Monthly Archives: November 2009

I’m very excited to announce the very first giveaway here at Green Colored Glasses!  The World Wildlife Fund Canada is providing 3 adoption kits so there will be a total of 3 winners for this giveaway.  The winners will each have an animal adoption kit sent to them which contains a 12.5 cm stuffed animal, personalized certificate for the winner, a brochure explaining where and how the WWF Canada helps to provide for the animal and a reusable WWF totebag!  The 3 adoption kits available to be won are a penguin, a caribou and a polar bear which are the most popular kits purchased on the World Wildlife Fund website.

The species available for symbolic adoption from the WWF are all at risk.  The threatened Canadian species include caribou, polar bear, grizzly bear, Arctic fox, monarch butterfly, Atlantic cod, northern leopard frog, common loon, meerkat, blue shark and the black-footed ferret.  The WWF is an international fund with different branches for each country.  Some of the most popular animals to adopt internationally are the elephant, emperor penguin, tiger and orangutan.These adoption kits each cost $40 and make a perfect environmentally friendly gift for kids of all ages on your list.  Many stuffed animals cost nearly that with the proceeds going directly into a major corporations pocket.  With these kits, you can rest assured that your money will be used to help ensure that our planet’s most at risk animals.  What could be a more eco-friendly gift than that??

The WWF will provide animal adopters of the $40 kits with a $30 tax-deductible receipt as well which can definitely help out on your tax bill.  There are also animal families up for adoption or entire collections (Canadian collection, Global collection or Internatioal collection) for adoption if you can’t choose just one!  Check out their website for other great eco-friendly gift giving ideas such as organic tees and yoga wear, stainless steel bottles and reusable bags made from recycled plastic.  All done your shopping but would like to donate??  Not to worry, their website makes it easy to donate any amount online here.  You can do a one time donation, a monthly donation or give a donation in someone’s memory.

Now for the giveaway….You can enter the giveaway by leaving a comment on this post with your favorite animal available for symbolic adoption on the WWF website.  3 winners will be randomly chosen on Dec. 2, 2009.  This contest is only open to those with Canadian addresses.

*Extra Entries*

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  • * Blog about this giveaway and leave me the link for 3 extra entries.  Email us the URL or post it in the comments.
  • * Make a donation to the WWF for more than $5 for 1 extra entry (email a copy of the recept)
  • * Buy an item from the WWF store for 1 extra entry (email a copy of the recept)

Good luck!!

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This week’s Etsy find is Yummy Suds.  Etsy is a great way to support local artisans and crafters who have a much smaller footprint on the world around them than the big box stores who make products in bulk mainly overseas.  Yummy suds uses fresh vegetarian friendly (often vegan friendly) ingredients to handmake a whole range of scrumptious bath products.  On the profile page of the Etsy shop all it says is: “I love food. I love baths. Making bath and body products that smell good enough to eat, right up my alley.  Check out my blog: www.yummysuds.blogspot.com“.  I guess what more do you really need to say, right??  LOL That description sort of sums it all up with a range of bath products that are definitely as yummy smelling as they are fantastic bath products all in their own right.  Some of them even look good enough to eat, such as the Blueberry Lemon Soap Cake featured in the first picture here.  It seriously looks more like cake than soap so I’d definitely be careful with this one around kids.  They might be washing out their own mouths with soap for a change! lol  They suggest using this cake soap as wedding gift favours which I think would be a fantastic and very useful idea unlike most of the kitch that is handed out at such events. What about the Oh Honey Beehive Soap?  It looks fantastic and would make a great big stocking stuffer for anyone who’s been good this holiday season.  It’s scented with honey, sweet orange and bergamon so it’s certain to smell as beautiful as it looks.  At $5 for a big 5 oz bar, you’ll be able to afford a couple different varieties of this soap to fill up all the stockings. For the manly men on your list, how about the Pass the Brewski soap?  It’s made with Guinness Extra Stout beer with no added fragrance, colors or fillers.  He finally won’t need to worry about smelling like flowers.  Instead he can smell like manly man beer!!  Great idea, I absolutely love it. She has a range of other fragrances as well such as Sugar Cookie lotions and soaps, Me Want Cookie, Rosebuds, Hands Off my Cinnamon Buns, Who Spiked the Egg Nog and many many more that are reasonably priced and would make fantastic gifts for anyone on your list.  Wanna chance to win some of her fantastic lip balms and a pucker pot??  Check out the blog My Organized Chaos for chance to win a great giveaway!  There’s also a great product review of the items in the giveaway there.  I’d love a chance to review these products myself, they’re absolutely fantastic looking!  Good luck in the contest to everyone who enters.

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Everyone knows that it’s better to bring your lunch to work than to constantly eat out.  It’s healthier for you to avoid the fast food options and can help to save quite a lot of money as well.  Those of us living eco-friendly lifestyles know that making lunches at home can really help to reduce the contamination of the planet caused by over packaging, over processing and over consumption as well.  Many eco-enthusiasts also follow alternative eatting regimes such as all organics, vegetarian or even vegan lifestyles.  Going meat-free even once a week can make a substantial reduction to your carbon footprint.

However, everyone who’s worked in an office knows that the communal lunchroom fridge sometimes mean that a well-intentioned eater may lose his or her lunch.  And not just because the fridge is always dirty either!  A clever inventory from Las Vegas faced such a conundrum and came up with a solution — the Fridge Locker.  Check out www.FridgeLocker.com for some punny descriptions of the personal snack-urity system to stop refrig-a-raiders.

The product totally resembles a shark diving cage and just like the divers are protected from the sharks, your food will be protected from the sharks (er, co-workers) in the office.  No office job?  How about protecting booze from the teen or sweets from the kids or your share of groceries from the room mate’s obnoxious girlfriend??  Sky’s the limit with this funny and smart invention.

This is a sponsored post with 100% real opinions.

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By a “green birth” I’m referring to a natural childbirth which means different things depending on who you’re talking to.  Some people see natural childbirth as being pain medication free.  Others view it as being drug free or chemical free childbirth.  The strictest folks even view it as a birth which is free of all interventions.

By interventions, I mean medical procedures such as breaking the waters, inducing labour, episiotomies, vacuum assisted deliveries, the use of forceps, etc.  Doctors have an entire range of medical procedures to assist birth that do not involve drugs or chemicals of any kind.  Sometimes these interventions are necessary because of a mother’s exhaustion, pain tolerance or difficulties delivering.  Sometimes interventions, even dangerous ones such as c-sections, are preformed simply because of a doctor’s lack of patience, experience and skill.

There are many benefits to be had from a natural childbirth for both the mom and the baby.  First of all, women can feel very empowered and in control of the birthing process without being hampered by pain relieving drugs or interferrence from doctors.  They have more options available to them such as walking around which can help speed labour or even eatting and drinking to make yourself more comfortable.  Labour is a long exhausting process and some substinence along the way can really help to keep up a mom’s strength.  During traditional medical deliveries, mothers aren’t allowed to eat or drink anything in case they are knocked out for a c-section.

Secondly, new moms and babies can bond better when drugs have not been in either system.  Drugs can make moms tired and babies groggy.  This can really interfere with breastfeeding after the birth as well as the initial stages of the bonding experience for both.  You can remain alert to ensure the proper latching (with help from support) and the baby will be more alert to get eye contact going and latch on properly.

Partners can feel more helpful during a natural childbirth too as they are intensely involved in the pain reduction techniques available such as massage, positive affirmations, encouragement, support during walking and position changes, helping in and out of water immersion, etc.  Dads can become a much needed source of support during any kind of childbirth but are definitely essential during natural childbirth techniques.

There are downsides too to natural childbirth that must be considered.  If you plan on a natural childbirth and need assistance with pain or delivery, you can feel very disappointed afterwards with the entire birthing experience.  Ensure not to set your expectations of the birth unneccessarily high.  Be ready to “roll with the punches” and to make sure that your birth plan is flexible.  Having to get help during labour and delivery should not be seen as a failure.

Intense pain during birthing can also hamper the bonding process with newborns sometimes.  Post partum depression and post traumatic stress disorder are both more common in “difficult” birthing situations.  Not that any birth is easy though.  Childbirth of any kind is definitely a challenge but a challenge that should be embraced instead of dreaded.  It’s intense but at the end you meet the new person that you and your partner have created and been waiting for for many long months.  It’s the start of a new relationship that will last a lifetime.  I guess that’s why they say that you forget the pain after birth.  The joy of your new child can definitely overshadow the anxiety felt during a long labour.

Either way you decide to go, ensure that your birth plan is flexible and is something that you feel comfortable with.  Communicate your choices and wishes to your doctor and any support people that will be present during the birth.  Taking classes on birthing techniques and researching natural childbirth online can be very valuable resources while making your decision.

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Natural baby products can really help to keep kids happier, healthier and more in tune with the world around them.  There have been a plethera of studies done in the last decade that show the rising amounts of chemicals found in kids bodies from the products and environments that they are exposed to.  Even simple things such as shampoo or the baby bottles they drink from can be loaded wtih chemicals that have no long term studies done on them to show the effects in the human body.

This is what lead to the big BPA scare with plastic a couple of years ago.  Now when you go to buy a baby’s bottle or pacifier, they are often labelled as BPA free.  I still wonder what else is in there that we don’t know about that can be harmful.

Parents and adults in general know how to keep kids away from obviously dangerous situations such as tobacco smoke or knives but when the dangers are hidden in such innocuous products such as their toys, it leaves us unprepared to properly protect kids.  Luckily, there are now many new companies that specialize in natural baby and children’s products such as chemical-free shampoos, glass bottles and all wood locally produced toys.

It can take a little research and some shopping around to find what you are looking for but the added safety and value of doing so is more than worth the effort.  These more natural options for babies are also more environmentally friendly baby products which can really be a step in the right (green) direction.  It’s so important to teach kids an understanding and love of nature as they will inherit whatever planet we leave for them.

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