Green gift guide: Babies and kids

Some baby stuff's so cute it makes me wish I had ... a baby-sized doll to dress up and stuff. Here's how to find the cutest green giftables for the little people in your life:

Stay local and drop by The Little Seed, a newish eco-boutique for kids at  219 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles. The shop's organic clothes, non-toxic toys, and eco-friendly bedding recently got a longish profile in the LA Weekly. It sounds like the place to go for your one-stop eco-baby shopping.

Beyond The Little Seed, many L.A. stores carry Oeuf, an all eco-friendly line of super-cute clothes for kids. My fave's this Oeuf Hug-me sweater (right, $88) -- an alpaca wool sweater with mitten-shaped pockets -- designed by a French-American husband-and-wife team based in Brooklyn, N.Y., and sustainably and fairly made in Bolivia.

Or support recycled, handmade products, easier than ever with the Etsy Trashion Street Team, a group of 110 Etsy artists "who specialize in turning trash into treasure." And on Dec. 2, participating shops will celebrate "Save the World Sunday" by offering 20% off or free shipping.

One of these stores -- Sweet Pepita  in Baltimore, Md. -- offers some very stylin' baby clothes. The cutest, IMHO: "Boyish Charm" (left, $40), a size 6-12 months shirt that's hand-sewn from 100% organic cotton and recycled fabric; and Pixie Hat ($14), hand-sewn from 100% organic cotton.

Or go the DIY route and start knitting (or sewing)! Back when I was knitting more I made a buncha baby booties; to the right's the "flower power" pair, which went to my old friend Maureen's baby. Opt for organic or recycled yarn -- I recommend a visit to Goodwill for an old sweater to take apart.

If you're shopping for toys, the Green Guide's put together a wallet-sized toy guide (PDF) that tells you what to look for and what to avoid. A few cute suggestions:

• Double Duckies ($22), a pull toy made with sustainably harvested wood, vegetable dyes and non-toxic coating.
• Knit Octopus ($78), a soft and happy-looking toy made with natural wool yarn and veggie-based dyes by a collective of knitters working in fair trade conditions in rural Kenya.
• Fair trade sports balls ($29.99 for a soccer ball), which are pretty self-explanatory.

Photos top to bottom courtesy of: Oeuf, Sweet Pepita, Siel, Taraluna

Comments

[Anthony]

I had no idea where to put this, but this is about the opposite of "The Little Seed" store. Whenever I'm on Beverly Dr. I always notice this store (because usually its at night around closing) that's really bright. It's the Geox shoe store and they have about 8 Big Screen TVs in there endlessly running their commercials. I always thought it was a waste of electricity but thought they surely turned them off at night. Wouldn't you know it, today at 6am passing by again, the TVs are all on still (and the store was definitely closed). They leave them on 24 hours. Why can't there be more environmentally considerate stores such as "The Little Seed" store??

[m]

Etsy.com is a great place in general for unique handmade gifts, jewelery, decorations and other green items.

I'd recommend searching for terms like ecofriendly, recycle, upcycle and repurpose. There are thousands of results for those terms on the site. Some items are pretty hardcore repurposing others are simply vintage items.

[Siel]

Anthony -- Hopefully Geox'll learn soon that leaving TV screens on when no customers are watching's not a v. smart move, financially or environmentally. In the meantime, let's avoid shopping there.

m (and BTW, there are several "m"s here, which makes me wish that readers'll get more creative 'bout the names they use if they don't use their own) -- I heart Etsy too. It really involves a lot of slogging through tons of non-eco stuff to get to the eco-stuff though. Today I devoted a lot of time to it to find the baby stuff above --

[baby boy]

It a big part of the fun with babies to dress them up.I found amazing stuff for my little baby boy.