Peggy over at Tree Hugging Family has some good green stocking stuffer up, but for more ideas…

1. Finger Puppets (Organic Cotton): $15.00 – but if split up between three kids a great deal.
2. Felt Ornaments: $6.99
3. Sustainable Jotters in all sorts of designs – $8.00
4. North Star Toys – Magic Wand: $7.90
5. Educo Little Auto Green: $5.95

1. Plan Toys – Mushroom Kaleidoscope: $ 4.90
2. Maple Landmark – Spinning Top just $ 1.20 a pop!
3. Under the Nile Organic Carrot or Under the Nile Organic Eggplant – for baby! $6.95
4. Automoblox Mini C9-P Sportscar – Pink: $9.95
5. Green Apple Natural Loofah Body Scrubber from Loofah Art: $4.99 (read my Loofah Art Review)
6. Crayon rocks: $4.75 (for eight) or $6.95 (for 16)
7. Snowman Game Ornament by Haba: $7.99

BONUS IDEA: Digital Dollhouse: $4.95

Oh, and by the way, if you still need an eco-friendly stocking to stuff, check out five green Christmas stockings plus some DIY ideas. Later on we’ll look at some eco-friendly candy minded stocking stuffers.

Post from: Blisstree

Stuff an Eco-Friendly Christmas Stocking

To raise a child who seriously loves the planet you should:

Get outside often and actively: If you’re reluctant to go hiking, swim in the lake, or even take a daily walk, then your child will be happier in front of the TV. If you don’t care, why should they? You have to not only get your kids outside but make it a positive experience. Dress for the weather so no one can complain. Take along gear to make it fun, like a bag for collecting rocks and leaves or a sled. Go to places with diverse nature – the beach, the woods, a marshland, a wide field at a farm.

Use nature for fun Get books that highlight the benefits of nature. My son always liked rock collection books, and he’d want to go hiking to find new rocks. Do art projects that use nature, such as build a solar cooker, make sun prints, make holiday decor with leaves, and so on.

Talk about nature: Getting outside is key, but when you’re outside you should also be talking about it. Discuss why leaves change color. Comment on that trash you see on the ground. Bring up why all those new buildings take away from the land.

Join community efforts: A community garden, beach clean-up, tree-planting event, and more makes for a fun and memorable day and also teaches your child that nature activities aren’t all solo. You can hang with others outside too.

Make family vacations count: You can hit a fancy spa or hotel or you can combine nature and relaxation by using your vacations to camp or hike or even join a green event.

To learn more or to gather ideas about how you can get your family active and outside more often visit the following links…

• No Child Left Inside
• The Girl Scouts
• Children & Nature
• Nature Explore
• Camp Fire USA
• Earth Scouts
• 4-H
• Nature Rocks
• American Hiking Society

[image via No Child Left Inside]

Post from: Blisstree

Raise an Earth Loving Child

The Arbor Day Foundation has many cool eco-friendly gift ideas. You can give a pal a tree for planting. Trees come in several different types of redwoods, pines, or spruces, and they’re packaged in totally recyclable packaging that can be turned into a cute bird feeder.

Make a donation to Habitat for Humanity in your loved one’s name and your gift will go to a low-flow toilets and other home building supplies to help a family in need. Habitat not only uses sustainable, energy efficient building methods when possible, but these house improve the local community and improve the lives of families in need.

Vegan friendly TOMS slippers are made from a blend of recycled products, faux suede insoles and rubber outsoles. and for each pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. TOMS also carries some other eco-friendly styles, such as canvas.

The Rainforest Site carries tons of eco-friendly products and each item you buy helps fund habitat preservation. The shop carries plenty of goodies like Organic Aromatherapy Body Soap, Antique Sari Cell Phone Cases, Recycled Soda Bottle Soy Candle, and more.

When you purchase special holiday goodies from Dancing Deer Baking Co. “Sweet Home” cake & cookie gifts line the company donates 35% of the retail price to scholarship programs through One Family Inc. to help homeless and at risk mothers further their education.

For more ideas on green gifts that give back visit Gaiam or Oprah’s Magazine.

[image via the Arbor Day Foundation]

Post from: Blisstree

Green Holiday Gifts that Give Back

Avoid harsh astringents and toners: Both astringents and toners can contain high amounts of alcohol. Alcohol is drying, so on top of winter (with naturally drying air) your skin can suffer.  Instead of conventional toners try a non-alcohol based homemade facial toner, buy a non-alcohol toner, or simply wash your face with a gentle non-drying organic or natural soap once a day.

Scrub naturally: To sooth dry skin and get a silky smooth feel try a facial scrub made with simple ground oatmeal and strawberries – which will exfoliate without drying your skin if you don’t want to grind oats in your blender try my favorite natural facial grains from Manor Hall. For your entire body try making a super awesome homemade organic sugar scrub or for an easy fix try Mango Body Scrub.

Ease winter lips: Lips are easily chapped during the winter. To avoid this take a dab of honey and a dab of white table sugar and gently use this to exfoliate your lips a few times a week. When you head outside make sure you slather on a good eco-friendly lip balm.

Get some moisture: Long baths and showers zap skin moisture, so avoid both. Keep a humidifier running in your bedroom at night – but keep it clean or it’ll breed mold and other icky stuff. Most of all, drink plenty of good ol’ H20. In the winter our water intake can go down, but that’s a great way to dry out your skin. Keep your reusable water bottle handy at all times. As for added moisture, use a thick cream vs. a lotion. There’s more moisture content in a cream vs. squirt-ready moisturizer. I like Yes To Carrots Deliciously Rich Body Butter, which includes Shea Butter, vitamins A and E, and zero parabens.

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Blisstree

Winterproof Your Skin Naturally

Beautiful Sweets Fall Colors cookies (shown above) – all natural and organic with a fun splash of fall colors, including assorted leaves, pumpkins, acorns and other fall-themed cookies. The company also uses gorgeous, eco-friendly recyclable gift packaging.

Autumn Rose Bouquet – VeriFlora Certified orange Milva roses, fall colored spray roses and hypericum berries or Italian ruscus.

Maple Leaves & Gingerbread Acorns – all natural, Kosher, leaf-shaped maple butter cookies and acorn-shaped gingerbread cookies,  plus the Dancing Deer company uses eco-packaging when possible.

Fall Asiatic Lilies – VeriFlora Certified Asiatic Lilies in a fall-themed bouquet contains a mix of two to three colors selected from red, orange, and/or yellow.

Chocolate Covered Pears – Rogue Valley pears, dried moist and then covered in organic dark chocolate with a white chocolate spiral.

Organic Culinary Herb Wreath – Crafted from organic marjoram, dill, thyme, sage, lavender, anise, cinnamon sticks, and yarrow, and accented with chili peppers. An excellent Thanksgiving gift idea or decor idea instead of flowers because you can actually season your meal with it!

Post from: Blisstree

Eco-friendly Thanksgiving Flowers & Treats

Following are some great ideas for eco-friendly gifts you can start making now, and by Christmas you’ll be good to go.

Reusable Garden Tote: Perfect for the gardener in your life, or mix it up, choose a non-garden design and make a tote or two for anyone.

DIY play kitchens that actually look amazing and professional but at half the cost of a store bought play kitchen. Best of all you can make most of them with recycled goods and non-toxic finishes.

This homemade sugar body scrub is so amazing, if you package it in a nice jar with a computer made label, your best friend will never guess that you made it at home. Lemon Bath Cookies are a good bet too.

Easy as pie Canning Jar Gifts – layer them carefully for a professional look and use organic goods.

Cinnamon Marshmallow Stars – not vegan! Cute though and would look amazing in hot cocoa.

For a great stocking stuffer try homemade chunky crayons made with recycled old crayon bits.

An amazing list of 50 edible holiday gifts you can make – some are super fancy. Make sure you use organics.

NOTE: If you want to make a homemade gift, and aren’t sure where to start, take an hour and browse Etsy. Etsy is all things handmade that you can buy, but it’s also an excellent place to gain some amazing inspiration for projects you could pull off yourself. If you need more tips listen to NPR’s broadcast about eco-friendly homemade gifts.

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Blisstree

Homemade Eco-Gifts for the Holidays

The Buttbutt is a rain barrel that can collect rain water from any standard drainpipe which is a good thing, since saving your rain water is smart. But man, to get this water you’ve got to tap into somewhere a little odd, as you can see in the image above. It even comes in three colors!

ShackUp has another less butt version, that’s still creative and fun; the bottlebutt, which I think makes a nice ironic point. Too funny.

If you’re looking for fun these rain barrels are totally for you. If you want something that won’t frighten all the neighbors as much, take a look at a modern less-butt-like rain barrel.

Wow? Could you use a rain barrel butt?

Post from: Blisstree

Waterbutts – Rain Barrel Butts!

Forget the greetings: Greeting cards are highly overrated in my opinion. Yes, some are special, but they tend to end up in drawers, and take up way more time and money than they’re worth. Nowadays you can send a green e-card for any occasion and in many cases send them for FREE! It’s a time and money saver. If you must have paper greetings, go with recycled paper cards, plantable paper, or some cute sustainable birch cards that won’t sit in a drawer like the nesting bird card from Night Owl Paper Goods (shown above).

Plan for greener wrap: You can use recycled content wrap, wrap you saved from last year, or even aim for wrap that is not just wrap, but a gift too like a reusable bag, basket, or a clever hide box.

Choose the greenest Christmas tree you’re comfortable with: Not all families want to shun the tree just to stay green, and that’s totally fine. There are greener Christmas tree choices available for green families and individuals.

Use LED Christmas lights: LED holiday lights save lots more energy than traditional Christmas lights, and look clearer and brighter in my opinion as well. In fact, right now Home Depot is offering a trade-in program for old Christmas lights that give you a discount on new LED lights, but hurry the offer ends on November 15th.

Avoid one gift material: If all you do is avoid Christmas gifts made of virgin plastic this holiday season, well, that’s a big perk to your eco-footprint. Plastic is one of the big baddies when it comes to materials that goods are made with. It’s made with non-renewable resources (unless you buy recycled plastic goods), has a polluting manufacturing process, and is often full of toxic chemicals you don’t need. See how creative you can get this year and make it a virgin plastic-free holiday season.

If you need more tips for a fabulous green Christmas, take a look at the new book, I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas – this book offers excellent tips and advice about keeping it green this season.

Coming up soon one HUGE way to keep your Christmas eco-friendly this year.

Post from: Blisstree

Celebrate a Merry Green Christmas

Hoot worthy bleached eco-friendly coir owl doormat. Printed w/pigment dyes. Coir is woven from coconut husks, and naturally traps dirt, absorbs moisture, and stands up to all kinds of weather extremes. A nice greeting at a doorway this holiday.

Bamboo drink coasters – 100% organically-grown bamboo, non-toxic adhesive, natural food-safe wood oil.

Organic soy candles from Dirt Candles – Dirt makes GMO-free organic soy candles scented with essential oils, botanical ingredients, and they use all-natural cotton wicks. They also have recycled packaging printed with soy inks and labels made from corn. Soy candles burn cleaner than wax and look great; plus fill your home with a lovely scent. Available in cool holiday scents such as Spice of Life, Gingerbread Man, Apple A Day, and more.

Reincarnated Indian Beer Bottle Lanterns – recycled beer bottles from India are reincarnated as tealights! Very nice.

Seeds of Joy Wreath made with contrasting shades of green foliage – Oregon Myrtle and Noble Fir with seeded eucalyptus and salal. Certified organic too!

Root of the Earth Serving Tray – A lovely flat-bottom carved burlwood tray made with reclaimed wood; perfect for serving, or showing off pretty fall fruits. Each piece is totally unique as well.

For some cool DIY green Thanksgiving decor ideas read…

• Fall Decor with Flowers & Leaves
• Decorate naturally with fall leaves

Post from: Blisstree

Eco-friendly Thaksgiving Home Decor

Frontier Fair Trade Spices

• Sage used for stuffing, gravy, bread, soup, and more can also help fight upset stomach, reduce depression and even inhibits the development of different bacteria. Some research shows that sage can even help boost insulin action in those with diabetes.
• Rosemary used for potatoes, veggies, and more fights free radicals, relaxes your stomach, and has even been shown to aid memory issues in Alzheimer’s disease.
• Oregano has 20 times more antioxidant power than other herbs and is an anti-inflammatory that is useful in fighting all sorts of baddies from coughs to food-borne pathogens to cancer and more. Plus it seasons your stuffing, veggies and potato dishes nicely.
• Cinnamon, used for pie, cookies, fruit, cider and more is also a tasty way to help fight heart disease and diabetes. This powerful spice also is great for relieving nausea, can support digestion, and more.

Many other herbs and spices have excellent healing properties as well. Visit The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine to learn more.

Why organic?

Why not organic is the better question. Organic farming and organic food keeps pesticides and other nasty chemicals off your Thanksgiving table, supports your health, and supports the planet’s health.

Where to find organic herbs and spices:

• Frontier
• The bulk section at your local natural grocer
• Starwest Botanicals
• Mountain Rose Herbs
• TSP Spices – don’t love the packaging, but organic
• Grow some organic herbs right in your own kitchen!

NOTE: Before using a herb as a medicinal treatment read Herbal Medicine Cabinet Safety.

[image via Frontier]

Post from: Blisstree

Healthy Organic Holiday Herbs & Spices