In these globally enlightened times, where eco awareness and healthy living choices are being adopted into so many households, it has become easier than ever to live life to the Greenest. With all the eco-friendly information available to the public at the touch of a fingertip, living an ignorant life of consumption seems careless at this point, if not downright lazy.

Below are 15 simple and easy to follow steps, aimed not only at helping our earth but also at making families reassess their wasteful habits, and hopefully changing them for the better. If you start now, your baby and kids will learn healthy ways and you, your family & friends and Mother Earth will benefit.

1. Turn Down the Thermostat!
I know it may seem silly, but turning down the dial of your thermostat by even a few degrees saves you huge energy and money in the long run. For every unnecessary degree warmer you keep your home, you increase your energy use by 6-8%. Over time, those extra degrees add up and can make for a hefty heating bill in the winter.

2. Replace Your Light bulbs with LED
Many are reluctant to invest in LED light bulbs for their homes based on their higher prices, though after even a few short months the change in your bill will make you glad you did. The normal light bulb is only 10-15% efficient, wasting 85-90% of its energy on producing heat. The LED bulb has a 90% efficiency rate and uses 75% less electricity. The facts are simple, living green means living with LED.

3. Keep Electronics Plugged into a Power Strip
Idle current, also known as phantom load or vampire power, is the wasting of your homes electricity through inactive devices that are still plugged in. Idle current accounts for 10% of your homes total energy usage, and 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Power Strips are a helpful invention in that you can plug more than one appliance into the strip and turn them all off or on easily, though recently theses Power Strips have been improved to be more energy sufficient. Using a sensory circuit the strip reads the level of current running through the socket, and if the devices enter a “Standby Mode” (30 watts or less) the strip will turn off, saving energy during periods of inactivity.

4. Shorten Showers and Baths
Baths and showers are responsible for nearly a quarter of all domestic water use. The average shower can use up to 11 liters (3 gallons) of water or more per minute! And a full bathtub can use 150 liters (40 gallons) Aside from doing your best to cut down shower time it is also worth it to invest in faucet aerators and low-flow showerheads. You can also purchase an eco-friendly front loading washer and dryer for a reduced energy expenditure when washing cloth diapers, hippie baby and other clothes! If 10,000 B.C. households switched to low-flow showerheads, the annual energy savings could power 300 Canadian homes for a year. (http://www.bchydro.com/guides_tips/green-your-home/water_guide/low_flow_shower.html)

5. Donate or Recycle Your Electronics
Electronic devices can contain many harmful materials, which is why the proper disposal of your electronics is so important. The Recycling Council of British Columbia has made it possible to dispose of your electronics at local Return-it depots for proper handling and recycling. The growing problem prompted the B.C. Government as of August 2007 to ban certain electronics from being collected by garbage pickup. Every year over 140, 000 tones of improperly disposed of electronics still manage to find their way into our landfills, and it is up to us as consumers to drastically decrease that ridiculous number.
(www.bchydro.com/guides_tips/green-your-home/electronics_guide/r_r_electronics.html)

6. Activate the “Sleep Mode” on your Computer
Sleep Mode is a low power state for your electric device that significantly saves energy consumption. It is ideal for computers as when inactive go into a kind of hibernation, but can quickly restart without the loss of data. Another power sucker from the computer is the screen saver. Originally invented to prevent images from burning into older monitors, the screen saver has now become obsolete, burning massive energy for no other purpose than a pretty picture. Simply set the sleep mode of your computer to your preferred inactivity time, it is that easy.

7. Compost
Composting is an efficient and easy way to dispose of anything from fruit and vegetable waste to coffee grounds to wood shavings. All you need is a partially shaded spot in your yard and a container with breathable holes. Compost containers vary, many available for sale in stores, but home made ones are easy to build with just some boards and chicken wire. Balance is important to a compost bin, and need a mix of one-part greens (fruit or vegetable waste, grass mulch etc.) and two parts browns (dry grass and leaves, twigs, shredded newspaper etc.) Add finished compost to the soil in your garden to give the plants extra nutrients.

8. Check Your House for Leaks
20% of all heat lost in your home is due to poor ventilation and draughts, which is why it is so important to inspect all windows and doors for air leaks. An easy way to do this is to hold a lit candle up to the window, and if it flickers you’ve found yourself a leak. A major culprit of draughts in the house is the fireplace, which can account for 14% of the cold air in your house. It is therefore very important to keep all airflow in your home under control.
Another easy way to control temperatures in your home is to simply open the blinds during the day to let natural light in, and close them at night to keep cool air from entering.

9. Switch to e-billing
The advantages of e-billing are numerous, aside from the benefit to the environment you would now have all your documents organized and available instantly from any computer in the world. Skeptics question this new tool and doubt its reliability and privacy, and its true, nothing is as safe or concrete as paper, but with the improvements of the programs the safety is steadily becoming equal.

10. Subscribe to Online Newspapers and Magazines
They seem a simple luxury, but a newspaper subscription to one household in a year can produce 250 Kilograms (550 pounds) of paper that may not even be recycled. Every year in the United States 2 billion books are published, 359 million magazines are being printed and 4 billion newspapers are being published. (Purdue Research Foundation and US Environmental Protection Agency, 1996) and we have the ability to not recycle any of it. If not yet ready to make the switch, then at the very least buy a blue bag for your newspaper to be picked up and recycled each week.

11. Thrift It
Thrift and donation stores are hugely beneficial for two primary reasons. They are a great place to drop off your old and unwanted clothes and other items, while also providing a very cost effective place to shop. Thrifting, as known by any collector, is a great way to find fun and nifty artifacts for decorating both your home and wardrobe. In fact, we regularly cruise thrift stores for wonderful vintage and hippy fabric to ‘rescue’ and upcycle into hippie baby clothes. An easy way to keep you donating is setting up a bin in your home, much like a laundry basket, to store your unwanted clothes in-between trips to the thrift store, then at the end of the month gather all items from around the house and drop them off.

12. Air Dry Whenever Possible
It may seem like a hassle, but drying both your clothes and dishes without the use of appliances can save you serious money on the bills. Aside from the refrigerator the electric clothes dryer is the main energy leech in a household, which is why using a clothesline makes all the more sense. All you need a moderately sunny spot in your yard or balcony with a breeze. They’re easy, use 0 electricity and are completely free. Another great way to use air to the best of our advantage is to turn off the dry cycle of your dishwasher and open the door and let the dishes air-dry. If not yet ready to make the shift to a clothesline there are many energy efficient washers and dryers out there. The most efficient are front load models, which fit more laundry per load and conserve much more water. Another thing to always remember is to clean your lint tray after each load, because a clean tray makes your dryer 10% more efficient.

13. Landscaping and Planting
If you are planning to landscape your yard and plant new plants it is wise to choose the plants carefully. Yes, we all love visually appealing flowers, but they become very impractical and during the harshest months of summer and winter. A great way to ensure the renewal of your garden in the spring is to pick plants that are native to the area you live and are accustomed to the terrain and weather. Aside from lasting much longer than some flimsy flowers, these plants will flourish under the lowest of water amounts, as they have been engineered to fit to your climate.

14. Use the Rain
A great and easy way to lessen your household’s water intake is to utilize your regions rainfall. A simple and hassle free way to do this is to direct the spouts of your gutters towards any nearby trees or gardens, giving them an extra dose of water every time it rains. Another easy and efficient use of your rainwater is to set up a rain barrel. This is simply a large barrel with a lid (45 gallons or so) that collects water from the eaves of your house through the downspout that can be saved and stored through all seasons. With rainwater being completely natural and chemical free it is perfect for use on your plants and lawn and is absolutely free! There are even rain barrels with taps attached that can be connected to a hose for easy use.

15. RECYCLE
Recycle, recycle, recycle! This is the final and most effective step you can take to make your house a green house. The best way to keep yourself recycling is to have designated and accessible bins or boxes to keep your papers, plastics and returns in order. Also get in the habit of thinking carefully before throwing something into the garbage. What is it made of? Can you reuse it? Compost it? Recycle it? One ton of recycled paper can save 17 trees from being produced into paper. If everyone recycles just one issue of their newspaper per week it would save more than half a million trees in just one week. The proofs of the positive effects from recycling on our earth are endless, which is why it is the single most important thing anyone can do to save our planet.

This concludes our list of tips for making your house more Green, and I truly hope I have at the very least made you think about the impact we as a people have had and will continue to have on our planet. We cannot continue living as we have done, with our blind consumption and mindless harvesting of irreplaceable resources. We must change our ways now, or be forced to change in the years to come.

Be cool hippie babies,

Delaney Ryan ~ Hippy Grandma Eco Love “Fresh Age” writer & primo creative hippie wild child!

Are you a heart-centered and “soul-filled shopper”? Know of a new baby arriving or are you looking for hippie baby clothes? Keep the heart, soul & hippy love flowing to your family, friends & Mother Earth with purchases from Hippy Grandma: an Eco-Boutique selling fair trade, one of a kind, earth friendly treasures.

Through your purchases, you help local artisans, hand-crafting grandmas on a pension, women’s fair trade co-ops and programs designed to support vulnerable mamas & babies. You make the purchases & we send the ‘hippy love’ for free! Please share the hippy love news widely and wildly with your soul brothers & sisters (copyright held by Hippy Grandma Ventures Ltd.). www.hippygrandma.com

A “Hippy Love Welcome to the World Bundle”.

Bamboo and Organic Cotton Cloth Diapers

A Pair of Handknit Bamboo Hippie Baby Socks

A Mama Spice Love Bundle for the New Mommy

“Sleepy Love Baby Bundle”

A Bamboo and Organic Cotton Baby Blanket

“Love Child Baby Bundle”

We hope you enjoy these cool newborn baby gift and baby shower gift basket ideas!

peace, namaste & hippy love for generations!

Zoey ~ founding hippy of Hippy Grandma Eco-Boutique and life coach for women

Are you a heart-centered and “soul-filled shopper”? Know of a new baby arriving or are you looking for hippy baby clothes? Keep the heart, soul & hippy love flowing to your family, friends & Mother Earth with purchases from Hippy Grandma: an Eco-Boutique selling fair trade, one of a kind, earth friendly treasures.

Through your purchases, you help local artisans, hand-crafting grandmas on a pension, women’s fair trade co-ops and programs designed to support vulnerable mamas & babies. Please share the hippy love news widely and wildly with your soul brothers & sisters (copyright held by Hippy Grandma Ventures Ltd.). www.hippygrandma.com

Send ‘hippy love for generations’ to a new baby with these eco-friendly and unique baby gifts and help Mother Earth too!

1. An ‘old fashioned lace or chenille baby bonnet’

2. A pair of ‘lovingly handknit by a real grandma’ bamboo hippy baby socks!

3. A natural bamboo and organic cotton blend baby blanket!

4. An adorable, exquisitely finished & lined vintage chenille baby jacket!

5. Soft & cozy “Shoo Foo” bamboo blend footed sleepers!

6. Spicebodhi Baby Ayurvedic Aromatherapy Package with Handmade Soap

7. Commission an “Angel Heart Art Doll” part of the Kraggelys Family by artist CD Good

8. Bamboo & Organic Cloth Diapers

9. A Dream Child CD including a magical bedtime story!

10. Hippy Love Welcome to the World Bundle!

peace, namaste & hippy love for generations!

Zoey ~ founding hippy of Hippy Grandma Eco-Boutique and life coach for women

Are you a heart-centered and “soul-filled shopper”? Know of a new baby arriving or are you looking for hippy baby clothes? Keep the heart, soul & hippy love flowing for generations with purchases from Hippy Grandma: an Eco-Boutique selling fair trade, one of a kind, earth friendly treasures.

Through your purchases, you help local artisans, hand-crafting grandmas on a pension, women’s fair trade co-ops and programs designed to support vulnerable mamas & babies. Please share the hippy love news widely and wildly with your soul brothers & sisters (copyright held by Hippy Grandma Ventures Ltd.). www.hippygrandma.com

At Hippy Grandma, we stay in tune with the moon cycles! During this period of ‘full moon magic’, our featured gift is a ‘hippy love welcome to the world bundle’. This bundle makes the perfect gift for a new hippie baby and her mama and is imbued with the love of many artisans!

Click here for more info!

peace, namaste & hippy love for generations!

Zoey ~ founding hippy of Hippy Grandma Eco-Boutique and life coach for women

Are you a heart-centered and “soul-filled shopper”? Know of a new baby arriving or are you looking for hippy baby clothes? Keep the heart, soul & hippy love flowing for generations with purchases from Hippy Grandma: an Eco-Boutique selling fair trade, one of a kind, earth friendly treasures.

Through your purchases, you help local artisans, hand-crafting grandmas on a pension, women’s fair trade co-ops and programs designed to support vulnerable mamas & babies. Please share the hippy love news widely and wildly with your soul brothers & sisters (copyright held by Hippy Grandma Ventures). www.hippygrandma.com

I love this quote and use it for all elements of my life and business. Anita Roddick certainly exemplified living a passionate life and demonstrated this through her philanthropic work! I have found in both my coaching and with the artisan suppliers for Hippy Grandma Eco-Boutique, that most people joyfully engage in what they are passionate about, if they have figured out what this is! What some folks seem to struggle with is figuring out their passions.

I think the word ‘passion’ even scares people, due to some of the sexual connotations, however, the definition is simply ‘a powerful emotion, like enthusiasm, love or joy’. Of course there can be strong passionate negative emotions too and one can also learn alot about themselves from looking at these states as well.

Passion is very powerful and can truly “fire up” your life and/or business.

To gain clarity on your passions and how these can be integrated into your life or business planning ask yourself the following questions and then design accordingly so your life unfolds in alignment with the answers:

1. What makes me cry?
2. What makes me laugh?
3. What do I love?
4. If I could do and be anything in the world, what would that be?
5. If I didn’t have to work, what would I do?
6. What gives me the most energy?
7. What makes my heart ’sing’?

peace, namaste & hippy love for generations!

Zoey ~ founding hippy of Hippy Grandma Eco-Boutique and life coach for women

Are you a heart-centered and “soul-filled shopper”? Know of a new baby arriving or are you looking for hippy baby clothes? Keep the heart, soul & hippy love flowing for generations with purchases from Hippy Grandma: an Eco-Boutique selling fair trade, one of a kind, earth friendly treasures.

Through your purchases, you help local artisans, hand-crafting grandmas on a pension, women’s fair trade co-ops and programs designed to support vulnerable mamas & babies. Please share the hippy love news widely and wildly with your soul brothers & sisters (copyright held by Hippy Grandma Ventures). www.hippygrandma.com

I plan to celebrate and enjoy the amazing natural beauty and surroundings of our local area and I plan to join my husband as we celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary on Aug 17th! I also plan to celebrate some exciting new developments for Hippy Grandma.



My plan is to kick back, read, write in my journal and move out of linear time for awhile. I intend to “be” not “do”.

I may bring the word “accomplish” back in September and I may not!

I think the world would be a happier place if we all focused less on “accomplishing” and more on “enjoying”.



Here is an excerpt from one of my favourite children’s books for summer (”The Squeeze More Inn”), by a local author Elizabeth Ferber and it describes a summer holiday beach day perfectly!


”We played there for hours, collecting shells, 
building a sandcastle, pretending we were mermaids, 
and sea monsters and movie stars.  We swam until we 
got wrinkles.  Then we had a picnic while the hot sun 
dried our salty skin.  In the afternoon we picked berries.  
We ate so many our tongues turned blue.  
There were just enough 
berries left for Maureen’s dad to bake us a big juicy pie.  At 
night we had a huge bonfire and roasted wieners.  The moon was 
gigantic and there were a million tiny stars.”

Enjoy your summer day!

peace, namaste & hippy love for generations!

Zoey ~ founding hippy of Hippy Grandma Eco-Boutique and life coach for women

Are you a heart-centered and “soul-filled shopper”? Know of a new baby arriving or looking for hippy baby clothes? Keep the heart, soul & hippy love flowing for generations with purchases from Hippy Grandma: an Eco-Boutique selling fair trade, one of a kind, earth friendly treasures.

Through your purchases, you help local artisans, hand-crafting grandmas on a pension, women’s fair trade co-ops and programs designed to support vulnerable mamas & babies. Please share the hippy love news widely and wildly with your soul brothers & sisters (copyright held by Hippy Grandma Ventures). www.hippygrandma.com

In this book, Grace Bulger, a marketing consultant specializing in corporate identity work and former VP of communications for GE Capital Rail Services, brings a strategic, values based process to designing a business.
While totally open to her wording the title with the word “spiritual”, I couldn’t actually find many references to spirituality and certainly few references to religion or a higher power. What I did find was a clearly laid out, easy to read primer for any socially responsible entrepreneur who wants their business to be an expression of their life purpose.

Not just for the pre-start up phase but for any entrepreneur wanting to re-energize their business, the author mixes real life business examples with practical and easy to follow exercises. You and your business will benefit!
In fact, I used many of the principles in this book when designing Hippy Grandma!

If you admire business women like Anita Roddick of the Body Shop or respect the social responsibility of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, then I think you will love this book!


peace, namaste & hippy love for generations!

Zoey ~ founding hippy of Hippy Grandma Eco-Boutique

Are you a heart-centered and “soul-filled shopper”? Know of a new baby arriving? Keep the heart, soul & hippy love flowing for generations with purchases from Hippy Grandma: an Eco-Boutique selling fair trade, one of a kind, earth friendly treasures.

Through your purchases, you help local artisans, hand-crafting grandmas on a pension, women’s fair trade co-ops and programs designed to support vulnerable mamas & babies. Please share the hippy love news widely and wildly with your soul brothers & sisters (copyright held by Hippy Grandma Ventures) .www.hippygrandma.com

Having just returned from a 10 day sailing trip to Desolation Sound, BC, where re-provisioning is tricky due to lack of marine stores, I had plenty of practical opportunity to add to my ‘green sailing tip list’. These tips have been gleaned throughout 23 years of sailing in BC waters (most recently aboard our 35 ft Hunter sailboat ‘Orion’) with my husband and daughters.

Here are my top ten tips for green & practical sailing from the first mate and chief cook & bottle washer’s perspective:

1. Sail as much as possible as sailing by nature is ‘green’ as wind is the power source!
2. Use the ocean for composting fruit & vegetable peelings and coffee grounds.
3. Prior to leaving home, pack dry goods in Tupperware containers and zip loc bags to avoid having to dispose of cardboard containers and to save on space.
4. Add an ice block to the freezer/fridge to avoid an excess draw on the batteries.
5. Freeze bottled water at home and use this first as an ice source and then as fresh water once unthawed.
6. Bring solar powered lamps for reading at night.
7. Consider having solar panels and/or wind turbine installed.
8. Use white vinegar as a natural deoderizer for the head and all purpose cleaning agent.
9. Conserve water by washing dishes once/day.
10. Don’t forget the following essentials for the galley which add zest to non-perishable dishes and meals: cinnamon, garlic, sun dried tomatoes, onions, balsamic vinegar and for a special treat towards the end of the trip: Pillsbury biscuits, croissants, cookie dough and finally a box of brownie mix.

peace, namaste & hippy love for generations!

Zoey ~ founding hippy of Hippy Grandma Eco-tique and a happy sailor

Are you a heart-centered and “soulfilled shopper”? Know of a new baby arriving? Keep the heart, soul & hippy love flowing for generations with purchases from Hippy Grandma: an Eco-Boutique selling fair trade, one of a kind, earth friendly treasures.

Through your purchases, you help local artisans, hand-crafting grandmas on a pension, women’s fair trade co-ops and programs designed to support vulnerable mamas & babies. Please share the hippy love news widely and wildly with your soul brothers & sisters (copyright held by Hippy Grandma Ventures) .www.hippygrandma.com

by Zoey Ryan ~ founding hippy of Hippy Grandma Eco-tique and life coach for women

From my perspective, elder women are sages! Being a sage includes: wisdom, intuition and gentleness, amoungst other qualities.

Intuition is an interesting one to ponder. Much has been written about “women’s intuition”, sometimes from the perspective of appreciation and depth, yet occasionally with a slightly minimizing and patronizing tone, discounting the richness and wisdom inherent in “women’s intuition.” One can sub-categorize this intuition as a “mother’s way of knowing”; “a nurse’s way of knowing”; “a healer’s way of knowing” etc.

Personally, I have experienced a little bit of trickiness when tapping into and planning to take action based on my intuition. This is also a “trickiness” that has been expressed by a number of my coaching clients. Since our egos/pain bodies/gremlins (one can use a variety of words to describe this type “energy field”) love attachment, continuity, the status quo, high drama, judgments etc; the trickiness becomes an interesting dialogue with ourselves to figure out if what we are “hearing” is our intuition or our ego. When faced with this dialogue, which can feel abit like a committee meeting with in us, the following phrase can be very helpful; “the body never lies”.

If you are interested, this week, tap into your intuition, your inner way of knowing. Be attentive to those other voices that may come in. Using your body as an indicator of intuition, where in your body does you intuition reside?

Intuition tends to be soft, gentle, neutral, flowing and centered in your body.

Ego/pain body/gremlin messages tend to feel strident, kind of whiny, negative and scattered.

Play around with this during the week!

Self-care Enchantments:

1. Think of a time that you experienced very strong intuition about something, and acted on it.

2. Think of a time that your ego, or pain body or gremlin was loud and insistent. For more information on “pain body’s” read any of Eckhart Tolle’s work like “The Power of Now”, or “A New Earth”.

3. Consider how intuition and ego feel different for you and learn how to tell the difference.

Peace, namaste & hippy love for generations!

Zoey

Are you a heart-centered and “soulfilled shopper”? Know of a new baby arriving? Keep the heart, soul & hippy love flowing for generations with purchases from Hippy Grandma: an Eco-Boutique selling fair trade, one of a kind, earth friendly treasures.

Through your purchases, you help local artisans, hand-crafting grandmas on a pension, women’s fair trade co-ops and programs designed to support vulnerable mamas & babies. Please share the hippy love news widely and wildly with your soul brothers & sisters (copyright held by Hippy Grandma Ventures) . www.hippygrandma.com

These days, my favorite cookbook, “rebar modern food cook book” by local BC chefs, Audrey Alsterberg & Wanda Urbanowicz has the most unbelievable recipe, which is my new ‘hippy grandma far out and fab’ brownie recipe.

Check out the ‘vegan fudge brownies’ on page 218 of their cookbook and let me know what you think! While you are cruising through the cook book, also try the ‘wilted spinach salad’!

peace, namaste & hippy love for generations,

Zoey ~ founding hippy at the hippy grandma eco-tique

Are you a heart centered and soul-filled shopper? Have a look through our on-line eco-tique featuring unique, green & groovy baby gifts and treasures. Our suppliers are grandmas on pensions, women solo-preneurs and women’s fair trade co-ops. Your purchases help care for Mother Earth and vulnerable pregnant moms and babies! Please share this information widely and wildly with your soul brothers and sisters!
www.hippygrandma.com