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Vegan Eco-Chic Shoes by Sanita

May 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

This is only one pair of many styles by Sanita of vegan eco-chic shoes. They also carry another whole line of leather shoes. These are really fun to collect and share. I crocheted an afghan that looked like these shoes once.


Sanita Women's Professional Vegan Patch Clogs Shoes

Go bohemian chic with this innovative vegan Patch clog from Sanita, made in Denmark. Not only does the upper feature an incredibly hip granny square crochet inspired design, it's 100% vegan! Contains no animal ingredients or animal by-products, uses no animal ingredient or by-product in the manufacturing process.
For more about Sanita shoes, follow this link.

Filed Under: Eco-Chic Green Gifts, Eco-Chic Green Shoes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Celebrate Green-A Green Halloween and More

May 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

With Halloween on the way, it is time to think about celebrating our holidays in a greener fashion this year. This can be overwhelming with all the choices available, and changing some of your family traditions to new ones. One the best guides to celebrating green holidays just came out last year, and is very thorough. This guide is called Celebrate Green. Celebrate Green is packed full of green holiday ideas that you can implement at your own rate as you move towards more green holiday traditions.


Celebrate Green

"Celebrate Green! is a wake up call and it's a fun, engaging read, jam-packed with hints, how-to's and humor. Whether you' re an old hand at thinking green or a total neophyte, Lynn and Corey will help you understand why your choices are so important and energize you, too. You'll discover simple steps to align your life with a healthy Earth, while deepening the meaning and the joy of your celebrations. -- Frances Moore Lappe, author of Diet for a Small Planet."

Appropriate for readers in the UK: Celebrate Green! (Click here if you are in the UK)

"If this book hadn't already been written,it would have to be commissioned! Why did no one think of writing this before? What a brilliant idea and what an attractive and useful book! When do we all consume the most, throw away the most packaging and eat the most sugar? At celebrations! Well, it doesn't have to be that way, according to the mother and daughter authors. (What an interesting combination!)

When I first noticed the book was American, I was afraid it wouldn't have much of relevance for British readers but it does -heaps. I was especially interested in the sections on weddings, Mother's Day (it doesn't have to be all about bought cards and flowers that have been flown half way round the world),Christmas and that American import Halloween. ( I always worry about dishing out stacks of sweets at the door. Well, there are alternatives.)

This book is going to sit on my kitchen shelf -ready to hand. It is completely unpreachy and fun to read with useful ideas and easy tips on living-green and some great recipes but also deeply serious. The authors have done their research and provided facts and statistics to back up their argument for a radical overhaul of how we celebrate special occasions. Acccording to Lynn Colwell, it is "more about people and less about things". I think preparations for Christmas are going to be a lot more satisfying this year!"

Filed Under: Eco-Chic Green Holidays, Eco-Chic Green Kids, Eco-Friendly Halloween Tagged With: , , , , ,

Moving Away from Manufactured and Towards Handmade

May 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

In our push to live greener, healthier lives, one of the things we need to do is remind ourselves to buy local and handmade items. Most of us are aware that buying local produce and baked goods means that by doing so our food is fresher because it didn't have to travel as far to get to us, picked when it is ripe, and the baked goods do not have the preservatives that grocery store items often do, because of extending the shelf life. So local foods are healthier and more wholesome that foods that travel. When we buy local, we also help our local economy, because the local vendors will spend the money we pay them locally also. This creates a healthy economic cycle.

What you may not realize that this is true of handmade or artist made items as well. When you buy an item directly from an artist who made it, or from the agent who sells it for them, you are paying the artist directly who will then use the money to pay their vendors to buy more supplies and create more work. The economic cycle is a much shorter one than if you buy a manufactured item. And often the manufactured items are from countries far away from yours, so that your purchase does not even infuse money into your own economy. Think about this when you purchase items this year for the holidays, for birthdays, or for Christmas, because you can support your local economy in several ways while keeping a healthier and greener lifestyle.

Here is an example:
The beautiful pottery above is made by a Cleveland, Ohio area woman, Tracy Shea, who hand makes every piece of pottery she makes. She makes a living from her ceramics work which is how she feeds her family. By buying her work you can own a piece of handmade work or give it as a gift, and she will take the money earned to feed her family locally, as well as use it to buy more supplies to make more pottery. A very economic cycle. The money goes directly from the buyer to the seller and right back to the economy with no middle men. If you would like to learn more about Tracy, you can click on the picture above which will take you to an article about her.

Filed Under: Eco-Chic Green Decor, Eco-Chic Green Holidays, Miscellaneous Eco-Chic Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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