2012 Live Green CT Festival is this weekend!

http://www.livegreenct.com

Gumdrop Swap will be an exhibitor at this festival for the 3rd year! It takes place at Taylor Farms (near Calf Pasture Beach) in Norwalk, CT on the weekend of September 15-16, 2012. Here are photos from my tent in 2011. People assume Gumdrop Swap Children's and Maternity Boutique only sells used merchandise. That's so not true! We carry lots of new merchandise as well. Plenty of gift options available and I make custom gift baskets. 

I will have a booth for this 2 day festival to expose more people to Gumdrop Swap's unique spin on kids & maternity consignment. This unique service keeps the most important "green" (money) in your wallet. It's a FREE EVENT if you are on foot and $5 charge for each car to enter so if you must drive - carpool!

Do you have a business that is eco-friendly or family friendly? I highly recommend you being an exhibitor at this event. The organizers are very accommodating and organized. Live Green Connecticut gets better every year! They have entertainment, a kid's tent, food, discussions and of course a variety of vendors with products and services. Contact Daphne or Scot and make sure you mention Gabby from Gumdrop Swap sent ya!

Even if you can't come but you want to learn more about Connecticut's green movement, get involved or promote your green efforts (no matter where you live) you should to sign up for free at GreenTowns.com. Search by state and city to see what's going on in your area! 

Recyclebank is AWESOME & 2nd Annual Eco Kid Bash!

Get paid to recycle? Well, kinda. Everyone knows recycling is "good" but how many of us think its easier to trash something instead of finding a recycling bin? Would a monetary reward entice you to make a better effort to recycle everything you can? Recyclebank sure thinks so!

recyclebank logo

Recyclebank is working towards a world without waste by rewarding people for taking everyday green actions. It’s free to join and as easy as 1, 2, 3. Earn points for taking everyday green actions, redeem them for great rewards, and learn ways to save money and live greener every day!

I am such a fan of this company! And I appreciate their Primary Sponsorship of the FREE community event in my town of Bridgeport, CT on Saturday, May 19, 2012! The 2nd Annual Eco Kid Bash will take place, rain or shine, inside the historic Arcade Mall in downtown Bridgeport at 1001 Main St. Learn about local green efforts like BGreen 2020, the greening of our local public transportation GBT, crafts, seed planting, and more. The event takes place from 1pm-4pm. This event is brought to you by Gumdrop Swap and Pryceless Consulting with the support of the City of Bridgeport and DSSD (Downtown Special Services District). Learn more at http://EcoKidBash.com

Party for the Planet! Earth Day 2012 Bridgeport's Beardsley Zoo

Gumdrop Swap will be an exhibitor at the "Party for the Planet" event at the Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport, CT on April 21, 2012. This is in honor of Earth Day. This is a perfect opportunity to let my local community know of Gumdrop Swap and my mission to keep kids clothes, books, and toys out of our landfills. We "recycle" damaged clothing into new apparel, accessories, and quilts. This is my 3rd year as a participant!

The Zoo is offering environmental education activities, amazing animal encounters, and fun for the whole family. This conservation themed bash will take place on Saturday, April 21 (Sunday, April 22 is canceled due to expected rain) and will shine a light on initiatives that make our planet a more sustainable place to live. This event is FREE with paid admission to the Zoo.

"Party for the Planet is the largest Earth Day celebration in North America and we want everyone to get in on the action by visiting the Zoo this weekend!" said Gregg Dancho, Zoo Director. "It's up to all of us to play our part in saving the planet and making our community a healthier place to live for people, animals, and all living things."

Party for the Planet encourages local, organic, earth-friendly choices as a way of promoting better health for our planet and ourselves. Environmentally friendly vendors will be on hand with everything from green cleaning products and recycled fashion accessories to better lawn care for humans and wildlife. The Mudpuppies and by The Environmental Hootenanny with Tom Calliman and Ann Shapiro will perform at the Peacock Pavilion.

To highlight the Zoo's ongoing connection to nature and support of the arts, Kim Kuzina has created a large sculpture of the earth, which greets visitors at the Zoo's front entrance and will remain outdoors year round. Kuzina, a Middletown resident, creates art that honors the beauty she finds outdoors.

UPDATE: Here is a photo from 2012 event. It turned out to be a beautiful day!

Exhibiting at "Live Green CT" Norwalk, CT Sept 18-19 at Taylor Park!

 Just want to remind everyone that this is where I'll be this weekend. And I am excited to announce that there will be a special guest in my tent! Poor Me Teas' mission is to thoughtfully create herbal blends which inspire inner growth and balance. - To develop quality, flavorful herbal blends with strong organic standards. - To provide an educational website with information on Complementary Medicine methods such as herbology, chakra healing, energy medicine, and color healing. - To form relationships with other agencies who have the shared goal of accelerating the integration of Western and traditional holistic approaches of medicine, giving every individual access to care which incorporates the healing of the mind, body, emotions, and spirit.(click photo below to visit their site!

 I will have a booth for this 2 day festival to expose more people to Gumdrop Swap's unique spin on kids clothing consignment. 'Cause its basically recycling your children's wardrobe! And keeps the "green" (money) in your wallet. It's free if you are on foot and $5 charge for each car to enter so if you must drive - carpool! I will be giving away some memberships that day in random drawings. So come visit my booth!

MILKMUNY.COM TURNS UN-RECYCLABLE JUICE CARTONS INTO HIGH FASHION WALLETS AND ACCESSORIES

I love this company's mission. Similar to TerraCycle's but reclaiming the hard-to-recycle coated cardboard cartons for juice and milk. If you're looking for an stylish, eco-friendly, and affordable (ONLY $10?) wallet, buy this!

 (*copied from Milkmuny's Press Release)

The creative Portland start-up wants to spread awareness about the challenges of carton recyclability, raise funds for struggling non-profits and promote a new kind of ‘trashion’ statement all at once.

More than 510,000 tons of milk and juice cartons are generated every year in the United States, but sadly, less than .05% ever get recycled according to an EPA report of (MSW) Municipal Solid Waste). Paper cartons ARE recyclable, however, “because of the wax lining, are not universally recycled. Each locality is different, depending on their recycling process capability”, says the (NRC) National Recycling Coalition.
That’s what got the Portland based industrial designer, John Schreiber, thinking and how Milkmuny.com was created. The first two initial lines of wallets, in 22 styles (from the reclaimed cartons of recognizable brands of both dairy and juice manufacturers) are available online and at specialty retailers. Milkmuny is already designing other lines of recycled products, as well, to be released by the summer of 09.

“There is considerably talk these days about ‘green’ design but the vast majority of design, both graphic and industrial, is still about promoting consumption”, says John, who is also Milkmuny’s founder and creative principle. “It’s ironic that we continue to dispose of existing products and materials like computers or radios in order to purchase ‘greener’ ones. I wanted to challenge traditional design thinking and create a mass produced product that didn’t expend more energy to create or require more resources to produce but was also aesthetically pleasing and uncompromisingly functional. It’s a amazing idea to think that on one hand; here is this ubiquitous but seemingly inconsequential carton so routinely discarded and yet on the other, something that with a little creativity, has the potential to raise money for schools, be an example of innovation in design and reusability – and even create jobs.

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Greener Giant?

I love to support other companies that make sustainability a priority. Green Giant is a brand we are all familiar with. I recently learned their initiative to be more eco-friendly for the next 50 years. Read about those efforts here. By making changes to their packaging and a large donation to the Nature Conservancy to encourage greener farming practices, they are setting an example for other corporations. I am not being compensated in any way to mention Green Giant. I'm sure this company doesn't know I exist. But if they ever discover this blog and want to send me some free veggies or coupons, I wouldn't turn it down :-)

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GumdropSwap is on GreenMaven Search Engine!

GumdropSwap.com was accepted into the green directory on Jan 12, 2010! GreenMaven.com is the world's most comprehensive "green search engine" which allows users to search the Internet for trusted websites and news related to environmental and social values.

"People want to go green, but they often don't know where to start or even what questions to ask," says Joey Shepp, founder of Green Maven. "Green Maven makes searching for all things green as easy as using Google. If you search for socks, you get organic socks. If you search for cars, you get hybrid cars. Our mission is to make it easy for mainstream to go green."

Recognized in TIME.com's Top Ten List of Best New Websites of 2006, Green Maven uses Google's recently released Co-op Search technology to make searching fast, easy, and relevant.

"Going green has never been easier than with Green Maven," reports Lee Ettleman, TIME.COM. "Editors at the site hand-pick web pages and news items related to the environmental movement—about everything from eco-friendly cities to organic socks—that can then be searched using the Google tool on the homepage or browsed through using a directory."

Launched in late 2006 by a team of Green MBA graduates, Green Maven has reached a total of 5,000 websites since its launch. GreenMaven was designed with Open Source software by the leading sustainable website development firm, Earthsite.net, developers of Urth.tv and GreenFestivals.org.

Visitors can search on GreenMaven.com, or they can take the green web with them by installing an easy browser plug-in. Businesses who want their sites included in the green search engine can submit their URLs to Green Maven's team of editors for approval.

GreenMaven.com is responding to a growing segment of the Internet community searching for news, products and services that match their environmental and social values. By making it easy to "go green", GreenMaven.com is making a green lifestyle available to everyone.

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I am a Frugalitarian!

I stumbled upon a site when reading another blog one day, http://www.thefrugalitarian.com. When I read the definition of what a frugalitarian is, "One whose philosophy asserts that life is sweeter and the planet is healthier when we keep it simple, waste nothing and reinvent just about everything," I felt I had been pegged! It might as well have been my personal mission statement! I sent the woman behind the movement, Jodi Olson, a quick email expressing my enthusiasm about her efforts. And within days, she invited me to be a guest on her upcoming live web radio show on http://www.toginet.com that she does every Wednesday (4pm EST). Her weekly show is one hour. So, I was on yesterday's show. During the hour,  Jodi and her co-host  gave many tips on simple ways to save money. It was a blast even though I was nervous. I had to listen to the podcast to remind myself what I said, because it happened so fast. The words were spilling out of my mouth so fast! You can download the MP3 here (Frugalitarian 1-20-2010) http://toginet.com/podcasts

Switching Utility Providers Was Surprisingly Easy!

We just bought our first home. I am used to having gas heat. Everything runs on electricity in our condo. The first month we were here was November and the bill was $223+ and that was about the max bill we ever got in the old place when we were running window AC units in the worst of summer. I meant to do research then about switching to another provider. My UI bill even mentions a website to do comparisons (http://www.ctenergyinfo.org) Then, we got the next bill, a whopping $384!  We've been running the heat a LOT. It's been freezing lately. We just replaced our blower in our heating unit and supposedly had an energy efficient thermostat installed. So, I can't imagine how high it would be if we hadn't made those changes. After getting this bill I finally went to the website and after plugging in my zip code and specifying that it was a residence instead of business I was able to compare the prices of other providers. I chose the 3rd best rate because they use 20% renewable energy as opposed to 12% which was what my UI's rate is and most of the other providers. I then went to that provider's website (www.veridian.com) and was able to switch by filling out a simple form with info form my UI bill. I was expecting lots of paperwork and having to print and mail forms. That was all I had to do? WHEW! What a relief. I should save about 20% and I can't wait to see the difference. I am proud of myself for paying a slightly higher rate to know I am using more renewable energy sources! Yay me!