Tree Hugging Family » Tree Hugging Family News

Goodbye Tree Hugging Families!

Jennifer — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:00:05 +0000

During the summer of 2007, I’d been writing for b5media for a while, and when my editor at the time asked for ideas for a new blog, I suggested Tree Hugging Family. I’d seen all sorts of green blogs, but none for families in particular, and being in a family, that made me cranky. My editor loved the idea and by the end of summer, Tree Hugging Family sprouted.

Almost 1,000 green posts later, it’s time for me to move on to other adventures.

Your new blogger here is someone you hopefully remember – Peggy! Our ex (and now back) THF co-blogger. Peggy left a year ago, and has been missed, so it’s awesome she’s coming back. She’s a great friend of mine, a super cool blogger, and I know this blog will be in excellent hands.

I’ll still be hanging around THF as a loyal reader, but if you miss me a lot, I’m an easy blogger to find. I’ve got plenty of green projects going on around the web. Come visit me at one of them.

The decision to leave THF is hands down the hardest blogging decision I’ve ever had to make. I adore this blog and love the readers here and all of your thoughtful, helpful comments. I feel like my son Cedar and me have both been able to grow so much greener over the years and a lot of that is due to the constant positive reader feedback and participation here.

Tree Hugging Family has been an amazing journey and it’s been such a huge honor that you’ve all shared your green goals, green living challenges, and ideas here. I wish all of you and your families well in your continuing efforts to get green, stay green, and build a cleaner, more eco-friendly world for your kids.

Take care and keep on hugging those trees!

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Upcoming Tree Hugging Family Changes

Jennifer — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:03:56 +0000

Well, first of all you’ve likely noticed the new header and font style here at THF. However, it’s not the only change going on here at Tree Hugging Family this October.

Just so that there’s no crazy surprises, (I hate those) I wanted to let my readers here know that I’ll be leaving Tree Hugging Family at the end of the month.

After helping to plan and launch this blog with b5media and being here since summer 2007, this was not an easy decision to make. I’ll miss this blog and everyone who visits a lot – leaving is just the right decision at this time. I’ll be hanging around until Halloween, then there’s going to be a new blogger coming in to take over. Trust me you’ll like the blogger.

In any case, I’ll save my formal goodbyes for my last day, October 31st, but I hate when I go to a blog and am totally surprised with a “Hey today I’m outta here” post – I didn’t want to do that here.

For now (for fun) let’s take a look back at ten of my fave THF posts. Not THE ten fave mind you, that would be difficult to narrow down, but ten I really enjoyed.

Eco Tips from Kids
Go organic without losing your mind
Plan for 365 days of green this Earth Day
Eco-friendly ways to reward kids
Some eco-numbers to consider
Seven Evil Ways I Harm the Planet
How Kids Can Make A Difference: Saving the Planet from A to Z
Six great reasons not to go green
Tree Hugging Baby Names
The boy loves me more than toilet paper tubes! (the only round-up to make the list, but all the tube posts are funny IMO).

We’ll finish out the month with more green tips, so stay tuned.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Tree Hugging Family’s busy green autumn!

Jennifer — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:00:22 +0000

It’s going to be a super busy green autumn here at Tree Hugging Family. So you don’t feel lost here’s what’s coming up this September.

Tomorrow we’ll be finding out which three readers will be winning a copy of the DVD DisneyNature: Earth. If you haven’t entered yet skip over quick-like and do so because you’ve got until midnight tonight.

In the next couple of days I’ll also be kicking off an awesome giveaway event sponsored by one of my fave eco-art shops, INK + WIT – the prize is totally green and fab (you will LOVE it) so don’t miss it.

Other cool stuff happening:

Finishing up the Green Diapers 101: Eco-friendly Diaper Round-Up post that I started last week. By the end of the line-up you’ll have all the green diaper news you need to make a smart eco-diaper choice.

Hopefully some more news about the “is there a good recycled toilet paper out there” challenge. As I test brands I’ll post reviews, although since I’ve got a bunch of brands in mind this could take a while. Still, my plans include getting this going asap.

Green Halloween time is getting close so of course we’ll be looking at some spooky green tips and supplies.

A green challenge!

You may remember some of our previous challenges such as the Buy Nothing Day Challenge, the use fewer Paper Towels Challenge, and the wildly popular BYOB Challenge – the bring your own reusable bag challenge. In any case, we haven’t done a challenge in a while, so we’re due. Since I recently merged households with my boyfriend and his kiddos I was thinking that a green home audit challenge might be fun and useful for you and me. My son Cedar and me have been living green for Cedar’s whole life, but not perfectly of course; there have been major challenges, and stuff we miss, so we could always use another audit.

My boyfriend’s family does the basic stuff like recycling, but they don’t buy organic juice or milk, they use some questionable bathroom products (i.e. shampoo for kids with toxins) and have been used to living with paper towels and plastic PVC shower curtains which are off limits in my house. However, my boyfriend is not opposed to living green, and wants to learn more so an audit may be just the thing to get everyone on board and at the same level. I’ve been thinking about how to pull off a green home audit challenge, and once I fine tune the details, we’ll get started.

So you don’t miss any of this you may want to subscribe to Tree Hugging Family – it’s free to subscribe and a great way to keep up with new events, giveaways, and more. As always feel free to contact me with questions or comments about Tree Hugging Family as well.

[images via stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Which green topics are the most popular for discussion?

Jennifer — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:00:03 +0000

When it comes to green topics, some get people talking more than others. Case in point, Tree Hugging Family has been around for almost two years, we’ve had around 1,300 posts and about 5,500 comments. However, the comments that folks leave tend to be in huge groups on specific posts. It’s not well-rounded, and oddly, doesn’t always represent the most popular posts overall here, although, it does show what tree hugging families like to discuss.

In case you’re curious, and because I thought it might be entertaining, the following posts are the green topics that have created some lively (or just plain popular) discussions here at Tree Hugging Family…

Ah global warming – not only does everyone have an opinion, but people have cranky opinions. Fun.

People LOVE baby turtles, soap, and Tree Hugging Baby Names.

People REALLY LOVE homemade sugar scrub.

Peggy sounds off about how Palmolive eco+ Gel Dishwasher Detergent is greenwashing and everyone has something to say about it, including me.

32 Unique Homemade Popsicle Recipes & Ideas – this post resulted in a ton of comments, many with helpful extra tips.

We all hate Dixie paper product commercials and overly priced green goods.

Bring up female green period options and just see what happens in the comments!

I can’t believe people have so much to say about dryer sheets.

Seven Evil Ways I Harm the Planet – turns out I’m not the only one.

25 safe, non-toxic, homemade cleaners – this post has had a ton of comments, some questions, but many are cool helpful hints from readers so very worth a read.

Should we Raid spiders? Readers come up with other options that I won’t try.

People have super mixed emotions about Seventh Generation dish powder.

Eco-friendly ways to reward kids – cool post, cool comments.

Surprisingly people have a lot of opinions about reusable coffee filters.

Homeschooling goes illegal and everyone chimes in.

I really like our chats about consumerism, for example, on posts like If you’re so against having stuff, then why show all these products on this blog?,

This kitty litter post got more comments than we thought it would.

Of course there are other posts with many comments, these are just the ones that come to mind. Check some of them out and contribute your own thoughts in the comments.

[image via stock.xchng - altered by yours truly with actual THF comments]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Random Monday Morning Nature News & Giveaway

Jennifer — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:48:41 +0000

To kick off Monday, I’ve got some giveaway news and some super adorable news… hmmm, which should we cover first? I’m going with adorable nature news. So, for Mother’s Day I got a pot of hanging flowers. There are a ton of birds around my place and they LOVE the pot of flowers. A lot. They keep hanging out above me in the flowers, and today when I went to water them guess what?

How cute is that!? I’m so going to be a bird auntie! Yay.

Now in giveaway news…

mad berries is giving away the super cool “I Am Not A Paper Cup” – I’m a big fan of this cup and have posted about it before here.

Besides the packaging it comes in, this is a cool eco-friendly twist of a cup. I think you should go try to win it. I hope your Monday is off to a great start. Later today some more green wedding goodies – in case you forgot it’s green wedding month here at THF. If you’d like to catch up take a look at…

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Tree Hugging Family May Events: Weddings, Contests, & More!

Jennifer — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:00:23 +0000

May is going to be crazy busy here at Tree Hugging Family. To give you a chance to prepare, here’s a quick rundown of what I’ve got planned for May.

Getting married?: Last May the green wedding series was popular with readers and way fun for me, so I’m doing it again. All May we’ll be looking at green wedding tips, ideas, and cooler than cool eco-wedding gear. If you missed our last green wedding series you can catch up now with the Tree Hugging Family Green Wedding Guide.

Giveaways galore!: So far on tap we’ve got two fun giveaways coming up in May. One for the ultra cute Barley & Birch and the other for the eco-friendly line of beauty products, Sparklehearts. Who knows what else might happen!

Green product reviews: I’ve got a ton of these planned for May; roll over from the chaos of Earth Day month. Some product reviews planned for May include:

Evergreen Candleworks – makers of wonderful soy candles and other treats.
Earth Friendly Products – LOTS from these folks; I’m talking green cleaners, eco-dishwasher soap, fruit & veggie wash and more.
An eco book for the kiddos (comic style).
Hope beyond hope, that I’ll get to the Eco Touch car cleaner review (which due to weather issues has been a long time coming). BUT I love their products, so hopefully!

Of course there are always surprises, so maybe I’ll come up with some other cool May happenings, but for now, this above is the game plan (along with regular green news and posts).

LASTLY…

Subscribe – Don’t forget to subscribe to Tree Hugging Family if you want to keep up with all the May goodness. You can subscribe for FREE by RSS or sign up for email posts (also for free) simply by filling out the quick box in the sidebar.

Contact – As always you can Ask Tree Hugging Family Your Green Question or simply contact me with comments about living green, post ideas, or tell us about products you’d love for me to review.

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Tree Hugging Family News & Some Cool Links

Jennifer — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 02:00:00 +0000

In case you caught that post where I mentioned an upcoming giveaway, I have good news and bad.

First of all, the bad news: due to technical issues (behind the blog), there’s not going to be a giveaway this month as I said.

The good news: Barring tech issues that just keep on going (doubtful), there will be two giveaways to kick off the month of February here. I’ve got two different and interesting prizes lined up for a total of four readers, so stay tuned.

Mainly, I just wanted to give you a heads up, but not to waste a post, I thought I’d share three cool links too.

Yesterday, we looked at how to reuse toilet paper tubes, and so I thought I should mention that another way to green your toilet paper use is to put the roll on the toilet paper holder correctly. According to TreeHugger, there IS a right way and a wrong way (someone actually did a study about it).

Junk Creation has a clever Prescription Bottle Reuse idea – it’s a sort of ah ha moment.

Mother Earth’s Garden has a homemade recipe for Horehound Drops. You could easily make these completely organic and natural. Plus, there’s no packaging like typical throat drops, so this is a very green remedy choice.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Quick Update…

Jennifer — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:37:30 +0000

I’ve got a review of a great eco-clothing company coming up stats, but first, a little update.

Holy did we ever get behind last week. Things got a wee bit nutty on my end, so this week, we’ve got lots and lots to cover. We’ll stick with our basics – green holiday planning and our Buy Nothing Day challenge, but I’ve also got a load of products to review, so I’m going to try and push out at least one green product review per day.

Lastly, here at the Lifestyles channel, we’ve decided to open up shop. Most of the blogs in the channel will be placing a link in their sidebar that directs you to a holiday gift guide. Here at Tree Hugging Family, my gift guide for you folks will of course be green-minded.

Now on with the review…. (please see directly above)

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

What’s Happening In November 2008 at Tree Hugging Family!

Jennifer — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 05:00:47 +0000

This November is jam packed with all kinds of green loving stuff for your reading pleasure…

Enter our Holiday Hallmark Card Studio Software Giveaway!

Goodbye Peggy:

First we’re bidding a fond farewell to Peggy; sigh, if only I hadn’t started that fight about global warming with her – just kidding! It was a hard decision regarding Peggy’s leaving, but trust me, we didn’t have some big soap opera brawl. We’re still thick as thieves (the good kind of thieves, like Robin Hood!). In any case, if you miss Peggy as much as I do, visit her at her other blogs:

Light Green Stairs
Junk Creation
Lively Women
Extra special mystery blog Peggy’s starting – no worries it’s coming asap. When it does, you’ll find that link here.

November’s main theme – eco-fitness:

With New Year’s fast approaching and all those resolutions coming up – yeah, it’ll be here before you know it, I figured we should talk about green fitness. We’ve touched on this before, but this month we’ll look in-depth (or at least 2-3 times a week) at specific green fitness issues. Such as eco-fitness gear, eco-weight loss, where to find a nature workout, and more. I know, it’s cold outside! All the more reason to get inspired this month. Anyone can work out in the spring – we’ll work out now.

November’s green challenge – Buy Nothing Day:

We haven’t had a green challenge in a while, so why not? This one will be very easy, and only requires you do one thing. Join the challenge: November 2008 Green Challenge: Buy Nothing Day

November’s side theme – green your holidays:

Green your Thanksgiving: This month we’ll be looking at Thanksgiving prep for a super green, extra yummy organic spread.

Holiday gift guide: I’m kicking off the holiday gift guide NOW. Do you really want to shop at the last minute? Um no; I thought not. Kids, spouses, family, friends, and pets, I’ve got green gift ideas for everyone on your list. Plus see the ultra fun, Organic Holiday Cookie List. You might also be interested in some gift alternatives – read, give the gift of time this holiday season.

Green your birthday!: It’s my birthday this month. Last year we looked at eco-cakes, which was killer fun, so have some birthday fun again this year.

November’s green product reviews:

This month, I’ve got all kinds of green product reviews for you, including…

Business As Usual:

Vote - Tell me how you’re greening your holiday season. Check the sidebar for the current poll, which will run through the winter holidays as well.

Subscribe – Don’t forget that you can subscribe for FREE to Tree Hugging Family by RSS or sign up for email posts (also for free) simply by filling out the quick box in the sidebar.

Contact – As always you can contact me, with questions about living green, post ideas, or tell us about products you’d love for me to review.

[owl family image owned by Miss tree hugging Chait / little leaf image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

What’s Happening In October 2008 at Tree Hugging Family!

Peggy — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:24:12 +0000

Happy October! Are you enjoying the crisp fall days yet?

Blogtoberfest:

Blogtoberfest is a gigantic annual Lifestyles Channel event. This year we’re giving away over $7,000 in prizes – so there’s a good chance you could win something amazing. Wondering what you might win; check out our HUGE Blogtoberfest Prize List.

Blog Action Day:

We’ll participate in Blog Action Day by blogging on poverty on October 15. If you want to join in with your blog, register at Blog Action Day 2008.

Holidays:

Because they’re coming, like it or not. Check in with us all month for posts on Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and more. Start planning your green Halloween right now; before it’s too late!:

Poll:

Tell us how you’re greening your Halloween. Check the sidebar for our current poll.

Business As Usual:

Don’t forget that you can subscribe for FREE to Tree Hugging Family by RSS or sign up for posts by email by filling out the quick box in the sidebar.

Contact Us:

As always you can contact Peggy or Jennifer, with questions about living green, post ideas, or tell us about products you’d love for us to review.

[graphic from stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family