Green Gear for running!

In the market for some new running shoes?  Check out these I found on Treehugger.com, they have all sorts of novel eco friendly traits!  Very cool!

Parsley Power

We were grocery shopping the other day and made this impulse buy of Parsley Plus.  It was in the "green" section of Publix.  When we got home and tried it we were surprise.  It cleaned the counters great, and the smell was so pleasant.  It was like walking through a garden of parsley.  I wanted to put this to the test.  So I waited until Nilla the yellow lab had sufficiently wiped her nose and mouth all over the window.  No cleaner I have used so far can wipe dog slobber away without multiple applications and a lot of elbow grease.  Much to my delight, the Parsley Plus worked wonders.  I  did have to use a fair amount of elbow grease, but not like the other cleaners, and only one application!!!  WOOHOO!

Good Stuff, good for you, good for the environment! 

Bulk listings=Discounts

I tried a listing for multiple coffee sleeves.  I think people liked the ability to buy multiple sleeves for a great discount.  I am thinking about doing more and more multiple listings for the coffee sleeves.
Regular price of a single unique coffee sleeve is $5.00, however, if you purchase the package deal with three or more coffee sleeves you get a dollar off each sleeve!  Now that is a good discount.

I am always up for custom orders, so if you need a certain number of sleeves, just let me know.  I can't guarantee that the fabrics will all be the same.  That is what makes them so unique.  The fabric patterns are from the left over projects, and other pieces of salvaged fabric that would otherwise end up in the landfill.
Using the coffee sleeve is eco friendly in two ways, maybe more.  First you don't have to use a cardboard sleeve, and second, the fabrics are recycled!  So make your daily grind a little more green!  They do make great gifts, and at the discounted price you can get one for everyone in the office!

A bright New Year

Once the holidays are over and we are getting back to our routine, I like to make sure we are stocked up on the all important light bulbs. Here we like to use eco-friendly lighting such as the compact fluorescent bulbs. I know you are saying that they are filled with mercury and not as eco safe as I think they are. Well, they might indeed have some toxic chemicals, but I sure have to replace them less often, creating less waste in the form of light bulbs, and all the packaging that they come in. I recently helped my parents change the fluorescent bulbs that still illuminate their garage, and found out that we could take them to our local hardware store for recycling, or proper disposal. I thought that was a great way to get rid of the boxes of fluorescent lights that they have collected over the years. Whatever lighting you choose, I hope that you are using energy-saving bulbs in one form or another. It is just one more small step we can all take to better (or at least maintain) the environment.

Our supply is growing

Now we have the diapers that we will need to start this crazy journey. We bought a few different kinds of cloth diapers. Once we try them all we can stock up on the ones that work the best for us.
Gdiapers

From gdiapers we have six little gpants and some cloth inserts, and thanks to a friend a ton of the flushable inserts (those are going to come in handy for sure).
GroBaby

We have 3 diapers from GroBaby, super cute and I love the Velcro that they use. I could not resist those stripes.
BumGenius

We also got 6 from BumGenius (3 one size 3.0 with the velcro tabs and 3 one size organics with the snaps). I was really excited because I got the organics on cottonbabies.com and they had a section labeled clearance, so I clicked it of course, and they had the organics on there as seconds. Described as loose string, or label sewn on crooked. So I snatched up three of those for a discount! Can't beat that. On first inspection I really like the organic ones they are so soft on the inside.


I think we should be set for now, we also got some cloth wipes that will fit in our wipe warmer.
If anyone can think of something else that might be useful for cloth diapers please let me know. I am always open to advice!

Reusable gift bag

I had to give a few gifts out over the weekend, and I choose the green way. I picked a few of Threadbeaur's grocery totes, and stuffed them with two bottles of wine. The packages were topped off with a little ribbon to keep them closed during transport, and to add a little extra flair.
These happy packages are two gifts in one. The wine of course and the bag can be used over and over for all sorts of things. From grocery shopping to a trip to the market, or a visit to the beach. The reusable gift bag is a perfect green way to wrap up your presents this year.
Check out the varieties at Threadbeaur's Etsy shop. Here is what the finished project looked like. Pretty little packages all in a row, ready for a party, or where ever they may go.

Your daily Grind - More Green

Coffee sleeves are routinely used at coffee shops, you know the ones they are cardboard, dull and brown. Every time we go we say no to the coffee cozy that the barista is slipping over the cup. The other day we were grabbing a cup of joe at Starbucks and I asked the girl to leave off the sleeve, and she looked at me as if I were crazy. Then she asked if I would like a double cup instead. So I handed her the cloth reusable coffee sleeve and she effortlessly slipped it on to the cup. She said she loved the cloth sleeve, and could not believe that I made it.
I have a ton of these coffee sleeves in all sorts of recycled fabrics. They make great gifts for the office, or an addition to a gift basket or a little extra in the form of a tie on for the top of a pretty package. If you know a daily coffee drinker, and I know you do, this might just tickle their fancy. Many of the sleeves are just tossed out with the trash, despite the fact that they could be recycled. Why not just skip the trash and use your fashionable cloth coffee sleeve. Keep your eye on Threadbeaur I will be stocking the shop with new bags, and coffee sleeves all week. Of course, if you are looking for a bunch of the coffee sleeves email with the details.

A second opinion

M's residency is over, thankfully, and I ran across his old white coats. They had been severely miss treated over the last 6 years. From the floors of the ICU, to the Emergency room, they have seen their way around the hospital. Stains on the cuffs, and pen marks in the pocket.
The fate of these coats was written on the wall. Or was it?

Ceremonial burning? Too Hot.
The Morgue? Too Creepy
Trash? Maybe

I felt bad just tossing the coats that were a staple in his wardrobe for so many years. I figured I could do something with them. So I cut the name out, and got to sewing. M is a big coffee drinker, and always is in need of a reusable coffee sleeve. I threw some blue fabric on the back (similar to his blue scrubs), and violia! A personalized, history filled coffee cozy!
It was a big hit in the office. The second calling for the coats, very useful!

Blow me Away!

It is hot here in Florida, not that I am complaining, but ceiling fans are a must. Just to get the air moving around at night is just the recipe for a good nights sleep. We have one fan in the master bedroom, and one down stairs. I almost feel bad when company comes, and there is no fan in the guest room. The air is still and a bit muggy. With the rooms being upstairs the air conditioning doesn't get it cool enough. The ceiling fan is the key ingredient. Ceiling fans are an easy home improvement that can be done with just a few tools. We will be installing fans in the guest rooms so that everyone will have a comfortable night.

I found this great fan at Hansen Wholesale ceiling fans, it was voted fan of the year! The Emerson Ceiling fan called the Midway Eco is environmentally friendly. It is more efficient than the energy star fans. This would be the fan that I would go with. It provides great light, with low watts! It could even save you money. When there is a product out that is eco-friendly, and the cost is reasonable, I will pick the item that is good for the environment. I am willing to pay a little extra for a ceiling fan that is well made and is going to last a long time.

I also like to buy from reputable dealers and companies with good customer service. In this case give Hansen Wholesale ceiling fans a try.

Water and Conservation

There are many ways to save water, and in turn save money. One way as we all know is to turn off the faucet when you are brushing your teeth. Or fill up a watering can next time you are waiting for the shower water to turn warm. Recently, though I thought about the toilet, and how much water is flushed away each day. It can be one of the largest water consumers in your house. I am sure you have heard of the low flow toilets, it may conjure up some ideas. The bathroom is one place that you can really start to see the water savings. I don't recommend running out and buying all new toilets, that would be wasteful, and increase your carbon footprint. Instead, there is a dual flush retrofit kit that you can install to your existing toilet.

The retrofit kits are only around $40 dollars, and over a few years, I am sure you will see the savings, not only in the amount of our precious water that goes down the toilet, but in real dollars too! Changing to a dual flush toilet is just one more step that can reduce your water consumption. Such a small thing can really help you go green. Water is our most precious resource, and you can save a few gallons a day with a simple, expensive kit. That is something we can all get behind.

Can Silver be Green?

I just got back from the grocery store. I have been putting off the purchase of tin foil, for many weeks. We always try to reuse the foil if it was just used to cover something, but we were out. I don't use it too often, but sometimes I do need it. I was down aisle 10 looking at the hundreds of boxes of aluminum foil, when one boxed jumped out at me. It was not the regular blue and silver, this box was special, it was GREEN. It was Reynold's Wrap 100% recycled foil. I read the box and not only is the foil made from recycled aluminum, but the box, and the interior cardboard roll were also made from recycled materials! How great is that! I went to the website when I returned home, and got the full scoop on this great new product! The foil feels and looks just like the non-recycled foil, I will put it to the test soon, and I will have an update! I figure, if I am going to use this type of thing in the kitchen, it might as well be as green as can be! This is the silver lining I have been waiting for! Thank you Reynold's Wrap for making our kitchen a little more green.

Etsy Shop Slowdown

I have been taking a break from the shop. Not intentionally, it just sort of happened. Once I was back at work after the holidays I was just not able to make as many bags to fill the shop. I am hoping to get more bags into the shop in the coming weeks. Though I have had much success with the reusable coffee sleeves, it is the grocery bags that I love to show off.

Is there anything that you would like to see more of in Threadbeaur's eco-Friendly shop? Grocery bags, shoulder bags, or coffee sleeves.
My sister just sent me a great big box of vintage fabrics that she found in her travels between Mt. Dora, FL and Los Angeles. I hope to have those up in the shop soon. Keep your eye out for more eco friendly items at Threadbeaur's Etsy shop.

Continued Search for Web Hosting

I am digging deeper in to web hosting. I found this great idea of Green Web Hosting. What is that? Well, the green web hosting are companies that are doing their part to reduce their impact on the earth. They might use alternative energy to run the company and the data centers. If you are a blogger trying to go green I would imagine that you would want to choose a company that is eco friendly.

There are a handful of green web hosting companies that have great prices and provide a lot of features. Some of the sites boast that they have energy efficient servers, and participate in tree planting, and some are even wind powered! It is just one more way that you can reduce your carbon footprint. Use companies that are involved and interested in protecting the earth. You can check out some reviews of the eco friendly web hosts, and see which one is right for you. Look for easy uploads, and upfront pricing, be careful of ad ons. The best thing to do if you are looking into these green web host for your blog is to read the reviews and email them with any questions. That way you can see just what kind of customer service they have to offer!

American Cars

While I am on the subject of the environment lets talk about cars. I am very interested in the hybrid cars that are sure to flood the market within a few years. I just hope that our American Car companies will be around to compete. I have seen some ford escape reviews that say it has great fuel efficiency, but I feel that the car companies can do more to increase the efficiency or do away with the gas portion of the engine all together. While the Ford Escape Hybrid does have fairly good fuel economy for an SUV (28 MPG), I think they can do better. The consumers have to demand better, not just for themselves, but for the enviornment.
Ford says that the 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid is the most fuel efficiant SUV. When gas prices soared, the whispered rumors of the hybrid/electric cars became louder, but now as we are paying less that $2 a gallon, those rumors of an influx of those eco-friendly cars have slipped back into the shadows from which they came. My next car, will no doubt be American made, and if Ford ever comes up with an electric car/SUV, I will gladly pay out some money for an American made eco-friendly alternative to the gas guzzling SUVs.

GPS Tracking for the Environment

I was thinking about how businesses could increase their productivity when employees are out and about on company time. I think that GPS tracking of employees on the clock is one area that could really help efficiency. By tracking the employee they could make sure they were taking the shortest route, and not making any unnecessary pit stops along the way. I would think that if an employee knew they were being tracked via GPS they would not only be more cautious about the route they took, but also they may drive more conservatively, in turn saving even more gas. How would you feel if you were being tracked by GPS while you were at work?

GPS tracking of employees is not the only place to use GPS to be more eco-friendly. What about GPS tracking in your life how could we use it to make our daily routine a little more green? I would use it to make my errands route so that I would never have to back track to go to the grocery store. I would use the GPS to show me the shortest most direct route to the gas station. Can I take the route where I will only have to make right turns to avoid idling at stop lights, and stop signs. If you think that can't help, UPS used some sort of GPS tracking to implement routes that avoided left turns, and they saved 3 million gallons of fuel. Just think if we could all do that with our GPS units, we would really be on to something good. It is all about the little things we can do everyday that will make a large impact in the years to come.

Crafty Recycling

In the afternoons, I come up with crafts for the children in the extended day montessori program at my school. I try to incorporate the eco friendly ideas that I hold so dear. My latest project that was greeted with smiles and excitement was a journal for each child. I collected the empty snack boxes from our snack, in this case it was Nilla wafers. I cut them to size of a half sheet of our "oops" copy paper. Then proceeded to punch two holes in each piece of paper and the cardboard. The kids decorated the cardboard which became the front and back cover for their journals. After the covers were just right they threaded the paper on to 2 pipe cleaners. The kids were having so much fun, and were saying things like "wow, I have never done this before". That is very fun for me to hear. It is nice when I can tell they are really enjoying the afternoon craft. Then at the end of the day they got to take their journals home, and keep them as a notepad, or drawing pad. It is a great way to recycle the snack boxes, and copy paper.
Now I have to come up with some more eco friendly toddler crafts.

Seeking Green...Look no further

I recently found Ecovian. They have a fabulous website that provides a listing of services, shops, and resturants that have green practices. I love this idea of being able to search by city on ecovian. There are so many listing categories to choose from from spas to grocery stores and everything in between. Each category has its own standard of green, and on the website you can get the details for each heading. Last night I was scouting out clothing stores in Chicago that are green on Ecovian.

When you search as I did for a clothing shop, the list shows up on the left hand side of all the shops that are considered green. How would you consider a shop green, well, as they say on the website, the stores are rated on how much of their stock is produced in sweatshop free conditions, and how much of the stock is organic/natural. I love this since I am always looking for sweatshop free items, this will be helpful for me! Each listing has a green meter, little green trees. Those trees give you a quick indication how green the stores merchanidise is. With one green tree being the least green (but still green enough to be listed) and 5 green trees being the best.

The best feature on Ecovian is when you click on the store to get the details they provide you with a map, the store hours, and phone number along with the stats regarding the green factor. The store I was looking up had 3 stars for nautral/oraganic clothing and 5 stars, yes 5 stars, for sweatshop free clothing! Time to go shopping! Ecovian has earned a spot in my bookmarks, so that I can scour the pages before each shopping trip!

After the Market

The market was great, there were some wonderful vendors there. The weather was nice, except for the wind which was really whipping. It was difficult to keep the bags on the table. I learned a few things that will help for next time at the farmers market.
1. Make another banner, something with the "go green" or "Say no to plastic" idea on it.
2. Bring weights, for both the tent and for the bags.
3. Fill the bags, so people can see them better.
4. Eat sooner. (got a little cranky)
All in all it was a good experience.

There was only one thing that was disappointing. There were so many plastic bags given out at this market alone. Each booth had plastic bags hanging from the tent. There were people walking around with 4 and 5 plastic bags, only half full. I thought for sure more people going to a local farmers market would be using cloth bags. Don't get me wrong there were some reusable bags around and every-time I saw one it made me smile. It is such a small, easy thing to do, and it will help, if everyone does it! So get out there with your cloth bags and promote the use of reusable bags, and lets get all use a little less plastic!!!