As you sit around the fireplace, perhaps sipping a glass of wine ready to take on the task of wrapping all your treasures, or if you’re still trying to come up with a few last minute gift giving ideas, read on…

As you can imagine, Christmas is a very wasteful time of year. I came across a few ‘waste saving’ strategies for wrapping all your Christmas gifts this year:

1. Turn the present into packaging

Scarves, pashminas and mittens all make excellent presents and even better wrapping materials. Wrap a novel in a scarf and tie it up with some ribbon. For larger items, wrap a larger box in a pashmina and secure it with a large bow. For babies or toddlers, bundle a small toy in a receiving blanket. (CBC)

Continue reading Holiday Gifts and Wrapping a la ‘green’

I’m not much of a baker, too fussy for me, but I do always get rave reviews on my banana bread/muffins. It/they are so simple and healthy that by popular demand I am posting my recipe. Please enjoy!

yield 1 loaf or approx 15 muffins

1/2 cup cane sugar                            1/2 cup grapeseed oil

2-3 very ripe bananas                        1 tsp baking soda

1 cup spelt flour                                1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup white flour                            butter (for pan)

1/2 cup flax meal                              1/4 chopped walnuts (optional)

1 free range egg                                1/4 cup raisins (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350′F

2. Butter pan, fill muffin pan with paper muffin cups

3. In a small bowl, peel and mash bananas

4. In a medium bowl mix the sugar, oil, and egg until creamy yellow.

5. Blend in the mashed bananas and add nuts and raisins (if desired).

6. Add flours, flax meal, baking soda, and cinnamon.

7. Put the batter into a loaf pan and bake for 1 hour or until tooth pick comes out clean. If making muffins bake for about 20 minutes.

**NB These definitely contribute to your daily fiber intake so enjoy responsibly

Just in time for holiday gift giving, Victoria’s Secret has aired their annual holiday fashion show, but before you run and add a sexy little number to your Christmas list, read on.

ABC News has released a story stating that several women have now come forward complaining of “welts that were very red, hot to the touch, extremely inflamed, blistery”. These women had all purchased the same bra types from Victoria’s Secret and have since joined forces in a class action lawsuit against the lingere designer. Shockingly enough, the bras were tested and were found to have traces of formaldehyde!

Why would formaldehyde be used in bras?

In general, formaldehyde is used in fabrics for anti-cling, anti-static, anti-wrinkle, and anti-shrink, waterproofing and stain resistance, perspiration proofing etc…

Formaldehyde, for all its benefits, is also listed as a “probable carcinogen.” And, unfortunately, the United States is more lax about its regulation than most other countries. For example, “low level” of acceptable formaldehyde in Japan is 75 ppm, whereas the U.S. “low level” of acceptable formaldehyde is near 300 ppm. (Dr. Mercola)

What’s a girl to do?

According to the American Contact Dermatitis Society, rayon, blended cotton, corduroy, wrinkle-resistant 100 percent cotton, and any synthetic blended polymer are likely to have been treated with formaldehyde resins. I can only summize that the healthiest solution here is to either let the girls hang free or buy only organic cotton. What a shame!

In response to several requests regarding my secret ‘recipe’ for inexpensive, anti-bacterial hand soap, please allow me to share my home made alternative to the chemically laden variety. We are constantly washing our hands in our house (with 3 children, you can understand why), so last year I came up with my own solution to the ‘natural’ hand soaps out there. I buy large quantities of a natural dishsoap when it goes on sale (we use Ecover). I then pour it into a pump bottle, add a few drops of either tea tree oil or grapefruit seed extract (for the natural anti-bacterial properties) plus a few drops of a favorite scented oil and voila! Easy, green, and cheap!!

Happy Thanksgiving to my friends to the south, please remember the importance of conserving energy while prepping and entertaining. For those of us that could use a gentle reminder of how much energy we actually use in our day to day lives,  check out the Wilting Flower Device over at Eco Geek.

The device is shaped like a flower that provides a visible reminder of how much energy is being used at the moment. When low amounts of energy are being consumed, the flower stands tall and blooms open. Flick on more lights and turn on the TV or video game and the flower wilts and closes up.

A wireless connector is connected to the household electricity supply and when more appliances are turned on, the amount of current drawn increases and is relayed back to the Wilting Flower. When the flower displays a blue and greenish light, that means power usage is low. Purple is a bad sign and an indication that the flower is about to wilt and it’s time to turn off some of those appliances.

Sure this is a novelty and the $90 price tag is a bit high but the message is a good one. I think we could all use a reminder of how much energy we actually use.