Sunlight's new Green Clean laundry detergent

I just learned that Sunlight now offers eco-friendly detergent. Sunlight Green Clean contains no chlorine or dyes and is bio-degradable.

Here are some of my fave eco-friendly detergents that you can try:
• PC Green Concentrated Laundry Detergent
• Nature Clean 3x Concentrate Laundry Liquid
• Seventh Generation Laundry Liquid

Of late, I've been considering making my own laundry detergent. Apparently it's rather easier, and far less expensive I imagine.

Have you switched to environmentally responsible laundry detergent yet? Have you ever made your own detergent? Care to share your recipe?

Sure, sometimes we all find bees to be pesky little insects that buzz around our sweet peach pie, but truth be told, we'd be nowhere with the curious, little bee. Apparently Albert Einstein said that if bees disappeared, "man would only have four years of life left". After all, these little pollinators are pretty much the reason our food grows.

In recent years, I've been watching the media closely, following stories about Colony Collapse Disorder and learning all I can about bees. I must say, I'm surprised and enthralled by these tiny workhorses.

Did you know that the lifespan of a bee is barely five weeks?

When I came across Candace Savage's book: Bees: Nature's Little Wonders, I was pleasantly surprised. Her book offers wonderful insight into the world of these industrious creatures. The book itself is beautiful, with pretty images and odds and ends of poetry and myths.

For a chance to win one of two copies of Bees, leave a comment here telling me how you feel about bees. Do you love them? Hate them? Has all the press on Colony Collapse Disorder made you think twice about them?

I'll pick a winner randomly on Friday, September 25. Don't forget, you must be a subscriber to win.

I know we're all up to our eyeballs in Mason jars right now, it being the height of canning and pickling season and all. But besides using these beautiful and simple jars for jams and salsas and other preserves, do you consider using them for storage?

I love garage sale season! I scour the sales for old Mason jars (the ones with the glass tops) and fill them up with my lentils, barley, quinoa, icing sugar ... whatever. They look very pretty on display with a wide array of colourful goods stored inside. Plus, they're far better for your health than plastic. When using plastic we have to worry about BPA, antimony, dioxins and other harmful chemicals that can leach into your food. Glass jars and bottles don't give off any chemicals when in contact with food. Also, glass is far easier to recycle than plastic.

Don't worry if you've missed out on garage sale season, you can usually find Mason jars at antique stores for a reasonable price.

And don't look past those little glass jars in your fridge. Caper, Dijon mustard, artichoke and other small jars are perfect for storing spices and small amounts of leftovers.

What do you use for storage?

Be green AND clean!

I recently blogged about Attitude's cleaning products. I currently use their dish soap and love it!

I have great news for my subscribers: I have one Attitude prize pack to give away. In it is:

A large Attitude reusable shopping bag
Natural air purifier
All purpose disinfectant
Laundry detergent
Bathroom mold and mildew cleaner
Fabric softener
Dish soap
All purpose cleaner

All you have to do to win is be a subscriber to my blog, and leave an answer here to the following question: With back-to-school fliers and ads abound, I'm sure we're all dreading the end of summer. What are you going to do over the next few weeks to make this summer last as long as possible?

I will announce the winner here on Monday, August 31.

Don't forget to subscribe!

Biodegradable pens! Who knew?

Do we have to scrutinize everything we use, and question if it's harmful to the environment? Yes, even though it can be a challenge at times, I strongly believe we do. And wherever it's possible to make changes, we should. A coworker of mine recently turned my attention to Paper Mate's new biodegradable pen and mechanical pencil. I admit, before this I never gave much thought to my writing utensils, but now that I know we can even make small changes in that department, it's something I'll think about every time I pick up a pen or pencil.

Paper Mate's new products will decompose in your soil or home compost within a year. They're made from a product called "Mirel", a bioplastic derived from corn sugar. The other thing that's great is both the pen and pencil can be refilled. Paper Mate Biodegradable will be available this September.

Looking for more good news? The pens will run for about $1.50, and the pencils for $3.15. Pretty reasonable in my opinion!

There are also plenty of pens and pencils on the market that are made of sustainable wood and the same bioplastic material - they're cute and make a great gift.

Next time you write down that grocery list, think about what your pen is made of.

Give yourself the perfect pout!

We're all on a quest to find eco-friendly - or at least safe - beauty products. And if you've had the same experiences I've had, you know it can be a chore. I was recently sent samples of J.R. Watkins Natural Apothecary Lip Tints, and was very impressed with the product.

It's a typical beeswax lip balm with a hint of colour - nothing too overbearing. I found the Lip Tints moisturize while sprucing up my lips for a night out. An added bonus: they contain Shea butter, which is a natural ultraviolet sun protector.

They're available in four different shades (Tickled Pink, Strike-a-Rose, Simply Mauve-lous and Berry Charming). You can find them at Shopper's Drug Mart, Zellers and Keil's for $5.99 each. They also make a perfect gift.

What I love about J.R. Watkins is their commitment to using natural ingredients in all their products. The company also boasts environmentally friendly ingredients from renewable resources, and the avoidance of the use of chemical offenders such as parabens, sulfates and phthalates.

Is being eco-friendly on your mind when shopping for beauty products? Which brands would you recommend?

Save water - Turn off the tap while brushing your teeth!

Sometimes, making change seems like a big deal, as though it should require great effort and serious time commitment. While some changes do entail this, others are tiny changes that are easy to make in our day-to-day life – and yield great results.

Don't leave the tap running while you're brushing your teeth - I've read that by doing so, you can save close to 19 litres of water A DAY.

Shave a few minutes off your shower time (once you've mastered showing in less time, shave another minute off) - For EACH MINUTE you're standing in that shower, you're using up about 23 litres of water. Imagine how much water you can save by cutting your shower down by just a few minutes.

Tell cashiers (in advance) that you don't need a receipt - I read in The Green Book that if everyone in the United States refuses ATM receipts, enough paper would be saved to circle the equator fifteen times. Get us in on that action, and we'll all be saving a heck of a lot of trees.

Switch paper bills to e-bills - Save paper and precious trees by switching to e-bills. You'll also have a lot less clutter in your home office.

Buy booze from local breweries or wineries - Support your local companies and reduce how much you rely on goods that travel a loooooong way to get to your doorstep.

Be a vegetarian once a week - I am certainly not a vegetarian, so I won't push that on you. But Adria Vasil does say that going vegetarian is one of the top things you can do for the environment. If you're not into gonig totally vegetarian, opt for being a vegetarian once a week. By doing so you'll save 318 litres of water; 112b kilograms of grain; consumer 15 per cent less saturated fat; and save some money.

What are some of the small things you do to help the environment?

Hiking - A common summer pastime.

With summer arriving in mere days, we all find ourselves willing to pick up hobbies we let fall to the wayside in the winter. One of my most beloved hobbies, running, always gets put on the back burner as soon as there's a chill in the air. There's something about motivating myself to run on ice-covered sidewalks that doesn't really get me up from the couch. This bad attitude lasts from about December to late February. But now that the weather's warmer (and I have no fear of slipping on the ice and breaking an ankle), I can hardly wait to put on my running gear and pound the pavement a few times a week.

There's also a lot more opportunity to get out hiking in my surrounding areas. And with the days getting longer it's just so easy to find an excuse to wile away the time in the woods.

I also intend to keep up with my gardening, catch up on some reading and do some more cooking.

What hobbies will you pick up this summer? Are you going to revive and old craft project? Learn a new talent? Or simply pass the time relaxing on your back deck?

Don't know what to occupy the time with? Try out one of our favourite eco-friendly craft or hobby ideas.

Also, don't forget to enter my President’s Choice Green Stow Away Shopping Bag contest!

This week, people around the world are doing their part to show their appreciation of the ocean in honor of World Ocean Day (which was yesterday). Informational lectures, boat trips, exhibits and shore cleanups are being held all over the country to encourage folks to conserve and protect water. I love how days like this get like-minded people together to help protect something so important to us all. How great that this cause (like so many other environmental causes) has mobilized a mass of people!

It got me thinking that hosting and organizing a shore cleanup (or any other sort of cleanup) couldn't be that hard. I usually see groups of people picking up garbage together in my local park, and it wouldn't take much to get a group together to do the same. Whenever I notice garbage in my park, I do bend down to pick it up, so imagine if these efforts were practiced by a group of 10 people? We'd get a lot cleaned up!

Have you ever hosted or taken part in a cleanup? What was it like? How did it make you feel?

Don't forget to enter to win a FilterForGood prize pack!

Lots of sprouts!

The seedlings I planted about two weeks ago have burst through the soil and are healthy and growing like crazy. Can you identify with that feeling of looking in at your seedlings, and seeing some green heads poking through the soil? I was so happy! I can't wait until it's time to plant my tomatoes (and other goods) outside and to eat a salad made from produce totally foraged from my very own backyard. I've also planted lettuce, carrots, green onions, peppers, nasturtiums, impatiens and geraniums in containers out on the back porch - and there are lots of sprouts popping up in these containers too. I love heading out back when I come home from work to admire all the work I've done. It hasn't even been too much trouble or overly expensive, especially when I consider that amount of produce I'll be enjoying over the summer (that is if little critters and other backyard visitors don't enjoy them first!). The advice you've all given me in this post has been put to good use.

Don't forget to enter the Air Miles My Planet giveaway. I'll be picking five winners tomorrow afternoon.

Check out my sprouts (I'm just so proud of them, I had to show you).

My little seddlings have burst through the soil!