The time to swathe our heads and necks to protect from the biting cold is definatley upon us. And my current stock of scarves is lacking in warmth and quirkiness….so I began the ritual browsing. And low and behold, I found several scarfaliscious scarves over at Orginal Good.
I couldn’t make up my mind, so of course I got all three. Now I’ll be as snug as a… well, you know… a Fashionably Quirky Gurl!
All of these are fair-trade. All of these are hand-made. The back one is even alpaca! I feel better knowing I’ve got more scarves on the way to balance out my wardrobe. And who knows, if the temperature keeps dropping, I might need to wear them all at once! (If you want them for yourself, just click the pic to get to Original Good’s site)
Categories: Find of the Day · Make A Difference · clothes · fair-trade
Tagged: fair-trade, handmade, quirky, scarves
Anybody that either:
A) Has children who seem to make the number of dishes in your sink quadruple
B) Hates doing dishes
C) Currently buys plastic cups for whatever reason
..Needs to read the blog I just posted on One Quirky Gurl. I found these great fully biodegrable and Compostable (my garden will love these!) cups. Less dishes to wash, without the guilt of clogging the landfills. Same cost as grocery store plastic cups. Its a win-win, really. I only wish I had thought if it 
Categories: Find of the Day · Home & Garden · Make A Difference · for the home
Tagged: biodegradable, compostable, green, home
I just put up a blog about the book by Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and I wanted to share it with everyone here too.
And In case you’re wondering, being a LOCAVORE, is all about eating locally to better the planet, better yourselves and to support your local farmers and growers. Still not sure what I’m talking about? Go on over and read the review… or just get the book. You won’t be sorry
Categories: Home & Garden · Make A Difference · books · for the home
Tagged: books, cooking, gardening, green, organic
I just put up a post over at my other blog One Quirky Gurl regarding my newest way to read, which is great for the environment, saves me tons of cash and gives me time to read instead of wasting my time driving to the bookstore or digging through the library for something, anything that I haven’t read yet. It’s the Kindle, and electronic reading device from Amazon.
Here’s a teaser from my blog:
I’m a self-proclaimed bibliophile. Of course, I don’t have to proclaim it, one just need to see my house– baskets, bookshelves and cardboard boxes full of box nestled in various corners of my humble abode speak volumes on my Literal addiction all on their own. And like any addiction, loving to read does have it’s down falls…Needless to say, I wasn’t surprised in the least when Oprah recently was quoted as saying how much she loved the Kindle device. But I had to smile, because I loved it first
Read more on my other blog
Categories: Find of the Day · Make A Difference · Reading and writing
Tagged: bargain, books, conservation, ebooks, Kindle, reading
(eCo)nscious Market is a self-proclaimed “For-Benefit” online commerce site based in Boulder, Colorado. They tout that their products are the finest ecologically and socially responsible products available, and the company donates a minimum of 10% of every purchase to a non-profit organizations. The even go so far as to let the buyer “hand-pick” the program that receives the donation funded by their purchase.
A sampling of organizations that are listed on the eConscious Market include:
-Urban Sprouts: uses school gardens to help youth engage in school, eat better, and connect with the environment and each other.
-The Jane Goodall Institutes works to protect chimpanzees and their habitats, supports community-centered development projects in ecologically-significant areas, and engages youth in making a positive difference.
-The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people.
-Global Culture of Women Project, Celebrating the global voice of women ~ a beautiful revolution.
-Bead for Life, eradicates extreme poverty by creating bridges – Ugandan women make jewelry out of recycled paper and Americans open their homes and hearts to buy and sell the beads.
And that’s just a tidbit of the charities benefiting every time someone shops. And the best part of it all? You won’t feel bad for shopping, and the merchandise on this site is amazing.
I fell in love with sooo many things here, that if it weren’t for the money of mine making its way to charity right now, I just might be feeling the lightness in my wallet
Like:
This Large Stingray cuff, made of 100% recycled materials.
Or this Vy & Elle Portfolio crafted from Recycled billboards.
Or their cool line of 100% recycled notebooks. I AM a sucker for office supplies, I know.
So if you have a few minutes and are feeling charitable– buy yourself a gift that gives to others too!
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Categories: Find of the Day · Make A Difference · Organizations · Reading and writing · bags · clothes · for the home · for the kiddies · jewelry
Tagged: charity, clothing, donations, eco, fair-trade, green, jewlery, recycled, repurposed
I found this terrific resource for those interested in checking up on the companies they buy from every day. Over at Coop America, you can check out companies like Coca-Cola, Avon, Borders, General Mills, J. Crew, Nestle’, Target and Walmart– and see how well they fair in treating their employees and the environment.
Want more interesting tidbits from the Responsible Shopping tool over at the COOP? Always obliging, here you go:
-In October 2007, Indian authorities raided factories in New Dehli that produce clothing for the Gap and found children as young as 10 working there.
-Barnes and Noble has used its influence to secure favored status with publishers, making it increasingly difficult for small booksellers to compete. The company paid $2.35 million to settle an antitrust lawsuit for this practice. (Well Crap! I love to browse there! Lesson learned, support your independent booksellers.)
-General Mills has done some great things including committing to the use of whole grains in all of its cereals and investing $2 million to create 150 jobs at Siyeza, Inc., a company where ownership stake opportunities are offered to employees.
Although they have partnered with conservation and expedition groups to mold itself as a proactive company concerned with protecting the environment, in 2006 National Labor Committee report revealed that a factory sewing t-shirts for L.L. Bean subjected its workers to extremely long hours with no sick leave or health benefits, paid wages below the legal minimum, denied some workers 60 percent of pay legally owed to them, and had unsanitary and unsafe working conditions.
According to CoopAmerica, the mega-corporation Walmart has been underperforming for some time. Go ahead, see for yourself.
Categories: Make A Difference · Organizations
Tagged: responsible shopping
In the past, I used to be one of those people that aschewed “Tree-huggers”. I blame it on the era in which I was raised. I would hear the grown ups talking about this group, or that one, and how they were taking away our rights and lively-hoods by their loud campaigning and alarmist reports.
In many, this sense of disdain for organized environmental groups lingers. For example, yesterday I send out an email throughout my company to announce I now had a bin for aluminum cans to be recycled, and if anyone would like to contribute I’d be happy to take ALL the cans they could throw at me to the collection center at the local SPCA (who gets a meager stipend from the recycling company, thus benefiting the environment AND the local stray animals). Not too long after that, I get at least three similar comments within a twenty-minute period. “What, are you becoming a tree-hugger now?” and “Don’t tell me your an eco-nut” were the gist of things.
My response? A genuine smile and a reply akin to “I drink the soda and just don’t feel right throwing them away. It takes no more effort for me to haul them to the recycling center than to the landfill. It just makes sense.” Sneaky right? Combating age old prejuidices with logic is very hard to argue against. No emotion, just plain old common sense.
So, realizing the tides are turning, I decided to do a little research about some of the tried and true environmental organizations, starting with the Sierra Club
which has been around since 1892.
Founded by John Muir, noted naturalist and author, the
has been working for decades with the following goals in mind:
1. Explore, enjoy and protect the wild places of the earth.
2. Practice and promote the responsible use of the earth’s ecosystems and resources.
3. Educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment.
4. Use all lawful means to carry out these objectives.
With over 1.3 million members and supporters, I’d say that the Sierra Club has the power of the people standing firmly behind their ideologies. Even now, the Sierra Club is hard at work to re-power America using smart energy initiatives, protecting endangered species and the land they depend upon, funding campaigns and research into global warming, clean water initiatives and soooooo much more. You really should hop over to their website and take a gander at all of the information, interactive maps and resources they have to offer.
Remember, no emotionality needed, just pure and simple common sense.
Interested? Just click the banner to the right of the screen. Yes, the Sierra Club
has earned a spot on this little site
Categories: Make A Difference · Organizations
Tagged: donations, endangered species, global warming, organization, preservation
