Spotlight on Eco-Friendly Etsians!

As promised, here's the 1st in a series I'll be doing which will highlight the creative ways some of my NCTriangle and Etsymom Street Teams are making eco-friendly products by recycling, upcycling and using natural, biodegradable materials. Erin, of DinnerTimeChimes, always seems to keep her ideas fresh and innovative as shown here by her whimsical stationary set. She used envelopes from bills and creatively covered them with designs from magazines. The paper is made from recycled card stock. Aren't they fun? I can't wait to see what she comes up with next!

Speaking of fun, Mojo Trashion has designed this pocket-sized Mini Oreo Cardholder perfect for keeping important cards and a little cash on hand. Made from a recycled Mini Oreos package that's sandwiched between heavy duty vinyl and felt, it's super durable. It would also make a great gift!

And Donnapool makes us smile with these charming vintage multicultural button magnets. She used original images from a vintage magazine to create these one-of-a-kind magnets. They could be used as a cute way to show off your kids artwork, pin up important notes or a number of other possibilities!

Days of Summer Vintage Cards and Album

I've been gone for a spell, had a nasty bug over the past couple of weeks but I'm over it now! Wanted to take a minute and share some new items from our Days of Summer vintage cards and albums selection. I've had these vintage photographic images for quite some time, but inspiration is kind of funny, you never know when it will hit or where it will come from! So, a few weeks ago, in preparation for an art show, I checked out some of the local antique stores. One that I particularly love is the Cotton Exchange. There I found vintage ribbons, buttons and postcards that made the perfect adornments for these cards and my favorite, the photo album cover. The images are from a family scrapbook circa 1920's and 30's and the members and friends seem to be having a laid back time at the beach, which is one of my family's favorite pastimes!

Green, Not Just My Favorite Color Anymore

Green has been my favorite color for as long as I can remember. There's something about the color, except for that shade of split pea green, that makes things fresh or calming or even funky. Recently we've started to view "green" in another way at our house. No, we haven't done a complete eco-friendly revamp overnight, but we are taking steps to incorporate more earth-conscious habits into our daily life. We're excited that our city is finally going to begin a recyclables pick-up this week and I wanted to share my most recent purchases. One has drastically reduced the amount of plastic bags floating all about our house and the other has an extremely pleasing scent. Yep, you guessed right. We bought reusable grocery bags from Harris Teeter and have started using the all natural "Green Works" cleaners by Clorox. Before we got a cloth bag to store our plastic bags, they were coming out of what seemed like every drawer and cabinet in the kitchen. Even after I bought the bag, for some reason the plastic ones didn't always make it in there! Now, we can take our resusable ones with us wherever we go shopping, and they can hold a lot. I think it's a great investment for .99 cents a bag. We've also been happy with the natural cleaners, they have a much fresher, non-chemical smell, and work really well. Next, we'll be highlighting Etsy shops that create items from recycled materials. Got any great tips to share? Post them here, we'd love to read them!

All Aboard!!!

Last week I took some much needed time off to go home and visit my parents. While I didn't enjoy all the turbulence on the flights, my son got a blast out of the take-off and landing. To keep from having to use the little white paper baggie the airline provides, I tried to keep my eyes closed. It was a little difficult to do with this little voice calling "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" and little fingers trying to pry my eyes open! Needless to say, we arrived safely. We stayed for about a week, attending a family reunion and just doing a lot of plain old nothing. My brother, his wife and their four boys hung out for a few days. It was a lot of fun seeing my kids play with their cousins. One of the most fun things we did was to visit the St. Louis Museum of Transportation. It brought back so many memories because I used to take school field trips there as a kid. My kids enjoyed climbing on the historic railcars and the tour guide was excellent. It was great to see how they're expanding the museum from when I had last visited. They've added a scenic choo-choo ride around the museum's grounds. If you're ever in St. Louis check it out!