Doesn’t a fresh ripe avocado
How about you, do you love avocados?
Do you love guacamole?
Do you love avocados but dislike guacamole?
Or the other way around?
Please leave your comments below!
The Summer of the Avocado
Linaloos Designs: Upcycled Felted Goodies for Girls Giveaway!
Let’s start this beautiful summer day with a giveaway from Linaloos Designs.
Linaloos Designs is a line of Eco-friendly accessories that are handmade from vintage sweaters that are felted and then crafted into trendy designs, proving recycling can be both fun and cute! Linaloos Designs is the creation of Jennifer Malone in Boston, M.A.
Linaloos most popular products are handmade felt hair clips or barrettes for little ones. These clips feature patterns geared especially to the interests of sweet girls but with a design sensibility that appeals to their hip moms. Linaloos has also expanded their line to include felt key chain wristlets for stylish moms or anyone who needs her hands free for more important bundles. Linaloos sent me my very own Owl felt key chain and it is fantastic and having your hands free really is important.
Jennifer created Linaloo Designs because she wasn’t keen with all of the hair bows that she found for her daughter Caroline (the namesake of Linaloos Design – Caroline’s nickname is Linaloo). Jennifer started creating her own hair clips and barrett’s from vintage cashmere and wool sweaters. Her friends fell in love with them and urged her to take them to the marketplace. She gathered up all of her courage and walked into an upscale children’s boutique with a sample book and walked out with a giant order. Since then her collection has expanded into 40 boutiques around the country and online at Linaloos. In addition to the repurposed sweaters, she makes every effort to use tags that are made with recycled paper and only ships orders in cardboard boxes that have seen a shipment or two already.
Jennifer feels strongly that even the smallest business has a responsibility to give back to the community and from day one she has donated ten percent of all of her sales to charity- primarily to the Childhood Leukemia Foundation’s Hugs U Wear program, which provides wigs for children undergoing chemotherapy treatments. Jennifer says that every girl deserves fabulous hair to accessorize! All donations for her women’s line go to Women for Women International, which provides business training, resources and support to women in conflict or post-conflict areas of the world. Most of these women begin crafts businesses and I feel a true kinship to them. Is that lovely or what?
Linaloos Designs is giving one of my readers, your choice of wristlet. Yay! Just visit Linaloos and leave a comment telling me which wristlet you would choose to enter to win!
** SPECIAL BONUS FOR SWEET GREENS READERS: If you would like to purchase a wristlet, just contact Jennifer via the contact button at Linaloos and you will get $2 off.
More Ways to Win!
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A huge thank you to Jennifer for hosting this lovely giveaway!
Giveaway ends July 7th @ 12am EST.
*UPDATE: WINNER: Michelle. Congratulations and thank you to everyone for playing!
A Little Library Love
It’s seems like we visit our library less in the summer and I am starting to miss it. Here is a little library love if you suffering from a break too. 
Wool Library Book Satchel via Wooly Bison
Doesn’t this book called Chilp look adorable? You can grab a copy at Red Hen Studios.
Don’t you just love vintage Children’s books? The colors are fantastic, no?
What is your all time favorite Children’s book? New or vintage?
How to Build a Green Raised Garden Bed for Your Family
Have you been looking for simple instructions to build a green raised garden bed for your backyard? Check out my article for Inhabitots to learn how to make one of these garden beds for your family.
Do you have raised garden beds at your home?
Do you think that your garden grows better in a raised bed?
Dealing with the BP Oil Spill + 6 Ways You Can Help
To be honest, I do not watch much television. However, I would have to have been living under a rock not to have seen or heard about the horrific images of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. And I have to admit the mix of emotions that I have been feeling about it are to say in the least, overwhelming. I think the emotion that I was feeling for the longest at first was disbelief. With today’s technology it is hard to believe that such a disaster could happen. Once the feeling of disbelief wore off, I felt frustrated, powerless and unsure of how I could make a difference. Now, to be honest I just feel anger and sadness that this massive environmental disaster has occurred. Do you feel this way?
So, what can we do?
If you live in the gulf area, you can volunteer your time and energy to one of several organizations that need volunteers. Of course, you can do this if you don’t live in the local area too. You can help organizations such as the Audubon Society. They need volunteers to seek out birds that need to be cleansed and rehabilitated.
Or you can find a great list of organizations to volunteer with here. (Just make sure the organization that you choose is BBB certified.) Personally, I will still be donating to The Nature Conservancy – with my monies being allocated to the Gulf. If you would like to help me, you can donate here, together we can make a difference.
If you are unable to volunteer or donate money, you can still help. There are several things that you can do at home that you can do to help get us off of an oil dependent lifestyle. Read on to six ways you can make a difference today.
1: Switch to Clean Energy
Fort Collins, Colorado has a Green Energy Program where you can purchase clean, renewable energy for an additional 1.9 cents per kilowatt-hour, which guarantees my electricity comes from the cleanest source available.
2: Switch to a Vegetarian Lifestyle
Even if you are not ready to switch to a vegetarian lifestyle, you can make a difference by drastically reducing the amount of meats that you consume. A great start would be to start a meatless Monday’s tradition and only serve vegetarian meals on that day.
3: Drive Less. Walk and Bike More.
This one is simple – when you can walk or bike instead of driving. You can also utilize ride sharing, grabbing the bus or car sharing.
4: Eliminate Unnecessary Buying
The best idea is if you don’t need it, don’t buy it. Take a few extra seconds to consider each purchase that you and your family makes. By reducing your unnecessary buying, you reduce your family’s overall impact on the environment considerably.
5: Add Your Signature
Sign the call to ban offshore drilling that will be delivered to our president and congress via 350.org.
6: Join In
Join an organization that wants to make a difference such 1,000,000 Strong Against Offshore Drilling.
Can you think of other ways that we can make an impact together?
Are there things that Sweet Greens’ readers can do as a group to make a difference?