Valentine’s Day is coming up soon...

Yeah, I know: it’s a Hallmark Holiday, created just so we’ll spend money. And yes, we should really be celebrating our romantic relationships every day instead of waiting until February 14th each year. But sometimes we let life get in the way, and we don’t always show our loved ones how much they mean to us. I always enjoy doing something a bit special for Valentine’s Day. Just because all the...

Last-minute gifts...

One last post before I take a little break over Christmas! I’m trying to get my last-minute Christmas shopping done, and although I find it easy to buy for my neices and nephew, it’s much more difficult to sort out the grown-ups in my life! Like me, they don’t really need much in the way of new things, but we all like giving and receiving gifts as a way to show our love for each other. One way to deal...

So soon?...

::ahem:: I don’t want to scare you, but… Christmas is coming up soon! I saw decorations and wrapping paper for sale in the shops over a month ago, as is traditional for the Church of Retail Spending. But now I’m thinking that it’s really time to get planning for the holidays. Of course, if the last-minute rush gives you a thrill, then all I can do is wish you luck! I’m already writing my...

Resolutions 2008...

Well, let’s see how I did on my green New Year’s Resolutions that I made back in January. 1. Switch to reuseable bags I think I did really well on this one! We’ve been remembering our green bags for grocery shopping nearly all the time over the last half of the year. And I use the Envirosax bag that Chris gave me very regularly. I liked mine so much I gave some to my friends for Christmas this year! The...

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I’ve spotted the Christmas decorations in the shops, so it must be that time of year again. Long-term readers will remember that I wrote a series of posts last year with suggestions on how to make your Christmas more environmentally friendly. I started out with the planning, then looked at each of the major fun parts of the season - buying gifts, eating lots of food, decorating your home. I’ll definitely be...

Post-Christmas details...

Ok, I said I wasn’t going to post until after the New Year, but I wanted to report back on how greening my Christmas went. I didn’t have many decorations, but am working on some homemade ones for next year. I managed to make all my gift wrappings green: mostly I re-used gift bags, paper and ribbon, and bought a small amount of wrapping made from recycled paper. I completely forgot to write Christmas cards,...

Merry Christmas!...

Thanks to all my readers this year - I hope you all have a merry Christmas, with lots of time with the people you care about, and not too much stress. I’m taking this week off from posting, but will be back after that with my New Year’s Green Resolutions and much more.

Dreaming of a green Christmas: food...

Today we’re looking at ways you can green your Christmas meals with your family and friends. Food is an area where we can make a big difference with our choices, and I think it’s pretty easy compared to greening your gifts or decorations. When it comes to feeding your family and friends, you can use the same guidelines that you would to make your own meals more eco-friendly. I’ve written about these...

Dreaming of a green Christmas: gift ideas...

Last time I went through some ways you can choose greener Christmas gifts. Today I’m listing my favourite green gifts! All of these products are things I’ve either given, received, would like to give or would like to receive myself. I’m a bibliophile, so my favourite place to do Christmas shopping is in a bookstore. Kids love Graeme Base’s books (remember Animalia?). He’s written a couple...

Dreaming of a green Christmas: gift-giving...

Gift-giving has the potential to be the most eco-unfriendly part of Christmas - there’s the driving to and from the shops, the pressure to buy quantity instead of quality, the potential to choose the wrong gift if you’re in a rush or buying for people you don’t know well, which leads to wasted resources as those gifts end up gathering dust or thrown out. But thinking green not only reduces the environmental...