The mister keeps telling me that he is going to build us a house in the woods. I recently told him about a cob house that I had seen – he was intrigued. A cob house? Yes, cob is a centuries-old method of building with earth, straw, and other natural fibers. The cob is mixed by foot and applied in globs (a.k.a. cobs). Cob homes can be very creative because building with cob is so free form – think of a hobbit house. You can make arches and niches quite easily and the finished product looks so organic. Plus, it dovetails seamlessly with the other eco-friendly tactics we use to keep our carbon footprint down, such as utilizing different types of reusable bags and recycling. With a cob house, our efforts would be even more helpful to the planet!
I thought it would be fun to find an Earth Friendly Etsy shop that takes a found object that has no use anymore and upcycles it into something fantastic.
Debby Arem Designs has a collection of “geekery” jewelry and office products called three ring circuits (3RC). Three ring circuits is a line of recycled circuit board products that takes “found objects” and transforms them into something fun, unique and useful. The collection consists of jewelry, clipboards, key chains, magnets, bookmarks, picture frames, sun catchers and clocks.
Three ring circuits currently has several of their repurposed green office products on permanent exhibit at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry as part of their Smart Home 2009 Exhibit. Very cool. This exhibit is sponsored by WIRED magazine, and includes Three ring circuits pencil boxes, a circuit board clock, a mouse pad and several clipboards, all of these items are made using recycled circuit boards.
Your children would delight in a fab circuit board clipboard for back to school. These are very cool and will definitely be a conversation starter, which is always perfect for breaking the ice on the first day of school.
Debby Arem Designs has been so lovely to offer ONE of my readers a Recycled Circuit Board Clipboard.
How to Enter
1. Subscribe to Sweet Greens (if you haven’t already) and confirm the subscription in the email that you receive from FeedBurner. 2 . Visit Debby Arem Designs and leave me a comment telling me which item you would love to have.
Additional Entries please leave a separate comment for each thing that you do.
Share Debby Arem Designs on Twitter and follow @SweetGreens.
Email a friend about Sweet Greens:: Debby Arem Designs {Giveaway!}
Add Sweet Greens to your blogroll.
Rules for Entry
Please leave a way for me to contact you if you win.
Contest ends August 26th @ 12am EST. Winner will be chosen at random using a random number generator and will be announced the following day. (I will announce the winner, if I do not hear from you within 72 business hours, I will pick another winner.)
You must leave a comment telling me which item you love in order to qualify.
Good Luck!
UPDATE: WINNER:: Tom Tuttle from Tacoma #26. Congratulations and thank you again to everyone who entered.
I have a passion for only using products in my home that are non-toxic and eco-friendly. In fact, the first thing my family did when we decided we wanted to live a greener lifestyle – we ditched the toxic products. It is a simple step that has a huge impact on both the health of the environment and the health of my family. I have given you the health rundown of using green cleaners before here, but just to refresh, check this out:
The air inside most homes is 2-5x more polluted than the air outside.
Almost 70% of streams sampled in 2002 contained chemicals from household cleaning products.
10% of toxic exposures reported to the U.S. Poison Control Centers are related to cleaning products directly touching the skin or being ingested.
Most conventional cleaning products come in non-recyclable containers.
Recently, I had the pleasure of being introduced to ecoSTORE. ecoSTORE is a New Zealand based company that offers plant-based and mineral-based household cleaning products, that are free of toxic chemicals and will help you reduce your carbon footprint. “No Nasty Chemicals” is the foundation that ecoSTORE is built on – doesn’t that just sum it up? Check out their ingredient list and you will find this is true.
I have reviewed some of ecoSTORE’s products and have been very impressed. I love that their products are ultra-concentrated, so you only have to use a little to do a big job and all of their packaging is 100% recyclable and compact. I am really enjoying the front loader laundry powder – which I was surprised works when using only a tiny amount. Also, the Lemongrass soap is amazing, the smell will win you over as well as it’s wonderful creamy feel. Would you like to try some for yourself? ecoSTORE is offering ONE of my lovely readers a $25 gift card. They are also offering free shipping on all orders over $25 so this will be amazing giveaway.
Contest ends May 15th @ 12am EST. Winner will be chosen at random using a random number generator and will be announced the following day. * Update: Winner:: Lindsay. Congratulations.
Today’s giveaway is for our preschool friends, because they need some back to school fun too. Growing up, I was a tomboy and I loved to play with my trucks in the sandbox. We had a giant sandbox in the backyard where all of my huge metal dump trucks and diggers lived. I remember spending countless hours outside with my little sister, playing with those trucks. Thinking back I do remember those huge trucks being terribly heavy with some sharp edges. Not to mention they were hard to maneuver and rusted in the rain.
I recently found a fabulous eco-friendly toy company called Sprig Toys. Sprig Toys is an eco-friendly company dedicated to making the best toys the right way. Sprig Toys makes the greatest kids toys that will keep your little ones active and the planet healthy. The design is fabulous, (think double duty) and Sprig Toy’s business practices and product quality are fantastic. Sprig Toys are made with Sprigwood™ which is a durable bio-composite material made from recycled wood and reclaimed plastic. One of the best parts for me, Sprig Toys is located in Fort Collins, Colorado, my town. Woo Hoo!
I received the Sprig Hollow Series to review and it is adorable. The Bee and Butterfly characters are delightful as well as interchangeable, which only adds to the fun. This series would be tons of fun for your preschooler because it is equipped with detachable tools and everything is water resistant. I love the chunky design of the vehicles, fun colors and that the vehicles have double duties. Not only can you drive or fly the vehicles around the garden, but each vehicle has a tool built in to it. The sand truck has a removable sand shovel and the heli–scoopter has a removable scoop. The series also comes with a garden pot and wildflower seeds. It is a fabulous set that will bring hours and hours of fun inside or outside for your little ones. Everything comes apart and lays completely flat, which is perfect for storage and for travel. I really can’t think of a more fun way for a preschooler to enjoy after school time, than playing with their Sprig Hollow play set in the garden with nature all around them.
Would you love to have a Sprig Hollow play set for your preschooler? Now you can, Sprig Hollow is offering ONE of my wonderful readers a Sprig Hollow play set complete with farm truck, barn, characters, scoops, shovels, garden pot and wildflower seeds. Retail Value $29.99. What a great back to school toy for your little one.
Bonus: All Sweet Greens Facebook Fans have a chance to win a separate Sprig Hollow Farm truck, Bee Character, Beehive and Flower Sand Sifter. Visit Sweet Greens Facebook Fan Page for more information.
Email a friendly about Sweet Greens: Sprig Toys Giveaway
Add Sweet Greens to your blogroll.
Rules for Entry
Please leave a way for me to contact you if you win.
Contest ends August 24st @ 12am EST. Winner will be chosen at random using a random number generator and will be announced the following day. (I will announce the winner, if I do not hear from you within 72 business hours, I will pick another winner.)
You must leave a comment telling me which item you love in order to qualify.
UPDATE: WINNER:: #12 daer0n, Congratulations and thank you to everyone who entered.
It’s that time of year again. Can you believe it? Back to school, already? I was just getting the summer started, when whoosh, it’s coming to an end. Luckily Eben is extremely excited for school to start and we have finished all of his school clothes shopping, but we still have some things left to do. This week is completely dedicated to making back to school more green. Each day this week, I will have a green back to school giveaway, so stop by and enter to win some great green back to school prizes for your children.
The next thing on our list of things to do to get Eben ready for 3rd grade is to gather the school supplies. Eben loves art and he creates and illustrates his own comics, so we always have tons of art supplies in our house. We started with the list of school supplies that his school had sent home and found that he has a lot of the items leftover from last year. We will definitely be using these items again this year. For the items that we do need to purchase, as well as any new art supplies that he will need in the future, we will be doing our shopping at Stubby Pencil Studio. Stubby Pencil Studio is a fabulous studio of eco-friendly school, art supplies and other eco-friendly products to keep your kids creative. Your children will delight in the fun colors and designs and the earth will love that everything is eco-friendly.
Stubby Pencil Studio was created by Kate Rosenthal who was inspired to create eco-friendly stationary products for her twin daughters. Stubby Pencil Studio has grown into a huge assortment of colored pencils, markers, crayons, notebooks, paints and pens as well as fabulous toys, gifts, personalized stationary and much more. Best of all, the paper products are printed on chlorine-free recycled paper from 100% FSC certified consumer waste that are acid free and printed with vegetable ink.
My favorites are the Smencils, because who wouldn’t love pencils that are gourmet scented, YUM! I also love the soy crayons and washable markers. OK, after checking out all of their fun products, maybe I am also excited for school to start.
You can get excited for school to start too. Kate at Stubby Pencil Studio has been so lovely to offer ONE of my lovely readers a $50 shopping spree to Stubby Pencil Studio. You can stock up on all of the fab products that will make your children’s first day of school a hit. How to Enter
1. Subscribe to Sweet Greens (if you haven’t already) and confirm the subscription in the email from FeedBurner. 2. Visit Stubby Pencil Studio and leave me a comment telling me which Eco products your children would flip for?
Additional Entries Please leave a separate comment for each that you do.
Share Stubby Pencil Studio on Twitter and follow @Sweet Greens.
You can share on Twitter once a day, just remember to leave an additional comment.
Email a friend about Sweet Greens: Stubby Pencil Studio Giveaway.
Add Sweet Greens to your blogroll or website.
Rules for Entry
Please leave a way for me to contact you if you win.
Contest ends August 18th @ 12am EST. Winner will be chosen at random using a random number generator and will be announced the following day. (I will announce the winner, if I do not hear from you within 72 business hours, I will pick another winner.)
You must leave a comment telling me which item you love in order to qualify.
Good Luck.
*UPDATE:: WINNER:: Andrea #36. Congratulations and thank you to everyone who entered.
