The thought of rubbing toxic chemicals into my body or scalp is bad enough, but when it comes to a baby – it’s horrendous.  Little babies are now bombarded with chemicals the moment they make their entrance, and this realization was one of the catalysts that catapulted me head first into the Green space almost a decade ago. My daughter, Lola (just turned 9,) is now very savvy when it comes to reading ingredient lists on bottles and lotions, which is fortunate because those little fingers are already dipping into every glittery lip balm pot she can get them into! It’s actually so much fun, because while researching/experimenting for Do It Gorgeously, she got to help me try out many of the skin care and particularly baby care recipes – she figured Read the rest of this entry »

So with no prompting from me – I totally promise! Lola, decided that this year, she wanted to have a “Do It Gorgeously” 9th Birthday party. Now this came as quite a shock, since in this rather rebellious phase that she’s going through (like I say it’s black and before I’ve finished the sentence, she says it’s white), I was expecting her to want something very un-gorgeously green, like a group trip to a theme park, or sit in a movie with giant lurid slushies. But no, she decided off her own bat that she’d love to invite 10 friends over Read the rest of this entry »

I created Gorgeously Green for time and budget challenged women like me. I bet you anything that I face many of the same day-to-day struggles that you do – I’m just a regular kind of girl, who is simply trying to live a little more gorgeously. Don’t get put off by the whole “Green” thing because you think its too hard, or just for women who have the time and money to float around baking organic, vegan cupcakes, while deciding what to plant in their massive gardens. Read the rest of this entry »

If you happened to watch sixty minutes this past sunday, you will have seen the story about the dangers of phthalates, a subject that’s been a pet peeve of mine for quite sometime. They talked about the possible dangers of phthlates in regular consumer products and that pregnant women should beware, as phthlates could cause abnormalities in male babies. The data, however, is inconclusive, so naturally the plastics industry stepped in quick as lightening to say that all these phthalate-containing consumer products are perfectly safe. As a green girl, I take the precautionary principle: I won’t use anything until it’s proven to be Read the rest of this entry »

Being a green mommy is mostly commonsense. As we celebrate Mother’s Day on the heels of Earth Day (LOVE that they’re so close together,) what are the 5 most important actions we can take to protect and nurture our kids? #1 Daily Nature Date: Carve out some time every day (10 minutes will do,) to get outside with your kids and without your cell phone. Makes no difference if your little one is 8 months or 8 years old – you can always point Read the rest of this entry »

I was doing a quick grocery store shop the other day and stopped dead in my tracks as I saw the cutest baby girl ever, sitting in a shopping cart, transifixed by the images on the small screen of a DVD player that her mom had plonked in her lap. I knowwww – every time I point my finger at someone, there’s three fingers pointing back at me, BUT.. there’s something that doesn’t seem right about the fact that our kids aren’t allowed to be bored anymore. I’m maybe one of those weird moms who happens to think that boredom is a brilliant thing for a kid Read the rest of this entry »

I got a direct message on Twitter yesterday from a man who said he didn’t believe that small changes/steps could really make a difference. I’m a passionate believer that they can, and that the alternative – all of us thinking “why bother” because the issues we face are too large, could be totally catastrophic. When I gave birth to my daughter almost nine years ago, the green landscape was very different, especially in mommy land: no one was talking about BPA-free Read the rest of this entry »

I clearly remember Lola’s pre-school teacher presenting me with an enormous bag full of her artwork just before the holidays. I was absolutely at a loss at what to do with it. I already had dozens of her masterpieces stuck up all over the kitchen (I could barely open the fridge), and now this bag of finger painting and splatterings, which I was clearly supposed to treasure. I picked out a few creations to put in an over-stuffed art folder and guiltily tossed the rest of them into the recycling bin. Of course, the next day I heard shrieks from the laundry room – 3 year-old Lola, crumpled artwork in hand, wailing on the floor by the recycle bin, Read the rest of this entry »

My daughter came home from school the other day and announced that she absolutely adores beets. “Beets!” I repeated in total disbelief, remembering my rather lame attempts at encouraging her to eat salad the week before. “Yes”, she chattered on, “I ate them in garden class today at school”. It turned out that her wonderful gardening teacher at the urban charter school that she attends had got the kids to dig up some of the beets that they had planted back in the fall. They then peeled and grated them into a large bowl and dressed them with olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt and pepper. I just wanted to hug the teacher for not only getting Read the rest of this entry »

Your belly’s looking nice and round and you’re looking forward to the bliss of snuggle & smiles – and on the other hand, the not-so-blissful reality of dealing with your bundle of joy’s toileting needs. Mainstream disposables are an eco nightmare: what are the alternatives?It can seem a bit overwhelming at first, but I’d like to share my own story in the hopes of assuring you that you too can find a way to manage your child’s waste in an eco-friendly way that suits your lifestyle. Read the rest of this entry »