Calling All Artists, Environmentalist, and Any Human Being That Cares

Don’t you just get annoyed by parents who brag about their kids all the time?   Well, I’m not one to brag, but this deserves to be mentioned… because it’s a call to action for all of us.  It’s not a big deal, but it is.  It’s just a coloring contest, but it’s so much more.  My girl won a Lorax coloring contest.  I’m proud of her… not for winning, but because she gets it… the reason why we should care about the planet.   

I am not littering and I am recycling things that should and can be recycled and definitely not cutting down trees. What are you doing to help the planet?

When our elementary school encouraged their students to bring in plastic bottles for recycling, my little boy says, “good thing we don’t drink water bottles cause I don’t want to carry all those to school.”  I’m glad he gets it too.  

… and SIGG (the swiss made reusable water bottles) gets it too… They are holding a design contest for the launch of their next collection of beautiful bottles.   You can win up to $1000 and 5% licensing fee of bottles sold.  But of course, these aren’t the only reasons why you would want to help launch the next bottles   Check out the contest rules and requirements:  http://www.mysigg.com/design_contest.do .  

SIGG Yoga Inspired Reusable Bottle

If you’re not the creative type, you can still be a winner right here.   SIGG is giving away this beautiful yoga inspired reusable bottle to one lucky Live.Love.Yoga blog reader.  

Get one entry into the random drawing for every one action you do below:

1.  Like SIGG’s page on facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/SIGGNorthAmerica

2.  Follow SIGG’s twitter page:  https://twitter.com/#!/SIGG_NA

3.  Comment on this post:  Tell me what action you’ve done to enter and what you are doing to help the planet?

Entry for drawing ends at midnight PST on March 12, 2012.  Winner will be notified via email. 

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it’s not.  – Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

Earth Day

“There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth.  We are all crew.”  ~Marshall McLuhan, 1964

Red Worms Compost Bin

In celebration of Earth Day this year, my family has made major changes to our lifestyle from eco-friendly cleaning and personal products to supporting local and organic and recycling as much as we can.  The newest addition to our eco practices is vermicomposting aka red worms.

$20 for a pound of fresh red worms and we made our own bin.  Drilled holes for ventilation.  Added a nice comfy bed of damp newspapers and the best food a worm could ask for:  my veggie scraps from juicing.  Even creatures as small as worms can be picky.  The class I took on composting suggested that I separate their “living room” from their “dining room” and warned us that they might try to escape the bin the first couple of days.  Sure enough they did try to escape.  I woke up the next morning with a cluster of worms hanging off the lid of the bin.  I learned the worms not only had to get used to their surroundings but also the food they were being fed.  These worms apparently don’t know how lucky they are to get organic food scraps   The solution?  Put them back and keep the lid off and force them to stay down because they don’t like light.  About two days later, they stayed down.  They even started to migrate to the dining room.  A quart of food should take about two weeks to be eaten during the initial break in period.  I check back in a week and surprisingly found a tiny bit of food left over.  I knew they would love the organic scraps Can’t wait til they ramp up their appetites and eat faster and poop more cause I need those castings for my garden that I’m attempting to grow.  Crossing my fingers that the compost will balance out my brown thumb.

Here’s some pics from our visit with Mother Earth today:

Did you hug a tree today? We barely got our arms halfway around this big redwood tree.

Mommy, the moss tickles me.

A simple little beauty.

Lunch time for this bug.

The best thing about Earth Day is receiving this note from my 7yr old.   Upon returning home from teaching 7am class today, I find this note she made me before she left for school.  I am so proud to say that Jasmine is the recycling monitor in our house.  The pic she dug up was taken when she was just 2 yrs old.  I remember a near meltdown she had when she was 3.  We were at starbucks for a hot chocolate treat and after finishing the drink, she refused to throw away the cup because it had the recycling triangle on it.  I told her they didn’t have any recycling bins there for these cups and suggested she put it in the trash instead of leaving it on the table.  She refused.  I told her we can’t leave it lying there.  She refused.  I couldn’t believe I was having this conversation with her and having to explain that it’s worse to leave our trash lying around.  Before the meltdown began, I asked her if she would be ok with us taking the cup home to our recycling bin. Whew!  Fast thinking!  Thank you caffeine for kicking in when I needed it

“There is hope if people will begin to awaken that spiritual part of themselves, that heartfelt knowledge that we are caretakers of this planet.”  ~Brooke Medicine Eagle

Love your Mother starting NOW otherwise we might be singing this:

Oh Beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain,
For strip-mined mountain’s majesty above the asphalt plain.
America, America, man sheds his waste on thee,
And hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily sea.
~George Carlin