A few weeks ago I went camping at a Provincial Park and was actually surprised when I saw recycling stations. I don't know why I was surprised by this as it makes sense for an organization that is linked to nature to be proactive when it comes to the environment. It just never crossed my mind that they would actually do it.

There were several stations throughout the park. At each one there was bins for glass, cans and plastic. They also had blue boxes that you could take with you to your campground. We were able to recycle so much that would have otherwise ended up in the garbage (or making the long trip back in the car).

Now how cool would it be if they had compost stations or a way to reuse the firewood bags (which would mean an easy way to get the stinkin' things open).

There are a lot of other green blogs out there. I follow a ton of them but am always looking for more to follow. So I participate in Green Blog Hops in hope that I will find new blogs to follow and in turn people will find there way over to my little corner of the interwebz.

So if you are looking for some new blogs to follow or you want to follow people on twitter then head on over to the Blog Hop and see who is involved. It is open all day on Wednesday so you will see more and more people joining in as the day goes on.

If you are over here because you found me on the Blog Hop then welcome! I hope you kick your shoes off and stay awhile!

I read a lot about spouses/partners who have differing views on what environmentally friendly means and how far they will go to reduce their impact on the environment. Joe is not nearly as green and I am but he does try and he goes along with mostly everything I suggest. I say mostly because there are some things that he gives me the side eye to. When we first started dating 5 years ago I never really thought about his 'greenness'. I had many things on my 'list' but for some reason the environment wasn't on there. Or maybe it kind of was? I doubt I would have dated someone who drove a huge ass SUV or who refused to recycle etc etc. But I didn't not date Joe because he drove a pickup or because he always leaves the water on when he is in the bathroom or because he goes through more kleenex/toilet paper than the Duggars.

So that makes me wonder. Do people consider the environment when picking a mate? How much of a priority is it? Is it right up there with sense of humour, nice abs and 'won't run away screaming when I fart in front of you' OR is it a nice to have like 'won't leave socks in a pile on the couch', 'can fill a dishwasher' and 'likes Indian food'?

I hate painting. Like seriously hate it. But what I hate more than painting is when you do paint and the lines turn out like crap. White gaps of doom or the dreaded paint on the ceiling. I have always used painters tape to mitigate this. 3M has come out with painters tape that is made using 30% post-consumer waste recycled fibres. It performs just as the other 3M Scotch painters tape does in that it won't remove the paint from the wall and leaves you with clean lines. But it has the added bonus of being better for the environment.

I didn't get a chance to test the tape out myself (was supposed to do the basement this summer but life got in the way) but I did have a friend use it and she found no difference in performance from the regular painters tape. SO....if the 2 products give the same results then pick the greener option and go for the new Green 3M Scotch Painters Tape.

What a week! So much planning, so much sweat..all for a 2 hour party. It was worth it though because everyone had a great time AND I managed to be as environmentally friendly as I could.  I started to get hella frustrated about it (okay lets face it I had several melt downs and my friends had to talk me down) because I just could not find good vendors for what I was looking for. Like an organic baker. I never did find one...although I did find one that made organic cupcakes. Well to her they were organic (they only thing organic about them was that they had organic green tea in them) but to me they were not and I certainly was not going to pay extra because they were "organic".  Seeds....seeds were the bane of my existence. Apparently I was a few weeks to late in looking for them as the seed companies come and take their product back so none was available in store. So that meant I couldn't make my seed paper invites.

But in the end it all came together. So what did I do to make B's party more environmentally friendly yet still fun for a 1 year old?

Since I couldn't find seeds I saw no point in making the paper for the invites (hello have you seen how long it takes to do that. I am just too busy lazy for that when it can't even be planted to make something grow). At the end of Seed Hunt 2010 I was less than 3 weeks out from the party so I had no time to figure out something new (and the hampster in my head was tired). So I sent an evite. OH NOS. Not for everyone I know but it worked for our families and it had no environmental impact!

I tried to do as much organic and local food as possible. Some things are just not a reality. Like organic chips. Who pays that much for a small bag of chips??? They were like $6. Insane in the membrane. I had hamburgers made by a local farm (Walsh Family Farm in Mount Pleasant). The meat was hormone and antibiotic free and hands down the best burger I have ever had. The corn, lettuce and onion were local from Ontario. The tomatoes and peppers were from my organic garden.

Since I couldn't find an organic baker I decided to just make the cupcakes myself. I found 2 recipes online and made them both organic. In the Strawberry Lemonde cupcakes the vanilla cake mix, eggs, strawberries and lemonade were all organic. In the Smores cupcakes the chocolate cake mix and eggs were organic. The chocolate was fair trade.

I served organic lemonade, organic homemade peach iced tea and pop (nothing environmentally friendly about that one though).

I used our regular plates  and glasses instead of disposable. Although for the kids I did have disposable available and I composted those. For cutlery I used plastic that I already had. I do not have enough non disposable for 30 people. I also used disposal napkins that I already had on hand. I put those in the composter too. 

I searched high and low for a company that sold seedlings that was not 3 hours away from us. Finally a week ago I found that company. I love how they turned out and the kids enjoyed getting them!

There was minimal waste from gifts because people used bags that I can reuse. My sister even made a gift bag! B is going to love using it in the future...and hello it has dinosaurs on it!  Anything that could be composted or recycled was. I love that our guests were asking what went into which bin. I had planned on having bins out and labeled so it was clear what went where but we had a minor fruit fly situation so I didn't want to make it any worse.