Heres the video on the making of Sophie the giraffe

It's not a wonder why its so expensive, and babies sure love it. It's too bad more things weren't made with such care.

Happy Earth Day friends.

"All the peace and happiness of the whole globe, 
the peace and happiness of societies, 
the peace and happiness of family, 
the peace and happiness in the individual persons' life, 
and the peace and happiness of even the animals and so forth, 
all depends on having loving kindness toward each other." 
Lama Zopa Rinpoche

pills pills pills. lives are wrecked by them and others saved.

Have you cleaned out your medicine chest lately? I have been doing my fall cleaning and attacking one cupboard at a time and feel like its never going to end. The above bag is from my own cupboard and its larger then it looks. I was amazed by it actually. Although it has no actual pharmaceuticals in it and very few (if any) were actually bought at a "drug store/pharmacy", all drug stores will gladly toss them in their bio-hazard for us, which is wonderful as I'm sure we all know by now the environmental concerns of throwing them in the trash and flushing/ pouring them down the drain etc. with trace drug residues in our water supply/community drinking water and such.

But what do you do with tinctures/liquids and salves ? The truth is, I just don't know. And neither does anyone else seem to.

Even after speaking with two different London Drug Pharmacists, two different Choices Markets locations, and even The Recycling Council of British Columbia (click here for them- an AMAZING resource) this morning I still don't quite know for sure...

One Pharmacist when I asked what they did with liquids told me that he just sends them back to the manufacturer. Somebody else said to throw them in the garbage and to mix it (the substance) in with used coffee grounds or kitty litter, and still another person told me to just flush them. (the latter I am not willing to do). The Recycling Council dude and I had a really great conversation about lots of issues, and they really are a terrific resource. In the end on this topic he said that its really hard to mandate every single product we have/use but we are really close in BC to having to having that happen! Isn't that exciting?

In the meanwhile I'll just hang onto my tinctures until I learn of the best way to dispose of them.

If you have any suggestions feel free to pass them along. As well, I'll repost on this topic should I get the answer. Namaste.

Now heres a cool Guerrilla stunt. Its at the corner of Georgia and Thurlow.

A friend just brought a really interesting movie on plastics to my attention this morning as well. I just finished watching it and its great. It would be a wonderful little flick to show children (although its likely not the children who are the problem, its us adults.) The movie is by Ramen Bahrani. Here is the link: FUTURESTATES : Plastic Bag By Ramin Bahrani For more info on plastics and the environment go to The Plastic Pollution Coalition website here

Yay for this Richmond school!

Every single school out there should have a garden space. Even if a tiny, tiny little space is all they can have. Love these stories! Time spent out in the garden? Priceless. Working together? Priceless? Learning about plants, the environment and growing your own food? Again, absolutely priceless. And it's almost Earth Day! My community garden plot is exactly where I'll be spending mine. Its truly bliss and it's been far too long. Yay for gardening season! And Happy Earth day everyone!

Ever see The story of stuff? Its worth a watch, right along with all the other story of stuff videos.

Here are some links to some of the other Story of stuff videos

Cosmetics click HERE

Electronics click HERE

Bottled water click HERE

Cap and trade click HERE

Man invents machine to convert plastic into oil

This is amazing! A girlfriend sent this to me this morning and wow...

Read the subtitles, it's in Japanese.

Trees are just magnificent all year long. This time of year I like them best at dusk.

looks like I am re-obsessed with the garden

I just love the way things grow. All year long with no help from anyone. There is just so much beauty all around us. Doesn't matter the season. And even in January.

It's Yin out there. And it's beautiful.

Everybody likes a garden right?

Made a trip down to my community garden plot this morning to do a little clean up after being a slacker for so long. It felt good. I have been debating giving it up this year (due to guilt), knowing there are so many people on the waiting list, and we could have utilized it so much more this past year. My partner and I have officially decided that we will keep it and reprioritize things. It brings us lots of peace and joy and happiness (and food)!

These two pictures are of our plot before and after my little clean up. It still needs a lot more work. I'll add some larger shots from the garden as a whole in another post. Its really a beautiful morning out there. Hope you are enjoying your weekend!

If your days of dressing up like an elf are over for the year and you are ready to lose the tree.....

Recycle it. Don't throw it out!

This weekend (today and tomorrow, Sat Jan 8 & Sun Jan 9 from 10-4 at various locations) the City of Vancouver, along with the Lions Club and volunteers, will be chipping and mulching trees for a donation of cash and non-perishable food items (to be donated to local charities).

So if, like me, you still have your tree and need to get rid of it you can do it in an eco friendly manner, AND do a good deed at the same time!

If you are unable to do that, there are other options as well.

Heres the link for all the locations here

We'll be saying goodbye to ours tomorrow :)

I'm not a fan of new years resolutions. you?

Resolutions no, intentions YES. Specifically for the New year? Not so much. I'm more of an "as I go" type of gal. I know myself so well and for me, the second I make a resolution (a.k.a. put pressure on myself), or say "I'd never", I'll do it. haha.. And then I feel horrible..blah, blah,blah (thankfully I grew out of that, and now save myself a lot of pain)!

I strongly believe in the line never say never. How do I know what I am going to be doing when I am ninety years old? (or if I will even get to be elderly in the first place?) I am simply not a fan of beating myself up, so I try not to. At this point in my life I make choices as I go along, and am always asking myself what I want more of, and less of in my life. I am hugely blessed to be in a solid relationship (the new year will mark 10 years), where my partner and I are generally on the same page. When we're not we really try and do the right thing for both of us. That often times means compromise. Thankfully we are both pretty easy going so that isn't usually too much of an issue.

The new year still holds so much hope for so many though, and with good reason. As far as the environment, global warming etc goes, the passing of time does make a very real difference, if we don't change our ways. I think that most of us have made some big changes that do and have, made a difference (or at least I hope it has, and will continue to do so).

In many ways I suppose the new year is a fresh start. *Although it's nice to know that if you blow it, every morning thereafter is a fresh start too. Its another opportunity to to ask yourself questions and decide to bring in more of what you love, and ditch what no longer serves you (or at least limit the stuff that no longer serves you). If this post sounds a little matter of fact, I sure don't mean for it to. I would never want to imply that making changes is easy, or that life is for that matter. Quite the contrary! lol! I just find that for me, having a strong support network, admitting when I am wrong, stopping to ask myself questions along the way, and most of all asking for help, helps me. And I find (for me) that setting intentions is being much kinder to yourself. I've quit a lot of things in my life and made enormous changes in my life over the years, and it was never the result of a New Years resolution.

But hey, thats only me right? it might just be the ticket for you or someone else!

I just love that provided we have good health, each moment can be a new start in just about any direction you choose in this part of the world. We just have countless choices that those in so many other places in the world couldn't even fathom. I wish all of my friends, family and loved ones, and those in my community, and all across this miraculous planet of ours a wonderful, healthy, vital, loving, joyous and peace filled 2011. I'm ready to bring it on.

Namaste xo

Have you seen the movie HOME?

Wow is all I can say. It is just incredible. This is the most visually stunning movie I have ever seen in my life. And so informative. It is a movie about the earth. Our home.

This is the best documentary I have ever seen. Watch in full screen. Even if you were a climate change denier you will be mesmerized and will learn so much.

A link is HERE

Namaste...

Are you addicted to groupon?

I know there is groupon, swarmjam, and some others, and it's fabulous to be able to save some cash these days anyway we possibly can. I don't know too many people who aren't looking for ways to save money.

I sure am! Especially since the HST came into play!

**There is a new local group buying one called Ethical Deal. They have daily deals from local GREEN companies! It looks like the best one of them all. We can save money and not hurt the planet, and shop local! (it is Vancouver based)

The website is here

As far as yoga goes, it should never cost a fortune in my opinion, and thats why the cost of my classes are like groupon everyday. The cost of my classes on a regular basis are as inexpensive as I am allowed to make them. $9-$13 a class when you register and just a little more if you drop in.

(*And registration is on for January btw!)

Click here for The Roundhouse and here for Mount Pleasant

Happy Ethical shopping and I'll see you on the mat! ♥. ♥ .♥. ♥ .

community and garden are two really beautiful words.

Not really sure how, but my (neglected) garden plot still manages to put food on our table. I haven't been around the garden much the past few months but hey...it happens to all of us. That thing called life! Now that summer is winding down I will be making the garden much more of a priority again. Luckily for us here in BC we can garden all year long and grow much of our own food. Here are a few pics of the garden this morning. Every garden is just such a heavenly place to be. In spite of my neglect I've still got lettuce, potatos, beets, peppers, squash, basil, cilantro, thyme, parsley, chives, pumpkins, rosemary, onion...I can't even think of what else right now. Soon I will also have eggplant, and hopefully a few carrots. I am looking forward to growing garlic this year as well. Hope I don't miss the boat again on the planting of the garlic again! Really can't recommend enough, growing your own food. It is truly something I wish I started doing long ago for countless reasons.

what will be our jack-o lanterns!

Do you have a laptop?

I recently bought one. It's really more of a notebook and very similar to what's in the picture here. Small, lightweight and very inexpensive..

A macbook wasn't in my budget, although of course I would have loved one of those! But considering what I do on here my little Acer thingy is just fine for me, and we do have a lovely Mac desktop at home so we can still indulge while at home. I'm still not particularly computer saavy though (as you may notice by looking at my blog haha)

I was a late bloomer.

(I've even been known to call my ipod my walkman..haha..and thats no lie)!

Anyways, what I wanted to share here is that I recently found out that using a laptop uses 90% less energy then a desktop computer and I found that amazing. That is such a HUGE difference and definitely worth sharing. Knowing that, I plan on using my little laptop more, and my desktop a little less, as it sure can't hurt! Every little bit helps this beautiful world we live in ♥ .

Do you eat local?

This morning I read that around 900 million tons of food is shipped around the planet each year. Thats 4 times the amount that was shipped in 1961. Wow. That is staggering.
Do you try and eat local? As much as I have been slacking in my garden this year our little household really does try. We grow some of our own food and do our best to eat food that is local and in season as much as we can. I try and keep the exotic foods to a minimum (although I do love my olive oil and bananas and can not lie).

If you haven't really thought much about it before start out small. Just do what you can do, and thankfully there are farmers markets galore, community gardens, organic food delivery programs and resources of all kinds out there. And luckily for us Vancouver not only is yoga land, but it's also organic food land! Eating local is even better then buying organic food from somewhere else so why not buy fresh organic local food? Growing your own is very fun too!

Eating local not only is delicious and healthful for the environment (helps in the fight against global warming), but eating in season is really good for us from a health standpoint as well... not to mention sooo delicious.

Plus, it keeps us in touch with the seasons!

When we eat local we're helping to support our local farmers, and we're putting money back into our own economy. As well, local food is fresher and at a much lower risk of contamination due to not having to travel some crazy distance from farm to plate.

Give it a whirl and you'll see how amazing it is. The food is loaded with nutrients, delicious, and surprisingly not costly at all. You'll be doing something wonderful for you and your family, the environment, your community and your taste buds. yum!

For more information (local farmers market locations, whats in season, gardening resources etc.)

you can click here

Bon appetit!

Carbon Footprint - It's a way of measuring how much pollution is created by our activities, from driving a car to heating our homes.

Heres a little tidbit on reducing your carbon footprint

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that I picked up a little paperback book from the check out isle and how it had quite a few tips on reducing your carbon footprint that I hadn't thought of before. Just this morning while half asleep, for the very first time I was aware of how much water I was boiling for my coffee and the energy it takes to do so.

I only boiled what I needed. That may be something that most people already do, but the truth is my kettle gets filled whether I am making a cup of tea, or a pot of coffee generally. Out of habit I just fill my kettle every single morning without thinking.

From now on I plan on being more mindful of this.

The little book says that completely filling the kettle for one cup of tea releases an unnecessary 125 cups of CO2. May not seem like much of a deal but every little bit makes a difference inlightening our Carbon Footprint. I"ll keep sharing new little changes I am making on my blog. I'm of course doing all the obvious things but there is always more we can do.

Namaste.