Gift Guide for the Whimsical Green Yuppie

A couple of years ago, the reality of my true identity hit me hard: I am a straight-up yuppie lawyer. This was hard to reconcile with the side of me that is really into unicorns and rainbows. Then, there’s the hardcore tree-hugging green girl. In other words, I’m an absolute nightmare to buy gifts for. Typically, if I want something, I go out and buy it for myself and no one knows anything about it. If you are like me or you are friends with someone like me, you know what a pain in the butt the Whimsical Green Yuppie is to shop for during the holidays. This gift guide is here to assist you in buying for the person who has strict environmental guidelines, tends to buy herself everything she wants anyway and likes things that are a little bit quirky. Let’s begin.

This Whimsical Green Yuppie’s favorite website is Delight. I could make this post really short and say, buy something from Delight and be done with it.  But then this wouldn’t be a guide, would it?

Green Gift Ideas

These are the Artist Series Twist and Shut Bowls. Like any good yuppie, I spend most of my lunches working at my desk. Like any good green yuppie, I bring most of my food and I want it to be kept in a BPA-free container that is microwave safe. And, since I am whimsical, I want it to be cuter than a boring pyrex dish. Voila. (I have the Catalina Estrada design.)

This little yuppie gets stuck with all sorts of dry cleaning.  Don’t worry, I take it to the eco-cleaner. But what to do about those awful plastic bags. The Green Garmento reusable dry cleaning bag saves the day. It can serve as a laundry bag and duffel too! It is perfect and you can feel super smug when you leave the eco-cleaner with your clothes in this bag and everyone else is still using plastic. This is the perfect gift for the green yuppie who has everything.

Gorgeously Green is the book that made me realize I could go green and not have to be completely insane about it. Sure, I drive a hybrid, but I haven’t given up air conditioning. (I live in Las Vegas.) This book shows is a perfect guide for going green.

Additional gifts that are fantastic ideas are vintage handkerchiefs, china and aprons. Not to mention purses and accessories. I’m a big fan of fine stationery, so any type of beautiful stationery made from recycled paper (preferably with soy ink) is a great gift. I also love cards made from wildflower seeds that you can plant when you receive them. A whimsical green yuppie can never have enough fine stationery

Last but not least, there is one thing that I have not purchased for myself yet: the Chevy Volt.

Like I said, I currently drive a hybrid. I don’t have an electric car yet. So if someone wants to buy that for me, I’m open to it.

Featured photo by NJ/Flickr

Water Bobble : Saving the Planet, Saving You Money

Water.

We all know that we’re supposed to drink eight glasses a day, blah blah blah blah.

But some of us have trouble making that happen.

Personally, I just never really liked the taste of water.

I know.  Stupid, right?

But I’ll tell you one thing I’ve learned is that passing out and having to spend the day in the hospital having fluids pumped into you because you’re severely dehydrated will work wonders on putting your taste buds in their place.

Water tastes a lot better than a needle feels.

But……I work in an office with no access to water beyond what I purchase for myself or get from the sink in the little mini-kitchen area.

To put it bluntly,water within the city of Chicago, well, sucks.  Really.

Also, I work in an old building with, d’uh, old pipes.

This means that when you run the tap to get some nice, refreshing cold water, you wind up with lukewarm water with little things floating in it.

Yum.

So I was buying bottled water by the case in an attempt to keep myself hydrated.

After the BP Oil Spill though, I began to get more environmentally conscious.  Sure, I recycled when I could and cut the little rings that six packs came in so a duck wouldn’t get tangled up inside it but news flash [!!!] plastic is made from oil and here I was using practically a barrel a week on water.

I was starting to feel like I was going to have to choose between drink scuzzy water, keep throwing more plastic bottles into the recycling bin or just only drink fluids when I was at home with my handy little fridge filter.

None of those scenarios were going to work for me so I just kept refilling my plastic water bottles at home and carrying them into work every day, which let me hit two R’s until the bottles were so decrepit that they had go into the recycling bin.

Then my brother bought me a present.

It’s called a Water Bobble and is pretty much the most bad ass invention ever.

I mean, besides the refrigerator, stop lights and DVR.

It is a reusable, refillable plastic water bottle that has a carbon filter to remove impurities (like chlorine and old city pipe crud) from your tap water.

It’s made from recycled PVC plastic and can be recycled when you’re done with it.

But why would you ever be done with it?

The filter should be replaced every two months or, if you want to be really accurate, every three hundred refills.

And yes, I can drink water at work now because it really does filter out the funk of our fine city’s public water source.

The best part?

For less than the cost seven bottles of water at the gas station – or fewer if you buy the fancy schmancy water -  not only can you still hydrate on the go, you can help keep plastics out of land fills, reduce oil consumption and save a shit ton of money.

I don’t really know how much money I’ve saved using this little “bobble” because I’d probably just wind up being pretty pissed at myself if I really and truly figured out how much money I’ve wasted on something that is practically free.  I just know it’s a lot.

As with all things though, this bottle is not perfect.

I know, I know.

The only “complaint” I have is that it is not really chuggable so if you’re working out on a hot day and need to down some H2O pronto, well, it doesn’t really work for that.

Luckily, I never work out so this isn’t really an issue for me.

You can buy the Water Bobbles for about $10 and replacement filters for about $7 on Amazon.

Mother’s Day Eco-Friendly Gift Ideas – Gifts To Help Mom Go Green

I have called my mother a hippie on more than one occasion. (And once I accidentally called her hippy, which is apparently not the same at all and slightly more insulting.  The more you know…)

My mom was eco-friendly before going green was all the rage.

We had a compost heap in our backyard before you could pick up composters at the grocery store.  We reused and recycled back when only those weirdos in communes were talking about global warming.

So, it is in honor of my eco-friendly and environmentally aware mother that I talk today about top holiday gift ideas for women who are trying to go green.

Biodegradable Home Kitchen Compost Pack
$21.95

Where were these babies when I was growing up?  Do you know how not stinky it is to put your food garbage in something with a lid?

This makes the process of taking your garbage from the kitchen to the outdoor compost pile much more convenient – and much more likely that the rest of the household will play along.

Organic shopping Set – 5 pack
$39.95

I’m a huge fan of my reusable shopping bags.  This set comes with 5 reusable shopping bags (each old about 35 lbs.) and 3 reusable produce bags – which I do not have.  A great gift idea for women who have yet to hop on the reusable bag wagon.

Eco Sandwich Wrap
$6.95

Does your eco-friendly mom pack a lunch?  These reusable sandwich wraps replace the little sandwich baggies that usually get thrown away after one use.

In my house, we’ve been trying to wash out the baggies – which is kind of a pain because they don’t really get dry on the inside.  These wraps lay flat, making them easier to wipe down and reuse.

Refresh’n Dryer Towels
$9.95

OK – so part of me thinks this is kind of like giving your wife a vacuum cleaner as a birthday gift.  BUT – part of me also thinks that this is a neat idea that I might not spend the money on initially to try out.

They are described as dryer towels  that can “be reused up to 25 times, save on water and electricity, lessen time in the laundry, prolong the life of your clothes, and is 100% natural.”  Basically, instead of washing your clothes every time you wear them – you throw them in the dryer with one of these.

It is an eco-friendly gift idea.

Sun Oven
$249.00

No one said environmental responsibility was cheap.  But damn.  Apparently this cooks at temperatures between 350-400 degrees.

This is a really thoughtful gift idea for a woman who camps or picnics a lot.

Rain Barrel and Diverter
$149.00

What would your mom (or wife) want with a barrel of rain water?  There’s a lot of uses for collected rain water that are good for the environment and her water bill.  Water the lawn or garden, wash the car, um… ok.  There are at least two awesome things she could do with reclaimed rain water.

To be honest, eco-friendly gifts for moms aren’t always the most fun things to buy for her.  BUT – they can be really thoughtful, especially if going green is something she’s expressed an interest in.

And the most important thing to remember about buying a gift for someone else is that it’s about them, and not you.