Archive for November, 2010
« Previous EntriesDust In The Wind
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010I was recently doing some karma yoga after a class, and swept out the wooden-floored studio before the next group came in. This studio is open-air, with a roof but no side walls, and it gets very dusty, very quickly. While I was in my meditative sweeping zone, a friend came in and we chatted [...]
Staying Accountable: Part 2!
Monday, November 29th, 2010Hey there Team Tiny Choices! I posted back in SEPTEMBER that I was going to move ahead on a few house-renovation-type-things, and asked y’all to ” post in the comments one thing that is kind of a big thing, not a tiny thing, that we really want to get done in the next month.” I [...]
Easy Peasy Tip: Reuse Before Recycling
Saturday, November 27th, 2010Think about all the ways you can reuse what you’ve got, before it even hits the recycling bin or compost pile: After your coffee is brewed, use the grounds as a facial exfoliator, and then put them on your rosebushes as a fertilizer. If you’ve used a disposable water bottle, keep it frozen in the [...]
Make Black Friday into a Creative Joyous Day
Friday, November 26th, 2010Todayis the day after (American) Thanksgiving, traditionally Black Friday, the so-called day that retailers woo shoppers into their stores in the hopes of making their books go out of red ink and “into the black” by selling lots and lots of stuff. We’ve written about it over and over again. In opposition to the mass consumerism [...]
Making Air Drying Cool
Thursday, November 25th, 2010By now ya’ll know that air-drying your laundry is the way to go– it saves vast amounts of energy from being expended, as the clothes dryer is the household appliance which uses the most amount of power. And here’s a fun fact which I love, because it was such a revelation to me when I [...]
Bike share comes to NYC!
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010I was so excited to hear on the radio yesterday morning that NYC has issued a request for proposals to roll out a bike sharing program! The city is looking to set up a twenty-four hour network of around 10,000 bikes, with the entire bill footed by the private sector, but with the city sharing [...]
Adorable Tiny Bananas
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010When I was in Costa Rica earlier this year, I fell in love with bananas. Specifically, adorable little tiny bananas. Sure, I’ve always had a thing for the Cavandish, which is the banana we all think of when we think of bananas. Just like most other fruits and vegetables, there are actually a bunch (hah!) [...]
Wintertime, Local Foods, and Pickling
Monday, November 22nd, 2010I went to one of the greatest festivals ever today, and this is kind of an excuse to write about it – it was the 13th Annual Pickle Festival in Rosendale NY, and my partner and I showed up at 4PM, bought about $50 worth of pickles, then purchased and consumed fried dill pickle slices, [...]
Easy Peasy Tip: Donate Your Fancy Duds!
Saturday, November 20th, 2010Have a bridesmaid or prom dress gathering dust in your closet? Donate them to a good cause. And those suits which just don’t work for you any longer– lower-income women searching for jobs will put them to good use. If neither of these options are convenient for you, then dropping them off at your local [...]
Happy World Toilet Day!
Friday, November 19th, 2010We confess, we didn’t even KNOW it was World Toilet Day until just a couple of days ago. World Toilet Day is sponsored by the World Toilet Organization which is a global non- profit organization committed to improving toilet and sanitation conditions worldwide. One of the mass activities that is planned for World Toilet Day [...]
McDonalds Mystery Meat
Thursday, November 18th, 2010Y’all know the story of the mysteriously old and youthful looking McDonalds hamburger, right? There’s a woman who wrote an article in 2008 about a burger she’s had since 1996. and it still looks as good as it did the day she bought it! (Here is her follow up post all about it.) The photo [...]
Waterproofing Potions
Wednesday, November 17th, 2010I was shopping for some boots today (it turns out that my secret favorite fashion of granny booties is totally in style now, y’all!) and it occurred to me: you know, I have a lot of boots! I got a pair as hand-me-downs (from my stepmom’s first husband, naturally), I bought a pair of cowboy [...]
Roll-Free Toilet Paper Rolls
Tuesday, November 16th, 2010How cool is this? In an industry which doesn’t really seem ripe for innovation, a huge green change has occurred: Scott (the Kimberly-Clark company) has rolled (hah!) out roll-free toilet paper. And what kind of environmental impact can this product have? From USA Today: “The 17 billion toilet paper tubes produced annually in the USA [...]
Incandescent Light Bulb Ban
Monday, November 15th, 2010I’m not sure how we ever avoided covering this, but did y’all realize that in the USA, incandescent light bulbs are slated to be effectively phased out of use by 2012, and for sure by 2014? Specifically the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 requires all general-purpose light bulbs be 30% more energy efficient [...]
Easy Peasy Tip: Buy Eggs In Paper Cartons!
Saturday, November 13th, 2010If you incorporate eggs into your diet, try to buy them in paper cardboard cartons, instead of plastic ones. The plastic is most likely not recyclable (even if it’s coded on the bottom, most municipalities only accept a very few types), and so will end up in a landfill. Cardboard cartons, on the other hand, [...]
Happy Eco-News Fridays!
Friday, November 12th, 2010The gorgeous ceiling mural in Grand Central Terminal has been fully restored with LED lights to replace the old incandescent blubs in the stars! It’s nice to see over-built suburban sprawl being used for (allegedly) good, not just profit. Everyone loves Betty White, and it’s hard not to when her childhood dream was to be [...]
Regifting is Awesome
Thursday, November 11th, 2010[/caption] I recently celebrated my birthday, and was so happily surprised by the re-gifts I was given– items the gifter already owned and thought I would like. I realize the concept of re-gifting may not necessarily be looked very favorably upon by a large percentage of our consumerist culture, where it’s acceptable to panic the [...]
The Story of Electronics
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010From Annie Leonard, maker of the Story of Stuff, comes a really super video all about electronics and planned obsolescence. You know, that awful design practice to make you consume consume consume? The video is 7-min. long, take a look: There are a few things I especially like about this video: The realistic physical responses [...]
Guest Post: Vegan Podcasts
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010We’re thrilled to present a guest post by the fantastic Marisa Miller Wolfson, who, among other endeavors, is the founder of Vegan at Heart, a free email coaching program for the health-conscious and veg-curious: Although I’ve been vegan for eight years now, I still feel like there’s more I could know about plant-based living. My [...]
Healing up, listening to bodies
Monday, November 8th, 2010If you didn’t notice from the easy peasy tip this weekend, I’m kind of under the weather. I was blaming this guy at work, but he swears up and down he’s just got allergies and besides, I fully recognize that if we all had better hygiene, then we wouldn’t spread these awful throat colds around [...]
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