Rid your home of fruit flies and a big Thank You

Post from the Past:

Before I proceed to my regularly scheduled post I want to say Thank You.

Thank you to all those who follow my blog, subscribe to my blog, comment on my posts, read my ramblings, enter my giveaways, send me e-mails, and blog about my blog. I sincerely appreciate your support, your friendship, and your input.

Every time I open my blog and I see 1 new follower or read a comment someone has left for me it brings me such joy. When I started this blog, a little over a year ago, it was simply a way for me to express the excitement I was feeling about starting my eco-journey. I had no idea that it would grow and evolve into what it has. The blogging community may be difficult for non-bloggers to appreciate and understand but to me, it truly is a community and one that I enjoy being a part of. So thank you.

Now speaking of the blogging community....

I was reading one of my favorite blogs, enviromom, when I scrolled down to the post titled: How to get rid of fruit flies. I jumped for joy after reading her simple and natural solution on how to rid my home of the pesky fruit flies that were invading us (specifically my daughter's room which had become home to not only our fruit flies but to all the fruit flies in the surrounding states)

• Put a little cider vinegar in a small bowl or jar, along with a piece of fruit (I used an apple core.)
  
• Cover it tightly with a piece of plastic (I used old bread wrappers) and poke a few small holes in the plastic with a toothpick.
  
• The flies will be attracted to the smell and will find their way in, but won't be able to get out.
  
• When you've caught a few dump them outside (in your compost bin!) and do it again until you are fruit-fly free.
  

This worked like a charm! I could not believe how quickly the flies entered the container (and stayed in there).

I actually placed 3 containers around the house; 1 in the kitchen, 1 outside my daughter’s room, and one in my daughter’s room. After a couple of days I replaced them (the order will get pretty strong if you leave the container for more than a day)

We are not totally fruit fly free but pretty dang close.

Thank you enviromom! (My daughter especially says thanks)

3 R Friday

Welcome to 3 R Friday

A weekly series of simple tips geared toward helping you darken your shade of green. Easily.

Reduce: Reduce packaging waste.

• Steer away from single wrapped items
• Say no to double wrapped items
• Don't purchase sliced cheese that is separated by paper
• Buy in bulk
• Don't buy single use items
  

Reuse: Reuse containers by refilling them instead of buying new ones.

• Hand soap
• Laundry detergent
• Hairspray
• Lotion

Recycle: Recycle your  used cooking oil with your curb-side recycling.


Hope you found these tips helpful. Feel free to share any tips you may have.

Have a Great Green Weekend!

Drawing my eco-line at mice

Post From the Past:

Apparently mice like these

A lot! I guess the basket we kept in our pantry filled with Cliff bars was just too much for the mice to resist.

Last week my husband (luckily it was him and not my daughter or I cuz there would have been a lot of screaming and maybe even some tears) saw a mouse scurry out of our pantry, across our kitchen floor, and up under the cabinet. Ugh!

We removed everything from our pantry, cleaned the shelves, looked through all the food, discarded everything the mice had gotten into (apparently they also like wheat thins and 4 year old gingerbread houses), repacked as many items as we could into glass jars and plastic containers (that use to contain things like peanut butter & mustard but now contain things like beans & cheddar bunnies) and put everything back on the shelf.

On a positive note, my pantry shelves look great! Nice and clean and organized.

My husband then did the same in the garage.

I was hoping that by getting rid of their food source we would get rid of them. This was not the case.

So we went for the trap. (The non catch-and-release type trap)

I know what you are thinking and I will apologize now but I draw my eco-friendly line at disease infested rodents. Sorry. I just couldn't do it.

For those of you who may have a mouse problem but would prefer the catch-and-release traps I have since researched some and found this one:

Humane Mouse Trap

You use your own bottle with it (nice reuse of a bottle). I admit, I liked it cuz of the cute piece of cheese. I figured that if we/you are going to have a trap lying around it might as well be a cute one.


I also did some research on how to keep the mice from coming back (or at least try to keep them from coming back) and here is what I found out; steel wool and peppermint oil.
Apparently mice don’t like either of them (Unlike peanut butter. Which they love).
Spreading peppermint oil around areas that mice travel or leaving a cotton ball soaked in peppermint oil in places like a pantry will keep them out. Since peppermint oil smells good to me, I didn’t mind rubbing it on my pantry shelves. (Let’s hope it works). 

Plugging the holes under the cabinets with steel wool will prevent them from coming in (or out which, now that I think about it, might be a problem) because they don’t like the feel (or taste) of steel wool so they won’t chew through it.

I also found a nice blog posting about the same topic Eco-Friendly Mouse Control
 
If you have any tips you would like to share on how to keep a mouse out of a house (I love Dr. Seuss) please feel free to share.

Enter the "Protecting the Planet for Baby Contest" at TerraCycle

Protecting the planet for baby contest

Protecting the Planet for Baby Contest:

TerraCycle® and Sprout® Organic Baby Food want to know why you are “Protecting the Planet for Baby.”

They are looking for the most inspiring and creative reasons to grow a healthy world for a healthy baby. Tell them in Sprout’s “Protecting the Planet for Baby” essay contest for the chance to win prizes from TerraCycle and and Sprout®.

How To enter?:
The Protecting the Planet for Baby contest is open to all parents who are making a positive difference for the environment and for their baby. You don’t have to be enrolled in a TerraCycle Brigade® Program.
Were you moved by a trip to Yellowstone and want your baby to be able to have the same experience?
Do you want your baby to be able to see a polar bear in the wild?
Hope he will be able to visit a rainforest?
Want her to have cleaner air to breathe? We want to hear about it!

To enter, please send TerraCycle an email at contest@teams.terracycle.net, describing in 250 words or less, why you are going green for the environment and for your baby. Be sure to describe your personal and family goals for the environment.


What Are The Prizes?:
One Grand prize winner will be determined and awarded a TerraCycle Sprout Prize Pack containing TerraCycle Upcycled Products ($75 value), Sprout Organic Baby Food (a month’s supply, $125 value), and a $100 cash prize to use towards their own green project.

The three remaining finalists will each win a Sprout TerraCycle upcycled product and a full array of Sprout Organic Baby Food products (36 pouches, Sprout Organic Cotton hat, T-shirt and a copy of Sprout co-founder and chef Tyler Florence’s brand new book, Start Fresh: Your Child's Jump Start to Lifelong Healthy Eating, each $100 value).

For detailed rules click here.

When Is Contest Happening?
Entries should be inspiring, emotional, well written and clearly stated. After the entry phase is closed on May 27th, 2011, TerraCycle and Sprout will choose four finalists and announce them on June 6th.

During a two-week public voting phase, (June 6th - 20th, 2011), the public will choose a Grand Prize winner from the four finalists, and you can win a prize just by voting!
Once the entry period is over, please stay tuned to TerraCycle for voting instructions.
The winner will be announced on June 27th, 2011.

3 R Friday

Welcome to 3 R Friday

A weekly series of simple tips geared toward helping you darken your shade of green. Easily.

Reduce: Reduce the amount of cheap, disposable, made-in-China, plastic toys.

• Say No to goodie bags that contain these items
• Say No to kids fast food meals that contain these toys
• Don't purchase them
  

Reuse: Reuse pieces of wood to make a shoe holder for muddy shoes.

Recycle: Recycle your flip-flops at Old Navy.


Hope you found these tips helpful. Feel free to share any tips you may have.

Have a Great Green Weekend!

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful mommies out there!

 

Original post of Over Coffee-the green edition. Not to be used or copied in any way without written permission..

Unsulphured vs Sulphured Molasses

Post from the Past:
 
When my son was younger he had low iron levels. His pediatrician gave us a list of foods that were high in iron to help increase his levels naturally. One of the foods on the list was molasses. I started putting full flavor (cuz it had a higher iron content) molasses into his morning oatmeal. As he grew up his iron level started to level out but I still continued to put molasses in his (and his sister's) oatmeal. (I figured that a little xtra iron would be good for them and molasses seems to be a better choice for sweetening oatmeal)

The first time that I shopped for molasses at the Natural Food store I saw that they had 2 kinds, organic sulphured and organic unsulphured .
Not knowing the difference I blindly bought the organic unsulphured kind simply because unsulphured seemed to be better than sulphured.

Of course I came home and googled it to see what the difference is. I am still not sure that I totally understand the difference but here is what I found out (Thanks to About.com and The World's Healthiest Foods respectively).

• Molasses is made from sugar cane.
• The two main tasks required to make molasses from sugar cane are to separate out the sugar cane juice from the pulp, and then to extract the sugar (mostly sucrose) from the juice.
• What's called molasses is the syrup that remains after the sugar has been extracted from the juice. It's not that easy to extract all of the sucrose from sugar cane juice.
• The lighter the molasses, the sweeter it is.
• After a first round of processing, which involves spinning the juice in a centrifuge and heating (boiling), you can get a lot of the sucrose out, but not all of it. The syrup that remains after this first round of processing is the light molasses you see in the grocery store. It's also called "first" molasses and has the mildest taste of any molasses.
• Another round of processing is needed to further extract more sucrose. (The removal of sucrose from the molasses syrup is not all that significant on the nutrition side of things, but it is important to the manufacturer on the economic side because the removed sucrose can be further processed and sold as table sugar). This second round of processing further concentrates the syrup and also darkens it, resulting in the dark molasses you find in most grocery stores. Dark molasses is also called second molasses. (This is they kind that I use to put in my son's oatmeal)
• A third round of processing is possible, and this is the round that results in the product known as blackstrap molasses (This is the kind that I put into my kids oatmeal now).

Blackstrap molasses is the thickest form of molasses, the darkest, and the most dense in terms of minerals.

• Three rounds of heating are the reason for the very dark color of blackstrap molasses, because even though many sugars have been removed from the syrup, the sugars that do remain get caramelized from three rounds of heating.
• Blackstrap refers to the color of the molasses, which is extremely dark. It has a very strong, somewhat bittersweet flavor with a heady aroma.
• It contains many of the nutrients left behind by refined sugar crystals. By measure, it is 55% sucrose, the least sweet of the varieties.
• Sometimes you'll only find blackstrap molasses in natural foods stores.
• You'll find significant amounts of calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium and selenium in blackstrap molasses.

A secondary issue is related to the use of sulfur during sugar cane processing.

• Sulfur dioxide can be used for a variety of reasons during the processing of sugar cane or the production of molasses.
• Most commonly, sulfur dioxide is used to lighten the color of the molasses or to help extend its shelf life.
• It may also be used to help with the processing of sugar cane when the cane has been harvested at an early stage.
• In principle, it would seem that a sugar cane allowed to sun-ripen and develop would make for a more natural food product than a sugar cane that was harvested at an early stage.
• On the environmental side, sulfur dioxide is a primary component in the production of acid rain, and is a pollutant of enormous concern to environmental scientists. The idea of a sugar cane processing facility releasing more sulfur dioxide into the air is not environmental friendly.
  

All varieties can contain sulphur depending on the specific refining process used, but unsulphured products are available.

So after my extensive Internet searches that is what I know about unsulphured vs sulphured molasses.

I am not sure I am any wiser about unsulphured molasses but I do know that I will continue to add organic blackstrap molasses to my children's morning oatmeal cuz it seems like a healthy thing to do.

Original post of Over Coffee-the green edition. Not to be used or copied in any way without written permission.. 

Around the Green Blog-O-Sphere

Sell custom stainless steel bottles with your logo via Kids Konserve
 
Raise money for your school, organization, team or community with a healthier option that reduces plastic bottle waste and increases environmental awareness. We offer custom bottles in bulk (100 bottle minimum) for you to sell at or above retail as a fundraiser—you keep the difference! Our bottles are all 304 food-grade stainless steel, unlined and BPA-free. Pricing depends on logo details and order quantity—100 bottles using a 1-color logo is 7.50 per bottle. See our Custom Stainless Steel Bottle Flier for more information.

Converse is now participating in the Nike Reuse-A-Shoe!

You can now take all your worn-out Chucks and mashed-up Purcells — or any other athletic shoeConverse or participating Nike retail store for some recycling love. Not only that, but from now through May 31st, when you drop off your old sneakers, you'll receive 10% off your entire same-day purchase at any Converse Retail Store. Just bring them in and get yourself whatever you want — even those slimmer, sleeker, leaner, Converse All Star Slim Collection shoes you've been saving up for. Find a Converse Reuse-A-Shoe or Nike Reuse-A-Shoe location near you
  
Click over to Treehugger.com to read about Goggle's investment in a wind farm: Google Invests $100m in What Will be the World's Largest Wind Farm (845 MW)



May is Gluten-Free Awareness Month at Brittanie’s Thyme and in celebration, Brittanie's Thyme is offering their Gluten-Free Everyday Basics for $28, a saving of $7!

 It is Hemp History Week at Retro Housewife Goes Green. Click over to learn more about this interesting plant as well as enter to win give-a-ways of Hemp-Made products.

Katydid and Kid is having a give-a-way of A thinkbaby Starter Set ($19.95) going until May 20th.

3 R Friday

Welcome to 3 R Friday

A weekly series of simple tips geared toward helping you darken your shade of green. Easily.

Reduce: Reduce the amount of cheap, disposable, made-in-China, plastic toys.

• Say No to goodie bags that contain these items
• Say No to kids fast food meals that contain these toys
• Don't purchase them

 Reuse: Reuse crayons.

• Take your own crayons with you to restaurants so you don't have to use theirs.
• Melt them into fun shapes and use them again.
• Ask churches, day cares, and schools if they need some.
• Use the shavings to make pictures.

Recycle: Recycle your flip-flops at Old Navy.


Hope you found these tips helpful. Feel free to share any tips you may have.

Have a Great Green Weekend!

Original post of Over Coffee-the green edition. Not to be used or copied in any way without written permission.. 

Max's Mud Natural Sculpting Dough Review

My daughter loves anything artsy; paints, crayons, stencils, chalk, scissors, play-do. I'm not a big fan of play-do (for obvious reasons) so you can imagine how excited I was when I found some all natural sculpting dough for her to create with.

 

Natural Sculpting Dough: Max's Mud has been providing natural solutions for creative kids since 2004.

 

What's even more exciting is that it is made in my neck of the woods (the Pacific Northwest)

Here is some info about Max's Mud  from their web-site:

Max's Mud is the world's first certified organic and certified gluten-free sculpting dough!   Certified by ACMI conforming to non-toxic ASTM D-4236 standards. Fragrance free. Vegan. Tested by kids, not animals. Soy, dairy, casein, corn and sugar-free.   Use vegetable based colorants (with the exception of FDA approved blue & green).

Conforms to (CPSIA) Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act Standard Certified Organic by Oregon Tilth www.tilth.org  Certified Gluten-Free by www.gfco.org Naturally Anti-Microbial Compostable and naturally biodegradable Max's Mud containers are high-quality food grade,  recyclable, reusable LDPE #4 and PP #5 containers Max's Mud comes in the following colors:

Brown  White Yellow Red Orange Blue Green Purple (the color I bought my daughter) The Purple Mud is 92% Organic and made with: 100% organic rice flour, jojoba oil and natural blue color. My daughter loves the feel of the mud and how easy it is to use. She has had the same container for 5 months now and it is still as fresh and pliable as when she first played with it. She says that it is so much easier to make things with then play-do was. She also says that she likes the smell but I'm not sure what she is smelling because I don't think it has a smell (but maybe that is what she means. It doesn't smell) If you have kiddos that love to create with play-do I would highly recommend switching to Max's All Natural Sculpting Dough! Find some mud near you

Eco-eating: How to Pickle

By Sara Kramer for Green Goes Simple

Ever found yourself with pounds of beets from a CSA surplus? Or knee-deep in cucumbers from a buying spree at the farmers market? That extra produce no longer has to suffer a rotten fate. Waste less by learning how to pickle like a pro.

Pickling may seem like an activity for advanced foodies, but it’s much easier than you may think. While canned or processed pickles are the most well known, there’s another pickle to consider: Leaving brine-submersed vegetables out in warm temperatures produces oh-so-good-for-you lacto-fermented pickles (chock-full of healthy bacteria). Think sauerkraut and kimchi!

Here are the basics on how to pickle:

What You Need

1. Fresh vegetable of choice, trimmed appropriately (cucumbers are just the beginning -- green beans, okra, cauliflower, carrots and beets are also excellent pickling options)

2. Salt, non-iodized

3. Vinegar (any will do)

4. Water

5. Sugar, to balance the pucker effect

6. Spice: Throw bay leaves and coriander seed into your brine or add a dill sprig to each jar

How to Pickle

1. Sterilize glass jars and lids in a bath of boiling water.

2. Bring vinegar and water (in equal proportion), salt and sugar (to taste) to a boil.

3. Fill jars with raw veggies.

4. Pour enough hot brine in the jars to cover your veggies.

5. For long-term pickling, seal jars tightly and submerge in the water bath. (Different vegetables will require different submersion times -- you can find specific instructions from vendors at the farmers market.)

6. For short-term storage, you can quick-pickle without the canning process by putting your jars directly in the fridge and waiting 24 hours before eating. (These will store for about two weeks.)

Seasonal veggies all year round? Yes, please!

Sara Kramer is a chef and butcher in Brooklyn, N.Y., who attended NYU and the Natural Gourmet Institute. She believes we should all think more about where our food comes from.


Thanks to Green Goes Simple for sharing this blog post!

Home-Made Toss Accross

My son recently had a homework assignment in which he had to make a toy that a child in the Pioneer days would have made and enjoyed. He decided to make a bean bag toss game.

He gathered up scraps of fabric and started sewing his bean bags.

My daughter was so enthralled with what her brother was doing that she decided to join in.

 

 After the bean bags were all sewn and filled he turned his attention to the circles made from rope. (shh, don't tell his teacher but the rope he used was made from recycled plastic bottles. 

I'm pretty sure they didn't have that kind of rope back then)

After he was finished he and his sister tried it out. They had so much fun playing it, in part because they made it.

Things were learned: 

• Felt is the best type of fabric to use because it is sturdy and easy to sew
• The bigger the beans the better. Smaller beans slip out & you will be finding them all over the house for days.

Original post of Over Coffee-the green edition. Not to be used or copied in any way without written permission.. 

Discarding CFLs

Post from the Past:

Recently one of our CFLs burned out. Since they contain a small amount of mercury I knew that I could not just discard it.

So I clicked over to Earth911.com. At the top of their webpage they have this nifty thing where you type in what you want to recycle and your zip code and up pops a list of places in your area that recycle your item. So simple!

I found out that our local Home Depot recycles CFLs. Since my husband was already making a trip there I sent the burnt out light bulb along with him.

It turns out finding the drop spot was not as easy as using Earth911.com.

After asking the 3rd person, my husband was directed to a small unmarked orange bin in the corner of the store. The customer service tech showed him the simple process;

1. Place bulb into a plastic bag
2. Tie bag
3. Deposit in a special container

Simple and easy.

The CFLs are then transported to the city's recycling center (which we could have taken them to ourselves but Home Depot was closer and "easier") 

While I was on Earth911.com I did learn some information about CFLs that I had not known before:
This type of light bulb uses a fraction of the electricity used by incandescent light bulbs. CFLs are becoming a household name for many reasons, including the attention given to them by Congress. Due to the their inefficient use of energy, incandescent bulbs will be banned by Congress, starting in 2012, with a complete phase out by 2014; even existing halogen bulbs will not make Congress’ new mandate to make all bulbs 70 percent more efficient by 2020.

I think this mandate is long overdue but better late than never!

Go Green: Switch to Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs)

Original post of Over Coffee-the green edition. Not to be used or copied in any way without written permission.. 

Around the Green Blog-O-Sphere

DEA is hosting a National Take Back Day  to collect unwanted medication; prescription, non-prescription, expired, unused, & recalled medication for proper disposal!  Find a location near you!

 
Global warming - getting the message across
Speaking to an audience of MEPs and policymakers at a conference in Brussels, Prince Charles attacked climate change sceptics and deniers for what he referred to as the corrosive impact they exerted on public perceptions. And such perceptions and deliberate manipulation on the truth should not be underestimated. How many of us have heard comments such as: global warming is a myth, or its all part of a natural cycle and its been hotter in the past, long before humans started emitting carbon etc..?
Although there now exists a vast body of evidence pointing towards man-made climate change, deniers continue to perpetuate the myth that thousands of scientists throughout the world are conspiring to mislead the public. And that the world would have warmed anyway without the billions of tonnes of carbon being pumped into the atmosphere each year. 
Click over to the Green Providers Directory to continue reading 


Check out the Green-wine Guide on Treehugger.com

Dear TerraCycle Brigade® Participants,

 

TerraCycle® is proud to announce that we have partnered with Old Navy to collect used flip-flops at Old Navy stores through the Flip Flop Brigade!  The Brigade begins on Earth Day Friday, April 22nd and runs until the bins are full or Saturday, May 21st (whichever comes first) in all continental US Old Navy stores.

 

Just bring your used flip-flops to the Old Navy nearest you and look for the TerraCycle collection bin located near the store entrance.  Once the collection bins are full, Old Navy will ship the flip-flops to TerraCycle to be recycled into playgrounds that Old Navy will give away to a few lucky schools and community organizations.  If your Brigade location is interested in becoming a recipient of a TerraCycle Old Navy playground, please complete the TerraCycle Old Navy Playground Questionnaire.

 

Not only will you keep your used flip-flops out of the landfill, but you will

also be helping to create a positive play environment for some deserving schools and community organizations.  Now that’s flip-n-cool!

Participation in the Flip-Flop Brigade is simple and it’s completely FREE.  There is no purchase necessary and you do not need to sign up on terracycle.net to participate.

For more information please contact TerraCycle customer service at 866-967-6766 or customersupport@terracycle.net. Or to find an Old Navy store near you go to www.oldnavy.com/storelocator.

	mickey + minnie have always made our hearts go pitter-patter. maybe it’s their unwavering cool or delightfully cheery outlook. either way, we wanted to express our devotion in the best way we know how. with soap. so now our naturally derived, biodegradable foaming hand wash is available in the likeness of Disney’s iconic duo. CUTE MEETS CLEAN >  Best Sellers        |         New Arrivals        |           On Sale         |        Most Reviewed

3 R Friday

Welcome to 3 R Friday

A weekly series of simple tips geared toward helping you darken your shade of green. Easily.

Reduce: Reduce your plastic bag usage.

• Use reusable bags instead
• For times when you forget your reusable bags ask for paper instead.
• Use reusable bags anywhere your items are put into a plastic bag.
• Opt out!
• If you only have a few items carry them instead. 
• Don't put your restaurant doggie boxes in a bag.
• Ask for no bag when getting fast food

Reuse: Reuse plastic bags.

• Line your waste baskets with them.
• Take them back to the store and use them again. This also applies to plastic produce bags.
• Throw one in your car for times when you need to bring home muddy shoes or wet clothes.
• Use them to pick up doggie poo.
• Crochet them into a bag-o-bags.

Recycle: Purchase items made from recycled materials.



Hope you found these tips helpful. Feel free to share any tips you may have.

Have a Great Green Weekend!

My Adopt-A-Road Experience

Post from the Past:

This weekend I participated in my first Adopt-A-Road clean-up.
7 of us spent 3 hours picking up litter on a half a mile stretch of roadway. I have to say, this was a very positive, fulfilling, and eye-opening experience for me. One of the ladies compared it to vacuuming,“immediate gratification and satisfaction”. I thought that was a very good analogy!

Here are a few of the things I learned from my Adopt-A-Road experience:

Don’t wear too many layers of clothing: (bending over will be nearly impossible)

Wear boots and gloves that you don’t mind getting muddy and mucked up.

Spending 3 hours walking 0.5 miles up and down hills while carrying a bag of garbage and continually bending over then standing up again is very good exercise which will leave you sore the next day.

There are no “good” parts of town. We were in a part of town that many would consider “good” yet we still found 2 syringes.

Apparently smokers think that the side-of-the-road is their personal ashtray!

I was amazed by the number of cigarette butts we found within the first few steps we took so I started counting how many I picked up. My final tally = 1149. (This amount does not include what the other 6 people picked up)

 Let me repeat that I picked up 1149 cigarette butts in a half mile stretch.

Am I the only one who finds this incredibly disturbing? That means that over 1000 times a smoker drove by this small stretch of road and flicked their cigarette butt (undoubtedly still lite) out their window. Unbelievable!

We did not find bottles or glasses: My state has a deposit on these items and every grocery type store has recycling centers at their facility where you can bring these items back and get $ for them. (might I suggest instituting the same for cigarette butts)

It was a well spent 3 hours!

I was out in the fresh air, getting exercise, meeting new people, giving back to my community, making a difference, doing something that is good for the environment, animals, and people who live in the area. (we got a couple of Thank you's and a couple of honks with thumbs up)


Overall my experience was a very positive fulfilling one. I am glad that I participated and can’t wait to do it again. I would highly recommend participating in an Adopt-A-Road program in your area.

P.S. If you are a smoker and happen to be reading this blog posting, please don’t throw your cigarette butt out your car window! Pretty please!

Original post of Over Coffee-the green edition. Not to be used or copied in any way without written permission.. 

Around the Green Blog-O-Sphere

Envirosax, the original designer reusable bag, is doing an Earth Day competition encouraging everyone to practice reuse into all aspects of life. Eco Chic Prize Pack, worth over $500!  Solio Solar Charger for iPhone/iPod   Natural Fitness Eco Yoga Mat   Potting Shed Creations Grow Bottles   Boom Boom Cards   Oxygenics Vortex Chrome Shower head Reduce Smash Can Green Chic: Saving the Earth in Style Book   BARBAR Ceramic Eco Blow Dryer   Aurora Glow String Lights  Blue iQ Miniature Ecosystem Surfrider Foundation – Surf themed Monopoly 3-year membership to Surfrider Foundation Envirosax Cherry Lane Pouch How to Participate: Take our 5 question pop quiz, answer correctly and your name goes in our prize giveaway. Click here to take the Envirosax pop quiz now! Terms and Conditions: Competition dates are from Monday, April 19 and lasts until midnight Sunday, April 24, 2011. Answers provided must be correct in order to get your name into the prize giveaway drawing for the Eco prize pack. Available only for the USA. Prizes will only be shipped within the USA. Winners contacted and announced on facebook by Wednesday, April 27, 2011.

3 R Friday

Welcome to 3 R Friday

A weekly series of simple tips geared toward helping you darken your shade of green. Easily.

Reduce: Reduce your Ziploc bag usage.

• Whenever possible use a reusable container instead of a Ziploc bag.
• For times when you have to use a Ziploc bag, reach for the snack size first.

Reuse: Reuse plastic bread bags and their twist ties.

• Instead of a Ziploc bag.
• To pick up doggie droppings.
• Throw one in your car for times when you need to bring home muddy shoes or wet clothes.

Recycle: Recycle your packing materials at The UPS Store.

• They take packing peanuts, bubble wrap, and the air filled packers. Some Postal Connects do too!

Hope you found these tips helpful. Feel free to share any tips you may have.

Have a Great Green Weekend!

More Glee Gum Info + Discount Code

In honor of Earth Day and Arbor Day, and in recognition of my blog-tastic support, Glee Gum is offering my readers a special discount! 

What: 15% OFF all Glee Gum products on the webstore, including NEW Sugar-Free Glee Gum! 

Where: Special link gleegum.com/blognetwork 

How: Visit the special link and enter the promo code: BLOG

When: Now through Arbor Day (April 29, 2011 at 11:59 pm EST). 

Or you could enter to win a case of their NEW Sugar-Free Glee Gum here!

Share a recipe or 2

If you have a yummy recipe that you would like to share with the readers of  Over Coffee - the green edition I would love to here from you.

The more yummy recipes the better!

Glee Gum Review & Give-A-Way

Glee Gum

When my 10 yr old son saw the packets of Sugar-Free gum that Glee Gum had sent me he excitedly said, "Mom, can I do the review for you"!

So here is what my son had to say about the new Glee Gum:

First I tried the Refresh-Mint:

• It doesn't taste any different than their sugar gum
• Not too minty so kids will like it
• The flavor is not long lasting
• Can't blow bubbles with it.

The next day I tried Lemon-Lime:

• Tastes so yummy that I didn't want to stop chewing it!
• Flavor lasts longer than the Refresh-Mint but still not as long as other gum.
• Kinda sweet but still good.

Glee Sugar-free gum

I tried both kinds too and what I found is that they are not as sticky as the other kinds of Glee Gum I have tried.

I liked the Refresh-Mint better than the Lemon-Lime. I thought the Lemon-Lime was a little too sweet. 

Even though the flavor goes away quickly it was not unpleasant to keep chewing the gum. It never really gets hard like other gum does. 

I keep the packet of Refresh-Mint in my desk drawer at work. I find its great for a quick breath freshener before meetings. 

I love that the packaging is recyclable but I do wish that it contained more that 15 pieces.

Here are a few facts about Glee Gum:

• All natural chewing gum
• Made with sustainably harvested rain-forest chicle
• No artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners (no aspartame)
• No preservatives
• Minimum processing with no chemical pesticides
• Made in the USA
• A 1% for the planet member
• Minimal packaging, which is made from biodegradable, recycled cardboard (no plastic over wrap like other gum)
• Child friendly size pieces 

Here is some information about their new Sugar-Free Glee Gum:

• All Natural Sugar-Free Glee Gum is sweetened with 100% xylitol, a sugar alcohol made from birch bark.
• Xylitol is found naturally in the fibers of fruits and veggies like corn, raspberries and plums.
• Xylitol  can help benefit dental health, fight cavities, reduce plaque, and even clear nasal passages.
• It contains no artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners or preservatives. 
• It's free of all major allergens, and it's their first product that's also corn-free**!
•  There's No Aspartame in Glee!

Sugar Free Glee Gum

Now you can try the new Sugar-Free Glee Gum for yourself thanks to the funny and kind folks at Glee Gum!
They are generously offering one lucky reader a case (12 boxes w/ 15 pieces per box) of their yummy Sugar-Free Glee Gum (Thanks Glee Guy!)  

To Enter: Tell me which flavor you would like (Refresh-Mint or Lemon-Lime) and why you would like to try Glee Gum.

Don't forget to include your e-mail address (if your profile does not have it listed) 
 
Giveaway Ends: Sunday April 24th.


Extra Entry: Blog about this giveaway and post the link here.

Good Luck!

I was given 2 packs of sugar free gum by Glee Gum to try out. I agreed to write a review of the product and host a give-a-way. The opinions written here are my honest opinions and not influenced by the company. 

My first trip to an all natural store

Post from the Past:

This weekend was my first shopping trip at an all natural store.

Oh sure, I have popped into a Trader Joes once or twice before to pick up an item or two but never to do my grocery shopping. So this was an all new experience for me.

Walking up and down the aisles I was totally amazed at how many products they had to offer and at the variety of brands they carried. I was also intrigued by the totally different look and feel of the store. I can’t really explain it besides saying that it was different. The one thought that flashed through my mind was, “this must be how children feel the first time they step foot inside Toys-R-Us.”


After I got over the “ahh” factor I really started to look at the store in a pro-vs-con kind of way.

Pros: Healthier, organic, natural, lots of local products, 10 cents off for each reusable bag including reusable produce bags (all pretty obvious).

Then I started looking at the cons and the #1 con...the price.

I really don’t understand why organic, natural foods cost so much more than “regular” foods. I am willing to pay a little more for organic/natural products but these prices were way more.

Example: $5.95 for a dozen free range antibiotic free brown eggs.

It is really difficult for a family of 4 on a tight budget to be able to shop at this store on a regular basis.

When we got home my husband and I analyzed our purchases. We realized that we could buy some (definitely not all but some) of the same items at our local Wal-mart super store and for much less.

Example: $2.95 a dozen for the same brand of free range antibiotic free brown eggs.

Our Wal-mart does not have the organic apples, the local bread, or the organic cheese that we bought (and loved cuz they were so yummy and are already gone) so now the question becomes, do we shop at 2 different stores?

What about the time and gas that would be spent shopping at 2 different stores that happen to be across town from each other?

Is purchasing just a few items (yogurt, cheese, bread, fruit) at the all natural food store “good enough”?

Addition to Original Post:

I can not believe that it has been 3 yrs since I originally posted this. My, how time flies.
What is even funnier is that this post still holds true!
I still ooh and ahh when I walk down the aisles, I still gasp at the prices, and I still buy whatever organic items I can at chain grocery stores because the prices are lower.
What has changed is the number of organic items that are available at chain stores including generic brands and multiple brands. Now we have more choices! It is all a step in the right direction!

Original post of Over Coffee-the green edition. Not to be used or copied in any way without written permission.. 
   

Around the Green Blog-O-Sphere

From today  through May 4th, Spreadshirt.com is offering 20% off the purchase of 2 or more organic products.

Spreadshirt.com has colorful organic t-shirts and hoodies for women and men, and skin-friendly fabrics for kids. If you purchase 2 organic products by May 4th, 2011, your will get a 20% discount for your whole shopping basket.  Just enter coupon codes ECO2011 (or CADECO2011 for Canada) when checking out.

Visit StonyField Organics at YourOrganicMoment.com and tell them how and why you and organic got together. Share your story and they will give you a coupon for yogurt and enter you in two raffles: one for a month's worth of organic yogurt, and one for a year's worth of organic groceries. Let me know if you share your story so I can read it!

Life is a Picnic

A group of amazing eco-friendly brands; Fabkins, Green Toys, LUNA, Plum Organics, and Cleanwell, have come together for a Earth Day promotion – “Life’s a Picnic” kit is being sold now on Diapers.com.  As part of this campaign, all proceeds from the sale of the kit will benefit the non-profit Healthy Child Healthy World.

 Check out the great sales at buygreen.com




With summer fast approaching you may want to check out this cool/cute blog post at Evergreen Moms: Popsicle molds: non-toxic, all tasty

Consider this Egg-cellent, sweet and outrageously camp bath ballistic egg, made fresh and by hand by Lush for an Easter basket treat!

This ballistic is great for kids and anyone who loves the bubblegum and banana scent of our famous Snow Fairy shower gel. It'll transform the waters into a pink wonderland of candy floss sweetness and scent your body for the rest of the day. Layer it with Godmother soap and you'll be irresistible. This Fluffy Egg makes a perfectly fluffy Easter gift for girls and guys with a sense of humor.