Organically Gifted: Ottawa Eco Ideas

I was so excited to have stumbled upon this site that I had to share it with you. Organically Gifted is a local company with an online eco gift store. They create unique, toxin-free, organic gifts and baskets for every occasion! You can choose from their inventory of gift baskets or build your own!

They've got tons of great ideas for organic and eco-friendly wedding favours. And perhaps best of all, 1% of every purchase made goes straight to the David Suzuki Foundation!! It's definitely worth a look!

Happy Friday!

Sophie

Eco Book of the Month: The Green Bride's Guide: How to Create an Earth-Friendly Wedding on Any Budget

Kate Harrison is the eco-bride turned author of the acclaimed book, The Green Bride Guide: How to Create an Earth-Friendly Wedding on Any Budget; a must-have for any eco-savvy couple working on their own wedding plans.

The research that went into this book is evident from the very first chapter. I think that couples will really appreciate that Kate offers hundreds of options with varying price tags. If you take even one thing away from this book to help green your own wedding it will be money well-spent.

Cheers,

Sophie
Coverall Event Coordination

Raw Cookie Recipe: Easy Healthy Cookies

I'll be blogging about eco-menus in many future posts but today I wanted to share a little personal recipe with you all.

Some people have heard the term "raw foodist", if you haven't then I'll quickly sum it up for you. A raw foodist is a person whose diet is made up of 75% to 100% raw food. That is, uncooked fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains, etc. It's believed that the cooking process kills a food's enzymes and nutrients which makes it harder for our bodies to digest and not quite as nutritious for us as raw foods are.

I am not a raw foodist but I do try to eat as much raw foods as I can simply because it's good for me. This is tough when it comes to baking because I LOVE to bake! And I LOVE cookies and breads especially. What really gets me when I'm baking is the amount of (for a lack of a better word) crap that goes into the foods. I mean white flour, granulated sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda make up the brunt of most recipes.

After investigating raw food diets for some time (I ate 100% raw for one full week earlier this month) I found that there are actually TONS of raw recipes for cookies, breads, cakes, and all kinds up goodies. Many of these recipes called for a dehydrator (which I don't own) and most of them called for all kinds of wacky ingredients that only hard-core raw foodists would keep on hand. So after much more research I decided that I understood the basic concept of these recipes and decided to just go for it with some stuff that I had on hand. This is the recipe I came up with and the cookies are delicious and, not to mention, 100% raw and good for you!

Ingredients:

1 cup raw unsalted organic almonds

1 cup raw organic raisins

1 cup pitted organic honey dates

(Seriously, that's it!)

1. Put the almonds and raisins in a food processor and chop until fine (about 30 seconds).

2. Add the dates and blend another 30 seconds or until mixture become thick and doughy.

3. Roll dough into small balls about 1.5 inches in diameter. Flatten balls with your hands to make a cookie shape.

4. Place the cookies on a tray on place the tray in the freezer for at least 2 hours. Keep the cookies stored in the freezer.

Makes about 24 cookies.

These cookies are so rich that you'll only be able to eat one at a time. My husband can't stand dates so he won't eat them but my daughter loves them. I'd love to hear how yours turn out.

Bon Appetite!

Sophie

Coverall Event Coordination

The Lost Generation

Alright, so this has nothing to do with weddings but I thought it was so cool that I had to share it!

Enjoy!

Sophie

eWedding

There are tons of wedding website services out there. My personal favourite is eWeddings where you have the option to set up a free site or pay for additional features. Plus there are TONS of template options.

If you've decided to skip the formal paper invites altogether a wedding website is a must have.

Sophie

Birdseed Favours

I made these lovely little birdseed favours last week. This is a much more elegant twist on the pine cone bird feeder.

To start, I didn't have any bird feed lying around (I finished it all before winter hit). So I decided to make a quick homemade bird feed with some stuff I had lying around the house but you can buy ready-made bird feed to make your life easier. If you purchase the feed make sure that you choose one that has some interesting colours, sizes, and textures.

The feed I used was made up of organic raisins, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds (I ran the raisins and pumpkin seeds through the food processor before I started).

What you'll need:
Toast (I used one per feeder but you can make smaller feeders if you make two per slice)
Cookie cutter (or scissors - yup, low-tech over here).
Peanut butter
Bird feed (homemade or store bought)
Twine
Labels or tags



Step 1: Use your cookie cutter to cut out the number of favours that you'll need. As you can see, I simply cut out a shape on paper then used that the cut out my heart shapes with scissors (I only made two feeders so it wasn't too bad but this could get time-consuming for a larger batch of feeders).

Step 2: Cover one side of the toast in peanut butter and push it down into the bird feed. Then cover the other side and the edge and press the other side into the feed. Make sure there is no peanut butter showing.

Step 3: Once your favours are covered push the tip of a paint brush or a pencil through one corner.

Step 4: Let the favours dry overnight or for a few days to give them a chance to harden.

Step 5: Once the feeders are nice and stiff, thread the twine through the hole and place a tag on the twine (I used a label made from recycled paper).

I put my feeder outside and even though it's January I've had a few birds munchin' away at it.

Do you have an idea for an eco project? Send it to me here!

Thirst Relief International: Grace Ormonde Benefit Shoot

According to UNICEF more than 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water. That's 1 in 6 people on the planet! Statistically, there is 1 death every 15 seconds caused by water-borne illness; 90% of those deaths are children under the age of 5.

Thirst Relief International is a water development organization founded by wedding photographer, Jim Davis-Hicks. In August of 2009 Thirst Relief teamed up with Grace Ormonde, several designers, and 15 U.S. wedding photographers to create one of the most beautiful wedding gown shoots I've ever seen.

All of the gowns, which each contained a touch of blue, were designed specifically for the Tanzania shoot. You can check out some of the photographer's photos from the trip here. For photos from the shoot check out the Spring/Summer 2010 issue of Grace Ormonde.

Visit the Thirst Relief website for information on how to donate. What a wonderful "In Lieu of Favours" gift this could be for your wedding!

Happy Planning!

Sophie

Coverall Event Coordination