Organic vs Regular

The Top 10 Reasons
Why Organic Should Be On Your Shopping List

With so much discussion about things like carbon footprints (the amount of Greenhouse gases that we are emitting), it is understandable that there has been so much focused on buying organic. Organic food for our bodies, organic fabric as our clothing and organic farming practices to sustain our world.

In order to better understand the power of buying organic, here is a list of the top 10 reasons why it is so important:

1. IT REDUCES PESTICIDE USE - Which is increasingly threatening people, our wildlife and our environment.

2. IT HELPS PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN - A baby's skin is more porous and thinner,which means that your child is at greater risk of pesticide related health issues.

3. IT PROTECTS FARM WORKERS - The farmer is not exposed to pesticides and chemicals.

4. IT PROTECTS WATER QUALITY - Hundreds of gallons of pesticides is not being introduced into our environment.

5. IT IS STURDIER - Organic products has a higher quality cotton and is stronger.

6. IT SAVES YOU MONEY IN THE LONG RUN - Even though clothing from conventional cotton is cheaper to the consumer, the cost to us, our wildlife and our environment is not calculated into the price.

7. IT HAS A WONDERFUL FEEL TO IT - Because less chemicals are added to the cotton after harvest, it is much softer.

8. IT LASTS LONGER - On average, garments made from conventional cotton start to wear after about 10-20 washes, as opposed to 100 washes for organic.

9. IT SAVES PESTICIDES FROM BEING USED - Buying one organic Tee keeps over 4 ounces of pesticides from being used.

10. IT SAVES CHEMICALS FROM BEING USED - Buying organic would eliminate the use of many chemicals, such as ammonia and formaldehyde.

As with any consumer issue, you should research and decide what is best for your family on your own. This article was written to shed light on the benefits of organic products and hopefully it has given you at least one reason to consider it!

Organic Treasures

Going GREEN Baby!

♥ Organic Newborn Noonie by Lalaspequenos and sells for $62.00

♥ Organic Acorn Baby Hat by Tad Pole Creations and sells for $12.00

♥ Baby Olivia, The Organic Owl by Zadyball and sells for $20.00

♥ Rocket Ship Organic Bodysuit by Sophie Belle and sells for $20.00

♥ The Tree-Organic Bodysuit by Pumpkin Pie Original and sells for $20.00

♥ Peace, An Organic Knit Hat by Tot Toppers and sells for $24.00

♥ Juliette, The Plush Scottie Dog by Leahkl and sells for $15.00

♥ All Natural Teething Ring by Stones of Healing and sells for $12.00

♥ Grow With Me Bubble Dress by Golly Gee Baby and sells for $35.00

♥ Nautical Shells Nursing Pad by Posh Pads and sells for $8.95

♥ Organic Knotty Hat by Organic Quilt Company and sells for $15.50

♥ Giraffe Love Organic Shoe by Little Jumping Beans and sells for $15.00

Recycle Those Stray Socks...

... and make them into sock puppets!!

They will take less than 30 minutes to finish, provide hours of fun and you'll finally know exactly what to do when only one sock makes it out of the dryer alive!

All you will need is:

One Sock
Miscellaneous Embellishments
Scraps of Felt
Scissors
Hot Glue Gun

Cut out all felt parts and place them where you'd like them to go.

Hot glue all the parts together and onto sock.




Find a cute little hand to put it on... and PLAY!!

EtsyBABY© welcomes 2 New Blog Authors!

Here at Team EtsyBABY, we are so excited to welcome back both Megan from Knitstyle and Liz from DaisyCreek who have so generously offered their writing talents to our blog! Our blog's focus is to:

• Introduces New Members ( Thanks Jackie!)

• Articles on holiday themed recipes and decorating tips (Courtesy of Sandra & Liz! )

• Member showcases

• Baby Shower Games
  

• Giveaways ( Coming Soon! )

Featured items from knitstyle

Featured items from daisycreek

Team EtsyBABY© Welcomes....

Team EtsyBABY has the pleasure of introducing Princess Crossing.
The birth of her daughter was the inspiration for her creations. A store filled with all kinds of unique items for the princess and prince in your life. A new item in her store is reversible pinafores and peasant tops...pair them up with ruffled bloomers for an adorable look! Her jumpers are perfect for all year round....wear sleeveless in the warmer months or pair with a shirt and leggings for cooler weather. Check her store often ~ she is always working on and adding new creations!

Planet Pals say... Let's PREcycle!!

Keeping kids interested in helping to make our world a cleaner place can be done by keeping it FUN and these Planet Pals are sure to do just that! Found online at http://www.planetpals.com/, Planet Pals teach children about preventing waste, which they call pre-cycling, as well as reducing waste, reusing materials and recycling things you aren't using any more.

Doing things like bringing reusable shopping bags with you to the store, buying things with little or no packaging and limiting the amount of disposable items we purchase are ways that we can prevent waste before we make it. And getting our children involved in making bins for sorting garbage or melting old crayons to make new ones are great way to teach them responsibility for our planet.

Did you know...

... that each person throws away about 4 pounds of garbage a day??

... that over 80% of household waste can get recycled??

... that 1/3 of all the water used is used to flush the toilet??

... that one bus carries as many people as 40 cars??

Starting now to teach our children about how our use habits are affecting the planet and showing them ways to decrease their contribution will create a generation of people committed to making our world a better place... what could be better than that??

Olympic Fun

If your like me, you might not want to hang around the TV every night for four hours trying to catch your favorite Olympic hopefuls going for the Gold. Who wants to sit through hours of TV while the network switches back and forth through each of the days events. Of course we know why they do that.

Since I have an iPhone I went in search for the best applications that could help me coordinate and maximize my time at night to see the events I wanted.


Here are my findings:

NBC Olympics Vancouver 2010 Application: FREE - ★ ★ ★ ★

This application updates the event times, medal counts and all of the athletes playing in each event for the day and I found it to be an easy application to maneuver around in. When the application asks you to update the schedule it does this at no cost to the customer, like another application I reviewed. Under the feature, "Favorites" you can read some of the athletes twitter feeds, like @ApoloOhno and others. The layout is stylish and easy to navigate. This application is a must download.

Official Mobile Spectator Guide: FREE - ★ ★ ★ ★

I really liked the look overall for this application and found it just as easy as the NBC application to navigate and get all the event times and updates I need. I might favor this application a little more than the NBC application for the news feed and the application lets you assign favorites like you might on your own Twitter feed. What really has me liking this application is the connection to the schedule of events which gives you mapped directions to the event from your point position from your iPhone GPS. This is another must have application!

CTV Olympics Application: FREE - ★ ★

I wasn't sure if I wanted to include this application, but I always feel the more options with anything the better your decision will be. This application has all the same types of features as the other two applications, but it only features the athletes of Canada in their primary events. If you are Canadian this may be the application for you. Although this application initially is free you will have to upgrade for $1.99 if you want it updated to access a lot of the features any further than surface information it provides. If you want the full experience of the Olympics this is not the application for you.

Olympic Games & Sports Rules and Regulations: FREE - ★ ★ ★

This application has an Olympic events schedule you can use to determine your viewing times and a real basic news feed, but not much more on this Olympics. However, what is does have is the history of all the Olympics, including the abbreviations and alphabetical list of the Olympic nations. The other surprise is it also covers other sports like baseball, college basketball to professional, to darts. You may not use this for your every day use, but I like knowing the history and what it takes to qualify or define a sport. I say download this as a reader application.

NBC Olympics Cheer Application: FREE - ★ ★ ★

Okay, here is the application to annoy your friends to death. This application will save your voice from getting all "froggy" from screaming for your favorite Olympian or team. This application allows you to cheer, whistle, clap, chant U-S-A and a few more. It's silly, annoying and fun. If I was at the events I would use this application like crazy. You can even record your own cheer and play it. This application may not be a four star application, but we still give it three stars, because it's just pure fun.

There are more applications on the market to purchase, but these are all free, with the exception of the upgrade by the CVT application, but I found these applications to do the job of getting up to date news, scheduled event calendar and the medal standings you need to follow along with the games.

*I am not an official reviewer, but I have downloaded all the above applications and this is my opinion only and I advise you to download them yourself and try them out and you be your own judge.*

Olympic Sized Cupcakes

Here's a fun way to celebrate the Olympics!

Here is what you will need:


1 Box Cupcake mix
Cupcake Liners
White Frosting
Gummy Lifesavers

★ Make the cupcakes according to the directions on the box.

★ Cool the cupcakes and then frost them with the icing.

★ Choose five lifesavers from the package and lay three of them together, side by side, towards the top of the cupcake. Place the remaining two lifesavers on top of the others producing the Olympic rings.

Enjoy!

Recipe Contribution:

Visit Liz here at Daisy Creek Designs

Olympic Fever

Adorn your home with this kid friendly craft
in honor of the Olympics!


5 Paper Plates
Tissue Paper:
Blue, Black, Red, Yellow and Green
Mod Podge
Paint Brush
Glue or Stapler
Ribbon*

★ Cut out the centers to all five of the paper plates leaving you with five circles resembling the Olympic Rings.

★ Cut all of the tissue paper colors into strips of 1 1/2" wide and 2 1/2" long. You will need about 20 or more pieces of a color to do each ring.

★ Dip the paint brush into the Mod Podge and paint a small section of the front of the ring and place the designated color of tissue paper on top of the glue. Paint a small amount of glue on the opposite side of the paper plate and fold over the tissue paper on top of the glue.

★ Taking the glue paint on top of the piece of tissue paper you just secured into the plate giving the tissue a final seal. While this piece is still wet, place another piece of issue paper slightly over the piece of tissue paper you just applied and then repeat the same process as before.

★ Allow each ring to have sufficient time to dry before securing them together.

★ Now that the paper plates are dry you can secure them together in the Olympic ring format by glue or stapling them together. If you staple them together staple the blue , black and red ring together first then staple the remaining rings together on top of the three rings.



* You can hang ribbon on the back of the rings to hang them up or you can use tape, which should hold the weight of the rings, since they are fairly light.

Being the Best YOU You Can Be

Go Team YOU!

With the Olympics in full swing, it brings to mind, how each and every Olympian competing in the 2010 Winter Olympic games is there, in Vancouver, to win the ultimate prize and take their place in history.

An Olympian trains a great deal of their life around being the best they can be at their craft. The time, energy, and commitment they put out in their daily lives to have it all come down to one moment in time. It is quite amazing and makes me in awe of the spirit they have to do it and on a daily basis to be the best in their sport.

Do you wonder what your life might be like if you put the same energy and determination into your every day as an Olympic athlete does? I am sure we could have the same results like many of the fine athletes do that will be representing our country in the winter Olympics.

Is it possible to put the same effort in our daily lives as these athletes do? For some I am sure you might say, yes and for others you might say, no. Do we have to be the best at taking the trash out or washing the dishes, no, but in the bigger picture of life ask yourself this... "Do I have the traits of an athlete?"

Athletic - Fit

Balance - Stability

Courage - Bravery

Educated - Skilled

Confident - Secure

Active - Full of Life

Dreamer - Visionary

Humble - Thoughtful

Determination - Strength of Mind


Strive to be the best YOU you can be!

Olympic Treasures

Go Team USA!

★ USA Olympic Knit Hat by Babbidge Patch and sells for $25.00

★ Organic Cotton Body Suit by X Marks the Tot and sells for $22.00

★ Sweetie Bow Collection by Tater Tots Boutique and sells for $15.00

★ USA Flag Rhinestone Tee by Daisy Creek and sells for $24.50

★ Peek-A-Boo Dress by Rae Gun and sells for $29.50

★ Red, White & Blue Visor Hat by Totz Hatz and sells for $19.50

★ Set of Non-Slip Hair Clips by Sweet Sara Designs and sells for $5.00

★ Red, White & Blue Striped Tie by Rock N Rags and sells for $12.00

★ American Flag Pacifier Clip by Just Add Baby and sells for $4.50

Wonton Soup

A delicious hearty soup to celebrate the Chinese New Year

Filling:
12 ounces Ground Pork
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 Garlic Clove, crushed
2 Tbsp Sherry
2 Scallions, chopped
1 Tsp Sesame Oil
1 Egg White
1/2 Tsp Cornstarch
1/2 Tsp Sugar
About 35 Wonton Wappers

Soup Stock:
6 Cups ChickenStock
1 Tsp Light Soy Sauce
1 Scallion, shredded
1 small carrot, cut into thin slices

Combine all the ingredients for the filling and mix well.

Place a small spoonful of the filling in the center of each wonton
wrapper.

Dampen the edges and gather up the wonton wrapper to form a pouch
enclosing the filling.

Cook the filled wontons in a pot of boiling water for 1 minute or
until they float to the top.

Remove the cooked wontons with a slotted spoon.

Bring the chicken stock to a boil. Add the soy sauce, scallions,
carrots and wontons to the soup and simmer gently for 2 minutes.

Chinese Lantern

An easy art project for the kids
to make for the Chinese New Year!

1 Sheet of Red Construction Paper
About 30" Gold Ribbon
Chinese Symbols, Stickers or Printed Paper Glue Scissors

Fold your sheet of construction paper in half placing the folded edge towards you and the open end at the top.

Taking your scissors; cut the construction paper from the bottom to the top in 1" strips leaving a 1 - 1 1/2" space from the top.

After you have made all the cuts across the paper open up the sheet and glue the ribbon across the bottom and the top of the uncut part of the lantern. Glue the Chinese symbols at the top and the bottom on top of the ribbon.

Taking the glue, run one long line of glue along the left side of the longest part of the sheet to the bottom of the sheet. Fold the left side of the sheet under the right side of the sheet forming a circle. Press down to secure it's position.

Glue or staple to remaining ribbon to the inside of the lantern on the top to hang it.

Make a couple of these lanterns in different colors and string them all together!

Congratulations, your all done!

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year

Not only does this Sunday (February 14th) happen to be Valentines Day it also is the celebration of the Chinese New Year. We have all eaten Chinese food (and love it way too much), but what do you know of how the Chinese celebrate the New Year and why does it fall differently from our New Year?

Chinese New Year is based on the Chinese Lunar calendar and is 2,640 years older than our very own calendar and the Chinese New Year never begins on January 1st. Each New Year is based on the date of the New Moon in Aquarius and can begin between January 1st and February 18th. Each year is named after an animal, having twelve in the calendar, which cycles again after 12 years. The Chinese say that the animal ruling the year you were born will influence your life.

Which animal are you?

The Chinese celebrate the New Year in a grand way.

The Chinese also take the time before the festivities begin and do a thorough cleaning of the their homes to "sweep" away any ill-fortune and to bring in the new year clean in hopes of good luck coming their way in the new year and to be forgiving of grudges and seek peace for all.

Traditionally, on New Years Eve, you might find the family celebrating together with a large feast and ending the night in a great show of fireworks and parades.

The Next morning the children will great their parents by wishing them a healthy and happy new year and in return the children would receive money in red envelopes, representing good luck and fortune.

Much like how the rest of the country celebrates the New Year, the Chinese take special note about centering their new years celebration about forgiveness of others and of wrongs done and to wish only the best for each others lives in the new year.

Happy New Year!

Team EtsyBABY© Welcomes....

EtsyBABY has the pleasure to introduce
Three NEW members to our team!

Fabulous & functional baby goodies is what Golly Gee Baby is all about! A sister team that offers bright colors and unique styles in their handsewn items. They have a wonderful selection to choose from ~ slippers, boots, blankies, dresses, hats plus more!

Lil Blessings Bowtique offers gifts for babies on the go! She specializes in custom orders and has her signature item...the Change-N-Play(TM) ~ a changing pad/travel wipes case and diaper carrier with a toy attached!

Cinnaberry is a full service embroidery studio that offers one-of-a-kind children's clothing and accessories. They specialize in handmade clothing from 6 mos - 4T. Each design is fully customizable with the click of your mouse! Simply add the "Personlize It" item to your cart and let them know how you want it!

Valentines Day Heart Card Holder

A few pieces of felt, a little time and love and
you can make one of these Valentines Day Card holders.



Here's what you'll need:

2 Full size sheets of felt cut into hearts, both in the same size.
4 Pieces of coordinating ribbon approximately 12" long
Scrap felt (any coordinating colors) cut into heart shapes
DMC floss in a coordinating color
A sewing needle and scissors

Using your scissors; cut the top off one of the hearts.

Arrange your smaller hearts coordinating hearts on top of the front of the cut heart and hand stitch them into place.

Sew a decorative stitch (whip stitch or blanket stitch) across the tops of the front piece.

Place the front heart panel on top of the back, uncut heart panel.

Place the ribbon pieces in between the back and front heart panels just under the front panels embroidered top. Make sure to pin the ribbons in place as well as pinning both panels together so they won't move.

Using the same decorative stitch, sew around the outer edge, making sure to keep the top open.

Add some Valentines Day Cards and Celebrate!

Valentines Days Card Holder Contribution:

Visit Liz here at: Daisy Creek Designs

Super Sweet Valentines Day Card

Candy Cane Valentines Day Card

Here is what you'll need:

Paper Cutter, or ruler for an accurate cut
1 Piece of White Card Stock
1 Piece of Pink or Red Card Stock
2 Large Candy Canes, Paper pealed off
A Black pen
A Hot Glue Gun

Using your paper cutter; cut the white card stock into a finished piece that measures 5 x 7.

Cut the pink/red card stock into a finished piece that measures 8 x 12.

Fold the pink/red card stock in half and set aside.

Tear the edges off each side of the white card stock.

Taking the hot glue gun; glue the candy canes onto the white card stock forming them both into the shape of a heart.

Using your black marker; write the phrase, "Happy Valentines Day - February 2010 around the edge of the candy cane heart.

Glue the white card stock on top of the pink/red card stock.

Viola!

You have a handmade Valentines Day card for someone special that will mean more than any store bought card ever could!

Valentines Day Card Contribution:

Visit Liz here at: Daisy Creek Designs

Team EtsyBABY© Welcomes....

Team EtsyBABY has the pleasure to introduce 2 NEW members!

MyGlamorousBaby is a family owned company that started in 2005. Their clothing is unique and adorable! They love custom orders! They also have a new creation and trademark "Dulce's World"....characters that are fun, sassy, unique and will sure charm everyone from small to big.

Looking for beautiful accessories for babies? Neishasblue is the place to shop! She carries a wide selection of headbands and flower clips. Just the right accessory for your little ones outfits or gifts and they would make the ideal photo prop!

Valentines Day Jell-O Jigglers

Valentines Day Jell-O Jigglers

2 1/2 Cups Boiling Water
2 Packages (8 Serving size) Jell-O Brand Gelatin
1 Cup Cold 2% Reduced Fat Milk
1 package (4 serving size)
Jell-O Brand Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding

Put the gelatin in a large bowl and pour in the boiling water. Stir the mixture for 3 minutes or until it is completely dissolved. Cool for 30 minutes at room temperature.

♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥

In another bowl add the vanilla pudding and milk and beat with a wire whisk for 1 minute. Quickly add in the gelatin mixture and beat with a wire whisk until blended well.

♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥

Pour the mixture into a 13 x 9 inch pan. Refrigerate for 3 hours until firm. When the mixture is set; rinse the bottom of the pan in warm water for about 15 seconds to loosen the mixture away from the pan.

♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥

Use a decorative cookie cutter to cut the jigglers from the pan taking care to cut all the way through the jigglers. Lift the treats from the pan and enjoy!

♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥

Recipe Contribution:

Visit Liz here at: Daisy Creek Designs