Izzy’s Birthday is a little under a month and a half away. So now is about the time I start going neurotic with the planning. I’ve always found it a challenge to deal with the guilt trip of tossed plate wear, busted balloons, and fondant cakes with more slide than an energy wasting inflatable slide.

Green celebrations aren’t as much about finding “alternatives” to commercially produced bright party stuff as they are redefining the meaning of the party to begin with. Going green means remembering what we are celebrating: the happiness with having that little somebody in our lives and inviting friends to celebrate what that means.

So to start off the first of our series on Eco-Friendly Birthday Parties, we take a look at decorations! You know: the bright paper plates in full glossy regalia, the plastic signs and flag banners you throw away every year and the hundreds of dollars some parents spend on this whole ordeal. It’s almost mind boggling to think of how “disposable” it all is.

Green Friendly Plate wear

I came across greenpartygoods.com a few weeks ago. From colorful plate wear made from corn to sustainable flatware made of bamboo, this store has it all. My favorite is their plate ware made of sugarcane which can be drawn on by the kids with edible markers (also available through their store). They even offer hand crafted favors for kids and hand dyed garlands.

Reusable is the best way to go, if you have the storage space. If you are looking for affordable plate wear, try Ikea. My husband and I found plates and flatwear were cheaper to buy here than to rent when we were looking for our soulbinding ceremonies. Don’t have the storage space? Your local homeless shelter would love the donations or resell them on Craigslist. For Izzie’s Birthday, we raided the local second hand stores for a whimsical hodge podge of plates and flatwear.

Reusable Birthday Banners

Another area that greenpartygoods.com covers is one of my favorites: fabric banners that can be reused from year to year. Where as greenpartygoods.com does have a few in stock, I’ve found Etsy.com to be the best place to find a HUGE selection of banners, just search for “bunting” in their handmade section and walla! Over 400 options as of this writing!

A great replacement to the birthday banner in general, or in addition to it is to string a “clothes line” which could be rope, ribbon or yarn where you would normally fly the banners: along a wall, along a fence, up high to the ceiling (works best for babies) and clothes pin some of their keepsake outfits to the line. Attaching little notes or photos of the birthday baby in their outfit is a great way to invite the guests to a more personal level.

Table Decorations

And never underestimate the beauty of flowers! Cut flowers are the first things that come to mind, but rooted plants are better! Bamboo is typical, but even strawberry plants make excellent table center pieces and double as favors. If you do choose cut, be sure they are local and organic, the excess oil used in transporting and pesticides make this a sticky subject. To be safe, try growing your own cut flower garden.

Get creative with things from around the house! Teddy bears, toys and family photos make free centerpieces. Every year I put together a photo album for the girls from photos of the year before as my present to them. On their birthdays, we dig the albums out and lay them around the seating areas for guests to flip through.

Quick and Easy Family Tree Centerpiece

1. Send the kids out to bring home fallen twigs from around the yard, park or neighborhood.
2. Set these in a tall glass vase in the center of the table (or gift table if you have one, drink table, buffet table, etc.)
3. Print out family photos, cut into circles,
4. Hole punch at the top, add a small cut of ribbon and tie on to the sticks.
Walla! It’s not a centerpiece…it’s an instant conversation starter.

Recycled Birthday Decorations

What you can’t dig up from around the house can easily be created. Spray Paint cans could work…but with all the VOCs and toxins associated with them, a better solution is to glue a strip of fabric around each one to make great silverware holders. It takes less time and they turn out way cuter in the end.

Lots of these ideas can be used in whatever theme you decide to go with. Check out Kiwi Magazines list of a bagillion Green Kid’s Party Ideas for inspiration.

copyshop by AGOK makes me happy.

They have a lactation room! Yay! (Apparently it is a state law in TN). I took a picture but…
I can’t get it off my phone…
And I left the memory card to the camera in my computer…
…at home…
and I got voted off the island…
and I’m missing my daughters…
after a plane trip on a noisy plane…
that came in at eight o’clock…
that left from a tiny airport surrounded by cows…
where the complaining tourists gathered…
two hours from the house…
where I broke into tears as I said good bye to my babies…
one Monday morning.

And I only point this out because I am in a surprisingly good mood despite it all. Because Scripps had a lactation room :)
…and I got to sit outside without getting heat exhaustion…
…or mauled by mosquitoes…
…reading a book…
…surrounded by trees…
…mountains…
…and weird grass…

and then I heard NIN was coming to Knoxville three days after I leave. And I was sad again.

Plastic Bags with…Plastic Bags inside.hm part2 by scottwyden

I was going through the list of bloggers who will be at this years BlogOrlando Conference in September and came across Lorrie Delk Waker’s Banning Plastic Bags Article. Amused by the way people are associating (scapegoating) plastic grocery bags with civil rights, I gave my two cents which I’ll give here (it’s more like 20 cents…a bit long and warranted a blog entry more so than a comment.) Read the comments on the original post above including:

Amy Butler Wide-Legged Lounge Pants, originally uploaded by Meryl CA.

In case you missed my bloglines addiction, I have one. And, thanks to the BlogHer conference going on last week, I have kept on top of my bloglines for a whole week…that’s right…ZERO outstanding posts. But I have noticed one thing…there is a flavr, and that flavr is:

- Amy Butler In Stitches Vintage Sheet Pants EVERYWHERE! (and here)(here)(here)(and don’t forget here)I would like a pair of these, really I would. They look so comfy, but I don’t have the time. I have 12 curtains and 4 quilts to finish before Christmas, preferably sooner. I could always buy them here.

- Freezer Jam. It’s strawberry season everywhere….but here. And so everyone is out at the Pick-your-own fields stocking their freezers and jammin’ in the kitchen. My kitchen is filled with the sounds… of crickets. No Strawberry Freezer Jam for you!

- Dooce @ Blogher… Dooce is talking about it (but only like “oh yeah, i was asked to speak at blogher, yawn, then I broke a nail and the dog dumped on the floor). Bossy is talking about it. Even this chick is talking about it. My goal next year is to get dooce to sign my chest. MOMMY BLOG GROUPIE! Wonder if I can drive there in a VW van. Sweet! OMG! It’s DOOOOOOOOCCCCEEEE! CAN I HAVE YOUR BABY?!?!?!?

- Renegade Craft Fair… Blog reading was so boring during the weeks following the renegade craft fair. It was like “look how cool we are to have this in our area…we walked here bringing our hip grocery carts in tow, right after we stopped at the neighborhood Whole Foods. What were you doing? Dodging old people in the street? Oh, on the sidewalk? LAME. Whatev.”

So everything cool happens in San Francisco, but you know what? I DON’T LIVE in SF. I live NEAR Miami, and this week we are going to Miami and I’m going to have Mojitos. AND MOJITOS…are so much cooler than hipsters. So whatever. SF has what? Fair Trade organic coffee? LAME. WE HAVE MOJITOS! WOHOOO!

So WHAT AM I blogging about?

My pee test. Yep. I got a pee test. They had to see what kind of goodies I’ve been pumping into my body. No weed? Good. But what is this? I think your caffeine intake is pushing “abuse”.

We got presents! The girls got matching vintage pillow case dresses from Grandma P, Webkins and a “I have SOL” outfit from Grandma L and Mimi brought mommy a fresh georgia peach this morning when she came to watch the girls for my out and abouts. Got that…FRESH GA PEACH. From like 70 miles away. Beat that with your freezer jam. YOU CAN’T! Oh no, you can’t!

Police Staff Car - Ottawa 05 07, originally uploaded by Mikey G Ottawa.

We’re looking for a new car. Don’t tell Fifi, but as a one car family…we’re upgradin’ and I’m kinda sad. Our biggest concerns: space for >5 and good gas mileage. Apparently I am asking too much. Of course there are the hybrids, with their shiny exterior promising amazing gas savings…which you will need to pay off the hefty price tag. Is it worth it? Let’s say you drive 10,000 miles…city each year (worse case scenario) So…normal mcnormal car gets 20, shiny mchybrid gets 40 mpg. Will it pay off…10 years.

Normal McNormal: 10,000/20= 500 gallons @$5 (est.) = $2,500 * 10 years = $25,000

Shiny McHybrid: 10,000/40 = 250 gallons @ $5 (est.) = $1250 * 10 years = $12,500

- Normal McNormal costs $10,000 and uses $25,000 in gasoline = $35,000
- Shiny McHybrid costs $30,000 and uses $12,500 = $42,500

Why is this not working out? Let’s say gas prices go higher than $5, the scales may even out a bit more, true…but will I still be able to afford to drive anyway…prolly not.

Other notes: Normal McNormal (or Normal McYawn) actually gets higher gas mileage than 20 mpg city and Shiny McHybrind doesn’t include the extra money for special parts and the technician who knows what they hell they are doing with …MyHybrid. I don’t know. I hate cars. Why can’t we just have a trolley?

IndyMack Bank collapses, sending 200+ ppl to the bank yesterday demanding their cash. Looks familiar? No?

img via osgoodwisdom

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke didn’t call it a recession today, but he might as well have.

Yeah dude. It was a recession last year.

Maybe former Sen. Phil Gramm isn’t the best person to make the case that much of America’s economic gloom is self-inflicted.

Yeah, but last century’s depression wasn’t exactly caused by unseen forces either.

Yet the former economics professor shared with Americans an important lesson. He was right that, despite what it feels like, the economy is not in a recession because there haven’t been two consecutive quarters of negative growth. He was right that the problem could be our response to adversity and our collective state of mind - what Gramm called a “mental recession.” Most of all, he was right that we’ve become “a nation of whiners” who find it easier to complain about our problems than to turn off the television, get off the couch and do something about them.

Well, kind sir, whiners cause recessions. A recession isn’t going to happen without a fall in consumer “optimism”. We whine, others hear, we all cut back on our spending and walla…the economy slows down. We FREAK THE HELL OUT and pull our investments from stocks, pull our money from banks and watch everything collapse like dominoes. One thing the media doesn’t tell you…it’s your own damn fault. They are too busy making you freak out. You’ll tune in, they get more ratings. But those ratings will eventually mean crap when the effects of their shock and awe tactics trickle down to their advertisers and they stop getting as much revenue.

In all honesty, knock on wood, our family really hasn’t been effected that much. Maybe because we haven’t lived outside of our means. We didn’t fall victim to the “american dream” ARM scandals, we still rent. We don’t have a big screen tv, an ipod, our kids don’t have sooo many toys that we cringe everytime a recall is made. We can still almost afford food minus towards the middle of the month, when, god forbid we actually have to get creative and turn the stove on and cook that frozen chicken/ a pie/ frozen veggies. Ick.

Gas has gone up. We get a tank a week at the most, but public transportation is right down the street and it is our own fault for not using it more often. A tank a week is costing us $80 more a month. There are 42 gallons in a barrel of gas, of crude oil which refines to 19 gallons-sih (and the rest is used for things like heating oil). Oil is at $139 a barrel or ruffly $3.31 a gallon before the cost of processing, transporting and distributing. $4.15 a gallon for gas seems about right. I doubt drilling in the states will help…anyone but the Bush families agenda.

Babble calls “elective c-sections” #4 on the top parenting trends... saying they aren’t sure that “too posh to push” is behind the trend (but acknowledging it’s existence by even mentioning it). Here is my thought on “too posh to push”… by the 24th hour and 6 epi stabs in the back…but no epi relief in sight…I was loving the idea of a c-section, mainly I was worried I would be too tired to push. But seriously, I would have been pissed if I ended up with a c-section. If you are aiming for posh, push the damn kid out. A big nasty scar isn’t going to look “hot” peeking out of those new mommy low riser hip huggers, now is it? Nope. So let’s get this right babble…posh push. corpro cuts. (ick.)

Does anyone know…was the new Bradgelinalitter IVF?

This has been your moment of vain. On to more relevant.

Oh yeah, here is a new picture that has nothing to do with the post. ^

I have to pee for the ninth time in two hours after the pot of coffee I am running on makes its way through my system. Solaris just handed me a spatula out of the dishwasher (I’m in the living room) and I dodge every toy she and Iz own as I chase her up the stairs for some quality time with the back of her eyelids. I’m barely holding on.

Frantically trying to get an art portfolio up and running so I can start approaching people for shows. Need to start selling prints.

David’s talking me down over the deaths of two plants when the Post Office left them sitting an extra two days during the holiday (along with his pay check). It’s been almost raining for the whole morning, grumbling clouds smudging out the sun but the plants are telling me it’s not coming soon enough with their fainting spells. Bring the smelling salts.

Bryan lands in my email telling me, despite my breakdown, that I’m a “good mom”. Followed by Babble.com’s email about “good parents” letting their kids ride the subway home alone in NY (my uncle use to do that, until he got attacked…I know there is “cutting the umbilical cord” but I don’t think I want them growing up THAT fast, psycho keep smiling with your son) or giving their kids booze (a sip to a ten year old?, so what…not that big of a deal, but we have to write something about it, a flask to pre-k however, now you have my attention. Babble it yourself, I lost the link).

Then there’s this bullshit from CA where it’s illegal to homeschool students now. Seriously? You must have a credentialed teacher to teach them? Yeah, I’ve seen what a lot of those “credential” teachers did in their college years… I’m sure letting them get lostinthesysteminovercrowdedschoolswithbudgetcutspeerpressureschoolshootings is much better than what they can learn at home. When was the last time schools taught financial management course, entrepreneurial skills, or how to read a book before you graduate (much like our beloved senior football players at New Brighton who couldn’t read if their life depended on it…yeah Shanon, I’m talkin’ ’bout you, retard.)?

Cranky, need less procreation and more coffee and freedoms.

I turned on the television today for my daughter. The station comes in to two anchor people talking about Tim Russert. In their all too annoying break from journalistic integrity, the segment is entitled something like “What can we learn?” and they go on about what was done wrong bothin the life of Russert and in the aftermath of his heart attack. I turn the channel to Do Do (Dora) and sit down at the computer slightly annoyed. I, recent graduate of my third certification in CPR and First Aid as of Saturday, know what went wrong. He was mortal, we all are.

I had this happy idea that if you preform CPR long enough/sincerely enough/prayed hard enough/carried the right talismen/wore the right shoes somehow the person would magically snap out of it, jump up, shake your hand and walk away. But, for some reason the statement “keep going until medical help arrives or until the person regains consciousness” didn’t seem right after the sixth thime I heard it in ten minutes, so I asked the wrong question…

“How often does a person regain consciousness during CPR?” It wasn’t answered. Instead I got “The chance of a person walking out of the ER two days later is 5%, this chance is increased to 50-60% with the use of an AED. With children, the prognosis is less than that.” So with that, my happy fantasy of the eighty year old jumping up and skipping away down the street was shattered. But then the perspective…

“If you are performing CPR on someone, they were dead the moment their heart stopped, all you are doing is everyting in your power to bring them back.” CPR isn’t about sustaining life, it’s about playing God. Truth is, Russert was dead when he hit the floor, no amount of CPR or AED would have changed that unless the fates deemed it, and an AED is only useful if his heart was in some sort of weird arythmia (V. fib), so if it stopped completely the unit wouldn’t have shocked him anyway. Most CPR done by paramedics is just for show, to give the family a sense of hope. It makes sense.

 Not all the press is exploiting this the way Channel 3 has, NBC released these photos of the cast of Meet the Press breaking into tears during a taping…these intimate photos they probably had no right in releasing if they had any part of a soul. Might as well make one last ditch effort to capitalize off the man, right?

Travel back with me, will you, to 2003-ish. Sitting in the publishing house talking to one of the reps about a Jam festival she was heading to that weekend. I think names like OAR and such were passed around. Ah, Bonaroo, the giant music festival in the west. How you tempted me for years and yet I still never made it to you Elysian-esque Fields.

 I wake up this morning to this…article about Metallica and Chris Rock opening this year’s festival. WTF? I’m not a big “WTF” person, but this deserves a big, giant expletive.

In a bit in his set about Prozac and other medications, Rock chastised the crowd, who he said was likely on “performance-enhancing drugs.”

“You all should be ashamed of yourselves for taking antidepressants to see a comedian,” joked Rock. “I am an antidepressant!”

Yeah….about that antidepressant. Sad face. David says “there’s always Coachella, but with a line up being led by Prince, I think I’ll pass.