 I've recently finished reading a book, "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson. This is a very inspirational non-fiction book about how the author was able to make a difference by raising funds and building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Education and job opportunities are the fundamental foundations for a stable and peaceful nation. If you want to help make a difference, www.oneworldprojects.com offers fair trade eco-friendly products from developing countries. Many products are made from renewable resources, thus providing artisans with incentives to conserve, protect, and in many cases restore their natural resources and biologically-diverse ecosystems. All One World Projects' products provide viable economic alternatives to artisans and their families in developing countries while promoting social and environmental responsibility. This is a photo of the beautiful handcrafted necklace and earrings made of blue quartz and silver toned beads by craftspeople from Afghanistan. For more product information, please visit www.oneworldprojects.com. This is an opportunity to make a difference in these developing countries. 2 Comments Spring is right around the corner and Easter is coming up. Every year I organize a mini-Easter egg hunt for my children. I reuse the plastic Easter eggs that I bought about three years ago. It's actually quite easy to store the plastic eggs away (the key to organization is to have a clearly labelled plastic container and to store the items based on the holiday immediately after the event, so you don't forget). For those of you who are interested in buying new plastic eggs, consider purchasing them from your local Goodwill store. When I dropped off a donation recently I saw non-clothes items on sale (from other donors) and the store clerk said that people do not realize that Goodwill takes alot of different donations beyond your basic clothes. Goodwill takes furniture, books, household items, kitchen/baking items among others. Please keep this in mind before you throw out your next batch of castaways. Please be sure to ask for a tax donation receipt and they will provide it to you. It's great to file the receipts away in a tax folder for tax filing purposes. All donations are tax deductible (for more about tax deductions contact your financial advisor or accountant). Also for senior citizens, I think they offer a percent discount (up to 50% off all items), so keep this in mind and share this information with your senior friends. Please visit their website at www.goodwill.org to find the local store near you. If you have school age children and/or teenagers, please have them visit the following website at: www.dosomething.org. This not for profit organization gives away weekly grants to fund eco-friendly and other positive efforts led by children and teenagers. It is such a wonderful way to get children motivated to become active community participants and leaders. My children are too young but I hope to get them involved within the next year. This is also a great website to share with other parents as well. If you come across any great websites or initiatives, please share the information with the rest of us. Thanks!  When I use organic products, I feel great because I know that it's healthier for my family and me. Well, can we do more than just use organic products? The answer is yes. By purchasing organic products from companies that contribute a portion of their proceeds to environmental efforts, we know that it is a great step towards helping our environment. I have recently tried the Oasis Fruit Shampoo and Conditioner products from www.saveyourworld.com. The ingredients include organic aloe and yerba mate (if you've read my product review on Yerba Mate, you know that their antioxidant properties exceed organic green tea). I love the fruity fragrant scent. A set of three samples of SaveYourLips Lipbalms will be randomly given away to one of the email program members by March 31st, so join the free Eco-friendlyliving.com Email program today by submitting your contact information in the "Join Free Email Program" section of this website. Please note that your complete mailing address will need to be provided in order to receive samples. Your contact information is not sold or shared to any third parties. Random giveaways are sent by the end of each month. I love exchanging books with friends and borrowing books from the library. It's great for the environment and saves money. I just recently signed up for a free online program www.paperbackswap.com. The online community allows individuals to post books that they are willing to ship to others in exchange for book credits to use for books they wish to receive. It's a great system. I just selected my first two books and hope to receive them this upcoming week. I'll let you know how smoothly this goes. When I was in college, I was always scouting for used textbooks from other college students and there was usually a major uproar when professors decided to use a new edition of a textbook. The online system brings back fond memories of bookswapping with others.  Just when I felt that my son was growing up too fast, he surprised me by shouting with delight when I gave him a babystar soy organic blanket (although he is too old for a blanket I caved in, because he was jealous of his younger sister's blankie inflatuation). The soy organic blanket is soft and warm or as he would describe it, the blanket is cuddly. Babystar.com offers a number of great organic baby/toddler clothing and blankets. For 20% discount enter the following code: star20. This offers expires 12/31/2010. For more product information, please visit. www.babystar.com. Right now until the end of February, you can get free shipping with your purchase using the following code "HEART" at the checkout page.  If you asked me a year ago, I would have never envisioned myself as someone who enjoys exercising as much as I do today. About a year ago, I was so intimated entering the Y for the first time, all I had the courage to do was to join a yoga class (because the lights were so dim, no one would notice that I didn't know what I was doing). Within the past few months, I've started to enjoy other forms of exercise such as aerobics (I finally figured out what a V step is), ZUMBA (I love dancing, who knew?) and running on the treadmill (now I know why athletes love sports). However, everything started with one small baby step of me joining a yoga class. Practicing yoga is an ancient art form and studies have shown that it is one of the best stress management techniques. It's often difficult for me to take time out of my day to do yoga, but I found that if I give up watching a television show for a night (to be quite honest, I channel surf more than watch any television show anyway), I am able to find time to practice yoga. Manduka.com makes 100% natural yoga mats. These mats are eco-friendly and are very comfortable to use. Right now, Manduka will give you 20% discount if you recycle your yoga mats. Also, Manduka.com is offering a great 10% discount on products purchased at www.manduka.com. For those of you who never tried yoga, now is a time to start. For those of you who already enjoy practicing yoga, this is a great company that offers yoga products for you to buy for your family and friends so that they can practice yoga, too. For more product information, please visit www.manduka.com.  I'm staying on track with my 2010 goal of training for my first race this year. Yesterday I ran 12 min/mile for 3 miles on a treadmill (hey, we all have to start somewhere). I am thinking of a 5K race in early fall. That way, I can have plenty of time to train and improve on my time (hopefully without too much pain). Anyway, I felt really sore this morning so I needed to rest today and do some yoga. www.goKalyx.com offers nice and comfortable 100% organic cotton T shirts. The T shirts are soft and cut slightly longer than other T shirts (the longer length creates a very flattering figure and it automatically lengthens the torso). I love the sweet sage Yoga T shirt shown here. They also come in other inspirational colors with words such as "Race," "Ride," "Drive," "Surf" and "Chill." From now through March 31st, you can receive an awesome deal, a 20% discount on your entire order (for all of their products) by entering the following discount code "Eco20" at www.goKalyx.com. For more product information, please visit www.goKalyx.com. I wondered if my son would ever learn how to tie his shoes when his classmates started tying their own shoes earlier this year. Then, it just happened yesterday morning. When we were about to leave the house, instead of my usual frantic race to tie his shoes, he just told me he did it. Another right of passage come and gone just like that. About a year ago, I've asked moms with older kids when their children started putting on their own socks and shoes and they told me that they honestly don't remember because it happens so fast. Of course, I sat there thinking when will it "happen so fast" to me, but now I know what they mean. As for our old worn out sneakers, instead of throwing them out, we bring them to Nike stores and donate them in the collection bins that is part of the Nike Reuse a Shoe program. The shoes don't even have to be old Nike sneakers, they can be any sneakers. They process the shoes and use the materials for playgrounds or new apparel. You can find out more information about this program at www.nikereuseashoe.com. Eco-friendly product review: Moixa Energy offers batteries that recharge directly using a USB outlet 02/13/2010
 Living an eco-friendly lifestyle is always a constant balance between being eco-conscious and convenience. For example, buying food in bulk is great, but subdividing the foods into separate packages takes time, reusing bottles is great, but washing the bottles takes time, recharging batteries is great, but finding and storing a charger takes time... This balancing act goes on and on. However, technology changes the circumstances. Now you can have the convenience of being able to recharge batteries using the USBCell USB Rechargeable batteries from www.moixaenergy.com. These regular looking batteries have a flip top that reveals a USB compatible link so that you can plug it directly to any USB port for recharging. No more towing around a battery charger or searching around the house for the charger. There is even an indicator directly on the batteries to show when the batteries are completely charged. How wonderful!!! (Thanks to the cool engineers and revolutionary folks at Moixa Energy). Advancement in technology offers us the benefits of both being eco-conscious without sacrificing any convenience. For more information about their products, visit www.moixaenergy.com. | AuthorEco-friendly activist trying to make more healthy eco-friendly choices for my family. CategoriesAll ArchivesFebruary 2012 |
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