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Archive for the ‘Eco-Friendly’ Category

Interview with Nicki Maynard, founder of Planetwise, Inc.! *Giveaway Closed*!!

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

I am so excited to share such a wonderful interview with my readers! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I love finding out the story behind the products I buy! I believe it is very important to know where your products come from, how they are made and the face behind them. I had the honor to interview Ms. Nicki Maynard founder of Planetwise Inc. She is the wet bag guru in my books. Her wetbag is such a great wetbag you would not even know you have dirty diapers in your house!

Interview with Nicki:

Please tell me the birth story of your company, PlanetWise, Inc.

A: (Nicki) I started out as a retailer first that sold baby items including other lines of wet bags.  I knew good prints sold well however would often get the complaint of the wet bags wicking.  After several years of trial and error and searching high and low for a USA manufacturing facility Planet Wise was born with our patent pending sealed seams for NO wicking.  I also knew the importance of good prints and searched everywhere even conducting a worldwide survey to find out what prints consumers wanted.  I basically took what wasn’t working for our store on a great product that had potential and fixed the problems.  We quickly found that other retailers were looking for the same things.
Q: (Marissa) What is a typical day at work for you?

A: (Nicki) My husband and I mainly work from home while raising our 3 young kids.  We have a nanny come into our home several days a week to help but I am always available for my kids if needed including many breastfeeding breaks!  We have a warehouse a couple miles from our home with great employees who take care of all the shipping and receiving.  On a typical day I get my kids ready and go to my office to answer emails, make phone calls, work with suppliers, touch base with our factory, accounting, marketing, you name it I’ve done it!

Q: (Marissa) What are the most important eco-friendly choices your company makes?

A: (Nicki) To manufacturer our products locally in the USA!  We are very proud to provide jobs in our community and to help reduce our environmental impact.  We also pride ourselves in creating reusable products to replace commonly used disposable items.

Q: (Marissa) What are the top three things you won’t compromise on/recommend other parents to do/buy?

A: (Nicki)

Won’t Compromise:
1.  Quality  2.  Affordability  3.  USA Made
Parent to Do
1.  Follow your heart – you know what is best for your baby!
2.  Enjoy the time you have with your kids
3.  If you make a mistake, learn from it and move on
Parents to Buy
1.  Planet Wise Wet Bag!
Q: (Marissa) What is your best washing tip for cloth diapering families?

A: (Nicki) Overall – keep it simple!  Make sure you do a good COLD rinse first with NO detergent to wash all the waste away before washing.  So many start by washing with detergent first but who wants to wash their cloth diapers with pee and poo?!!

Q: (Marissa) Your wetbags are the best on the market when it comes to cloth diapers, can you give me 10 other uses for your popular wetbags?
A: (Nicki)
1.  soiled clothing
2.  gym bag3.  swimsuits
4.  shoes when traveling
5.  cosmetic bag
6.  potty training
7.  reusable mama pads 8.  hairspray, shampoo, conditioner, etc when traveling
9.  to separate items when traveling
10.  diaper bag (wet/dry bag is perfect for this!)
A short biography on Nicki!

I live in New Glarus, WI with my husband and three beautiful children.  In my free time I love to run, bike, swim (and most recently completed my first sprint triatholon),
read, crochet little toys for my kids, and love movies if I can stay awake long enough to watch

one!  In a nutshell I love my family and have done everything with them in mind to better their lives.


To celebrate her visit, one of our lucky readers will win a Planetwise Hanging Wet/Dry Bag AND a Travel Size Wet/Dry Bag to match!!!

How to enter (please leave a comment for every method of entry)

Mandatory Entry:

Visit Growing Green Bums store and tell me your favorite print by Planetwise, Inc.

For Extra Entries:

Become a fan of Growing Green Bums on Facebook. Leave a comment.

Follow @GrowinGreenBums on Twitter and tweet this Giveaway. Please tweet, Want your diaper stink to go away? Visit @GrowinGreenBums blog & win a Planetwise wet bag package! http://tinyurl.com/34far38 #clothdiapers Leave a comment with your status.

You can tweet once a day, leave a comment with your status for each tweet.

Follow me through Google friend connect. Leave a Comment.

Subscribe to my blog via email through feedburner. Leave a Comment.

Grab my button and post it on your blog. Leave a Comment.

Blog about this giveaway. Post a link in the comment.

Join our newsletter. Leave a Comment

Giveaway ends on September 10, 2010 12pm EST. (Open to US only).

Posted in Cloth Diapering, Eco-Friendly, Giveaways, Green Household, Planetwise, Product Reviews, Reusable, Wet Bag | 253 Comments »

Interview with Tereson Dupuy, inventor of FuzziBunz® **Giveaway CLOSED**

Saturday, July 31st, 2010

Today was a day like no other! I am still on cloud 9! I had the privilege to meet a leader in our cloth diaper industry!!! I know my readers know herand love her, Ms. Tereson Dupuy the founder and CEO of Mother of Eden and the inventor and patent holder for FuzziBunz® pocket-style cloth diapers! It was such an honor to meet her,  she is one of the nicest people I have met! She is warm, friendly and a wonderful mom! Tereson, a native of NewOrleans, was in Destin vacationing with her family for a week and took the time out from her vacation to get a peek in at our store! We had such a lovely conversation about her company, the future, the Gulf Coast and I even got to meet her 2 boys and mom!

I sat down with her and asked her a few questions.

Q: (Marissa) Tell me a little about the birth of FuzziBunz®

A (Tereson) The story begins with my son Eden, hence “Mother of Eden, LLC” , he was suffering from horrible diaper rashes with disposables and I knew something else was out there. I went to the cloth diapers that were available at the time (1999/2000) and I didn’t like anything that was out there. They kept him wet and they were very hard to wash. I knew I could do something better. I knew Fleece had certain stay dry properties, I stuck a piece of fleece in one of the diapers and it worked. I knew I could make something better, it was the year 2000 and I sat and looked and thought “this is where cloth diapers have come in 30 years?”. One thing led to another….the birth of the pocket style diaper.

Q.  (Marissa) What is a typical day like of work for you?

A (Tereson) When kids are in school, get up in the morning and getting them off to school. I am a single mom and I do pretty much everything by myself. Fist thing is to check emails on my iphone and seeing what I need to do for the day. Mostly it is sitting in front of the computer and check in periodically at the office. Then I get my kids off the bus, from 3:30 to 8:00 is kid time and after is work until about 2:00 am!!! That is a pretty routine day for me, but I like the flexibility of being self employed, I have an office, I have employees and most of them work remotely too. It is a good work structure.

Q: (Marissa) Where do you see your company in the next 5 to 10 years?

We talked a lot about what the future holds. Tereson described her efforts in making a more environmentally friendly diaper.  She has tried different things in the past such as biodegradable polyesters that did not work as they would not last as long as her current style which is important to her – but she assures me she is on top of the curve and always on the quest for the next best thing and green is one of her top priorities.  She did mention starting a “Recycle” program where people could donate their used diapers to send to the orphanages and organizations that she has worked with before to give the diapers even longer life! Stay tuned for that. She is really in tune with this industry and is always moving one step ahead! I think her goals and her mission of where to take Mother of Eden, LLC. is downright amazing!

A (Tereson) I think our FuzziBunz® product will be a lot more popular because people will catch up with the trend. The trend is leaning towards being environmentally and cost conscious  and it appeals to so many people on so many different levels. It focuses on baby’s overall health by preventing rash, it addresses concern about finances and the environment all with one product.I look forward to “big” advertising. I would like to see FuzziBunz® be a household name, that is what my future holds, my psychic said so :) . And of course, I would like to see my company making even more environmentally friendly choices. As the technology for “green” and environmentally friendly textiles gets better, we will to, I am on top of that!

Q (Marissa) What green choices does your company make?

A (Tereson) Although I wish I could say yes, we use green energy for our manufacturing facilities. I can’t. It’s not widely available at this time – I can only hope. However in our manufacturing all of our raw materials are produced in one location, manufactured in one location then shipped in a full container once or twice a month reducing fuel and energy cost. In my opinion, having a product that lasts for such a long time reduces the manufacturing strain on the environment. People say “why don’t use organic cotton?” My answer to them is 6 one way and half a dozen the other. Organic cotton or cotton means that 7x that is has to be produced, 7x times the water, 7x the manufacturing, it falls apart. Polyester lasts 7 times longer than cotton. Reduce, Reuse!

Q. (Marissa) Your best washing tip for cloth diapering families?

A (Tereson) Stick to something simple, don’t use vinegar, don’t use baking soda, don’t use tea tree oil. Rockin’ Green is an excellent detergent, it is proven to work with FuzziBunz® and if it is proven to work with FuzziBunz® if it is another pocket diaper, it is likely to work. It is polyester, part of the problem with polyester it will get a residue if something waxy or oily gets on it, but using Rockin’ Green works. You don’t need anything else.

A short bio on Tereson:

Mompreneur extraordinaire. A New Orleans native, mom of 3 and if there was ever such a real super hero, well she is the real deal, a true Super Hero!

To celebrate her visit, one of our lucky readers will win a 3-Pack of One-Size FuzziBunz® Reusable Cloth Diapers (your color of choice, of course!)

How to enter (please leave a comment for every method of entry)

Mandatory Entry:

Visit Growing Green Bums store and tell me your favorite color FuzziBunz®.

For Extra Entries:

Become a fan of Growing Green Bums on Facebook. Leave a comment.

Become a fan of FuzziBunz on Facebook. Leave a comment.

Follow @GrowinGreenBums on Twitter and tweet this Giveaway. Please tweet, Want to win some fluff? Visit @GrowinGreenBums blog & win a package of 3 FuzziBunz http://tinyurl.com/2c7o6pu #clothdiapers Leave a comment with your status.

You can tweet once a day, leave a comment with your status for each tweet.

Follow me through Google friend connect. Leave a Comment.

Subscribe to my blog via email through feedburner. Leave a Comment.

Grab my button and post it on your blog. Leave a Comment.

Blog about this giveaway. Post a link in the comment.

Giveaway ends on Saturday August 14th. (Open to US only).

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Cloth Diapering, Eco-Friendly, FuzziBunz, Giveaways, Rockin Green Cloth Diaper Detergent | 511 Comments »

bumGenius 4.0 cloth diaper announced today!!!

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010


For all the bumGenius fans out there, waiting on the edge of their seat….refreshing their youtube video site….It is finally here! Their announcment of their new and imporved diaper, the 4.0! Here are some of the new features:

Changes in the new bumGenius 4.0 One-Size Cloth Diaper:

1.  Now accommodates even larger babies!  Better yet, the diaper still fits small babies too.

2.  All new hook & loop closures (also available in refresher kits)

3.  Accessible, easily replaceable elastic.  All elastic tack-points are now visible from the inside of the diaper.  To replace elastic, turn the diaper inside out, thread new elastic through the casing and stitch it down at each end.

4.  Three new colors.  Bubble (light lavendar), Noodle (light cream) and Sweet (light green).  We are waiting on shipments to arrive from Egypt and anticipate being able to ship the new colors in all of our other products soon (details to come via the Updates page on the wholesale website).

5.  And my favorite new feature… you now have your choice of closures (snaps or hook & loop).

How to Preorder:

Visit our site and order color/clousre/quanitity of your choice.

Please select “Local Pick Up” and “check” at checkout! You will receive free shipping and will not be charged!

Once stock arrives, I will contact everybody and make arrangements for payment!

Thank You!!!!  Stock from Cottonbabies will be shipping July 14th.

Posted in Cloth Diapering, Eco-Friendly, Reusable, bumGenius | 2 Comments »

Interview with Rockin’ Green Cloth Diaper Detergent Creator, Kim Webb!!! **Closed**

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

Rockin' Green HQ

At the beginning of the month I took a trip to San Antonio, TX. On my list of things to do was to visit with the creator of Rockin’ Green Cloth Diaper Detergent, Kim Webb. I was fortunate enough to meet and interview her! I even got to tour the Rockin’ Green headquarters. I was so excited to meet Kim after months and months of chatting wither her via Twitter and Facebook, I was able to meet her in real life. We had a great time chatting about detergent and fluff. We first toured the office and I got to meet one of her son’s and an employee! After the tour, we sat down and I asked her a few questions. I would love to share with all my readers the pictures of her office and her answers to my questions! I hope you enjoy!

Q (Marissa): Why did you create Rockin’ Green?

A (Kim): I cloth diapered my oldest, who is 4 now, and was stripping every 2 weeks. In Texas, we have hard water and I even blew up one washing machine. I also converted all my friends to cloth, I was involved in a large playgroup. My friends came to me asking “I can’t get this to work?” and I felt really bad because I couldn’t help them and I couldn’t even get the stink out of my diapers. That was a big draw back to cloth diapering because I couldn’t help them wash. I was so tired of not being able to wash stuff right, my kids would get rashes from everything and I could not find anything that would work at the grocery stores. I then started researching about all the chemicals in laundry detergents and I started tinkering around and basically made my son’s own soap for months and months. I first started selling my detergent along with GAD diapers to see how it would do. And well, it took off and now all I sell is Rockin’ Green.

Q (Marissa): What is a typical day like to work for Rockin’ Green?
side note: extremely kid friendly, you can bring your kids to work! How cool is that?

A (Kim): It is pretty laid back, show up around 9, kids running around, my oldest, Jackson, is always playing…. my youngest, Zachary, thinks he is the foreman and will boss people around. The soap is now made in a larger facility, we could not keep up with demand, so it is made and packaged in a local facility. Then it comes back to us and we ship it out. We go through about 7,000 lbs of detergent a week, the facility is in San Antonio and we just got a bagging machine!

Warehouse

Warehouse

~Long Pause~ Potty Crew!

Q (Marissa): Can you tell me how your company makes environmentally friendly choices?

A (Kim): Packaging is very important, before we were using double bags a plastic bag to protect the soap and then a cloth bag to make it pretty. But it was a lot of waste, people would end up with 20 bags and it was adding up too much. We decided to go with the new bags, they are one piece and recyclable, they take up less to transport compared to a box of detergent. The bags allow for easy shipping. We wanted something to fit in a flat rate envelope which are already made by the post office so therefore reducing waste. Our soap is also biodegradable and you only need to use about 2 tbs. which creates less waste and run off!

Q (Marissa): With the launch of all the new scents and formula, can you tell me how the they differ from the original Rockin’ Green?

A (Kim): In my quest to make Hard Rock, it was about a year project, I did a lot of researching and discovered ways to make Soft Rock and Classic Rock even better. When we did our product testing, it was all people who were previously using Classic or Soft Rock, we found some really cool things along the way to make it superior.

Q (Marissa): What is your best washing tip to other cloth diapering families?

A (Kim): Don’t skimp on the water!!!!! If you have a front loader, replace the word “Rinse” with “Wash”. For example, if you have a top loader, you normally do a rinse, a wash, and a rinse. For a front loader, I would suggest a wash, a wash, and a wash. You are still not going to be using the same amount of water as the top loader folks, but you really need to have the water because that is where the ammonia buildup comes up for the most part. For example, if you are washing 15 pocket diapers in a front loader, each insert will hold about 8 oz sometimes 15 oz, and if you think about it that is a lot of urine in each insert. Let’s say each of the 15 inserts holds about a cup of pee, you put the diapers in and your inserts in the front loader a lot of times the front loader does not put that much water in, so you are washing with a 50/50 mix of water and urine. That will not be rinsed out all the way, so if you do the 3 washes you will be more likely to get the urine flushed out. So, Wash Cold (no detergent), Wash hot (w/ detergent) and Wash Cold (no detergent). The first wash will get most of the urine, so your next wash you will be washing in clean water. This is what I suggest when someone is having stink issues with a front loader, I believe to attack it at the front and not the end.

Wash Routine!

A short bio of Kim:
She and her husband of 9 years have 2 boys, Jackson 4 and Zachary 18 months. They currently reside in San Antonio, TX. Her hubby was a Marine and aircraft mechanic, but now works full time at Rockin’ Green!

Ms. Kim Webb and Son, Zachary

To celebrate the new formula and scents one of our lucky Readers will win a bag of Rockin’ Green Hard Rock!

How to enter (please leave a comment for every method of entry)

Mandatory Entry:

Visit Growing Green Bums store and tell me your favorite item, besides Rockin’ Green!

For Extra entries:

Become a fan of Growing Green Bums on Facebook. Leave a comment.

Become of a fan of Rockin’ Green on Facebook. Leave a comment.

Follow @GrowinGreenBums on twitter and tweet this giveaway. Please tweet, Win Rockin’ Green Hard Rock from @GrowinGreenBums http://bit.ly/aBrxIA #clothdiapers Leave a comment with your status.

You can tweet once a day, leave a comment with your status for each tweet.

Follow me through Google Friend Connect. Leave a comment

Subscribe to my blog via email through feedburner. Leave a comment.

Grab my button and post it on your blog. Leave a comment.

Blog about this giveaway. Post a link in the comment.

Giveaway end on May 31. (Open to US only).

Posted in Cloth Diaper Friendly Detergent, Cloth Diapering, Eco-Friendly, Giveaways, Green Household, Rockin Green Cloth Diaper Detergent, Twitter | 177 Comments »

The Emerald Coast Real Diaper Circle

Monday, January 25th, 2010

I am proud to announce that I have received my accreditation from the Real Diaper Association to become The Emerald Coast’s Real Diaper Circle Leader. I am looking forward to starting our circle and connect families with all levels of experience in cloth diapering! Our first meeting will be held on March 8 at 10 am at Ever’mans in Pensacola. I will keep you posted if the date changes! Please join us if you are interested in discovering how to use and care for cloth diapers, review different reusable cloth diapering systems, meet other families who cloth diaper and learn about issues of diaper usage. You can also join our Yahoo group to post helpful information pertaining to cloth diapering, tackling questions on troubleshooting and any hints you have discovered during your cloth diaper Journey!

Subscribe to ecrealdiapercircle

Powered by us.groups.yahoo.com

The Real Diaper Association is a wonderful non-profit organization focusing on education and support for cloth diapering families across the United States. Recently they have implemented a great campaign for cloth diaper use in daycares. They teamed together with the Real Diaper Industry Association to create “Cloth Diapers in Daycare“.  After a year of planning and surveys, they created a cloth diaper friendly daycare directory and materials to distribute to educate daycares about cloth diapers! What a great organization!!!! RDA’s new campaign is “100% Cloth Diapers Every Time”. This is a brand new campaign and you can learn more here: htttp://www.realdiaperevents.org  I support 100% reusable cloth diapers for all babies! The first focus of this campaign is using cloth diapers all night with your baby! You can participate in the campaign by sharing your insights on what works for you during nighttime diapering!

100% reusable cloth diapers for all babies badge

Thank you again for all your support during this time! I hope you will be able to join us at our first meeting!!!

Posted in Cloth Diaper Charities, Cloth Diapering, Eco-Friendly, Real Diaper Circle, Reusable | 1 Comment »

Eco-Christmas

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

I was so surprised at some of the gifts we received. Many family members know how “green” I try to keep our house and family! So, I was very excited to receive some heart felt gifts! One of our favorite gifts we received from family in Chicago were Bird-E Towels, Reusable, Washable Eco Friendly paper towel replacements! I don’t use paper towels, I normally just use old prefold diapers or knitted towels my husband’s grandmother made for us. But it was really nice to receive some great reusable towels! They are a great towel for cleaning up and I am throughly enjoying them! And not only does she make some great reusable towels, but she also has some rockin’ Tie Dye clothing items!!!

Here is some information about Bird-E Towels™:

Bird-E Towels are reusable towels made by hand in Florida. As the name suggests, these are paper towel replacements. Whatever you might use a paper towel for, you can use these cloths. Dry your hands, wipe up spills, clean the dining room table, dinner napkins, etc, etc. Even better then paper towels, you can actually clean glass and mirrors without leaving linty bits like paper towels and other cloths can do.
What’s the problem with paper towels?? The main problem is that the paper towels that most people use are made from virgin tree pulp. That means that trees are cut down and harvested for something that you are going to use ONE time. And then it gets thrown away…adding to the landfill problem. Oh and to make it even worse for the environment, they bleach the pulp releasing toxic chemicals into our environment. (For something that is used one time?!?) I use unbleached cotton to avoid that aspect of manufacturing. Whenever you get a chance, choose unbleached for a healthier earth. So, cloth is better in so many ways. You can expect years of use from these cloths. And considering that you can toss these small cloths in with laundry that you already have to do…it doesn’t really have much environmental impact once you get them home.

bird-e

Another great eco-gift we received was from family in Wisconsin! They searched their local markets for some “local” handmade items! One of our favorite gifts was from Dragonfly Soaps out of Spooner, WI! We received a number of different soaps, one of our favorites is the Gardener’s Friend Soap: Lemon juice, sand and pumice make this bar an excellent cleanser for people who work with their hands (only for use on hands). We also received some dog shampoo, which I am excited to give that a try for our dog!

I couldn’t find information on them online, but I do have a contact address! I do have some information on homemade hand milled soaps! This information was included in the gift: “Most of the soaps and shampoos we buy in stores are not soap, but detergents made from petroleum distillates. Soaps are made with animal and/or vegetable fats, lye and water in a process known as saponification. We use beef tallow, olive oil, cocoa butter, ly and water as main ingredients for our basic soap. Hand milled soaps are cured basic soap which has been grated, remelted with a variety of skin friendly additives and molded. Though they take longer to make, they are harder and last longer. This process also protects the additives as the soap is no longer caustic when milled.”

I hope everyone of you had a wonderful, peaceful Christmas! Thank so much for your support in 2009 and looking forward to the opportunities 2010 holds!

Posted in Eco-Friendly, Green Household, Reusable | 3 Comments »

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