The Earth Is My Patient

The Earth Is My Patient has gotten rave reviews from its readers and fans of Mr. Arieti alike! Most readers I feel have a difficult time with informative books if it isn’t a part of their profession or schooling.  I find that when an author can use humor to engage their readers people generally have a better understanding of the points being presented.  Although I have yet to read this book, the reviews of it say that the humorous spin put on the very well researched and illustrated points make The Earth Is My Patient a very enjoyable read.

Description: The Earth Is My Patient
is a brilliantly conceived book about the real causes of environmental pollution and their solutions. Many of the ideas in his book are based on Mr. Arieti’s own experience and knowledge. Written in both a serious and tongue and cheek manner this book is guaranteed to make the reader more aware of his/her environment as well as make him think. This is a must read for politicians, men, women and children who want to see a cleaner earth and a bright future. Mr. Arieti correctly assumes that if the environment goes, we all will go.

About the Author: David Arieti has been an environmentalist for over 30 years. Mr.Arieti graduated from the University of Denver in 1967 with a degree in Science. He also received an MS degree in Marine Science from Long Island University (LIU). Since graduating from LIU, Mr. Arieti was the research director of the Baltimore Environmental Center working on hazardous waste issues, did environmental research on both the Hudson River and Chesapeake Bay, consulted on environmental issues as well as lecturing, and as an adjunct professor in various colleges in the Chicago area where he is now.

Greenola Sao Paolo Pleplum Shirt

Greenola Sao Paolo Pleplum Shirt is amazing! The colors are beautiful as well as the pattern. You can wear this shirt with either a pencil skirt, leggings or even some denim shorts! Perfectly paired with a blazer for cooler nights and BOOM! A dollar from every purchase at Clean Spirited is donated to environmental causes. Description: Sleeveless back zip peplum, great with a pencil skirt or leggings.GREENOLA Made by women entrepreneurs in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Empowering Women progressing towards a greater purpose: to create positive impact on the world, while encouraging revolutionary thinking. – Made by Greenola, 100% Cotton Kitenge, Made in Kampala, Uganda, by women entrepreneurs, Back Zipper, Machine wash cold, hang dry.

Fuchsia Taylor Vegan Ballet Flat

Taylor Vegan Ballet Flat comes in 5 super cute colors that you can make use out of hear round. I wear ballet flats all of the time because they are comfy and really look cute with almost any outfit. Description: The non-absorbent material has anti-microbial properties that resists the growth of bacteria, odor, and mildew.  The shoes are machine washable and easy to sanitize. The  factory and design team are located just north of Atlanta in Buford, Georgia. The Taylor Vegan Ballet Flat is recyclable! When it’s time to retire your well loved shoes, you can take them to any recycling facility that accepts items labeled as #3 under the International Universal Recycling Code. Alternatively, OKA b.’s can be sent back to our factory where we will happily recycle them into new pairs.

Recycled Skateboard Bangle

Recycled Skateboard Bangle is beyond cute! Wood accessories are perfect for summer! I really love that each piece is different from the next so no two can be exactly alike!! Description:  MapleXO’s jewelry is hand produced from recycled skateboards in many color variations from subtle and sweet to loud and crazy. Since almost all skateboards are made from 7-ply Maple Wood these bangles are super strong and durable, but delicate enough to rest sweetly around a wrist.  Each item is one of a kind and slightly varies from one another. The shape and size are the same as the photo, but shades and patterns will vary.

KindLabel Keep Calm Wide Neck Tee

Kind Label Keep Calm Wide Neck Tee is a great purchase seeing as rescuing animals is a cause that is near and dear to my heart. Every time you make a purchase of a Kind Label product a portion of the proceeds go to The Humane Society. Description: Luxurious Pima Cotton & Modal fabrics blended together to make a super soft and sexy wide neck drapey tee.. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this shirt is donated to The Humane Society of the United States (hsus.org).  The shirt is made from  50% Supima Cotton and 50% MicroModal the world’s softest eco-friendly fabric.  Hand-printed with eco-friendly inks in USA. 

Earth Day 2013

Happy Earth Day Greenies!!!! It is the 43rd annual Earth Day and we should all be celebrating. Not with a party or making a mess but with intelligence. Today make sure you let everyone you come across know what day it is. Try to learn something new about how you can help our world be a better place. Everyone, including this Beagle right here can give you all of the tips and ideas on how to make your Earth Day/everyday greener and more Earth friendly but the only real answer to helping is education. Today to celebrate you should try to show someone who generally doesn’t know about or care about the holiday why it is so important. Even if you can convince them to make one tiny change in their life that is more than enough.

Also make a point of educating yourself. Learn something new about being greener and try to implement that in your daily routine.  All of the fun activities and books and green purchases are great but if you aren’t keeping yourself educated what is the point.  It is easy to forget or be complacent especially when you see others not making an effort.  Ideally we should consider everyday Earth Day but on days like today we should make a point of letting our green show!  Make a point today of letting people know what day it is and share even the smallest tid bit of greenness with them.  Sharing is caring!!!

The Spring is here Greenies!!! I do love this time of year. It is time for us to make the most of the nice weather we are lucky enough to have. Back yard BBQ’s, pool parties, evenings on the beach! I cannot wait to get in full swing. Many of our favorite ethical companies are offering great deals and sales right now to make your Spring greener and healthier! Don’t miss out!!

Save 20% on Eat Cleaner produce wash. Eat Cleaner removes dirt and pesticides from your fruits and vegetables extending their shelf-life by 200%

Receive FREE SHIPPING on orders over $49 with code SUMMER2013! Coupon only valid for UPS Ground Shipping. Coupon does not include furniture, over-sized items and orders shipping outside of the contiguous 48 United States.

Free Shipping on the JOOS Orange Portable Solar Charger. Perfect camping and RV accessory. Use JOOSFRESHIP at checkout. Expires 5/15/2013.

Now Shipping – The NEW Spring Lineup of Products From Coyuchi.com! All With Free Shippping On Any Order Of $300 Or More! Click Here!

Get 5% Off Keetsa Protectors for a limited time. Enter code “KEETSAPROTECTOR” at checkout. Shop Now!

Save up to 50% Off with NOVICA Daily Deals! Handmade Gifts Everyday!

On sale at VivaTerra. Save up to 50% on natural home décor, organic gifts and more.

Save 15% Off Site Wide Now At OrganicBouquet.com! Click Here! Hurry Ends 4/26/13

Formulated with 100% organic Quinoa, a superfood protein trusted by the Incas and NASA. Use “KEEN” for 20% off

$1 off any order and free shipping!! Coupon Code: TREES

Cruelty Free Cosmetics: Afterglow Cosmetics offers a complete line of cruelty free cosmetics certified by PETA and Leaping Bunny.

Save the Rainforest! Visit The Rainforest site and find out how!

Save up to 75% on quality herbs, vitamins, and natural beauty products at Botanic Choice!

DIY Body Butter

I have just run out of body butter. This annoys me to no end and lately I have been annoyed at the prices of good quality body butters as well. I like my skin to be smoothed and moisturized just like everyone else but I don’t appreciate paying an arm and a leg for good ingredients. I am not sure why it didn’t occur to me to make my own as I have made plenty of other beauty products. I have almost all of these items at home with the exception of the raw shea butter. I have looked at a bunch of recipes for body butter so below is a compilation of a few I liked best. If you make your own you can customize the scents and as you get better at it you can add other ingredients specific to your skin type. A little goes a long way with making your own so even if the ingredients may be a little costly you can make much more than what you would purchase at a store.

Ingredients:
1 cup Organic Raw Shea Butter
½ cup Organic coconut oil
½ cup Organic almond oil
Several drops essential oils like these Organic Pure Essential Oils Set (a few drops goes a long way so be careful) *Not all essential oils are skin friendly or child friendly. Please do your research before adding.
Glass or plastic jar or canister to put the butter in.

Instructions:
1. Melt shea butter and coconut oil in the top of a double boiler.
2. Remove from heat and let cool for 30 minutes.
3. Stir in almond oil and essential oils of your choosing.
4. Place oil mixture in freezer or outside to chill for 20 minutes.
5. Whip until the mixture has a buttery looking consistency.
6. Put in canister or jar.

Tips:
You can use what ever oils you prefer if you have allergies or preferences, just make sure you keep the ratio recipe ratio is 75% solid to 25% liquid.
The chilling step is the most important. If you don’t let the mixture cool properly, your butter won’t whip correctly or stay whipped. About 20 minutes in the freezer for this recipe works best. Make sure you scrape down the sides before mixing.

A Little Love Sample Pack

Have you heard of One Love Organics? I recently discovered them myself but I will say that I am intrigued. If you read about the team and the products I like this company’s sass! I like their ideas and the design of not only their website but the products themselves. One Love Organics donates 1% of their annual net revenues! Have you ever tried One Love Organics? Let me know how you liked them!

Product Description:
A cute little sample pack of our entire line, A Little Love Sample Pack includes single use samples of Easy Does It Foaming Cleanser, Brand New Day Microderma Scrub and Masque, Skin Savior Waterless Beauty Balm, Morning Glory Brightening Complexion Booster, and Love Springs Eternal Youth Preservation Serum. Please Note: These are samples only. To really see the full benefits of the line for your skin, we recommend trying the Essentials To Go Travel Kit. This item ships for free! Total reflects free shipping at checkout. LIMIT 3 PER ORDER  $4.95 each

Ingredients:
1.5 ml sample of Easy Does It Foaming Cleanser

4 ml sample of Brand New Day Microderma Scrub and Masque

4 ml sample of Skin Savior Waterless Beauty Balm

1.5 ml sample of Morning Glory Brightening Complexion Booster

1.5 ml sample of Love Springs Eternal Youth Preservation Serum

One Love Story & Philosophy:
One Love Organics is a natural, ethical and environmentally driven cosmetics company created by skilled cosmetic artisans. Our products are hand-made and hand-filled, using only the highest grade of ethically sourced raw materials to ensure the most effective, luxurious and guilt-free application. We trust in the healing power of plants.

Our philosophy is focused on a few supreme products—not up-selling a medicine cabinet full of mysterious jars. We give skin what it needs, using only ingredients that provide direct benefits. (Hint: water isn’t one of them.) One Love Organics encourage healthy skin and a happy outlook in pretty ladies, fussy babies, tough dudes, and everyone in between.

Thumpers Easter Greeting Card

I have been seeing this craft around everywhere and really like it. I think this is a super fun project that makes really creative ideas. Easter has a ton of pretty colors to make fun swirls out of. If you have any kind of paper that you have been wanting to use and didn’t know what to do with it now here is your chance. I found this great Easter project from one of my favorite websites FamilyFun.com

Supplies:

Note card or cardstock folded into a card
Construction paper or other lightweight colored paper
Scissors
Craft scissors (optional)
White glue or glue stick
Paintbrush with a thin handle or wooden kitchen skewer
Toothpick
Colored pencil
Buttons (for added decor if you like)
Glitter (because why not)
Ribbons (if you feel your card could use them)

Directions:

1. First, create a simple landscape scene on the note card by cutting grassy hills and/or patches of garden soil from the colored paper and gluing them in place. Or, have your child draw or color a scene.

2. Now you’re ready to start quilling. To create the rabbit, begin by cutting strips from the colored paper that measure 1/4-inch wide and about 12 inches long. You’ll need 5 gray or brown ones, 3 white or tan ones, and 2 pink ones.

3. Glue the ends of 2 gray or brown strips together to form a single extra long strip. (Note: A toothpick comes in handy for applying the glue.) Wrap that strip around the paintbrush handle or skewer.

4. Slide the finished coil off the handle or skewer and let it expand into a circle that’s about 1 1/4 inch in diameter. Apply a drop of glue to the end of the strip and stick it in place. Gently pinch the top of the circle to form a raindrop shape. This will serve as the rabbit’s body.

5. Next, use a 12-inch strip to make a 3/4-inch circle and use it to create a teardrop shape for the rabbit’s head. Tear an 8-inch length from another strip and make a smaller teardrop for the rabbit’s foreleg. Set the remaining gray or brown strips aside for now.

6. For each of the rabbit’s ears, coil one of the pink strips into a circle and then pinch both the top and bottom. If you like, wrap a piece from the remaining gray or brown strips around each ear and use a couple spots of glue to secure it.

7. Use 2 of the white or tan strips to create the rabbit’s large hind feet in the same manner you did the ears.

8. Finally, use an 8-inch length from the remaining white or tan strip to coil a small tight circle for the tail.

9. For carrots, coil strips of orange paper (6 to 8 inches long). Pinch the bottom of the circle and then pinch the upper circle in two places. For carrot tops, simply fold short strips of green paper in half to form a V shape. Apply a bit of glue near the fold to hold the shape and then loosely coil the ends of the strip.

10. For the finishing touches, add a big round sun to the upper corner of the card. Then draw motion lines under one of the rabbit’s feet so that he appears to be “thumping,” and have your child print his or her holiday greeting inside.

One of my favorite stores ever is UncommonGoods.com. I can always find some really fun and interesting stuff there. Recently I tried the Urbano Eco Trash Can  from the Eco-Friendly Products section of Uncommon Goods and I am in love! I have trash can issues in my apartment, as the one I have hanging over a cabinet door isn’t big enough and I have no real place for a large standing can in my kitchen. I do have pets so I have to be conscious where I put a can so they don’t get into it or knock it over.  This has been an ongoing issue plaguing me ever since I moved into my new place.  The Urbano has afforded me some great opportunities to de-clutter and reuse bags that would otherwise be sitting in a cabinet making a mess.  Although I bring bags with me when I go shopping I do appreciate a reason to use the plastic bags I do accumulate.
The Urbano is the perfect size to fit in my kitchen right against the wall between my oven and one of my cabinets. I can open both without the Urbano being at risk of getting knocked over. I can make use of the plastic bags have and eliminate clutter in one of my cabinets from saving them. The Urbano fits a large amount of stuff in it which I kind of wasn’t expecting.   It isn’t a huge trash can but magically it holds 2 liter soda bottles, cans, plastic containers of different shapes and sizes (yes, I was using it for my recyclables). I tried to cram it with as much stuff as I could and not 1 thing fell out or even made the Urbano sides bulge. That being said I am not trying to say the Urbano holds the same amount as a huge garbage can but a single woman who eats pretty regularly, has 2 pets, cleans more than regularly, and recycles makes some trash and the Urbano is more than capable of handling my mess.

About The Urbano Eco Trash Can at Uncommon Goods: Winner of the 2005 Pratt Product Design Competition, designer Kevin McElroy’s clever trash can allows you to store and reuse the plastic bags that you collect from shopping in a neat, organized way. Simply loop trash bags around the cut-out sides and push them all the way down, creating a visual of stacked handles all along the side. When you are ready to use one, just move it up to the handles and hook so that it won’t fall in on itself. Made in the USA.

It is almost Easter, Spring is so close to being here and there are tons of sales and great deals on many of the green items and stores you know and love. Even some you don’t know but totally should! There are plenty of deals on winter items as well as new spring things that make you life happier healthier and more conscious.  I saving money on smart purchases is about as green as you can get especially if said purchases save you money and the environment in the long run.

OnlyNaturalPet Coupon Code LS05 for 5% Off orders over $75 Expires 3/30/13

Clean Spirited Sale section has everything you could need for your green life!!

Save on Over 15,000 Eco-Friendly Products at GreenCupboards.com. Shop Now!

Save an additional 15% off these 100% bamboo sheets that are subtly cool and extremely breathable, plus it boasts a softer touch than a 700 thread count cotton sheet.

New customers save $7 at NOVICA. Click to get code. Valid through 6-30-2013

Forces of Nature coupon ’10OFF30′ $10 Off any purchase of $30 or more Exp 12/31/12

Save 15% on OrigAudio Portable Speaker Set. Not only the speakers are portable and self powered, they are made up of recycled material. The Eco-friendly Speakers can be folded to fit your backpack or laptop bag.

Save up to 75% on quality herbs, vitamins, and natural beauty products at Botanic Choice!

BOGO on Yoga Props – Straps, Sandbags and Eye Pillows at YogaAccessories.com!

Sign Up to Receive Green Daily Deals and Start Helping Your Planet…

Free Enphase Envoy ($500 value) with purchase of a Solar Kit. Enter FREEENVOY at checkout. *while supplies last

FREE Afterglow Cosmetic Shipping! Order $90+ and receive free USPS Priority Shipping inside the US.

Receive $25 OFF a purchase of Airfilters with code: AIRFILTERS!

b Positives sale section has great deals!

Upcycled Zip Wallet

Product Description: Upcycled Zip Wallet’s raw materials once spent their days lounging around the beaches of Bali. That sounds lovely, except that those materials are actually plastic bags. Billions of plastic bags are used every year, and many of them find their way to the ocean, where they can be damaging or fatal to marine life.
For each wallet, ten of those wayward bags are reclaimed from the shoreline, cleaned, cut and crafted into a durable cover. Inside are accordion dividers to keep your own resources organized, and an inner zippered pocket for your valuables. Because of the upcycled nature of the materials, each one will have a unique combination of bright colors. Because these wallets are handmade of recycled materials, each is one of a kind. Made in Bali, Indonesia.

Recycled Ceiling Tin Photo Frames

Product Description: Recycled Ceiling Tin Photo Frame Add vintage charm to your photos with textured, metal frames. The intricate rococo patterns are actually pressed tin ceiling tiles that once adorned homes and shops around the Northeast. Salvaged from crumbling buildings and remodeling projects, artist Margaret Taylor turns them into rustic frames. Due to the reclaimed nature of the materials, colors and patterns will vary. Handmade in Georgia

Two Tone Cork Apron

Product Description: The Two Tone Cork Apron is crafted from ultra-thin sheets of cork, a sustainably harvested material that is supple, durable, and naturally water resistant. Derived from the bark of Cork Oak trees, the material’s natural veining and stippled appearance gives a rich earthiness that is unexpected in a typically textile-based accessory. The dark-stained cork is set off nicely by the contrasting, lighter natural color of the ample central pocket, which is the perfect catchall for cooking utensils, towels or recipe cards. The apron is stitched around the edges and is reinforced with a cotton backing. Made in Portugal.

Fire Extinguisher Pendant Lamp

Product Description: Fire Extinguisher Pendant Lamps are crafted from spent fire extinguisher canisters. The artist Valentino Llegada hand paints each one in shades of black and gray. The aluminum material is lightweight and sturdy, and its interior is left with its metallic finish, which helps reflect the light out into the room. Available in two styles – cylindrical or with rounded edges – created by using either the top or the bottom of the canister. Comes fitted with a light socket and cord, and is ready to hang with included screw hooks. Cord does not have built-in switch. Handmade in Florida. Sold individually