Organic Chocolate on Sale!

December 26th, 2007

Last month, when I wrote a post about the Best Store-Bought Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever, my cyberbuddy Sher from Wrekehavoc.com passed along a recommendation for Green & Black’s Organic Dark Chocolate.

Ever faithful to the cause of ferreting out truly worthwhile organic products, I tried Green & Black’s, and just as Sher said, it’s “da bomb.” And of course, purely in the name of research, I couldn’t just stop after sampling the dark chocolate Sher recommended. No, I had to try the luscious raisin & hazelnut and the espresso flavors too.

Green & Black’s Organic Chocolate on Sale

Now I’m happy to pass along the news that Giant is offering Green & Black’s for the sale price of two bars for $5. That’s a savings of $1.19 off the regular price. But hurry, the sale ends tomorrow – December 27.

–Lynn

The Last Word on Green Tacky, Tacky

December 22nd, 2007

It’s been two weeks since I wrote about Green Tacky, Tacky and asked my dear readers for tips on where to find tacky “green” LED lights like choo choo trains, reindeer, Santa and the like. Guess what? No luck. Not a tip. Nada. Zilch. I even called upon my dear friend Karen, who works as an “elf” at her family’s business, Santa’s World, one of America’s largest importers of Christmas decorations. Not even she had heard of tacky green outdoor decorations.

What’s more, our one remaining tacky item, the 8 foot tall towering Santa, died – or deflated or something. What a sad sight. The neighborhood kids are beside themselves.

A Sad Sight: Deflated Santa

So now in a single season, our house has gone from being the talk of the neighborhood to simply another boring tastefully decorated house with LED lights.

To make matters worse, some of my friends in the “real world” have suggested that tacky and green don’t go together. Are you either green and tasteful, or non-environmentally friendly and tacky?

And if I don’t find tacky green outdoor decorations? What will I say to the neighborhood kids, as they gaze at the deflated Santa on my lawn? Will I commit an eco-sin and buy the non-environmentally friendly outside decorations? Well, I don’t confess sins but every Mother in America knows what I’ll do next.

— Lynn

Check for Toxic Toys While Shopping: Text Messaging

December 15th, 2007

Now you can send a text message from your mobile phone to check a toy’s status in the Healthytoys.org database. How cool is that? Just SMS text healthy toys [toy name] to 41411. Check here for more details.

An LED Rant, Warning and Recommendation

December 10th, 2007

Here at the Green Tacky, Tacky home front, we were quite content with our new environmentally friendly LED lights procured from Target Friday evening. However, upon trying to install them this weekend, we realized that the lights were designed for built-in obsolescence. If one light blows, there’s no way to remove it to replace the bulb. Riddle me this: why are products only half-way green? You see it all the time: organic food served on Styrofoam plates or plastic cards in a food co-op. It just is crazy.

So off we set to our neighborhood hardware store, Strosniders, where they tend to carry the very finest of everything. (They also happen to be 100% wind-powered, isn’t that cool?) For about $3 more a box than the cheap environmentally unfriendly LEDs we bought at Target, we purchased replacement LEDs that came complete with two spare bulbs in the packaging. Check out Good Tidings brand Ultimate Indoor / Outdoor LED lights.

— Lynn

Green Tacky, Tacky

December 7th, 2007

I left small town New Jersey years ago to fashion myself a Washington DC sophisticate. Prior to kids, I had largely succeeded, at least until the Christmas season rolled around and my true roots were revealed: New Jersey through and through. You see, in Jersey, Christmas means Christmas lights. Not the tasteful white lights that women who read “Southern Living” string up alongside beautiful displays of greenery. Christmas means big, honking, obnoxious, “tacky,” as my British DH would say, BIG LIGHTS like at the “Elvis House” in Mahwah, New Jersey and the Koenig Christmas House in Lodi, New Jersey, which features 43,000 lights synchronized to music and a bowling Santa scene.

I tried to explain to DH that next to those crazy light shows, our display of a towering eight foot tall inflatable Santa, blinking choo choo train, miniature lighted Santas up the front walk, and Rudolph (of course), accented by tasteful Southern Living-esque white icicle lights along the front of the house was positively modest.

What I never realized as I amassed that amazing collection of Christmas lights at various post Christmas close-out sales was that unlike the fine New Jersey lights of my youth, these were designed for built-in obsolesence. There’s no way to replace the bulbs, and besides, now that I’m more energy-aware, I felt a bit guilty of an eco-sin.

So tonight we trudged out to Target to get some energy-efficient LED Christmas lights. Regrettably, LEDs are seriously lacking in the tacky department. We did manage to find some multi-colored big bulby looking lights for the house and a rounded Merry Christmas sign, but I had to pass on a replacement choo choo train, Rudolph, and mini-Santa lights because they were none available in the LED section. What’s more, the multi-colored LEDs were nearly sold out. There were plenty of those bright blue LEDs that hurt your eyes when you look at them.

If you need to replace your old energy-hogging incandescent lights with energy efficient LEDs, you better get right to it, because the stores are selling out of them. Here are a few online sources for LEDs: Mr.Light.com, Holidayleds.com, and Christmaslightsetc.com. And here’s a cool site that sells solar powered lights – Solarsanta.com.

By the way, if you see any tacky, tacky LED lights, PLEASE let me know where to find them!

–Lynn

New Toy Safety Website Launched

December 5th, 2007

Just in time for the holiday gift giving season, Healthytoys.org, a new toy safety website, launched today. Backed by The Ecology Center and a coalition of environmental groups, the site allows consumers to view toys that contain dangerous chemicals, such as lead, PVC, cadmium, chlorine, arsenic, mercury, chromium, tin, and antimony. What a list! Anyone else out there wondering how and why we’ve allowed this to go on for so long?

You can nominate a toy to be tested, with the promise that its nomination should appear on the site within a few days. Readers will vote on which toys should be tested first. The site is incredibly feature-rich, so plan to spend some time exploring it. The website has been overloaded — it was incredibly busy today — a sure sign that parents welcome the assistance in sorting out toy safety issues.

And if you find Healthytoys.org helpful, you can make a donation to support the site.

— Lynn

Copyright Organicmania 2007