Green cleaning? no chemicals? no bleach?

Starter Pack

I love shopping and finding new products. I have been searching for cleaning products for a while. Which I thought wasn't as exciting as finding handcrafted wooden gifts for the home but I stand corrected.

I realised that we use cleaning products constantly and needed to find something with an "eco story" of it's own.

I was introduced to "Wendy Goes Green" by Beth Whittaker (viva-pr) at a recent SBN meeting (Stroud Business Womens Networking).Wendy makes and packages all the cleaning products herself.

I was a bit sceptical as to whether this product would work so Wendy gave me some to try out. Wendy also came to our office and gave me a demonstration on using the cleaning products. We won't need to clean now until she comes again.

Before

I took the starter pack home and used them on our teapot! 

After

I was pleasantly surprised with the "shake and clean" as I sprayed some water (we like not using lots of water) on the teapot and sprinkled some clean and shake over. Watched it fizzle (like chemistry experiments) - left for a couple of minutes and wiped clean with some kitchen towel. Voila! Clean teapot.

vase with sticky label

 I then thought what else can I test this on. I have a vase on my windowsill that had a sticky label on that I have tried for a very long time to remove.
I didn't think it would come off but I sprayed the glass and window cleaner and left for a few minutes and the sticky label was removed and no sticky print left either.
Genius!

no sticky label or sticky glass

clean compost jar

before clean

This is our compost jar kept on the windowsill for all our egg shells, salad bits and teabags etc to go in the compost bin.

I usually soak this for a while every time it is emptied as I don't like seeing it half full and dirty.
I sprayed it with the all purpose cleaner. The first spray does wiff of vinegar but not too strong. Left if and then wiped it all off. Excellent. No more soaking!

clean cooker

not so clean cooker

I wasn't sure about advertising the fact that my cooker is dirty. I do clean it regularly but with a busy family and working life it's not always easy to spend hours cleaning the cooker. Not a job I like doing. But I sprayed the multisurface cleaner on and left it and then wiped off with kitchen roll. Easy peasy! Even for me.
  
We have yet to conclude our discussions on retail and pricing but I think this product is great and can't wait to get the "starter" packs on our website for everyone to be cleaning with natural products.

I'm off to clean everything now and hope Wendy didn't want the testers back :-) No more soaking for hours and no more bleach or a cupboard full of products that all do different things.

All of Wendy's products can also be used outside and there is a link to Wendy Goes Green on our website www.get-eco.co.uk

Happy cleaning

Lisa xx

SEO (what?)

Many people have mentioned SEO to me.  I wasn't really sure what it meant to be honest but it means Search Engine Optimization. I have read some of the 60 page manual that I downloaded when I started the Get-Eco shop site from e-pages but didn't really understand what it was all about.

As I run the "back office" on our website I have learnt a lot about shopping and e-commerce and I'm glad that I have always been interested in IT and how things work. 

I met with Matt from OpenGlobalWeb through a recommendation.  Matt is excellent - he came to the office and went through everything at my PC so all changes were instant. We spent four hours updating the e-commerce site and I learnt a lot during that one morning.  I am not sure I would have learnt as much specific detail on a computer course.

I understand most things now. Ok, I can't write my own command threads but at least I have an insight into how it all works and what I am able to do.

Now, all that is left is for me to continue updating our website and "seo-ing" all the product pages.

It's something that most people would hate but I must admit I may be among the few that enjoy it.

If you would like to know how it all works or want someone who is going to give you good advice and value for money then I would definitely recommend speaking to OpenGlobalWeb.

Happy surfing!

Lisa

Peggylicious!

Whilst at Economummy on the high street I met the lovely Claire Harrison, author of Peggylicious. Claire is lovely and we soon got talking about dogs and children. 

We showed each other our dog photos. I mentioned to Claire about a recent book review I had done about walking with your dog around Gloucestershire. 

Claire asked if I would like to review her book. We love books in our house and read to the children every night. 

So, here it is.

Peggilicious is a great children's book for all ages, even the ten year old in our house loved it. 

The book is a great size to pop in your bag and take out for the day as we are always looking for short stories to take out in the car. 

Coming home is the story of giving a dog a home and the fun the family have. 

We all loved the paw prints on the pages and the description of the all too familiar "we will love it and walk it and feed it" which my girls laughed at. As they don't like to take our dog out when it's raining. 

The pages are beautifully illustrated and capture the attention of everyone. 

We especially loved this picture of Peggy with those gorgeous puppy eyes. Who could resist!

I would recommend this for all children even if they don't have a dog. My youngest daughter has taken Peggylicious to pre-school in her bookbag for everyone to read.

We can't wait for the next adventure of Peggylicious and the Do Good Dog Clan.

Available from www.peggylicious.com and great value for money at £5.00.

On the High Street

Saturday 12th May! 

I joined lots of great working mums for a day at Beechwood Shopping Centre. 

We all arrived early. I have lived in Stroud for the past 7 years but have never ventured into Cheltenham alone until now.

I have a great husband who wrote down the driving instructions of how to get there and back as we don't own a "sat nav".

The instructions were really easy thank goodness and the roads were quiet. Think it was something to do with the sun we hadn't seen for a long while.

Once at the car park I found a trolley and unloaded the car. Thinking I had probably brought way too much stock. 

Hayley from Economummy had kindly put up signs directing us through the maze of corridors to the back of the shop. It was like hansel and gretel without the breadcrumbs. Once I had managed to manoeuvre the huge trolley cage (not sure how they wheel them around at the supermarket so easily) I found the shop.  

It was a great space with lots of tables set out for us all to showcase our products and services. 

I met lots of great mums who work hard to juggle family and home and work life. 

I set up my stall and we all waited. It was a great experience and we did have quite a lot of footfall during the day. I gave out lots of leaflets and sold a few things too. Which was a bonus! Everyone commented on the eco-friendly toys. 

Peppa Pig also made a few appearancees throughout the day. I'm guessing she had to just go and have a rest in between visiting children and wandering around the shopping centre.

The children really loved Peppa Pig. But we never actually saw Hayley and Peppa Pig at the same time. Very strange.

 

Hayley does a great job getting mums out on the high street. I would highly recommend taking a look www.economummy.com and maybe coming along and booking your place at the next Economummy on the High Street. It's hard work and very tiring. I did feel like barbie from toy story by the end of the day. My cheeks were hurting from smiling all day!

Book review! The dog-friendly book

After joining twitter, which has been both entertaining and very useful we were asked by @dogfriendlybook if we reviewed books.
Of course, says Neil knowing that it was my turn for a blog. The only "books" Neil manages to read have lots of pictures of mountain bikes in....
I haven't reviewed a book since school, long time ago in the olden days as my 10 year old says!
I downloaded the dog friendly book onto my kindle for iphone. As it has been a very wet bank holiday and the girls were busy playing I started reading.
Although we live in Gloucestershire we do tend to just visit the common to take our mad border collie called Amber for a walk. (Amber also does the same as Skateboard and lets you know if you don't give her enough biscuits)
The dog friendly guide is very informative and includes great tips for where to walk and who will allow dogs. Rachael has also included pub landlord names and meal prices.
Rachael's funny little bits in between towns are great.
The book is written clearly and gives you lots of useful references.
I would recommend anyone with dogs or children download a copy before they visit Gloucestershire and those of us that do live here may be surprised at what Rachael has found.
It is very informative and great value for money.
Happy reading!
Lisa