Trendy Tip mom’s as you know, I am always looking for ways to go Green and thanks to another Trendy mom, I just found another way to do my little part.  On a daily basis I am picking up broken crayons and tossing them in the trash.  NO MORE now we have a great little box ready to recycle.  The kids and I took a shoe box and decorated it full of color and cut a small hole in the top.  It now sits with our other recycle bins ready to gather broken crayons.  So if your crayon box has gotten out of hand,  Crazy Crayonsmight be the place for you. Founder LuAnn Foty is on a mission to recycle those old crayons kids don’t want to use anymore. You can send your old crayons (or those from your school, daycare or church) and they are recycled into new, multi-colored molded crayons. You can get turtles, hearts, dinosaurs or seasonal varieties. All of them are really cool and they color in a nice, randomly colored pattern.

Recycling crayons may not change the world, but it’s a lot of fun and a great way to introduce your little ones to the idea of recycling in a way they can really relate to and enjoy…

•  LuAnn Foty, founder of CRAZY CRAYONS and the CRAYON RECYCLING PROGRAM has been in business for 14 years
• The CRAYON RECYCLE PROGRAM is an educational tool, a “doing your part for the Earth” project, and a community service. Be creative with this recycle program. A crayon drive can be organized by kids and brought to a community level.
• All CRAZY CRAYON purchases benefit the CRAYON RECYCLING PROGRAM.  

Another great idea from Martha Stuart  

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/crazy-crayons

Heat makes a crayon a little loopy; it may melt into a swirl or pool into a whirl. With this in mind, we chopped up crayons and baked them in shaped mini cake tins, making large blocks that are easy for toddlers to hold and will surely inspire older artists. Encourage kids to come up with combinations: A blue-and-white blend for drawing the sky, for example, and a mix of reds and oranges for sunsets.

Tools and Materials
Kitchen knife
Old crayons
Mini-cake tins (we used pans with heart- and circle-shaped pockets)

Crayon How-To
1. Parents can use the knife to chop crayons into pea-size pieces, taking care to keep colors separate so kids can combine them as they like.

2. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees while children fill the tin with crayon pieces, arranging them in interesting designs.

3. Bake just until the waxes have melted, 15 to 20 minutes.

4. Remove the shapes after they have cooled. If they stick, place tray in the freezer for an hour, and the crayons will pop out.

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Technorati Tags: broken crayons, earth project, educational tool, green, kids, martha stuart, Parents, recycling, trendy, www marthastewart com

Is heating your house burning a hole in the ozone?

Quick Trendy Tips to Go Green

The bad news is that almost 50 percent of your household energy costs go toward two things – heating and cooling. The good news is you have a lot of room to make small changes that can make dramatic improvements in household efficiency.

Did you know that replace your older heating and cooling systems with an efficiency models can cut your annual energy costs by almost 20 percent. Replacing the old with the new is a wonderful idea, but not the most practical for most of us.

Here as some quick Trendy Mom Tips for things you can do right now to make sure you’re house is using your household energy more efficiently:

·        Tune up your heating system. By keeping your furnace clean, lubricated and properly adjusted, you can save up to 5 percent in heating costs.

·        Clean vents, close unused vents, and change filters in the vents. Again, just these simple things will save you up to 5 percent in costs.

·        Buy a programmable thermostat, which can regulate different temperatures at different times of the day. And if you have one, use it! These thermostats reduce energy use by 5-30 percent and save you $100-$150 in energy costs each year.

If only 1 in 10 households serviced heating and cooling systems annually, cleaned or replaced filters regularly, or replaced old equipment with brands like ENERGY STAR models, it would prevent the emissions of more than 17 billion pounds of greenhouse gases.

·        Add two degrees to the AC thermostat in summer, and two degrees in winter. If everyone did this, the cumulative impact is significant.

·        Make sure windows and doors are sealed. Again, this will dramatically improve your household fuel efficiency. Sealing air leaks and adding insulation can reduce your annual energy bill by 10 percent.

·        Of course, if you can stand it, by far the best approach is to avoid using air conditioners.  Ceiling fans use 80 percent less energy than central air conditioners. By only using ceiling fans you can reduce your annual cooling costs by 10-65 percent. In warm weather run the fan blades in a counter-clockwise direction to feel 5 degrees cooler. During the winter set the fan blades to rotate clockwise at a low speed to force warm air from the ceiling down into the living space.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Technorati Tags: cooling, equipment, green, greenhouse, heating, ozone, thermostat, tips