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Author Archive | Jennie Lyon

On The 12th Day of Etsy… Bike Burrito Giveaway

December 22, 2009 41

♫ my true love gave to me one bike burrito, ♫ a fantastic recycled baby bib, ♫ a lovely pair of recycled earrings, ♫ a beautiful pair of handmade shoes, ♫ a couple of sweet little cases, ♫ fabulous natural skin care, ♫ a beautiful organic double v shirt, ♫ a fab alphabet pillow made from recycled suits, ♫ a handful of sweet upcycled heart felts, ♫ three lovely reclaimed wooden handcrafts, ♫ two calling handmade upcycled bird ornaments, ♫ and a fantastic stocking made from men’s recycled suits. ♫

Giveaway number 12 is a fabulous, fabulous Bike Burrito. Are you familiar with Bike Burritos? Do you ride your bike? Mr. Sweet Greens and I do quite often and I think I see Bike Burritos in our future. Are you asking, “What is a Bike Burrito?” In Jayme’s (the designer) words, ‘The Bike Burrito is a funky twist on the classic bike tool roll. It is designed to carry your bike essentials in style!’ Isn’t that great?

Jayme Bassett collaborated with her friend Russ Roca in December 2008 and came up with the Bike Burrito. Their main goal was to provide cyclists with a classy and functional alternative to carry their bicycle accessories in style. The Bike Burritos come in tweeds, plaids, quirky patterns and are all lined with a long lasting canvas interior. Lovely, no? Wouldn’t these make fantastic gifts?

Jayme lives in Long Beach, California with her boyfriend and their three cats. They are both car free individuals and do everything by bicycle and/or public transit. Fabulous! The first trip that really defined their relationship was a two week bicycle tour down the Oregon Coast. How fitting. I love it, I want to go on a two week bicycle tour with the mister.

The winner of this giveaway will receive a regular Bike Burrito that contains 3 pockets perfect for a spare tube, multi-tool and some spare wrenches. I think this is something that everyone who rides their bike should have and the best part, it looks fantastic.

A huge thank you to Bike Burrito for hosting this lovely giveaway.

How to Enter

  • Visit Bike Burrito and leave me a comment telling me which bike burrito matches your personality.
Additional Entries

**** Please help me spread the word about Sweet Greens’ 12 Days of Etsy by sharing it Twitter, Facebook, Kirtsy, your blog or any other social website that you use. I would greatly appreciate it! (Please leave a separate comment for each thing that you do.)


Are you wondering what the 12 Days of Etsy are, read about it here.
You have until December 30th @ 12 am EST to enter this giveaway.

*UPDATE: WINNER:: #14 Betsabè Congratulations and thank you to everyone who entered.

Eco-Friendly Cozy Mittens For Cold Winter Days

December 22, 2009 2

I love, love, love mittens. I do not own a pair of gloves, but I have several pairs of mittens. They are so cozy and chic. I think these lovely recycled elbow length lambswool mittens found at Supermarket would be perfect for a cold December day like today.

What do you think?

8 Fun Winter Family Activities That Are Earth Friendly

December 22, 2009 2
Winter is the perfect time to spend bonding together as a family. It seems like the colder it gets outside, the more time my family has to do things together. We like to pack our winter with activities that are both Earth friendly and fun and that can be done either at home or close to home. Staying at home or close to home, enjoying winter activities is much better on the environment and tons of fun too.

Here are my top favorites::

1. Make it a Snow Day: One of the greatest things about winter is waking up to a few inches of fresh powder on the ground. My son will look out the window with wide eyes and ask, “Can we play outside?” The snow brings all kinds of fun activities with it. You can pack a warm lunch and cocoa and spend the day sleigh riding or snow shoeing. You can even spend the entire day in your own backyard building a snow fort, snowman or having a snowball fight.

2. Introduce Family Game Night: Family Game Night is something that my family does on a very regular basis throughout the winter. After dinner, we will spend the evening sprawled out on pillows on the floor playing card and board games. This is a very simple activity that can be done any night, even school nights. There are so many fabulous family games available that getting bored is never an option.

3. Plan a Make your own Pizza Movie Night: At least twice a month, my family has ‘Make your own Pizza Night.’ My husband makes a fabulous pizza dough, sets up a topping buffet with sauce, cheeses and veggies and then each member of our family makes their own pizza. We always make sure to pick up a great family movie from the library and enjoy a nice yummy evening at home snuggled up together in our family room. 

4. Cook Together as a Family: My husband loves to cook and my son is starting to show a big interest in cooking as well. Cooking as a family is a fun activity because everyone learns something new. Kids love cooking because they like to use their hands and taste test recipes. Cooking is also great for helping children to learn math and direction following. Plus, who doesn’t enjoy a fresh, warm muffin straight from the oven?


5. Start a Parent/Child Hobby: Find a hobby that you and your child can learn and enjoy together. Not only will you both learn something new, but the amount of time that you will spend together learning it is priceless. It also gives you something that your and your child will have in common. My son and I have been taking guitar lessons together for several months. It is a hobby that we have both always wanted to learn and it has made us even closer as Mother and Son.

6. Support your Local Arts: Winter is the perfect time to support your local arts. The entire family will enjoy an evening at the theatre, seeing a play, musical, ballet, or other type of performing art. My family has enjoyed season tickets to the theatre for three winters now and it is a lovely thing to look forward to all winter long. You can also visit your local art, history, nature and science museums. Museums are always a hit with any age group.

7. Start a Dinner Party Group: My family has joined with other families that we are very close with to start a dinner party group. Each month, one family chooses a dinner theme such as; Mediterranean, Italian or Mexican and plans a menu based on that theme. Then, each family will bring a designated dish to share. It is a fun evening for the adults and children alike. Everyone gets to enjoy a fabulous meal that everyone helped to create and it is a great way to stay connected to our closest friends throughout the cold winter.


8. Start Family Story Time: This is a tradition that my family keeps all year long, but for some reason, it is so much more fun in the winter. Possibly because it is already dark when Family Story Time rolls around. We always choose a book that will captivate the entire family’s imagination. Some of our favorites have been; “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane” and “The Invention of Hugo Cabret.”
What are your favorite Earth Friendly Family Activities to enjoy in the wintertime?

Greens Tips:: Clear the Closet Clutter.

December 22, 2009 6

Since winter is rapidly approaching, I decided it was a good time to go through all of our summer clothes and gear and decide what items we will continue to use next summer and what things needed to go. I found that Mr. Sweet Greens, myself and Eben all had a lot of extra clothing and gear that we didn’t use this year and most likely won’t use next year either. There were also items that were completely worn out or didn’t ever get used in the first place. I went through EVERYTHING and divided it into four piles, keep, garbage, donate or sell. All of the clothing and gear that we decided to keep went into drawer storage for next summer.

Luckily, the only items that we had that went into the garbage pile were some old worn towels and clothes that I either cut into wash rags or for kept for making toys for the dogs. All of the donate items went directly to our local Goodwill and I immediately listed everything in the sell pile on eBay. Not only are our closets completely organized now. I feel good donating items that can be used again by someone else and selling some of the items on Ebay is always a nice way to supplement the coming holidays. Actually, this year I have made almost all of the money that I will need for the holidays, around $500.

Have you organized your closets?
How do you decide what to keep and what goes?

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Blooming Lotus: Nourish Your Skin with Organic Skincare Products

December 21, 2009 0

Did you know that your skin is your body’s largest organ? Yes, it is. What you put on your body is just as important as what you put in it. With that in mind, check out Blooming Lotus.

Blooming Lotus is a beautiful body care company founded by Jen Denslow in Kansas City’s busy art district. Blooming Lotus’ products begin as organic or wild crafted herbs and gem essences that are distilled into the finest essential oils. They are blended with love in small batches, from scratch, to ensure quality.

Blooming Lotus is a social and environmentally responsible company. They use raw organic materials, (no parabens, petroleum products, formaldehyde, hydrogenated oils or synthetic fragrance) Which you already know that I avoid at all cost. Blooming Lotus purchases fair trade ingredients, uses only recyclable containers for their products, purchases wind power credits, donates products to charitable causes, does not test on animals and supports the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. Whew, that is a lot for such a small business.

Jen sent me some fabulous items to review and I absolutely love the products. My favorites were the Soulshine luminous lotion and the Fairy Mist aromatherapy mister. The soulshine is a fabulous combination of mandarin, spearmint and jasmine. The smell is clean and fresh and the lotion isn’t greasy or oily. The Fairy Mist is also very fresh and crisp, without being overwhelming. I placed both items in our main level guest bath, with hopes to hear what my friends and family thought. The response was amazing, my husband loves the lotion, which is surprising because he isn’t a lotion type of guy and I had a close friend of mine tell me that the products in my bath smell like a lovely spa. I was tickled.

Please don’t take my word for it. Try Blooming Lotus yourself and tell me what you think.

Jen @ Blooming Lotus has been so sweet to offer all of my readers 20% off your purchase with the coupon code sweetgreens (valid through June 8th). So stop by Blooming Lotus, check things out and try a beautiful body care line.

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