Last week I showed an earth-friendly kitchen play set from Plan Toys. I wanted to bring in a few more options though because there are so many cool green play kitchen sets out there. Above is the very bright and fun Daisy’s Kitchen Set from Djeco – made with wood and nontoxic paints and finishes. Available at Oompa Toys.

Then there’s the Eco-Friendly Wonderworld Cooking Center Play Kitchen Set below from Toys”R”Us. This kitchen is from Smart Gear, a newer eco line at Toys”R”Us. Smart Gear is a very cool brand, making eco-products a little more accessible to kids (i.e. at a large chain toy store). Off kitchen topic, they have a killer Eco-Friendly Wooden Doll House you might be interested in as well.

Next is a Play Cooker with Accessories from Kangaroo Boo – smaller for kids with less space, but still eco-friendly and fun.

Coming up – fun eco food for kitchen play!

About PlayMais:

PlayMais is a neat craft material that’s 100% biodegradable. In the video review below we say “cornstarch” to make things simple, but if you want to get technical, PlayMais is made from non-GM maize, semolina and water, and dyed with natural food coloring. When you’re totally done playing, these just wash away down a sink. PlayMais sets come with a little knife made with biodegradable materials as well.

PlayMais are not only eco-friendly, but also easy. Even small children can use them. No glue is required, just a dab of plain old water will hold these together. Various kits are available, which I’ll post after the video. And now, for a little demonstration of what you can build with these…

Where to find PlayMais:

PlayMais are really inexpensive which is a nice bonus but they can be hard to find. For a while I thought maybe the German based PlayMais company went out of business, but lately I’ve seen them around the web with some new PlayMais products, so I’m not sure what’s up with the hard to find issue. We bought our set locally, at a small town toy shop; Kazoodles. If you have a  local toy store, you should check with them – it’s way more eco-friendly to buy local. If you can’t find PlayMais locally, here are some places online that sell them.

• Organically Hatched carries an assortment of PlayMais, including the harder to find creative model sets (dragons, castles, and more).
• A Canadian directory for PlayMais.
• UK PlayMais retailer

If you do a basic web search, you’ll come up with a handful of other small retailers that carry PlayMais as well.

Have your kids used PlayMais? What do they think?

We’ll be back with some more eco-friendly kitchen play sets soon, but first I wanted to share these cool doodle tags. I think that they’re perfect for a great green mama for Valentine’s Day. Yes, it’s ok to drop hints with your partner.

Doodle Tag rock. You upload an image drawn by your little doodle bug to Mommy Tags, and then the image is made into a personalized tag on recycled silver. With the tag you also get a wood mounted rubber stamp of the doodle and a small black 1 inch stamp pad. Your child will love to stamp everything with his doodle. This is a very fun mama gift.

Learn more about Doodle Tags.

When I was a kid, my favorite toy was my play kitchen set. Kids today aren’t much different; at least all the kids I’ve known adore playing with kitchen sets and pretend food. The cool deal now though is that we have lots of greener choices. My plan was actually to post 10 fun eco-friendly kitchen play sets. But then I got to thinking about the totally blinged out collection of kitchen play accessories offered by Plan Toys, and decided to show their sets first. I will, however, be back with more eco-kitchen play sets.

The Plan Toys Kitchen Center shown above is really fun. Not too complicated, but comes with just enough cool stuff to make any little drool. Plus, it’s a space saver. Instead of spreading out, the kitchen is two sided. One side has a cooking center and the other side has a sink for washing up. Included is an oven and dishwasher, along with shelving where a child can hang spatulas and store play food. Like all wooden Plan Toys, the entire set is made of natural, chemical free, recycled rubberwood and finished with non-toxic water based dye. You can get this kitchen set in pink as well, although I think it looks nicer in the red.

Two fun additional Plan Toy add-on sets include the Dishwasher Set and my favorite below, the Wooden Refrigerator. I like the dishwasher, but I ALWAYS wanted a fridge to go along with my play kitchen (never got one). I would have killed for this fridge though, it’s so slick. You turn the white knob on the fridge door and cute little wooden ice cubes flow out. I’m sorry, but that is way too cool. There’s also plenty of room for all sorts of pretend food items.

SEE the ice!!! That’s so much fun. Sigh. You know, I think parents have almost as much fun with play kitchens as the kiddos.

+ Kangaroo Boo

Sorry to be gone; I was taking a small holiday break. However, I’ve got something totally great for the first post back – Grimm’s Fairy Tale Village Wooden Blocks. I love almost all wooden blocks; and have plenty of favorite earth-friendly sets, but the blocks made by Grimm’s Spiel & Holz Design pretty much take the cake.

These beautiful and unique blocks are toxic-free and safe for tots who like to munch, instead of stack their blocks. Once your little one is past the eating blocks stage, years of building delight with this fun set will follow. All of the blocks made by Grimm’s Spiel & Holz Design (except building blocks 10180 & 10190) are hand sanded separately, and have no sharp edges. Since this company’s blocks are unvarnished they stay together better when your child is building.

I love the dreamy look, unique lines, and lovely colors of these blocks – it’s complete block love! I especially adore the idea of adding a set of mini dolls or dwarves, as shown in the images above and below.

Grimm’s Fairy Tale Village

Seven Dwarves (Ostheimer)

Dollhouse Family (Evi Dolls)

+ The Wooden Wagon

I currently can’t stop browsing the Tiny McSmall online boutique. If you want lovely and unique toys, clothing, and accessories for your little one, this is where you need to be. They have lots of my favorite brands, and plenty of beautiful items I haven’t seen before. Not all their items offered are eco-friendly, but many are, enough to make me adore this shop anyhow. All their items are drool worthy, but I figured, being that it’s chilly outside, we’d look at some beautiful winter gear. I’ve got some girly finds, and later I’ll post a few little fella items.

Starting with the Forest Coat by Oeuf shown above. This 100% alpaca coat is gorgeous with total personality. It’s more of an autumn coat, but toss in some mittens and a hat and it’d be good for general winter outings or parties – not so great for snow play obviously, but still a great everyday coat. Comes in chocolate brown with adorable hood, four pockets, and a three-button empire closure. It also has a loose fit, so it will work over a Valentine’s day party dress. Currently only available in size 5, but check Ouef for other size availability and two other colors – red and gray.


Makie 100% Wool Fleece Bonnet with an adorable velvet ribbon and pretty tassel.

Handknit Organic Merino Wool Car Coat handmade in New Zealand with the pure organic wool. Beautiful color and shape; a perfect winter baby birthday or shower gift. This is one of the prettiest baby sweaters I’ve seen in a good long while. Sizes 1-3.

+ Tiny McSmall

When I was a kid all I had was a plain old pillow, not a fancy, pretty, Tooth Fairly pillow. I still got so money for my little teeth, but these cute pillows would have been a fun addition to the event. My favorites are maybe the Handmade Tooth Fairy Stars above from PrettyRaccoon Clothing.

These adorable stars are made from 100% recycled or reused materials and fabrics and comes with a red yarn loop that allows you to tie to a bedpost overnight.

I also like the recycled sweater wallet -tea bag -tooth fairy pouch. Really cute for a little girl. Made from a recycled cashmere felted sweater and available at The Fairies Nest.

Of course there’s the sweet as cotton candy Oeuf Tooth Fairy Pillow – which everyone I know adores. Made with 100% pima and available at Oeuf. I love it, but I really like the ones above too for their unique handmade qualities.

Which is your favorite?

Sometimes, you don’t have to find a fully “green” or organic baby clothing shop in order to find great pieces. For example, Bean New York is not a fully organic shop, but they always seem to have a wonderful collection of gorgeous organic and Fair Trade baby clothing with nice choices, but it’s not overwhelming. For example, the About a Bean Onesie you see above. 100% organic onesie, printed with botanical stages in “the development of a bean”- so adorable, I almost can’t stand it.

Other cool Bean finds include:

Entertaining Elephants Organic Cotton Dress: Lap-shouldered organic cotton dress with long sleeves – great for dressy or casual events.

One of my favorite Fair Trade tot sweaters around, the Kiwi Baby Sweater in olive. I love this sweater. It also comes in a blue and olive design that’s adorable, and a red and pink version. I’m not as big a fan of the red and pink sweater though.

Visit Bean New York to see more cute clothing – or you can head straight to their organic clothing collection.

Time is seriously running out for holiday shopping. Few online shops can guarantee a before Christmas delivery at this point. If you’re still looking, Amazon Green is one place to shop, that will still get gifts to you on time. I’ve been there; almost every year I end up grabbing some last minute Amazon.com deal.

Here are some nice green last minute gift picks:

Above is Pops!: Icy Treats for Everyone – I know it’s cold, and the last thing on your mind is ice pops, but honestly, this is a great book for keeping it green all year that will help you make ice pops for the kids with less packaging and better ingredients. Along with this book, you might like to pick up some Tovolo Popsicle Star Molds or Tovolo Yellow Groovy Pop Molds.

We’ve had three sets of Tovolo pop molds for a good long while, they work great, make beautiful ice pops, and cut down on trash. If you want to learn more online, read my post; 32 Unique Homemade Popsicle Recipes & Ideas.

My son and me both have a Klean Kanteen Stainless Steel Colored Water Bottles with Poly Loop Cap. My son LOVES his bottle, and never uses anything else. This is a great stocking stuffer gift that helps save the earth’s resources. Read my review of Klean Kanteen.

Green Toys Tea Set – Made of recycled milk jugs, there’s a lot to love about Green Toys. The Tea Set is my fave Green Toy brand product.

If you’re looking for baby toys, both the eco-friendly, child-safe, Plan Toys Shape Matching and FAO Schwarz Alphabet Blocks Wagon – Sustainable Wood fit the bill. Both are made with non-toxic paints and sustainable wood.

For adorable plush fun the Idbid’s are great. These Earth-friendly pals come in three sets:

• Idbid Lola Eco-Friendly Starter Kit in Pink
• Idbid Waverly Eco-Friendly Starter Kit in Blue
• Idbid Scout Eco-Friendly Starter Kit in White

My favorite is the little rain drop friend. Read more about the Idbid’s in the post; Amazingly Cute & New Eco Friends.

There you go, some nice green last minute gifts. Later I may post some cool last minute green books for kids – although, I’m pressed for time right now too, so we’ll see.