Green Tip...

In every two minutes of taking a shower, you use 10 gallons of water. The average person in Africa uses only 4.5 gallons of water per day for drinking, bathing, cleaning and cooking, together. If everyone in US saved just one gallon from daily shower, over the course of a year it would equal twice the amount of freshwater taken from the Great Lakes every day – the world’s largest source of freshwater.

Whenever possible, please take a shorter shower, turn off the faucet when brushing your teeth and turn off the water while you shave.

In the kitchen, do your best to not run the faucet when it's unnecessary - just lightly/quickly rinse dishes (if you have a dishwasher) and don't let the faucet run while you do other kitchen tasks (washing counters, loading dishwasher, cutting veggies, etc).

To rinse fruits and veggies, I usually just fill up a bowl with water and wash them in the bowl - saves gallons of H2O! And then I use the leftover water to feed my lovely little succulents around the house :)

Green Tip...

If everyone in America simply separated the paper, plastics, glass and aluminum products from the trash and put them into a recycling bin, we could decrease 75% of the waste sent to landfills. Currently, it takes an area the size of Pennsylvania to dump all our waste each year!

Cleaning with care...

I'm super excited about Martha Stewart's latest launch - Martha Stewart Clean - a complete selection of all natural cleaning products ranging from dish soap, laundry detergent and fabric softener to all-purpose cleaner, carpet spot remover and just about everything else you would need to make your home sparkle - without any toxins or irritants! Sold exclusively at Home Depot, 99% of the ingredients are plant and mineral based with 100% recyclable packaging, so you can imagine how much I love 'em!

Help protect your family and the environment from harmful toxins and irritants and purchase your new cleaning products here.

Happy Cleaning!

xxo

Easy Eco...

In an effort to help spread positive goodness to my friends, family and fellow bloggers, I am going to start posting a weekly "green tip" - realistic, simple steps to incorporate everyday that make big changes toward a healthy and happy life - for yourself, your family and your environment :)



Much of the information I will post is courtesy of a book that my insightful and eco-conscious little brother gave me for Christmas a couple years ago - The Green Book.

**Today's Tidbit**

If you have not already, please make the switch to reusable bags!! Whether you are shopping at the grocery store, Target, mall, boutiques, farmer's market...bring reusable bags on all of your shopping trips and help cut down on the one hundred BILLION (yikes!) plastic bags that U.S. households dispose of annually, littering the environment and harming endagered marine life.

Some of your are thinking, "well, I just get paper bags and recycle them." Sorry...still no good. We are cutting down millions of virgin-forested trees every year, destroying natural habitats, and there is a ton of energy used to recycle the paper bags, not to mention the energy used to produce the bags in the first place.

Bottom line - just bring your own bag and take a huge step in lessening your impact on the environment!

Happy Sunday!
xoxo

Teenie Greenie!

Further to my last post, how unbelievably cute are these eco-baby tees and onesies!! From www.LivingGreen.com - a retail store full of fantastic sustainable products for home & work.

Eco style...

For all of you fashionistas/stylistas who are eco-concsious and looking for fab "green" tips for sustainable fashion, home decor, makeup and more, I wanted to send over details for a few of my favorite reader-friendly (and darling!) eco blogs/websites...definitely worth popping by for a visit!

One of my absolute faves is www.ecofabulous.com - "your weekly dose of the hottest picks for stylish, sustainable living! Whether you’re a fashionista, a foodie, a mom making the best decisions for your child’s (or pet’s) health, or simply a concerned citizen, we offer recommendations of products that can help you make the most sustainable - and fabulous - choices." LOVE this one...

Actress Rachel McAdams and friends started www.greenissexy.org, another lovely blog full of green products, recipes, sustainable home, yard & garden, entertaining & money saving facts, and lots of other great tips...so cute!

Another favorite is www.ecostilleto.com, powered by EconsciousMarket - sustainable e-commerce!! Stylish eco products for sale, at your finger tips (I love shopping from my living room!)...men's, women's, baby, home, fitness and more!

xoxo

Get fresh...

A few months ago, I found a new mentor...eco-guru & TV personality, Sara Snow. It might seem odd that I am calling someone a mentor who I don't know personally, but I truly admire her work and am inspired after every show I watch - Get Fresh with Sara Snow

Sara is on a crusade to educate the masses about healthy and whole living for ourselves and our environment, and her charasmatic upbeat personality is that of a younger, hipper, more fun Martha Stewart. She grew up in a sustainable home with parents who had a mission to "save the world through healthy food options," running one of the first natural foods stores in the US. Each episode of Get Fresh with Sara Snow is full of healthy living tips...from her travels to organic farms and wineries, maintaining a sustainable garden & yard and natural cleaning products, to surfing with one of Kashi's nutritionists and giving delicious healthy recipe ideas...she covers all-things eco.

She has a special one-hour episode coming up on Discovery Health this week - April 22nd @ 4pm. Set your DVRs and enjoy learning great easy-to-implement eco tips from a host that is engaging and entertaining!

XOXO

Martha Stewart on Whole Living...

Ok, I have to admit...although she has an often awkward and monotonous voice and seems quite uptight, I have always had a secret admiration and fondness toward Martha Stewart...I trust everything she says as though she is the end-all, be-all (I guess similar to how I see Oprah - ha!). Well, a few years ago, a good friend of mine gave me one of the best gifts anyone has given me - a subscription to Body & Soul magazine. I have read it cover-to-cover ever since, and I know it has been very influential in my continued passion toward living a balanced, healthy life...oh, and it's a Martha Stewart publication!

The magazine was founded on all-things "whole living." From nutritious recipes, at-home exercise routines, stress-relieving practices, natural cleaning tips and holistic healing remedies, to organic beauty products and simple ways to "go green"...it basically covers all aspects of living a healthy life for you, your family and your environment in a very easy-to-read, aestetically-pleasing way.

LOVE LOVE LOVE this magazine...I learn something new (and of great value) every month, and I encourage you to pick up a copy and enjoy it over the gloomy weekend (in So-Cal)!

Happy Friday loves!

XOXO

The True Cost of a Diamond...

I absolutely love the simple sparkle of my engagement rings - 2 thin milgrain bands; one traditional gold, the other white gold, both lined in diamonds. When Matt and I started talking about engagement rings, I knew I wanted something modest and simple...classic with a hint of vintage flair...which is exactly what I got :)


Along with style, I wanted to make sure to only purchase rings that were conflict free - ethically and socially responsibly mined - knowing without a doubt that by wearing this ring, it did not come at great human or environmental cost.


And so the search began...after much online research and going into various local jewelers (Tiffany, Robbins Bro's, 23rd Street Jewelers, etc.) the only jeweler I found who could truly guarantee that their diamonds and gems are 100% ethically and socially responsible, is Brilliant Earth based in San Francisco (many jewelers will show you a print out sheet of paper that claims their diamonds are "conflict free" but anyone can create that piece of paper!).



Brilliant Earth is AMAZING...it was such a lovely experience purchasing our rings from the incredibly kind, passionate and helpful jewelers who work for the company. They do not mine in countries that have been devestated due to the diamond industry (most of their diamonds are mined in Canada under the most environmentally conscious practices). They donate 5% of their profits to help communities in Africa that have suffered from unethical practices in the jewelry industry, and they strive to create a long-term and sustainable approach to community development.


Also, they use recycled gold - "By using recycled metals, we decrease the global demand for newly mined gold and diminish the environmentally and socially destructive effects of dirty gold and other metal mining practices." - Brilliant Earth

I hope you will help spread the word and pass this info on to anyone you know who is in the market for diamonds or gold. Brilliant Earth can do almost anything custom, and they have all of the same designs that you can get from your top diamond dealers - Tiffany, etc. And they are sooo pleasant to work with...I can't wait to get my wedding band!

Happy Sunday xoxo

The Kind Life

One of my favorite blogs to visit is http://www.thekindlife.com/, which was started by Alicia Silverstone who is, along with being an actress, a long-time vegan and huge supporter of animal rights. Her blog is great...contains yummy, healthy vegan recipes (I bought her cookbook - The Kind Diet - soooo good!), tips on living a healthier life, natural beauty remedies and lots of other fabulous finds.

She recently posted a link from daytime TV show, Ellen, where the writer of Eating Animals, Jonathan Safran, was interviewed. Don't worry - this link isn't going to make you cringe or anything - it's just contains some must-know facts about the meat industry.

http://www.thekindlife.com/post/watch-jonathan-safran-foer-on-ellen

If you are not interested in going vegetarian, no worries...but if you just cut down your meat intake by a couple times a week, you can greatly improve your health and make a big impact on the health of our environment! A household that replaces only one pound of beef with one pound of soy (tofu, etc.) per month will conserve 20 thousand gallons of water per year. And your heart will thank you, too :)

XOXO

Happy Friday...

Today has been a good day. I'm not really in my 'funk' anymore...more of a 'fog' now. I am a little spacey and I feel a bit disconnected from my feelings and emotions (which is a nice break)...just going through the motions of my usual Friday.

The highlight of every Friday for me is my weekly trip to the Farmer's Market. I am always greeted so kindly by the generous vendors, graciously handing me sample after sample, as though it's something new, even though they know I try the same thing every week. I pick up the sweetest bright red strawberries and most crisp, delicious apples that you will ever taste...and the naturally dried fruit is like a dessert. It's always a lovely experience walking around, eating while I go...having each vendor wish me a "good day" with a genuine smile. I breathe in all of the positive energy and let the sun cover me like a warm, cozy blanket.


Supporting our local farmers and buying organic produce to create a healthy home for yourself and your family is such an important part of what we can do to help heal our environment. But even more, while you stroll outside on a beautiful day, the experience of being greeted by friendly vendors who take such pride in their farms, while you enjoy the freshness of a strawberry that was picked only the day before, is one of life's simple little treats.

Whenever possible, try to cut out the middle man, and get your food directly from those who put love, care and lots of hard work into what they do...they do it so well!! The food is more nutritious, is chemical & pesticide-free, tastes sooo much better and it's an easy way for you to take one more step toward going green :)

Happy Weekend!! xoxo

Go Green...Today!

Go-Green Tips that are soooo easy, you can implement today with minimal effort!
courtesy of The Green Book http://www.amazon.com/



Recycle - if everyone in America separated paper, plastic, glass and aluminum products from the trash and tossed in the recycling bin, we could decrease the amount of waste that we send to landfills by 75%. Currently, it takes an area the size of Pennsylvania to dump all our waste each year!

Reusable shopping bags - use them for all shopping trips- groceries, Target, mall, etc. Help cut down on the 100 billion plastic bags that US households dispose of, annually. If you don't have your own bag and have to choose paper vs plastic, choose paper. If only 5% of US households would reuse the paper bag at least three times before recycling, you could save a forest the size of Manhattan NY.

Water bottles - 1.5 million tons of plastic is used in bottling the 89 billion liters of drinking water each year. You can save a lot of money over time by installing a water filter for tap, and the tons of plastic we could save each year if all Americans did this could make two water filters for every household on the planet – one billion people around the world lack access to clean drinking water.

Flush less - you can save 4.5 gallons of water if you just flushed the toilet one less time a day. The average person in Africa uses 4.5 gallons of water for a whole day of drinking, cooking, bathing and cleaning.

Brushing teeth - turn off the water while you brush and save 5 gallons of water. Throughout the US, the DAILY savings could add up to 1.5 billion gallons of water saved.

Shower - take a shorter shower. 10 gallons of water is used in every 2 min of showering. If everyone in US saved just one gallon from daily shower, over the course of a yr it would equal twice the amount of freshwater taken from the Great Lakes every day – the world’s largest source of freshwater.

Washing dishes - turn the water off while you scrub. The water going down the kitchen drain is not reusable and if often carries toxins from food and cleaning products that ends up in the ocean, polluting the environment for our ocean wildlife. We get our fresh water from the mountains and Great Lakes, so the water we use in our homes is simply waste.

Lights - change to CFL (compact flourescent lightbulb) when your regular bulbs run out. If every American home changed just five regular lightbulbs with more energy-efficient compact fluorescent ones, we would keep 1 TRILLION pounds of greenhouse gas out of the air.

Washing machine - wash all of your clothes on cold...they will be just as clean as if you wash on warm or hot. Together, if all US households washed their clothes just on the cold cycle (instead of warm or hot), we could save the energy equivalent of 100,000 barrels of oil a day, and would save 90% of the energy used.

Napkins & papertowels - buy recycled napkins and papertowels, and simply use less. On average, each American consumes 2,200 standard two-ply napkins per year. If everyone in US used an average of one fewer napkin per day, more than a billion pounds of napkins could be saved from landfills each year.

Electicity/energy - turn off the lights when they are not in use. Also, 10% of electricity used in your home is burned my communication devices and appliances, when they are turned off! If every US household unplugged computers, cell phone chargers, coffee makers, toasters and TVs when they are not being used, we would save over $100 million a year – enough to provide free health care to every low-income child under the age of 5 in CA.

Kitchen appliances -the fridge is the biggest energy consuming appliance in the kitchen and it accounts for between $30 to $60 of a typical family's electricity bill each year. Keep the door closed!!! Also, save up to 7,300 gallons of water a year, per household, by only running dishwasher when it has a full load, and not doing heavy rinse prior to putting in dishes in washer.
The bottom line - please just do your best to be less wasteful. Be consious of the water, paper, plastic, electronics and energy that you use...help Mother Earth get healthy again!! For more green tips, please refer to my other blog with my close friends - www.collectivelyforacause.blogspot.com.

xoxo

The Importance of Organic

Over the past 10+ yrs, I have made it a priority to educate myself on what I can to live a healthy, whole life for myself and my environment...and I found that they almost always go hand-in-hand. One of the best things you can do for, both, your body and our planet is to GO ORGANIC (whenever possible). Organic means that the food has not been invaded by the use of pesticides, fungicides or fertilizers - it's all natural - no chemicals that can damage cells, have been linked to various cancers and, most importantly to me right now, have also been linked to birth deffects (recent studies posted by the Center for Disease Control - CDC -suggest that there are significant ties between pesticides and the growing #s of ADHD and numerous other abnormalities in children, possibly including Autism).

Also, organic foods contain more nutrients because they have not been stripped of any of their healthy minerals and vitamins. The frozen versions are typically just as nutrient rich because they are picked at their peek ripeness and then frozen in that state. Studies have shown that even after washing twice, high levels of pesticides are still detectible in most non-organic fruits and veggies.



If only 1% of the nations farmlands converted to organic (non-chemical) agricultural systems, we would eliminate 26 million pounds of pesticides per year from the food we eat...so please support your organic farmers!!

The Beginning of the Movement!

Oh Lovely Sunday!

We had such a wonderful turnout last night for our very first Collectively for a Cause - Girls' Night Out get-together! Many thanks to all of the lovely, inspiring ladies who came over to enjoy wine and munchies (yay! kale chips!), and spend our Saturday night sharing information about everything from the most simple ways to go-green today/sustainable living, to women's discrimation/"gendercide" in developing countries, sponsoring children living in poverty to help provide food/clothing/shelter, the Surfrider Foundation, American Red Cross, and more! The passion and enthusiasm that all of the girls brought to the table was AMAZING and I am sooo excited to collectively get this movement into action...women stepping up to make change!!

Below is a list of details for some of the main points discussed (and we still have sooo much more for our next garthering in March!):

To sponsor a child in a developing country (we have seen first hand how much as little as $30 a month can truly change the lives of little ones and their families/villages):
World Vision - http://www.worldvision.org/ Children of the Nation - http://www.cotni.org/

Book to buy today... Half the Sky – Turning oppression into opportunity for women worldwide By Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn *Read it and pass it along to a friend…spread the word…

Movie to rent this weekend... Water by Deepa Mehta (foreign film)


Jump online and donate today to help provide life-saving resources for women in developing countries:
Go to http://www.imcworldwide.org/, http://www.healafrica.com/, http://www.somaly.org/, http://www.globalgiving.org/ to change a woman’s life today!

Personal blogs to stop by and visit (and make sure to become a follower!):
Taryn's blogs (photographer): http://www.photosbytaryn.com/ http://www.missbandhustle.blogspot.com/
Dana's blog (dietician): http://www.biteintoit.com/

Love you ladies, and thanks again for all of your support, encouragement and passion!! Can't wait till our next visit...brunch in Newport :)

XOXO

Raising Awareness - Girls' Night of Inspiration

lovelypackage.com courtesy of FFFFOUND

After many chats with girlfriends, I realized that we ALL want to do our part to give back, but that we often let "life" simply get in the way, and taking time to volunteer or help those in need usually falls by the wayside, even with the best of intentions.

Then the earthquake in Haiti happened...and the suffering I saw smeared across my TV, day-in and day-out, was something that I simply couldn't get out of my head.

Having been fortunate to surround myself with lovely women who have hearts of gold - kind and generous - I knew they would feel my same passion toward giving back, so I decided to organize a group of girls who have inspired me in so many ways, in an effort to collectively do our part to take steps toward helping those less fortunate than us.

Tonight, I am hosting the first Girls' Night of Inspiration, where, over cocktails and munchies, we will share information about causes and organizations that we feel passionate about. I am confident that, together, we can truly make an impact to better the lives of others, while also becoming more fulfilled in our own. From discussions over Haiti relief, to the suffering going on in developing countries, children's organizations, and ways to live a more healthy and whole life for you, your family and your environment, this group is about spreading knowledge about how we can make a difference, one step at a time...and putting it into action...all while enjoying time with a wonderful group of women (which is always enriching for the soul)!

I will be sure to share all of the valuable information in the notes to come...

Have a lovely day!!

XOXO