I’m posting this mostly to save it somewhere where I can find it again easily …

This is originally from Greenopia.

Party Planning Guide: Green Baby Shower

By Stef McDonald

Invitations

• Go paperless and send e-mail invitations.
• If you want to go with old-fashioned paper, buy invitations made on recycled stock or print your own invitations on plain recycled cards or paper.
• Include a note to invitees encouraging them to choose organic and eco-friendly gifts.
• Include a note to invitees asking that they bring gifts that are unwrapped. As the host of the event, you can provide guests with reusable brown paper gift bags, raffia ribbon, and a minimal amount of tissue paper for a splash of color. It’s au naturale and you and your guests will be impressed with how the gifts look.

Decor

• Place fresh-cut flowers from your local farmer’s market or nursery or garden supply source on tables with food and drinks.
• Get small pots of native flowers and plants and place them around the room.
• Place soy candles on tables.

Food and Sweets

• Get food from a local restaurant or catering service that uses organic ingredients. Or make your own dishes using organic ingredients.
• Serve bowls of fresh fruit.
• Get baked goods from a local business that uses organic ingredients. Check your local farmer’s market for bakers as well. Or make your own baked goods using organic ingredients.

Gifts

• Buy clothing made from organic cotton or organic bamboo. Get bath and body products that are all-natural, organic, or chemical-free, without artificial preservatives and fragrances.
• Avoid wasteful wrapping paper and instead wrap your gift in an organic cotton towel or blanket.
• Don’t discount hand-me-downs. If you’ve had a child and have clothing or other items in storage that you’re willing to part with, bring them along.
• When the time comes to open gifts, hand out one gift to each of the guests and allow them to be opened as a group.

Extra Touches

• Bring a blank notebook and ask guests to write personal messages to the baby-to-be in crayon.
• Send leftovers and flowers home with the guests.
• Send the soy candles home with the guests and ask them to light them when they hear the happy news of the baby’s birth.

Categories: ideas, baby, events
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I’m quite thrilled to report that The Road Less Traveled store in Santa Ana is having their grand re-opening today, with a kick-off party between 4pm and 9pm. They’ve also launched their online store!

Categories: events, shopping
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The City of Orange is looking for volunteers the Arbor Day Tree Planting event this Saturday, April 28th. I’m not quite sure where they will be planting the trees other than it’ll be “in an East Orange neighborhood.” Anywhoo, call Harvey Sosa, Tree Services Coordinator, at 714.532.6470 if you want to help out. The planting will begin at about 8:30am.

Also this Saturday, the city will be celebrating Earth Day at the Foundation Games Track Meet at Fred Kelly Stadium. According to their web site,

there will be several booths where visitors can learn about Orange’s drinking water, reducing urban runoff, recycling, air quality, local wildlife, and much more. The booths will be in the northern grass area, near the entrance to the stadium, from 8:30am until 3pm.

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• Saturday was spent walking through the farmers’ market in the morning, as usual. I’m currently addicted to Black Market Bakery’s olive & feta loaf. The $7 price tag is well worth it.
• After the market, I sauntered across the street to the UCI campus to check out their Earth Day festivities. What I found were a lot of student tables selling overpriced food and drink, though I can’t really blame them since they’re basically raising funds for their respective groups. For the majority of these tables, however, the Earth Day connection didn’t seem obviously clear (unlike the University’s sustainability committee). Plus, I found it odd that the table selling shawarma was placed right next to the vegetarian/vegan table. Still, it seemed like there were a lot of students and visitors checking out the enviro booths; grabbing free CFLs from the City of Irvine, and getting free swag by answering some trivia about recycling … which I shamefully got wrong, but they gave me a pair of shoelaces anyway, which are made from recycled plastic bottles.
• On Sunday, my friend and I started the afternoon by having lunch at Native Foods at The Camp in Costa Mesa (excellent, as always). Next, we checked out a few of the shops, including Humanitaire, where I bought a lovely vegan clutch wallet by matt and nat. I also picked up an organic cotton t-shirt (”Herbivore”), some bracelets/necklaces made from sustainable materials by women in Africa, plus some other random paraphernalia (”Praise Seitan” button). We were informed that they are having their anniversary party on May 5th, so we’ll definitely be there to check things out.

Categories: events, shopping
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Everything’s “Earth Day this” and “Earth Day that” …

Anywhoo, since I head down to Irvine every Saturday morning for the farmers’ market, I figure I’ll go check out the UCI Earth Day festivities as well. Organized by the school’s Volunteer Center, the event will be held in Aldrich Park from 10am through 4pm on Saturday, the 21st. There will be an art competition (based on reused materials), but what I’m stoked for are the exhibitors they’ve got lined up.

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This Sunday I’ll be checking out what’s going on over at The Camp in Costa Mesa. (I’ve been fiending for some of Native Foods‘ “Save the Chicken” Wings!) It’s a free event, plus you can drop off any recyclables, listen to live music, and all that jazz. I’m also interested to know what classes they’ll be offering. And … perhaps do a little shopping at Humanitaire.

Categories: events, environment
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