The EcoChic

This is the first year that I’ve actually tried not to buy new gift wrap, ribbons, and tags for our holiday gift wrapping.  We still have several rolls of wrapping paper (I doubt we will ever run out!) but I really wanted to make some of our wrappings a little more eco-friendly in nature. 

One of our gifts to wrap was a cute little tutu (3 actually) for some of Big B’s girlfriends.  How on earth do you wrap a tutu anyways?  I decided to take use some old t-shirts for the wrapping and tie them with tulle that was left over from the tutus (yes, I made the tutus as well).  For the tags I cut out shapes from food boxes that were in our recycling box and tied them on.  I’m sure if I had taken my time I could have made them even prettier but those who know me know that my time is limited these days!  Here is the final product…not too bad!

And remember all those magazinesI told you I received in the mail?  I decided to make some upcycled ribbons from them.  I found a simple tutorial here and made them my own.  Here is how I made mine:

Step 1:  Retrieve all those old magazines and sale flyers from your recycle bin.

Step 2:  Cut strips of varying lengths and widths depending on how large or uniform you want your ribbons to be.

Step 3:  Fold and tape each strip into a figure 8 (as shown below).  You could also sew or staple the stips to hold them. 

Step 4:  Arrange your strips to form a layer of ribbon.  Staple (sew or tape) each layer together.

Step 5:  Stack the layers to form one large ribbon.  Don’t forget to add a small piece in the center and a tail.

Step 6:  Attach to your package!

Step 7:  Recycle after the holidays!!

Giveaway Alert!!!  Win a cute pocket cloth diaper compliments of Aimee of Eco-Wrapz; available from The Apple Orchard of Hyena Cart!!!  Eco-ngratulations Jacobsen Family! Watch your email for details on how to claim your Eco-Wrapz diaper!

Have you found Hyena Cart yet?  Why not??  It is slam packed with small earth-friendly shops…including tons of cloth diapers shops! 

The Apple Orchardis home to great collections by Eco-Wrapz, The Funky Birdie Boutique, Robyn’s Star Diapers, and many more great collections.  Aimee of Eco-Wrapz sent Lil’ B a one-size pocket diaper in lilac and zebra print to try.  I’m slowly but surely becoming more comfortable with snaps; the Eco-Wrapz is a good fit for me!  There is one row of snaps around the waist (10 total) and 2 snaps on each tab plus one cross over snap.  There are 2 different rise setting snaps on the front and one on the back.  This is the first diaper I’ve seen with a back rise snap…I like it!!  I always end up with a little pooch in the back of Lil’ B’s bum and this extra snap helps. 

Lil’ B has sported her Eco-Wrapz a few times already and it’s great.  It only comes with one insert but it’s similar to our BG so I can always throw in an extra insert if needed.  She wore it around the house during the day and once at night (so far) and we didn’t have any leaks or problems.  My favorite feature of the Eco-Wrapz is the zebra liner…you can just barely see it peeking out the side of the lilac! Very chic!

Buy It:  Be sure to visit The Apple Orchard on Black Friday and the first of each month when they restock.  Black Friday sales run from 6am-midnight this Friday only!  You can also visit them on Cyber Monday for their HOURLY specials by vendor!  I can’t wait to see what fun patterns are available!  Eco-Wraps has a cute pair of ying yang longies on the site right now!

Win It!  Aimee is giving away one Eco-Wrapz in either red robots or blue hearts.  To enter to win visit The Apple Orchard and leave one comment below about your favorite item or collection. 

Extra Entries:
-Enter any of my other Eco-Holiday Gift Guide Giveaways (Leave a comment telling me which one’s you’ve entered.)
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-Share this giveaway with your friends (Leave me a comment telling me how!)

Giveaway open to all residents in the US over the age of 18 yrs old.  Must leave a comment for each entry with a maximum of 10 entries total.  Giveaway ends December 1, 2009 at midnight (EST).  Entrants must leave their email to be contacted if they are selected. 

LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS HERE TO ENTER!

Tjos giveaway has ended.  ECO-ngratulations The Jacobsen Family!

More from the Eco-Holiday Gift Guide.

*This post was sponsored by The Apple Orchard and Eco-Wrapz.

Today’s tip involves gift boxes.  We all use them at some time around the holidays to wrap up those squishy clothing items we buy our friends and families.  We usually save them up year after year and reuse them; however after a few years they are all nasty and get thrown away.  This year I found boxes make from 100% recycled paper at the local Wal-Mart store.  And they were really cheap!  As an extra bonus they were made in the good ole’ USA!  So, this year if you need to purchase gift boxes remember to find ones made from 100% recycled paper!

Why is it that the holiday’s are the hardest time to stay green?  Easter is tomorrow and I have such fond memories of Easter when I was a kid.  Maybe that’s one reason why it’s so hard for me to change my ways.  For this year I did make a few minor changes but nothing dramatic.

He already has a basket from last year so we’re reusing that.  No need to buy a new one each year.  Afterall, when I was a kid that was the one thing my mom was good at, reusing items.  We always used the same basket from year to year.  I bet if I did deep enough in their storage shed that my parents still have those baskets somewhere.  Another item my mom always reused was the grass.  Trust me by the time we were 10 that stuff was so old I’m surprized it didn’t just disappear.  However, since I didn’t get into the habit of saving that stuff this year I tried something new. 

Wal-Mart had some OxoBiodegradeable Plastic grass.  Now…I know I should have just gotten the paper grass but I was curious.  Now after reading the back I’m not so sure I made the best decision.  It says…”made from polypropylene containing an additive that accelerates the degradation of the plastic when exposed to unfiltered sunlight and to the oxygen in the air.  The resulting degradation products are amendable to conversion by naturally occurring micro-organisms into carbon dioxide and water; thereby returning the plastic to the ecosystem.  This product is not designed for compost applications.”  So it will degrade but it’s not compostable?  I’m so confused.  If I sent the item to the landfill it wouldn’t degrade inside of a plastic garbage bag.  However, if I just throw it in the yard (not composted) it will degrade?  I guess I’m going to have to test this one.

**I just looked up the Oxobiodegardable Plastics Institute and read up on this stuff.  There is no reference to the Easter grass however it does talk about the science behind the plastic.  It doesn’t sound all bad.  I’m not quite sure what the additive is that makes it speed up the degradation process but it says that this type of plastic typically degrades in 6mo – 2 years.  So from a little perspective it’s actually a neat thing.  If you’ve ever been to a landfill the one item that causes the most litter problem is plastic grocery bags.  They are littered all around the landfill and the wind blows them everywhere.  Thinking about Easter this doesn’t sound like a bad thing.  When I was little Easter was always inside.  However, we tend to hide my sons eggs outside.  As you may know this grass does blow out of the basket so in theory the Easter grass that ‘gets away’ should degrade into the earth in very little time.  Since it is already shredded it should degrade quicker than a grocery bag.  Now I really have to test this out and see how it reacts in my compost bin.  The web site says they are compostable; not sure why the bag said it shouldn’t be composted.     

So the EcoChic has once again been missing for about a week.  This time work was not responsible for my escape.  My dad had open heart surgery (triple bypass) one week ago today so I’ve spent much of my time in a hospital waiting room.  Fortunately everything went well and he is on his way home today.  Both myself and my son have also had birthdays.  My little guy turns 5 today!  So we spent the weekend celebrating life!

Over the past week I have experienced the green world at many different locations.  The hospital (I imagine) has some kind of environmental program in place but it’s not usually visually identifiable by patients and their families.  There was no evidence of a recycling program in place anywhere.  Where we spent most of our time was in the CVICU waiting room with other families who are dealing with heart surgery and recovery.  There was a vending machine but no place to recycle the bottles.  Also in the cafeteria there was no visual recycling.  I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes.  Maybe that will be a research project for me in the coming weeks; I’m sure their website will have some information on their environmental program. 

We also spent an evening at Disney; our new favorite weekend destination.  This is where we took our son for his birthday celebration.  Disney actually has a very large environmental program and some visual evidence of their program.  They even have a mascot (Jiminy Cricket) and the theme Enviromentality.  It’s actually a very informative website.  For such a large theme park they do have waste and they do have an environmental impact.  Overall, I’m very impressed with their actions to help protect the environment and conserve natural resources. 

I hope you all have a wonderful St. Patty’s Day and find a way to Go Green today.  For me I enjoyed lunch at my sons school talking with his teacher about our Earth Day plans.  I shared all of my ideas with her and she loved them.  They have decided to have a whole week of environmental themed ciriculum for the pre-k classes.  I’ll share some pictures as it unfolds. 

Good afternoon eco-friends!  Once again the quantity of regular work has me overwhelmed and unable to give you a Trashy Thursday post.  I had a great idea for today but I never got around to making it to show you.  It was a special Valentine’s Day craft I was going to make with my son with an empty toilet paper roll.  Maybe if we get bored tonight (wishful thinking) we’ll make one up to share. 

So today is Valentine’s Day and I should have wrote this earlier in the week but did you think green for the pink day?  My hubby impressed me today with a potted plant (beautiful tulips) and a recycled card.  I save cards forever so it won’t go into the landfill anyways.  (Some would call me a bit of a pack-rat). 

OK…sorry for the short post but I had to say HI to all my friends.  Have a great Valentine’s Day and remember to ‘think green’ today.