Participate in a $35 dollar gift card giveaway!

I did recently a review of Iittala glassware from CSN Stores. They have now kindly given you the opportunity to participate in a giveaway! Post below by February 7th and I will put all the names in a hat and draw my eyes closed a giveaway winner who will receive a $35 dollar gift card to their online stores. There is a lot to choose from how to use your card because CSN Stores has over 200 online stores where you can find anything you need whether it be modern dining furniture, fitness equipment, or even cute cookware! So it is worth participating! Sign up below or email me at info at kaikulifestyle.com . Please note that the gift card won't cover international shipping.

What do you recycle or reuse?

I ended up discussing reusing freezer bags with the writer of Shockingly Delicious. We both wash and reuse plastic freezer bags. I reuse also bags from store bought breads etc. and of course any plastic bag if I happen to get one when I have forgotten my reusable bags in the car/home. My son is gluten intolerant so any bag that has had a gluten product in it, we have to toss though. Plastic bags I use for garbage cans, bread bags for storing home made bread and other products. I freeze mostly in glass Pyrex jars because I am suspicious of the chemicals in plastic and so I end up rarely buying freezer bags. We don't use them for packing lunch either, for my son's sandwiches I made a fabric wrapper (with an inside layer from an old rain coat to keep it fresh) and for other lunch we use Pyrex glass jars or stainless steel containers.

What kind of (re)uses for plastic bags have you come up with? What are the craziest things you reuse? I have to confess that my craziest reuse is probably little note cards for grocery lists etc. I cut from empty food card board boxes! Baby steps to save the planet ;)

A perfect real first glass for small hands.

I wrote recently about the chance I got from CSN stores, to get $50 worth products of my choice free from their store if I wrote a review of them. I chose Finnish design Iittala Kartio glasses that I miss from my kitchen in Finland.

I have years of experience with these glasses. They come in different beautiful colors and two sizes. They are durable, I have dropped a Kartio several times without breaking or even chipping them. I am sure they would break when dropped on a tiled floor though!

I love the smaller size Kartio (in the photo) because it is perfect for little child's first glass. It is small and fits well the small hands. I am not a big fan of sippy cups or even plastic cups. I believe in giving them a real glass like the rest of the family as soon as they can hold it to start practicing. They can start learning to drink from a real cup surprisingly early, long before their first birthday, actually they can start practicing when they can sit up and can sit in a high chair - one of the signs that they are ready to start trying solid foods (other signs for solid food readiness here), around the middle of their first year.

I gave my son a glass pretty early and I don't remember he ever breaking one but instead learning very fast to drink from a cup. We used sippy and straw cups mainly in the car. Some people are worried about the spills. If the main drink from a glass is water, this isn't a big problem either ;)

Natural home made diaper cream - unpetroleum jelly

As I am eagerly waiting for my baby to be born (week 33) I have already been (in addition to taking care of my toddler) practising hypnobirthing, preparing my home birth supplies (yes, I am preparing for an HBAC, homebirth after cesarean!) and taking out baby clothes and cloth diapers. Suddenly I remembered that we needed diaper cream when my older son was a baby. I have been making many of my cosmetic products recently myself so I decided to make a diaper cream too.

With a quick web search and search through Wholefoods baby shelf I ended up trying to make my own unpetroleum jelly since I have most ingredients used in the commercial unpetroleum jelly.

What is wrong with the traditional petroleum jelly? It bothers me that the petroleum jelly is derived from the same crude oil that is used to make gasoline. I want to make a cream that has wonderful plant oils.

Here is the recipe I used:

1 small bar of beeswax (I would think it is about 3-4 tbsp), half an ounce or an ounce (bought mine from Mountain Rose Herbs while ago so I have forgotten the weight, they sell 1 oz bars so that is what this probably was too)

1/2 cup of oils - I used half coconut oil and half castor oil

2-3 drops of vitamin E oil (optional)

2 drops of lavender essential oil (optional)

Melt all ingredients on low in a sauce pan and pour in jars. Place in the fridge to solidify. Keep out if you want them softer.

It turned out beautiful. I noticed that it works wonderfully also as a lip balm. It is quite solid so I would reduce the amount of beeswax in relation to the oils. If you want very loose spreadable cream, maybe even double the oils in the recipe. I am not sure how good it is for the cream but I did this once: If the cream becomes too solid, you can melt it again and add oil. When you heat it up, the vitamin E and essential oil might get ruined and evaporated so you might have to add those again.

I buy this brand coconut oil online. If you order by clicking on any my links and have never ordered from Tropical Traditions in the past, you will receive a free book on Virgin Coconut Oil, and I will receive a discount coupon for referring you. Thanks for your support!

Organic kids clothes.

Teres Kids Coco Pants (this is not a paid ad by the way, I just want to advertise this great company!)

Some time ago I tried my luck and participated in a giveaway on Teres Kids website. They carry beautiful, simple organic kids' clothes. I won a pair of cocoa brown pants (worth $38!). They came in the mail and they seem like they are very good quality, the fabric is nice and sturdy and of course organic. My four-year old son loves them, they seem to be comfortable and he thinks they are very stylish too :)

They say the pants are for boys but I would use them on girls too, I am not that into the gender specific clothing, I always try to buy unisex looking clothes. I think if I had a girl (which is unlikely since this baby in my belly is a boy too and I think two will be enough for us), I wouldn't dress her in pink unless she started wanting pink herself at some point. I could write a lot more about this gender thing but it wasn't the original purpose of my post so more on that later.

The prices of organic clothes are of course higher than those of supermarket clothes but consider this:

1. Organic clothes are often better quality so they will last better than the cheap ones and you can use them on several kids or even sell them after you are done.
2. They are safe. There are no harmful pesticides or chemicals used that harm the environment and your child.
3. Teres kids organic cotton clothes are sourced and manufactured entirely in the United States, keeping the carbon footprint to a minimum and supporting the local job markets. No cheap (or child) labor so you can feel good about your purchase.

I just wanted to let you know about Teres Kids website and their wonderful organic clothes - and the giveaway! They give something away for one lucky participant once a month.