organic consignment-delightful!

i am totally addicted to ebay and craig's list. i love buying used things for my kids, so eco friendly right? but they just aren't meeting my organic needs right now. so i was super excited when green mom finds (do you not read this blog? it's fantastic) turned me on to this fabulous website called the conscious child. it's an online consignment store for organic and non organic kids clothes. so, if you are like me and buy the organic stuff and then want to recycle it, now you have a place to sell. also, if you are like me and you love the organic stuff but are truly broke even after the federal stimulus check came, this is a great place to buy.

check out these awesome lanacare booties for 9.99. so cute, and cheap, they are normally 20.00!! they also sell some pretty cute new organic stuff, maybe they will carry toby + rei soon. who knows?

it's a blog, blog world

it's always an adventure here at toby + rei but this week we had some really good news and good press! the good news is we were accepted into the bubble kids trade show in nyc in august. we are totally psyched, it's pretty hard to get into and we (i, kate was absolutely sure we would!) were not expecting to go this year, so hooray for us!

we have also gotten some awesome shout outs this week from some of my favorite bloggers. it's always so great to be recognized by these ladies, they are truly some tough customers!

check out the post from Kelcey at mamabirddiaries about great mother's day gifts. kelcey is a new york city mama whose adventures with her 2 kids in nyc are literally laugh out loud funny. i love her, really check out her blog, you will not be sorry. if you are interested in buying a delicious bamboo/organic cotton fleece robe for your mama or want one for yourself they are back in stock finally and available here.

we also had a really nice review written about us at reallynatural. we had to submit items to them and then they check us all out, wash our stuff, see how it holds up and then they post a review.

and perhaps the coolest post for you my reader is the giveaway on designmom today for a toby + rei new baby gift set. it's a blanket, onesie and hat of your choice. just post a comment and be entered to win. if you do not read this amazing blog every day, you must. gabrielle has such incredible taste and always posts about cool stuff you and i just can't find on our own. she also has really cool craft projects to do with your kids that aren't hokey. i like that. i hate hokey.

also look for more giveaways and reviews on eco childs play next week and green mom finds in early may. we are also hopefully going to be part of a boston globe article about local green companies. it will be in the style section, keep your fingers crossed and eyes peeled.

happy spring!!

i covet thee

i know it's wrong to covet, isn't it one of the 7 deadly sins or something? i think brad pitt and morgan freeman were in a movie about it, or was it envy? i guess it's the same thing though really.

anyways, for earth day i had to post about my favorite line of eco friendly clothing for chicks. it's called covet and it's so not hemp people. those who know me know that i am a sucker for anything that is somehow a sweatshirt but doesn't look like a sweatshirt. i mean seriously, how much do i need to own this top? it will be mine....

all of covet's clothing is made from organic cotton or sustainable fabrics like soybean and bamboo. plus they are totally adorable. and not outrageously expensive. hooray! you can buy covet locally at envi on newbury street or online at urban outfitters. happy earth day friends!

it's easy being green

i hear all the time, 'i really want to be more green, but i don't know where to start'. i think it's just that there is so much talk about being green everywhere right now. you can't even open up an elle magazine without reading about green makeup and green fashion. i mean come on people. even i just want to read what color is good for the season and which trashy books are out for summer beach reading without feeling guilty that my jeans were made in some sweatshop. what i'm saying is that even for someone like me who is so far up in it, it's a little overwhelming. this blog is dedicated to making being green easy, so i have listed 10 easy things anyone can do to make a little difference. and who knows, maybe you'll all have some for me too. sharing is nice. plus i've been getting a lot of flak lately about how everything i suggest costs 5 times as much as the thing they were using before, so everything i have listed is either cheap or will save you money.

1. local farmer's markets - i can't say enough great things about buying local and in season. i know everyone hates grocery shopping, but going to a farmers market on like a wednesday night or saturday morning is like heaven. the colors, the flowers, the nice people. sigh. it's all farmers from local farms who want to sell you their tomatoes. and it's somehow CHEAPER than the grocery store. and they are delicious. trust me, you will never buy produce from may to september in a grocery store again. click here for a website that will list all your local farmer's markets (ma only).

2. market bags - these are so fun, they remind me of the rain hat your grandma somehow always carried in her purse that folded into a 2" square. they are lightweight and pretty and you'll never have to get a plastic bag at any store ever again. buy them at greenward, scott says he can't keep them in stock and they are so CHEAP - $7.95! if you can't get to greenward (booo...) click here to buy on line. this site has lots of great reusable bags.

3. unplug/turn off - unplug your appliances and cell phone chargers at night. they do still use energy even when they aren't on. also, turn off your computer and printer at night.

4. eco friendly cleaners - this one has been written up ad nauseum this spring with all the mags and their spring cleaning articles. don't go out and spend a lot of money getting new products. start small. think of the products that leave your house via the drain and start there. all that stuff goes back out into the water supply. so, like dish soap, bath scrubs, laundry detergents etc. method makes lots of eco friendly cleaning products that are don't cost much more than the regular brands and are available at target. and you are always at target right? here are some of my other favorites:
mrs. meyers all purpose scrub - i have the lavender. it's so not comet, available at whole foods.
earth friendly products dishwashing liquid - i like the apricot, available at trader joe's.

5. compact florescent light bulbs - take my earlier rant with a grain of salt, these really are great. they use a ton less energy and they last forever. which saves you money. just keep them out of the kids rooms.

6. reduce recycling - for full explanation on this see earlier post, but really buy less things that are in plastic. less to recycle, less impact on the planet (and less stuff to lug to the curb).

7. reuse your plastic bags - rinse em out and reuse em. how is that for money saving? huh, john fitzpatrick? huh? yeah.

8. check your tires - if every american’s tires were properly inflated we could save around 2 billion gallons of gas each year. also, get the junk out of the trunk, it will help with your fuel economy.

9. just say no to plastic water bottles - get yourself a reusable water bottle, sigg makes really nice cool ones. $20.00 but you'll never have to buy another poland spring bottle of water again at $1.25 a pop.

10. green dimes - their motto is 'stop junk mail, save trees, help the environment'. as kate browning would say, what's better than that? there is a basic package which is free, premium that is 20.00/year etc. really, who needs 4 pottery barn catalogs a month?

i hope this helps all of you who don't know where to start. please comment and post any easy tips you have.

the straight poop part 2

for all of you folks who are thinking of cloth diapers, but then you go on line and they all seem so expensive and what if you pick the wrong one and you end up with 300.00 worth of unusable bamboo/organic cotton diaper outers and inners? and who knows what they feel like because you can't just go to your local babies r us and check them all out. right? so, if you are local i have a great resource for you- diaper lab in somerville.

diaper lab is owned by a woman named salina and her husband ryan. so so so nice. you make an appointment at their somerville home and they have all the lines of cloth diapers you can think of. salina runs you through the options and you choose the right one for you based on your own needs. she even counsels you on how many to buy, so you don't end up up with too many or not enough. hooray for salina and diaper lab! hooray!

remember outside?

seriously, remember that magical place called 'outside'? where your children can run free and tire themselves out. remember mornings that didn't include wrestling your children into parkas, hats, gloves and boots. they are coming, i promise you. i love the changeover every year, but always seem to forget just how annoying it is to wrestle toby to the ground and slather him with sunscreen. which he hates. but hey, it beats boots any day of the week.

so, in anticipation of this glorious seasonal change, i would normally run to the store to buy sunscreen. but this year, i needed to do a little research for you my reader. hello reader. so i headed right to my favorite new website, skin deep for some help. this fancy website rates every skin care product you have on a scale of 0-10. 0 being not scary at all to 10 being throw it away immediately. really cool. i know you are too tired and don't have time to check all this out, so here is what you want to avoid in your kid's sunscreens (and probably yours too), oxy benzone (linked to cancer), parabens & 1-4 dioxane. the problem with a lot of the sunscreens is, if they don't have the bad stuff listed, they tend to not be as sun resistant. so, here are the two that got good ratings from both skin deep and safe mama and also had high UVA/UVB resistance:


california baby SPF#30
$18.00 for 2.9oz (ouch)
the one complaint i read about on line was that it was very thick. i purchased some and yes, it's thicker than say, coppertone water babies, but it's not like those zinc oxide sticks or whatever. kate has been using this on rei since she was a babe and she loves loves loves it. check out the safe mama and the skin deep review for all the info.




mustela sunblock lotion SPF#50
$14.99 for 1.6oz (ouch, ouch)
as you all know, i am such a sucker for all things french. that being said mustela's baby (or 'enfant' for you fellow francophiles) sunscreen SPF50+ got very high ratings from skin deep. but seriously you must check out their home page. what IS that picture? those french, so weird. check out skin deep for all the rating info.

i was able to find the california baby sunscreen at my local whole paycheck, uh, whole foods. the mustela i think would take more seeking out and that's so not my style. both are available on diapers.com, but after spending 15 bucks for a tiny tube of sunscreen, who can stomach paying for shipping? enjoy the outside again people.

CF stands for....

ok, you can guess what i mean by 'CF' once you read of my run in with a compact florescent light bulb tonight. but some background first....several months ago i remember reading on my ideal bite daily email that when a CF bulb breaks it's unbelievably toxic. there were many steps to clean up, yadda yadda and i thought wow. i have GOT to remember all of that. THAT is incredibly useful information. and then, i forgot. i have nowhere to put useful information like that. probably because i had to remember to make toby yet another sandwich he won't eat. or wash my 3 millionth baby bottle.

so back to my run in. right as i'm telling toby 'turn off your light' (ie. all bedtime work is over, commence the dinner/tv watching/blog reading) he pulls too hard, gets tangled in the cord and over goes the lamp and crash goes the CF bulb. bad. really really bad. so i scooped him out, got him out of the room and ran to my computer to find that posting about how to clean up this mess.

here are the steps
-get the kids + pets out of the room asap
-do not let anyone track through the dust/glass (duh, i know, sorry)
-open the windows for at least 15 minutes
-if you have central heating or a/c turn it off
-do NOT use a vacuum or a broom to clean up the glass particles on hard surfaces
-use a piece of cardboard and scoop the big pieces into a glass jar with a lid or a sealable plastic bag
-use duct tape or other sticky tape to clean up the dust on a solid floor
-if you have to use a vacuum on a carpet, immediately after vacuuming, remove the bag from the canister and place in a sealed plastic bag

if you don't trust me or think i'm overreacting, check out the epa site, they have very detailed instructions. unlike mine, i just boiled it down to something you might remember 3 months from now and it's you. and it's bedtime. and LOST is on in 20 minutes and you have a full bottle of organic red wine to drink. priorities people. you should have seen bob with his clean up gear on. it was straight out of E.T.

oh the joys of being eco-friendly, right? replace all your light bulbs with compact florescent bulbs and you can save 10 rain forests a year etc. but when they break it's so toxic you can't VACUUM it up. how is that better? anyways, be smarter than me. make sure the kids rooms have regular old light bulbs. they may not last forever but at least you won't miss LOST cleaning it up.