We Love All This Awesome Stuff
Perfect for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day or any occasion. You’ll find something for just about anyone …
1. The Oona Using its strong suction pads, stick your cell phone wherever you need to go: to your cabinets to cook dinner, to a whiteboard to teach, or to the nightstand to use it as an alarm clock. $30, uncommongoods.com
2. Under a Mother’s Wing Inspired by moms but made for anyone, these newly redesigned, recycled sterling silver necklaces are sweet, simple, and bound to become an everyday favorite. $70 to $79, uncommongoods.com
3. Tea Tree Water Toner Gently, but effectively, treat your skin with Tea Tree Water. The antiseptic tea tree oil clears out blemish causing bacteria, while grapefruit and juniper water balance oil production. $9.95 to $21.95; Lushusa.com
4. Novel Poster: Read the Fine Print These novel posters turn iconic pieces of literature inside out by using the text itself to illustrate the story. Each one uses the complete text of a favorite book to create a bold a silhouette of one of their instantly recognizable characters. Alice in Wonderland, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Huckleberry Fin, and others; Starting at $40, uncommongoods.com
5. Dirty Shaving Cream Slather, shave, and soothe your face with a generous helping of Dirty shaving cream. Calming oat milk, shea butter, and honey are great for calming irritations and red marks on sensitive chins. $12.95, Lushusa.com
6. Dirty Springwash Shower Gel These shower gels are loaded with fresh, natural ingredients and contain very little water, so a little goes a long way. Also excellent shampoos. $9.95 to $28.95; Lushusa.com
Public Radio Gift Set for Moms
A great gift set combining three public radio–related items designed especially for MOM.
Motherhood: A Radio Collection For years, A Prairie Home Companion has celebrated that one person who manages to make you feel that you’re special and that you aren’t living up to your potential—all in the same sentence. This funny, affectionate, poignant collection contains the best sketches, songs, and stories from Garrison and the regular cast. The Royal Academy of Radio Actors includes Garrison Keillor, Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and Tom Keith.
Driveway Moments for Moms This collection of radio moments is all about mothers, including the hilarious real-life messages Amy Borkowsky’s mother leaves on her answering machine, and Minnesotan Kevin Kling’s yearly conflict between Mother’s Day and the fishing opener. Hosted by Peter Sagal from Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!
Mom: A Celebration of Mom from StoryCorps Through conversations between parents and children, husbands and wives, siblings and friends, the life of the American mother unfolds and new truths about the mother-child bond become revealed. Meet mothers and children of all kinds—immigrants, adult children caring for an elderly parent, a woman remembering the sound of her mother’s laugh, and visit families in moments of profound joy and sadness, courage and despair, struggle and triumph.
SodaStream
Making carbonated water and soft drinks is simple! Turn tap water into sparkling water in under 30 seconds, with no cleanup. Enjoy the freshness and convenience of homemade soda and protect the environment at the same time. No heavy bottles to carry, store at home, or throw away. Fizz to your taste and add the flavor of your choice to make your favorite drink. Simple to clean and reuse. With a variety of colors and silhouettes, you’ll be sure to find a soda maker to match with any decor.
How Does SodaStream Help the Environment?
SodaStream is an active green product, meaning that consumers are actively reducing their CO2 footprint every time they make soda or sparkling water at home instead of buying it from the store. The more the system is used on a daily basis, the more CO2 footprint the user actively saves. (This differs from passive green products, which use green-friendly production processes but their products are not inherently helping the consumers save on their daily footprint.)
Because SodaStream uses water straight from the tap, the system makes traditional store-bought beverage bottles obsolete. That means less plastic is manufactured, less plastic waste is created, and fewer bottled beverages must be transported from manufacturers to distributors to stores to homes.
Globally, 206 billion liters of bottled water were consumed in 2008 (Zenith International Global Bottled Water Report, 2008). The energy required to make water bottles in the United States only is equivalent to 17 million barrels of oil (Container Recycling Institute, 2002).
According to the U.S. Recycling Institute, more than 80% of bottles in the United States do not get recycled and end up in landfills. Also, an estimated 4.7 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions were produced in the process of replacing the 134 billion bottles and cans not recycled in 2005. Using your own home carbonation system means:
• Less packaging waste from cans and bottles • Less pollution caused by transport of bottled beverages
One SodaStream carbonator makes 60 or 110 liters, equivalent to 170 or 310 aluminum cans! When empty, the carbonator is refilled and reused, ready to make more fizzy and tasty soda whenever you want it.
More at foodandwaterwatch.org or sodastream.com
More Awesome Stuff!
1. iPhone Bike Mount: Look, Ma! No Hands! The iPhone puts a miraculous number of digital tools right at your fingertips and your bicycle! Use the mount for easy access to GPS maps as you blaze your trail, display your speed or distance, or to make a video record of your travels. $40, uncommongoods.com
2. Grass Shower Gel It’s time to cross over to the greener side and start indulging in a little bit of grass. Smell like a freshly mown lawn in springtime. Made with fresh, antioxidant wheatgrass juice for skin and neroli and bergamot oils to brighten moods. $9.95-$28.95; Lushusa.com
3. Happy Hippy Shower Gel A perfect way to start the day, Happy Hippy smells absolutely delicious, bursting with organic pink grapefruits. Plus, grapefruit and bergamot oils give a dose of Vitamin C. $9.95 to $28.95; Lushusa.com
4. Ocean Salt Face and Body Scrub Washing with Ocean Salt is like taking your face on a trip to the seaside for an invigorating splash in the water. Fresh avocado and coconut to hydrate thirsty skin, while the antibacterial effects of lime and vodka is ideal for blocked pores, blackheads, or blemishes. $21.95 to $35.95; Lushusa.com
5. Drinking Buddy Now you can add some extra sweetness to your cup o’ joe, tea, or hot cocoa with this charming mug. Each charismatic little fellow holds your favorite hot drink and your attention since he stands upon strikingly lifelike feet, complete with ten adorable toes! $18-$32, uncommongoods.com
6. Makey Makey: An Invention Kit for Anyone Turn alphabet soup noodles into a functioning keyboard, control your video games using a controller you draw with pencil, or play piano just by dancing on the stairs. Transform almost anything into a “key” that tells your computer what to do, whether that’s typing a letter or controlling a game character. $40, uncommongoods.com