Origami stars via Zen Crafting

Make homemade origami stars with the kiddos – I recently posted about some hyper cool eco-friendly origami stars elsewhere, but the downside was the price tag. With this tutorial you can make your own for much less. You could even switch out the paper for a recycled brand.

eco umbrellas – green and fashionable – actually, I didn’t think an eco-umbrella was possible because of all the materials. However, it is, and if you live in a rainy area or ever come visit Oregon, I’d bring one. If you move to Oregon don’t bring one though – umbrellas pretty much divide the natives from the tourists here.

How to deal when your teenager says, “Mom, I want to be a vegetarian!“

A “Green” & Natural Method for Cleaning Stainless Steel

Which is a better eco-choice; organic foods or local foods? This article looks at your options.

It’s a newish green magazine for the whole family! Check out Kiwi for tips on green living, healthy lifestyles, and news especially for parents and kids.

What cool green news have you been reading lately?

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Mary: “My family and I are extremely energy and resource conscious so for Earth Day – no TV or un-necessary energy/electric consumption! In addition, we plant flowering trees, etc and recycle with a vengeance!”

Brian N: “In a way that makes a real difference – not just turning off a light switch – we are going vegan….for our health, for the earth, and for the slaughtered animals.”

Carol H: “I will be celebrating with my job. I work in public health and we are having a nutrition conference out of town that day. We are giving to each participant an Ecousable water bottle (thanks to the idea from yours truly) and green shirts with frogs on them that say something about going green. My family is planting a vegetable garden for the first time this year!”

Jodi Plume: “We’ve already started actually. Last week we cleaned up a nice stretch of the stream behind our house & our road. We collected a bag full of trash, then sorted the recyclables. We’re planning on going to see Disneynature’s Earth movie with out Earth Scouts group and are also planning some other trash pickup’s with them. Then my kids and I will also be planting a veggie garden this year. ”

Anne: “My husband and I are planting a herb garden on our balcony and we are taking part in some tree planting in our community! We will also be planting my mom and dads garden for them this year!”

Melissa: “This year I will try to make conscious living contagious. I plan on bringing a bunch of seedlings, herb and vegetable seed packets, etc. as Earth Day gifts for my co-workers. Each will have a small info card about the day and also a request to “pay it forward” and do something nice for someone else. (I believe joy and giving are contagious as well.)”

Dawn: “This year my husband and I are making a more conscious decision to recycle all that we can, walking our recyclables to the recycling center at least once a week. We are trying to use our towns public transportation more, and we have made a definite decision to use only reusable grocery bags. We have also started hand washing most of our clothes and hang drying them. And we are planting our first garden, trying to learn more about edible landscaping and such. We are trying to do our part, to make up for our ignorance in the past.”

I actually liked many more of the Earth Day comments, but there’s not room for all of them. I picked the ones above as faves because they highlight long-term changes, which is vital, I think to celebrating Earth Day. Hopefully some of these reader comments will inspire you to live greener and to set your own Earth Day goals.

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

In continuing with my reviews this week, I thought it would be nice to look at a holiday-minded product. On with the show…

Product: Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family by Corey Colwell-Lipson and Lynn Colwell

Basics: Celebrate Green is a mama-daughter book collaboration – the title is fairly self-explanatory – this is a book about all things related to green holiday celebrations.

Cost: Family friendly at only $17.95. Plus for a limited time, you can score an even better deal. “Right now when you order a copy of Celebrate Green! from our website, you can choose between a box of organic truffles from Sjaaks for one penny plus shipping or a free jar of fair trade whipped shea butter from Vintage Body Spa for nothing but shipping.” That’s a great value. Especially during the holiday season.

What I think:

There are many outward positive aspects of this book. For example, it’s printed on 100% recycled FSC certified paper, which more books should be. There’s also a highly interactive website going on for this book. Plenty of green tips, author info, and fun stuff is offered, along with a value on reader participation.

Pros:

I like how the book is set up: The table of contents is divided into seasons, and then sub-holidays under each season. Spring through winter holidays are offered and a cool section with year round holidays -such as birthdays, family reunions, and baby showers. The last section is very nice with a great big list of helpful green websites (three pages worth) and a green-smart glossary. There are also blank page sections in the back of the book where you can make notes about each season. This book is super easy to skim through and find what you need, and their index pages are actually very well done (I’m sick of poor indexes).

I like the design: The design is simple but easy to follow. The colors flow through the book in soothing sage and browns. Important information is either in a solid color block, or has a great big header; both of which really break up the text in a bite size way. Also, each holiday is clearly marked in the bottom page corner – which is nice, so if you’re flipping through spring, you’ll see where Easter topics end and Earth Day begins.

The holidays are covered well: It would be impossible to go through how they discuss each holiday, but trust me, plenty of green tips are covered for each holiday. I’m going to use Cinco de Mayo and 4th of July as examples.

In the Cinco de Mayo chapter some of the various items covered include:

• Eco issue facing Mexico in general, and how you can help.
• Organic veggie enchilada recipe.
• Paper bag pinata instructions.
• And more.

In the 4th of July chapter some of the various items covered include:

• The dish on if fireworks are green and air quality and child labor issues related.
• Alternatives to fireworks and how to safely manage them.
• Recycling bin contest idea.
• Three worthy summer eco-causes you can support.
• How to organic up your picnic.
• Choosing eco-friendly summer drinks including where to score eco-beer.
• News about tap water.
• Organic Red, White, and Blueberry muffin recipe.
• Fun family activities that don’t kill the earth.
• And more.

So, as you can see, each holiday not only focuses on the green aspects of the holiday, but also on other green issue important to the season – that is pretty cool.

Cons:

I couldn’t really find many cons about this book. My only issue is that the text is a little wordy. (Like I’m one to talk though). The intro was really long, a little too long for my taste, and there’s a back story behind almost everything in this book, and in some cases I felt they could have just offered the tip and moved on. On the other hand, some people like that kind of thing, and as noted, I’m not exactly the most succinct human ever, so… take this with a grain of salt. It is what it is.

Celebrate Green final score:

Five out of five happy trees. This is one of the most in depth green holiday resources I’ve seen. It’s also perfect for families. Very well balanced with both kid and adult friendly aspects. It’s not just for one member of the family. Also, right now, with the special deal going on, this is an extra great value for a green book. It would make a great holiday gift.

Learn more at Celebrate Green

Buy the book

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Here’s the game description:

“You are Dumptown’s new City Manager! When you start to play, you’ll see Dumptown at its worst — it’s littered, polluted, and nothing is being recycled or reused. There are many trash cans and dumpsters, but no recycling bins. That means all of the trash is going right into the landfill just outside town, where it isn’t doing anyone any good.

In your new position, you can start programs that encourage Dumptown’s citizens and businesses to recycle and reduce waste.

You have 10 programs to work with. Each time you try out a new one, you can see immediately how the Dumptown landscape changes. You also see how much waste you are saving from going into the landfill.

Oh, and because the people of Dumptown are paying for these programs, we’ve given you a way to keep track of how much money you’re spending on their behalf. (That way, you won’t lose your job by going too far over budget.)”

Play with your kids now.

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes, and green challenges going on at Tree Hugging Family in May 2008

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

1. Take a walk: For the more adventurous; go camping or take a hiking excursion. A walk will do perfectly though. I discussed the importance of getting kids outside before but it really is a simple tip. Kids care more about an issues when it becomes personal. Kids who love the outdoors will appreciate it enough to save it.
2. Conserve water: Here’s an easy place to start. Turning the water facet off while teeth brushing is one very small step that a child can easily do. If you leave the water on the entire time you brush (assuming you brush well) you can easily waste five gallons of water with each brushing. The bucket in the picture is a five gallon bucket. Look how big it is compared to the size of an average door; it’s huge!
3. Grow a little something: Growing herbs in a window planter or carrot roots in a see through tube is a great way for kids to see that plants start somewhere and that plants take real time and care to grow. It can help teach them that plants should be cared for and will also teach kids about light resources, clean water, and soil.
4. Make 100% recycled art projects: Save broken crayons, old foil, birthday wrap, and used stamps from letters (what else can you think of) and create something brand new and amazing. Need a starter project? Try solar crayons: Fill up a metal muffin pan or other mold with all the old broken crayons. Place in the hot sun and wait. Once they melt together remove them for big fun chunky rainbow crayons. Need one more idea; try this fun project.
5. Read: There are a million cool green kid books. Here are three:

• Compost, By Gosh!
• George Saves the World at Lunchtime
• The Tiny Seed

Picture via: Earthgirl Composting; a business serving Chittenden and Washington Counties in Vermont. BUT if you don’t live in Vermont still visit Earthgirl because I think she has just about the best idea ever with this business. It’s a great role model for your own community.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

I’m thinking I’ll go first since I seem to be the first one to this party.

I’m Jennifer and I suppose I should start by giving you a little background on where I’m coming from with this whole green living topic.

First a picture so you know who is talking to you here. Now, you should know I don’t photograph well. And although I do tend to do an awful lot of eco-friendly things; it’s not like I carry a camera around with me to capture the moments. It would be cool if I had a picture of me hugging a tree. Sadly, this blog title, while spiffy, is a tad misleading because I don’t normally do that.

I did however manage to dig up a photo of me planting trees. The picture you see to the side is me at a Humboldt County peninsula beach clean up and tree planting Big Brothers & Big Sisters of America celebration. Long name, good cause. The picture’s a bit fuzzy because my little shot it and she was way excited (and thus shaky) about planting her own tree.

Was I always into sustainable living?

Sort of; I did typical stuff. Carried a reusable coffee mug, recycled, turned of lights when I left the room, etc. After my son was born my family and I moved to Humboldt County and that’s what changed my thinking from typical green living to “what more can I do.”

Humboldt is pretty cool. There’s a lot of untouched spaces like beaches and forests and of course the ever inspiring redwood trees. There’s many green minded and creative people in a smaller community so it becomes easy to get attached to the idea that sustainability should be the norm not the exception. We lived in a tiny town and a tiny house, with no electric heat, within walking distance to the beach and with these amazing views of the ocean. We had to learn to keep the house warm without wasting wood, which was good because it got me thinking about how to conserve natural resources — or if you even can if your heat is wood based (more on that another day).

We spent a lot of time out close to nature. We bought local organic foods from the co-op and farmers market because that’s what was close by. We bought old furniture and fixed it up and painted it. We generally started to live within less space on less resources. And it was nice. I met people who lived entirely off grid and decided that was a major goal of mine.

Since Humboldt I’ve tried to change the way my family does things at home and in the community. Sometimes we take bold steps and sometimes small; but I try to keep us thinking about it. Hopefully, your family is taking steps as well and if you aren’t or you’d like to take more this blog will be a good place to start gathering ideas.

Any other regular characters on this blog?

Being that this is a green living blog for families I’ll likely be mentioning my son. Since I don’t want to keep introducing him, I’ll do it now. The boy to the right is my son Cedar Blue.

He’s into sustainable living as well, although I doubt he’d call it that. He’s cooked on solar cookers, gathered water from rain barrels, gardened organically, created art with natural resources, ‘helped out’ when we built our passive solar house, recycles, built solar powered toys, and loves garage sales.

Besides trying to live green we’re also unschoolers which means Cedar doesn’t go to school so he’s around a lot. Thus he tends to be a topic of conversation.

Anything else that’s interesting about me you can learn by visiting here.

What about you?

Why not introduce yourself in the comments. What steps are you and your family taking to live lighter upon the earth. Or maybe tell me what you’d like to be doing. What kind of green activities do your kids love?

I’d also love to see picture of you and your family doing green activities as well. You can send them to me at the email you see in the sidebar and that way other readers and I can see what great things you’re doing to make a difference.

Lastly, I’m hoping to cover topics that will actually help and or inspire you and your family so if you have any ideas or suggestions you can leave them in the comments or shoot me an email.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family