Don't know what to do to be greener in 2009? Here's a few things I'll be committing or recommitting myself to for the next calendar year.

1. Renew my commitment to recycling. I don't have curbside pickup at my apartment, so I have to haul my recyclables to the local center every few weeks. This winter, I got a little lazy, so there's lots of recycling piling up on my patio. Designate a day (Saturday morning? Sunday afternoon?) to take your bin to the recycling center, and stick to it.

2. Scale back on red meat. I won't be able to completely cut it out, but by scaling back (maybe to a couple times a week at most), I'll save calories and carbon. It takes lots of resources (water, food, energy) to raise cows—by replacing a few red meat meals with other foods such as salads, beans and fish, I'll reduce my carbon footprint (even if everything else I consume isn't local).

3. Lodge at green hotels. With the amount of personal and business travel I take each year, I am going to make the effort to research affordable, green hotels for each trip I take. The greenest thing to do, of course, is to stay with friends during trips, but when that's not an option, looking into local establishments that have a commitment to conservation helps contribute to the local economy and the environment. In January, I'll be heading to San Francisco and am excited to see the eco-friendly amenities that my hotel has to offer.

4. Stock my shelves with eco-friendly cleaners. Slowly, I'm making the transition to using greener cleaners. I wash knits with baking soda and vinegar and have given up conventional liquid fabric softener. I still use dryer sheets and conventional detergent for my regular washes, but am down the the last few cups before I open my new bottle of Seventh Generation. Knowing that my clothing is not doused with chemicals that can irritate my lungs and skin keeps me motivated to spend the extra dollar to buy green, or to take the extra time to whip up a homemade cleaning concoction.

What are your green new year's resolutions?

With all the wonderful products that walk across our desks here at Natural Home, here are a few that have stood out during the holiday season. Grab these last-minute gifts for your friends, family, or even yourself. And remember: Green is not just for the holidays. Any of these products would be great year round.

1. Seva Hair Care: This shampoo is gentle on my locks. It contains none of the bad stuff (SLS, SLES, parabens or animal byproducts) and is 100 percent vegan. The products are made in the USA (Los Angeles, California, to be exact) and are fairly traded. This shampoo makes a great gift for your style- and eco-conscious sister, and should be a shower staple for your own personal use. Photo courtesy Seva.

2. Pacifica Gift Set: I can't go on more about how much I adore Pacifica. This company consistently impresses me with its new scents, commitment to excellence in candlemaking (soy wax, lead-free cotton wicks) and gorgeous packaging. The single fragrance collections are wonderful for that friend who you know loves a specific scent. These make great birthday presents as well—my best friend got one of these for her birthday a few months ago. Take Pacifica up on its free shipping deal for orders over $50! Photo courtesy Pacifica.

3. Holy Cow Apparel: These organic cotton tees and hoodies for men and women have sassy, inspiration sayings and drawings that are sure to get someone's attention. Holy Cow uses water-based inks in its printing process and maintains fair labor practices—no sweatshop labor here. The shirts are soft and have "tagless tags," which means no uncomfortable itching for you. I had the chance to see many of the designs firsthand at the San Francisco Green Festival; my favorite design is recycle love. Photo courtesy Holy Cow.

4. BeGreen Ornament Cards: Forget the generic holiday greeting cards. Send BeGreen cards/ornaments to your friends and family this year. Not only is this thoughtful and nice, but it is also good for the planet: Each ornament contains seeds, such as cilantro, chili peppers or Forget Me Not flowers. In addition, for each gift of green purchased, a tree is planted in honor of your friend or family member. A lot better than naming a star after somebody, right? Photo courtesy BeGreen.

5. Envirosax: These reusable bags are beautiful, durable and compact. Each bag can be folded and secured into a small roll, which is easy to throw into your car or purse so you never have to go shopping and take plastic again. Bags start at $7.95, and a percentage of proceeds from each Envirosax goes towards charities. I have a couple Envirosax that I've been using (and I plan on gifting some in a couple days, too), and I loved seeing the beautiful new Envirosax designs at Eco Gift Festival in LA a few weekends ago. Photo courtesy Envirosax.

6. Numi Puerh Tea: With all the traveling I've been doing lately, it's surprising that I haven't gotten completely ill. At the onset of a cold (and with colds going around the office), I started drinking more Numi tea than usual—especially the Mint Puerh. It really calmed my throat and cleared my sinuses, and after a week of downing tea each morning, I felt a lot better. Tea makes a great stocking stuffer or host present (the packaging is beautiful) for holiday parties and gatherings. Numi is USDA organic and is $10 for 16 teabags. Photo courtesy Numi Tea.

7. Allison's Gourmet Fudge: If I could have fudge delivered to me every day, I would definitely stay home and feast on delivery day. With Allison's Fudge of the Month club, you get organic, vegan fudge delivered to your doorstep once a month. If you're not baking-savvy (or lack the time/energy/motivation to bake), this is a great option. There's also cookies and brownies of the month, too. Pick your choice! Photo courtesy Allison's Gourmet Fudge.

8. Natural Home magazine: Sure, I work here, but I have to say, a magazine subscription is a good gift. A subscription to Natural Home, the authority on green homes and sustainable design, is an even better gift, especially for your eco-minded buddies. I just renewed subscriptions for a few of my friends and family members. A year's worth of great, green information with an added bonus of new content online and newsletters in your inbox each week for $15 is a true bargain.

With winter in full swing (it snowed five or so inches here in Kansas), by now everyone has to have a good pair of boots in her shoe collection. Before I headed out to California last month for Green Festival, I got a new pair of brown boots to walk around the hilly San Francisco area (my other boots were heeled and not made for walking). After a month of wearing these boots in rain, mud, dirt and snow, it's fair to say that these boots got very dull and ugly in no time.

I'm not one to polish leather because I think it's a little silly (and I guess the truth is, I hardly get dirty), but I couldn't resist trying this new conditioning cream when it walked across my desk a few weeks ago (thanks Angie!).

Howard Naturals Leather Conditioning Cream is loaded with creamy, natural ingredients, such as beeswax, emu oil, eucalyptus oil, tea tree oil and lanolin. Though I have issues with lanolin, putting it on my boots as opposed to my skin isn't as discomforting to me. I like that the company lists the product's MSDS online so consumers can know what allergens or toxicities to expect (not a whole lot here!). The container also comes with an expiration date on the bottom (July 2013 for mine) and a manufacture date (July 2008). That's some long-lasting cream for $11.65 (in an 11.8 ounce jar).

Here's the before and after of my boots:

Needless to say, I was quite impressed with the outcome! My boots are shinier and look much better than before. It didn't take much to polish my boots—about two quarter-sized dollops each—and they still look good even two weeks later.

Do you use natural products, even when it comes down to items such as polish?

It's been a week since my last post, and though I have many more product reviews to share with you (lip balms, shoe shine, shampoo and cleaning supplies), I've been prepping for this big, green holiday shopping weekend. The Natural Home team is heading to California December 11-15 for Eco Gift Festival in Santa Monica. It's sure to be an exciting event (editor in chief Robyn Griggs Lawrence is speaking, as well as many other exciting people), and I'm anxious to see all the green goodies that the exhibitors are bringing to the show.

If you live in or are going to be in the Santa Monica/Los Angeles area, be sure to drop by and say hello to your favorite magazine editors. We'll be at booth 309. The first 300 visitors to the Natural Home booth each day (Friday through Sunday) will receive free Natural Home palm brushes.

See you at Eco Gift Festival!

Hey friends!

I hope your Cyber Monday is going well. In keeping with the online craze, I wanted to let you know (if you didn't already) that Natural Home has a fan page on Facebook. We'd love for you to join us there and upload pictures, see what the editors are up to and participate in our discussions.

We're also hanging out on MySpace, too, with our more than 400 friends. Are you one of them?

We're in the process of uploading our fun videos onto YouTube, and we have a really great playlist of other like-minded greenies' videos there, too. Have you watched?

Don't forget to follow us on Twitter! We'd love to share links with you.

Let me know what you want to see more of online. We want your Natural Home experience to extend well beyond the pages of the beautiful magazine you receive bimonthly. Plus, we want to deliver you fresh, new, interactive content via every medium we can.