Good news! Los Angeles residents can now recycle milk and juice cartons in our blue bins. According to a post on Mayor Villaraigosa's website yesterday:

Starting now, you can recycle cartons such as milk, juice, cream and egg substitutes as well as juice boxes, soup, broth, soy milk, and wine cartons. We are now the largest city in the state with a carton recycling program, solidifying our position as the number one recycling city in the nation.

We consume a lot of juice and milk at our house, and I always feel bad throwing those waxy cartons in the trash. Now I don't have to.

Speaking of Los Angeles recycling... I was perusing the Los Angeles Times website the other morning, and came across this excellent feature in the home section. It's called "Can I Recycle?" So far, they've covered plastic wrappers, mesh citrus bags, bottle caps, Tyvek and a few more. Check it out if you live in LA County, as various cities in the area are covered.

Although there's a fair amount of debate about whether cloth diapers are better for the environment than disposable, I didn't really spend much time worrying over what to use with my son. In my (admittedly brief) search, I was unable to find a clear, definitive study about which method is really "greener." Most arguments seemed to be tinged with a fair amount of bias toward one type, and many against cloth had a lot to do with how the diapers were being cleaned. (More on that later.)

In truth, part of my decision to cloth diaper my son was emotional. I just couldn't stomach the idea of throwing away bags and bags worth of plastic diapers every week for years. Imagining all those diapers piling up in a landfill made me uncomfortable. So, I sought out a smart, inexpensive and user-friendly cloth diapering alternative. Happily, I think I found one.

After looking into cloth with disposable inserts, all in ones, and pocket diapers, I decided to keep it simple and go with cloth prefolds. Cloth prefolds are basically just rectangles of cotton (or other absorbent fibers) divided into thirds with seams. The middle third is thicker than the two on the sides, and thus more absorbent.

You can use prefold diapers several ways, but I am keeping it simple by folding them into thirds and then fanning out the back and wrapping the "wings" around my baby. The whole thing is fastened in the front using a Snappi. If you use prefolds, I highly recommend that you get a few Snappis. My mom, who cloth diapered me when I was a baby in the late 70s, thought they were a massive improvement over the diaper pins she had to use.



After the diaper is on, I cover the whole thing with a waterproof cover to keep my son's clothes from getting wet when the diaper does. I'm primarily using Thirsties diaper covers. The one pictured below is called a Thirsties Duo Wrap. The snaps on the front make it adjustable so that you can use it on your newborn and then undo the snaps when he gets bigger. So far, the covers have successfully kept the wetness (and poop) on the inside, and they are easy to use and wash.



Speaking of washing... Most arguments against cloth mention the large amount of water and electricity required to clean diapers, but I think I'm doing pretty well on that front. We have a front-loading, energy and water-efficient washer, and I recently got an awesome umbrella-style clothesline. So, in my case, I think cloth diapers will actually end up being better for the environment--and cheaper--than even unbleached disposables.





That's pretty much the basics of my cloth diapering experience so far. I haven't found the process to be particularly time-consuming or difficult (another argument often used against cloth), and my son seems quite happy in his prefolds. In fact, he's yet to get diaper rash, which seems like a good sign.

I have much more to say about cloth diapering. Like most things involving babies, there are many accessories you can buy and even more opinions about how to use, wash and clean cloth diapers. I'll post more about those topics soon.

Back in April, Ilsa Setziol of Rambling LA had a really great series on the Los Angeles Times Home blog about nonnative invasive plants. If you're at all interested in gardening or the preservation of natural habitats, I encourage you to check it out. Ilsa runs down a list of the plants commonly found in garden centers that can do serious damage when they get out of the garden and into the wild.

One of the posts discusses fountain grasses, which have spread through Southern California open space and parkland and pushed out the native chaparral. I'm sad to admit that, after reading the article, I realized that I have some in my front yard. I planted two clumps of purple fountain grass several years ago. I think it's probably sterile, because I haven't noticed it spreading, but I am considering removing it after reading Ilsa's article.

I also realized that my front yard had been invaded by another variety of invasive grass: Mexican feathergrass. It showed up among my native plants last year, and grew into two or three smallish clumps. Informed by the invasive plant series, I removed the grass last month and threw it in the garbage, rather than the green bin, so hopefully it won't spread. Since then, I've noticed the feathergrass in other peoples' yards and in public landscaping. Hopefully those gardeners will hear about the danger of nonnative fountain grasses and take their invasive species out as well.

Last Christmas, I was up in the Russian River Valley in Northern California, and I noticed large clumps of pampas grass growing among the redwoods. It looked really weird on the otherwise woody hillsides, and I know this aggressively-spreading grass is a pretty serious problem up and down the California coast. It was kind of a bummer to see the obviously out-of-place pampas grass among the gorgeous redwoods. If we're lucky, the park service will beat it back before it chokes out the native vegetation.

Hopefully, the more people are aware of problems with invasive nonnatives, the more they will turn to the just-as-attractive native plants. The California Native Plant Society has a good list of nurseries here. Many of the plants in my front yard, including native grasses, are from Matilija Nursery in Moorpark.

Last Sunday, I had the pleasure of checking out the Los Angeles County Fair with some friends. (The nice people at the fair actually offered me some complimentary tickets because I am such an big-time blogger. Since I was planning on going already, I happily accepted.) I had never been to the Los Angeles County Fair before, but I had some pretty high expectations--particularly regarding their chicken attractions. It did not disappoint.

When we arrived at the fair, we went straight to the farm exhibits (somewhat weirdly sponsored by McDonald's) and almost immediately encountered some chickens. They had several open pens with a variety of chicken breeds on display. Pictured below is a nice-sized enclosure of young chickens, including some Barred Rocks resting on a log. I love those stripes. I definitely plan to get a Barred Rock when it's time for new chicks. They were in with a few fluffy silkies and some fancy Polish.



In the barn across the way, I noticed this handsome hen peeking through the bars. I really like the mottled black and gold of her feathers. Silkies sure are cute. I hear they're not the greatest layers, though, and tend to go broody. So I don't think I want one for my small flock.



Near the silkie were these big girls. Does anyone know what breed they might be? The chicken breeds weren't posted on their pens, unfortunately. My guess is Buff Orphington. I don't think I've ever seen an Orphington in real life, and I had no idea they were such big girls. They're definitely on the list of breeds I'd like to own, but I feel like we might have to make the coop door bigger if we ever got one.



Despite the somewhat disappointing lack of breed signage, there were some informative plaques about chickens scattered around. This one was very pro-backyard chicken, which I appreciated.



After all the chicken admiring was complete, we turned our attention to the wide variety of goats and sheep at the fair. This caused Dakota and I to briefly indulge our goat-ownership fantasy. How cool would it be to drink milk fresh from our own backyard? (Answer: very cool.) But, even excluding the legal and neighbor obstacles, I don't think we can squeeze a goat on our property. I doubt we have enough space for the goat, much less a nice-sized enclosure and room for all its feed. That said... Look at the cute angora goats! They're so fluffy, and I could knit with their wool.



And while I'm going on about the cuteness of barnyard animals, check out this little pig. I could not get enough of him as he marched around his pen and indulged in several vigorous scratching sessions. I have a friend at work who owned a pig, and I think he found it to be a wonderful pet. Hmmm...



Another great thing about pigs: they race! Our group was very excited about the pig races, and after rushing across the fairgrounds for the 1:30 show, we got our chance to see some. There's kind of a cuteness theme happening in this post, and I apologize for going on, but, seriously, pig races are so cute. If you go to the fair, definitely check them out. I had no idea pigs could run so fast. I think the milk and cookies they got at the finish line were highly motivating.



Just so you don't think we spent all our time in the farm animal section of the fair (although I certainly could have), we did roam the grounds and take in the sites. Predictably, there are lots of carnival rides, silly photo booths and places to buy knick-knacks. Some of the better attractions included a sky ride over the fair, several giant, inflatable slides and an event called "Splash Dogs," where you could watch extremely excited dogs try to jump as far as they could into an above-ground swimming pool. Highly recommend for any dog lovers.

And, of course, there was weird fair food. This years hot item appears to be chocolate-covered bacon. I was more intrigued by the sign below. What, exactly, is "Meat Lover's Ice Cream"? There was no additional information posted, and no one was willing to order some.



Towards the end of our visit, we made it over to the Going Green exhibition--basically a mini-trade show of green vendors. We said hello to the Solatube guy, who informed us that we could write off a percentage of the cost of a Solatube on our taxes. We're considering getting the kind with a light and a fan for our bathroom. There was also a display for a portable graywater system called Enviro Water Boy, which seems like a convenient way to reuse your bath water to water your plants. It would definitely be faster than scooping it up with an empty milk jug, which is what my mom does.

Below is a picture of another Going Green display, which I am calling The Fanciest Rainwater Collection System Ever. I didn't catch the name of this particular product, but essentially it collects rainwater, filters it, stores it in an underground cistern and then pumps it into a very attractive waterfall. There's also a little spigot so you can use the collected rainwater to water your plants. I didn't get a brochure for this since it's obviously hugely out of our price range. But, it looked really cool.



One company at the Going Green exhibition did catch my eye: an organic fruit and vegetable delivery service called Farm Fresh to You. They had a promotion for $10 off a sample box, so Dakota and I are going to try it. I'll post more about the produce and the company once we have a chance to eat the fruit and do a bit of research.

All-in-all, I had a fun day at the Los Angeles County Fair. There was a good balance of animal and plant exhibits alongside bizarro fair culture. The fair runs though next weekend if you want to check it out.

I was excited to hear on the radio the other day that, in addition to its strict new lawn sprinkler regulations, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power just unveiled a lawn-removal rebate program.

The official title is the Residential Drought Resistant Landscape Incentive Program, and the goal is to encourage Los Angeles residents to remove their lawns in favor of drought-tolerant landscaping, water-permeable hardscaping or mulch. They'll give you a dollar for every square foot of lawn you remove and replace, which is pretty great considering you'll already be saving a bunch on your water bill just by eliminating all that expensive grass-watering.

I really appreciate the fact that the LADWP isn't just penalizing water wasting like leaky sprinklers and driveway washing, but is also incentivizing water conservation when it comes to yards. Xeriscaping is already pretty popular in my neighborhood, but hopefully now that you get a little cash back for doing it, even more people will rip out their grass and put in California natives. The bees will be so happy!

It's too late for me to cash in on the rebate, but if you're thinking about taking out your lawn and want to know more about the LADWP program (which requires pre-approval), go here.

And here are my posts about my xeriscaped front yard:
Water Wise
In Bloom

UPDATE: I've noticed quite a few people coming here using search terms like "LA DWP lawn removal," so I wanted to link to a resource that I think would be really helpful for people who want to get rid of their grass lawns. The Garden Punks blog has a couple of great, step-by-step posts about sheet mulching, and their most recent one is really informative (and well-illustrated). If I'd known about it at the time, I would have definitely used their technique when removing my lawn. So, if you're planning to take out some grass and cash in on the DWP rebate, I recommend you check it out.

Yesterday I had to work from home, so I decided to take advantage of that fact and have the attic insulated. This is something we've been planning for a while, and I wanted to get it done before the weather became too hot. So, I called up Everguard Home Insulation and made an appointment to have cellulose insulation blown into the attic.

Everguard was great. They showed up as scheduled, after calling to let me know they were on the way, and communicated clearly about what they were planning to do. They worked quickly and cleanly and got our 950 ft2 attic filled in about 45 minutes. Impressive.

The fluff blob above is a small chunk of the cellulose insulation that escaped from a roof vent. As you can see, it's basically fluffy, ground-up newspaper and cardboard fibers. To make it fire retardant, the cellulose is treated with boric acid. Unlike fiberglass, cellulose is recycled, environmentally friendly and non-toxic. So, it's perfect for green-living homeowners, like us.

And for frugal homeowners, the Southern California Gas Company offers a rebate of 15 cents per ft2. So we'll actually get a check for $142.50 after we submit our paperwork. Plus, there's a 2009 federal energy efficiency tax credit for 30% of the cost. So, we'll get even more money back when we file our tax returns. With all those incentives, I can't imagine not insulating the attic.

The new insulation, combined with some old, compressed and ratty fiberglass that was already up there, brings our attic insulation level up to R-38. This should hopefully make a big difference in how hot it gets inside the house this summer, especially when combined with new wall insulation, new ceiling fans and our solar attic fan.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Who needs air conditioning! (Check back with me in July for the verdict on that one.)

Recently, I got a little pamphlet in the mail along with my bill from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. It asks, "How Water Wise Are You?" There's little chart that allows you to compare your water use to the median water consumption of DWP customers.

I was happy to get this chart, because I've been wondering how well we've been conserving water, especially since our recently-planted fruit trees require more deep and frequent watering than most of our other landscaping. When I looked at the chart, I was delighted.

For a lot that's less than 7,499 square feet, the median winter water use, measured in HCF (hundred cubic feet), for a 2-month period is 24. Our water use for the last two months was 6 HCF. That's a quarter of the typical amount. My first reaction was, "Yippie!" My second reaction was, "Dang, how do people using the median amount afford their water bills?" I love it when caring about the environment translates into saving money. So often, it's the other way (i.e. buying organic or fair trade).

Dakota and I discussed why we manage to be so far under the median for water use, when, honestly, I don't feel like we work that hard at saving water. Obviously, part of it is that there are only two of us. But I don't think that can account for all of our water saving. Here are some factors I think help quite a lot:

1) Front-loading washer
Two summers ago, we got a new front-loading washer. It uses less water (and power) than a top loading washer, and less soap. I love it.

2) Low-flow shower head
When I moved into my house, I almost immediately installed a low-flow shower head. It's such an easy way to save water, especially when you're a big fan of hot showers. Gone are the days when a low-flow shower head meant an annoyingly low-pressure bathing experience. These days, water-saving shower heads make your pressure better, not worse. At least, that's what happened at my house. Almost six years later, our Earth Massage Showerhead is still going strong. It makes a big difference for us because Dakota usually takes two showers a day: one to wake up and one to clean off the sawdust after work. Both are vital to his happiness.

3) Toilet policy
In addition to having a low-flow toilet, like most houses in Los Angeles, we tend to not flush after every trip to the bathroom. No need to get into details, but I believe many hippies have signs in their bathroom beginning with the phrase, "If it's yellow, leave it mellow..." We don't have that sign, but we agree with the principle. Treehugger calls it the "Selective Flush." Some people are kind of grossed out by this idea, but it's how I grew up, so it seems completely natural to me.

4) Lawnless living
The single biggest water savings for us, I'm guessing, comes from our lack of a grass lawn. When I moved into the house back in 2003, there was a small lawn in the front, but Dakota and I took it out pretty quickly. In its place, we planted a mixture of California native plants, other low-water-use bushes and cacti. Now that the plants are established, they need very little water to flourish. I honestly can't remember the last time I watered the front yard. It's definitely been at least three months. We have a similar landscaping plan in the back, although obviously the vegetable garden and fruit trees do require watering several times a week. Still, I think our lawnless lot is what keeps our water bill so low.

I love our California native plants, too. Here are a few that have thrived over the years, despite intense dry heat and bad soil.

White sage. Has a very sage-y smell. The leaves are a really pretty pale green.


California fuschia. This one spreads sideways and has bright red flowers, which attract butterflies and hummingbirds.


Needle's buckwheat. This produces little white puffy flowers and grows like crazy. I'm constantly cutting it back. We have two varieties of buckwheat in the yard, the other is Red buckwheat.


I can't remember the name of this one. It blooms yellow, daisy-like flowers and the leaves have a wonderful, herbal smell. It also grows nicely from cuttings. I have two more bushes in the backyard from cuttings from this plant.

Basically, we make almost no sacrifices in order to keep our water use low. We still take showers when we want and have a clothes washer and a dishwasher. I certainly put some back-breaking labor into getting the front yard plants established, but now that they're in, they require almost nothing from me. It's nice to know saving water can be fairly easy. Pretty soon, it'll likely be a requirement for living in Southern California. Maybe once the city is done giving out CFLs they'll move on to low-flow shower heads and cacti.

In the last month, I have managed to acquire some very nice, and eco-friendly, new items for our living room.

The first was a new bed for Nigel, our faithful animal companion. Nigel firmly believes in living a green lifestyle, but he also has rather specific needs when it comes to where he rests his head. So, after looking around at various organic and eco-friendly pet bed options, I decided on the Tuckered Out model from West Paw. It was a bit pricier than the beds I usually get Nigel, but its design seemed perfect for the way he likes to sleep, and the cover comes off for easy washing, so it should last quite a while.

West Paw Design is a pet product company with a commitment to green manufacturing practices, including material reuse, waste minimization and energy efficiency. And, all their products are made in their Montana factory, where they believe in paying their workers a fair wage, including health benefits. Nigel's new bed is filled with IntelliLoft fiber fill, which is made from recycled plastic bottles. As you can see, he finds it quite cozy.



Last weekend, we made an even bigger upgrade and finally purchased a new fancy leather chair for our living room. Dakota and I have essentially been shopping for this chair for three years. We were looking for something that was comfortable but still slim and stylish enough not to overpower the space. Our house is quite small, and the living room is where we spend most of our awake indoor time. It seemed important to find just the right chair.

Happily, I finally found what we were looking for at the Cisco Brothers store on La Brea. Isn't it lovely?



Cisco Brothers is a furniture company headquartered in South Central Los Angeles. From what I have read, the owner, Cisco Pinedo, seems very committed to running a sustainable business and to being a positive force in the community. Since 2006, Cisco Brothers have used exclusively FSC certified hardwoods in their upholstered furniture and reclaimed wood in their cabinets and tables. In addition, they use water-based glues and environmentally friendly detergents to wash their fabrics.

Cisco has several showrooms around Los Angeles, and their style falls somewhere between traditional and modern. I felt very happy to purchase a chair that looked great and was made in Los Angeles with an environmental conscience.

This weekend, as demolition continues on the kitchen project, we're trying to pick the paint color for our cabinets and walls. We'll be using a particular type of paint, called Milk Paint, which Dakota found during his extensive kitchen research.

The Milk Paint formula is based on the way people used to make their own paint using cow's milk and limestone. The modern formulation from the Milk Paint company contains milk protein (casein) and lime, plus natural pigments like ochre and iron oxide. Milk Paint is free of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and other potentially toxic substances and is biodegradeable. So, it's an extremely environmentally friendly paint. In fact, it's so nice and natural that it doesn't even smell bad.

Last week, we received several Milk Paint samples in the mail. The paint is shipped as a powder, and then you just add water to make paint. This also allows you to mix it thicker or thinner, depending upon what kind of coat you need.

Right now, we're deciding between a couple of different shades of green for the cabinets and walls. Because they use natural pigments, Milk Paints don't come in an endless supply of hues, but there's definitely a nice selection. And all the colors have a warmth that I think will suit our Shaker/modern design nicely.

So, will it be Bayberry Green or Lexington Green? Decisions, decisions...

Exciting news! The California Senate is about to vote on a bill that will significantly cut down on disposable plastic bags state-wide. The bill, AB 2058, will be voted on in the legislature this month, and I really hope it passes.

AB 2058 will require retailers to meet a goal of 70% diversion of plastic bag useage in their stores by 2011. Meaning, they have to distribute 70% fewer plastic bags than they are now. If they don't meet that goal, they will have to charge a 25 cent fee per bag--for both plastic and paper. The proceeds from that fee will go to local litter clean-up. The bill will also allow local governments to charge an additional fee on bags if they choose to. Basically, the fee should make it more likely that people get into the habit of bringing their own reuseable bags to the store.

Living in Los Angeles, it's hard not to see the negative effects of disposable plastic bags. They get stuck in trees, litter the sides of highways and clog up storm drains. And if you look closer, things get even nastier. Recently, the Good Girls (and friends) did a LA River Clean-Up with FoLAR (Friends of the Los Angeles River). We spent about 3 hours picking up trash in a section of the river near my house. As soon as we got down to the river bed, I noticed the plastic bags everywhere. They were wrapped around almost every single tree branch, bush and log. It was pretty disgusting. I think anyone who spent 5 minutes by the LA River would immediately understand why disposable plastic shopping bags have got to go.



I have already sent a message to my state representative asking him to support AB 2058. If you want to do the same, you can look up your representive here. Or, you can let Heal the Bay contact your representative for you by going to their website.

Who needs air conditioning? Well... maybe us, but central air is not going to be installed in our little house for quite a few years. It's just too expensive. Sometimes little problems like this are good, because they lead you to find interesting and smart solutions. For example, a solar attic fan.

I didn't know much about attic fans until recently, but it seemed like a good solution for one of our major heat problems: hot air from the attic dropping down into the house on summer nights and turning our house into an oven. Attic fans help suck hot air out of the attic and keep cooler air cycling through. Getting a solar attic fan means we don't have to hook it up to our electrical system, saving us money and, you know, saving the planet.

Our solar attic fan is made by Solatube. It doesn't have a thermostat, so it just automatically turns on when the sun hits it. The stronger the sunlight, the faster it spins. There are other varieties that are a bit more expensive and have a thermostat, but we felt that it was better to get a simpler system with less parts that might break. This fan is really simple, and comes with a 5-year warranty for the solar panel. We bought it from a small distributor in Sherman Oaks.

The attic fan was quite easy for Dakota to install. He just cut a circular hole in the roof, slipped the flashing under the shingles and screwed it all down. I'd say the whole project took him about 45 minutes last Monday.


Dakota installed the fan on the front of the house, because that part of the roof gets the most afternoon sun. I was worried it would look ugly or weird, but the fan has a really low profile, so you can barely see it. It's also completely silent. I don't even know it's there. Of course, I hope I notice its effects once the weather starts getting hotter.

So Arrowhead now has this "eco-shape" water bottle that is supposedly so much better for the environment because it uses 30% less plastic. When I saw the commercial for this a while back, I was immediately annoyed. I mean, the idea that any bottled water can be considered eco-friendly is absurd. Classic case of greenwashing.

And speaking of the scam of bottled water, here's some more info on that from Food & Water Watch. They are leading a campagin to "Take Back the Tap," by putting out the real truth about bottled water by highlighting:

• the fact that tap water is much more strongly regulated for health and safety than bottled water
• that bottled water pollutes the environment during its production process, its transportation to stores and the empty bottles that end up in landfills
• that it's a big waste of money

If you're interested, you can sign their Take Back the Tap pledge by clicking here.

And if you want to find out more about the water coming out of your tap, check out the National Tap Water Database.

Now here's a photo of my sister's dog enjoying some natural spring water in the San Antonio River.

Christmas is getting really close now, so I thought I'd do some holiday-related posting. First up, office gift giving.

For my coworkers, I love to give donations and other do-gooder-style gifts. I find this is a good call because:
1) I don't know everyone I work with well enough to get them the perfect personalized gift. And I don't want them to be stuck with some piece of junk they don't want.
2) It allows my co-workers to gently mock me about my tree-hugging, do-gooding ways. Good times.
3) I always get a really positive response from these types of gifts.

In the past, I have given my coworkers "animals" from Heifer International. It's kind of fun because you can give everyone a different animal, and, you know, try to pick an animal to fit their personality.

This year, I did the following:

For the assistants in my department, I got SIGG bottles. These are snazzy metal-lined reuseable water bottles with cool design. I have one that I use every day at work. I highly recommend a SIGG bottle as a gift for an office mate or for a friend who does a lot of outdoor activity. It's are a nice accessory of sorts that also elimintes the need to use disposable plastic water bottles. And, as we all know, plastic bottles are evil!

For the other executives I work with, I gave a two-part gift. First, I made a donation in their names to America's Second Harvest. Then, I extended the grocery theme by taking some cotton shopping bags and personalizing them with paint and letter stamps. I think they came out pretty cool, and people seem to like them.

Both these gifts were simple and fairly inexpensive, and both will hopefully make a long-term impact by getting my coworkers to use fewer plastic bottles and fewer plastic shopping bags. At least, that's the hope.

Today Oprah had a whole episode on going green. I checked it out for a little bit at work, and it reminded me of this great thing I did a while back to get less junk mail.

You can actually put yourself of a "delete" list for junk mail senders through the Direct Marketing Association. It's worked pretty well for me since I signed up a couple of years ago. I don't get unsolicited credit card offers anymore, and, while I still get some random junk mail, I definitely don't get as much as I used to. Anyway, I'd recommend it.

You can go to the Mail Preference Service website and follow their directions to get yourself on the "delete" list.

For other junk mail that keeps on coming after your register with this service, you have to call the individual companies and ask them to remove you from their mailing list. You can also cut down on junk mail by carefully reading the privacy policies that various financial institutions send you. There are usually instructions in those policies on how to ask the company not to sell your name and address to other companies. It can be a bit of a pain in the butt, but so is getting junk mail.

I guess there's also a pay service, which Matt Damon was talking about on Oprah today, called Green Dimes. I'm not sure if they're better than just doing it yourself, but it's good that there are several options for stopping the flow of junk in your mailbox.

I wonder how much of an impact today's green Oprah will have on her viewers' daily lives. Of course, the main way to be truly green is to reduce how much you're consuming, and Oprah pretty much embodies the opposite of that. She appears to mean well, but she's the queen on conspicuous consumption. Overall, being green definitely appears to be going mainstream. I wonder if it's just a trend, or if people will really adopt their new green habits permanently.

I've been gone from blogging for a while, mainly because I was working on planning a wedding (mine). But now that's all over with and I want to do some posts on all kind of fun topics. I have updates from as far back as Christmas, in fact.

But first I'll give a little rundown on the "green" stuff we tried to incorporate in the wedding.

The rings

Dakota and I both got our rings from greenKarat. It's an Earth-friendly jewelry company that uses recycled materials and lab-created stones to mostly make wedding and engagement rings, although other jewelry is available. We actually had them make us custom rings, although they weren't very elaborate. Dakota has a flat, shiny band made of recycled platinum and I have a similar, thinner band also made of recycled platinum, except that mine has a tiny flush-set lab created diamond in it. It came out really pretty, I think. Overall, our experience with greenKarat was excellent, and I'd recommend them to anyone.

The decorations & favors

The place where we got married didn't really need much decoration because the landscaping was so pretty, but we did need something to put on the tables. What we decided on was minimal flowers and tiny potted succulents. It took us quite a while, but eventually we collected around 100 mismatched Japanese cups in various shapes and colors. We bought assorted tiny succulents from California Cactus Center, and then we planted the succulents (and a few cacti) in the cups. It took us about three hours one Saturday morning to do all the planting. Then, we encouraged our guests to take the plants home with them. Overall, I think the little potted succulents looked great, and I know lots of people took them home. We brought the leftovers home, and I have some plans to place them in various locations, inside and out.



The candles

While it ended up being a bit too windy for candles on the tables, we did order some. We decided to go with soy candles, because they're not made from petroleum products and they burn cleaner than regular candles. I found some really nice, unscented soy pillar candles from Way Out Wax. Since soy candles also burn longer than regular candles, I saved money by ordering 3" pillars. If we had lit them, they would have lasted all night. I also ordered some scented soy travel candles from Way Out Wax to include in the gift bags I gave to the people who helped with the wedding. I got various scents from the Vermont Naturals aromatherapy collection, which has a nice modern design and natural scents like rosemary and orange.

Okay, I'm going to wrap up the wedding post for now. I'll call this Part 1, and write the rest in a Part 2 post tomorrow perhaps.

Last Saturday, the Good Girls participated in one of Heal the Bay's monthly "Nothin' But Sand" beach clean-ups. Four of us drove down to the beach for the morning: Merete, Mirabai, Natalie and me.

The clean-up was at a beach in Playa del Rey, an area just North of LAX. The area itself is lovely and the water was a gorgeous blue. If you looked at the beach from far away, you probably wouldn't have noticed much trash at all, but, up close, it was littered with tiny pieces of junk.

At Heal the Bay beach clean-ups, you're issued a rubber glove, a trash bag and a check list to keep track of what kind of trash you're picking up. The majority of the trash on this beach was made up of small pieces of styrofoam, tiny pieces of styrofoam and teeny tiny pieces of styrofoam.

Honestly, the amount of styrofoam bits on California beaches is shocking, and a little depressing. Despite our best efforts, the four of us barely made a dent in several heavily-littered areas. We did our best, though, and picked up us much styrofoam as possible, as well as around 80 cigarette butts and other small pieces of trash and plastic.

Speaking of cigarette butts, I am thinking there needs to be some kind of revolution or grass-roots movement against this particular form of litter. According to the Ocean Conservancy, cigarette butts account for 1 in every 5 pieces of litter picked up on California beaches during costal clean-ups. They get there both through people smoking on beaches and, mostly, through people dropping their cigarette butts in the street. Those butts are then washed down storm drains and sent out into the ocean.

I think that smokers need to start taking responsibility for the proper disposal of the cigarette butts, and non-smokers need to say something when they see people drop their butts on the ground. It seems absurd to me that people who would never drop an empty aluminum can or candy wrapper on the ground freely and unthinkingly toss their cigarette butts anywhere they happen to be standing. I plan to start my own little campaign against this behavior, and I hope you'll join me.

Here's a funny poster from Australia to get you inspired.


If you'd like to volunteer with Heal the Bay, you can learn more by clicking this link. They are having their annual state-wide Coastal Clean-Up Day on September 16, with clean-ups at over 55 different sites in LA County alone. Go to the website if you're interested in participating, or call 800-COAST-4U for sites in the rest of California.

A couple of weeks ago I heard a report on the BBC World Service about bluefin tuna. Apparently, the population has greatly diminished due to its growing popularity, especially among sushi-lovers. The World Wildlife Fund and other environmental groups are trying to spead the word about bluefin overfishing, so that people interested in sustainable consumption can stop eating it. Read more in this article.

I plan to cut bluefin out of my diet for now, despite my love of fresh tuna sushi. After all, tuna is known to have high mercury levels as well, so it won't be so bad to stop eating it for a while.

Speaking of sustainable eating and delicious seafood, Oceans Alive, a division of Environmental Defense, has a new Pocket Seafood Selector available. If you follow this link, it will take you to a PDF of the wallet-sized list of "good" and "bad" fish. Print it out, fold it up and you're good to go.

I used the Seafood Selector on my trip to San Diego last week. It was quite helpful since I went out to several nice dinners at seafood restaurants. The "bad" side of the list indicates which fish are in danger due to over-fishing, as well as which fish may have high levels of mercury or PCBs. The "good" side of the list indicates fish that are considered the most sustainable choices and which fish contain beneficial omega-3 fatty acids. I think the new strategy is to convince people that eco-friendly fish are also good for your health. That seems smart.

Down in San Diego, my coworkers had a good time teasing me about my Seafood Selector, but I didn't mind. Even when they're making fun of me, we're still having a conversation about sustainable eating.

Dakota and I have recently been trying to eat significantly less meat. We're not going completely vegetarian, but we're trying to cut down on the amount of meals we cook with beef, chicken, fish or pork. I suggested this because it's difficult to deny that factory farming and fisheries have a fairly serious impact on the environment. While I don't see myself becoming a complete vegetarian, there's no reason that I can't strive to eat more vegetarian meals than meals that contain meat.


So far, it's been going fine--not great. We have had several very delicious meals and a few unsuccessful ones (making your own veggie burgers doesn't always work out so well). Some dishes I'd recommend would be: Soba Salad with Carrots and Zucchini, with tofu mixed in, and Baked Tofu Szechuan Style. Both of those were pretty tasty, which is nice since the first time I cooked tofu was two weeks ago. We also grilled up some marinated portobello mushrooms and asparagus one night. That was quite delicious. So, I don't think we'll starve.

The goal is really just to work more vegetarian dishes into our lineup of meals. I imagine we'll still buy steak from time to time, but I was starting to feel like we were relying too much on ground beef and chicken breast because they are easy. I think once I get in the habit of cooking more tofu and beans, I will consider them as convienient as those meat options.

If you have any suggestions for vegetarian dishes to try, let me know.

The hamster photo is courtesy of the awesome site Cute Overload.

A few weeks ago, I did something at work that I'm kind of psyched about. It was small, but I like to think that every little bit helps.

I have been bringing my own reusable water bottle to work for a while, and, in a meeting last month, the issue of bottled water came up. I jumped at the opportunity to make a few comments about how I am concerned about all the disposable bottles of water we go through at the studio. Then, I offered to get everyone non-disposable, refillable water bottles. To my delight, almost everyone said they were interested.

A couple of days later, I brought in a variety of hard plastic water bottles, and my coworkers picked the ones they wanted. Now, they all use them and refill them throughout the day. It's been several weeks and it seems like everyone is still using them. A couple of my coworkers have even commented on how much they like their reusable bottles. It made me happy that they were all so open to change.

Now, if I can just get everyone at the animation studio to switch. I am considering putting up a flier.