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Satsuma Designs is twittering! It's fun and creative and a way to converse, learn and share. Exciting!

Haiku for the rest of us

Chuck E Cheese our mouse
To delight and exhaust when
Kids need a night out

School Rules: Limit Lunchbox Waste

Helping the kids go green? One of the easiest ways to share an eco-friendly philosophy with your kids is through meals. Whether recycling food scraps in the compost bin or yard waste container or packing a waste free lunch for school, little hints add up to big results.

There are some great tools to limit lunchbox waste. Here are a couple I love!

Check out Mama Goes Green for great BPA-free and organic products. Check out the LapTop Lunch Bento Box System. The $34.95 price tag sounds steep, but consider how many Ziploc (R) baggies you'll save!

And to keep the kiddos hydrated and plastic free, sling a web around this Spiderman Thermos. The inside is Stainless Steel and non-reactive. This is better than other aluminium lined options.

Keep it green!

WWW.messoflettersandnumbers.COM

I think part of being green is being efficient with resources, time, and web addresses. I just love TinyURL.com. You can turn any URL into a short, efficient, manageable on. Good for send links.


Try it. Copy this great article on green baby showers in which Satsuma Designs is mentioned http://www.babyzone.com/pregnancy/baby_showers/photos_baby_shower_guide/3 and paste into the field at TinyURL.com.


Now make things Tiny!

New Baby: Green of the Green

Whether you're waiting for the arrival of your first and checking out some green parenting tips here, or have a brood of little green kiddos at home, you'll likely remember the last days of pregnancy in one of two ways. Total recall or complete mental block. I find myself in total recall as I'm 1 days into being overdue with our second child. So fun!

Leave it to Google to help ease my pain. If found a great list of 101 things to do when you're overdue (or close). Robin Elise Weiss, LCCE of About.com is right on! My first pick was number 14 - recalculating your due date. I figured, hey, science and the highest grade electronic baby imaging machines might be wrong. Sadly, I found out the due date calculator put my due date one day BEHIND. Calm.

Guess next I'll tick of #69 and avoid #67.

Oh, and check out The Gift Idea blog where you'll find gift ideas like this fun and zany plush toy.

Enjoy!

Piperlime Goes Green?

While I could only find a handful of eco-friendly collections at Piperlime that use recycled materials in their products, site such as Terrasoles and Simple, the company (a division of Gap Inc.) has a fantastic partnership with not for profit Soles4Souls. According to Piperlime, they've donated over 3mm pairs of shoes to people in need since starting the program in 2006. Kudos!!

Oh and if you're a recently new visitor, you can do a VERY short 5 question survey and donate $$ to one of five charities - Boys and Girls Club of America, my personal pick Dress for Success, among others.

And you may or may need license to consider an investment in this season's hot new riding trend, there are some great albeit not so green selections at the site. Free shipping and returns too. Forgive me?

Giddy up!

Say Happy Holidays in Green This Season

If you haven't started the annual hunt for your clever, elegant and amply photo-holed holiday card, it's time dear friends. Yes, mid-November is a great time to start searching for designs that inspire and holiday cards that are clean and green.

I was excited to find a pretty large range of 100% recycled paper options in beautiful card stock, along with vegetable and soy based inks, topped off by shops that use 100% renewable energy. That does make for a bright holiday season!

Check out Paper Shouts' holiday collection. Cards are printed on 100% post consumer waste (PCW) recycled paper and ship with envelopes in 50% PCW. You can do better than that for envelopes, but it's a start. Prices range from $1-$2/card.

GORGEOUS Chicago-based Snow & Graham stationers has an elegant offering in which they use 100% PCW paper and vegetable based dyes.

And RedStamp.com has a great custom card offering using 30% PCW paper made by 100% renewable energy. They don't saw what kind. Could be offsets, but something's better than nothing.

Now, warm up those fingers, get clicking and practice your penmanship.

Happy green holidays!