Charity Ideas & giveaway

Green as Wee Grow is looking for a few charities to donate too. We would like to hear from you about which charities are your favorite, or you think deserve the most attention. We have decided to use UNICEF as one of our choices, but are looking for 2-4 more options.  We would like the charities to deal with environmental issues, children’s issues or animal rights.  Of course if you have a great charity that you would like us to consider please nominate it.
Once we have made the final decision on charities we will donate 5% of every on-line sale to one of the charities, we are hoping to make it so you can pick the charity of your choice.

We will be making a decision on April 1st and will be updating this blog to keep it fresh.  Please spread the word.  For the top picked charities we will put everyone who nominated those charities in a drawing and you will receive a Green as Wee Grow shirt/onsie of your choice or you can choose to donate the value of that shirt to your picked charity.  Thank you in advance for your participation and we hope look forward to learning more about your favorite charities.

Thank you

The Green as Wee Grow Family!!!!

To vote/nominate please leave a comment with your choice and a website address or a way of contacting the orginization, thank you.

Got my Eye on you!

We found this guy in Muir Woods.  If your in the San Francisco area, you really should check out this amazing place.  Check out the site below for more information.

http://www.nps.gov/muwo/index.htm

Pesticide on the Move

Most of us have heard about the dirty dozen; the foods that are most important to buy organic because of how much pesticides are used when growing them, but what about the most pesticided crops or areas in general?  What about our spices, clothing, beverages, open land space and do they use pesticides near the farms that raise our meat and dairy animals?  This is the first post on just these topics.  In this post I’m going to be talking about pesticides and what they are and what fresh foods we should purchase organic.

Why is this important, why should we care about pesticides and pesticide use?  Well I’m going to use CA as an example of pesticide use.  According to the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) between 1991 and 2000 almost 2 billion pounds of active ingredients were applied in California alone.  I’m not sure about anyone else but 2 billion of anything toxic doesn’t sound good, and this is just in one state.  Granted this is an almost 10 year span, and CA does produce a lot of crops, but still 2 billion is a lot of anything.  PAN is a great site to check out if you would like more information about pesticides and pesticide use.  the site is http://www.pesticideinfo.org It has a lot more detailed information, more than I want to use, but it’s a good reference.

There is a ton of produce, crops, and products to look at but I’m only going to look at the top “bad guys”.

Let’s start with the dirty dozen, just because it’s nice to have a refresher course every now and then right.  The dirty dozen are the fruits & veggies that you should buy organic if you can’t afford, find, or don’t really care about anything else being organic.     It is also in your best interest to buy all of your animal by products organic as well.  I’ll be adding another blog about farm animals and pesticides.

But for now  “THE DIRTY DOZEN“

1. Peaches
2. Apples
3. Sweet Bell Peppers
4. Celery
5. Nectarines
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Lettuce                            
9. Grapes
10. Pears
11. Spinach
12. Potatoes

Now that we have our dirty dozen, what exactly is a pesticide? We’ll pesticides are any substance or any mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest.  So what is a pest?  When I hear pest I think of insects & rodents mostly.  But the actual list of what pesticides are used to get rid of is much longer than just those two things.  The list includes insects, plant pathogens, weeds, molluscs, birds, mammals, fish, nematodes (roundworms), microbes and people that destroy property, spread or are a vector for disease or cause a nuisance.  Now I’m sure pesticides aren’t meant to destroy or repell people, but sadly that does happen when carry off from crop dusting occurs and just the handling of certain pesticides can cause horrible side effects.  Farmers and farm workers are exposed to harmful pesticides on a regular basis.  Some of these pesticides have been shown to cause cancer, birth defects and long term health problems such as respiratory problems, cancer, memory loss and depression.  It is estimated that 18,000 people die each year of pesticide poising.

Now what about pesticides effects on the earth & how do they get places they aren’t supposed to be?

This chart was borrowed from the pesticide.org website.

water monitoring

Here are some links to great sites that offer more in depth information about pesticides, fungicides and different aspects of  agriculture farming practices

http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/pesticides/

http://www.croplifefoundation.org/index.html

www.pesticide.org/RHSLEnvironImpofPs.pdf really interesting site about effects of pesticides on the environment.

This post takes a glimpse at some of the pesticides that are currently being used in conventional farming.  Over the next few posts I’m going to look closer at what we can do to help stop the use of pesticides and what sorts of pesticides are used on organic farming and explore alternative farming methods.   Also what sorts of pesticides, fungicides and other toxins are used on dairy and meat animals.

Up on the Rooftop

What do we have an abundance of, but has only one real use and could actually cost us extra money in the long run if not used properly and if used properly could actually save money and help reduce CO2 in the air?  Our roofs!

Doesn’t make much sense right, let me explain.  Everyone who has a house, business or a building has a roof on it, there is the abundance.  The only perceived use for a roof is keeping homes from the elements, however these very elements  could end up costing us more money in the long run.  The cost thing is totally debatable, but this is what I am referring to.  Our roofs bake in the sun through the summer keeping our attic spaces a scorching temp, which means that either our AC runs more often or harder trying to keep the house cool.  In the winter heat rises up into the attic and then out through our roofs, making our heating units work harder to keep our houses a nice temp.  Read on for the CO2 reduction.

So what if we gave our roofs a second job?  What if we, as home owners, turned our roofs into living roofs or roof gardens?  What if every restaurant put an herb garden or seasonal veggie garden on their roof to use in their restaurants?  What if big businesses added a roof top garden for employees to use as a lunch spot or as a place to take their breaks during the day?  What would be the benefits?  Why even think about doing this?

Courtesy of Metaefficient

Roof gardens help with so many different aspects of life, without really needing anything in return from us.  They help insulate  from the outside in by absorbing the heat and cold before it has a chance to get into our attic and crawl space.  Which will benefit your heating/cooling bill by making your AC/heating unit work more efficiently.  While being more efficient roof gardens also help with outside noise.  The insulation from the plants  helps filter out the noise from outside, I’m all for a quieter house.  If you have a semi flat roof you could actually end up having a place to grow veggies and other edible plants or adding a nice seating area just to relax.  Those with a pitched roof that would be a pretty hard harvest, but not impossible depending on the pitch.  The beauty of a roof garden is really under rated.  A lot of homes in Europe already have roof gardens and when you see them all green and swaying in the wind, it really is an amazing site. Green roofs are also  very ecologically savvy.  Green roofs help reduce the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere due to the vegetation absorbing CO2 to help with photosynthesis which in turn improves air quality.  So imagine if an entire neighborhood  switched to green roofs, the air in that neighborhood should, in theory, end up with improved air quality.  Reducing CO2 emissions is something that we should all be worried about.  This is a way for us to help, without a huge change in our regular lifestyle which is really hard to do/maintain.   A little recap of the home perks for us personally.  They reduce our heating/cooling bills, they are beautiful to look at and they can function as an added outdoor space/garden. The perks for everyone is the reduction of CO2 in our environment.

There are other big perks to a green roof, but listing everything would make for a very long post.  Here’s just a few that I really want to mention though.  Green roofs can incorporate rain water storage  and can be used in conjunction  with gray water systems as well.

OK so all of these pro’s are great, but is it really worth it?  what about watering and all the other things that are hard enough to do with a land based garden and now you have to do it on a roof.  Well here’s a couple of things to think about.  Roof gardens can be anything you want  They can be native plants that will grow and flourish without your “help”, they could be veggies and fruits that you will have to water and tend too, they could be a combo of both or depending on your roof space, and money, they could be an amazing full scale garden with all the bells and whistles you could want or as simple as a few planters with plants in them.

Graze the Roof Garden – Glide Memorial Church, San Francisco picture from insideurbangreen.org There are so many different ways of putting a roof top garden together, and I am not an expert so I won’t be telling you how to go about it, but there are so many companies that have started taking on these projects.  I’ve listed a few below.

http://www.duro-last.com/

http://www.carlisleroofgardens.com/Default.aspx

http://www.roof-gardens.net/

http://www.greengridroofs.com/greenroofs.htm

http://www.livingroofsinc.com/about_us/?x=1

Thank you for reading this far, or at least skimming!  Look for a follow up on Green roof tops for big office buildings & what if an entire town installed green roofs.

Eco-Dough

What kid doesn’t love play-doh, I know I love play-doh.  What I don’t love about play-doh is what it’s made of, water, a starch-based binder, a retrogradation inhibitor, salt, lubricant, surfactant, preservative, hardener, humectant, fragrance, and color.^[7] A petroleum additive gives the compound a smooth feel, and borax prevents mold from developing, this information was obtained by wikipedia quoting the 2004 patent of play-doh.

I’ve tried making my own play-dough, but it never seems to come out right or it hardens over night and if you try to “revive” it, it turns into a funky slimy mess.  A great solution to the play dough dilemma comes in the form of Eco-dough from eco-kids.  This product is great.  The colors are dark and bold, the smell is similar to a peppermint & tea tree oil combo.  The ingredients are naturally derived and contain things like beets, paprika & carrots.  We have had our Eco-dough since Christmas and have used it almost every day without any drying issues.  The instructions say that if you do have an issue with the dough drying out to add a small amount of olive oil.  We play on our dinning room table and have never had an issue with clean up, double & triple bonus.

Here is B testing out the amount of abuse that this product can handle. And again turning it into a snake.

If your in the market from a fun, indoor activity and are a little freaked out about play-doh but like what it can do, check out Eco-kids products at www.eco-kidsusa.com

Great product that really is a great alternative to the traditional Play-Doh.

Organic Clothing SALE, New Products & Photography

Green as Wee Grow has set up a SALES page on our site.  We currently have 4 of our organic products listed from 25-28% off.  We are looking to add more so keep coming back for updates.  Check out http://www.greenasweegrow.com/home.php?cat=8 to see our new sales items.

We also have some new items that are just being listed.  We have a new girls shirt that was debuted at the San Francisco Green Expo.  We are thrilled with the way this design has turned out and we are very fortunate to be working with an amazing new artist Stephanie Corfee.  You can check out more of her products at http://www.stephaniecorfee.etsy.com or if you would like to own the “Grow” shirt in a print you can purchase it at the same site.  We will be adding new products designed by Stephanie in the beginning of the year as well.

This awesome little robot was done by one of my favorite artists to work with Jasen Strong.  Not only is this guy an amazing artist, he’s an absolute hoot to work with!  You can see more of Jasen’s art work at http://jasenstrong.artstooge.com This little robot guy will be a big hit with the little men in your life.

We have also had a whole new set of photographs taken for the website.  We have a wonderful local photographer who is doing an amazing job.  She does family, children, maternity & new born photography, if you live in the San Francisco bay area check out http://www.hillaryduarte.blogspot.com This amazing lady will make any photo shoot fun!!!!

Hope Your all enjoying the end of 2009

Greener toys for the holidays

So the holiday season has snuck up and smacked me square in the back yet again.  It’s like turning your back to the ocean you stare at it for a long time and get comfy with it, then turn your back to talk to someone and WHAM your off your feet and on your butt in the middle of the sand & water.

Back to the point!  How did this holiday season end up here so fast and what to get the wee ones in your life?  This year I’ve really started looking at the materials used in toys and where they were made.  I am trying to buy toys and gifts that aren’t made of plastic or made in China.  It’s actually a fun challenge if you think about it, I’ve gotten a chance to really look at some cool toys that I might not have found otherwise.  So I am going to give you a few of my favorite finds.

The first toy I found was at the Green Expo in San Francisco.  This is an amazing doll that is similar to the old fashion rag dolls, but with an Eco twist.  The company is called The Earth Friends and they make great dolls from organic, recycled and sustainable materials.  For more info about The Earth Friends, check out their site http://www.theearthfriends.com I think my favorite thing about this doll is the little details that remind me of dolls that my mom made me when I was little.  The yarn hair, the big eyes, the tiny line nose and so many other things.  Did I mention that B spent about 30 minutes lining the dolls up trying to figure out which one Santa might bring her.

Here is one of their fun dolls.  Did I mention that they are sewn here in the US!
This is one of the little girl dolls that they have.

And here is one of the little boy dolls they have.

The next toy that I found is made of recycled plastic, the thing that really surprised me about this toy is how sturdy it was and how interesting the texture is.  It’s made from recycled plastic, but doesn’t have that super smooth, cold, hard feel that plastic does.  I love this dump truck and there are a growing number of recycled plastic toys out on the market so keep looking.  Here’s one of the dump trucks from Green Toys, check out http://www.greentoys.com for more of the great products that they have.  They have a great tea set that my little B loves, haven’t bought it yet, but it’s on the list.

There are a few other items that I am interested in looking at first before I make any recommendations about them.  Until I get myself out of the house and into a store here are a few sites to check out for ideas on Eco toys.

http://www.fatbraintoys.com/toys/toy_categories/green_toys/index.cfm The cool thing about this site, besides the mass quantities they have of toys, is that they break down the “Econess” of the toys. They have categories which range from sustainable wood-recycled product- organic cotton.  They also let you search by interest, age, gender and origin of toy.  There really is a lot of items on this site.

http://www.moolka.com This is another company that has a lot of organic, wood toys.  They carry a brand called Haba majority of their toys are made in Europe, mostly Germany but they do outsource to China.  The thing is that this site offers you the ability to search by county where the product was made.  They also have a lot of other brands as well. When B was little we had a lot of toys from Haba that came from England, my parents spent about 5 weeks in England the summer after B was born and seemed to bring back one of every toy they could find.

This is a block puzzle and these have become B’s favorite type of puzzle. They have different scenes on each side. This one happens to be made by a Swiss company.

I hope you found this helpful.  If you have any other recommendations I would love to hear about them!  I’ll try to post more products as I find them.

Cheers!

To Greening up our kids!

One Crafty Mastermind, Priceless

I recently did a post about a great new etsy shop that makes goods out of recycled materials.  Here is a short interview with the crafty mastermind behind Kellypress on Etsy, soon to be To the Farthest Star Press.  I hope you enjoy her amazing creations as much as I do!

Tell us a little about yourself:

I’ve been an artist my whole life.  While my favorite medium is paper, I also love painting, renewing antique furniture and items, sewing and letterpress.  I have a wonderful husband and a Boston Terrier named Spencer (our only child so far.)  I’m a creative soul with a big heart, I guess you could say.  The only thing better than crafting, to me, is the joy that my creations bring others.

I graduated Antioch College in Ohio last year, and then my newlywed husband and I moved to Portland, Oregon.  While he transitioned easily into a great job, it took me longer to decide what I wanted to do: I was looking for a career that combined my strengths, talents and interests.  After long deliberation, I realized that I should create my own business!   It would combine my passion for crafting, my interest in small business, my belief in living a green lifestyle, and would position me as the owner, the manufacturer and the designer of the business.  This enables me to ensure great quality of product, great customer service and a direct connection between myself and my customer. Tell us about your company:

KellyPress, (soon to be To The Farthest Star Press,) is a one-gal show.  , I create paper goods, such as journals, foto book sand greeting cards out of recycled materials.  I also do custom orders, which are some of my favorites.  The style of KellyPress is really my own personal style: classic and sophisticated as well as cheery, bold and romantic.  My main goal is to create a beautiful, lasting item that will act as a tool, in a way, in its owner’s life.  Greeting cards will convey their wishes to another.  Journals will hold their dreams and secrets.  A foto book will hold their memories.  It is a huge honor to create the tools that hold a person’s dreams and memories.

I work at home in my attic studio, often using the view from my attic window as inspiration for my next piece.  My business front is on Etsy.com as of now, with high hopes of my own website coming soon, and eventually a storefront studio.

Where can we find your products?

www.kellypress.etsy.com, and I blog about my crafting on www.papersweet.wordpress.com What do you mean by “recycled” products?

I use materials that have been pre-owned, disregarded as too old or unuseable and  items that would otherwise be destined for landfill somewhere.  I use paper that is handmade, generally from other paper.  I even use thread, buttons and hardware from old clothes!  My favorite items to reuse into a craft are children’s books.  I never use pages or parts from a book in good condition; most of my favorite finds are scribbled-in, torn and warped books. Do you consider your business to be a Green business and why or why not?

I definitely do! As well as saving trees and helping the ecosphere, I’m making older, tired items into new ones!  The items I use are recycled in  one of several ways,  the paper I use is recycled and several other materials I use are, too.  I also consider KellyPress a green business because I highlight my products’ renewed quality, and stress the importance of it!  I show consumers that recycled doesn’t have to mean shabby or cheap. What inspires your to be creative and how do you keep new ideas coming?

Oh, everything inspires me!  I’m inspired by strong, old things like trees and old books.   I’m emotionally inspired by other artists’ creations,  children, my family and my personal experiences.  I also get inspired by listening to people.  People so often say, “You know, they should make a….”  I keep new ideas rolling by writing every idea I have (or that my husband suggests to me) down, and I made a sample or trial item to see how it works.  One botched trial usually means three new great ideas! What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of your craft?

Hmm…accuracy in measurements, perfect-line trimming, producing an item from a vague mental invented image and not being able to give everything away.  Oh!  And glue!  I use a special glue for bookbinding, and it’s so hard to find, and most companies won’t ship it in the winter for fear of freezing!  Being in a creative mood without glue is a terrible thing!  :) On a personal note, do you consider yourself “green” or Eco conscious?

I do.  About a year ago I broke into my thirties and realized that I needed to start paying attention to what I ate, what cosmetics I use and how I affect the world with my intake and output.  I recycle, I buy organic, I use fair-trade and earth-friendly products, I compost, I garden and I reuse as often as possible.  And I love to learn new ways to be even greener!

If so what is one “green” tip you would like to share:

My favorite part of being greener is definitely shopping at the farmer’s markets.  Buying free-range eggs, organic apples and basil directly from the organic farmer is not only fun, but it’s a great reminder of my role as a conscious consumer. Also, use organic shampoo and conditioner!  Without all of the parabens, SLS’s and other junk, your hair will feel clean and shine! Anything else you would like to add? I’d love to add that recycled can be couture! It is possible to merge style, quality and usability into one creation!

Simple Green update, Boo to Simple Green

I recently wrote about Simple Green, and how I had recently learned about it not being so green.  I have a wonderful friend, Ben, who is a chemist and was happy to take a look at the active ingredients in simple green.  What he said is that simple green is closer to formula 409 than a real non toxic cleaner.  409!!!  That’s the reason I was using simple green was because I didn’t want to use products like 409, Clorox, comet etc.  All this time I’ve been using a product that has claimed to be non toxic, when in fact it actually is toxic!  Now I know that at some level everything is toxic, thank you Ben.   I still don’t think it’s too much to ask to have the cleaner you use list on there all their ingredients so I can decide if I find it to be too toxic.

Needless to say Simple Green is no longer apart of my cleaning supplies and I have gone back to vinegar, water, baking soda & lemon.  I’m on the lookout for a new real non toxic products.  If you have a cleaner that you love and is non toxic I would love to hear about it.

Boo to Simple Green.

Ben did mention one good thing about Simple Green, he said it’s great to clean bike chains with because it really does biodegrade which makes it safer to use outside than other products out there.

Thanks to Ben for being happy to help!!

Simple Green Not so Simple, not so Green

It recently came to my attention via a very educated friend, that Simple Green might not be all it’s cracked up to be.  I have used this product for years and always found it to be less harsh on my lungs and hands than other “traditional” cleaners.  That paired with the fact that it was one of the first buy-able cleaners to carry the NON-TOXIC promise, I have to say I felt pretty comfortable with using it.  Of course  I looked at the ingredients on the bottle but never saw anything that put up a red flag as TOXIC, until today.  My friend sent me a link and just told me to check it out.  Apparently  Simple Green doesn’t display all their ingredients, in-fact you have to search for them on their website.  At which point you find that they use a chemical called 2-Butoxyethanol.

This chemical they say is in such low doses as to not be of concern, but really if your using chemicals that are known to cause health issues shouldn’t that take your NON TOXIC claim title?

I am going to ask another friend of mine who happens to be a bio-chemist and work in the cleaning development world, what this really means to personal safety and health.  Until I get my answer I wanted to retract my praise of simple green and until further notice I will be sticking with my vinegar, baking soda, hot water and lemon for my cleaning product use.

If anyone has any other info or input about Simple Green I would love to hear it, as I am currently livid.

,

Thank you