Green Options

Amenity, well know for their modern organic living interior design products, has created a line of delightful organic nursery products.

A child’s genuine comfort and a parent’s peace of mind guides our careful selection of the purest organic elements that form this collection: bumpers filled with organic wool, lovable blankets of breathable organic percale and supremely cozy organic fleece, all printed with certified organic dyes.

Last month, we shared with you a folk art eco-friendly lunch pack by Print*Pattern*Paper.  This month, we are featuring a green giveaway of a signed 5″ x 7″ folk art print by Print*Pattern*Paper founder, CEO, artist, and designer Rebecca Peragine.  To enter, simply visit Print*Pattern*Paper’s art page, select your favorite print from the 30 prints featured, and leave a comment to this post with the print’s name.  On Wednesday, March 11, 2009, a random winner will be selected from the comments, and the lucky person will win the print of their choice!  This contest is limited to residents of Canada and the United States.

If you are joyfully anticipating the birth, adoption or fostering of a child, it is likely you are also considering furnishing a nursery or bedroom.

Often times being environmentally friendly is also the most cost effective option. Reuse is the ultimate in environmental stewardship. Take advantage of websites such as Freecycle, Craigslist and eBay to trade or purchase gently used items. Visit local resale shops and make friends of the sales people, ask them to call you when that needed item comes in. Frequent neighborhood garage and rummage sales. Get on an email list for local Moms Clubs and watch for their annual sales.

For eco-savvy parents in Los Angeles, Bel Bambini is hosting an event in store on Tuesday July 15th to equip moms with tips on how to create a healthy, eco-friendly nursery using green building products from leading experts.

Experts and hosts include:

• Hostess, Anna Getty, founder of Pregnancy Awareness
• Jay Watts from AFM Safecoat
• Josie Maran, founder of Josie Maran Cosmetics
• Kristina Lin, owner of Bel Bambini
• As well as information from Healthy Child

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I remember being eight months pregnant with my second and realizing that I absolutely must paint the baby’s room now. I know, it makes no sense, the baby will never notice and I’d have been much better off taking a nap, but I had to have that lasso border in the room or…

I dunno. Seven years later I still can’t finish the sentence because, it doesn’t make sense to me now or then but I know I needed the stinkin room painted. A few short months ago that freshly painted room sent out the last of it’s toxins. Seriously.

Amenity designs bedding, pillows, wall art prints and nursery decor. Luckily for us, they also offer four of their fabrics in running yardage, printed on a blend of organic cotton and hemp. All of their fabrics are “printed by hand with non-toxic, water-based, eco-friendly dyes.”

Amenity’s fabric designs are based on nature, with names like “river” and “cove.” Don’t think about cute little leaf prints, though, except in their nursery collection. As you can see from the pillows above, made up in their “trail” fabric, we’re talking about some seriously bold and funky design.