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Autumn Is Here! Again?

November 3, 2009 0

Well, all of the snow that piled up last week is almost gone. Can you believe it? I was completely ready to pull out the holiday music and spend the next 4 months snuggled in my favorite blanket by the fireplace. However, today I woke up to a beautiful ray of sunlight peeking through my curtains, so I will enjoy Autumn again.

Here is what I want to do before the big snowfall happens – you know the one that will leave several feet of snow on the ground for the entire winter.

1. Go on another fall family hike.
2. Completely clean and organize my garage.
3. Finish my holiday eco-friendly stocking stuffer shopping.
4. Make sure the entire house is weatherproofed.
5. Clean and prepare my car for winter.

Where you live, does it snow?
What are you going to do to prepare for winter?

Fall Family Hike: Lory State Park, Colorado

November 3, 2009 3
Our family loves to hike – we usually hike a few times each month and really look forward to traveling on trails that we have never hiked before. Last week before our big snow storm, we spent the day at Lory State Park and hiked the Well’s Gulch trail. It was a great trail for a leisurely hike, which is exactly what we desired for the day.

It was a moderate hike so talking while we walked was easy. We played “searching” games, where one of us would name something to look for and everyone would search for it, such as, a purple flower or red berries.

It was a beautiful day and the mister had packed us a lunch. We hiked for a few minutes and quickly decided it was time for lunch when we came upon this enchanted little waterfall. It was probably the tiniest waterfall that I have ever seen and Eben was especially smitten with it.

We sat and enjoyed our lunches and the sounds of the water and bumble bees. It was quite lovely. Eben collected rocks with ‘gold’ in them. I looked for perfect pine cones and round pebbles. A hike is a great way to getaway for the day. It is so nice to be somewhere beautiful that is peaceful, quiet and makes a lovely destination to reconnect with your loved ones after a busy week at work and school.
Do you love to hike?
Where are your favorite hiking trails?

How To Host An Eco-Friendly Wine And Cheese Party

November 3, 2009 4

Since it is the harvest season, I thought it would be fun to host an organic wine and cheese tasting party. Doesn’t it sound lovely to invite a few of your friends over on a chilly fall night to try different types of cheeses and wines from all over the world? I think it would be fun to choose a region of the world and ask each guest to bring either a bottle of wine or a wedge cheese from that region to share. A wine and cheese party is a simple and fun way to spend the evening. Read on to learn how I am preparing for this fun night.

Here’s what you will need:
  • 4-6 bottles of organic wine
  • 4 ounces of organic cheese per person
  • organic plain crackers
  • water

Set up:

Pour 2 ounce tastes for each of the wines and serve the water and crackers as palate cleansers. You could also serve other appetizers. The organic cheeses that I chose for this particular night include; organic Brie, Gouda and Le Gruyere.

When setting up this party, I used items from my own kitchen including dinnerware, silverware, stemware and linens. This party had almost zero landfill waste since the bottles are recyclable and most of the packaging was too.

Would you host an eco-friendly wine and cheese party?
What are your favorite types of organic wine and cheese?

photo courtesy of Palinkas Tamara.

Eco-Me Green Cleaning Giveaway + Coupon Code

November 2, 2009 42
If you read Sweet Greens on a daily basis then you know how strongly I feel about using green cleaning products in your home. I think it is one of the most important things that you can do for the health of yourself, your family and the environment – I have talked about here several times.
I recently received the Eco-me Pre-Mixed line of green cleaning products. This line is a winner! I love everything about Eco-me. I love the simple ingredients, super simple, think along the lines of vinegar, baking soda and essential oils. I love the design of the packaging and that each cleaner has a name. This cracks Eben up, every time I use one, he asks why the cleaners have names.

My favorites are Emily (100% Natural Scrub Cleaner) and Bill (All Purpose Cleaner). These are my favorites because they are the two that I use the most. I am in love with Emily, this is the first natural scrub cleaner that I have used that actually whitens and brightens. I sprinkle it all over the bottle of my walk in shower and then lightly scrub it with my scrub brush and it brightens, cleans and whitens. I am hooked, the mister loves it too because this was his biggest compliant that green cleaners don’t whiten, this one does. I also love Bill because you can use it anywhere; counters, windows, tile and mirrors and it doesn’t streak. Fantastic!

Eco-me has been so lovely to offer TWO of my readers a set of 6 pouches of the pre-mixed cleaning products. With these pouch sets, you can decide for yourself. Sweet Greens readers also get 15% off your order with the coupon code ‘emblreview‘.

How to Enter
1. What would you clean with your Eco-Me pre-mixed cleaning products?

The winner will be announced on Monday, November 16th. 
*UPDATE:: WINNERS: #30 Tanya and #12 Jennifer B. Congratulations and thank you to everyone who entered.

Good Luck.

Eco Planning for a Green Thanksgiving

November 2, 2009 0
Now that Halloween is over, it is time to focus on Thanksgiving. Can you believe that Thanksgiving is 24 days away? Usually, I wouldn’t be in a frenzy over Thanksgiving because it is either just the three of us here at home or we visit family in Utah and celebrate Thanksgiving there. 
This year however, my entire family is coming to Colorado to spend Thanksgiving with us. How fantastic is that? My parents, my little sister, her husband and three beautiful children and my little brother will all be celebrating at my house. I am over the moon!

First on my Thanksgiving list, is taking inventory and luckily we have almost everything that we will need to prepare, serve and enjoy Thanksgiving dinner. I have ordered some extra pieces to go with the china that the mister recently inherited from his Nana. I have been considering ordering some lovely pieces from Eden Home, I love the La Chamba Natural Black Clay Cookware and the Bird Cheese Markers.

Next on the list, the mister is currently preparing the meal plan and it’s sounds like it’s going to be a lovely Thanksgiving.

Have you started to prepare for Thanksgiving?
What type of dinnerware will you be using?

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