From Little Things Big Things Grow

Heading into the new year it's always great to know that from little things big things grow.

Standing 163cm tall and towering above our children is this mammoth sunflower just about in bloom.

So if you are finally starting on that dream you've always wanted or planning a fitness regime for the new year take some inspiration from nature and don't be afraid to shine!

Meanwhile we have sourced plenty more products which we will be introducing to our store in 2013 to continue our dream (which started as a seed) of providing to our customers the most eco-friendly party supplies around.

By the way our gorgeous sunflower began as a seed from our Grow Your Own Garden Party Favours.

Watching it grow and being dwarfed by the end result was a wonderful experience for the kids.

As we are a family business we would like to take this opportunity to wish all our customers and visitors to our site and blog a safe, happy and blessed new year.

Eco Friendly Christmas Decoration Ideas

If you haven’t dusted off the Christmas tree and decorations already chances are you will be in the next week.

Here are some eco friendly decoration ideas to get cracking on:

Tree decorations

·         Xmas Card Decorations - Last year’s Christmas cards can be upcycled into cute Christmas tree decorations by cutting the front off of each card, punching holes all around the edges of the picture and using string to weave through the holes. To finish add a ribbon loop for hanging.

·         Natural Ornaments - Items found in nature make great eco-friendly Christmas tree decorations and give your tree a natural look. Glue a piece of ribbon or twine to the backs of pine cones, nuts or sea shells to make natural hanging ornaments.

8 Ways to Go Green This Halloween

1)    Re-use Costumes

If last year’s costumes no longer fit or you just don’t want to wear them again trade with family or friends. Put together an original outfit with different parts of different costumes or look around for interesting pieces at op-shops and garage sales. Most important of all is to have fun.

The other alternative is to rent a costume and every good costume shop has a great selection of gruesome and scary characters.

2)    Make Your Own Make-Up

Paint your kids' faces with eco-friendly make up, like you’ll find at www.purepoppet.com.au, or make your own. Visit www.safecosmetics.org/article.php?id=233#halloween for more information.

Our silly season of kid's parties

We had a great time celebrating parties for our three children this year. 

Held in June and August respectively, this year we chose a swimming centre as the venue for our eldest son’s party, an animal barn for our daughter’s and the zoo for our youngest son’s. 

As usual we brought out the organic ingredients for the cakes, organic fruit and vegies and chips and dips for the finger food. 

Not surprisingly our eco party store gave us everything else we needed. 

Why, How and What - Taking a leaf out of Apple's tree

We came across a great TED talk some time ago. 

If you haven’t heard of TED it’s a top website full of opinions and ideas with the motto “Ideas Worth Spreading”.

It’s had more than 5 million views and the presenter Simon Sinek presents an 18 minute talk on “How great leaders inspire action”. 

It is also a very interesting insight and analytic dissection of how Apple has become so successful worldwide.

www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

It work’s on Sinek’s “Golden Circle” concept which he dubs “probably the world’s simplest idea”.

This idea is knowing WHY, HOW and WHAT an organization does.

The wonderful world of watermelons

Watermelon is such a yummy summer and spring fruit. We love it! We love that when it is cut in slices it looks like a big smile too. But for all the art lovers out there you can dress up watermelons and design them to be something special for a party!

 

Take a look at these gorgeous ideas!!! 

 

What To Do With The Rubbish When You're Not Sure If It Can Be Recycled

The past couple of weeks our blogs have highlighted the issues regarding the money system and consumerism. This week, I would like to ‘lighten’ the load a bit and talk about what to do with all our ‘stuff’, in other words, the three R’s, Reduce – Reuse – Recycle. 

Most of us are aware of recycling and using our ‘yellow’ bins once a fortnight. But what about the items that we aren’t too sure about?

The ‘stuff’ that ends up being thrown away or hidden deep in the garage to be forgotten until it reappears when you have to move or decide to de-clutter.

Items such as broken toys, stained clothes, alarm clocks, blenders, hair driers, cameras, CDs, TVs and so on. The list is endless. I thought I’d have a look at the alternatives to ditching these items in the bin to instead find a more eco friendly solution.

This is what I discovered:

The Truth About The Monetary System: Why We Also Trade in LETS Currency

An important cause we concern ourselves with here at Eco Party Box is the crisis of the current federal monetary system.

If you have watched one of the internet’s most popular documentary’s: Zeitgeist Addendum, and the 20-minute section on money and then researched the information for yourself, you will know that since 1913 the Congress of America has been stripped of its rights to create the nation’s money, essentially taking that power of money creation away from the people. 

The then newly-elected president American president Woodrow Wilson transferred this power in to the hands of the international private bankers who had bankrolled his campaign to have him elected. 

Wilson was later quoted as saying: “I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.” 

The End of the World or the End of Consumerism As We Know It?

We love finding new soulful quotations which pay direct respect to considering our planet. We recently came across this one:

“Humanity must shift from living on the earth to living with her” – Tiokasin Ghosthorse

Another picture of a hand holding a baby earth. Nevertheless ... the earth is still in our hands.

It’s a profound and eloquent statement which befits our current consumerist culture in the developed countries.

We are less than 9 months away from, according to the people of one of the greatest cultures in the world, the Maya, the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle.

According to the Maya December 21, 2012 marks the end of the fourth cycle known as the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar – a non-repeating calendar used by several Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, most notably the Maya.

Hollywood has cashed in on the mystery surrounding this date, with its over-the-top apocalyptic doomsday disaster movie 2012 which screened in cinemas three years ago. Other theories range from mass alien contact to galactic alignments.

So how do eco plates stack up?

Global green consciousness is on the rise and its time to undo another layer of the green onion.

There is much information on improving the home, office and schools in an eco manner but what about in the kitchen and most importantly, where do we place our yummy organic food on. Washable and disposables plates have been given the eco make-over and many varieties are slowing etching their way into the market.

The Girl Who Silenced The World For 5 Minutes

We found an amazing video on Youtube a few weeks ago. 

In all honesty we’re surprised we’ve never seen it before. 

 

Why it hasn’t come up on our friend’s Facebook page posts or why over the past 20 years we’ve never seen it grace the screen of our television sets.

The video is titled “The Girl Who Silenced The World For 5 Minutes” and is the filming of a speech made in 1992 by then-12-year-old Severn Cullis-Suzuki as she addressed the United Nations and a room full of adults at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

She is the daughter of famous geneticist and environmental activist David Suzuki and in 1999 she founded the Environmental Children’s Organization (ECO).

On this occasion she and her three accompanying friends had self-funded their trip from Canada to make a speech to the international community and country representatives.

Speaking directly and authoritatively she confidently pronounced she had come “to speak for all generations to come” as a girl “fighting for her future”.

She spoke “on behalf of” the world’s starving children and dying animals. She told of her fears about the world’s suffering eco systems and devastating changes to the environment and then she added:

Our take on the true definition of eco friendly party supplies

On a recent visit to our local Spotlight store we came across some Disney-themed plates, cups and cutlery.

They were made from cheap plastic but to our surprise they were labelled "eco friendly". To justify their "eco friendly" claim, written next to those words, were "reusable". 

We scoffed at this claim and a recent post on our Facebook Page found we were not alone in our rolling of the eyes.

Unfortunately though, as we have  found through the creation of Eco Party Box, these types of "eco friendly" claims are not uncommon. 

Many paper plate suppliers are often caught short. Did you know that the majority of paper party plates are coated with a thin layer of wax or plastic to make them more resistant to wetness so they won’t go soggy with tomato sauce? This also helps to preserve the images printed in ink on the paper.

Just recently we got in touch with another party supply company overseas to see if we could stock their products, as it has been difficult to source these types of party products in Australia. 

We were interested to know what their "felt" party hats and party bags were made from. 

Unfortunately the "felt" was actually polyester felt but still carried the claim of "eco friendly" despite being made with a non-biodegradable petroleum-based synthetic fabric. 

Pure wool felt is the better eco choice as it is biodegradble and uses no petroluem in its manufacturing.

But their justification again was it could be reused or regifted - thus making it "eco friendly" too.