Sometimes it is hard to find green gifts at a reasonable price especially if you want to spend $25 or less. With the economy still being sluggish this year, $25 seems to be the magical price threshold that most people want to spend on family that they do not see very often or good friends.

I have been spending quite a bit of time lately exploring eBay’s World of Good. It is a growing shopping mall for green gifts, and specialty items, and really fun to browse.

I recommend that you browse eBay’s World of Good to see what they have to offer and bookmark some items for your friends and relatives. It is always good to know that you are contributing to the health and well being of your friends and family.

Here is one of my personal favorites this week:

Alex and Ani St. Christopher Bracelet
I think that I might have to get one of these for myself.

For my friends, this is a great gift:

Natural Handmade Balm for Dry Skin

To go directly to the World of Good website, click here.

Finding new and fun ways to recycle old things is a hobby of mine, and I have just discovered some great new books that would make terrific gifts for any creative recycler on your Christmas list. Or don’t wait, buy them for yourself.

This book is so much fun, even the cover is interesting:

Eco Books: Inventive Projects from the Recycling Bin

Here are 40 innovative book-making ideas using recycled and green materials! More than just earth-friendly, they’re also beautiful, clever, and witty, stitched with traditional binding techniques. Egg cartons, wood, beer cans, and cassette tapes morph into covers, while brown bags, coffee filters, and discarded newspapers are transformed into pages. Create a boxed set of cereal box books, an exposed stitch sketchbook out of cardboard and remnants, and even a faux leather journal made from teabags.

In addition to how-to drawings, close-up detail photographs, and simple stitch diagrams, a gallery of eco-books from an international roster of artists provides inspiration.

Re-Bound: Creating Handmade Books from Recycled and Repurposed Materials
Re-Bound is a beautiful book on bookbinding with a fun green twist-all the projects use recycled and upcycled materials. This book shows you how to take everyday materials from around the house, flea markets, thrift stores, and hardware stores and turn them into clever and eye-catching hand-made books.

Rejuvenated Jewels: New Designs from Vintage Treasures
In this book, readers learn where to find fabulous vintage jewelry, beads, and artifacts, and how to create stunning one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces using these amazing finds. Rhinestone beads and clasps, mercury glass beads, oxidized metal chains, rosary beads, tiny book charms and more are retooled into fabulous statement pieces that can be worn every day.

Semiprecious Salvage: Creating Found Art Jewelry
Semiprecious Salvage shows readers how to think beyond the techniques taught in traditional beading and jewelry books in order to create found art jewelry. Mixed-media applications like sewing, plasterwork and altering found objects tie together to create jewelry pieces such as brooches, pendants, necklaces, earrings, bracelets and belts. In addition to thought-provoking stories on the origination of some of the found items, Stephanie provides the reader with practical jewelry-making techniques that they can incorporate into their own inspired pieces. A simple, organic approach gives the reader limitless ideas for crafting their own jewelry as well as ideas for locating found items whether it be on a nature walk, one’s travels or in the comforts of home.

Each one of these books would be a terrific gift for someone creative on your list.  And there are more similar books.  If you click through the links for each book you will find more books listed underneath each main title on Amazon.

The Body Shop® offers a full assortment of naturally-inspired products, including bath & body, men’s and women’s skincare, and creative gift ideas for a variety of occasions.  They also offer classic and unique fragrances, home fragrances, makeup, and accessories.

Right now in anticipation of the winter holidays, The Body Shop is offering the following specials (click on any of the following links):

• All Body Butters are 2 for $30 at The Body Shop.> – Oct. 19 – Nov. 8
• Free shipping on all orders over $60 at The Body Shop.> – Oct. 19 – Nov. 8
• Free Shipping on all Love Etc… purchases at The Body Shop.> – Oct. 19 – Nov. 8

For those of you who love The Body Shop products, this is a great time to pick some up. This way you can check one thing off your list, and save money on shipping.

Here are a few of my favorites:

The Body Shop Nutmeg and Vanilla Bath & Shower Gel
Best if you want to: Pamper your skin and indulge your senses with fragrant skin cleansing shower gel that gently lathers on application to leave skin feeling cleansed, soft and cared for. Best for: normal skin How it works: Nutmeg extract adds a warm, nostalgic fragrance. Community Trade organic honey moisturizes and conditions skin

The Body Shop Nutmeg and Vanilla Soap
Best if you want to: Cleanse and moisturize your skin with a beautifully embossed soap that contains particles of ground nutmeg to gently exfoliate the skin as you cleanse. Best for: normal skin How it works: Nutmeg extract adds a warm, nostalgic fragrance. Community Trade organically grown soya oil, rich in essential fatty acids, helps to restore the skin’s natural moisture barrier. Derivatives of sustainable palm oil and glycerin cleanse and condition skin.

The Body Shop Mango Foaming Bath
Best if you want to: Soak in a moisture-rich bath filled with a creamy lather and fresh mango fragrance that leaves your skin soft and lightly scented. Best for: very dry skin How it works: Mango extract moisturizes the skin. An ingredient derived from Community Trade cocoa beans creates foaming, cleansing bubbles.

Changing any habit is difficult. When you want to change an entire family’s habits, it is even harder. Well, here is a guide to help you:

Green Made Easy: The Everyday Guide for Transitioning to a Green Lifestyle

Review

“When I read Green Made Easy, it changed the way I look at the planet, and I hope it does the same for you. As we work our way through today’s economic challenges, Chris can also show you how going green is both good for our planet and good for your pocketbook. His book is packed with information that makes going green simple, inexpensive, and meaningful. Chris sprinkles ‘Green Bites’ throughout that are both inspiring and enjoyable.

“Remember, this comes from a man who receives a credit from his utility company every month instead of a bill!”

— Christiane Northrup, M.D.

Product Description

In Green Made Easy, author and green pioneer Chris Prelitz shares how to be both environmental and economical at the same time. Going green is not only good for our planet, it’s good for your pocketbook. For over 20 years, Chris has been helping businesses, home owners, and corporations lower their monthly expenses by going green. Chris and his wife, Becky, share a green solar-powered home in Laguna Beach, California, which Chris designed and built. Most months they produce more power than they use and receive a credit from their power company instead of a bill!

In this book, Chris shares personal experiences, lessons learned, and reflections that humorously touch the heart and inspire the spirit. The chapter “Busting Green Myths” will sway even the most cynical person toward better eco-choices that will also save money. Chris says, “We’re rediscovering that it’s so much healthier, more lucrative, and better for every living thing to transition away from wasteful, polluting technologies and make choices that work in harmony with nature.”

Green Made Easy is written in a friend-to-friend, conversational style and examines our daily lives from personal care and cosmetics to solar-energy systems. This book will delight and inspire any and all who dream of making a difference and wish to create a thriving, healthy future for generations to come.

Everyone needs a calendar for next year. And why not a calendar that reminds them to live a greener, cleaner, and healthier lifestyle. Changing habits is so hard, and we often slip back to our old habits. But with a daily reminder to live green right in front of us, that is just one more nudge to remind us to put the paper plate back on the shelf in the grocery store, because we can wash our regular dishes.

My favorite green calendar is the Audubon’s Green World Calendar 2010: A Year of Eco-Travel Wall Calendar which focuses on eco-travel or green travel-one of the newer ways of going green.

But for an entire list of green calendars, follow this link.

Did you know that you can buy EDUN LIVE t-shirts on Zazzle? Not only that but you can design your own EDUN LIVE t-shirt on Zazzle. EDUN LIVE Basic Tees are made 100% in sub-Saharan Africa with a mission to drive sustainable employment on the continent.

Zazzle is a print on demand company that is partnering with artists and companies to provide custom products including t-shirts.

Respect Earth Exclusive Earth Day T-Shirt by edunLIVE
Browse other This T-Shirts

For more information on Zazzle, follow this link.

For more information on EDUN, follow this link.

I just came across a website that has some really nice gift sets that could be used for several different occasions. They are all eco-friendly and come ready to go packaged very nicely. These gift sets are perfect for housewarmings, baby showers, gifts for when you stay with someone for the holidays, or just as a gift for someone’s home. I really love them.

The company is Green Nest, and they specialize in what I would call Eco-Chic Green Feng Shui for home or office. They have mostly home decor items that are eco-friendly and designed to dilute the chemical, and harsh synthetics that bother people who are more sensitive. However, surrounding ourselves with healthy decor does not have to wait for when we are sick.

The Gift of Health

The Gift of Health – $ 89.99
A wonderful gift for anyone! Mom’s & dad’s, family, friends, housewarming or coworkers will love this gift packed with health. The beautiful basket is conveniently shrink wrapped and ready to give as a gift. The Gift of Health has a potential total value of over $170. Gift of health includes: A.) Learn to Create a Healthy Home! by Ron & Lisa Beres: $19.95 Value Audio CD Could Your Home Be Making You Sick? This is a question millions of Americans are starting to ask themselves in today’s toxic world. With so many diseases on the rise, it is not just our diets that we must be concerned with anymore. Our home should be a safe haven where our bodies rest and recuperate, but unfortunately, a myriad of toxins are abundant and most people are unaware of their existence. There IS something you can do about it. Join Ron and Lisa Beres as they take you through a journey of identifying and eliminating these dangerous toxins and learn to create a healthy home for you and your loved ones TODAY!

Gift Boxed Contemporary Tumblers

Gift Boxed Contemporary Tumblers – $ 15.25
Introducing our 100% natural hand-poured Gift Boxed Contemporary Tumblers filled to the brim with aromas of life! Our soy candles contain no petroleum by-products (unlike paraffin), lead, carcinogens. Our soy candles are completely non-toxic and environmentally-friendly. · 100% vegetable, made with Pure Soybean oil. · All NATURAL and biodegradable. · Manufactured meeting FDA and Kosher standards. · Contain NO petroleum, paraffin or beeswax products. · Contain NO pesticides and NO herbicides. · Contain NO toxic materials. · Contain NO Genetically Modified Material. · No Animal Testing.

Another thing that Green Nest specializes in is air and water purification and filtration systems.

Rhino EQ-300 Whole House Water Filtration

Rhino EQ-300 Whole House Water Filtration – $ 799.00
The EQ-300 effectively reduces chlorine, bad taste, and odor in all the municipally treated water or water deemed safe by local health authorities that enter your home. you can rest assured that your family is getting the highest quality drinking, bathing and cleaning water available today.

If you have allergies or react to the environment of your home, you may want to consider purifying your water and air, and looking for other things in your home environment that you are sensitive to. Green Nest has a lot of information on their website and live people to help you answer questions about allergens, and sensitivity.

HealthMate Plus Air Filtration System

HealthMate Plus Air Filtration System – $ 549.99
Healthmate™: Specialty air cleaner with 60 sq. ft. of medical HEPA, certified to remove 99.97% of airborne particles 0.3 microns and larger. Contains 15 pounds of granular carbon and zeolite for the adsorption of odors, gasses and chemicals. Stands 23” tall and 14.5” wide. Effectively cleans an area of 1500 sq. ft. (with normal ceiling heights). The HealthMate Plus includes FREE GROUND SHIPPING for order deliveries in the Continental United States!

For more information, contact Green Nest.