Eleventh Hour Wishlist

Hark! It's upon us! 

If you are running behind with shopping and are desperate for a few ideas, here are some last moment goodies that may save your Christmas keister:

Wee Babes: Organic *anything* is nice for the weans because their little skins and bodies don't like chemicals.  Nui booties are not cheap, but make a super sweet gift.  If you are the crafting type, felt your own!  My favorite source for wool top (roving) is The Yarn Tree in Brooklyn, because they're so flippin' nice.  Pair I felted for friend's babe:

I would have been all over this bunting, had I known about it when M was born.

Kid Over 2: This cool chalkboard placemat is Made in USA by a company called Chalk A Doodle (I can't say it without crowing).  The eraser is recycled wool and it comes with 4 pieces of dustless chalk.  I love the folks at Pokkadots, too.  Just dang sweet people.  No time to ship?  No money to buy?  Make it yourself by spray painting chalkboard paint onto a lightweight surface such as illustration board or Masonite.  Create the eraser by cutting a 4 x 6 square out of your least favorite wool sweater (or thrift store find) and wash it in a hot water cycle with regular laundry soap.  Instant felted wool eraser.  Reckon you'll have to go buy some chalk. Also, the album What Kind of Cat Are You? will drive the 2-6 set wild.

EnviroMan: Just Soap is a company anyone can love.  The creator designed a bike contraption to pedal and mix his large batches of soap.  Brilliant! Human powered!  More efficient than Santa and no pesky reindeer to clean up after.  The coyotes love Lemongrass Ginger for a scent that suits girlies, as well as boys.  We are intrigued by the shampoo bars and plan to try them next-I can't think of a better idea than eliminating all of the plastic bottles that shampoo and conditioner come in.  This water bottle solves all of the plastic, aluminum (evil SIGG), nalgene issues of our day.  With one for him and one for you, you can get on with things more fun than searching for the perfect bloody water bottle!

Host/Hostess/Special Lady Friend: These candles from Something Wicked are wickedly guiltless, especially if you live on the West Coast and don't have far to ship (think cruel fuel).  We've been burning "Hannah" (Fig Apricot) all week and the scent is intoxicating without being headachey.  They are thoughtfully poured into reuseable + recyclable glass, made of soy (no black paraffin lungs) with hemp wicks, toxin-free, and are packaged in deliciously recycled paper boxes (sturdy enough to have a second life as a cute and yummy-smelling storage box).  Lovely Jill Roy, creator, beloved Angeleno, and handpourer scores points for fighting global warming and gets one tiny spanking for using a teensy amount of synthetic fragrance to achieve the fruity part of the sniffins.  If she can live with herself, I can, too.

eGifts: Elf Yourself is the funniest thing I've ever seen.  When I received this gift from my girl, Julie, I almost peed.  Spread holiday joy and crack up your friends.  They'll forget that you didn't send them a fruitcake.

And,

If You Still Have to Buy for Me: Wink...

Wednesday Post Script: To SIGG or not to SIGG

I've been receiving some feedback about the water bottle issue and the comments of this post reveal some concerns and thoughts from a few well-doers.  Here is my final prattle on the matter which I tried to post as a comment but Typepad doesn't love me tonite:

I have been reading all night about bottles, bottles and more bottles.  What I'm hearing is SIGG asked Environmental Working Group and Organic Consumers Association earlier this year to remove the SIGG water bottle from their warning lists.  Both have done so, but it seems to me that they still have questions but aren't quite saying why yet.  SIGG has said (I'm paraphrasing, of course) their bottles do NOT leach at all, ever, the harmful hormone disruptor known as BPA *bisphenol A* from the linings of the bottles. 

SIGG will not release the content or manufacturing process details about their "micro epoxy" linings (born of petrochemicals, as all plastics are) because they want to maintain their "competitive edge".  EWG tested SIGGs for 3 days the tests showed no signs of BPA, but I hear that community making talk of the bottles wearing down and "leaching over time" and consumers not being able to see if there is internal damage to the lining when cleaning, which would definitely indicate leaching of the plastic lining components, not to mention the aluminum. 

A lot of effort goes into producing SIGG, in inks, printing & manufacturing the fancy decorative exteriors that have such great marketing appeal, mining of aluminum, etc.  I also hear consumers saying that the exteriors chip and dent when you drop the bottles, so what happens to the interior when that occurs? 

In favor of stainless steel, though the mining process is also intensive, is that it is the most recyclable material in the world- in fact over 80% of cars in the US are recycled, meaning my very own SS bottle could be the '74 Nova my parents drove when I was a kid!  I like SIGG's general ideas for fair trade and all of that alleged goodliness (w!), I wish they made a plain SS version with no fancy-energy-sucking frills.  I can paint my own dang bottle!

But seriously, my vote still goes for food-grade stainless steel (watch out for cheapies, they are out there!).  And I'm a product, design and packaging whore, so you can imagine how difficult it is for me to be so puritanical on such a matter.  EWG said it best when they said, "SIGG is an aluminum-bottle manufacturer with excellent publicity."

You can't recycle SIGG because of all that is in/on it vs. the plain Klean Kanteen (available everywhere, such as Amazon, GreenFeet.com).  My bone of contention is that SIGG is mfd in Switzerland (smaller eco footprint, yet still far to ship) and the damned KK is mfd in China-if you know me, you know I've begun to boycott China when possible.  If you use the tap to fill your bottles, you must always remember to clean them thoroughly-another problem I have with SIGG is you can't risk getting them too hot inside ....eeeeegad....(I run the hottest tap water my faucet will produce to sterilize my bottle and I can put it in the d/w, too)

I have to add that I think the best best best thing ever is to just drink from a glass or ceramic mug.  Easy to do at home and just take your water container out with you, reducing your *risk of the unknown*!  Enough fearmongering already...time to get back into the holiday spirit of pretending mass consumption is a healthy obsession. :)

(Whoops! Sorry for the weird link to funky eyelash girl! My Gina G is a potter, not a Get Up and Dance diva!-link fixed)

http://www.enviroblog.org/2007/05/ask-ewg-i-am-looking-for-a-saf.htm
http://greenerpenny.blogspot.com/2007/08/bye-bye-bpa.html
http://www.ewg.org/node/21491

Comments

[nina beana]

i hearted this list...thank you. the list is a gift in itself.

i'm left with a question- what's evil about the sigg aluminum bottles? is it that they are aluminum? i may or may not (depending on santa) be getting one, and now i'm worried- now i'd rather have the rockin' stainless steel one! should i tell santa or just live with the aluminum one? is aluminum a step above the nalgene that i'm currently using?

[Maggie]

Cool list! And NOOOOOO!!! I thought my SIGG bottle was stainless steel, not aluminum!!! Argh!!

xoxo

[wendy]

Evil SIGG is a bit extreme. It's still healthier alternative to plastic, however more energy is used to produce aluminum than stainless steel.

Here's what Green Guide has to say:

"Erring on the Side of Caution:

Until all of the facts are in, we recommend stainless steel water bottles, such as Klean Kanteen and polypropylene bottles such as Rubbermaid's Chuggables listed in The Green Guide Plastics for Kitchen Use report. Stainless steel bottles should have a metal cap as well.

*Aluminum bottles with an enamel inner coating are also a healthy alternative, though aluminum requires more energy to produce and has greater environmental impact than stainless steel.

The Swiss Sigg bottle is made from extruded aluminum and coated on the inside with a taste-inert, food-compatible stove enamel."

Here's the link:
http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/ask/nalgene

[wendy]

Evil SIGG is a bit extreme. It's still healthier alternative to plastic, however more energy is used to produce aluminum than stainless steel.

Here's what Green Guide has to say:

"Erring on the Side of Caution:

Until all of the facts are in, we recommend stainless steel water bottles, such as Klean Kanteen and polypropylene bottles such as Rubbermaid's Chuggables listed in The Green Guide Plastics for Kitchen Use report. Stainless steel bottles should have a metal cap as well.

*Aluminum bottles with an enamel inner coating are also a healthy alternative, though aluminum requires more energy to produce and has greater environmental impact than stainless steel.

The Swiss Sigg bottle is made from extruded aluminum and coated on the inside with a taste-inert, food-compatible stove enamel."

Here's the link:
http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/ask/nalgene

[pixie]

Here's my thought: Plastics, forget about it. They continue offgassing for years, even polyp, and they will never break down in a landfill. Aluminum causes cancer and Alzheimer's disease + enamel coatings can wear down + we have no real evidence that the enamel proctects the drinker from the effects of aluminum. SIGG only upgraded the interior coating two years ago- so if you have an older one, the paint coating the interior of your bottle may not be water based. Water based or not, the paing is still made of synthetic chemicals. They call it "micro epoxy" and its essentially plastic. To me, that is not really better than drinking out of a plastic bottle. The company seems to use hip designs and great marketing to draw consumers in and are effective at making them believe SIGG has absolutely no harmful effects, which is misleading.
I don't think this bottle at daryl hannah's site is made in China, as the Kleen Kanteen and some SIGGs are. I'll find out.

[wendy]

hey pix i don't know why typepad posted my comment twice, so if it happens again, i'm apologize.

i would be most grateful if you can find out for certain because when we made the switch to SIGG from plastic this summer it was one of the bottles recommended by Green Guide et al. I had also read that if it did leak any aluminum it was minimal at room temp, but that one shouldn't use it for hot liquids (which we don't - r uses stainless mug for coffee and i have a stainless thermos for hot bevs). it's probably less leakage than one would get from baking in aluminum pans. *note we use aluminum free baking powder. i'm very interested to see what you find out before we buy a second set of bottles.

[holli]

i elfed you a long time ago buddy!
check yo flippin myspace!

[Jennifer]

I just got that message not to long ago about the Klean Kanteen as well. And thank you for asking me to add my two cents to this blog. Because I've been so lazy/busy to do more research about the best drinking device out there, I bought a glass water bottle from whole foods and have been refilling it whenever I'm on the go. It's not quite convenient at the gym or on long hauls but it will suffice for now.

I just got the message from the EWG and was curious about this product(Klean Kanteen). So I guess now we have the option of using a couple of things.

1. Plasitc which contains bisphenol-A (BPA) which can interfere with the endocrine system, mimics estrogen (which affects fertility), and has been known to cause cancer.

Things that I've read that contain these are:
Tooth sealants
Water bottles
Eye Glasses
Plastic liners for trash cans
baby toys, baby bottles, & pacifiers
Micowave ovenware and utensils
(I'll put in my two cents about micorwaves later:)

I've read that BPA carries the #7 recycling symbol. However, I've also heard our everyday convenient water bottles contain BPA which usually have the #2 symbol on it???

2. Stainless steel- Maybe a good choice? Never have heard anything bad about it...

3. Glass- my favorite when I'm not on the run

To be honest I've never heard of SIGG, but I'd personally never go close to it knowing it's made of Aluminum. Aluminum is a toxic heavy metal! And toxic metals do not promote good health. Foods or consumable items, canned or that contain aluminum (TUMS), are the most obvious, but adding hot water or drinking water to one of these containers doesn't sound like such a good idea. The little info I know on aluminum, besides the fact that I have it in my system(as I'm sure we all do)here are the things I know about aluminum:
1. aluminum pans should never be used.
2. Anyone who has alzheimer's should be screened for aluminum poisoning.
3. Some makeup and antiperspirants contain aluminum.

I get a ton of info through the net but personally work with my nutitionist who provides me with all this fabulous information.

That's my two cents! Love ya'll!!

[patricia]

thx so much for that bottle link -- i had my reservations about siggs and kk because of the aluminum (and other points you've made), especially the alzheimers link (the bottles were gifts for my kids that i ended up not getting due to their paternal alzheimer's history)...it's christmas eve now so the dh bottles are on their lists for next year (the tipi's on MY list) -- peace and joy to you and yours...