It’s finally here! Over a year ago, I signed up to host TreeHugger’s Carnival of the Green, and I’m thrilled to finally feature it here. For me, Carnival of the Green brings to light so many blogs I may have never found in the big sea of green writing. I hope you find some new favorite sites this week! For more information about hosting or submitting a post to Carnival of the Green, just click through the link. Last week’s Carnival was hosted by The Tao of Change, who did an amazing job highlighting all the eco-news of the week.  

So without further ado (and in no particular order) are a wide variety of eco-tastic articles covering kids, cooking, products, travel, saving money, recycling, redecorating, and just re-doing for the New Year. Enjoy!

Have you made your New Year’s resolution yet? Get some great green ideas and inspiration for 2009 with this resolution round-up from Janelle at Healthy Child Healthy World’s Watch this week. Include your kids, and you’ll be sure to have a wonderfully green new year.

Speaking of kids, City Living Girl offers a wonderful way to decorate your child’s room with artist Annie Lawrason. Keeping an environmentally conscious, animal theme in mind, a portion of all Lawrason’s artwork proceeds go to charity. CLG also wants moms and any make-up wearing woman out there to “Be Gorgeous and Green” when it comes to cosmetics. Here, she reviews the all-natural mineral make-up of Bare Escentuals.

In this economy, who doesn’t need coupons to help with groceries, especially if you lean towards organic products. Kathy Hester (aka GeekyPoet) offers a comprehensive guide to finding coupons for organic food and green products.

BPA free containers are one of the most important new products on the market. If you’re a sports and outdoor enthusiast, you now have better hydration carrying options than bulky, stainless steel containers. Tiffany with Green and Natural Parenting reviews the new Intak water bottle by Thermos, one she thinks will quickly make its way into your backpack!

Keeping with the food theme, Russ at Simple Homebrew Beer wants to help you save money from store bought beer. Forget buying beer, make your own!

Many manufacturers of processed foods are touting their plastic containers as the environmentally-friendly choice because of their lighter shipping weight.  But plastic and glass are not the only choices.  In many cases, we can skip the packaging altogether and make our own!  Here’s a very simple, easy recipe for homemade mayonnaise from Beth at Fake Plastic Fish, one woman’s successful crusade to become totally plastic-free.

Here’s a worldly, thought-provoking post. Charlie Good’s lodge in the Andes is a fantastic birding destination. Charlie has written a short piece about how the indigenous Andean people around his lodge are in danger of losing their land.  It’s a fascinating story of an ancient culture on the brink of dissolution.  Read it on Veggie Revolution this week.

If you’ve never visited the site 10,000 Birds, now’s your chance! This month, posts are exclusively highlighting saving endangered parrots around the world. This week, Charlie Moores describes the remarkable conservation activities and organizations involved in saving a tragically endangered Caribbean parrot, the Puerto Rican Parrot, with vivid photos and amazing facts.

The Queen is going green! Naomi from Diary From England writes about Queen Elizabeth’s plans to convert her two state Bentleys to run on biofuel. Apparently, Prince Charles has already begun the trend, by converting some of his luxury vehicles to run on 100% bioethanol fuel from surplus wine.

Gas prices are down (phew!) and hybrid cars are still making a push for reducing carbon tire tracks. Jacques with The Smarter Wallet discusses the continuing trend in hybrid vehicles, and offers his ideas on why we should still think green when it comes to driving!

Meg from How to Make a Difference reminds you to shop locally and think globally! Buying goods from within your community brings support not only to your neighborhood, but affects everything from travel waste, quality of goods, keeps people employed locally and more. It pays to buy from those whom you live near.

News About Green Living brings you an assortment of eco-articles that span your home to your health. This week, they present Part II of The Eco-Friendly Home, focusing on how flooring, carpet, mattresses and furniture can help create a healthy, green sanctuary you can call home. Mind Mart also offers an article specifically discussing green flooring options. If you don’t know cork from bamboo, here’s a good place to start.

If you’ve been wondering about your green habits these days, Betsy over at Money Changes Things is not afraid to talk about the tough stuff. She discusses our trends of over-consumption, societal stupidity and her own “eco-epiphanies” that have led her to live a better quality of life. Are you getting by with less these days?

The holidays are over - how can you clean house in an eco-fashion with, well, everything left over? Mrs. Green from My Zero Waste shows you how to completely recycle your Christmas - everything from the tree to wrapping paper, gift boxes and cards. You’ll be sure to have your home cleaned out by next winter!

Continuing with the recycling/repurposing posts, Leila over at everydaytrash highlights musical recycling projects from the Clean and Humble recording studio in Brooklyn. Owner Flex Unger is hard at work deconstructing an old electric organ into a portable drum machine, a stylish amplifier and a mini organ. Who knew musical trash could be so productive?

And, speaking of the holidays, how many of your kids have had more fun with the boxes their gifts have come in, rather than the toys themselves? The Digerati Life takes a look at creative alternatives to playtime, to help kids take charge of their imaginations.

Morgan Hill Review, one man’s blog about a Southern California neighborhood, offers a thorough take on cloth versus disposable diapers. This is always a hotly debated topic, and worth taking a look at again and again. My kids are both out of diapers, but I’m always reading and hearing varied opinions about a necessity for parents.

Looking for ways to save money? Don’t forget that reducing, rather than replacing, what you use is not only economical but environmentally savvy as well. Savings Toolbox offers ways to “Reduce What You Waste To Save Some Cash,” a must read during these tough economic times!

Green Thinking Blog gets your mind turning over two topics this week. First, news that the San Francisco International Airport is planning to install new kiosks where travelers can purchase carbon offsets for their flights sets off some exciting, low-cost options for greenies. On a completely different note, the Big Belly trash receptacle is making waves with its solar powered compactor. By crushing the trash, more garbage can be collected in less bags.

Finally, Praveen from Tao of Simplicity shares exciting news about Japan Airlines. They have announced plans to test a 747 flight with one of its four engines composed of a mix of regular fuel with a non-edible biofuel. What amazing progress biofuel can make this year!

Thanks for letting me share all of these informative and inspiring posts with you! Next week’s Carnival will be hosted by SustainaBee, so don’t forget to check it out!