By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
This year I am challenging myself to grow a vegetable garden. I have tried in the past and failed miserably. Having a green thumb is obviously not an inherited trait. I have many fond childhood memories that are all about helping my father in our garden, going out to pick the lettuce for our evening salad, or simply pulling out carrots, beans and sugar peas to munch on.
I want my children to have similar memories and to see firsthand how food is grown. My childhood memories are from living in a small town, in a [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
When a company’s motto is “Nothing wasted. Everything gained“, you know that they take a serious stand on green living.
Preserve makes stylish, high performance, eco-friendly products for the home – from personal care to tableware to kitchen products – all at a reasonable price. All their products have innovative designs, bold colors, are eco-chic AND 100% recycled.
Preserve only uses #5 plastics for recycling. Many communities do not recycle #5 plastics so Preserve partnered with Whole Food Markets to create a Gimme 5 bin (#5 plastic containers) at each of their stores making it easier to [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
Do you have an artistic passion, a creative idea, a book in you that you have been trying to write?  Think, if you were in a quiet working environment that provided room-for-free on 60 beautiful acres of prairie and pastured land and you had no financial or professional obligations to pursue your passion… Can you imagine how well your creative juices could flow?
There is, in fact, such a place in the middle of Nebraska. Art Farm is a tuition-free safe haven to explore one’s artistic aspirations. Since 1993, it has provided housing and expansive studio [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
I will admit that I do not have much use for an eco-friendly leaf pick up and biodegradable bag as I live in Southern California, but I do remember that while growing up in Canada, raking the leaves before the first snowfall was a task for the entire family.
Dsolv bags makes this chore a little bit easier and far more eco-friendly than the traditional paper leaf bags. The compostable dsolv lawn bags are easy to fill, can hold more leaves and debris than paper bags and are more cost efficient. The dsolv bags are made [...]

The sad state of our economy and our increased willingness to be good to Mother Earth has motivated us to think in new ways about our wardrobes. It’s a case of less is more. It’s a little bit of a scary notion for some of us, to think that maybe only one pair of shoes and less than a dozen garment pieces and and handful of accessories would suffice, but the merits of a minimalist wardrobe need to be considered.
A little over two years ago, we followed The Uniform Project where Sheena Matheiken chose to wear one single dress for [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
Every parent to a high school student knows that a certain amount of volunteer hours is a requirement for graduation.
Here’s a great – and fun -way to get in some of those hours: Teens Turning Green has an initiative in October called the Project Green Challenge. This nationwide challenge is for students, a group of friends or an entire classroom to see how a school can transition from conventional to conscious living. The 30-day challenge will raise awareness about the choices we make and about the impact that these choices have on, not only our [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
We, at The Succulent Wife, thought we were done writing about Water Bottles. So, for us to write about another one it had to be pretty special…
I was given a Filtrete Water System to try out. Not unlike Brita, the Filtrete Water Station filters tap water through a filter that reduces sediment, chlorine and odor. The big difference is that the Filtrete Water Station filters the water in seconds into 4 individual bottles.
I leave mine on the kitchen counter and each morning the girls and I grab our bottles to go. So easy! The tightly [...]

Would you choose to put lead in your lipstick? Not a single one of us would, I’m sure.
My favorite consumer advocate, Annie Leonard (we mentioned her Story of Stuff video here) has created yet another engaging video to alert us to the untold problems of chemicals in our personal care products. Sure, we are now more educated about the nastiness of Parabens and Phthalates but ingredients such as these are but a few of the potentially harmful chemicals present in our lotions and potions. And although we could actively search out “natural” products, we are still trusting blindly on what [...]

It was during a Mother’s Day church sermon in 1909 that the thought of having a “Father’s Day” was born. Sonora Smart Dodd, in Spokane, Washington was raised solely by her father, after her mother died when she and her five siblings were young. She felt that fathers deserved as much recognition

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
Solar power is definitely an important part of the future for electronics. It’s cheap, green, renewable, and universal. With modern devices consuming less and less power, the efficiency of solar cells is increasing. And, as we get increasingly mobile ourselves, we expect our electronic devices to keep up with us, no matter where we are and where we go. Here are few solar products that are well worth your attention. You may even find something here for Father’s Day and new grads…

Laptop Case: This Solar Laptop Case by Voltaic comes with the most powerful battery [...]