Eco-Friendly & Green Living Blog

No doubt you’ve been taking advantage of the weather and entertaining outdoors of late.

Light up the night in a natural way with Rittenhouse’s Aurora Glow Solar String Lights. Each string has six hand-blown glass orbs that you can put up anywhere in your garden, since they’re solar-powered, so no worries about plugging them in! Just plant or mount the solar panel up to 13 feet away from the first light on the string in a place where it will receive direct sunlight, then as night falls a photo-sensor will automatically turn on the lights – magic!

The lights come in three colours: clear with yellow LED (shown) clear with a white LED, and blue-green sea glass with a white LED.

Available at: www.rittenhouse.ca

Price: $49.90

---

Follow me on Twitter!

Do you have a product you’d like to recommend for this blog? Email me at naturalchic@styleathome.com!

Sorry I haven’t posted in anything even approaching a timely fashion this week, but I’ve been felled by a super-cold that’s just been lingering on and on. Feeling somewhat better today, though, so fingers crossed the cold is finally on its way out!

I still remember clearly the day in the summer of 2003 when the power when out in the Northeast. We were all sitting around a table in our art department here at the magazine editorial offices and everything shut down and went totally quiet, At first we figured it was just a blip, but it soon became clear it wasn’t.

If only we, and I, had had one of these babies back then to find out what was going on. The FR500 Solarlink from Etón is a feature-packed self- and solar-powered AM, FM and shortwave radio that also has an LED light (including a red LED light for emergencies, along with a siren). It also has cell phone charger (a card is included with the radio; just fill it out with info on what cell phone you have and mail it in and you’ll get the cell phone tip you need!). What more could you ask for in the case of a blackout?

Available at: The Source, Canadian Tire

Price: $80

---

The second winner of a Go Green Works Starter Kit, including the following products, is Sylvia McGinley of Alberta Beach, Alta.! (To see the original post announcing the contest, click here.)

• Green Works Dishwashing Liquid
• Green Works Natural All-Purpose Cleaner
• Green Works Natural Glass & Surface Cleaner
• Green Works Natural Toilet Bowl Cleaner
• Green Works Natural Dilutable Cleaner
• Green Works Natural Bathroom Cleaner

You still have a chance to win one of the last two kits. All you have to do is be a subscriber to my blog. If you’re not a subscriber already, sign up to have the Natural Chic blog delivered directly to your e-mail inbox for a chance to win. To do so, just click this icon:

I’ll pick one more winner a week for the next two weeks. Good luck!

Do you have a product you’d like to recommend for this blog? Email me at naturalchic@styleathome.com!

Tired of your cell phones, PDAs and cameras sucking up electricity? Check out the Solio Universal Chargers.

The portable solar chargers are petite enough to fit in the palm of your hand and unfold into a flower shape (very pretty! OK, not exactly relevant, but, still, pretty!). They’re portable enough that you can carry them while out hiking, at the beach, pretty much anywhere, or just use them at home.

Stick a pencil in the hole in the centre and position facing the sun, wait a day (maybe more if it’s cloudy) and you’re good to go! I live in a south-facing apartment in Toronto, and I put it in the window, behind the glass and didn’t even bother to reposition it to follow the movement of the sun, and in a single sunny day, it was fully charged. It holds the charge for up to one year.

The Classic comes with a charging cable; suction cup for mounting on a window (great for your car); female and mini USBs; and Samsung, Nokia, LG, and Sony Ericsson adapter tips.

Sadly, I couldn’t use it to power my iPhone 3G (the 3G somehow doesn’t recognize the Solio and after a couple of seconds of charging, shuts down, thinking it’s done), so I passed it on to web producer Lauren McPhillips to try out with her Sony Ericsson cell phone.

She says, “It worked quickly and the charge lasted really long. I loved it!” The Solio does work with the older iPhones, and a new tip should be out within the month to solve the 3G iPhone problem.

And, no, they’re not inexpensive, but they’ll last absolutely forever, and come a power outage, you’ll be laughing as your cell phone will be the only one working for miles around. Now if only they were powerful enough to charge up power-sucking laptops!

Available at: solio.com

Price: $99.95 US

Do you have a product you’d like to recommend for this blog? Email me at naturalchic@styleathome.com!