Love the Earth, Love Yourself, Love Green Gear

Romance is in the air. Why not treat your loved one to a sweet ecofriendly treat? Here are just a few ideas:

Take a romantic walk with a 27 ounce Klean Kanteen - it fits a whole bottle of wine!

Present your sweetest with wool underwear and watch them enjoy the soft luxury of merino next to skin.

Outfit your honey with a new bag for travel. Women love our OLovesM clutch and purses made from reclaimed yoga mats. Everyone loves our Green Guru Gear billboard and blow out messengers.

Whatever you choose, Love the Earth, Love Yourself, and you will Love Green Gear.

Day Nine of Green Gifts and Tips: Shoulder Tote and Cleaning Before the Party

You need something to hold all the presents, right? Try an oversized reusable bag! You might have a paper one laying around from all the holiday shopping. If you don't already have a good collection of durable cloth bags, consider the Toteyl reclaimed billboard shoulder tote from Green Guru Gear. It's made in the USA of reclaimed materials. $29.95 in a variety of patterns.Tip of the day: When cleaning for holiday guests (or any time of the year), we suggest slowly replacing expensive harsh chemical cleaners and disposable wipes/towels with natural solutions and reusable rags. We use vinegar and old newspaper for windows and compost the newspaper when we are done. Vinegar and tea tree oil diluted with warm water is our mopping solution.

For bathrooms and other cleaning, we LOVE Charlie's Soap All Purpose cleaner. It is safe, non toxic to children and pets, and not scented. Best of all, unlike most natural cleaners we try, Charlie's actually works. If you are a local friend, email me to come by and pickup a free sample, as Charlie's gave me an extra gallon (!) in my last order and I want to share the eco-friendly cleaning love.

Day Two of Green Gifts and Tips: Wallets and Charity

Today we feature a classic gift updated for the green generation: wallets. Green Guru Gear makes these fantastic wallets from reclaimed billboard material and bike tire innertubes. Both have two bill pockets and 6 sleeves for IDs and credit cards made of 100% recycled PETE. They make great gifts for the hipster or cyclist in your life. $24.25 each.




Our tip of the day: Consider charities in your gift giving. In this economy, non profits are needed more than ever, yet have fewer resources to manage the growing need. Maybe you can afford to give part of a holiday bonus to your local food bank or animal shelter. Perhaps someone on your gift list is passionate about a cause and you could give to the cause instead of buying a physical present. Or, get a great gift and benefit nonprofits by bidding on our charity auctions going on now.

Green Guru Contest Winner

Wow! What a great contest!

Our randomly choosen winner is Katie. As soon as we hear from her, we will send Katie the deep purple and white billboard Ute tote!

Thanks everyone for entering, and especially the bloggy giveaways carnival for sending us so many great entrants.

Green Guru Gear Tote Giveaway!

We're participating in the Fall Bloggy Giveaway Carnival. There is a HUGE list of giveaways, so carve out a little time to enter yourself in some great contests.

But first, enter the Baying Hound giveaway! We're giving away a Green Guru Gear tote on Saturday, November 1 including shipping in the US. The UTE totes are 98% reclaimed material by weight. Each one is made in the USA from hand-selected billboard panels to give you the most graphic value possible with waterproof durability. Retails for $19.99 at our store.



Want to win this tote? Simply leave a comment including your email address with your choice of colors available, listed at http://www.bayinghound.com/utetote.html. Comments will close at midnight October 31 and winner announced November 1.

Don't forget all Shak Jerseys are on sale through November 1 too!

Reusable Bag Winner!

Caffeine Queen is the winner of our reusable bag contest! Congratulations! As soon as I get confirmation of your choice, an OLovesM ecoclutch or Green Guru Gear billboard tote will be in the mail to you.

A big thank you to everyone who entered and wished me a happy birthday. :) Our consolation prize is a $5 off $25 coupon. Use the code 'getgreen' at checkout to receive this discount anytime before Oct. 19, 2008.

And a bit of truly random knowledge to go with the random pictures of Hawise above: My Dad emailed me this Wiki page in a happy birthday email today. Apparently if I had been born in 1582 in Italy, Poland, Portugal or Spain, my birthday could not have been October 9. In 1582, those countries were switching calendars and skipped from October 4 to October 15. Strange but true!

Upcycle your Wetsuit!

Just got a tweet from Green Guru Gear. They are looking for wetsuits and will send back a free gift if you send yours in!

Mail to:

2500 47th st Suite 12
Boulder CO 80301

I'm putting mine in the mail today. It's been sitting in our donate pile for a long time and never fit well in the first place.

Win a Reclaimed Reusable Bag!

It’s Rachel’s birthday on October 9!

To celebrate, we are giving away a Reclaimed Reusable Bag. We’ll mail a Green Guru Gear Utility Tote or OLovesM Eco Clutch (winner’s choice) to a randomly selected entrant.

Simply leave a comment to enter the contest!

Employees and immediate family members may not enter. Contest closes at midnight October 8, 2008.

What's the big deal about Reclaimed?

The old addage is reduce, reuse, recycle. The idea is to reduce consumption, reuse materials when consumption is necessary and THEN recycle the unusable pieces at the end of life. Somehow America is still stuck in the last phase, recycle, and even that is spotty. I can't count the times I go to public places and find no recycling facilities.

Manufacturers have plenty of choices that can lessen their impact on the environment. One of the biggest is material sourcing. New (aka. virgin) materials use the most resources because they must be mined (in the case of metals or minerals) or created from oils (for plastics), processed, and then reprocessed into the consumer item.

Some plastics and metal products can be made from recycled sources. In this case, virgin material scraps are melted down and reprocessed which uses less energy and time.

The best case scenario is to reclaim materials. Creative manufacturers find sources for their products in the scraps and left overs of other processes. This way, waste is saved and virgin materials are put back into the consumer cycle. Energy is not needed for processing raw materials. In the best of situations, these scraps are found locally and transportation energy is reduced as well.

Baying Hound is pleased to offer two product lines utilizing reclaimed materials: OLovesM (reclaimed yoga mats, chaco sandal straps, and fabrics) and Green Guru Gear (reclaimed bike tire tubes and billboard signs).

Green Guru Gear, All Kolors Here!

We are madly arranging all the new gear that came yesterday - Green Guru Gear reclaimed material bags and the rest of the Klean Kanteen Kolors! The colorful bounty is amazing!

We'll have reviews, more news, and more pictures soon, but for now, explore the store with new items listed.

Special offer for blog readers - 20% off any order from now until September 15 using coupon code houndhowls20

PS. Can't help sharing this cute picture - Hawise playing with a reclaimed climbing rope keychain. She is never still enough to get a decent picture!