Holiday Giving Ideas

The holiday shopping season is upon us, or nearly anyway.  While my first recommendation for holiday gifts would obviously be something handmade, or repurposed (although locally crafted and purchased are great options too), I get that some of you will be buying new.  Which is why I thought I would share a few things I have come across with you.

Viva Terra is starting a holiday rewards card.  Purchases of $100-$249 will get you a $25 gift card.  $250 and above gets you a $100 reward.

Ethical Ocean has put together THE COOLEST holiday shopping tool I have every seen!  The Holiday Helper Elf helps you find the exact eco gift for your friends and family.

Personally, I am doing double duty on some of my gifts.  The homeless shelter where I work has recently begun selling "Soap for Hope."  I will be making stacks of three of these sweet smelling, locally made beauties, wrapping them in brown paper and twine, and giving them as teacher/post mistress/baby sitter gifts (I will make sure to show you a picture when that happens).

What great holiday giving ideas have you had or seen?

Giving Back with Farm Aid

After reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" I was really inspired by the idea of helping out farmers.  I will certainly do this through my local farmer's market and trying to buy local, eat local and encourage others to do the same, but I wanted to do more.

I have mentioned before that I love to give back with my gifts.  In fact, I am pretty sure my family members  might have bets going on what kind of crazy gift that gives back they will next receive.  Whoever, put their money on Farm Aid wins!  My sister's birthday is coming up and I decided to see what I could find her over at the Farm Aid shop.  The answer, a lot.

So she gets some pretty neat stuff and I get to support a cause that I am growing more passionate about.  Go check it out and see how you can help...maybe with the added bonus of seeing a concert, or rockin a sweet t-shirt.

What's your favorite gift to give that gives back?

Making Mom Happy

You may have heard, Mother's Day is coming up.  I usually give my mom a gift to charity as I do for all gifts.  This year was different because my mom got herself something very special, an iPad 2.  I wanted to help her celebrate her big purchase and prove myself helpful.

The earth-friendly (and super cute) case was found at Colcasac.  They provide cases made in America from  "tough materials that are easy on the environment."  Even better, they are members of 1% for the planet.

I chose the Austin for my mom and gave it to her last weekend so she could use it as quickly as possible.  She loves it and I love that I was able to do something good for both my mom and mother earth in giving it to her.

What are your plans for Mother's Day?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day lovelies! This is what my Valentine got today. I saw the idea in a magazine (and wouldn't you know I can't for the life of me find it again) and did my own take.

The envelopes are filled with thoughts of why I love him gathered over the past couple weeks of thinking (and years of being together) written out on cardstock you might recognize and embellished with magazine clippings.

How are you celebrating this year?

Handmade Love: Teacher's Gifts

While Tucker's classroom valentines are very cute, we wanted to do something a little different (but also handmade) for his teachers. Inspiration for these scented hear-shape ornaments was found in a book the boys were given by a family friend called "Love the Earth Crafts", and a post at 5 Orange Potatoes.

Because we did this project on the day we were snowed in from the blizzard and did not have all the ingredients for Lisa's recipe, we combined the two. We used a salt dough mixture consisting of:

3/4 cup al purpose flour

3 tablespoons salt

1 teaspoon cooking oil

1/3 cup water

Instead of painting the dough once it baked as the book suggested, we added red food coloring during the mixing. We used a small heart cookie cutter for the shape and a plastic straw to make ribbon holes in the corners.

After cutting out the shapes, place on a cookie sheet at bake until hard, about 3 hours at 250 degrees F. We learned that there is no point adding the oil before baking. A few drops of lavender essential oil will be added to each ornament before gifting.

I found leftover ribbon, string, organza bags, and small boxes saved from presents we were given and used those to pretty them up and wrap them. I also cut out a card from the leftover cardstock to go with each one which says, "The smile that lights the face will also warm the heart. Thank you for making us smile and warming our hearts."

Are you doing separate teacher valentines? What did you come up with?

Handmade Love: Class Valentines

Handmade love is a beautiful, almost redundant phrase. It's also what we decided to do with Tucker's kindergarten class valentines this year. In the past we have tried to purchase earth-friendly cards. That was a somewhat expensive and impersonal (even if really cute) way to go.

This year I was determined to do something handmade for a few reasons. 1. Budget. 2.Handmade is the general direction in which we are trying to aim our family activities. 3. This allowed Tucker to practice his cutting, handwriting, and thoughtfulness skill as he created them.

My idea came from Family Fun. I selected 4 of the ideas offered. We used recycled colored cardstock purchased at a local office supply store, a red pen, scissors, and some carefully selected candies.

They came out really cute. Tucker is proud of his creations and excited to share them with his friends. I think this is the best valentine option we have explored yet, but still far from perfect. Neither the cardstock ($8, with leftovers for other crafts) nor candy (which had to be bought in large bags to get the right kind, the rest of which was donated to the classroom) were cheap. I am not a big fan of giving kids even more packaged candy. Unfortunately, I haven't come up with a brilliant better option around the school's rules yet. Perhaps next year we will be more clever in our messaging and give pencils or erasers or some more useful thing.

But for this year, these are splendidly fun, cute, tasty, and certainly handmade with love. What are you doing for kid's valentines this year?

Next time I will share our Valentine's Day teacher gift creations.

Organic Bouquet

I recently had the opportunity to send flowers to someone I care about.  Now, I don't usually send flowers.  I don't get really excited about receiving them (I know! I am like one of those silly women who doesn't like chocolate!) so I usually choose something else to send.  But this was part of a group effort and the group chose flowers, so I agreed, on one condition.  I asked that if we were going to send flowers, we send an Organic Bouquet.  

I first read about Organic Bouquet in the February issue of "O" magazine which made the excellent point that traditional growing methods for flowers usually include leeching lots of pesticides and herbicides into the soil and water, not to mention covering your beautiful gift in them before sending them to someone to enjoy in their home.  

Organic Bouquet offers only flowers that are grown, well, organically (and sustainably).  Which means that you can feel good about the gift you are giving in more ways than one.  I love that they also offer charitable arrangements which give five percent back to a charity with their purchase.   For our purchase, my group chose the Women for Women bouquet which arrived on the specified delivery date in a recycled glass vase ($13 more) and wowed the recipient with it's beauty.

You can also choose from a selection of California grown flowers which will presumably cut doubt on the carbon footprint of the flowers in their travel.  

If flowers aren't your thing, choose from a selection of treats like fair-trade organic chocolate or these organic Peace cookies.  Or choose wreath or a plant that will keep growing and giving back.

The point is, when you choose your gifts (or your special treats to yourself), do it mindfully.  Think not only about how beautiful the item is, but how it contributed to the beauty of our planet.

Have you had any experience with "greener" flowers or gifts?  Are there companies you would recommend over others?  Have you ever had the pleasure of being the recipient of such a gift?