Go green for Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day is less than a week away, which means there are only a few days to buy the “perfect” gift for mom.  According to statisticbrain.com, $14.6 billion will be spent on Mother’s Day, with the average person spending around $126 on mom for her special day.

While flowers and diamonds are beautiful, and everyone loves a card and a day at the spa, these practices are not sustainable. Cutting flowers, mining diamonds, purchasing cards made of paper resources and wasting water at the spa are all the opposite of living green on Mother’s Day. Mom loves the sentiment of these things, but imagine how much more she would love sustainable gifts which are Mother Nature approved. Pair these gift ideas with a homemade card made with recycled paper and a meal of ethically sourced food for an awesome, green Mother’s Day this year.

Organic Tea, Wine and Chocolate

Moms love tea, wine and chocolate. Why not take the extra step to make these gifts organic and better yet, locally sourced, too? Organic tea is much better for you because it is processed with fewer chemicals, and the tea bags are also free of chemicals. Organic and ethically sourced chocolates and wines are also good for you, and your mom can rest easy knowing that she’s consuming these indulgences that are good for the environment as well as good for her body. If you don’t have a store near you where you can go purchase these items in person, try some great companies that ship from the web. For organic, fair trade tea, click here. For wine, click here. For delicious chocolates, click here.

Provide a Service

What mother doesn’t need something done for her around the house? Does she need her house cleaned from top to bottom, spring cleaning style? Does she need her yard cleaned up to get ready for the summer? Providing a service uses almost no resources, and if you do it yourself, you can make sure to do it in an eco-friendly way. For cleaning, use green cleaning products with no chemicals. You can find them in stores or make your own. For yard work, use chemical-free weed killers and fertilizers and plant an extra tree or bush.

Plan an Eco-Friendly Spa Day

Many spas and salons offer eco-friendly spa services. It might take a little extra work, but call around to salons and spas near you to see if you can find one that provides these services at reasonable prices. If you can’t find one near you, try buying your mom some eco-friendly spa products she can use at home. An added benefit to this is that it isn’t a one-time spay day; she can use the products you buy her whenever she needs a little bit of relaxation.

Plant Flowers Instead of Picking Them

I love the idea of planting a few rose bushes in lieu of a bouquet of flowers. Roses are easy to plant and hearty flowers that don’t take a whole lot of maintenance. Once they start blooming, it’s easy to pick flowers to make your own bouquet as you prune the bushes. If the mom in your life is an avid gardener, she will love the opportunity to plant more. If she’s not, consider planting the flowers for her. Then, she’s sure to enjoy their blooms all summer long.

Create Recycled Jewelry

If your mom is a lover of all things sparkling and shiny, consider recycling jewelry to create something new for her. Try raiding your own jewelry box or another family members for old pieces that are rarely worn. An experienced jeweler can melt these pieces down and create something entirely new and beautiful. This is also a wonderful thing to do because the piece you end up with will be especially unique for your mom while requiring no new resources to create. If you don’t have jewelry you’re willing to melt down, look for pieces that are made from recycled products. A simple search on Etsy will yeild many beautiful pieces out there made from recycled glass and metals that your mom will love.

[h/t Care 2]

7 American Organic Beers to Help Ring in St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is a day to pause and reflect on the great accomplishments and sacrifices made by Saint Patrick, who toiled for more than three decades shamrocking the paganism out of the Irish, turning them into good Catholics. It's a day for quiet reflection … wait, who are we kidding?  St. Patrick's Day is all about being able to drink beer. Given the holiday's association with the color green, it makes sense to consider the environment, so we've scoured the market for the best organic beers brewed within the continental 48.

Peak Organic Brewing Co.

The Peak Organic Brewing Company is a small company located in Portland, Maine, that cares so much about organic beer that they put it in their name. They focus on small craft brewing and use all high-quality organic ingredients for the 10 or so beers they have in rotation at any one time. I'm a fan of their Pale Ale, though their limited edition winter release King Crimson and their Espresso Amber Ale would both be great choices for St. Patty's day.

Eel River Brewing

California-based Eel River Brewing Company is another brewery that does everything organic. The company started brewing back in the '90s and has been winning awards for its beers ever since. In 1999, the company came out with the country's first certified organic beer, Organic Amber Ale. These days, their brewmasters are brewing seven organic beers. I've had the Blonde Ale, a nice crisp beer that went nicely with the pub food I ordered it with. The lightness of the beer would lend itself nicely to being dyed green — just don't tell the folks at Eel River, who might not be too excited about its organic-ness being sullied by food color Green #7.

New Belgium Brewery

New Belgium Brewery should be familiar to any green-leaning beer drinker. The company has a long history of being greener and have taken steps to slash their energy consumption, treat their own wastewater on site, use wind power, and even create their own electricity on-site using methane given off as waste in their brewing process. Their Mothership Wit is actually their first organically-produced beer and would go nicely with a good Irish cheddar.

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

Sierra Nevada is easily one of the greenest breweries that doesn't make all of their beers using organic ingredients. The company does a lot to green up their environmental footprint including drawing energy from their own private solar panel farm, recycling nearly everything that comes into their office, like the New Belgium Brewery, they process their own wastewater on site to generate methane which they burn to create electricity. They do have one certified organic brew though, the Sierra Nevada Estate Homegrown Ale, which goes the extra step by being made with hops and barley grown on company grounds.

Bison Brewing

Bison Brewing has been making small craft beers in Berkeley, California since 1989 but has deep roots in the brewpub industry through its original founder Bill Owens, who helped lead the charge to legalize brewpubs in California in the 80s, which caused a wave of similar laws being passed across the country. All of Bison's nine beers are certified organic and they take the extra step of offsetting their CO2 footprint. Their IPA and Single Hop IPA are particularly good for celebrating ol' St. Pat as they're not too heavy and can be thrown back all day long (responsibly, of course).

Lakefront Brewery

The Lakefront Brewing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin used 100 percent certified organic ingredients to make their Organic E.S.B. brew. Lakefront has been making beer in Milwaukee since 1987 and was started by two brothers whose rivalry spurred friends and family to encourage them to turn their hobby into a business. Russ Klisch, the owner of Lakefront Brewing, has been encouraging local Wisconsin farmers to grow organic hops so he doesn't have to import them from New Zealand. The Lakefront Brewery's tour is infamous because they give out the beer at the start, not the end, of the tour.

Brew Your Own Organic Beer

Why buy when you can brew? Homebrewing beer combines the craftsmanship required to bring in a really good brew with the payoff of having a bunch of really good brew to drink. And even if you end up with less than really good, it's still beer, which, like pizza, can rarely ever be truly bad. Seven Bridges Cooperative's Brew Organic website offers a full range of ingredients and equipment needed to make your own batch of organic beer. Homebrewing your own organic beer takes the benefits of organic and ads in the qualities of homemade and local. What's not to love about homemade organic local beer?

[via mother nature network]

Eco-Friendly Ways to Decorate Your House for Halloween

Hosting a hoard of ghost and goblins for Halloween? No party is complete without spooky decorations, but most of the stuff now crowding the store aisles is made from plastic, toxic paints and synthetic fabrics.

Setting the stage for a scary Halloween party doesn’t require all of this spending and waste. In fact, you can create some truly festive Halloween decorations with stuff you already have lying around the house and have lots of fun doing it!

Invite some friends over for a pre-party craft-making night and bask in the knowledge that most of these 9 eco-friendly Halloween decorations can be recycled or simply dismantled when the holiday is over:

1. Upcycled Egg Carton Bats

If you’re an egg eating family, you probably send an egg carton into the recycling bin every week. Save a few, add some non-toxic paint and ribbon, and you’ll have these adorable upcycled bats from Happy Clippings.

2. Thrift-Store Scarecrow

Scarecrows are the perfect way to dress up your porch or yard, but why spend the money to buy one pre-made? Dig out some unused clothes from your basement (flannel shirts, funny dresses and work jumpers work best) or find some appropriate garments at the local thrift store. Stuff with leaves and other yard waste from your own lawn. Tie off arm and leg openings with string before stuffing into boots and gloves. Once your scarecrow body is properly positioned, top off with a pumpkin head and hat.

3. Upcycled Milk Jug Skeleton

Gather up seven empty plastic milk jugs and you’ll have the perfect materials for this jolly hanging skeleton from Make Zine.

4. Mini Cheesecloth Ghosts

Leave it to Martha Stewart to turn every day waste into adorable table decorations. Layers of starched cheesecloth, some used paper towel rolls and a little wire give these little specters their haunting postures. Tutorial here.
5. DIY Halloween Garland

If you have some cardboard or office paper sitting in the recycling bin, this simple Halloween garland from 6ftMama is the perfect way to give it a second life.

6. Mad Scientist Lab

Use Mason jars or upcycled pickle, olive and baby food jars to create a mad scientist tablescape. Toss food, animals toys or other strange objects into the jars, fill with water and non-toxic food coloring, and you’ll have a shelf full of freakish Halloween experiments. Check out the tutorial at MoneyCrashers for step-by-step instructions.

7. Mini-Pumpkin Wreath

For those who prefer a more classic seasonal look, this mini pumpkin wreath from Armelle Blog is the perfect DIY project. Best of all, it’s easy to disassemble and compost when Halloween’s over.

8. DIY Reusable Halloween Window Decals

All you need is a roll of recycled paper and some eco-friendly paint to make these super-spooky homemade window silhouettes from Inhabitat. Once the holiday’s over, just roll them up and save for next year.

9. Trash Bag Tarantula

With just a few materials you probably have lying around the house, you can create this creepy crawler from Spoonful for a lawn decoration. Use biodegradable garbage bags, or be very careful not to poke holes, and you can reuse them when Halloween is over.

[via care2]

Have an Eco-Friendly Labor Day Celebration

Backyard barbecuing and Labor Day go together like Fourth of July and fireworks. But neighborhood grill-outs are traditionally not the eco-friendliest of soirees. Disposable (and potentially BPA-filled) flatware, plates and napkins, hot dogs chock-full of nitrites or hamburgers filled with hormones roasting over an open chemical flame: probably not the best way to commune with Mother Nature. Try our five eco chic Labor Day barbecue ideas to reduce your carbon footprint while still hosting a killer party.

1. Grill sustainably and efficiently: What you grill and how you grill it are both important. Vegetables have the lowest carbon footprint - especially when purchased locally, but if you're serving meat, consider chicken rather than hamburgers. Chickens take less water than cattle to raise. Especially if you use propane rather than charcoal, grill as much food at once as possible to maximize your fuel efficiency. Make a point of grilling locally raised, organic, grass-fed, hormone-free cuts of meat from reputable purveyors such as Applegate Farms, Niman Ranch, Organic Prairie, Laura's Lean Beef, etc.

If you've not yet bought a grill, select one wisely. Charcoal and wood grills release chemicals and soot particles in the air. Propane and electric grills burn cleaner and the long-term fuel price is lower. The upfront cost for electric and propane grills is higher, however.
If you already have a wood grill, use sustainably-grown hickory or mesquite wood. If your existing grill is charcoal-burning, use lump coal rather than briquettes and avoid starter fluids.

2. Use reusable dinnerware: This may seem like a no-brainer, but using reusable dinnerware and napkins is a great way to make your party more eco-friendly. Pick out some fun eco chic dinnerware at a local thrift shop to set the mood for your party. You may be able to talk your friends into a dishwashing after-party with a nice bottle of organic or biodynamic wine. And, bonus, if any of your guests break a few pieces, you don't lose any of your regular dinner sets. Use small bar towels as reusable napkins to avoid paper. If you absolutely must have disposable dinnerware, make use of biodegradable tableware products, like this set from Branch Home.

3. Evites rather than invites: If you're sending out invitations, go digital rather than sending paper invites. You'll save on paper waste, postage and time. If you need tangible invitations, consider handcrafting your invitations with recycled materials at relatively low costs. Or offset your paper usage by planting a tree in honor of your guests.

4. Natural and frugal decorations: Decorate your party area with living plants and thrift store finds. And, beyond the decorations, remember to make recycling easy for your guests. Decorate or purchase some party-themed bins for recycling and composting. Prominently place the bins near the party so your guests know not to trash their bottles, cans and food waste.

5. Use natural bug repellents: If you need to use bug repellent during your barbecue party, go with citronella plants, oil or candles rather than chemical sprays. For yourself, say "no" to DEET and opt for a natural mosquito repellent. You can even make up cute spray bottle party favors filled with fantastic-smelling essential oil bug repellent for your guests.

[via Organic Authority]