Mother's going GREEN Day 90 - Green Shopping Sites

In the last couple of days I have been 'googling' perhaps a little too much, but have found some great on-line 'GREEN' shopping sites and I thought I would share.

The Rainforest Site I came across some time ago. It offers great gifts from different countries around the world. When you purchase from the site you help various different organizations and you can also buy gifts for others. I once purchased school shoes for a school girl in Africa. A great way to give a gift to others. It also offers a daily click program where when you click a sponsor will pay for habitat protection at no cost to you. (you can also fist their literacy, breast cancer, animal rescue and child health sites; also clicking to so sponsors can donate to various programs) Check it out a click away each day.

Global Exchange Fair Trade Online Store offers hundreds of fair trade and environmentally friendly green gifts. They have some great gift baskets and gift certificates. I have already picked out some items that will make great Christmas gifts. Yes, I am thinking of Christmas already.

Grounds for Change is the on-line store for any coffee lover. They sell certified organic coffee specializing in Fair Trade Coffee. They have a coffee of the month program which would be a great gift for someone or even yourself. They also offer some other coffee related products and they are also a member of 1% For The Planet and they donate 1% of sales to environmental groups.

Gifts with Humanity this site is just full of art and crafts from around the world. All Fair Trade and some really cool ideas for gifts some creative uses on recycling soda cans, flip flops and telephone wire. I grew up in South Africa and the telephone wire bracelets they sell bring back the memories of my own creations from telephone wire although much simpler than these creations.

GreenBoatStuff.com is just that a store full of boating stuff but all 'green' as there website states: "a speciality store offering environmentally friendly alternatives to the petroleum-based, chemical-laced, plastic-ridden products available at most boating supply stores." they also claim to offer "truly biodegradable sunscreen and chemical-free insect repellents." I have listed this site as both my brother and father are avid sailors so I know I will be returning to this site often.

Another site I will be visiting on a regular basis is planet happy kids toys, toys and more toys need I say more...

This site Eco Choices Natural Living Store you name it it they pretty much have it. Toys, a bedroom section, kitchen section, patio section, clothes. You need to check it out in order to see the large selection offered. Too bad no school supplies.

And the last store I will post for today is a link to getting 'chocolate on-line'- I just loooove chocolate and hence I have to add a chocolate link.

I hope in the near future to create a list (to the left of this post) to all these stores for easier access and also so I can find them again with ease. There are so many more wonderful green on-line stores out there and I am sure I will continually be adding to the list. So check back often.

Also, maybe you know of a store that you would like to share - email me or write a comment.

Mother's going GREEN Day 86 - Fair Trade Coffee

It took us 80 plus days for us to run out of our our 'regular coffee' (my husband likes to purchase non perishable items in bulk - that means coffee). And with the purchase of our new coffee maker we are finally moving to fair trade organically grown coffee.

The coffee we have chosen is Ethical Bean and according to their website: Coffee is the world's second-largest traded commodity after oil, and the global market for coffee is extremely volatile. Over a decade ago, farmers saw prices drop 80% worldwide in less than 12 months. Over the past three years, the average price of coffee has fallen almost 50% and now rests at a near 30-year low, impacting over 25-million coffee growing families in over 50 developing countries.

But buying fair trade coffee for us just isn't good enough as based on my research it is also important to purchase coffee that is organic and shade grown in addition to being organic.

Fair trade coffee means that the coffee growers will be getting a fair price for their coffee. A price that will ensure a reasonable standard of living.

Organic coffee means that the coffee has been grown and processed without harsh toxic chemicals. When pesticides and chemicals are used to grow anything it not only kills the pests but makes its way into the surrounding environment and water supplies doing further damage to nature. According to this website - organic coffee beans have a rich, smooth flavor.

Shade grown coffee is very important to the environment. Coffee is best when grown in its natural environment - the shade of the rain forest. But because of the huge demand for coffee, forest are being cut down to make space for more coffee plants which then find themselves growing in full sun - not ideal for producing a good coffee bean and because of this it is drenched in fertilizers and chemicals in order for it to grow.

So next time you grab your next coffee consider for a moment where and how it was planted and what was paid for it.

Side note: I have reach 1000 hits today - yippee hooray for me. I get excited when I see how many people visit and makes me feel that all this blogging is worth while.

Mother's going GREEN Day 35 - Body Wash and so much more

Body wash- something I have been researching for sometime. Knowing that I would soon run out of my regular chemical ladened body soap - and need to replace it with an environmentally friendly soap.

My search turned up many options some turned out to be quite expensive and then others I questioned how green friendly they were.

Finally I came to a decision. Dr.Bronner's Magic Soap. The bottle lists 18 different uses, but according to their website it has many more. Some uses include: dish washing, car washing, pet washing, laundry washing, deodorant, shampoo and the list goes on.

I purchased the lavender scent for my children and it can be used as a body wash, bubble bath, shampoo you name it. You only need 2 drops of it so I am sure it is going to last much longer than the regular stuff. Lavender I choose for my children to calm and soothe them before bedtime.

For my husband and myself I purchased the peppermint scent - this one because of it peppermint scent you can even use it as toothpaste. We will use this as a face wash too. I chose the peppermint as a fresh lively scent that will get us up and awake it the morning.

I know that I am going to enjoy these soaps. Oh and did I mention that it is Fair Trade too.

Mother's going GREEN Day 12 - Not so sweet facts on Chocolate

Chocolate - oh how I love chocolate. Ever since I can remember I have always had a chocolate bar or two a day but since discovering some not so sweet facts I can no longer just stop by the corner store a pick up a chocolate bar or two.

Not so sweet facts:

- Is farmed in unsafe conditions were large amounts of pesticides are used in order to yield a greater crop. These pesticides cause great environment damage seeping into local ground water, soil erosion and not to mentioned being in hailed by the farmers.

- Farmers are often children under 14, approximately 284 000 children are working on cocoa farms. These children are often beaten with whips and switches.

- Farmers are living in total poverty earning between $30.00 and $100.00 US dollars a year. That's way less than I spend in chocolate in a year.

For more information on the above see the following websites: http://www.sustainabletimes.ca/articles/chocolate.htm; http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2003/02/14/chocolate/; http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/02/the_bitter_trut.php.

Our family picked up a bar of Fair Trade chocolate the other day and after explaining to my children why this bar of chocolate was so much different to all others we sat and savoured its goodness and yes it did taste good we devoured the whole bar, even my son who is not that crazy about chocolate had his fair share of the bar. At over $4.00 for the bar, I think it may need to become a weekly treat, rather than a daily treat. We found a store selling our delicious chocolate through http://www.cocoacamino.com/

Picture on this blog is from http://www.sustainabletimes.ca/