FREE Earth Friendly products for your home!

The first 100 people to sign up each month until December, 2010 will receive FREE "Earth Friendly Products" for your home! They are the makers of Ecos detergent, which I have tried in the past and like! I received my products in the mail earlier this month from submitting for my freebie in January (it took about 3 weeks), and it is a large box with various mini bottles of their product lines (they all smell soooo good!) and a coupon! So, March 1st, hop onto your computer, click HERE and sign up!

Sorry for my absence! + 6 FREE Ronzoni pastas!

For the last few weeks to a month now, Blogger has not worked on my Mac and I'm not sure why, nor do I really have the time to figure it out. I have this dinky PC laptop that I've been using but it is annoyingly slow and I have to use that little finger-pad mouse thingy and it makes everything painfully slow, and my finger hates me right now! So, I kind of gave up on the blog for a couple weeks for a combination of reasons: the kids are getting more and more to the ages where they need me a LOT more often and every time I sit down to the computer, their little radars go off ++ the remodel on our house continues and there is much to do ++ we are gearing up for Spring in the garden and outside (that's how we spent Valentines Day today, after going out for breakfast)! So, not only does Blogger not work on my computer, I've been super busy! Blog looses.

BUT, I did want to let you know about this deal at Albertsons I scored:
6 FREE Ronzoni pastas!
The Healthy Harvest and Smart Taste versions are on sale through Tuesday for 10/$10... then, use the 3 "Twice the Value of the manufacturer coupon" coupons that were in last Tuesday's Albertson's ad, or from Sunday's paper + use 3 of the $1/2 coupons you can get from HERE and HERE! I have also seen a $0.75/1 coupon HERE in the past, and I had one from a previous newspaper insert. I was able to get 6 of the Healthy Harvest boxes of pasta for FREE... I only paid for my bananas at checkout!

Melissa & Doug toys blowout!

Starting at 8am today, 2/4/10 at HauteLook, Melissa and Doug toys will be on sale! I really like their toys - they have a huge selection of non-toxic wood toys, cool designs, "classic", musical and educational toys!
If you don't already have an account - click HERE to sign up to get in on this sale before the toys sell out! Plus, after you sign up, you can send email invites to your friends to join, and earn a shopping credit - cool!

Speak out about Genetically Engineered Alfalfa!

Please take a moment to go HERE, to Organic Valley's website and read about the USDA's plan to possibly allow Monsanto's Roundup-Ready Alfalfa into Organic food sources! I am outraged about this - God made alfalfa the way it is - it's not supposed to be genetically altered so that when they spray Round-Up and other gross chemicals on it, it wont die. A side note: if you do research on Monsanto the company, you will find that they are a very dangerous company, and I do not trust them. So, click HERE to go to Organic Valley's website and read about this upcoming USDA change that can have a major effect on Organic food.
Things like this make me even more glad we made the move to more property so we can have our own garden and be more self-sufficient.

BPA? No Way! Glass baby bottles w/safety silicone sleeve

If you are concerned about BPA in the plastic baby bottles, but are worried about breaking the glass bottles, these glass baby bottles with the silicone sleeve outer is an AWESOME solution! I wish I would have discovered these (not sure if they even had them?!) a few years ago, when my babies were babies! I used the BPA-free, plastic Born Free bottles with both of them (these are cool too because they have a handle and sippy cup attachment option to "grow" with your baby!), but totally would have used these had I known back then! Plus, you can clean them in the dishwasher, and heat them up in the pan with hot water (rather than using the microwave to heat them up - we no longer own a microwave, and it has forced us to eat healthier!)

Land of Nod has the large bottles in their sale section right now for $9.95 - but hurry, they only have the pink left, and it appears the smaller bottles are all sold out now too!

BabyEarth has some options (not on sale right now, but have a great selection!) from a few different brands, and ALSO sell the cool silicone sleeve by itself for $5.95 - $7.95 if you already own the glass baby bottles, or want to buy the Dr. Browns glass bottles and want the silicone safety sleeve!

Organic kids clothes sale + donation to Haiti!

Positively Organic has designed this special shirt and onsie to symbolize our giving hearts in times of need. 50% of the sales from these special designs will go to aid Haiti!

While you are at their site, also check out their Clearance and Summer Sale sections for some great prices on organic kids and baby clothes! Click HERE to go to their site.

FREE scrapbooking ideas, downloadable e-book!

I just came across this cool downloadable e-book, HERE, with a TON of free scrapbooking layouts, ideas and tips! I love e-books because they store neatly away on my computer = less clutter on my shelves, and I can skip to the page I want in a jiffy! Not to mention it's no paper or ink that went into printing it!

GREEN TIP:
Instead of buying special scrapbooking paper (which costs you monetary green too!), try saving birthday cards, Christmas cards, gift tags, gift bags, gift wrap, even cool packaging from food and toy boxes to use as your backgrounds and embellishments! My daughter received a Princess and the Frog doll for her birthday, and the packaging had a "dreamy" background that I saved, and also had some pictures of the Frog that I cut out and saved, that would be really cute in a scrapbook! So, think about some other creative options other than buying all new paper when you peruse your scrapbooking e-book!

The Weekly Green Tip #11

Tip #11 - Kids grocery store pretend play for FREE!   
Another idea for Repurposing Hidden Gems - two for the price of one!
This will save you money on buying new toys for the kids: save your packaging to stock their play store shelves!  Cereal boxes and granola bar boxes work really well for this because they usually retain their shape.  Just save the nice boxes when you have finished eating the contents, tape the top (or opening) back up again and VOILA... here you go kids, go play store!  We have been trying to be more aware of the things we buy that also come with a bunch of unnecessary packaging that will just fill our trash and recycle bins.  I love trying to come up with ideas to reuse some of the packaging before just burning it or tossing it in the recycle bin or trash.  I've seen some pretty lame-looking cardboard pretend store play items for purchase at toy stores that are surprisingly expensive!  If you repurpose your packaging, it's like getting two items for the price of one!  I have 5 boxes of oatmeal that I bought for FREE at Albertsons (click HERE for my post about that) that will be so cute on my daughter's pretend store shelf!
My daughter loves to play store, and she received a neat wood shopping cart for her birthday, making store play even more fun!  She is so funny - I caught her with some of my coupons, using them at her pretend checkout stand... just like Mommy!  Smart girl.

Stay tuned for tip #12!

Right On, Rite Aid - Renpure Organics $3 coupon

If you go to Rite Aid's Video Values site HERE and watch the Renpure Organics commercial, you can print out a $3 off coupon for Renpure!  I love this shampoo and condidioner, and they don't use any harsh chemicals like phthalates, etc.  Watch out for the bottles that may still have a "Try Me Free" mail-in rebate hang-tag, or a $3 mail-in rebate hang tag on the bottle! 
Plus, if you watch 20 video commercials, you can print out a $5/$20 total purchase coupon for Rite Aid!

p.s. you don't have to sit there and watch it the whole time - I like to do quick cleaning or toy pick-up and clip coupons, or organize bills, etc. at my desk while they are playing.  But, you have to keep your eye out because you have to enter in a code at the end.  The video will also stop if you try to open another browser window, which is lame, but oh how smart they are!