Is there an Environmentally Friendly Form of Birth Control? by Dirty Diaper Laundry — Kim examines some popular methods of birth control to see if any of them can be called green.

What’s on My Food? — Holy poison potatoes, Batman! This site makes me 1) glad that we eat a lot of organic food and 2) upset that it can’t all be organic. I hope every person who has ever tried to argue with me about organic foods would look up their fave foods on this site.

Remembering My Mom’s Lessons About Waste from No-Impact Man — We could learn a thing or two from the Japanese.

Pushing Your Way to Greener Grass : Environmentally-Friendly Reel Mowers from Crunchy Domestic Goddess — A closer look at the benefits of lawn mowers that run on people-power.  My husband totally wants one.

 The Revolution Will Not Be (Petrochemically) Fertilized by The Green Fork — Kerry sounds off about kitchen illiteracy and general ignorance about the food we eat and the possibility of an alternative food system.

Also… It’s That Time Again!

No, it’s not time to change your oil, or get your teeth cleaned or visit your in-laws. It’s something way better—the July Great Green Post Awards! The deadline is July 8th so shake a tailfeather and submit your info here!

And if you don’t know what the Great Green Post awards are, please read this so you can participate, too :)

One lucky submitter will win their choice of a reusable shopping bag OR three coupons for free HAPPYBABY Fresh Frozen Organic Baby Meals!

We’ve featured amazing blenders that help you puree homemade baby food. We’ve featured little BPA-free containers in which to freeze your homemade baby food. And now? We’re featuring an e-book series to help you really kick ass at making that homemade baby food. You may not need help with the basics because cooking and pureeing squash? Not so hard—but how about advice on when and how to start your baby on solids? How about nutrition information? How about advice for dealing with feeding problems? Tips for spotting and avoiding allergies and/or digestive problems? Feeding your baby while traveling? Recipes for homemade finger foods? Recipes for special occasions? And of course, tons of recipes for baby food that doesn’t taste like the flavorless, vacuum-sealed, months old gunk from a jar? Christine Albury, mother of five and the author of Tempting Tiny Tastebuds pretty much covers it all and because we know a lot of our readers are DIY types who like to make their own baby food, we’ve partnered with Christine Albury to give away FIVE sets of her three e-books—Tempting Tiny Tastebuds, The Homemade Baby Food Recipes Annual - 2009 (More In Depth Nutrition Information, Tips and Recipes) and Best of Blog (The best articles and recipes from Christine Albury’s blog).

Find It Here: Homemade Baby Food Recipes

Win It: We’re giving away five sets of Christine Albury’s three e-books. Click here to fill out our simple entry form. Just enter BF6 as the giveaway name and provide the answer to this question: What are three types of recipes found on Christine’s web site? Enter by 6/30/09. $17 value for each set of e-books. Open to residents worldwide. Winner will be notified by email.

We started the Great Green Post Awards so that readers could give props to the writers of posts on green topics that they found particularly inspiring, informative or just plain GREAT.

If you would like to give an award for a great green post next month, please use this form to send us your submission.

Thanks to all who submitted for the June 2009 GGP Awards!

Pure Mothers awards Fake Plastic Fish

Erica Mueller of Green-Parents awards Brenda Priddy of Green-Parents

Mommy Melee awards The Cloth Diaper Whisperer

Retro Housewife Goes Green and Non-Toxic Kids award The Smart Mama

Kate Pinnick awards Nena Baker of The Huffington Post

Lisa Frack of Enviroblog awards Elaine Shannon of Enviroblog

The Clothesline awards Green Baby Guide

Lori of Green Gigs awards Red Raven Circling

Heather of Earth Promise awards Adam of Earth Promise

Time to Organize Your Garage Greenly by Best of Mother Earth

Can We Talk About Cutting Boards? — Enviromom ponders cutting board options.

Babies’ Foreskins Used to Make Cosmetics. Is This Ethical? by Crunchy Domestic Goddess — I’m going to say NO! What do you think?

5 Global Warming Facts: Learn About the Causes and Effects by Sustainablog — Info on some causes of global warming that you may not be aware of. Hint: It’s not just cars and coal-fired power plants…

How One Less Diaper Can Help Reduce Your Carbon Footprint by The Green Parent — Interesting post about gradually reducing your diaper usage through elimination communication and usage of cloth diapers instead of disposables.

Going Green: What is Organic? by Green Mama’s Pad — a short primer on organics.

I read a lot of green blogs and I’m always so impressed with how much great writing is out there so I thought it would be cool if every month we could all give an award to the writer of a post that we really liked, found inspiring, learned something from etc—you know…really GREAT green posts! And so The Great Green Post Award was born. June’s recipients can be found here.

Here’s how it works:

Read the rest of this entry »

Investing in Quality by Enviromom — Buying stuff that lasts really is greener.

Even If It Didn’t Matter, Why Would Anyone Choose To Litter? by The Good Human

Summer Green Guide: Insect Repellents Buying Guide by The Green Guide — Got skeeters? This guide will help you choose the safest, most effective repellents.

The Dirt on Dryer Sheets by Mother Nature Network — Could something that smells so good really be bad for you?

Living Green Expo 2009 by Mindful Momma — A green mom’s take on the Living Green Expo 2009.

Homemade Yogurt (vegan yogurt too!) by Green Me — Did you know you can make yogurt in your crock pot?

If someone said they could tell you how to live on less money while still being green, I’m betting you’d stop and listen, right? I know I would, particularly after I’ve been grocery shopping, which always makes me wince. How about saving energy or growing your own food? Enter Mother Earth News and their quarterly bookazines. Each one is filled with a ton of useful information on a specific topic. I like to think of it as Mother Earth News’ way of saving me endless hours of research by giving me everything I need to know in one handy volume. They have bookazines on growing your own food, home energy savings, living on less and more. And? We like their bookazines SO MUCH that we’ve arranged for one lucky reader to win our favorite — the Mother Earth News Guide to Living on Less and Loving It!

Find It Here: Mother Earth News

Win It: We’re giving away one copy of the Mother Earth News Guide to Living on Less and Loving It. Click here to fill out our simple entry form. Just enter GLL5 as the giveaway name and provide the answer to this question: What are the names of the seven newsletters you can sign up for on motherearthnews.com? Enter by 5/21/09. $7 value. Contest Closed. Congrats to NFMGirl!

Here’s How You Can Afford to Spend 30% More on Organic Food by The Big Green Purse

10 Tips For Safe Meat Grilling (Cut Cancer Risks) by Whole Food and More - A wealth of health information about cooking meats—the good, the bad and the ugly. It will definitely make you think twice about a lot of things.

The Laptop Lunch Flickr Group - did you know there was a Flickr group filled with photos of waste-free “laptop lunches”? Me, neither. There are a few foods that I cannot identify but nonetheless, it’s pretty cool and might give you some ideas.

Make it a Green Mother’s Day by My Green Side - Yes, I know Mother’s Day has come and gone but these ideas and gift suggestions will work for many a gift giving holiday so I’m sharing it anyway.

Chicks and Garden Update by Nature Deva - This is someone who is very much walking the walk if her backyard is any indication. Also? Pix of adorable baby chicks!

Young Girls, Makeup and the Media: How Not to Raise a Diva  from Eco Child’s Play — A must-read for parents of girls.

Stuffed French Toast from Food Renegade — This post is from January but it looks SO good plus Kristen tells you how to make your french toast like it’s from a restaurant *drooling*

Health News from Bonafrutta — Informative chemical-related health news including a link to an article about the correlation between notably increased autism rates and the onset of environmental deregulation in both Indiana and in the US overall.

Eat Your Veggies from Hip Organic Mama — How to get your kids to eat their veggies and like them, too.

Lawn Care Chemicals are the Wrong  Shade of Green by Mom Goes Green — Not unlike Doreen, I shudder when I see an immaculate lawn (during a 3 yr drought!) with one of those little poison warning signs in the grass.

When it comes to buying books, I’m all about the cheap and easy. I could be talking about something else here, but, well, nevermind that… Today, I’m talking about Better World Books, which are cheap, easy, and green.  Sure, other people sell used books and that’s cool, but do they offer FREE shipping within the U.S. and only charge $3.95 to ship worldwide?  Maybe some do, but what about that pesky minimum purchase requirement? BWB’s free shipping offer isn’t just a promotional gimmick. It’s for real ALL of the time.  Plus, BWB books are up to 80% cheaper than new ones AND shopping at BWB means you don’t have to use any gas (and I’m sure the coffee is much cheaper at your place—BONUS!) Simply put, I’m all for anything that can be done right in front of this here screen. In regards to being green and socially responsible, BWB has  saved over 6,000 books from landfills and offsets their shipping environmental costs with carbon offsets from CarbonFund.org. They also share revenues with literacy organizations like Books for Africa. Personally, with options like Better World Books, I can’t think of any reason I would ever buy a new book at a store unless I needed it right away or it was newly released. But?  I’m cheap and lazy, so I could probably wait.  Oh, and did mention BWB sells new books, too? Yep. So…if you’re not at all like me (read: cheap, lazy, willing to wait) you can also buy your NEW books from Better World and feel not-so-bad about it. When you’re done with them? Sell or donate them back to BWB!

Find It Here: Better World Books

My newfound desire to learn how to sew has launched me on a mission to find projects that will inspire me to actually sew. Yes, you see for me, wanting to sew and actually finding the time to learn to sew (while looking after a toddler and a preschooler) are distinctly different things. All of which is to say that I must find projects that are 1) pretty easy to make and 2) SO insanely cute that I will actually squeeze the time in somehow to make them. Lucky for me, I have 20 new reasons to get out the sewing machine - all of which can be found in Amy Butler’s Little Stitches for Little Ones, an awesomely inspiring compilation of 20 sewing projects for baby and mom. From booties to baby bags, the projects in this book are so adorable you will be wishing you had 5 extra hours a day to try them out. Top on my must-make list? The baby kimono-style PJs. And after that, definitely the keepsake brag book (for the grandparents) and the cuddle kitty toy for my next baby shower gift. In addition to loving the precious, heirloom-worthy projects in this book, I also appreciate the fact that the book is spiral bound, which makes it easy to utilize, and that Amy has included a difficulty level (1-4) for each project. The other cool feature of this book is the fabric reference guide, which includes the name of each Amy Butler fabric used to create the pictured project. If you can’t tell already, I cannot wait to get started on a project from this book. Now, if I could just find a book to show me how to come up with those five extra hours a day…

Find It Here: Amazon.com

My new favorite hobby is sewing. Granted, I have yet to dust off the old Singer I bought ten years ago and never learned to use, but I just know it’s going to be my new favorite hobby. I have this itch to make something with my hands, something not purchased in a store, something of my own creation. My new beginner’s handbook is Bend-the-Rules Sewing. Written by the popular blogger and craft goddess, Amy Karol (known as Angry Chicken to her blog fans), Bend-the-Rules Sewing is the perfect book for the beginning seamstress. If you know absolutely nothing about sewing, this book would serve as a great primer. Read the first few pages and you’ll already know the sewing lingo and the exact supplies you need to get started. But what I love, love, love the most about this book are the incredibly hip projects. From cute handbags and aprons to cloth napkins and scalloped baby blankets, this book provides instructions for thirty projects with beautiful colorful pictures of each. Every time I flipped to a new page, I thought, “I want to make that!” and then I’d flip to the next page and think the same thing again! And really, what could be greener than making your own stuff, right? It’s sew true. Heh.

Find It Here: Amazon.com