Blue Volcano Media and BlogHer 2011

 Today I'm excited to have my first blog post up at my employer's blog, check it out at Blue Volcano Media - it's about Blogger Conferences and Your Business!

As I mentioned in the post, I'll be attending BlogHer 2011 on behalf of BVM, where I'll be taking notes at many of the sessions to write helpful blog posts on working with bloggers and social media for our clients and readers.

Blue Volcano is poised for tremendous growth in the next 12 months, and one of our focuses is helping our clients learn how to work with bloggers on PR campaigns. If you're a blogger and will be attending BlogHer next week, make sure I get your business card so that we can include you in any future opportunities!

During BlogHer, make sure you are following @_conscientious, of course, but also follow @VolcanoMedia for the B2B take on #BlogHer11!

Greening your baby

People who formerly feared "being green" often end up asking me how they can become more green when they start to have kids. Something about having kids makes people want to eliminate chemicals and waste from their lives... go figure!

As you know, I currently have two children under the age of two, so this list was put together quickly and off the top of my head. Ask me again in a year and I might have something more comprehensive!

Cloth diapering - Obviously good for the earth but also cost effective, as are many "green" lifestyle changes. In addition, I have never experienced a late-night moment when we've run out of diapers (I actually didn't realize this happens to people until I heard another blogger talk about it). I am not going to go into details on how to cloth diaper in this post, but I've done previous posts on my cloth diapering regime as well as cloth diaper reviews and you can also find me writing for the CottonBabies blog. My #1 recommendation for learning about cloth diapering is Kelly Wells' book "Changing Diapers: The Hip Mom's Guide to Modern Cloth Diapering".


Make your own baby food - when I bought the Beaba Babycook Baby Food Maker it was an investment, but it was definitely worth it. I use it to make purees to hide veggies in food now that Little Sir is a toddler, and I'll use it again when Little Lady starts solids. Making your own babyfood is also cheap, and with an all-in-one appliance like the Babycook, it's super easy.

Washable towels and cloths for everything - Let's face it, paper towels and Kleenex are actually pretty flimsy - you can use a roll or box on just one mess. You can upgrade and also be more "green" by replacing them with washable cloth versions. I did a recent post about getting rid of paper towels by using absorbent washcloths from Ikea. I'd also recommend tons of microfiber cloths for cleaning up spilled milk and scrubbing things - you can buy microfiber cloths at the dollar store! When my son was born, I bought a huge amount of old school cloth diapers that I use for burp cloths and cleaning up all kinds of formula, milk, and runny noses. Little Sir recently learned to "blow snot" into these burp cloths and now whenever he sees a cloth diaper, he tries to blow his nose into it!

Consignment sales/preowned clothing - The "reuse" part of "reduce, reuse, recycle"! Twice a year I go to our local huge consignment sales and stock up on gently used clothing for the kids next season. Recently I also discovered Kid to Kid, which is a franchise of kids consignment stores for in-between consignment sale season. At least half of Little Sir's clothing is pre-owned. As for Little Lady, because we have two nieces who are older than her, and friends who have older girls, I don't think ANYTHING she has is new - it's all hand-me-downs! Which is awesome for me since I am not great at picking out girls' clothing.

Snacks - This is the part where I tell you to do things I am failing at... If you have toddlers, you know that you should NEVER go anywhere without snacks! Instead of using plastic bags and pre-packaged treats, it's always greener (and cheaper) to buy larger boxes of treats or put fruit into reuseable snack bags. I say this, but I own only 2 of these bags, so currently I do use waaay too many pre-packaged snacks.

Cleaning products - Usually when people ask me the "green" question, they are asking about how they can replace their conventional (toxic) cleaning products with more green (kid-safe) versions. When you see your little darling gnawing the floor or the chair leg, you can't help but think whether they might be ingesting some of that chlorine bleach/ammonia cleaner/Lysol you just sprayed on it. There are a lot of greenwashed products out there, but I'd recommend using vinegar, baking soda, Bon Ami, and essential oils like tea tree and Thieves Oil to replace conventional cleaners. Young Living also makes an entire line of Thieves Oil household cleaners.

Avoid phthalates - If you read my blog much, you might know that this is one of my pet peeves. Phthalates are used in making plastics and also in body care and makeup products. Phthalates are endocrine disruptors and can cause hormonal imbalances in young children and infertility in adults. Unfortunately, manufacturers are not required to specify if they use phthalates in their products. In plastics, avoiding anything using PVC can help reduce phthalate exposure. In personal care products, most often the ingredients list only "fragrance". Make sure that the products you buy are either unscented or use only essential oils for scent.

Those are my quick tips for going green for your new baby!
Do you have anything to add?

Related posts:
Best postpartum products - My favorite baby item

What makes me #Hautegreen?

I feel really special because I have been invited to a special pre-conference event in San Diego called #HauteGreen, hosted by a bunch of awesome bloggers and companies. Read the list here.

Calley challenged us all to blog about "What makes [us] #HauteGreen"!
Here are my answers.

Haute
I may not be so Haute, but I am totally hot.
Literally.
It is 102 degrees here most days in Texas.

Can't wait to visit San Diego:


Green
Is this where I list my green cred?
I get all, "Look at me, I am greener than you"?
I can tell you I am not going to win this game, people.

Last year Beth of Fake Plastic Fish was at BlogHer and I was so freaked out by the amount of plastic I have in my home that I was too scared to talk to her. "Hi, I'm Jenny, I have a green blog but I have a 3 BOXES OF ZIPLOCK BAGS AT MY HOUSE. And I totally use them too. All the time!"

I only look green compared to most people in Dallas. Put me Austin or California and I look like a carbon-spewing, environment-destroying consumerist.

This is a blog about living more consciously, about thinking before you act.
Being green is part of that, but it's not everything. I am as green as I can be within the time, financial, and family constraints that I have at this time of my life. I look forward to meeting a bunch of great bloggers who can help me in my journey to be more green in a livable way!
~~~

So there you have it. Am I #HauteGreen? I hope so! I can't wait to meet my fellow hautees!

A post with no SEO or topic

Usually I really try to have good search engine optimization to my posts, making sure that the topic is really searchable since I get most of my traffic from search. I also try to write fairly topic-centric posts that don't ramble unnecessarily.

This is not one of those concise, searchable posts.

I have been wracking my brain to think of topics over the weekend, feeling the pressure to write something awesome. BlogHer 2011 is coming up and I've met lots of new bloggers on Twitter recently who I will probably see in San Diego. I will be giving out all these business cards with my blog address. People will visit the blog! I have to be amazing!!

I like to blog about my ongoing journey to be more conscientious in my life. Unfortunately, I haven't been taking much ground in that area lately.

Little Lady and I are really struggling with her reflux, which has caused about a month of sleepless nights for both of us. We've tried all kinds of things from chiropractic and other natural methods to prescriptions medications (which gave her really bad gas and were worse than nothing at all). Fortunately, the last few nights have been better. If it turns out that I have finally reached a solution, I will be blogging about that for sure. I can tell you right now, it's not a 100% "natural parenting" solution - there is medication involved.

Another area that's been eating up a lot of time is our on-again off-again search to buy (or not buy) a house. My husband and I are not in agreement as to whether this is the time. Since this is a marital issue and an area in which I need to learn to submit to him, I don't feel it would be appropriate to blog about this discussion while it is still ongoing.

So, although these two issues (how can I ease my daughter's suffering and get a good night's sleep? and will we be moving in the next month(s) or not?) are probably the most prominent in my mind these days, they aren't resolved and they aren't something I can really discuss until there is some kind of resolution.

That's where I am right now.

I'd love to blog about things unrelated to what is currently on my mind, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know! Ask me any question you think I might be able to answer in a post or suggest a topic!

7 Quick Takes Friday #19

--- 1 ---

BlogHer 2011 is coming upon us with frightful speed! People are doing blog posts on how to dress, what to bring, how to "green" your experience... I'm not doing any of that because I AM NOT READY! I will be taking Little Lady with me, and at this point I don't think I'll be doing much in the evenings because I don't feel comfortable hiring a local sitter that I don't know to stay in a hotel room with her. Even though a few have been recommended.

--- 2 ---

We've had a rough few weeks around here, or at least I have. Little Lady is still having stomach issues that only allow her to sleep 2 hours at a time, at the most, at night. There have been many, many nights where she's up every 45 minutes. I would go into the details but it would just bore you. We are working with various medications and supplements to try and find a solution. Sometimes she has good days, sometimes not so good.

All the lack of sleep has caught up with me and sometimes I have real trouble forming coherent sentences. And yet, I still have the delusion that I can get the same amount of things done.

--- 3---

Have you seen my post on the Do's and Don'ts of Craigslist? I've been Craigslist-ing like crazy over here as we've moved things around in the house and I'm trying to keep up with Little Sir's development - he gets bored of his smaller toys and wants new challenges.

One of the things I really want for him is a play kitchen, but I can't seem to fall in love with any of the plastic ones. I'd love a wooden one from Ikea but that's just out of our price range right now. I keep having the insane idea that I would be capable of creating something like this:

Source: flickr.com via Jenny on Pinterest

Someone please talk me out of this. Especially in light of the lack of sleep. I would likely cut my fingers off trying to saw holes in the wood.

--- 4 ---

We have been going back and forth on whether we are going to buy a house right now. Currently, it looks like we are not. What surprised me the most, other than how little we can afford to pay for a house, is that we were unable to get a realtor to work with us when we wanted to view some houses. We called at least 3 and none of them even returned our calls. I was of the opinion that realtors were supposed to be nearly predatory in their aggressiveness. Apparently we were calling the wrong ones or something? Because literally, they could not care less.

--- 5 ---

I have started to suspect that some of the sleeping issues for my son, at least, are related to the fact that his bedroom is the hottest room in the house, and the big bay window makes it as bright as daylight starting at 6 in the morning until around 9:30 or 10 every night. And yes, I do have thermal/blackout curtains on the window. The window is 94 inches long so the curtains aren't terribly effective, really. I spent almost $200 on them but they really don't help much at all.

He skips napping altogether about 2-3 days every week and only sleeps from about 10pm to 6am. Which, coincidentally, is the only time it is cooler and dark in the room. Unfortunately we had to put the kids in that room because it is the only one big enough to keep a twin bed and a crib in.

--- 6 ---

Did I mention that our oven vents directly back into the kitchen and that our microwave hasn't worked for over a week because our landlord is too cheap to hire an electrician?

--- 7 ---

Apparently the theme for this 7 Quick Takes is that it is as hot as heck outside right now.
Current temperature: 102 degrees Farenheit.

~~~

Well that's all for this week, be sure to visit Conversion Diary for links to more 7 Quick Takes Fridays.

Craigslist Do's and Don'ts

 Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle - one of my favorite ways to reuse is Craigslist! This free and local online classifieds service can help you buy gently used things of all kinds - I use it mainly for furniture and kids' stuff, but I've also bought maternity clothing and sold a car!

I've been buying and selling on Craigslist for a few years and have developed some pet peeves when it comes to using the service. I also realize that many people might be new to Craigslist, or infrequent users of the service, and might not realize that "UR doing it wrong".

To try and help newbies or those who don't use Craigslist much, I've jotted down the following etiquette and safety tips for buying and selling on Craigslist.

Do's and Don'ts of Buying and Selling on your local Craigslist

Buying

• Do go with listings that have a picture - this reduces the amount of questions you have to ask the seller via email or text.
• Don't consider items outside your ability to travel. I typically won't drive more than 15 miles in DFW because that's 30 minutes in traffic, and stops being worth my while with 2 kids in the car.
• Do offer to meet the seller at a public location like a nearby Starbucks or McDonald's. 
• Do bring someone with you (again, for safety), or at the very least, call someone right before going and arrange to call them again as you are leaving, to make sure everything is safe.
• Do try to ask all the questions you have via email or phone or text and if you don't get satisfactory answers, just don't buy the item.
• Don't make the seller hold an item for you to come look at without a commitment that you will buy. If you don't buy, then the seller has to contact all the people they told "no" to while they were waiting on you. Unfair to the seller! 
• Do respect the seller's communication preferences. If the listing says "email only" or "text only" - don't email or text them just to tell them to call you! They specified their communication preference for a reason.
• Do READ THE POST. You are wasting the seller's time if you constantly email them asking them questions that were answered in the body of their post.

Selling

• Don't put your email address in the body of the post - utilize the Craigslist anonymous email option. 
• Don't include your physical address in the post unless it is a listing for leasing a home. I typically put my city and the closest major intersection in the post and give out my actual address only when a buyer has contacted me for pickup.
• Do include pictures, even if you had to take them with your phone.
• Do link to the manufacturer's description online somewhere if you can - this will save you from answering a ton of buyers' questions.
• Do try to anticipate any potential questions and include the answers in your post. For example: cash only, comes from a pet-free home, only used 3 months, never used, in great shape, etc.
• Do be honest about the condition of the item and why you are getting rid of it. I like to include pictures of any damage (like small scratches or dents) so I don't get a lot of questions.
• Don't be too wordy - I have found that posts with too much text aren't read and the items don't sell.
• Do remove your post as soon as the item has sold! Otherwise you are going to keep getting emails you'll have to keep answering with "sorry the item has sold".

Hope that might help!

Do you have any "Do's" and "Don'ts" you might add?

Free Kids Konserve Lunch Sack!

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that of the more than 3,960,000 tons of plastic bags, sacks and wraps produced annually, 90 percent are discarded and end up in landfills or oceans.

Three of my favorite companies have teamed up to offer a great product FREE for kids lunches! This is perfect timing for me because I have been using (recycled) paper bags for Little Sir's Mother's Day Out lunches this summer and was considering buying a reuseable bag. Now I don't have to! I already had all of these products in my house when I received this email.

So, with no further ado, here is the lowdown:

Annie’s Homegrown, Stonyfield YoKids, Honest Kids and Seventh Generation have teamed up to help families toss their brown bags this back-to-school season by offering a free Kids Konserve lunch sack with the purchase of participating products July 1, 2011 through September 30, 2011.

Consumers are invited to visit Annies.com/bts11, print out the form then mail in proof of purchase of all four brands. Eligible products include:

• Any Annie’s Homegrown item
• Stonyfield YoKids Organic Yogurt 6-packs or Squeezers
• Honest Kids Organic Drinks 8-pack carton or 64-ounce bottle
• Seventh Generation Disinfectants (sprays or wipes)

“We know lunches packed at home with real food are delicious, healthy options for kids,” said Aimee Sands, marketing director, Annie’s. “However, we also recognize that using new brown or plastic bags each day leads to unnecessary waste. That’s why we’re excited to launch this back-to-school promotion; it provides an easy way for families to reduce waste and be rewarded for trying a selection of products the whole family will enjoy.”

My comment - you might notice that Kids Konserve also has free shipping on their web site through July 21! So if you want to order any of the stainless steel containers for your lunch bag, you can save on shipping in the next 10 days.

Happy lunching!

*NOTE: I was not given anything in exchange for this post. Annie's sent me their press release and I used verbiage from it to help convey the correct information.

Paper towel alternatives

I've always been ashamed of how many paper towels we use, even though we use the ones that are made from recycled paper. We buy them in bulk at Costco, you probably know the brand.

I finally got myself and the kids up to Ikea one day, where I knew they had these packs of 10 large, rough, and very absorbent washcloths for $3 or $4 a package (depending on whether there is a sale - I got mine on sale for $3 a pack).

My plan is to use these instead of paper towels.

One thing that had deterred me from using cloth in the past was the idea of having to go all across the house to throw the dirty cloths into the laundry bin in our bedroom. Plus, who wants soggy, food-laden cloths in with their clothing, next to their bed?!

So I also bought a mesh laundry bag, which I hung from the inside of our pantry door. I throw all the dirty/soggy cloths into this bag, which just happens to be right next to our washer and dryer (because, as I might have mentioned, our house is TINY).

It's working well so far! My only challenge is where I should be storing the clean cloths. Right now they are sitting in a big stack on my counter, taking up space. I am completely out of drawers I could put them into (house. tiny. remember?). I do want them to be somewhere that they are easy to see and grab. Any ideas?

*NOTE: I was not paid or contacted by Ikea to endorse their products in any way. I just love their stuff. Except that their cinnamon buns have trans fats in them. WHAT? Yes, it's true. It's evil.

Happy 4th of July!

"This is the finest country anybody ever stole"

- Bobcat Goldthwaite

"I love my country so much, man...
like an exasperating friend"

- Mike Doughty, former lead singer of Soul Coughing

Love the {Home} You're With: kids room switch

Since we made the decision to stay in this house another year (and then promptly started to change our mind again, but that is another story...), we needed to somehow get both kids in one room. In other words, eventually move Little Lady into the crib and Little Sir into a Big Boy Bed (twin size). This is a 3 bedroom, and we would like to move the office stuff out of a bedroom altogether but, um, there is nowhere else to move it. Very small house. Very small.

The rooms in this house are super small as well, but the room in which we were keeping the office/computer stuff was slightly bigger and more conducive to fitting both a twin bed and a crib in it. I know because I measured and made a to-scale grid on graph paper. That is how OCD I am. The conclusion was that we needed to switch the rooms. Front bedroom stuff would go in the back bedroom and vice versa. Also, we had to sell the daybed. Guests will henceforth be sleeping on a queen size air mattress in the newly located office.

I made a board on Pinterest to figure out how to incorporate the design of a big boy bed with the design we currently had in the crib and wall decals.

Here is the arrangement of the rooms BEFORE. {video here}

Here is the arrangement of the rooms AFTER. {video here}

As you can see, the wall behind the big boy bed is currently blank, but we have these animal decals which were in his original room in the house before this one, which I have not put up yet. If you are wondering if this Blik really re-sticks, the answer is: YES. This is the third room I have put the safari decals on and it still hangs. It's definitely not as sticky as it was, but it works. And it never leaves marks when I remove it!

There you have it, this is what we've done so far to love (or tolerate) where we are.
FOR NOW.

NOTE: I was not given any of the things in the rooms for free, especially not the Blik, that stuff is expensive. However, if Blik would like to give me some free Blik, I would say YES, PLEASE!!


ANOTHER NOTE: No, Little Sir is not sleeping in the big boy bed yet. He refuses. See the post on our family blog.