Green Giveaway Winner

Sorry it has taken me so long to post this. The winner of the Green Chic book is Emily W. who uses cloth diapers... props for her. I was going to go with the G diapers but after seeing how many diapers my kid goes through in a day, I can't imagine having cloth. Awesome. Emily, send me an email at nikkipkelly at gmail dot com with your address so I can send you the book. Congratulations and thanks to everyone for commenting and doing your part to be Green. I love Green.

Spreading Green All Around

I have posted a couple of times about the Green book I was reading called Green Chic - Saving the Earth in Style, which I won in a giveaway on one of my favorite blogs, Coveiter. One of the stipulations to this giveaway was that I read the book and pass it on through a giveaway on my blog. I have never done a giveaway on my blog, so this is colossal. I have copied the instructions from Coveiter on entering this giveaway since they did such a nice job enticing me to participate. This book is fantastic and has lots of great ideas of going Green in steps. It can be overwhelming, but remember that every little bit helps.

How to Enter: Leave a comment on this post with one small step you've taken towards being green, your favorite green tip, or anything else related to keeping our environment healthy. I'll randomly pick one winner at noon Friday, August 8 (EST) and mail the book off to you.

Only one catch! You need to have a blog. Why? To keep the green vibes flowing. Once you've read the book, post a giveaway of your own on your blog. Hopefully the next recipient will do the same. Thus starting a recycled book tour that will help to educate others on how to get green chic! I can feel our planet's happy vibes now!

Face Green

I used to subscribe to that myth that once you leave the puberty stage your skin magically becomes clear and beautiful. Cameron and I are both finding out that isn't so... why are we still dealing with facial skin issues into our 30s???

As the second installment of my "green" education from the magically Green Chic book I am reading, I wanted to focus on skincare. Of course it makes sense that all this crap we put on our skin even in the name of cleansing is probably not really helping with all of the fragrances and chemicals that are included. Why didn't I think of that? So although I think it's good that you wash your face, it's probably better to wash your face with something slightly more natural sans chemicals. Apparently a lot of cleansers have some form of formaldehyde in them (yuck... I'm not dead) as well as other pore clogging and environmentally hazardous ingredients. According to my book, the following should be avoided for stated reasons... (take this all with a grain of salt, but I figure natural is almost always better than the chemically artificial alternative...)

1. Parabens - hormone disruptors and linked to breast cancer
2. Phthalates - usually listed under other names for synthetic fragrances
3. Petroleum - obviously
4. Toluene
5. Formaldehyde - it's a carcinogen and can often go by the name quaternium-15

I looked at my bottle of facial cleanser last night expecting to see a lot of parabens and other items, and I was not disappointed. They were all there. Luckily, I had already decided to make the switch to something a little more natural. I don't know what that is just yet, but I will let you know when I do.

Eat Green...

(Blogger is having issues uploading photos right now, so this post is sans photo... guess you will just have to go to Community Food and Juice to see how beautiful and fantastic the food is.)

It's no secret that I am a big fan of the green movement, so you might be seeing a lot of posts about this in the near future as I learn new things. I hesitate to tell you about this really great restaurant near my neighborhood because I would hate for it to become trendy or overcrowded, but in the interest of my readers and in support of local farms I am going to advertise for them. It's called Community Food & Juice, and it's located at 113 and Broadway here in Manhattan. I went there in January with my friend Celeste for brunch one Saturday and absolutely fell in love because the food was so fresh and awesome. It wasn't until I took some friends there a month or so later for dinner that I realized they got all their ingredients from local farms... thus the name. I have since taken my mom there and some other friends, and everyone raves about it. It's so worth the money, and your body will rejoice over the deliciousness.

I am reading a book called Green Chic - Saving the Earth in Style by Christie Matheson (I promise, it's not as lame as it sounds). It's actually a really good source of information. I just read a section on food (she has probably read some of Michael Pollan's books about food or at least perused them...), and she provided a great website called DineGreen.Com. It lists restaurants that are part of the Green Restaurant Association, which means they have to meet the following standards:

1. Use a comprehensive recycling system for all products that are accepted by local recycling companies.
2. Free of polystyrene foam ("Styrofoam") products.
3. Commit to completing four Environmental Steps per year of membership.

4. Complete at least one Environmental Step after joining the GRA.

So, if you are planning an evening out and want really good food (because we all know that locally grown and organic food naturally tastes better than food that has been transported over 1500 miles not to mention the favor you are doing for the environment), you should check out the listing and see if there is a restaurant near you. Support your local farms and eat really good food!