From twitter

@Flipbooks Blair Semenoff 

“Everyone thinks of changing the World, but no one thinks of changing himself” 

~Leo Tolstoy #quote

Making toothpaste from Reuseit.com

DIY TOOTHPASTE

There’s a great deal of debate over the safety of conventional toothpaste ingredients – fluoride and sodium laurel sulfate, to name a few. But switching to so-called natural brands can cost $5 a tube or more, not to mention all the waste involved in tossing out messy, non-recyclable tubes of toothpaste. There are lots of recipes out there – with flavors and textures to suit about anyone. This is a really simple, inexpensive recipe fromSeeking the Old Paths.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 3 tablespoons baking soda
• 5 drops peppermint essential oil
• 5 drops spearmint essential oil
• A pinch of Stevia powder

Instructions:

Mix everything together in a small, lidded container. Coconut oil is anti-viral and anti-bacterial so you can dip your toothbrush into the mixture, or scoop a little out and apply it to your brush.

A Valentine to Kashi

Dear Kashi,
      I love you. I think about you every day. You are my favorite breakfast and snack foods. Very often my lunch as an on-the-go mom consists of a bottle of water, a piece of fruit and a delicious Kashi GoLean bar.
      I love your commitment to healthy living.  I love your passion for good, all-natural foods. And I really love the thoughtfulness that goes into balancing fiber, protein and optimized glycemic ingredients in my Kashi bars. 
      So as I try to make myself a better person every day, I am trying to reduce our household waste. And I find myself wondering what to do with my Kashi wrappers. I wonder how long they will sit in a landfill, and I wonder if I have made a poor choice in bar.
      I wish for a more sustainable relationship between us, for more earth-friendly packaging for these bars. Perhaps like the compostable squeeze packs that Justin's Nut Butter is working toward. And I would invite you to join Justin's Squeeze Pack Summit next year. 
      Check out http://justinsnutbutter.blogspot.com/2010/10/sustainable-squeeze-pack-conference.html
      Really, I just hope that our relationship continues to get better and better. Happy Valentine's Day.
With love, 
Ana

What Paul started.

I guess it happened because of twitter. And because of Paul McCartney. They were talking about #MeatlessMonday. I thought, "Oh, I can do that. That's easy. Pasta, sauce and a vegetable in there somewhere and I can help the planet, be healthier and save some animals. Okay. I'm in."

And it started there. But then it spread. It became meatless Tuesday and meatless Thursday and pretty soon I was trying to figure how to cut out the meat entirely. A tough bill to fit in a household of four with two children, one of them rather picky. But I felt so good. So healthy and full of energy and stable in the blood sugar world. Why wouldn't everyone else feel better, too? I bought magazines, pored over cookbooks and asked friends for advice. And slowly, one day at a time, I became something I never thought I would be: a vegetarian.

And then out of the blue, and to shake things up a little, my DH suggested buying some cows of own. So that, "we could have grass-fed beef of our own, and we'd know where it came from." "But we'd would also know their names," I said. I thought the family might get too attached and not want to eat "Bessie" or whoever. Obviously, I had not succeeded in converting Alex to being vegetarian yet. That came later. When he read how much better it was for the environment. And he was liking the way we were eating, too. So he became a vegetarian, or more precisely, a flexitarian.

This was followed by my daughter's becoming a vegetarian for animal rights reasons. She saw one horrifying video on Facebook and that was it. Three down; one to go. What will his explanation be?

My favorite beginner info: http://www.vegetariantimes.com/2007/pdf/vegetarian_starter_kit.pdf

Collapse into Now

R.E.M. is slowly releasing bits and pieces of their new album available in March 2011.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ragogna/emhuffpost-video-exclusiv_b_812864.html

Remember...

"The truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again."  - Pema Chodron

(via @tinybuddha)

Reducing my plastic use in 2011

photo from NOAA Hawaii

I don't really know how it started. When did I start to care? I don't know. The move to living in Boulder clearly made a difference - and I do know that one morning I was on the treadmill, watching Oprah and that shot of garbage in the ocean came on. Then the animal trapped in plastic bags and with plastic rings around their bodies. I had never seen that footage, and I thought, I can do a little something. I won't make a major change in my life. I'm too lazy, but I can make a tiny switch. So I decided to start carrying my own grocery bags. It wasn't easy at first; I kept forgetting. Then it became more of a habit. Especially at Whole Foods, where I saw everyone else walking in with their reusable bags. But if I made a run to a different grocery chain, I would forget again. It took a while to really do it every time. Now I have a trunk full of reusable bags, quite a selection I must say, and I pretty much use them whenever I shop. My next step is to move to reusable produce bags. And I am making my own reusable tote bag - out of repurposed plastic bags! Did you know that plastic bags can exist on this earth for 1,000 years before decomposing?

Why Our Cars are So Dumb - blog post by Alex Bogusky

My wife has a very nice car. The kind of car that has simulated walnut dash panels and leather seats. The kind of car with a carefully engineered driving experience. The kind of car that has a meticulously crafted brand that says something about who she is. The kind of car that uses tremendous amounts processing power to deliver hands-free dialing GPS maps and the ability to warn her when the tire pressure gets low. Yet she seems completely oblivious and immune to it all as she ignores the experience of driving, only attempting to end it all as quickly as possible so she can get herself home and on her personal computer.
Read more...http://fearlessrevolution.com/blog/why-are-our-cars-so-dumb.html


So Alex wrote this blog post about me and my car back in June of 2010. I am still waiting for my car to take pictures of the places I go. It's a Toyota Highlander hybrid, by the way. : )

What to Wear: Spring 2011 Color Palette

Spring colors from Closet of Style http://www.closetofstyle.com/my-style-files/stylist-tips/what-to-wear/2001-what-to-wear-spring-2011-color-palette