In life, as in a garden, you reap what you sow.
~Nancilee Wydra- Feng Shui in the Garden

Nothing makes me feel better than being outside on a warm, sunny day working in my garden. I relax and have time to think. The stress melts away as I pull weeds and dig my hands into the soil. I feel a great sense of accomplishment when the flowers bloom and the fruits and vegetables bear fruit.

When harvest time comes I enjoy sharing my bounty with friends and family.

Gardening is a wonderful way to relax, enjoy nature, live green and save money. Growing your own fruit or vegetables can dramatically slash your grocery bill.

Just a few plants can keep you stocked for months. (continue reading…)

Art supplies are wonderful and versatile. What other items offer fun play, creative expression, and learning all in one…for very inexpensive prices?

With art supplies children have the world at their fingertips. There is so much that can be done, be made, be transformed…but with toxic ingredients like lead showing up in kids’ products you want to be sure that the creative supplies are not only fun but safe for the little ones.

Stubby Pencil Studio offers the biggest selection around that I have found, of eco-friendly, non-toxic art supplies and old fashioned games and toys.

Perfect items to stuff in Easter baskets. I have a crafty family. All of us are DIY handmade type people, so craft supplies are always on hand; however because we are so crafty we tend to go through them pretty fast. Or they mysteriously disappear.

That is either thanks to my budding magician toddler whose disappearing sippy cup act beats anything Copperfield could offer, or it could be the invisible troll that also loves socks, not sure.

Anyway, we always need new crayons, paints and sketchbooks that rapidly get filled with wonderful ideas and beautiful works of art. (continue reading…)

©iStockphoto.com - Patryk Galka

The biggest thing right now is being green, everybody’s doing it from celebrities to your neighbor on the corner. You may be wondering though, what can you really do to live a greener life that doesn’t cost a fortune or have you munching on granola.

Trying to wade through all the green information floating around out there can be difficult. Everyone’s popping up with green tag lines and green products, but is throwing out all your old stuff and buying new eco-friendly products going to solve anything? No, it just leads more stuff in the landfill which defeats the purpose of going green.

Here are simple ways you can go green without going broke or changing your lifestyle very much. These simple things can even save you money. (continue reading…)

ELAVA Botanik believes that what goes on the body should be as pure as what goes in the body. With that thought in mind they created the the first 100% natural, certified organic fruit pulp hair care products. Each product is marked with a “fresh until” date just like grocery products.

“ELAVA” is Finnish for “living.” Their ingredients demonstrate their standards of purity with non-allergenic, non-toxic, paraben-free, sulfate-free formulas completely without glutens, silicones, or synthetic fragrance. They are set apart from other brands even further by the use of whole organic foods and not botanical extracts. (continue reading…)

Welcome to 2011! Four days in, we hope that your healthy living resolutions for you and your family are sticking. Whether you’ve resolved to eat healthier (in whatever form that takes for you and yours), exercise more, drop unhealthy habits, focus on mind-body health or spend more time as a family, remember that resolutions and goals are a process. One bump in the road does not mean all effort up to that point has been wasted.

We have some great plans for GreenDivaMom in the coming year, and we’re going to need the help of you, our readers, to make those happen. Keep watching to see how you can be a part of another great year here.

ⓒ iStockPhoto - cstar55

Gift wrapping is one of the biggest problems greenies encounter during the holidays. It’s hard to find eco-friendly gift wrap options in local stores.

A large majority of the gift wrap we use ends up in landfills. According to Gift Bags Gone Green every year Americans alone spend more than $5 billion dollars on gift wrap, bags, and tissue paper.

So what can we do to make a difference? (continue reading…)