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Showing posts with label Go Green. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Go Green. Show all posts

Green Living with Balcony Garden

Are you looking to incorporate more green into your life at home, such as eating more organic food? Have you thought about growing your own veggies but given up the idea because you don't have the luxury of a backyard? The limitation of your living space, however, doesn't have to limit your access to gardening. With the convenience of a balcony garden, you can enjoy fresh, organically grown produce straight from your balcony! Here's a useful guide to help you find the best balcony garden that meets your needs.

Balcony Garden

A balcony garden can help you achieve greener and better living in so many ways.

First, it allows you to get close to nature without having to leave home. You can choose your favorite plants, including flowers, herbs, vegetables, or a mix of them, and watch them grow day by day. You can get a feel of nature whenever you want. It not only saves your time, but also saves energy and reduces air pollution for it limits the need for driving.

Second, it provides easy access to fresh and more affordable organic produce. A good variety of vegetables and herbs are suitable for balcony gardening. Popular choices include tomatoes, peppers, basil, and cucumbers. It's amazing that you can actually grow a salad garden in such small space. By growing your own organic food, you may also save trips to the grocery store and cut down your living expenses.

Green Toys Parking Garage Review & Giveaway {Christmas in July Giveaway Hop}

This summer, the little ones may feel the need for boredom busters more strongly than before. The Parking Garage from Green Toys are sure to add great fun to their time at home.


Drive up, fill up, fix up, and take off! The Green Toys Parking Garage is a multi-level play space that encourages motor skill development, cause and effect reasoning, and imaginative, narrative play. Made in the USA from 100% recycled plastic, the set includes a Mini Helicopter and two Mini Vehicles, and is scaled to work with the best-selling Green Toys Ferry Boat and Car Carrier. Featuring a drive-through station on one end and a ramp on the other, an elevator in back and helipad on top, this full-service, 360° set is ready for play from any angle.

My boys are huge fans of cars, planes, and boats. This colorful parking garage not only provides an extra storage place for their favorite moving vehicles from Green Toys, but also fits well with other brands of cars in their collection. The set is very easy to put together and sturdy enough to endure wear and tear from everyday play.

Like all other Green Toys products, The Parking Garage is a safe and eco-friendly toddler toy containing no BPA, phthalates, PVC, or external coatings. It is packaged with recycled and recyclable materials printed with soy inks.

Estella Organic Baby Bodysuit Review & 15% Off Discount Code

Comfort and safety always top my checklist when I shop for baby products. I'm happy to be introduced to Estella, an online baby boutique that takes safety to heart and specializes in baby clothes made with 100% GOTS certified organic cotton. Grown with minimal pesticides and chemicals, the fabric is safe for both babies and the planet. Besides their eco-friendly feature, Estella's baby clothes also prove that safety doesn't have to come at the expense of style.


Check out these cute graphic designs of Estella's organic baby bodysuits. Just imagine your little one wearing a giant avocado or pretzel on the front while toddling around. I can't help smiling at the thought.

Estella kindly sent me one of their organic baby bodysuit for review, featuring the iconic NYC taxi cab. The fabric feels very soft and comfortable. The bright colored picture instantly grabbed the attention of my little car enthusiast, who actually requested to wear it through babbling and body language.

Besides baby clothes, Estella also carries organic baby toys, organic baby blankets and gift sets made up of items with matching designs. Any of their products could make an adorable and caring holiday gift for babies and toddlers. Be sure to use discount code Fairy15 to receive 15% off your order if you choose to shop at Estella this holiday season.

Disclosure: I received a free product to facilitate my honest review. All views and opinions expressed are my own.

Send a Digital Flower via the Flowerling App and Have a Real Tree Planted

Flowers make a wonderful gift for almost any occasion - holidays, birthday, anniversary, graduation, housewarming, Get Well Soon, Thank You, Be My Valentine...just to name a few. But unfortunately they can't be a gift that will last. No matter how much care you give to a beautiful bouquet you receive, it is bound to wither and die in a matter of days. I hate to see those expensive flowers going into trash. It's really wasteful, especially when you take into account the layers of elegant wrapping paper used for presentation, oversized boxes used for delivery and all the carbon footprints associated with packaging, delivery and disposal. To my delight, a new mobile app called Flowerling offers a more socially responsible and eco-friendly way to buy and send flowers. Isn't it cool to send a digital flower in this digital age? Better yet, for each virtual flower sent, a REAL tree will get planted!


The Flowerling app is free to download in iTunes app store and works on both iPhone and iPad. The first time you open the app, you will be prompted to create an account, which is also free and only asks for your name and email. Ready to buy some flowers from the Flowerling store? You will need to purchase coins, with a price range from 99 cents for 5 coins to $9.99 for 55. The coins never expire.

The Flowerling store offers a wide variety of flowers, bouquets and vases starting at 3 coins each. You can browse all the available items by category, or simply type in what you'd like using the search function on the upper right corner of your screen. You can pick your favorite flowers and assemble them into a bouquet. I find the pre-made bouquets to be a more economical option as each costs up to 10 coins (which amounts to just $1.99). That's way much cheaper than sending real followers and there's no need to deal with stinky water ever!

By default, all your purchases will be stored in your greenhouse. You can discover more things to do with each item when you click on it.

Like real flowers, your flowerling ages over time, with a lifespan of 8 days. You can extend that for several days by watering your flowerling or buying food for it. You also have the option to send it to a loved one or compost it. For me, it was fun to water the flowers and see the green bar (which indicates its life span) grow.

Go Back to School & Go Green Prize Pack Giveaway {Back To School Giveaway Hop}

Kids across the country are going back to school in the coming weeks, while their parents are busy shopping for all that they'll need on the first day of school. As I believe eco-friendly education should start at an early age, I urge you to consider purchasing more green products for your child this new school year. And I've put together an awesome prize pack featuring several eco-friendly school supplies, which are not only safe for children, but are also very stylish!

One lucky reader of mine will win an ion8 Kids Leak Proof BPA Free Water Bottle with 12oz capacity, a 24-ct case of Fantastic Planet Colored Pencils, and an adorable Dabbawalla Lunch Bag! (Total ARV $52.28) The winner will get to choose their favorite color for the water bottle and design for the lunch bag. Learn more about the prizes below, and then enter to win them using the form that follows. Good luck!

About the prizes:

ion8 Kids Leak Proof BPA Free Water Bottle (ARV $12.29):
  • 100% Leak Proof
  • Made from BPA Free, phthalate free, non-toxic Tritan
  • Fast flow for rapid hydration
  • Hygienic one-touch flip top with secure lid lock, good for one handed use
  • Scratch resistant, soft touch surface for effortless grip
  • Fits any cup holder or kid's backpack
  • Dishwasher Safe
  • Suitable for both hot and cold drinks
  • Available in 4 vibrant colors

Fantastic Planet Colored Pencils (ARV $9.99):
  • Wood Free Colored Pencils
  • Made With Plastic Barrels (No trees were harmed when making these pencils!)
  • 24 Colors including magenta, peach and gray
  • Triangular Shaped Barrels for No Roll Away
  • Reusable Tin Case

Dabbawalla Lunch Bag (ARV $30):
  • Made with sustainable material that is degradable, recyclable and 100% toxic-free, lead-free, BPA-free, and no phthalates or PVC
  • Insulating material helps keep food safe
  • Lightweight and easy to carry
  • Machine washable (front loaders only) or hand wash
  • 12" High x 11" Wide x 6" Deep
  • Available in 27 colorful designs

Frosch Eco-Friendly Cleaning Starter Kit Giveaway {Green Your Routine Giveaway Hop}

Every day can be Earth Day when green actions become a natural part of our daily routine. Join Lindsey Blogs, Viva Veltoro and a group of Eco-conscious bloggers in the Green Your Routine Giveaway Hop and learn more about ways to go green! The event will run from now through Earth Day, offering chances to win green themed prizes, including two amazing Grand Prizes from the hosts!

My Giveaway
I'm giving away an awesome Frosch Starter Kit, including 6 full-sized Eco-Friendly household cleaning products from the Frosch family! It's a great value pack providing the essentials you'll need for spring cleaning!

The kit contains each of the following:
  • Lavender Universal Cleaner
  • Aloe Vera Dishwashing Liquid
  • Lemon WC/ Toilet Bowl Cleaner
  • Bio Spirit Glass Cleaner Spray
  • Lemon Shower and Bathroom Cleaner
  • Baking Soda All Purpose Cleaner Spray
Made in Germany, all Frosch products are free from harsh chemicals like phosphates, borates, formaldehyde, NTA, EDTA and PVC. The dyes and perfumes used are either cosmetic-grade or food-grade and have excellent and proven skin sensitivity. Learn more about the full line of Frosch products at froschusa.com.

Be Recycled $100 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway #BeRecycled

Earth Day 2015 is now behind us, but it doesn't mean we should stop engaging in activities that help protect Mother Earth. Do you recycle as often and as much as possible? Do you think recyclables in certain parts of your home are getting more attention than those in the others? There might be more recyclable stuff lying around your house than you are aware of. To help you discover what you may have overlooked recycling, Bloggin' Mamas is sponsoring this Amazon gift card giveaway in support of the “I Want to Be Recy­cled” campaign.

Blog­gin’ Mamas would like to sup­port the Ad Coun­cil and Keep Amer­ica Beau­ti­ful, the national non­profit orga­ni­za­tion, which recently launched the newest phase of the “I Want to Be Recy­cled” pub­lic ser­vice adver­tis­ing cam­paign. The PSA cam­paign aims to raise aware­ness and inspire indi­vidu­als to recy­cle more with the lat­est series of ads focused on recy­cling in the bathroom.

Per­sonal care prod­ucts like sham­poo and lotion bot­tles, toi­let paper rolls, and tooth­paste and soap boxes are sig­nif­i­cantly less likely to be recy­cled than kitchen prod­ucts. New research com­mis­sioned by the Ad Coun­cil found that 47% of peo­ple are not recy­cling mate­ri­als in the bathroom.

Accord­ing to a recent study con­ducted for the Ad Coun­cil, 52% of Amer­i­cans don’t know which items can be recy­cled in the bath­room. And only 10% of Amer­i­cans have a recy­cling bin in their bath­room, com­pared to the 45% who have them in the kitchen.

That’s why the “I Want To Be Recycled” campaign has partnered with Vevo’s Do It YourSelfie with Tess & Eva, who recreate the looks from today’s hottest music videos. These two glam experts, known for their DIY hair, makeup and design tips, created a new PSA this Earth Day reminding Americans that those bathroom products deserve to be recycled too!

Disney Go Green: A Family Guide To A Sustainable Lifestyle Review


Every day is Earth Day if you are fully committed to green living. Children who are taught about ways to go green at an early age are more likely to carry on the spirit through adulthood and for generations to come. In light of the importance of green education for kids, Disney books launched a new Go Green series. In the first book of the series, Go Green: A Family Guide To A Sustainable Lifestyle, Mickey and Friends show us around the world of ideas and issues surrounding the concept of substainability, with colorful pictures, fun facts, green tips, art projects and more. Going green is more interesting than ever in the company of kids' all-time favorites Mickey and Minnie!


The book starts with the question "Why go green?" and encourages readers to think about all the consequences of not Going Green. I love that it takes a wholistic approach to substainability and goes beyond focusing on how to go green. Believing that "caring for ourselves empowers us to care for our planet," the authors discuss what we can do to achieve personal well-being before they explore what we can do to protect the well-being of our planet.

Green Easter Giveaway: Win Over $360 Eco-Friendly Products!

Is Easter one of your kid's favorite holiday? What fun activities are in the planning? I'd like to invite all Eco-conscious parents to celebrate this Easter with more green products, some of which you could from today's giveaway. The winner will receive an awesome Easter basket filled with over $360 worth of Eco-friendly products! Go for it!

About the Prizes and Their Sponsors:

Potting Shed Creations

Garden-in-a-pail kids! Living Easter Pail
Garden-in-a-pail kids! Living Easter Pail (ARV $28)

Garden-in-a-pail kids! is a fun container garden project to plant and grow a living Easter pail with kids. A label is also included to personalize with crayons, paint or markers. Grass is ready in 5-7 days and makes a great centerpiece after jelly beans are collected or to display a few prized dyed eggs. Includes a recycled steel pail, bunny label to personalize, organic soil-les mix, organic coconut husks for drainage, and organic wheat grass seed with planting/growing directions enclosed in a easter egg.

$25 Whole Foods Gift Card Giveaway {ShamROCK Your World Giveaway Hop}

Welcome to the ShamROCK Your World Giveaway Hop hosted by Blogging Mamas Network! Are you wearing GREEN today? In honor of St. Patrick's Day, each of the participating bloggers is giving away a green themed prize valued $25 or higher. Join us for this fun event now through the end of March!


My Giveaway
I'm giving away a $25 Whole Foods Market Gift Card! Whole Foods is my favorite place to buy green grocery items. The winner will sure have fun shopping at a Whole Foods store nearby! Be sure to check out their store brand products, which taste as good or even better than name brands!

$50 Glass Dharma Straws Gift Card Giveaway (3 Winners)

Is drinking from a plastic straw part of you everyday experience? Did it ever occur to you that disposable plastic straws contribute to the solid waste that is threatening the wellbeing of our planet? If you are looking to commit to a greener life, then start with the small things in your daily life, such as switching to a glass straw. A small change could make a big difference! Enter to win 1 of 3 gift cards to Glass Dharma Straws and start saving Mother Earth one straw at a time!

Sip the World Make a Difference with Glass Dharma Straws

About the Sponsor

They are the brainchild of creator David Leonhardt a lampworker (glassblower) for over 15 years. When he and his wife moved to the Mendocino Coast he noticed when he was doing some work for a local glass shop in town that they had glass drinking straws. What a unique and elegant idea it could be as a solution to reducing the plastics that end up in our garbage!

Did you know that according to McDonald's own website as of 2008 they serve an average of 52 million meals PER DAY! Which makes you wonder how many of those meals had a plastic straw come with it? Hmm yes it's a big problem but Glass Dharma has given us a beautiful item to be part of the solution!

Here's why we should use glass straws
  • Glass straws don’t leach toxins into your food as you drink.
  • Each time you use your glass straw equals one less plastic straw ending up in your landfill.
  • One glass straw replaces thousands of plastic straws. (How many times will you use a straw the rest of your life?)
  • Using your glass drinking straw adds a feeling of beauty to your day.
  • Great for hot or cold drinks, microwave and dishwasher safe!
  • Covered with their unbelievable Lifetime Guarantee Against Breakage. Means that if they ever break, they’ll replace them – Free!
Glass Dharma Straws come in different sizes for regular beverages, smoothies, bubble tea, decorative dot ones in different colors and beautiful bends. There is a straw for everyone!

Powered by Mom has personally tried some Glass Dharma Straws. Read her review HERE

Three lucky winners will each receive a $50 Gift Code to Glass Dharma Straws!

Ozeri Green Earth Wok Review and Giveaway (ARV $100)

Welcome to the Ozeri Green Earth Wok Giveaway!
Hosted by Parga's Junkyard

We try to ensure food safety by paying close attention to the ingredients and even containers we use, but we often overlook the fact that our cookware could be made from materials that pose health hazards! I didn't realize the importance of having safe cookware until I read Sonya's review of Ozeri Green Earth Wok. We cook Asian style meals a lot, so an Eco-friendly non-stick wok would be really useful for our family. Luckily, you could try it for free by entering today's giveaway!

Review is done by Parga's Junkyard (A yummy recipe included!)

I am excited! Yesterday I received an Ozeri Green Earth Wok to review. I love to cook, so anything related to cooking gets me excited some days! This morning, I decided that I would make some Orange Chicken Stirfry for dinner and give this Green Earth Wok a try.

For my Orange Chicken Stirfry Dinner, I started by spraying the pan with PAM (just in case). I cut up a couple of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, added 1/2 an onion (chopped), about 2 tsp of minced garlic and about 1/4 tsp of crushed ginger.... I fried those in about 1 tablespoon of olive oil (I use olive oil for almost everything). When the chicken was cooked, I pushed the chicken pieces up to the sides of the wok, to keep them from cooking too much and burning. I then added and cooked my vegetables: broccoli florets, snow peas, and some chopped sweet peppers ( I just love the reds, oranges and yellows these come in) to the wok along with another splash of olive oil. I then grated a couple carrots into the mixture, added a can of drained pineapple. I stirred the meat into the mixture along with 2 pkts of Panda Express Orange Chicken Sauce. I served this over rice with a big tossed salad for dinner....yum, yum, yummy! (Don't ask me for exact measurements as I rarely actually measure anything unless I am baking a cake or cookies!)
 
Let me tell you, I have owned Woks before but the Ozeri Green Earth Wok is by far my favorite! Some of my previous woks were so light, they wore out quickly. This Wok has some substance to it and I know it won't wear out anytime soon, even if I used it every night! The textured base of the pan cooks everything equally, no more hot spots and having to be overly careful! I really do love this Wok!
The Green Earth Wok is part of Ozeri's Non-Textured Series. This Wok features "ecozeri™", an ultra-safe 100% PTFE and PFOA free ceramic non stick coating derived right from nature! Did you know that a lot of the coated fry and wok pans out there contain some harmful, heavy metals and chemicals? Well this one doesn't! The "ecozeri™" Multilayered Coating contains 5 actual layers: A powerful Non-stick Ceramic Layer, A premium Top Ceramic Layer, A layer of Aluminum, A Pro Base Ceramic Coating Layer, and lastly A Pro Ceramic Coating Bond Layer! The coating is a superior performing, non stick coating and is truly durable and scratch resistant. The Green Earth Wok has a comfortable oven safe handle, is induction stove safe, easy to clean and completely eco-friendly since it emits no harmful chemical fumes! What more can we cooks ask for?


One lucky reader will win an Ozeri Green Earth Wok valued at $99.99!

Green Works Cleaning Products Review

Keeping our home cozy and clean is of top priority to me as a mom. And I'm constantly on the lookout for safe and effective products to help me achieve my goal. Green Works, the "green" line of products from Clorox, is one of my tested and trusted brands that I feel good about using around our home.

Green Works has generously sent me a nice bundle of cleaning products for review, just in time to help me start the new year on the right foot. All Green Works products are made with plant- and mineral-based cleaning ingredients, which are naturally derived and biodegradable. They are not tested on animals and use environmentally sustainable packaging whenever possible. All Green Works products also carry the EPA's Design for the Environment (DfE)logo, which certifies that they have been tested to meet stringent criteria for human and environmental health.

Green Works Laundry Detergent features a dermatologist-tested formula that is gentle on skin and good for both standard and high-efficiency (HE) washers. I love the fresh scent it leaves on my laundry. I've been using it with cold water and am impressed with how well it cleans!


Green Works Bathroom Cleaner provides an instant and powerful fix to soap scum, rust and hard water stains in all the tough spots in our bathroom, including sink, counter, bathtub, facets and tiles. It leaves out bathroom smell fresh and clean. All done with no harsh chemical fumes or residue!


Green Works All Purpose Cleaner works well on virtually any surface that needs to be cleaned in our home, especially those greasy kitchen counters, stove top, sinks, as well as the microwave stained with unexpected food spillovers. Using a dermatologist-tested formula, it's tough on grease but gentle on skin.


Green Works Cleaning Wipes are perfect for fast and easy cleaning both at home and on the go. They dry pretty fast and leave no harsh chemical residue. Better yet, they are 100% compostable!

If you're a fan of Clorox cleaning products, I'm sure you will love Green Works even more because they equip you with the same cleaning power in a natural and non-toxic way. Green Works is definitely a top choice for Eco-conscious families who would like to protect their health and our planet.

"Like" Green Works on Facebook and you'll among the first the know about new products, coupons and special offers.

Disclosure: I received free products for review through a Mom Bloggers Club program. No monetary exchange took place. All views and opinions expressed are my own.

Last Chance to Win Recyclebank Green Your Seasons Sweepstakes! Hundreds of Free Points Still up for Grabs!

Tomorrow (1/6) is the last day to enter the Recyclebank Green Your Seasons promotion, which includes 3 parts: Green Your Season Sweepstakes, Green Your Seasons Contest and User-Generated Content Contest. By joining Recyclebank and performing activities like answering quizzes, downloading green tips, pledging to green actions, etc, you could win one of several awesome Eco-friendly prize packages worth thousands of dollars!
Plus you can collect hundreds of free Recyclebank points redeemable for rewards including gift cards from Walmart, Home Depot, Gap and more!

Here are some of the free points up for grabs (Remember to turn off or customize your pop-up blocker):

*Green Your Season Promotion: 270 (10 per quiz/pledge/download, 20 recipe/resolution/picture submission)
*Coca-Cola® Arctic Home 25+5
*Suave 25+5
*Paper Pilot 25
*Q-tips 25
*threadUp signup 20
*Ziploc 20
*Kashi 20
*ShopSanity signup 10 (Gmail or Yahoo mail users only)
*Earth911 Newsletter 5
*EarthChoice® Domtar 5
*UncommonGoods Newsletter 5
*Happy Holidays Newsletter 10 (for existing members)
*MillionTreesNYC 45+ (possibly for NYC residents only)
*Refer-a-friend 10

If you're new to Recyclebank, join now and then click on the "Earn Points" tab to explore all the possible ways in which you can be rewarded for going green!

GiftZip Pick Your Own Prize Giveaway!

GiftZip needs your help to spread the word about their campaign to greener gift giving. If you've read my GiftZip review before, you probably know that GiftZip.com provides individuals with a plastic-free means by which to send and receive eGift cards. Join the Movement To Greening Gift Giving today and grab your chance to win a Kindle, an iPod, or a Wii in the Pick Your Own Prize Giveaway!

Similar to last time's Wii giveaway, the blogger that refers the winner will receive a $50 gift certificate to one of GiftZip.com's retailers. I'd greatly appreciate it if you could tell GiftZip that you learned about the giveaway from my blog icefairy's Treasure Chest. The deadline to enter is October 31, 2010. There are multiple ways to enter and each participant may receive up to 136 entries! Good luck all!



The Green Teen Twitter Party Tonight

Jenn Savedge, known as The Green Parent, just launched her new book The Green Teen, a great book filled with green living tips. To celebrate, Jenn and Amy (aka Resourceful Mommy) have put together a Twitter Party tonight between 9 pm and 10 pm ET. Please RSVP here and be entered to win 12 green prizes. Plus, it's a good opportunity to ask Jenn anything you want to know about going green. Use hashtag #thegreenteen to join the party on Twitter and have FUN!
 
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