What we thought might be a sidebar on our selection of play things for little ones turned out to be a “Best of the City 2008” pick from Cincinnati Magazine. It’s a complete honor to have the store recognized under “Green Toys” given that we get so much support from customers seeking out things for babies and kids.

Many of our local pals were recognized:

• Cincinnati Locavore (Food Blog)
• Civic Garden Center (Plant Sale)
• Coffee Emporium (Frozen Coffee Drink)
• Donna’s Gourmet Cookies (Chocolate Chip Cookie)
• Duck Creek Antique Mall (Antique Mall Finds: Stained Glass)
• Good Natured Baby (Diaper Service)
• HighStreet (Design Services)
• Know Theatre of Cincinnati (Discount Theater Tickets)
• Wire & Twine (Graphic T-shirts)

Cincinnati Magazine’s annual “Best of the City” is the editors’ top choices in food, arts and culture, sports and recreation, shopping and services, and everything else. Thanks, Cincinnati Magazine.

Park + Vine carries plenty of affordable eco-friendly gifts, including gift cards, to get you through the holiday season. Here are some of our favorites. Browse our online directory of products to see what lines we carry.

• Park + Vine ChicoBag: This little reusable bag is ultra-compact, reusable, washable, an easy gift, and, of course, ecologically-friendly. ($7)



• Happy-Sacks Sandwich-Sack: This cute reusable sandwich-sack is the ideal fit for a generous sandwich, bagel or wrap, or a hearty snack. ($9)



• Burkeheart Baby Booties: Gillian Pratt-Krygowski’s soft-soled (brown suede cloth) booties are fully-lined in green flannel, backed with elastic and totally cute. ($15)



• Night Owl Paper Goods: Go green this holiday season with cards printed on 100 percent post-consumer recycled FSC-certified paper. ($15)



• Earthlust: These stylish reusable bottles are made from food grade stainless steel and come with Bisphenol A-free safe polypropylene #5 caps. ($16-$21)



• Nellie’s Dryerballs: These little Dryerballs lift and separate fabrics while relaxing fibers. They’re toxic-free and guaranteed to last up to two years. ($18)



• 2009 Land Connection Farmer-Annotated Calendar: Support local farming and the local economy with this calendar from The Land Connection. ($25)



• To-Go Ware 3-Tier Stainless Steel Food Carrier + Utensil Set: Enjoy a three-course meal or picnic in this self-latching stainless steel food carrier that comes with a smaller container that keeps dressing or a snack. Complete the experience with organic utensils made of bamboo wrapped in a holder produced by a women’s cooperative on the Thai-Burma border. (Food carrier: $23, Utensils: $20)





• Green Guide: This book from National Geographic offers concepts and choices for Earth-conscious living, from grocery shopping to housecleaning to work, travel, and investing. ($21.95)



• U-Mix-It Safe Spray 4-Pack: Make your own toxic-free cleaning products with easy-to-mix recipes printed on four spray bottles. ($25)



• Queen Bee Creations: Organize your life with these non-leather vinyl bags, wallets and laptop bags made in Portland, Ore. ($26+)



• Fair Trade Sports Soccer Ball: Adult workers hand-sew these fairly-traded, union-made and vegan soccer balls. ($35)

  

• Stainless Steel Compost Pail: Put up to one gallon of carrot tops, potato peels, and coffee grounds to good use in the garden with this stainless steel compost pail. It can sit on the counter or disappear neatly under the sink. The lid features holes for aeration and there’s a charcoal filter inside to eliminate odor. ($39)



• Starter Kit for Change: This might be the simplest way to give a loved one a little nudge in the it’s-easy-being-green direction. It includes an instructional booklet, an Arbor Day seedling, gratitude cards, a Sudoku booklet, a journal, a recycled pencil, a compact fluorescent light bulb, Fair trade hot chocolate, one tote bag, and a charity envelope. ($46)



Solio Classic Universal Hybrid Charger: This sun-powered device stores power from the sun or socket and recharges mobile phones, iPods and other hand-held devices. ($99)

We had one of our busiest days ever during BuyCincy’s Cincinnati Unchained event this past Saturday. Supporters of Sierra Club Miami Group, which received 15 percent of our Unchained sales, and other shop-local supporters kept the store full most of the day. One woman said she hit all 45+ participating stores. That’s a lot of shop-local love.

The Unchained movement continues the day after Thanksgiving 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Nov. 28 in Over-the-Rhine during Holidays in the Bag. Participating stores are offering 20 percent off everything you can fit into a special neighborhood shopping bag ($3), purchased at the Gateway Quarter Information Center across from MiCA 12/v. Bag sales benefit Tender Mercies.

Participating stores include:

1. Park + Vine, 1109 Vine St.
2. City Roots, 1133 Vine St.
3. MiCA 12/v, 1201 Vine St.
4. The Little Mahatma, 1205 Vine St.
5. Switch Collection, 1207 Vine St.
6. Incredible Creations, 1209 Vine St.
7. Metronation, 1213 Vine St.
8. Joseph Williams Home, 1232 Vine St.
9. A Lucky Step, 1220 Vine St.
10. OUTSIDE, 16 E. 12th St.

Be sure to leave room for coffee, lunch, or a cocktail at Enzo’s 1106 Race St.; Lavomatic, 1211 Vine St.; Coffee Emporium, 110 E. Central Parkway; Mixx Ultra Lounge, 1203 Main St.; or Below Zero Lounge, 1122 Walnut St.

The biggest local shopping event of the year is the Saturday before Thanksgiving, Nov. 22. BuyCincy’s second annual Cincinnati Unchained campaign, which is a little sister to America Unchained, concerns the vitality of neighborhoods and focuses on the locally-owned businesses that sustain them.

Shopping locally has real economic benefits and is far from being elitist or just anti-corporate. It’s about our city’s economic well-being. The fact is that local businesses use goods and services of their peers and, therefore, recirculate the money an estimated 3.5 times longer than if it’s spent at a chain store.

There are 44 stores offering deals, gifts, and donations to charity this year. Park + Vine is donating 15 percent of all purchases to Miami Group Sierra Club and giving each customer a Morning Glory Bike Ride reusable bag 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Nov. 22.

It’s really simple, especially in this struggling economy, so be sure to do your part.

Our near obsessive commitment to recycling ranges from making sure empty cardboard boxes and IZZE Sparkling Juice glass bottles end up in a recycling container, encouraging others to recycle and selling wares made out of recycled content. So it was a real honor to be recognized with a Recycling Award from the Hamilton County Solid Waste Management District.

We were in great company at the seventh annual Recycling Awards Luncheon, which took place Nov. 13 at the Mill Race Lodge in Winton Woods. The Recycling Awards acknowledge outstanding recycling achievements by individuals, schools, communities and businesses in Hamilton County. The 2008 Recycling Award recipients include:

1. Friend of Recycling: Dan Korman, Park + Vine
2. Outstanding Recycling Educator: Joy Lohrer, Norwood View Elementary
3. Outstanding School Recycling Program: School for Creative and Performing Arts
4. Student Recycler of the Year: Zohal Faqiri, Aiken University
5. Recycling Excellence in Commercial Property Management: Duke Realty Corporation
6. Outstanding Recycling in a Multi‐Family Residence: Uptown Rental Properties
7. Recycling at Work Program of the Year: Macy’s Inc.
8. The Interchange Business of the Year: Cylinder Processors Inc.
9. Public Recycling Excellence Award: Findlay Market and City of Cincinnati
10. Best Community Recycler: City of Blue Ash and City of Wyoming
11. Most Improved Community Recycler: City of Harrison
12. John Van Volkenburgh Award: Great American Ball Park

Fortunately, people still find reverence in putting pen to paper and sending pretty cards to loved ones. One of our favorite stationery lines, Little Otsu, makes plenty of pretty cards. Two of their newest and cutest are designed by Stuart Kolakovic. The first card celebrates a musical birthday, while the second one brings us some old world charm with an image of a fiddler playing on a reindeer with birds resting on his antlers.

Both cards–blank on the inside–are printed with vegetable-based inks on 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper at a family shop in Hayward, Calif. Cards measure 6.25″ wide x 4.5″ tall folded and come with a natural colored 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper envelope.

Happy Birthday Card by Stuart Kolakovic ($3)

Deer Rider Card by Stuart Kolakovic ($3)

We’re always rooting around for new products, especially locally-made ones. So we were thrilled to find Gillian Pratt-Krygowski and her adorable handmade baby booties.

Gillian comes from a long line of women sewers and quilters. While working at Myra’s Dionysus, she learned to knit from Myra herself, and knitted obsessively for years. In April 2007, after the loss of her five-day-old son, Burke, she fell back into sewing and knitting as a way to work through the grief. She opened her little Etsy store featuring baby shoes, knitted hats, and other baby items in July 2008, shortly after the birth of her second son, and named it Burkeheart Baby.

We can’t hardly keep Gillian’s cute booties in stock. The reasons are many. They’re soft-soled (brown suede cloth) so tootsies develop naturally. They’re fully-lined in green flannel and backed with elastic. They’re affordable ($15), ideal for chilly weather and great gifts. Did we mention that they’re cute? Here are two examples:

Bamboo: This little shoe is made with organic bamboo outers in a graphic leafy pattern

Park+Vine Dots: These “Hausschuhes” are made with a Park+Vine exclusive print

The Park + Vine ChicoBag is here. It’s cute, ultra-compact, reusable, washable, an easy gift, and, of course, ecologically-friendly. And it only costs $5.

Park + Vine ChicoBag ($5)

Writer: Kevin LeMaster
Source: Julie Carpenter, executive director, Betts House Research Center
Photography by Scott Beseler

Part one of Great Cincinnati Families at Home has ended its run at the Betts House Research Center, but the exhibit is still available to view at Park + Vine in Over-the-Rhine through January 4.

Through the use of historic prints and photographs, the exhibit features an intimate look at the private residences of the Taft, Probasco-Rowe, Hauck and Huenefeld families, with recent photographs of the homes by Alice Weston.

The nearly twenty homes include a range of architectural styles, time periods, and designers, including well-known national and local architects such as James K. Wilson, Samuel Hannaford and James W. McLaughlin.

“For me, I think the variety of exceptional residential architecture in the exhibit, and in Cincinnati, is a big draw,” says Betts House executive director Julie Carpenter. “Some families used traditional design and materials, others really tried to innovate using cutting edge architects and new technologies. I think the exhibit is really revealing of the high quality of domestic architecture in Cincinnati.”

She says the new venue was a natural choice.

“We know lots of folks aren’t familiar with the Betts House and that there are some lingering misperceptions about the neighborhood, so we try to have the exhibits visit other parts of town to share them with different audiences,” Carpenter says. “We worked with Park + Vine on our Endangered Cincinnati exhibit last year and it was well received, so we’re there again.”

Part two of Great Cincinnati Families at Home opens at the Betts House in April.

Following its run at Park + Vine, part one of the exhibit will move to City Hall.

“I’d like to have the exhibit up throughout 2009 so people can see both halves of the exhibit,” Carpenter says.

Thanksgiving can be a daunting occasion for vegetarians and vegans. Usually, the awkwardness stems from loved ones who aren’t quite sure how to handle an herbivore. It is possible to have a complete Thanksgiving meal, minus the traditional turkey as the main course, that is both satisfying and lacking uneasy moments for everyone sitting around the kitchen table.

Park + Vine is hosting local cook Adrienne Cooper for a Veggie Thanksgiving Cooking Class 10 a.m. to noon Nov. 8. Adrienne will share tips on how to create a healthy, locally-produced and plant-based Thanksgiving meal. Registration is $35 and includes food samples, recipes and educational materials. Space is limited to 25 students. Students receive 15 percent off any Park + Vine items used in the class. RSVP 513-721-7275 or info[at]parkandvine[dot]com before Nov. 6.