Green mums blog - Organic and Natural baby products, cloth nappies, wooden toys, toiletries and clothing

Hello everyone

This weekend Lily and I will be eating an ice cream on Plymouth Hoe watching the Half Marathon and waiting for Nick to come over the finish line.  Nick will no doubt be pushing himself to the limit to finish in record time but the main thing on his mind will no doubt be the sponsorship money which he hopes to raise.

This year he will be raising money for CLIC Sargent, the children’s cancer charity.  Lily and I just want to wish him good luck and to say ‘we are very proud of you’ xxxx

If anyone would like to make a donation, no matter how small - please click on the link below

Thank you

It’s a gorgeous sunny day today, I’m sitting outside with my laptop whilst Lily places in the sandpit and it definitely feels like spring is here! This weekend is Easter and as much as I love to receive a nice Easter egg, I have been thinking about the huge amount of money that we spend on these each year. In 2008, it is predicted that we will spend 520m on Easter eggs! Luckily, my daughter doesn’t like chocolate so I won’t need to feel guilty if I ask relatives not to buy her any eggs.

Of course it’s not just the financial implications of Easter eggs. They create a huge amount of waste in themselves. Each egg is wrapped in foil, then wrapped in plastic and then wrapped in cardboard. Add to that any extra contents that may also be wrapped in foil and that’s a huge amount of waste going into the bin. Hopefully many people will recycle these contents but how many people actually do?

If you’re looking for a ‘greener’ egg this year then why not try The Chocolate Alchemist. They have a fantastic range of organic Easter eggs including white chocolate with raspberry, white chocolate with blueberry and cranberry and dark chocolate with hot and spicy ginger! All their eggs come with minimal packaging without compromising on it’s attractiveness.

For children, they offer hollow chocolate ducks or solid chocolate bunnies, all made from organic ingredients. These come wrapped in a clear bag with a ribbon, again minimising packaging.

To view the eggs vist www.thechocolatealchemist.co.uk and you can order by calling 01798 860 995

Many other manufacturers are listening to the environmental concerns being raised about this excessive packaging. Cadburys have launched a range of ‘eco-eggs’ called the Cadbury Treasure eggs. These are simply wrapped with foil - no paper or plastic is involved in the packaging at all. They have also pledged to cut the amount of plastic in their small and medium sized eggs. They will save 1130 tonnes of packaging this easter. I’m sure this will prove popular with ethical consumers and hopefully other companies will start to follow suit.

If you want to ensure your eggs are made from organic chocolate then Green and Blacks is always a good choice. Their milk chocolate eggs contain 34% cocoa solids to ensure an intensely chocolatey taste. Green and Blacks also use recycled card for their packaging.

So for the green and ethical chocoholics amongst us - we can still enjoy a yummy egg this easter without feeling guilty. Mind you, I’m afraid we can’t do much about the calories!…………

Happy Mothers Day to all mums and expectant mums

I hope you’re doing something really special with your little ones today. I was reading one of the weekend papers yesterday and they featured some letters that people had written in about their mums.
These included the most wonderful happy memories of childhoods and made me feel quite emotional. Of course, once you’ve had a baby your hormones do make you cry at the drop of a hat don’t they!

My happiest memories are of warm sunny summer days, lazing in the garden with my mum. My mum used to work in the evenings so she was pretty much around all day. It’s only now that I realise what hard work that must have been for her and how lucky I was to have her at home with us.

I remember playing in the paddling pool and reading books on the lawn, making perfume out of rose petals and chasing butterflies around the garden. These early days were also the start of my love of all things green, when my parents introduced me to gardening. I remember having my own little vegetable patch when I was about 5 or 6 and I thought this was the best thing in the whole world.

One day we were weeding the greenhouse beds to prepare them for tomatoes and I was still out there when it was getting dark and my mum was inside making the tea. I couldn’t bring myself to stop until it was ready….. I’ve grown tomatoes ever since!

If you’d like to share your memories of your mum I’d love to hear them. I’ll get the tissues ready….

Green Mums have just taken delivery of a new range of organic clothing for children.

There has been so much hype lately about how we dress our children. Kids clothes don’t seem to be made for kids anymore, they are designed to make girls especially, look grown up. Why would we want them to look grown up when they are still children? Girls as young as six seem to wear clothes that are designed to make them look like teenagers, rather than the young girls that they are. I personally would like my daughter to be a child for as long as possible and am in no rush to make her look older.

I love to see children running around in dungarees and other clothes that are comfortable and easy to move in, with bright colours and an appealing nature. That’s why I love this new range of organic clothing by Roxanne Quimby, the founder of Burts Bees. This range just screams fun at me, and the organic material is so lovely and comfortable for your little one to bounce around in.

These products are very popular in America but we are proud to be the first retailer in the UK to offer this range!  The company was set up by Roxanne in  2007,  my prediction for 2008 is that we will be seeing a lot more children in these funky designs, which is just as it should be!

Brand new shop Green Mums is now open for business, and has decided to avoid the clatter of tills and the fumbling of change – so last century – by trading entirely online.

Selling organic, environmentally friendly and natural baby products, Green Mums hopes to be at the forefront of the burgeoning green scene in the UK and has teamed up with specialist suppliers to offer something a little different from the competition.

MD Tracy Dixon explains: “We’re a family business and one that is doing it’s bit to bring about a future environment that we’d all want to live in. We source our products as locally to us in Plymouth as possible to minimise our carbon footprint and try to work with independent suppliers when we can.

Our excellent range of high quality products caters for parents who want to give their children the safest, greenest start in life. “Already gathering considerable interest from online and print media, Green Mums is one family’s way of putting something back.

“Our daughter Lily is precious to us like any child is to their parents. She really made us evaluate our lives and think about how we were treating the environment around us. We’ve become almost evangelical about it, and if there are people out there willing to listen, we’re ready to talk!” said Tracy. “But we’re also honest – this is a business and by giving excellent customer service and providing people with tested, effective products, we hope to be successful too.

“From sustainable rubber wood toys and comfortable cloth nappies to cool organic clothes for young ones, Green Mums is the new kid on the block with big ambitions. Find them at www.greenmums.co.uk or call 01752 661835