My Sweet Sprout is currently offering FREE SHIPPING* until the New Year! Take advantage of this opportunity by shopping for your favorite eco-friendly children’s clothing, art, furniture, decor and toys! It’s our way of saying thank you for including us in your holiday celebrations! Enjoy the savings while enjoying products that make you feel good and green!

*please note: unfortunately free shipping does not apply to Modern Playhouses. That’s only 3 items! The rest of the products are completely up for grabs! That’s terrific right?!

Sweet On You Hat

We are giddy and super excited to bring these adorable hats made of renewable bamboo to the My Sweet Sprout family! One of my dreams is to have my own bamboo farm! Maybe one day, these Eco-friendly hats will be created from  my bamboo yarn!

Next Monday(because starting anything just always feels more appropriate on a Monday!), we will start the Eat Local Challenge!

It goes something like this…

For one week, commit to the following:

• Spend 10% of your grocery budget on local food — grown within a 100-mile radius of wherever you live.
• Try one new fruit or vegetable each day.
• Preserve food to enjoy later in the year.

Some of you might already be doing this naturally without even realizing it…that’s terrific! Or some of us might just think we are doing it! This is a great way to observe your local eating habits!

http://www.eatlocal.net/challenge.html

The perfect tower for your little prince and princess!

Right now we are loading up the rest of the new Imagination Box toys featured on My Sweet Sprout! Not only do I love the line of eco-friendly 100% recyclable paintable toys but I also just really really really love the environmentally friendly thread that runs from the family through designs and straight to our little ones. Let’s just say that I’m a little(ummm….a LOT) pleased to welcome them to the My Sweet Sprout family!

…at our eco-friendly bamboo infused winter hats for your adorable toddlers!

Desperately want to attend Omega Institute Family week! I want us to start sharing the Omega experience with Mia….every single summer! I imagine there will be summers we have to force her to go(but secretly she can’t wait!). Right now at four, she’s up for any and all adventures. So refreshing! I need to follow her lead:-)

http://www.eomega.org/omega/visitors/family-week/

Be True to Ewe

Adore this video done by Tiny Revolutionary!  I absolutely love love love their shirts! Eco-friendly children’s  T-shirts that have the most beautiful messages. Messages that I want our little Mia to live….one being that it is okay to be YOU! You are perfect just the way you are! And so are all of our children…regardless of the societal pressures all parents feel. From the moment they are born, we are constantly pulling them into roles and images that society has created as right or wrong.  One of the hardest things I have faced as a parent is just to follow my own instinct. At the end of the day, the only thing our children want from us is to just love them in all their natural perfection.

Ode to the okra

I have always know that we would make our way to Madison and now the time has come.

We are officially making our (permanent…crossing fingers) home in a town that just makes me so super excited! Letting go of the South might be a bit difficult…ok a lot! I am nervous about the lack of grits or sweet tea…but I’m sure my saddle bags will appreciate it! Plus we are bringing ganny and pawpaw with us…so technically I could have grits and sweet tea for breakfast, lunch and dinner…and friend okra…as much as I want!

One summer when I was little, my grandfather had brought crates of okra from the farm in Indiana. My mother told me if I cut it up and bagged it, she would cook it for me anytime I wanted. That summer, I literally ate it for every meal and snack.  And I NEVER got tired of it….fried okra is the absolute best vegetable in the world! But only Ganny knows how to fry it up to perfection.

So thinking and salivating about okra got me to thinking. I bet Madison needs some okra.  A little eco-friendly restaurant offering up the finest vegan selection of every kind of okra you could imagine. A little ode to the okra. A little appreciation for the finest delicacy that the south fries up. And only okra…and sweet tea to wash it down.

Well maybe some cheese too…Wisconsin’s best….hmmm…maybe a cheese dip for the okra!

I’ve never ever ever ever liked roller coasters. It’s always borderline painful to ride them. The fast and furious equivalent of being held down and tickled. And whether it’s roller coasting or tickling, those around me will experience my crazy/psycho, really loud, roaring manic laugh. The scary kind of laugh…not pretty or cute. It is guaranteed to make everybody uncomfortable. So right now, while I’m not on a physical roller coaster  (I’m in a coffee shop) or being tickled(that would make for one very awkward situation), I am on a bit of an emotional girly roller coaster. Some days, I feel like I’m on an out-of-control loopy dee loop and some days I’m just in a free fall nightmare(I really really do not like those kind!)
And well today I am on a iddy-biddy easy breezy coaster that’s slowing perfectly so I can hop off…and enjoy this beautiful ride of entrepreneurial bliss called www.mysweetsprout.com. Only the coolest eco-friendly kids website EVER!!! May the peace be with you!

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch – Good Morning America

this made me so sad and disgusted and angry…angry at myself included…I’ve always been conflicted about plastic(watch the video…hard to ignore the disgusting amount of plastic). We’ve gone back and forth from using plastic to boycotting and back again. I think the use of plastic is just a big experiment and we are the unfortunate little guinea pigs. But it is really no surprise that there is some gigantic floating island of garbage(twice the size of TEXAS)…it’s floating out in the ocean…the rest is floating in our blood stream. And everytime I open Mia’s gigantic sippy cup drawer(yes an entire deep drawer dedicated to the sippy…every toddler needs about a hundred), I am mortified. At myself and my irresponsibility. So everyday until those sippies are gone, I am going to get rid of at least one(I think she would  be traumatized if I discarded all at once!)…maybe I will mail them to Terra Cycle. But I will not put that sippy in the garbage…maybe we will make a planter so then that poor little plant can sip on a bit of the chemical cocktail we just can’t get enough of.