What: Sustainable, sweet lookin’ shoes

Features: It may have taken a few years, but the folks at Simple Shoes have discovered their company’s focus: making 100% sustainable shoes. Simple shoes come in a ton of styles to choose from and range in sizes from infant to adult. They’re built to last, and I know that for a fact–my first pair of Simple’s lasted me well over a decade!

Green Factor: Simple uses recycled car tires (for soles), post consumer recycled paper, hemp, organic cotton, bamboo, natural latex and a host of other recycled and natural materials to make both their shoes and packaging

Bonus: Free domestic ground shipping on all orders!

Find It Here: Simple Shoes

What: Polar fleece hats

Features: Environmental Studies grad Ryan Williamson runs his business, The Mouse Works, out of his studio in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. His polar fleece winter wear is available in baby, youth and adult sizes and comes in a wide variety of bright colors and funky styles

Green Factor: Ryan’s philosophy is a green one: do all we can to lower the environmental impact of our daily lives. With that in mind, he uses only discarded fleece from factories, ships his products in recyclable material and has seriously reduced his waste output (in 2004, he was able to fit ALL of his business trash in to one paper bag!)

Bonus: Head to the site to see photos of Ryan’s studio, read about his dedication to the environment and check out what else is up for grabs (including fleece overalls and a full-length skirt that has comfort written all over it)

Find It Here: The Mouse Works

What: Titi Collection

Features: A fashionable, functional line of clothing made exclusively for nursing mothers—blouses, hoodies and gowns are made from stretch silk and feature a built-in Italian lace bra

Green Factor: Each item is created using salvaged fabric

Bonus: As opposed to factory production, all garments are sewn by a local seamstress

Find It Here: Titi Collection

What: Weebit Hemp Baby Slippers

Features: These snazzy slippers come in a variety of colors and patterns; the tops are adorned with a wee little piggy face made of wool felt

Green Factor: Weebits boast hemp tops lined with organic cotton and sturdy, recycled rubber soles (they used to be car tires!)

Bonus: Fits up to 18 months. Each pair is shipped in a super cool box that look like a truck!

Find It Here: Buy Green

On Our Blog: Disinfectant Overkill

You probably don’t think much about your old t-shirts once they’ve outlived their usefulness as, well, shirts. I know mine generally go to charity and if they’re not even fit for that, I’ve thrown them away. I know. *shameface* But I was recently introduced to to this awesome resource at Hide Your Arms where they have compiled a frillion different ways you can re-fashion and recycle old t-shirts. Seriously, you can make rugs, quilts, tote bags, pet clothes, yoga pants, cloth diapers, wrist warmers, halter tops, toddler dresses and SO MUCH MORE. I challenge you to NOT find something cool to do with your old tees. Now go…get busy. Gift-giving season is right around the corner.

Find it Here: Hide Your Arms

As the old saying goes, when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade (or, if you’re like me, you scrap the lemonade all together and mix up a lemon drop cocktail instead). With that thought in mind, if my husband handed me my favorite wool sweaters–sweaters he’d accidentally shrunken–I’d probably struggle to look at things from the lemonade-making point of view. When it happened to Sue Burns, however, she didn’t see a pile of ruined sweaters, but an opportunity instead.

Instead of freaking out on her husband like I would have, Sue put her old sweaters to good use by creating funky, original clothing for children. What started in Sue’s basement as a laundry mishap has since blossomed in to baabaaZuzu, where old wool is given a new lease on life in the form of unique  jackets, vests, purses and other nifty things (like posy pins and Christmas stockings) using 100% recycled wool (and cool vintage buttons, too).   BaabaaZuzu’s recycled wares are quite fetching, albeit a bit pricey, but if you’re in the market for something recycled, handmade and just really cool, it may be worth a few extra Benjamins!

Find It Here: Baabaazuzu

What: Extra soft t-shirts, onesies and thermals for kids (tees for adults, too)

Features: Designs with a vintage southern flair; cool without being too hipster-ish

Green Factor: Southern Brand uses water-based, soy & vegetable inks and offsets the carbon emissions of their shipments through the purchase of carbon offset credits.

Find It Here:  Southern Brand

Having a preemie was something I never had to worry about when it came time to deliver—both of my kids were a week late and required an eviction via a Pitocin drip. A good friend of mine, however, went in to labour over a month early; the end result was a tiny baby girl who weighed in at just over five pounds. “She’s just so small,” I remember her telling me a few days later. “And I don’t have any clothes that fit her.”

I felt for my friend. There I was, with my nine-pound butterball baby boy who wore 3-6 month onesies from the get-go, and she was struggling to find sleepers her new daughter wouldn’t swim in. If only I’d known about Fig Leaf Baby then, I could have pointed her in the right direction!

Fig Leaf Baby is a line of baby clothes that specializes in preemie sizes. Their products are made from 100% Peruvian Prima cotton (they are slated to be made from organic cotton next spring) and colored with organic dyes. Fig Leaf Baby has hats, onesies, leggings and kimono dresses for the preemie set, with bodysuits displaying embroidered catchphrases like Preemie Donna, Early Bird and N.I.C.U. Alumni. They may be smaller, but just like their mamas, even preemies deserve cute, eco-friendlier clothing that fits well!

Find It Here: Fig Leaf Baby

New! Miss Britt’s August column is up over on our blog. Be sure to check it out give her a little comment love :)

One of the perks of writing for The Green Mom Review is getting to drool over the awesome products we feature here. I’ve spent many an evening ogling web sites submitted for review, and last night was no exception. I spent a good amount of time over at the Wooly Baby web site, and am officially in LURVE with their slippers - not to mention the concept behind them.

In a stroke of recycling genius, Josie Marsh takes old sweaters and leather jackets and turns them in to the cutest, most practical little slippers I have ever seen. After she couldn’t find slippers for her baby that covered the ankle, Josie took matters in to her own hands. Her high-ankle slippers are made with felted wool, ensuring the slippers are dense, sturdy and warm. All-natural soap is used on the wool during the felting process, and the slippers’ bottoms are made from suede leather, resulting in a soft, non-skid sole.

Personally, I think Josie’s ankle-high creations are brilliant – I hail from Canada, a.k.a. The Great White North, where it’s cold. A lot. I’ve never seen high-top slippers that are handmade, cute and recycled to boot! Low-top slippers are also available for warmer climates, and Wooly Baby products are available in sizes ranging from six months to six years.

Find It Here: Wooly Baby

Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a web site chock full of organic baby wares at wholesale prices? A site where each product has been researched and reviewed, with a wide selection of organic cotton and bamboo items at discount prices? (Basically, a web site that does all of the legwork, and finds the good stuff for you?)

As it happens, there is a site just like that and it’s called Babblebabies and you need to check it out if you’re looking for organic baby products like bedding, clothing and toys at really great prices.

Babblebabies offers unique products from organic brand names like Sckoon, Speesees, Bumkins, Generation Baby and more. The site is informative and easy to navigate, and the products are cute. Very cute. I’m quite taken with the jumpers (like the Speesees one above), and the Sckoon Organic Cotton toys are absolutely adorable—they’d make fantastic gifts and great lovies for little ones.

The folks behind Babblebabies are always looking out for new, organic products, and they want to hear about your favourite green companies. They’ve even got a Facebook page—post a picture of your wee one wearing gear from Babblebabies and receive a $5 discount. So what are you waiting for? Shoo!

Find It Here: Babblebabies

When I was a teenager, my mother bought a bumper sticker for our car adorned with a cartoon Earth; across from it was the phrase LOVE YOUR MOTHER in big green letters. I loved that sticker – I thought it was such a clever play on words; a neat way to get such an important message across. I haven’t thought about it in years, but I was reminded of it while poring over the Smiling Planet’s web site earlier this week.

The Smiling Planet is a new green company that makes, among other things, the cutest earth-aware plates and placemats for kids I’ve ever seen. Not only are their plates are made from 100% recycled material, they’re completely recyclable, too. They’re toxin-free, dishwasher safe, stackable and scratch-free, and did I mention they’re really cute? Because they totally are. (They’re also priced right, which, as far as I’m concerned, is a real bonus these days.)

It’s not just plates and placemats that are available – the Smiling Planet boasts posters, books, t-shirts and onesies for children that send earth-friendly messages and are printed with water-based inks. All of the Smiling Planet’s merchandise is compliant with the Consumer Product Safety Information Act (CPSIA), and it’s all made in sunny California. The Smiling Planet is dedicated to reducing their carbon footprint while celebrating the world and her diversity, and that certainly shows in their (blissfully licensed character-free) designs.

Find It Here: Smiling Planet

As soon as my daughter and son–now six and soon to be four, respectively–started crawling, it became very apparent to me that they were the kinds of kids who were keen on putting everything in their mouths. From soothers and bottles to their fingers, pocket change and whatever happened to be lying on the floor next to them, if it was within arm’s reach, they were going to eat it. I fished more buttons and balls of lint out of their mouths than I care to remember and caught them with their shoes shoved halfway down their throats so many times that I began to wonder if they preferred the taste of their footwear over my homemade baby food.

And when it came to them gnawing on their shoes, I wasn’t so much worried about choking hazards as I was about what they were ingesting. Just what were those shoes made of, and was it safe for my kids to be, well, eating them?

If only I had known about Little Soles, a Calgary-based line of footwear created by Mompreneur Jessica Jacobs in 2005. Not only are Little Soles’ designs durable and totally adorable, they’re 100% non-toxic because, yes, shoes ARE typically toxic. Since subjecting their latest collection, Baby Soles, to thorough testing in order to ensure each shoe was toxin and dye-free, Little Soles has adopted the same method with all of their products, resulting in footwear that’s safe for the Earth—and for children to use as teethers.

Find It Here: Little Soles