":E is for Enviroment" Review

I'm very excited to tell you about today's book review

I can't tell you enough what a brilliant book this is!

Ian James Corlett, has created a book that is not only a fun learning experience for kids, but it helps me as a parent make healthy choices, for my house, family and the environment.

Elliott and Lucy star in this book along with Mom and Dad. Throughout the book we read two to three page stories about their daily lives. In these stories, Elliot and Lucy learn how to make choices that are green and healthy for their bodies. While reading through these stories, I noticed that Mom and Dad try to help the kids to make the right decisions, and these decisions are instilled into their children.

Elliot and Lucy, learn about buying only what they need, they learn to buy local produce, about the importance of the three r's (reduce, reuse, recycle)

I love all the stories, they are short and are easy to read before a trip to the grocery store, or as a quick story before breakfast or diner. 

What I really love about this book is how it really helps parents to teach the kids (or whoever needs to learn) There are questions to ask the kids throughout the stories, to help kids stay involved and interested in whats going on. At the end of the stories, there are questions about the stories, helping kids to relate what happened in the story to their own lives. 

E Is for Environment is fantastic, I would recommend it to every family and maybe even require it. Not only do I feel this book is helping my daughter learn to be eco-friendly, but I have been reading it aloud to my 'not so eco' family and I'm quite sure a bit of it is sinking in.

So for all you eco-mamas out there and more importantly for you non eco-mamas, get this book. You and the future won't regret it.

To get your own copy of E Is for Environment: , check out the link to Amazon, you'll have to preorder because the book isn't going to be released till  February 22, 2011!

I received a free copy of "E is for Environment" for this review, all opinions are mine.

NaturOli Extreme 18x Product Review

Many of you will remember my soapnuts review . You will remember how well they cleaned just about everything in my house. Sometimes however, we just don't have the time to make a tea and let it simmer for an hour. And some of us (::ahem:: myself) have a hard time remembering to grab a muslin bag from the laundry. ::cough::  But, we still want to be green! We still want to use the most pure natural thing we can, especially if it's going on our baby's bottom!

A solution, the Soapnuts Extreme 18X is a concentrated form of the Soapnuts. That comes already in liquid form to use just like the Soapnuts liquid, and works just as well in most cases, and better in some.

I received this with my Soapnuts order, so it came just as quick! I used it for a load of dishes, because I had been using my Doctor Bronner's anyway.

The concentrate is very affordable it is $17.95 for a bottle, and it comes with the micro dosing pump, which I didn't have but looks like a sweet addition, because without it, pouring too much into the sink is an easy mistake. You really can't beat the price considering all that you can use it for.

The extreme 18x is a highly concentrated form of the Soapnuts liquid that you brew at home.

How to Use

The Extreme 18X is much simpler to use then the raw Soapnuts, because you don't have to boil it down, you can simply use it right out of the bottle. I used it for my dishes when I got home  by just adding a drop to my dish water,  It got more suds then I remember the homemade Soapnuts liquid making, which I really appreciated,  because it makes me feel like the dishes are getting more clean.

I also made a spray out of it by using  a tablespoon of the liquid, one ounce of vinegar, a few drops of orange blossom oil and the rest water. It leaves everything just as clean as with the homemade Soapnuts liquid. Its a great alternative if you don't have time to make your own.

For Laundry, I used a teaspoon per load, and everything came out just as well as with the Soapnuts.

How It Works

The concentrate does a great job of cleaning, I love it for dishes, and like keeping the bottle next to the sink at all times. 

Its also very handy , because you can keep the bottle right next to the machine, I didn't like having to measure a teaspoon each time (mostly because I only have one set of measuring spoons, and I had to take them to the laundry room each time and this sometimes meant I had to wash them) But with the squirt top that is now included, this can be easily avoided. And you can just squirt it in the laundry. Just as with the Soapnuts, Annabella's bottom still looks great.

Where to buy

The concentrate is available from NaturOli, it is affordable, and from my experience, arrives quickly.

What I liked

• No need to make the tea
• Affordable
• Pretty Color
• Makes suds in dishes
• Green
• In spray form works just as well as homemade liquid
• all purpose
• gentle on sensitive skin

What I Didn't Like

• Missed the scrub that I got with the Soapnuts powder
• measuring for laundry (this is now avoided with the squirt top)
• I liked having the raw Soapnuts around

Overall, I really liked the product, and if you don't have time for all the work of making the homemade Soapnuts liquid, its a great alternative to the raw ones. I personally like having the powder around for scrubbing. But love having the concentrate by my sink for dishes!

It ain't easy being green..safety/stuffing tutorial.

So just in case you missed my last post on my finger. It hurts still....

So I found out that a local consignment shop is taking baby clothes to sell on consignment (Cha-ching!) I mean, normally I would just donate them to good-will, but I'm pretty broke these days so I decided I would bring Annabella's nice clothes in to sell

So I went through the bag of clothes that I had saved up for other people and went through them, what to sell what to keep. I came up with some clothes that wouldn't sell because they had been altered by me into some sloppy t-shirts. Because the onsies stopped fitting over her cloth.

Anyways, I also took out the box of baby clothes, that I had been saving for a quilt, now there was all this fabric that I could do nothing with, you know that part of the fabric that you can't use for a quilt, there were all these little odds end ends that were too small, or to plain or stained to do anything with.

I was all out of stuffing so I figured, hey why not try to make my own

So first I cut off all the seams

The dogs at the farm have been requesting a dog bed, I think that these will work, I also saved the snaps and zippers for future projects.

So I had all this fabric! Thats a lot of stuff to just throw away!

DANGER

Please be careful and go slow!

Blades on rotary cutters are very sharp

Keep your free had off the cutting mat

GO SLOW

This is what can happen

don't let it happen to you, be careful

Alright, here we go

Lay your clothes out on the board in no more than 2 layers, this is a great way to use old rotary blades if you save them (I never have but I might now that I discovered this, I like to use a new one for each project but they are SO expensive)

Start cutting lines in your fabric. I like to make grids, don't worry about perfect, obviously this won't matter

GO SLOW

Just keep cutting, remember to keep your free hand off the mat, and go slow so you stay in control of the blade

HOORAY!

Now crumple it all up, if any pieces are too big, cut them now or just save them for the next layer

Here's my bag of stuffing, I'm going to make Annabella a stuffed animal with some of the smaller pieces of fabric and stuff it with these! I'll post pics

It ain't easy being green,...... or is it??

Well I think its pretty darn easy, especially since I found this pattern from craftystylish, its a reversible swiffer sock, and its so easy to crochet! It took me about four hours total but I'm a slow crocheter, it slips over the top of the swiffer but unlike the reusable ones that have to be pushed into the holes on the top, this just stays over top because it is crocheted, and therefore it stretches a little.

This side works great as a dustmop, to get all the dusty stuff off while the other side.....

Is a great wet mop, I made this one out of cotton that I got at the Legacy in Sebastopol, so it cost me about 60 cents to make, not bad, I can just throw it in the wash after I use it and its good as new! Pretty green, and they look way cuter then those ugly swiffer rags. 

Here's another one I made out of some acrylic, I got these out of a bag of little yarn balls I got at the legacy, the bag of balls was $1.00,  I can probably make about 6 more out of the bag

I switched colors every two rows for this one

Go ahead, make the pattern! It would be easy to customize it for any of these kinds of mops,