In honor of Earth Day I’m delighted to bring you a weekend giveaway from The Leaky Boob sponsor Hip Mountain Mama. Such a fun shop with all kinds of beautiful, handmade products from comfortable clothing to house cleaning supplies to toys to baby/child care products. With an emphasis on eco-friendly and sustainable products, Hip Mountain Mama has something for everyone no matter what your parenting style is. Loved this interview with Suzy Hawbaker and her wonderful tips that make it easy to be green! *Hint- you probably are already doing one of them!*
TLB: Suzy, tell us how you came to start Hip Mountain Mama and the journey of starting and running your business.
Suzy: I started Hip Mountain Mama in the summer of 2008. I was a stay at home Mom with 2 little ones and I felt like I wanted to do more with my life. HMM started out as a shop for natural Moms and their kids and has evolved into a shop for Eco Mamas (Moms and non Moms). I didn’t want to just start a shop either…I wanted to start a movement and encourage other people to make eco friendly and humanitarian choices in life. We do this through the products we sell, our blog, and facebook page. HMM is now a true family business as my husband quit his corporate job 1.5 years ago to join me.
TLB: What were the first steps you started taking to “green” your family?
Suzy: I started making changes about 10 years ago (pre kids). My first 3 changes were switching to organic milk, eating a mainly vegetarian diet, and switching to natural laundry detergent. These were easy changes and over the years I have made many more and am still working on living a more sustainable lifestyle. When I had kids my desire to live a more ‘green’ lifestyle really intensified. A few easy eco friendly choices we made with our children were to cloth diaper, feed them whole foods, and constantly teach them about treating our Earth with love and kindness.
TLB: You have talked a lot on your blog about One Small Change and I love this blog post from you, what would be one small change breastfeeding moms with little ones could make that would be good for the earth and good for their family?
Suzy: My first thought would be to keep on breastfeeding! We all know that breastfeeding is awesome for our children, but maybe you haven’t thought about the positive environmental impact you are having. By not using formula you are eliminating the waste and energy created by making formula. The production of formula uses hundreds of resources to create the final product including paper, metal, ink, pesticides, land, fertilizers, animals, water, fuel, crops, etc. and in the end that container of formula ends up in the landfill. You are also eliminating the use of bottles that may eventually end up in the landfill. My other idea is when your child is ready to eat food, try feeding them wholefoods and making your own baby food. Try avocados or bananas! I used the Super Baby Food book with my kids!
TLB: Breastfeeding is the most earth-friendly feeding option for infants, what is one of your favorite breastfeeding memories?
Suzy: I would have to say sitting at 12,000 feet in Rocky Mountain National Park. The views were amazing and I felt so at peace in one of my favorite places on Earth while feeding my 7 month old baby. I will never forget that peaceful and pure blissful moment!
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More on the Hip Mountain Mama blog (which includes some great videos) on making sustainable choices:
5 Easy Ways to Go Green For Earth Day, Eco Friendly Eating on the Go, and Time for Me (ok, actually, that last one has nothing to do with green living but I like it and think most moms I know should read it.)
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For this Earth Day party, Suzy is offering up a $20 gift code to one lucky entrant.
To be entered leave a comment on this thread and share your favorite go-green tip. This entry is REQUIRED in order to be entered for a chance and the giveaway.
For 1 additional entry (limit 2 entries per person) go “like” Hip Mountain Mama on Facebook and let her know TLB sent you and return to comment here stating you liked them on Facebook for your second entry. If you already like Hip Mountain Mama on Facebook just leave a second comment (must be a second comment to be counted) letting me know you already like them.
That’s it – two simple tasks and you’re entered for a chance at a great giveaway. Thanks to Suzy for her generous giveaway and sponsorship of The Leaky Boob, providing support for breastfeeding moms everywhere. This giveaway will remain open through April 24nd, 2011. Good luck and have fun!
Pssst! Suzy has quite a few special deals going on for Earth Day that you may want to check out and get in on as well!
This giveaway is open to most international entries! Hip Mountain Mama ships to US, Canada, Australia, UK, and New Zealand…anyone can win the gift card but if you live somewhere that HMM doesn’t ship to, you will have to have their products shipped to someone within our shipping range (so maybe a gift to a relative?).
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This giveaway is closed, thanks to Suzy and everyone that entered.
The winner is Sarah:
“Cloth diapers, organics as much as possible, local CSA… Trying as hard as we can.”
Congratulations Sarah!
We are just starting our “green” journey and cloth diapers was the first step! That and breastfeeding 🙂
Already a fan of HMM on FB 🙂
Cloth diapers are a wonderful way to go green!
“Liked” Hip Mountain Mama on FB! 🙂
my main tip is just BE CONSCIOUS! be aware of your impact, and how you can make small changes to it! we cloth diaper, reuse everything we can, consume as little as possible… that means mama needs some nice new hip mountain mama clothes!
Also, I am a fan of HMM on fb 🙂
I keep a set of silverware at work so I will never have to use (and discard) plastic. Just got your glass straws – which I love, btw! -and I want to keep the green momentum going!
I already “like” Hip Mountain Mama. Very much. : )
I’m all about converting myself and my family to be as green as possible. What started for us as a way to save money has turned into an all out ‘green’ fest at our house. We cloth diaper/wipe (and LOVING it), have a garden, use a rain barrel, recycle, reuse everything, have our own compost (which is another addiction of mine. I love my compost. It’s handmade lol), this year I am going to try my first rain water garden to help stop soil erosion… lets see what else… Oh! I only use natural detergents for laundry, we eat as much raw/whole foods as possible. I also like to buy locally when available… Needless to say there are many other things we could be doing and with one change at a time we are well on our way to living as ‘green’ as possible. Thanks for this wonderful giveaway! GO GREEN!!
we reuse every container that comes into our house (yogurt, bread bags, condiment bottles) so we have a mish mash of all types of “tupperware”! looking forward to cloth diapering and breastfeeding when baby comes as new ways to be on the greener path
Save energy by not using your dryer for clothes! We have many clotheslines strung up high in the kids playroom and hang all our laundry there. Nothing ever is wrinkled and I can fold and put away clothes on my own time line. HMM looks like a great company, thanks for the giveaway!
Became a fan of HMM on facebook! thanks for the posts!
A wetbag in the kitchen for cloth napkins and cleaning cloths has made it much easier to go green in the kitchen.
I like Hip Mountain Mama on FB! 🙂
We do several things to be green, but my favorite is our compost pile. It’s fun to watch the kids toss our food stuffs in there, talk about how it works, and our favorite? Turning the pile…although the kids love to sit on the RR ties around it and dig for worms, bugs and other things throughout the year.
Oh, and I liked HMM on FB! Thanks for the giveaway!
We garden! Half of our large backyard is dedicated to our veggie garden. Whatever we don’t eat fresh, we can it to enjoy it in the future. It’s really cheap, organic, and it saves us trips to the store for organic produce that has been trucked from all over the country. I have my heirloom seedlings started in the basement right now. Just waiting for it to warm up so they can enjoy the sunshine!
Breastfeeding! And cloth diapering. 🙂
My favorite go-green tip is to ditch the paper towels and napkins. We use dish towels and good quality rags for everything. They are more effective, save us money, and reduce our waste!
I *like* Hip Mountain Mama on facebook! 🙂
I just “liked” Hip Mountain Mama on FB. I love finding new like-minded people!
I liked Hip Mountain Mama on Facebook! Thanks!
I am a fan of HMM on fb :0) as a mother of 4. breastfeeding, snack time, trips with the family.. i instantly fell in love with your products..
We started out with breastfeeding, but it was more for the baby. We really started being more earth friendly with the birth of our second son. We are all about cloth diapers, cloth wipes…I’m trying to phase out the paper towels in exchange for cloth rags, using a cloths line in place of the dryer, and not using paper plates. We are taking little steps, but every little bit helps!
I “like” Hip Mountain Momma on facebook too!
With pregnancy and baby came eating local thereby reducing the distance our food travels.
Likes HMM on FB!
We just recently (about 3 years ago) started making more green choices. We started with very small steps like using lower energy light bulbs and then started recycling and composting. Now we’re choosing green everywhere we can. We’re breastfeeding, cloth diapering, line drying, buying whole foods (and local whenever possible), staying home to save fuel, etc. My 4yo DD is really into reusing 🙂
Just liked HMM on FB!
besides all the obvious (breastfding, c-diapers, etc..) try making your own safe house cleaners with baking soda, vinegar, grapefruit seed extract- and don’t forget to hang your clothes on the line! NOTHING beats the sun for getting out stains in those diapers!
My favorite go green tip is to replace paper products with reusable wherever you can. Cloth instead of paper towels, microfiber pad instead of swiffer pads, mama cloth, cloth diapers, cloth napkins, stoneware instead of paper plates. 🙂
I have sooo many.. So many in fact I actually have been doing 1 per day for all of April on my blog. So here is what I feel is the biggest green tip of all. Education! Educate your children. What good is being green if they don’t learn anything from it. Teach them every thing you can about why you do the things you do and how you can all work together to make the world a greener place. My son and I spent the morning picking up trash all over town and in the parks. We got an entire 30 gallon trash bag full. If everyone picked up 3 things everyday there would never be enough on the ground to fill a 30 gallon trash bag.
I love this. I have a two year old daughter and a six month old daughter as well. I do tons of green things and sometimes talk to my 2 year old about it, but how cool is it that you’re not only discussing but taking action w/your son. Thats such an inspiration. Peace
Stop using your dryer. We have clotheslines hung high in the kids playroom where I hang all of our laundry. Nothing is ever wrinkled and I can choose when its most convenient for me to fold and put clothes away. We save lots of energy this way! HHM looks like a great company, thanks for the giveaway!
About 3 years ago we started making our own cleaning liquids around the house, and switched to cotton washcloths instead of napkins and paper towels…the cycle is once stained they go from napkins to cleaning counters, and then to cleaning floors and bath rooms…and then to compost:)
I let HMM know that you sent me over on FB!
I also “liked” HMM on FB;)
Use cloth instead of paper: napkins, towels, bags, diapers, etc.
Hey! reusable grocery/shopping bags make a huge green impact 🙂
Hey! I liked hmm and said you sent me 🙂 Happy Earth Day!!
I think that the easiest thing we’ve done to ‘go green’ was use reusable grocery bags. We keep the bags in the car, and bring them in whenever we go to the store. I would like to get some sort of mesh bag for produce at some point…
I liked the Hip Mountain mama facebook page, it looks like they have tons of good products 🙂
recycling!
I am not great at going “green” but I do breastfeed, cloth diaper and use my cloths line to dry clothes. We also use plastic reusable bottles instead of disposable waterbottles, and recycle clothes by shopping a thrift stores and consignment locations.
I like you on FB 😀 but I already did that!
We are going to be cloth diapering our first baby when he/she arrives in June! We also purchase locally grown organic produce!
and I “liked” HMM on Facebook!
Breatfeeding, growing our own fruits, herbs, and veg in the summer, cloth diapers, diva cup, reusable wipes, quilts being made from beloved baby clothes, hand-me-downs and clothing swaps, my 1.5 yr old knows most things go into the recycling/ compost and very little into garbage
Like you on FB, thanks to TLB.
We compost, recycle, and use cloth diapers. We work hard to minimize our weekly contribution to the landfill.
I am a fan on FB 😀
Cloth diapering, cloth wipes, breastfeeding, reusable grocery bags, eat out less often cook your own food – from scratch, less waste, compost, walk don’t drive…….. I will be fanning HMM in just a moment! (I had it on my other account but that was closed…)
I “liked” the hip mountain mama page and posted on there that you sent me!
I breastfeed, cloth diaper, buy local and organic as much as possible. I use home made cleaners, let my DS eat home made and whole foods, etc.
One of my tips is to make sure that you keep your children informed and involved, if you start them off by leading the way they will follow!
I am a fan of the Leaky boob on facebook and here is my favorite “go green” tip. I cloth diaper my daughter. She is 18 months old and has been cloth diapered since she was born 🙂
we breastfeed, cloth diaper, recycle and use green products in our home cleaning and personal care routines. We also use re-purposed and recycled materials in the construction of our home. Specifically our fencing, decking, counter tops, many floors, and furniture pieces.
and just today I liked Hip Montain Mama, and shared a breast feeding charm on the wall LOL! but before seeing this 🙂
Also, I already “liked” Hip Mountain Momma”! 😉
we’ve been bfing for 9 almost 9 months now 🙂 and with hubby’s next paycheck we are (finally) going to invest in cloth diapers! i am super excited to use cloth and once we establish the dipes, we’ll move on to cloth wipes!
also liked hmm on fb!
My favorite way to go green is breastfeeding of course, but followed closely by using cloth diapers and mama cloth!! 😀
Already like Hip Mountain Mama on FB 🙂
Cloth wipes for baby (and family too)!
knockedupandnursing at gmail dot com
I like HMM on fb
sarah brown
knockedupandnursing at gmail dot com
I “liked” HMM on FB
Breastfeeding is the best “green”, we also reuse everything: plastic bags, diaper boxes, take out containers, etc. We use a lot of candle light to conserve power.
I was raised green so to continue being green I use natural body care and cleaning products, cloth pads, organic veggie garden, reduce reuse recycle as much as possible. When I’m blessed with children I plan to cloth diaper/diaper free, attachment parent and breastfeed.
I like HMM on FB! I’ll be placing an order today! So excited for camping utensils!
My go-green tip would be thinking about your own trashcan can as a landfill. My recycle fills up twice before my trash does, because I wash containers out, (even nasty ones, lol) and I just CAN’T throw something away that could be recycled. It started small, and now I am fanatical. lol
Also, I am already a fan of HMM and TLB on facebook! 🙂
I *Liked* HMM on Facebook! <3 I'm so excited now!
Liked hmm on facebook
We use energy efficient bulbs and use natural light from windows during day
Cloth diapering is one of my “go green” tips. I thought it would be too difficult, so we didn’t start until our twins were 6 months old. Turned out it was insanely easy (and SO cute). So we cloth diapered all of our kids.
Some of the ways we go green is extended breastfeeding, cloth diapers, litterless lunches, programmable thermostats, and using our clothesline.
Entry #2….I definitely like her clothes and ideals!
Liked hmm and let her know you sent me. Thanks for this opportunity:)
I became a fan of HMM of FB!
My go-green tip is to find ways of making your own natural cleaning products (baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice…etc) and don’t just trust the labels on your cleaning products. They may say “Natural” or “Environmentally Friendly” but in reality a lot of those cleaners are still full of nasty chemicals.
We recycle or repurpose things. We use cloth diapers and wipes. I breastfeed.
I liked you on FB.
my favorite go-green tip is to breastfeed!
I liked Hip Mountain Mama on FB.
My favorite green tip is composting. We vermicompost and have a tumbler. This is so easy and so good for our Earth!
Already was a Facebook Fan!
My favorite going green tip was making all our firstborn’s food, including breastfeeding. Then switching to cloth diapers when our second was an infant and he was still in diapers. I just wish I switched to cloth sooner with him.
And I just friended HMM on FB. 🙂
Cloth diapers and homemade detergent! There are so many great recipes out there for non-toxic cleaners!!
We cloth diaper, reuse and recycle everything, buy at farmer’s markets, make baby food at home, no bottles (BF and use our own water containers) and we’ve started to drive more responsibly to save gas and lower emissions. We keep educating ourselves to be more green and love taking on new challenges to do so.
We’re already a huge fan of HMM thanks to TLB for introducing us her beautiful site of awesome stuff!
I Always recycle… Breastfeed, cloth diaper.
I like hip mountain mama on facebook.
Cloth diapers, organics as much as possible, local CSA… Trying as hard as we can.
Breastfeed, Recycle, conscious consumer, always give clothes to relatives or people in need.
I just “liked” Hip Mountain Mama on FB!
I liked Hip Mountian Momma on FB (already follow on Twitter).
Every Earth Day I like to evaluate my environmental efforts and commit to do something additional in the coming year so this year I plan to start composting and hopefully collecting/reusing our rainwater. My *favorite* green thing to do is repurpose anything! 🙂
Hey there. TLB sent me. Not sure if it’s too late to enter your giveaway… I also “liked” you on fb…
Here’s some of our green household efforts:
Breastfeeding, cloth diapers with wool covers, only natural fibre clothing for baby, natural cleaning supplies (vinegar/baking soda/dr. bronners) and natural body care (shea butter, coconut oil, Dr. Bronners, Druide), wood/cloth toys, cooking whole organic foods at home. I’m very excited about my latest find: stainless steel popsicle molds with wooden sticks!
Be well and keep up the good work.