switch to soy candles

This holiday season light soy candles for a greener home!

You’ve made a delicious dinner; set a gorgeous table that includes a candlelit glow and, cough, cough… you don’t realize that you are inhaling the equivalent of secondhand smoke with your petroleum-based candles.  Keep your family safe & still enjoy candles by switching to soy.

Soy is a healthy alternative to petroleum-based candles.  Petroleum-based paraffin candles contain possible carcinogens or toxic chemicals like benzene, toluene, ethyl ketone, naphthalene and possibly lead in the wick.  Soy is easier to clean up and burns cleaner.  It is usually more expensive but burns a lot longer (sometimes twice as long as paraffin candles, which offset the higher cost)! 

Image courtesy of Coco & Bubbles

Shop here for their soy candles!

E is for Environment

Looking to encourage a little more green in your offspring?  Check out the lovable book, E is for Environment!  Brother and sister, Elliot & Lucy are featured in 26 engaging stories filled with ways to make a positive difference for the environment.  The stories are cute and charming while teaching kids fun lessons and examples of how to be eco-friendly! 

Each story has an adorable illustration (we wish there were more of the sweet pictures!) and features questions at the end of each story (for the record, my son wasn’t into the questions, but he loved each of the stories).

Written by Ian James Corlett and Ilustrated by R.A. Holt, this book would be a perfect holiday gift or addition to a child’s library! 

Check out E is for Environment on Amazon!

prettying up gifts & packages the green way!

Everyone wants to deliver gifts wrapped with care and love… how can you do that and be eco-friendly? Here are our tips:

• Put your gift in a reusable tote bag (the lucky recipient is getting two gifts at once!).
• Wrap with newspaper (for children, the comic pages are bright & fun) or a brown paper bag turned inside out! Decorate with a pretty ribbon.
• Reuse any gift bags or boxes that you have. Cut up old cards and add as a tag to the package.
• Repurpose children’s artwork- everyone will love to receive something wrapped with your little Picasso’s design.

image courtesy of inhabitots

eco ike in U.S. News Green Gift Guide!

eco ike was named in U.S. News & World Report's Green Gift Guide for kids! Check it out here!