Sprout's Green Blog Hop week 5: Eco-friendly Summer Products

Welcome to Sprout's Green Blog Hop!

This is the weekly hop for GREEN bloggers to meet up and share one new green goal each week.

THIS WEEKS THEME IS: Eco Friendly Summer products - this week we hope you will share some of your favorite Green must-haves for summer: beach, bbq, and outdoor fun!
Here are my top 3 Green items for summer:

Sunscreen:  I have been using Jason Natural Cosmetics - Earth's Best Sun Block for the kids for a while and really like it - it's thick, doesn't smell and chemical free! I recently read about Nature's Gate Sunblock ranking high on EWG's Skin Deep Database and because of the great price on Amazon.com, am trying this now!  Make sure to stock up on sunscreen and don't leave home without it!



Beach Toys:  I really love Green Toys because they are made from recycled milk jugs, come in simple, recycled cardboard packaging, and most of all, they are durable and fun!  Kids really love the Sand Play Set and Dump Truck and can spend hours playing with them at the beach or playground!  And these are so rugged that they will last year after year after year...


Lunch and Picnic products:  Now that the weather is nice we spend more time outdoors and often pack a lunch or picnic so we don't have to come back home to eat when out and about.  One of my favorite manufacturers of eco-friendly lunch products is Kids Konserve.  They have great stainless steel containers and kanteens as well as lunch bags made from recycled plastic containers!









Tell me what your favorite Green products for summer are!


THIS WEEK'S CO-HOSTS:

Raising Green Richmond Kids - Dorinda is committed to raising Eco-friendly children and offers great info not only for families in Richmond, VA but to ANY family on a Green Mission! Raising Green Richmond Kids is a great blog to follow and I'm so happy to have her co-host throughout the summer!

 
Going Green With Noah - Melanie's blog aims to not only provide inspiration, but motivation to other moms to learn how to take small steps in creating a better and healthier environment for their little ones.  She has great giveaways (stay tuned for her 4th of July Givaway Gala!), product reviews, green tips (check out the 25 days to Green Travel!) and much more!

Mrs. T, Naturally - The name says it all! Mrs. T (Kristen) is a newbie blogger and has a very "natural" approach to her blog and it's very enjoyable to read!  She post about natural products, natural ingredients and other things she is passionate about like Family, photography, architecture and more.

Add this link up to your site: get the InLinkz code

Sunday Blog Hop

Have you joined in one of the best Sunday Blog Hops yet?  Link up and meet new bloggers and boost your blog!  I got a late start because I've been busy, but I wanted to share this with you...

Super Stalker Sunday is a weekly blog hop hosted by

Marni of Marni's Organized Mess

April of Mama on a Green Mission

Mariah of Formula Mom

Kortney of Kortney's Krazy Life

and Emily of Naptime is My Time

Blogs hops are a great way to meet other bloggers, socialize and gain more followers. Do you like to socialize? Well, we all like followers, right?!

If you've been around the blogosphere you know there are Blog Hop's for everything you can think of and every day of the week: RSS Feed, Google Friend Connect, Email Readers, Facebook Fans, and Twitter Followers.

Well, why not get all of your followers in one place once a week? This is the place to do just that!

How to Super Stalk

-Follow each host at least one way. Don't forget to let them know you did so by commenting on their blog. We will return all follows, but please be patient as we are busy mama's it may take us a few days to return the visit and follow.

You will only have to link up on one of the host sites and your link will appear on all as we use the same linky.

-After you follow the hosts, follow as many bloggers in as many ways as you are willing!
Already follow somebody? Consider visiting and following them in another way as well!

Remember: You will only get as much as you give. The more blogs you can visit, the more visits you will gain in return. We are all here to socialize and greet, not visit only your blog.

While we encourage sharing our button and hop with as many as possible, it is not required. The more you spread the word though, the more we socialize and all gain followers!

Sprouts Green Blog Hop - week 4: Eco-friendly for Dad!

Welcome back to Sprout's Green Blog Hop!

This is the weekly hop for GREEN bloggers to meet up and share one new green goal each week.

THIS WEEKS THEME IS: Natural products and Eco-friendly gifts for Dad!
Mom's always get pampered for Mother's day while Father's day is usually a more low-key, relaxing day - a BBQ or beach day, maybe a baseball game or chillin by the pool.  How about a little natural pampering for your man! Tell me what great natural products you use or what great eco-friendly gift you gave (or received) this past father's day.

THIS WEEK'S CO-HOSTS:

Raising Green Richmond Kids - Dorinda is committed to raising Eco-friendly children and offers great info not only for families in Richmond, VA but to ANY family on a Green Mission! Raising Green Richmond Kids is a great blog to follow and I'm so happy to have her co-host throughout the summer!

 
Spotlight Co-host this week: Going Green With Noah - Melanie's blog aims to not only provide inspiration, but motivation to other moms to learn how to take small steps in creating a better and healthier environment for their little ones.  She has great giveaways (stay tuned for her 4th of July Givaway Gala!), product reviews, green tips (check out the 25 days to Green Travel!) and much more!

You can post this Hop on your blog too - just go here to get the code: get the InLinkz code

Wordless Wednesday: Growing Green

First PEAS and raddishes too!!! Yeah! 

Yes - these are the little baby seeds that we planted around Earth Day (see posts).  My balcony garden is thriving - I've already harvested a lot of basil and tomato plants are very full and tall. 

Have a great Wednesday and don't forget to join the Green Blog Hop in my previous post - it's open until Saturday!
~* Sprout

Sprouts Green Blog Hop - week 3: Switch to Natural Bath/Body Care

Welcome back to Sprout's Green Blog Hop!

This is the weekly hop for GREEN bloggers to meet up and share one new green goal each week.
THIS WEEKS THEME IS: switching to natural bath, body or beauty care products.  Over the past few years, I have been switching out many of my usual brands for shampoo, conditioner, bath soap, facial cleansers, etc. and lately have been trying out some new products.  Normally I would purchase the least expensive brands but I am really trying to care more about what chemicals go down the drain as well as what I am putting on my body! I really love Nature's Gate hair products - I've tried a few types of shampoo and conditioner and love the way Nature's Gate Tea Tree Calming Shampoo and conditioner smell and work.  I also think their prices are decent so this is a win-win situation!

So this week, I would like you to tell me about a product/or products that you have or will switch to natural - please leave a comment below after linking up to the blog hop.

THIS WEEK'S CO-HOSTS:

Raising Green Richmond Kids - Dorinda is committed to raising Eco-friendly children and offers great info not only for families in Richmond, VA but to ANY family on a Green Mission!

Jen and Joey Go Green - Jen describes herself as a "realistic environmentalist" (I cantotally appreciate that!) and her blog has great tips on being more eco-friendly as well as great weekly challenges. I really love her 2011 in 2011 challenge!

NEW Co-host: Frugally Green Mom - Living a Green Lifestyle without breaking the bank! Follow April and learn about great green products, discover new recipes and find great giveaways.  She also loves to support local businesses and often has posts on local places, events and things to do in Pensacola, FL.

Want to add this hop to YOUR blog?  That's easy:get the InLinkz code

Don't forget to leave a comment!
*~ Sprout ~*

Sprouts Green Blog Hop - week 2

For more additional entries to be co-host, do the following:

• Like Sprout's Green Family on Facebook
• Follow Made in MY State - my new blog on going local!

Recycle and Swap Books Online this Summer with ThredUp!

Summer is the time to catch up on reading (and help kids stay on an educational path when school is out!) while on vacation, at the beach, at the park or even laying on a hammock in your back yard!  But after you have read all your books, wouldn't it be nice to swap them out for a new stash?  Thredup, the amazing online clothing swap site is offering just that this summer with their new Summer Book Swap program:

thredUP has expanded the swapping platform to BOOKS and launched an online Summer Book Swap! This summer, moms can exchange boxes of books online and will receive recycling rewards in return.

We’ve partnered with BookSwim, eBookFling and Chronicle Books , so every time you send a box of used children’s books to another family, you’ll receive coupon codes redeemable for the books you need.
By sharing the books your children have already read, we can green summer reading, get kids reading more and expose them to new authors! Help us reach our goal of 100,000 books traded by August 1st.

From June 1 through June 14, you can list your boxes of books then from June 15 through August 1 the book swapping goes live so you can pick as many boxes as you would like.  AND to sweeten the deal, Thredup will give you a $5 swapping credit for every box you list that is picked up and reviewed AND a $25 credit towards book rentals at BookSwim.com or 30% off purchased books at Chroniclebooks.com.
How awesome is that!

There are so many great reasons to swap books - for one, it is eco-friendly!  Instead of buying new books that require trees to be cut down, processing, printing (probably not with soy based inks) and shipping, you are REUSING books - giving them a longer lifespan!  This is also a great way to get rid of books that haven't been read in a long time (or maybe have been read so many times it's time for a break!) and its a great way to de-clutter your shelves.

It also gets kids excited about reading because they can receive "new" books and who doesn't like to get a package in the mail with surprises inside?!

So give this Book Swap a try and have a great summer with some good books by your side!  If you are not already a Thredup Member, click here to sign up Free!

*~ Sprout

Green Mama Blog Hop - connect with other Green Bloggers

If you are a GREEN blogger, you might want to check out other Green Blogs or increase your green network so I thought I would share a great blog hop just for us Green Mamas!  The Green Mama Blog Hop is hosted by And Then There Were 4...

Stop by and join the hop!  It's always great to meet someone new!
Thanks!

*~ Sprout