With two boys to pack lunches for almost everyday, storage containers and finding all the tops can take up a good part of the morning (for a list of the “safer choices” in plastic containers from The Green Guide, click here!). Its really easy, especially when packing for kids, to buy individual portions for snacks like apple sauce, yogurt, and juice. But by making a small and reusable investment in storage containers, you can actually save money by buying that bigger container of yogurt or juice. Without all that extra packaging to throw away, you can teach your kids a great lesson in reusable products and its an easy way to do your part in protecting the environment.

My new favorite storage container is this snack ball by Boon. Its BPA free and fun for the kids too! So take a few extra minutes in the mornings and pack your kids lunch without all the extra packaging. Now, I can’t guarantee this will get them to eat their lunches, but I guess you can just compost that when they get home

I love getting mail! Its so fun to get a card or an invite in the mail, but what about that junk mail? The credit card offers, the ads, and remember all those campaign ads we get during election time? Annoying and very wasteful! The Do Not Mail website, which is sponsored by ForestEthics, is full of scary facts (It takes more than 100 million trees to produce junk mail in the US) and tips on how to cut down on junk mail. Please see the info below regarding the petition you can sign to request that will give Americans a choice in the amount of mail they receive. Please sign today!

From DoNotMail.Org
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Junk mail does more than waste our time and invade our privacy: it also contributes to global warming and causes the destruction of endangered forests. In 2003, Congress created the national Do Not Call Registry, the most popular consumer rights bill in history. Today, we need a comparable registry to end the onslaught of junk mail. Our goal is to establish a national registry, modeled after the landmark Do Not Call Registry, that will give us the choice to stop unwanted junk mail from entering our homes.

Please sign the petition today!

Please take a look at this link and petition from the Environmental Working Group urging the California Health Committee to get BPA Out of Baby Bottles and Infant Formula and to vote Yes on SB 1713!

Click here to find out more on SB 1713!

Thank you!

We’ve all heard a lot of talk lately about the chemical bisphenol A (BPA),which can be found in polycarbonate plastic. BPA is sadly in most things that we all use daily, especially kids products. Its in storage containers, sippy cups, baby bottles, and water bottles. Its hard not to have plastic products when you have kids, but studies have shown that when plastic heats up, BPA can leach into the liquids causing neurological, reproductive, and developmental damage to those who have been exposed.

Thats where Green To Grow fits in…. An ADORABLE line of baby bottles made from, of course, BPA free material. Green To Grow was started by a dad just wanting the best for his son. He and his wife realized that there were dangers in everyday products with little alternative. As a result, these adorable bottles were born! Available in 5oz and 10oz sizes, these bottles are made from PES plastic, which are lead, PVC, phthalates and BPA free. Their packaging is made from 100% recycled material and the bottles are top rack dishwasher safe. The bottle nipples are made from a silicone that is heat-resistant, non-toxic, and odorless. They also offer gift sets that come with an adorable tote bag!

The founders Michael and Shelley have also founded the Bottles to Babies Initiative. Where they are able to “connect families who are no longer using their baby bottles with local non-profit organizations and women’s shelters that accept used baby bottle donations”. That is a really wonderful idea and makes me love the bottles even more! You can also visit their website where they have wonderful links to educate you on the different types of plastics and how to create a safe home for your little ones.

Please visit Green to Grow to learn more!

We are excited to announce the launching of some new products here at Little Green Star! We have found the softest and cutest 100% organic cotton hats and bibs, which we are proud to say are grown and made in the USA.

We now have available a set of three adorable top knot hats and a bib available with our Peas Out design. We also have handmade knit hats! We hope to be adding more gift sets soon, so please keep checking for updates!

We hope you enjoy our new products. We strive to bring you the best available product and we hope your little one enjoys them too!

Please visit our updated SHOP page to see photos and pricing.

Have a wonderful day!

I just stumbled onto the site called Green Bag Lady, where you can send an email to get a free hand sewn bag all for the promise to use it. The site was started by Teresa early this year, who is an artist and a teacher living in Nashville, Tn. She started making fabric bags for herself, then started bringing them to her classes, then started giving them to friends, and then she started giving them away for free to people all around the world!

Teresa has made and given away close to 500 bags in the US, Italy, and Costa Rica… how fun! She explains on her website why she is not selling the bags, but giving away them away… ” They are a gift. I want you to feel obligated to use them, that is why I have you promise to use them instead of paper or plastic. If you were to buy them from me, they become a commodity and there is no obligation any longer because you own it”.

All you have to do is email her, promise to use the bag over paper or plastic and she will send you a bag. Each bag has a number and she logs where the bag is.There are also lots of photos on her site with people with their bags! And if you have extra fabric, you can send it to her.

I think this type of grassroots effort is really what is going to change the world. Using your own bags instead of paper or plastic is one of the easiest things to do for the environment and sometimes you just need a push in the right direction, like with a free bag! When you get your bag, you use it and you are excited about it and you tell your friends, then they tell their friends… its just a fun and exciting thing to be a part of. I hope more and more people look to this as a model for how we can all be a part of change.

And I love that it is just a kind gesture. A free gift from a stranger to help protect our world. Its just a nice thing to read about in this crazy world of ours. Thanks Teresa! I can’t wait to get my bag and start using it!

I was introduced to Diapers.Com when my first son was a baby and it seriously changed my life. At the time, having to go to the store with a little one was a job in itself. I would many many times run out of diapers and have to scramble to find whatever I could! My friend Sophie told me about it and it just made life so easy! Delivery of diapers. Brilliant….

No jump to a few years later and another boy in the house, online diaper delivery is even more important! Now, I will admit, I have been using another online store to buy diapers BUT I just noticed that diapers.com carries WAY more than diapers now and has an entire “Green” department!

In addition to the big brand of diapers, they offer Seventh Generation and Gdiapers (my two diapers of choice), Nature Babycare, Tushies, cloth diapers, wipes, Born Free cups, Earth’s Best Organic food, the list goes on and on!! I’m so excited and I promise to make the return to Diapers.Com. Especially since they sell Burt’s Bees bubble bath, which is my favorite and strangely hard to find!

One of the other great features of this site is their referral program. When you send an email from their site to your friends, every time they order you get a credit and they get $5 off their first order.

You should really check this out and I’m sure you’ll find almost everything you need for your little one. Plus you can feel good about saving some gas and having more time to play with your kids!

For me, it really is the little things in life that make me happy… a hug from my kids, brownies right out of the oven or the staple free stapler… Everytime I use it I just smile!

My staple free stapler of choice is from Made By Humans and for under $7.00 you can keep together paper without a)risking injuries to your fingers b) never having to discover you are out of staples and c) keeping one less wasteful thing out of your life! Its so fun to use and it works great. It basically punches a hole in your papers, which is a “little dramatic” as Kelley and I like to say, but its great!

It comes in lots of colors too and its easy for kids to use and it really makes you feel good that you aren’t sending out a document or filing something away that won’t completely get recycled! Because who knows what happens to those annoying little staples anyway!

“They” say it only holds together up to 5 pages, but I don’t think thats true. And really, if you have more than 5 pages to hold together, just reuse a clip thing, a big stapled report just isn’t going to look good. Hee hee!

So anyway, get your office hooked up with these cool gadgets, trust me, you’ll be finding things to hold together!

I recently discovered a great resource that is both solution and action oriented to solving the climate crisis.  It is called the We Campaign and it a project of   The Alliance for Climate Protection.  Their “ultimate aim is to halt global warming” by “educating people in the US and around the world that the climate crisis is both urgent and solvable.”   The site gives you many different ways to participate in the protection of our planet, offers great video clips and motivation success stories as well as helpful educational resource. Check out: http://www.wecansolveit.org/

I stumbled upon a wonderful website dedicated to safe products for your home and baby called Safe Mama. You will find wonderful posts and “cheat sheets” which tell you very specific brands which are BPA and phthalate free. Anything from cups, bottles, pacifiers, and bath products are listed out for you to keep baby safe and free from the icky and dangerous chemicals that are found in plastic. The site also includes non-toxic toy guides, recall information, and car seat safety.

This website was started by Kathy after searching for safe products for her 2 year old. She realized that other parents out there must be doing the same “searching”, so she decided to compile all the information herself! And we thank her for it!!

This is such a great website that I’ve already shared it with the moms I know. Whats even better is there is an online store so you can purchase all of these wonderful products!

I can’t wait to really sit down and read through this site and I’m a little scared at how much money I’ll end up spending, but its all for a good reason!

So check out Safe Mama today and learn what you can do to keep your family safe and healthy!!