Fifty-Three - Clothing Swap

Last weekend I attended a clothing swap that some of my friends put on. It was a wonderful event! One that occurs every fall and spring and is growing in participation. I attended a few years back, but it is a much bigger event.

What is a clothing swap? It is a day where people (in this case, women) bring all of their unwanted, but in still good condition, clothes to a house where it is sorted by type (pants, skirts, dresses, shoes, accessories, shirts, sweaters, etc) and then everyone is free to "shop!". There are mirrors and places to try things on, and everyone can take what they want. It is very open, you don't have to take as much as your bring, or take turns, it's very diplomatic. People bring snacks to share and once everyone is done swapping, the rest of the clothes are bagged up and delivered to goodwill. The group has donated over 50 bags of clothes so far.

I was excited because I was able to find pants, a dress, sweaters, and good clothes for work. I was also able to invite some classmates and hope this event continues to expand. The more people the come, the better selection of styles and sizes. The main lady in charge of the event is moving to California, and I hoping to help organize it with two of the other leading ladies of the event. Interested in being a part of the next one? Contact me and I'll get you on the invite list!

Peace!

Forty-Seven - Eye Glasses Donation

I have been wearing glasses since I was 2 years old and have gone through at least 10 pairs since then (maybe more if what my mother says about my abhorrence of glasses as a child is really true). And now that Laura has gotten into the eyeglass wearing business, we know that we will each be accumulating pairs of old glasses in the closet with nothing for them to do. Well, Laura and I love to donate. We donate our time to BBBS and our Little, we donate many household items to Goodwill, Savers and Salvation Army every turn of the season and we donate our time time to community activities. Laura had the wonderful idea that we should donate one of the two pairs of my glasses that have been in the closet with nothing to do for a long time (leaving one pair as backup). I was on board. Now, I have some thick glasses for those of you who know me so I really hope my pair will find their way into the hands and on the face of someone with a similar affliction as mine. Don't believe me? See the picture below!

Laura did some searching and found out that most any eyeglass retailers including as LensCrafters, Pearle, Target Optical and many local optometrists have contracted with One Sight, a family of charitable vision care programs dedicated to improving vision through outreach, research and education since 1988, to offer lightly used glasses to those in need around the world. In fact, they have provided free vision care and eyewear to over 7 million folks worldwide through their global and regional clinics (various U.S. locations including Mpls and ATL) since their inception. They even accept and give away non-prescription sunglasses, so all you ladies sick of those big-ass sunglasses or all you men sick of those Top Gun look-alikes, give 'em away to a good cause.

Laura and I have decided to go to a nearby Pearle Vision retailer next week to donate a pair of my glasses. We feel good knowing that we can donate yet another thing of ours that someone else needs more us. We hope you do the same! Click here for participating retailers in your area. Remember, they have to be lightly used!

Best!

Guthrie (& Laura)

The No-Impact Project - Starting January 3rd

Guthrie and I are signing up to participate in the next round of the No Impact Project. It is the "one week carbon cleanse". It models what NYC writer Colin Beavan did with his family for a year -- slowly look at different aspects of their lives (waste, water, electricity, transportation, etc) and made systematic changes to lower their impact. His book No Impact Man has been turned into a movie with the same name. On his website, he invites you to do the same for one week. The great thing is that it starts on specific dates so that you can connect with others in your area who are doing the same. They make it real easy with a how-to manual on what to do on each day plus interesting facts. Obviously, you do what you can; making any change is a positive one. What Colin found out was that during the course of the year, he lost weight, had more energy, reconnected with his wife, spent more time with his family, and was genuinely happier. Guthrie and I will participate in this to learn some new things that we can incorporate into our lives. 

Join with us -- maybe we can meet up for a candlelit dinner of local food! :)

Peace! 

Thirty-One - Green Gifting

Since getting older, buying gifts for my family members has been getting harder. As adults, if we really want something, we buy for ourselves. We don't put it on our Christmas or birthday list and hope for the best. Instead of buying something we kind of want and wrapping it all up, I asked my family if we would rather pool our money for something more meaningful. My sister suggested we instead pay for an experience -- a Twins game for all of us. (yea!)

The topic of this blog is green gifting. It can mean anything from the example above to donating to a friends' favorite charity on their behalf. This is a particularly good idea for one's birthday. Try hosting a party, but ask for a donating for a charity. It is so easy to set these up online and Facebook makes it easy too. I see it happening more and more, and like how it takes the focus away from "stuff" and places it either on a charity or providing a family with some quality time together. Christmas is my favorite holiday; I love the spirit of giving. I think we need to seize these opportunities to give not just things, but to give our time and resources to people--something that truly matters. 

Cards -- remember the earlier post -- try using ecards (Pingg makes it easy to upload your own picture and are professional learning) or cards made from recycled paper. 

Happy holidays! Peace!

Trick-or-Treating the Socially Responsible Way

I love trick or canning -- going door to door and asking for canned goods instead of candy. This works really well for children who feel too old for trick or treating, but still wouldn't mind some candy (because people generally give you candy even if you just ask for cans :-) )

If you have trick-or-treaters, check out Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF. It's a great way to get your kiddies to give back to those without this opportunity. while they load up on sugar.

Nineteen - Tennis Balls

I've been playing tennis a lot more than normal over the last couple of months and have wondering what to do with all of the spent tennis balls. I came across Green Eco Services, a website that details what to do with those garbage prone balls. Here are some great ideas from the site:

• Rebounces is an organization that will go so far as to pay shipping costs for you to send them your used tennis balls for recycling and refurbishing
• Donate to dog shelters, schools and/or Boys and Girls Clubs
• Use as a door stop
• Use as a car marker in the garage to know when to stop
• Cut in half to use as a can opener
• Cut in half to use for stationary supplies

Over 300 million tennis balls are manufactured each year. These balls contribute to 19,000 tons of non-biodegradable junk that litters our landfill. Knowing this, Laura and I will now be putting tennis balls in the dryer to ward off static cling, and it will save on drying time as it helps keep the clothes separate.

Keep the tennis balls in play!

Offset Your Carbon Footprint!

As promised, Guthrie and I gave a donation to offset our carbon footprint for the trip to Austin (awesome! btw) and our upcoming trip to Iowa. Guthrie and I love the Green Institute, as it is local and we donated to them for our wedding. Check it out--it's off the Greenway on Minnehaha and 28th.

Another trip note--stop by the local farmer's market where you are staying. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast and fabulous live music on Saturday morning in Austin. :-)

Twelve - DIY Bulletin Board

My desk was getting cluttered and I needed a bulletin board for the office. Though pretty cheap and easy, I didn't want to go buy a new one. It seemed like something I could make myself. With a little help from Google, I saw it -- a Scrabble bulletin board! I got started right away. I ran a bag of donations to the Salvation Army and stopped in to look at their board games. Any game will do, and this is a great project for those board games with missing pieces.

Supplies:
- 1 game board
- any pieces associated with it (Scrabble tiles, Monopoly houses, etc)
- gorilla glue, something equally as strong
- corrugated cardboard (we used the box our Worm Condo came in, post to come!)
- push pins (or thumb tacks)
- super glue


1. Cut out a piece of cardboard a little bit smaller than the size of the game board.

2. Following the gorilla glue instructions carefully, glue cardboard to game board.

3. While waiting for the glue to set, glue game pieces to thumb tacks/push pins. You may have to sand the pieces down first to aid in sticking. I used push pins because I believe the pieces would stay on better if you could push and pull from the pin, not the game piece, though the thumb tacks look a little nicer.

4. Once the board is set (1-2 hours), nail the wall and start hanging!

The down side to this project, once a hole is in place, it's there forever, unlike cork board. Just reuse the holes or recycle a new board once this one becomes swiss cheese!

Peace!

Four - Supporting the DNR through License Plates

One of the first things Guthrie & I wanted to do after moving from Atlanta was to rid ourselves of the Georgia license plate that was on the back of our car. I have seen the Critical Habitat license plates and thought I would look into getting one.

Guthrie and I love visiting Minnesota state parks -- we even honeymooned at Myre-Bige Island. I am a big believer in supporting the things that you love and thought we should put our money where our mouth was (or the bumper sticker on the back of our car that says Take A Hike! MN State Parks). We do have our state park annual pass already -- got that when we renewed our MPR membership (another thing everyone who listens to MPR should do--support the news/music you listen to--become a member!).

With the license plates, we get our choice of a cool looking Minnesota wildlife scene, but we add on $30 to the price of the plates which we will pay each year with our tabs. The money is given to the Minnesota DNR. There are actually four new designs -- even though we went with the old loon since it was the one we could agree on.

I don't fish, but I like how the "O" in Minnesota is a bobber. :)

There are many different specialty license plates to choose from if the north woods ain't your thing, but you still would like to make an annual contribution to something great (while sporting cool license plates). I know we thought about going for the Goldy (any MN college/university available) and giving money to the scholarship fund of that school. It also states that you don't need to be an alumni to order the plates -- so if your team is the St. Thomas Tommies, support them!

The Support Our Troops plates donates your contribution to the Department of Military Affairs for financial support of military families and the Department of Veterans Affairs for grant programs for homeless veterans.  Here's more info on all of the other specialty plates. 

Next time you see an old, green Honda Civic go by with Loons on the plate, honk!

Peace!