Rosy Und Posy

Eco conscious reusable cloth sandwich & snack bags, market totes & lunch accessories for an entirely ‘plastic free’ alternative. Join us and help ‘reduce’ & ‘reuse’ for a greener planet.

Willow Creek Builders

Reclaimed, Refined, Reliable Renovations and interior finishing. We offer custom locally produced wood products from reclaimed and locally sourced timber.

Eco-Centric

We are a natural fiber fashion boutique with hot 100% natural styles for men and women. We also offer a wide range of botanicals.

Zen Zero Juice Fountain

We serve up fresh juices, smoothies and wheatgrass, vegan sandwiches and wraps, wheat free treats and raw delights. Come and enjoy our family-friendly eatery that includes a kiddie play area, sunny patio, free parking and free wireless internet.

ecoLife Solutions

ecoLife Solutions is committed to helping clients find solutions they need to create safe, healthy, eco-sustainable households & workplaces. We show you how `greening up` can be very simple, cost effective & educational for your family or business!

ecoLife Solutions

ecoLife Solutions is committed to helping clients find solutions they need to create safe, healthy, eco-sustainable households & workplaces. We show you how `greening up` can be very simple, cost effective & educational for your family or business!

Organic Family Natural Home

Located in Cumberland, we have something for everyone! We carry a variety items from baby to organic beds. Most of our products are exclusive to our store: Aerobie Coffee Press, Sodastream Soda Maker, Sanctus Mundo and Preserve Recycled.

Green Room

Eco-friendly alternatives for home and lifestyle. Here you will find re-purposed, fair trade, organic, local and non-toxic products. Sustainable yet stylish items are found at this ethical boutique.

The Green Wallet – Making Sense of Green Investment Funds

Editor’s Note: If you missed Robin’s morning post about some very cute, eco-friendly toys that teach environmental sustainability, you can check it out HERE. This afternoon we have Anthony Edwards on site making sense out of the different types of socially responsible investment funds.

These are fascinating times for those of us working in the field of [...]

SHIFT News – Climate Change and Rethinking Electronics

Editor’s Note: If you missed our morning post today, be sure to check out the new format of our BUMPS column as the first of many birth stories is shared HERE. Now, as the United Nations Climate Change Conference continues in Copenhagen, Susan MacVittie from the Comox Valley’s own Watershed Sentinel is here today to [...]

Monday Morning Moms – Green Stocking Stuffers

Usually, right around Dec. 15 every year, I realize that Christmas is in 10 days and I have nothing for anyone. I vowed that would not be the case this season and actually got the bulk of the Santa Clausing wrapped up this weekend.
The big stuff is, for me, the easiest to knock off the [...]

The Green Wallet – Microlending as a Global Investment

Editor’s note: If you missed this morning’s post, we took a look at some of the hottest eco-friendly Vancouver fashion designers and where you can find them in the Comox Valley. Check it out HERE. Now, Anthony Edwards takes us away from consumerism to a form of global lending that serves as a bridge between [...]

What Is Socially Responsible Investing?

Happy Thanksgiving Monday afternoon. While you are recovering from the holiday meal make sure to check out our post from this morning HERE. We’re trying to find the perfect kitchen counter compost bucket – a hot topic now that the temperatures outside have cooled and the veggie scraps are plentiful.
This afternoon we are excited [...]

Product Review – Home Compost Bins

While Ken might tend to disagree right now, I became a big fan of the composter this Summer. We scored the big backyard model from the Comox Valley Regional District’s Compost Education Centre early in the season and set out to keep our organic matter out of the trash can and making great soil for [...]

Blue Toque Sports Swap

For our family, it’s the season – you know, the one when hockey gear and dance shoes come out only to realize that – sometimes even for the adults – last year’s gear is not fitting like it used to.
We are a hockey family – you’ll often catch dad or daughter in full gear on [...]

Green Lunch Box Options

Gulp, gasp and hooray. This week is all about getting the kiddos back to school.
The tiny person started back at preschool a few days ago and it seems like a different universe. Getting her ready was pretty easy since the extent of her school supplies were a big giant smile and some wizard shoes (they [...]

The Green Kid Party In Action

Editor’s Note: Bevin Clempson is here today letting us take a peek into her son’s very cool green birthday bash and her adventures in planning. This whole green thing is complicated some days. Have a great Friday!
Last month my wee dude turned 3. It was the first ever kiddo-centric party I had ever thrown. The [...]

BPA in Sigg Bottle Liners, Company Comes Clean

Good Morning. We have preempted our regular Farm to Family feature here today to keep you up to speed on the news that broke earlier this week when Sigg executives admitted that bottles manufactured before August of 2008 had liners that contained BPA.
Treehugger.com was one of the first to break the news and I got [...]

Prosuct Review – The Educational Thrift Store

I admit, I’ve been keeping this one to myself for a while. Not that I want to be stingy. But, I love a great deal, a great book and a great piece of educational gear. A combination of those three is so very welcome, I have trouble sharing.

The perfect storm came about six months ago [...]

Natural Pod Tree Branch Blocks

Ken laughed at me. “You brought home a cut-up tree,” he quipped smuggly, looking at me like there were plenty of more useful things to have spent our money on.
Yep, I did indeed bring home a bag filled with a cut-up tree – a gorgeous, light, fun and imaginative tree.

He’d give that it was a [...]

Green-e-ology – Mis-Adventures In Canning

Editor’s Note: Good Morning! Thinking local grains today? Check out the Brambles Demo with True Grains Bakery at 11 a.m.
But, really, the big event of the week is tomorrow when Royston’s ASH Berry Farm hosts the final Farm Event of the 30-Day Challenge. It’s going to be hot. So, what better way to cool down [...]

Foodie Crafts – Homemade Dyes

Editor’s Note: Good Morning. It’s time for a mid-week meal as part of the 30-Day Food Challenge. I think I may try to talk the hubby into sneaking off to Bisque with me this afternoon. Locals and Anderton Bistro-Pub are open today too.
I’ve been cooking up a storm at home these last few weeks [...]

Product Review – Local Cloth Sandwich Bags

Editor’s Note: If you are in some serious need of inspiration to leave the house today after a fabulously hot weekend jamming at MusicFest (I was so tired I went to bed at 8 p.m. last night), I have one – cheese, of the French kind.
Natural Pastures Cheese Co. is having its second cheese tour [...]

Summer Crafts – DIY Canada Day Magnets

Ah, Canada Day.
I love this country and give it a solid go every year when it comes to busting out the patriotic gear. But, getting the tiny person plugged in to something more than the candy from the Canada parade is, well, challenging.
She’s at the age of dis-interest – too young for a bigger history [...]

Green-e-ology – Thrifting is the New Pink

Some say junk collecting. Some say thrifting. Whatever it may be, I say bring it on. Bring on the super finds and the price tags that leave you feeling like a thief. Bring on the history and the uniqueness. Bring on the craftsmanship and the savings. Bring on the eco-goodness.
The whole wide world of thrift [...]

Shower Curtains Go Hemp

Happy June!
With the onset of the hot weather, I thought it was a solid time to talk about something near and dear to all of our hearts – mold.
Oh how I hate the red and black goo – especially when it shows up on my shower curtain and I can think of a million ways [...]

Green-e-ology – Green Your Kid’s Birthday Party

Editor’s Note: Today Suzanne Corrin, owner of Green Planet Parties in Port Moody has dropped by to give us some seriously great tips on how to green our kids birthday parties.
I have to say that I personally love the Suzanne’s (both owners are named Suzanne) and their products. After searching high and low for [...]

Green-e-ology – Equitable Eating’s Many Forms

Genetic engineering. Antibiotics. Pesticides. Additives. Air pollution. Animal welfare. Economics. Irradiation. Hormones. rBGH. Water pollution.
Now that I’ve got your attention, do you think about any of the above before making food choices?
If so, then you’ve likely been far ahead of me for years. I’m a little slow with the food.

[give that head [...]

Earth Day Crafts – Binoculars & Mini Journals

Editor’s Note: This week we are plugging in to all things Earth Day and thinking green as we work our way toward Saturday when we celebrate island-style with the Earth Day Family Festival.
Our Big Earth is running the Kids and Family Zone and, whoa, there is some seriously fun, green-ness on the schedule. Check it [...]

Book Review – Earth Day Stories

Good Morning! It’s time!
Today is HUGE in the OBE universe as we kick off a week’s worth of fantastic Earth Day good times with the opening of our new Family Community Gardens in partnership with the Comox Valley Regional District.
The ribbon cutting is the culmination of a day’s worth of family-friendly events including those fun [...]

Earth Day Craft – Recycled Paper Bag Puppets

Editor’s Note: For the next few Tuesdays, we’ll be featuring art projects that you can come out and do with us at Earth Day events that Our Big Earth is taking part in.
Today’s project – recycled paper bag puppets – will be one of the fun projects your kids can try out when you head [...]

SPROUTS – Composting, Family-Style

Editor’s Note: Good Morning. SPROUTS gardening goddess Kendra Quince is here to kick off our Earth Month goodness with a quick lesson in composting.
While I’ve got you thinking gardening, this gives me the chance to announce some big news here at Our Big Earth.
On Monday morning (April 6), if you wake up bright and early [...]

Monday Morning Mom Poll – Toilet Paper

Seriously, I kid you not, today we are talking TP. If there is one thing that I struggle with EVERY time I put it in the grocery cart, it’s toilet paper.
Ummmmm, not going to go without it. Can’t think of a way to make me think I’m doing something eco for the universe by using [...]

Green-e-ology – Save Money, Unplugged

Not so long ago I was searching online for power saving ideas (no gigantic bill this time, just pure curiosity).
I came across information about power usage for electronic devises that are not in use and was amazed to learn that many electronic devices continue to use power when switched off, or in stand-by mode.
This continuous [...]

Mom Review – Eco-Friendly Bedroom Paint

About 18 months ago, I took it upon myself to paint our daughter’s room. Yellow with red trim – bright and cheery yet not overly girlie. At 2, she could have cared less, excited only to be out of her crib and happy to have access to most of her toys long after she should [...]

Monday Morning Mom Poll – Green Laundry Soap

Welcome to Monday. If yours is anything like our house, one of the biggest challenges we have with being more eco-minded is the constant din of the washer and/or dryer. We hang clothes year-around and try like heck to keep the laundry low. But, it seems like someone is always down in the basement throwing [...]

Product Review – Bambu Utensils for Kids

We have de-plasticed. From cups and bowls to forks and spoons, the melamine and other kiddo plastic gear that has dotted our house is gone.
There’s lots that says melamine (hard plastic) and the #5 is fine. But, I totally admit that my reading and a certain relative who shall go un-named scare the hell out [...]

Paper or Plastic? Cloth Bags are the Only Eco Option

Editor’s Note: 2009 in the Comox Valley is, when it comes to basic steps for greening your daily lives, poised to be the year of the reusable bag.
As the Comox Valley Chamber continues to gear up with its bag-less Comox Valley initiative (local businesses are being asked to only offer reusable bag options starting this [...]

Holiday Craft Tutorial – Homemade Wrapping Paper

It wasn’t an uncommon site – back in the day – for the moms in our lives to lock themselves in a back bedroom one December afternoon. I thought it was some sort of magic, how they went in and came out a few hours later rather refreshed (6 hours of peace and quiet will [...]

Holiday Traditions – Handmade Christmas Crackers

Since I was a little girl, I’ve had this picture in my head of the perfect way to make everyone in the family – wherever they are – smile at the same time and think of each other.
Maybe I did myself in early with grand visions of a Norman Rockwell holiday where everyone – for [...]

Farewell Disposable Drink Containers

This girl’s hooked on coffee. My love-affair with the drink started back in high school with study sessions at the local Husky, stretching into the early morning hours and during last minute essay writing, pushing the limits to mere hours before submission.
Slinging lattes and mochas as a barista further strengthened my bond with the bean. [...]

Presenting Our 2008 Holiday Green Guide

Good morning. As we are just about to head off to a very soggy Santa Claus Parade today I am getting more and more into the holiday spirit.
There’s lots of creating going on around our house – our first batch of almond toffee appeared a few days ago, sparkling walnut ornaments, homemade pompom bows made [...]

Dump Night Time Disposie Diapers with DryBees

I have not always been a lover of cloth diapers.
Once, I dreamed of being eco mama, planned it, set out to be as environmentally savvy as possible. Then, a very traumatic first month with our daughter left me utterly unwilling to continue on and out came the disposies.
OK, so I never gave cloth diapers much [...]

Go Eco-Baby with Sage Creek Organics

This holiday season, I’ve had a huge whack of requests from friends and family about some special deliveries for our new arrival.
He/she won’t be greeting us formally until June. But, one of the most fun parts of pregnancy (besides back pain and nausea, of course) is getting all of those special little pieces of clothing, [...]

Get Water Wise, Turn the Tap Off on Your Hydro Bill

Editor’s Note: I very much believe that it is up to us to make sure our children’s Earth is alive and well. We are the keepers of the future. If we live for today, that’s not good enough.
I could, and often consider, going on a mad tirade about it all. But, we all know [...]

Little Green Books

Hi. My name is Robin…and I’m a book-a-holic.
It doesn’t matter, really, what kind of book it is. I more than likely get an e-mail newsletter about it. I love to look through lists, check out what’s new – and I love kids books most of all at my current place in life.
The only problem is [...]

Make Some Forest Fairies

We have always been into the lives of forest fairies around our house.
From some of our earliest days of walking the trails, it didn’t take much convincing to make us believers that some forests are truly the land of fairy people.
It’s one of those things that we casually weave into stories about the forest…or at [...]

Green Your School Gear with Consignment

Let’s face it, the bill for back-to-school shopping is beginning to equal a rent check.
Clothes, gear, all of those special touches that makes hitting the classroom again totally cool don’t leave much room for things like, say, dinner after a long day of shopping.
Even the preschool crowd can rack up one heck of a bill [...]

Which Cloth Diaper to Choose?

Editor’s Note:
Comox Valley Mom Kathy Roberts is a cloth diaper convert.
In her quest to make life easy and non-disposable, she took it upon herself to test drive just about every type of cloth diaper out there, even making a few of her own.
Thankfully, I’m annoyingly persistent and she is incredibly generous, now sharing her cloth [...]

Mom-P-Inc. – Sherry Turnbull & Kristina Jespersen of Podlings (formerly Little Me)

Motherhood, it changes you.
While there’s a whole list that involves sagging and wrinkled, exhausted and emotional that can be wrapped in there, for many women becoming a Mom takes life to a whole other level.
It brings out our genuine loves, forces them into places creatively and personally that reveal talents and ingenuity unrealized until that [...]

Homemade Non-toxic Finger Paints

My husband has spent his life in the midst of paint, charcoals, canvas and the computer as a professional artist. He’s also always passing along his concerns about our daughter’s zeal with paint. Her willingness to paint herself from head to toe leaves Ken in pieces, concerned for the tiny person’s health.
I didn’t get it.
He’s [...]

Recycling Project, Homemade Crayons

Crayons have long been a tough sell in our house.
While art is way up on the daily to-do list, crayons often linger at the bottom of the barrel in terms of preferred mediums.
Emerging motor skills and the quite possibly a bit of peer pressure from the crayon-loving crowd have made crayons at least usable for [...]

Be A Pollinator Observer

It’s National Wildlife Week here in Canada and the buzz is all about pollinators. Check out a full week’s of posts on our buzzing friends. Make a Nature Journal, Learn how to build a pollinator-friendly garden, learn about pollinators and food at the Bee-Free BBQ, get the Pollinator Primer and get into Backyard Bee [...]

Product Review – Kai Kids organics

Anybody else having a tough time hunting down green gear for your tiny people?
The eco factor when shopping for kids clothes and gear in the Valley is something that parents searching for those organic-cotton t-shirts, toxin-free feeding options and chemical-free toiletries must almost solely rely upon the Internet for access to.
That’s not necessarily a bad [...]

Product Review – Organic Baby Balms

It’s cold and flu season.
Runny noses, hacking coughs and the every-pleasant vomit-diarrhea combo are on the loose.
It’s about right now that I am tempted to lock the tiny person away until the end of February since it seems like EVERY time we go to an event with other kiddos it thanks us with a new [...]

Recycle Your Christmas Tree

I have decided that the most depressing day of Winter is the day that the family takes the Christmas tree down. It’s no wonder some folks leave their lights up until February. Once the twinkle of the holidays gets packed away, waiting for the weather to warm up and the sun to come out makes [...]

Homemade Wrapping Paper

I am not going to try today, in any way, to lead us all down the path of making our own paper in a by-hand, from-scratch sort of way. If I had infinite hours in the day and unholy amounts of patience, I might personally go that route of fiber, water and binding agents. But, [...]

Holiday Green Guide 2007

Pulling the trappings of the holiday season together and getting them ready for the big day is where you can really make a difference environmentally this year.
Millions of rolls of wrapping and tissue paper will end up decorating presents in the next few weeks – and I was seriously shocked to learn that not [...]

Bambu for Eco Kids Utensils

For ages and ages…and ages…I have been trying to replace the plastic eating utensils that our tiny person used to eat with.
Oh was it ever a painful process.
I went to nearly every store in town, and in other towns. I cruised the Internet. I even considered just converting to stainless steel camping utensils.
Then, one day, [...]

Park the Car, Grab the Kids, Ride the Bus

CVK mom Christa Herrling is back here today talking about something she is most definitely an expert on – making excellent use of the Valley transit system. Avid bus riders, Christa and her tiny person clue us all in today on the nuances and benefits of leaving the car parked in the driveway and heading [...]

Time to Ditch the Plastic Sports Bottle/Sippy Cup

I’m about to scare you.
Plastic may be useful, but it is also potentially irreparably harming our children by disrupting their endocrine, immune and reproductive systems by leaching toxins into their water, milk and food.
That’s even the plastic in baby bottles, sippy cups and sports drink bottles.
If you are like me, you have to read it [...]

Eco-Friendly Green School Supplies

Did I say it?
Is it possible?
Could it be that back to school is back on the brain?
OK, so getting your kiddos ready to hit the books hasn’t reached an emergency pitch right yet. But, if you are thinking about “greening” their school gear this year (a lot of this can apply to pre-schoolers and toddlers [...]

Product Review – Wrap-N-Mat

I hate plastic bags.
Hate can be a strong word. But, seriously, I hate them.
It may be the personal fact that the tiny person terrifies me with her fascination with putting them over her head or the environmental reality that millions of gallons of oil are consumed every year to produce the more than 500 billion [...]

Homemade Playdough Recipe

I don’t know how anyone else is managing this week’s worth of rain-filled, unscheduled free time. But, when we stumbled into the kitchen, peeked out the window and found rain again this morning I seriously wondered how today could possibly not involve many, many hours of Bob The Builder and Little Bear.
Hesitant to log the [...]