Oh You Lucky Green North Carolinians...

Green Boss recently forwarded a little tidbit to me and I guess you could say I'm a slightly green with envy.

Who has been to this fabulous place and was it everything you had ever dreamed, and more?

The Scrap Exchange
Celebrating 16 years of Creative Reuse
548 Foster Street, Durham, NC 27701
phone 919-688-6960 fax 919-688-2792

I remember going the Boston Children's Museum which has a similar set up; it was every little sculpture artist's dream. Incidentally, the Boston Children's Museum is now going for its LEED certification by incorporating the following elements into its new addition:

• Green roofs on the new addition
• Storm water reclamation to reduce run-off into Fort Point Channel
• New infrastructure and fixtures to increase building efficiency
• Recycled, local, and low-emitting building materials

WFMW - Green Search Terms for Amazon

Amazon can be a great resource for book buying, not only because of the discounts, but also because you can often find a copy of a book used, for a fraction of the original cost. Of course, there is shipping involved, so if you are sending a book to someone as a gift, or not able to find the book at your local library or at your small, independent bookstore, you may want to try Amazon instead.

Amazon, like any database, can be a bit tricky to search. Here are some subject headings (there are so many others) that might help you narrow down your search for green-related children's books (don't forget to combine the term(s) below with the subject heading "Children" if you really want to limit your search to books for and about kids):

Natural Foods
Recycling
Nature
Environment
Environmental Protection
Nature Craft
Peace
Yoga
Outdoor Games

{{Lots of other tips over at Shannon's house!}}

Bloggy Giveaway Winners!

We have a winner(s)!! Congratulations to Ames from yay pie! and hooray for bananas for scoring a copy of Autumn and to Smiling Mama for getting her bloggy paws on a copy of Winter. Oh, you lucky ladies - I envy you! Oh wait, I already have these books! Yay! Thanks for entering everyone and I hope to have another bloggy giveaway very soon.

I managed to burn the midnight oil last night and thanks again to Kellie's excellent tutorial, I finished up Sprout's tulle ballet skirt.
I was very happy with it, if I don't say so myself, and Sprout wanted to wear it to daycare which I took to be the ultimate in compliments.

Deb from I'm Organic emailed me to let me know about her site and to mention that she has some giveaways (one a week) for those of you who sign up for their newsletter. Lots of cute stuff, Deb, and there's even an organiblog! Thanks for sharing!

For all you non-vegetarians out there...what are you doing about your Thanksgiving turkey? Organic or Butterball?

Tulle Ballet Skirts, Advent Calendars and a Few Bits of Green

Thank you so, so much, dear readers, for all of your recent comments.

I would like to thank those of you who replied in response to my quest for tulle ballet skirt tutorials and for home made advent calender ideas. Here are some of the lovely links - in case you missed them in the comment section - for you to visit and enjoy.

Kellie from La Vida Dulce made an absolutely adorable skirt in such yummy colors. Here are her pictures and she promises to have her tutorial up soon. Thank you, Kellie!

Gretchen from Lifenut also posted pictures of a tulle NO SEW ballet skirt she made from a tutorial. She writes, "When I hear or read the words “no sew” my eyes grow bright and my heart swells with hope." I hear ya, Gretchen. Lovely skirt.

Joanie at Nini Makes has a pretty advent calendar with directions published in that wacky UK-centric magazine Green Parent (Green Parent, you may send me free copies to review at any time, please and thank you) but has graciously offered to email the template to anyone on this side of the pond who asks. Aww, thanks Joanie. I'll take one!

And how very nice of Mommy from Heart of a Mommy to comment on Wednesday and I mention her comment because she recently posted about winning a subscription to Family Fun which gets me to my green info. of the day which is...(good NIGHT, get to it all ready!) the December 2007 issue of Family Fun has a piece on 10 ways to have a happy green holiday. Most of the ideas have to do with recycling boxes, bags and cards from holidays past. Not a bad idea, eh?

Oh, and these is still plenty of time to get your comment down for my bloggy book giveaway. Too shy to comment (Jackie?)? Aw, come on. Just a monosyllabic "er." or "epp." will do.

Can't Blog

Sprout and me are wiggling.

Replying to all your lovely comments as soon as we're done.