Stubby Pencil Studio Eco Stationery Review

My local Wal-Mart may spell it’s Stationery department “Stationary” (I’ve haven’t been in for a year until last week and it still hasn’t changed - or for that matter, moved), but I’m certain that stationery is the correct word for pens, pencils and paper.

Stubby Pencil Studio provide eco-friendly stationery and art supplies, 100% recycled cards and invitations and unique non-toxic gifts and kits. They sent us lots of great stuff for adults and kids alike.

Smencils (made by Smencil World) are gourmet scented pencils made from 100% recycled newspaper. They come in normal (#2 graphite) pencil versions and colored pencils. As you can see from the picture to the right they come in individual tubes, which does increase packaging (though is recyclable), but on the other hand stops you becoming overcome with fumes from the (environmentally friendly created) smell. The ones we got came with the following smells: chocolate, grape, orange, very berry, bubble gum, cherry, root beer, cotton candy, watermelon and tropical burst. And you know what? The kids love them. I mean LOVE them. The colored Smencils come in their own pencil case too (picture below), the color of the smell relating to the color of the pencil. I think I may be addicted to very berry flavor.

We also tested Prang Fun Pro Soybean Crayons that unlike traditional petroleum-based crayons, are crayons made from all natural pigments and soybean oil (AP certified non-toxic).It’s been a long while since I used a crayon last but apparently they’re great.

To test these products we were also given some fantastic color ‘n kids cards. These are eco-friendly cards for kids to color, trace the letters, and create their own greetings. Printed on heavy, 100% post consumer waste stock, they have cute black and white illustrations on the cards to encourage do-it-yourself card making for young children and grown ups alike. I didn’t feel at all embarrassed writing my age on the back! Interactive, educational, and green! There are ones for all occasions, thank yous, birthday greetings, get well cards, notes to teachers, valentines, Easter…. These were really fun too.

Another way of testing them was to color in a Made By Meâ„¢ kit, which is a do-it-yourself wooden toy kit. We had the bug, but they’re also available as a train or race car. The kit includes a 4″ long unfinished, sanded smooth pine shaped body, and 4 natural wheels and axles, all you need is some glue, a hammer, paints, crayons, markers, stickers and imagination (and to be over 3 years old).

Smencils cost $5 for 5, Colored Smencils $14 for 10, color n’ kids cards from $0.80 and sets for $7.95 and Made By Meâ„¢ kits only $4 from Stubby Pencil Studio. If you kids love using drawing and you want to do it in a green way, then give them a try. I’m off to try a watermelon smencil….

Fairtrade Soccer Ball Eco Product Review

Sometimes we get sent products to review that aren’t that much fun, but as I love soccer (football in my language…) it wasn’t exactly a hardship testing this fairtrade ball.

Called “Right To Education”, this ball is eco-certified and certified Fair Trade. Union-made and vegan. Fair Trade means the adult workers who produced this ball received a fair wage - at no extra cost to us! Fair Trade Sports donate 100% of after tax profits to children’s charities.

I’ve put together a short video (click here if you can’t see the embedded video) of me and the Fairtrade soccer ball. Not sure why I choose that music, the banjo just appealed to me!

EDIT: If you’re looking for similar balls in the UK, Nigel’s Eco Store have a selection.

The Magic Wheel Eco Product Review

If you ever look what category posts on Life Goggles are put in, you may notice this one says Product Reviews, but also Transport. That’s in the loosest sense of the word as I haven’t been able to go anywhere on this yet.

But I’m jumping ahead. The Magic Wheel, as you can see from the videos and pictures, is a cross between a unicycle, skateboard and scooter. Sort of. It’s a wheel with steps either side (and a shopping trolley/cart wheel on the back) that you have one foot on while you push off with the other like a skateboard until you reach sufficient speed to put both feet either side and glide to your destination. Well glide for a bit until you need to start pushing again.

First of all - it’s trickier than it looks in the promotions video - check out my video for my (embarrassingly, not first) attempts at mastering the Magic Wheel. I know it’s April 1 so I might as well look at fool. To be fair, I’m not very good at skateboarding etc which I think would have helped, but it’s a bit tricky and young, cool kids are probably better at it than me. The package comes with some vague safety instructions and a dvd with some dubious English subtitles. But between them they tell you enough about the product to be able to give it a go.

Adam’s attempt at magic wheeling

You stick the knee pads on yourself at the right height which makes it a bit more comfortable and easier to control, and away you go. Sort of. I didn’t go very far to be honest but again, I think you could if you persevered. Despite the backdrop of London’s Tower Bridge, after an hour I’d had enough and went for a drink.

How you’re meant to do it

One thing you will notice is how everyone looks at you when you’re on it, or even carrying it. I haven’t seen another one in London and they’re pretty cool looking, if slightly impractical. That’s my main problem with it, not that I can’t get the hang of it. What is it actually for. It’s less portable than a skateboard and it advises you not to go downhill or do tricks on it. It’s less stable than a bike or even a scooter and I’m left wondering why it doesn’t have a thicker tyre/tire on it to help make it more stable. Probably because it means your legs will be a lot wider and you’ll end up walking like John Wayne. Also if you’re short it might be a bit dodgy going on this. On a couple of occasions I came close to injuring myself between the legs and I’m 5′ 10″.

The Magic Wheel is a fun thing for a while, but at $199 or £120 your investment might be better placed elsewhere.

Mandyleigh Storm Album Review And Free Mp3’s

Our favourite Sellaband artist Mandyleigh Storm releases her debut album Fire & Snow on March 10th 2008. So what’s the album like? To get a balanced opinion I also asked Adam to review it too. [Disclosure: We invested a small amount in Mandyleigh via Sellaband. Read about it here.]

There are many highlights of the album, to listen to some free tracks whilst reading this, you can download “Deep Sea Green”, “Cry Hard” or “Let It Go” for no charge from Sellaband and the whole album for only $3.50.

It’s not often a new artist comes along and you can recognise their voice instantly, but hers is one. A excellent opening with Deep Sea Green, followed by one of my favourites, Winter’s Day. Slightly “toned down” for the album, it’s apparently all about a relationship breaking down but you still want to save it. Love it! With strong album themes regarding depression, several tracks such as Go With It and Keep The Silence certainly don’t depress with the latter more a traditional pop song with a pop beat, that shows her versatility.

Sunny New Day is a change of pace and uptempo and is Adam’s current second favourite. My actual favourite is Grey, another song about depression. Adam had heard this one before a while ago and once it starts it was like a nice reminder of things past (if that makes sense). The simple music means the voice does a lot of work - lucky it’s a good one. Quite slow and sad but not soppy, it’s like the end of a film or something, very familiar and easy listening.

The Limited Edition CD also comes with 6 of the demo mp3’s, a video interview with Mandyleigh, and vocal .wav’s of “Keep The Silence” and “Go With It” for the remixers and mashup artists out there.

Green credentials? Well you can download the album for a start, with three tracks being free and the entire album only $3.50. Plus efforts have been taken with regards to the Limited Ediiton CD packaging to produce it in as an environmentally sustainable way as possible.

Overall, I love this album as much as I hoped I would, a stunning debut from a unique singer. Download the free tracks, and if you like them buy the album. Either way, let us know what you think!

Product Review: BadBuster Browser Plugin

BadBuster is two things - an online search engine and a browser plugin. The difference is that is scores companies on their environmental credentials. I downloaded the free browser plugin which works in a similar way to the website. Instead of you entering a company’s name in the search box, the plugin underlines certain words on your web page - either in green, yellow or red - highlighting that there is an environmental rating for that company.

Hovering over the underlining brings up a box giving an environmental score out of 100 for that company and clicking the box leads you to the BadBuster website to find out more.

Simple stuff and pretty neat. It was easy to download and I didn’t even need to restart Internet Explorer, never mind my computer, for it to start working. It works for Internet Explorer 6 and 7 on Windows XP or Vista when I tested it but by the time you read this there should be a Firefox version and more in 2008.

The system works pretty unobtrusively, it does take some getting used to at first, having words underlined all over the place, but the traffic light colour coding is effective (red=bad, green=good, yellow=hmmm) and I found myself hovering and clicking through to find out more. BadBuster uses a 0-100 scale rankings based upon various sources include Climate Counts, BusinessWeek, KnowMore, and the Carbon Disclosure Project and also lets you compare the particular company with similar firms in the field.

All well and good. I found it quite nice, but not something I can’t live without. There’s the novelty concept and the fact I’m interested in the environment, however I’m not sure how useful it would be for the average user. The BadBuster website is a handy resource for people who want to find out more about a company to make their business/shopping choices based on their environmental rating so having it on every webpage only saves a bit of time. For the moment I’ve left it on my computer to see if I don’t mind all the colours and pop-ups, otherwise I’m taking it off and will just search using the website if I want to learn more.