable shopping tote and a t-shirt as well.  But, more importantly, that money is all being used to plant trees in Kansas City, for families that have received homes from Habitat for Humanity.

If you're interested in donating to the fund to help plant trees and would like to read more about the "Preserve Your Memories. Preserve your Earth."  program click here.

Get Pickin.....

I had fully planned on writing about some of our favorite green products this week, but then we spent a few days this week at a local farm picking....

I'll save my green recommendations for another day, and just let you know that its a great time to get your family to a local farm to go pick produce.  

Its cheap, it helps remind them where food actually comes from so that they're less likely to waste it, there's no TV involved (wink!) and hey, its FUN!  Oh, and guess what, you'll save a LOT of money and support a local farm in the process. Everyone wins!

We picked raspberries on Thursday and turned half of them into home made raspberry ice cream.  Then on Saturday, we went back and picked blueberries and bought corn for a TASTY corn and tomato salad.  

I got this recipe out of a Weight Watchers cookbook

Grill three ears of corn and cut off the cob

Chop up one pint of Cherry Tomatoes (I like those sweet grape tomatoes)

Juice of one lime

Diced Purple Onion

Salt and Pepper

The recipe also calls for a little bit of diced jalepeno or serrano pepper. I love that addition, my husband does not - so, you decide which way you like it.

(I like to add a little olive oil too...)

Think twice about that sink......

Sunday again so soon? This week blew past so quickly! Hope that those of you here in the states had a wonderful holiday celebrating with family and friends.  And that those of you from around the world enjoyed a little peace and quiet without all the yappity yap down here! Giggle.

This week, my latest stamps arrived, this time I couldn't help myself from picking up a few stamps from Unity, and of course, this set titled "ecoChic" was the one that pushed me right over the fence (of course, this little kit couldn't come without bringing a few friends.....) How could I not have it with "just a little green" Sundays down here and all? 

By the way, my efforts to reduce other sorts of purchases haven't really trickled over into my stamping purchases... remember, I'm trying to go in moderation! wink.

This week, I did want to chat a little about how we are trying really hard to not put things down the garbage disposal.  Now, in no way do I want to be preachy about this, because even as recently as a few months ago, I had no clue how icky that is, and would happily plop food waste down there thinking "hey, at least I'm not contributing to more waste in the landfill."  Unfortunately, just because you're putting it down the disposal, doesn't mean you're not making a mess somewhere else.  

If you've got a septic system - it only serves to fill that baby up faster-- bleech!! If you're on town water and sewer like we are, then all that mess goes into the water system... eventually has to be screened back out at a treatment plant. This process is not only costly, but serves to add more chemicals to the process, again, un-necessary and costly to boot!  

Nevermind all the water that is wasted flushing all that yuck down the drain.

So remember, the next time you go filling up that disposal that you could just be making yourself some prize compost for your flower beds, a rich organic matter that your plants will love - and do a little greater good while you're at it.

Next week, I've got a few product recommendations on things we've been using around the house and totally loving!  

Have a great week. I'm off to try to design invitations for my little guy's birthday party!

card details:  Card base is Kraft, Old Olive Matting with Tonic Edge Distresser, Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate Ink, Prismacolor Pencils, Blending Stumps, OMS, Button, Hemp Twine, SU Grosgrain Ribbon, Button, Key Tag Pucnch

Less Gas, More Good!

Good morning! So, last week I mentioned that my husband commuted to work for two weeks on only ten dollars of gas.  Incredible right?  The trick is that he rides his Vespa Motorscooter to work as often as possible.  

His commute to the office in his car is usually 20 minutes on the highway, by taking the scooter on the backroads only takes 25 minutes, and that he can ride that baby for two weeks until having to refill it.  And guess how much it is to refill it - you've got it ten bucks!   Of course, he can only ride it on sunny days for safety reasons. He's really enjoyed taking the more beautiful backroads to work and of course, loves the savings!  The kids crack up each day that he scoots off to work with a little "beep beep" as he pulls out of our driveway.  

In fact, his boss mentioned what a great idea it was to ride the scooter to work, and then realized that he's close enough to work to actually ride his bicycle to the office!  

So, while you might not be able to drive a scooter to the office (giggle) are there other ways that you can reduce your gas consumption and carbon footprint?  How about working from home one day a week? Can you organize your weekly shopping to cluster your trips to use your gas most efficiently?  What about shopping online instead?  

In other green news, our backyard composter arrived this week, and we're collecting all those kitchen scraps to turn into some beautiful, black compost for our perennial garden.  My dear friend Audra also picked up a bin recently and noticed that she's now reducing her weekly garbage for pickup by half!  Fantastic!  

If you've got a greenie blog to share I'd love to link you up.  Please comment on this thread with your blog name and I'll start a "greenies" link list.  

Have a great week everyone!

pink and green - my very favorite!

I'd just like to thank Melissa from Kulsea Designs who has created this fun little graphic for all my Sunday Posts moving forward.  How CUTE is this?  I simply couldn't WAIT till next weeks post to share it with you!

You can see all of her fantastic blog banner work over on her blog.

Lastly, I just was reading through comments on today's post and have one more hint. When you're done unloading your groceries from your reusable bags, I just hang them on my door to the garage so I grab them on my next trip out to the car!  That way I don't forget them at home! 

Have a great night everyone!

The new B.Y.O.B.

Welcome to my latest installment of "just a little green!" 

I'd like to thank "chelle" who is the one that came up with that title for my new Sunday feature. Can you believe it was the first suggested title and it ended up being my favorite?   Not only does it tie nicely into my blog name, but also, I love that it reinforces that even the smallest little things that you can do make a difference.  It also was important to me to let you all know that I never want to be preachy about this, just talk a little about what we're doing here at our house!  Chelle please send me an email at stampedbyhand@comcast.net when you have a moment! Thanks!

That being said, I'd like to thank each and every one of you that came up with a title suggestion, and for all of your support on this new adventure for my family.  I hope that you'll continue to tune in, let me know if you're joining in on what we're doing, or have any advice to lend on this subject!  

-----------

So the new BYOB?? Well, its for Bring Your Own Bags!  I know I spoke a little last week about my love for my reusable bags last week, but I'd just like to share with you just WHY they're so great.

Of course, I think its fabulous that every time I bring my own bags, its one less that ends up in a landfill somewhere! That IS the point right?

However, I also love that I can carry a whole weeks worth of groceries in only SIX reusable bags. No more crummy plastic bags ripping and letting my groceries fall to the ground.  No more having to make fifteen trips in and out of my garage, over the stairs with those junky trashy bags that hold if you're lucky, three items.   

In the event that something does spill in my bag, I just throw it in the wash!  

We recently picked up some mesh produce bags and they're excellent too!  Especially not having to fiddle with that bag contraption in the produce department, or fight with the bag to see which end is the side that opens.  

I'm not sure what your store's policy is, but where I shop, I get a credit off my bill for every bag that I bring of my own.  In fact, my husband tells me that when he shops at the market in Germany, there is a surcharge for every bag that you have to take form the store, because they just expect you to bring your own.  

One day, with a great "a ha!" I walked back out of Target to pick up my bags realizing that they weren't just for groceries after all.  By the way, if you've seen a Target bag lately, you'll see a big list on the side of all the things you can do to reuse the bag.  Um....how about just not taking one in the first place??  Giggle

The first ten times you shop with them, you'll forget them in the car and go back out for them. But then suddenly, it will become habit and you'll wonder why we haven't always had them.

On a recent trip to the supermarket, my son's friend came along.  As we got out of the car and reached into the trunk for the bags the friend said "Um? What are THOSE?" and I explained that they were our own reusable grocery bags.  My eldest chirped up (happy to repeat the family mantra) "For every bag we don't take from the store, its one less in the garbage."  We did get a look from this boy like we were completely nuts, but then as my son slung a bag over his shoulder to help shop his friend pitched in with "Um, can I please have my own bag too??"  

Last month, at Whole Foods, I was thrilled to see a sign that noted that in the previous week, at that location, customers used over SIX THOUSAND reusable bags in the store, in just one week. Oh was I so happy!  Figure six thousand bags from just that store, from just one week avoided landfills.  I called the store today to see if they had the latest update on bags saved this week, I can apparently get that figure on Monday morning.  

So, if you don't already own a few reusable totes, you can pick some up at the store on your next shop, or pick some up online.  My husband found ours on ebay, but I just googled reusable bags, and found this great site. Trust me, you'll love them.  The planet will too!

Next Sunday, I'll be here to tell you how my husband was able to commute to work for only ten dollars of gasoline for two full weeks!