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    Happy Fridays: 5 Eco-Friendly tips from Oprah!

    September 17, 2010 | Posted by Kristen the designer

    So this week’s post is all about ways to be environmentally friendly in your own home, and it’s from one of our favorites: Oprah! Oprah did a segment on her show featuring these tips and how easy it is to implement them in your day to day life. Of course everyone wants to be eco-friendly, but sometimes it’s hard to find practical ways to feel like you are making a difference. Not anymore! With these tips you’ll save energy, save money, and make your life a little bit greener.

    Oprah’s 5 Eco-Friendly Green Living Tips

    Eco-Friendly Tip #1: Eco-friendly Canvas Bags
    When you’re deciding between paper and plastic at the grocery store, choose neither. Plastic takes 1,000 years to decompose and paper bags use 14 million trees a year. Instead, an easy eco-friendly tip is to use cloth grocery bags. Any cloth bag will do, but Oprah said that her website is selling organic cotton canvas bags made without pesticides.

    Another easy eco-friendly tip is to use an organic mesh bag for organic produce. One eco-friendly expert urged consumers to look at the amount of packaging in the grocery store. Since petroleum-based packaging isn’t good for the environment, buy items that use minimal packaging.

    This easy eco-friendly tip may cost you a little more money: organic produce. It’s a green tip because it takes less energy to harvest and doesn’t use pesticides, so it’s healthier for the planet. But, organic produce isn’t necessarily a green money saving tip – though it could make you physically healthier.

    Eco-Friendly Tip #2: Eco-Friendly Eating
    Elizabeth Rogers wrote The Green Book, which contains dozens of easy eco-friendly tips that Oprah loved. In writing The Green Book she wanted to answer the question, “What are the easiest things we can do that make the biggest difference?”

    One of Rogers’ green tips is using one less napkin a day because paper napkins make a huge difference. Give up one paper napkin a day, and you’ll save a billion pounds of paper waste in landfills a year. Using cloth napkins is one easy eco-friendly tip on Oprah that makes a huge difference.

    Eco-Friendly Tip #3: Natural Cleaning Products
    “Clean doesn’t have a smell,” says one environmentally friendly family. When your bathroom is clean, it shouldn’t smell like pine or lemon. Switch from toxic to non-toxic, natural cleaning products. Seventh Generation sells non-toxic products, which improve your family’s health by being less likely to cause asthma attacks. Or try Green Works!

    Eco-Friendly Tip #4: Change Your Lightbulbs
    Most of the energy comes from coal-fired plants. A compact fluorescent light bulb is more energy-efficient and will save your money in the long run. CFL lightbulbs are energy smart; they’re more expensive, but they’ll last longer.

    Eco-Friendly Tip #5 on Oprah: Daily Green Tips for Every Family
    These easy eco-friendly tips are things you can do every day. The green tips come from the Squire family (a green family featured on the eco-friendly Oprah show).

    - Use the same cups over and over.
    - Don’t run the dishwasher unless it’s absolutely full.
    - Don’t throw clothing or shoes away, especially leather shoes.
    - Buy clothes at secondhand, consignment, or resale shops.
    - Put power strips on your tv to turn everything off when you go to bed or leave for the day.
    Vampire or standby power drains energy.

    Finally, one last eco-friendly tip on Oprah is to go to a landfill and see where your garbage goes. It doesn’t just disappear! When you see a landfill in person, you’ll think twice about what you throw in the garbage and what you recycle. Recycle as much as you can. Make sure you check what types of plastic are recyclable in your city, through the Public Works or Sanitation Department.

    Hope these tips will help everyone be a little greener! Happy Friday everyone!

    Kristen the designerKristen the designer

    Happy Fridays: Cool Toys for Fall 2010

    September 9, 2010 | Posted by Kristen the designer

    So for the past week I’ve been scouring the internet for the best toys of 2010. Some have already been top sellers and some haven’t even hit the shelves. I know it’s only September, but it is never too early to be in that Christmas state of mind. With the way toys sell out today, you may need to buy one now just to be safe!

    From left to right and top to bottom:

    1) Ni Hao Kai Lan  doll – Hold Kai Lan’s hands and watch her head rock back and forth and her heart change colors as she thinks about what emotion she is feeling! Let her hands go, and Kai Lan will play out one of 6 different emotions, colors & eye movements. Kai Lan’s arms can move up to her heart and up to the sky as she asks the child to hug her, dance with her and more!

    2) Hyper Blast – Hyper Blast is a numbers game that gives players a physical and mental workout.

    3) Bucky Balls – I have seen these everywhere recently, and have to admit they are quite addicting. Each set contains 216 powerful rare earth magnets that can be shaped, molded, torn apart and snapped together in UNLIMITED WAYS.

    4) iXL Learning System – The iXL Learning System is a learning and entertainment center for preschool kids. The iXL Learning System comes with six applications: Story Book, Game Player, Note Book, Art Studio, Music Player and Photo Album.

    5) My Pal Scout (Leap Frog) – Give learning a personal touch with this soft, cuddly green puppy named Scout! Scout connects to the computer so you can customize the music and personalize the learning with your child’s name and favorite food, animal and color.

    6) Moon Dough – Much like their great Moon Sand, Moon Dough is a non-drying, non-stick, hypoallergenic play substance that will provide endless hours of fun. Moon Dough is reportedly marshmallow-like, but it isn’t sticky and doesn’t leave any stains, and it never dries out.

    7) Dave the Funky Monkey – Dave the Funky Monkey has been designed to interact with people in several different ways, displaying a number of individual mannerisms. For example, if someone shouts at Dave the Monkey, you will make him sad. He is brand new and doesn’t have a release date yet, but a lot of hype has already been built up about this toy.

    8 ) Crayola Beginnings Color Me a Song – Helps build toddlers’ creativity, confidence and independence through creative experiences. Helps develop fine and gross motor skills. Allows toddler to create original music with their scribbles. Music will change based on speed of coloring, the faster you scribble .. the faster the song.

    9) Stinky the Garbage Truck – All boys love garbage trucks, it’s a fact of life. And now they can play with their own: Stinky the Garbage Truck! Stinky is a real working garbage truck that boys can drive around, load and unload. But Stinky the Garbage Truck also talks and tells jokes, eats, sings, and even has a few fun surprises that kids love.

    And the toy that I am most excited about for 2010….

    This is Video Barbie Girl, the newest in a long line of Barbie toys from Mattel. I have to admit when I saw this at first I didn’t think it was real. The idea seems kind of crazy, but is actually pretty cool for kids. The doll features a video camera built directly into Barbie’s necklace with a LCD video screen on her back, so you can record and view everything that Barbie’s seen and experienced. You can record video and then watch an immediate replay with the LCD screen on her back. Or you can plug a USB cable into Barbie herself and view your video masterpiece on the big screen like a TV or computer. Record videos up to 30 minutes long and even edit videos (add music and sound effects) on Barbie.com. The Barbie Video Girl Doll costs around $50 and became available in July 2010.

    This new Barbie is nothing like the Barbies I remember. I felt a little nostalgic when I saw it though!

    So that’s the list! Hope everyone saw a toy or two they know their kids would love. I am amazed these days with the innovations in the toy industry. So many types of creative outlets for children of all ages. Stay tuned next week for a brand new Happy Fridays post!

    Kristen the designerKristen the designer

    Happy Friday: Great Ideas for Nursery and Kid Room Decor!

    August 20, 2010 | Posted by Kristen the designer

    Hello everyone! We are starting a new series of posts to end each week called Happy Fridays! I will be posting about new blogs, crafts, recipes, decorating, and much more! Just a fun way to kick off the weekend and share some cool goodies!

    This first post is all about nursery and kid room decor! I have stumbled across some really great finds recently that I just had to share with everyone.

    MOBILES:


    Mobiles are a great accessory when decorating a nursery. Flensted is a fun site I found with several modern and colorful mobiles. They have something for everyone!


    WALL DECALS:

    One of my favorite new interior design elements are wall decals! They are super easy to install and can change the entire feel of a room. Visit Wall Tat’s website for available designs.



    FRAMED PIECES:

    A more traditional approach to decorating is to incorporate some framed pieces in your child’s room. With so many new great options on the web and in stores, don’t be afraid to do something a little more personal and unique!


    These crafty prints came from Tara Hogan’s Etsy store. She sells a couple different styles, but all are absolutely adorable. Etsy is a great place to find original framed art.


    These are custom made alphabet prints from the Hoot Design Company. They are a great addition to any room and never go out of style. The fun colors would also make them easy to match with almost any bedroom setup!

    Well that’s it for this week! Stay tuned every Friday for new tips, ideas, inspiration and more!


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