Living in San Diego for 9 years and not having a true winter I didn’t really realize what I was missing out on.  Fall has always been my favorite season and I missed it very much because I love when the leaves change colors and turn a deep orange or red.  But what I didn’t realize was how much I missed spring and how much I love it.  I might even have to switch my favorite season to spring!

Lately, as I’ve walked my dog Yama I’ve started to notice the world coming to life.  The birds are back and happier than ever.  They sing almost all day to impress each other in hopes of finding a mate. The males are all dressed up for the ladies with their red chests and couldn’t look better.  The other birds that have already paired off are working hard to build their nests.  In fact, the other day I say a magpie carrying the biggest branch, that’s right I said branch.  He swayed up and down, side to side, trying to take that thing back to his nest but couldn’t muster up the strength after almost running into a car and had to give up.  Even the weeds the grounds crew of my apartment work so hard to get rid of have already made their first appearance, breaking through the rocks in hopes of soaking up the warm sun.  I thought the late snow we got last week would surly spoil their early rise but sure enough, here they are, greener than ever.

It’s not only the birds and the weeds, the trees are budding like crazy and look like any day they will have leaves.  A tree outside of my sisters house was swarming with thirsty bees trying to get to the early nectar.  If you stand quietly all you hear is buzzing, it’s amazing!

Today, I drove with my window down, soaked up the heat and loved every minute of it.  I wanted to just keep driving.  As I’m writing this, it’s still sunny and warm.  My heater hasn’t kicked in all day and people are out enjoying the sun.  I even played basketball with my nieces today–come on summer, I can’t wait!

I never enjoyed all these things in San Diego.  I was spoiled by sunny, warm days and didn’t really appreciate them until now, when you get to finally kick off your boots, unzip you jacket and soak up the sun.I never experienced these sensations there was never really a dormant period.  Something is always growing, moving, or starting over in San Diego.  It’s funny what it takes to notice how much life is around you–you have to lose it first and then you notice everything!

So, spring is taking first place for me.  I’m afraid I am going to have to agree with my husband on this one and say that I love spring.  However, fall will always be amazing and without it spring wouldn’t be so breathtaking.

If you haven’t taken a minute to stop and see the new life around you stop listen, watch, and smell all the amazing things around you.  You might be surprised at what you’ve been missing all this time.  I know I was.

Montreal is a great city and they love to celebrate everything and anything.  When I was there last month the city celebrated Nuit Blanche (The White Night), to honor the arts.  It was fantastic because the city offered free access to buses, closed down streets and opened tons of shops and business to the public to experience and participate in art.  In one area we were able to draw a live model, another we listened to a young woman sing with her guitar, outside a cafe we watched performance art in the middle of the street, it was amazing!

One of the best places we stopped was in an operating printing press.  People were invited to listen to music, enjoy food, and take part in decorating the room.  Each person was giving an old record and a etching pen.  From there you were able to etch any design you wanted onto the record and then take it over to the printing press where they covered it with ink, pressed the design on to a piece of paper, and then finished off the poster to hang in the room.  It was really fun and a great way to reuse material that would otherwise end up in the trash.  Don’t worry, the records weren’t good music or anything.  They were old demo records with commercials or something on them, nothing exciting.

Here are some pictures of our design….

Some other great things I ran into during the celebration…a chessboard made from recycled newspaper.  It would take some time to make but a good way to get rid of that growing pile of papers…

Last Monday I helped kick off Spring at the Mountain Mama Spring Fling Event at the Waterton Canyon Audubon Society and it was great, especially because the snow held out for us.

We had a great turn out and I was lucky to have a booth where I could showcase my products and talk to people about being Green.  With me was the great store ecoPOLITAN, which focuses on helping mom’s raise their children in a variety of different green ways with options for cloth diapers, hiking gear, and lots of other great products.

Here are some pictures from my booth…

Upcoming Events

To celebrate Earth Day, I will be participating in the GreenMarket Festival on April 17 & 18th at the MileHigh Market.  I will be giving a short presentation both days at 11am and 2pm.  Come and join me, it should be a great event and I will be giving away a free Green Home Makeover.  Stop by and say hi!

Inaugural GreenMarket Festival to Teach Sustainable Skills and Highlight Green Products in Unique Two-Day Event

Denver, CO – March 15, 2010 –To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, Mile High Marketplace, Denver’s only year-round, outdoor, value-conscious shopping and entertainment destination, will launch its first GreenMarket Festival April 17-18, 2010,
to provide Denver residents with a convenient and low-cost option to “go green” at this family-friendly event.

GreenMarket Festival features will include:

•    Drop-off areas for free consumer recycling of home electronics, paint, auto batteries and clothing from 7-3 pm daily (first come basis)
•    Free confidential paper shredding
•    Hard drive shredding for $5.00
•    Festival exhibitors open from 9-5
•    A chance to win a trip for two to San Francisco and passes to two national parks

Applications are still being accepted for exhibits that highlight wind power, solar power, water purification, green construction, forest preservation, water conservation, organics and other products that promote recycling and sustainable living.

Media partners include KBCO radio 97.3, KQMT radio 99.5 The Mountain, Comcast Cable and local ABC television affiliate KMGH, channel 7, whose Weather Experience booth will allow guests to experience the process of anchoring a live weathercast.

GreenMarket Festival will also host live entertainment on the Bands for Lands Edutainment Stage sponsored by Mile High Synthetic Turf and Aplenglo Solar. Established in 1996, Bands for Lands is a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to communicating the message and practice of sustainability, conservation, and social awareness through music, the creative arts, inspirational speakers and educators.

Festival exhibitors providing information and education include Colorado Tree Coalition, CUBS Bags, Gone for Good, Green Earth Environmental, Highland Water, Queen of the Meadow Natural Skin Care, SomeKinda Logging and Wildlands Restoration Volunteers to name a few. Annette Haugh of Green Irene will present 20 Ways to Go Green: An easy to follow plan that will help the environment and your pocketbook.

“America is shifting to a green culture and most environmentally savvy families are trying to do their part to help preserve our environment. We want to help by showing them how to live green on a budget,” said Jim Hurrell, CEO of Mile High Marketplace.

He and his team are building GreenMarket Festival to be more than a weekend showcase for energy-efficient and unique green or recycled products. “We’ll be providing an environment that teaches concerned citizens how to conserve cash as they practice environmental conservation,” Hurrell said.  “The GreenMarket Festival is the kick-off to the ongoing green initiative of Mile High Marketplace which will offer many recycling and sustainable living options for guests in the coming year.”

Kids, too, will have access to easy-to-understand and fun tools for learning about “being green” and other aspects of healthy living. Free seedlings will be given to those who want to try organic gardening at home (while quantities last).

The GreenMarket Festival will be held at the new event center complex at Mile High Marketplace, located just ten minutes from downtown Denver at I-76 and 88th Ave.  Admission is $3.00 per person with kids 12 and under being admitted free.  Admission also gives access to 80 acres of additional shopping, food and family fun, including kids’ rides and live entertainment.

About Mile High Marketplace
Mile High Marketplace is the largest and only local year-round, outdoor, value-conscious shopping adventure and entertainment destination.  Offering a diverse, different and “discovery” experience every time, this true marketplace is anchored by five eclectic yet complementary “markets:” a flea market, farmer’s market, shops, antiques and events.  For more information visit the Web site at www.milehighmarketplace.com or via phone at 303 289-4656.

How to Claim your 2009 Green Efforts

I can’t believe it’s already tax season.  Ahh, time to sit down and organize all those receipts and notes you wrote to yourself over 2009 and reflect on how much money you spent and what you can and can not write off- a lovely Sunday chore.

If you’ve made efforts to be green in 2009 chances are that you will get a break on your taxes.  If you participated in the Cash for Clunkers program this summer, your $3,500 or $4,500 rebate is not considered taxable income, hooray!  Also, if you bought or upgraded your car to a hybrid model you are eligible for a Energy Tax credit.  If you’re thinking about getting a hybrid and want to take advantage of the credit make sure you buy one in 2010 because this will be the last year for eligibility.

If you went one step further and purchased a plug-in vehicle in 2009 you might be able to get a big tax break.  Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 if you have a plug-in vehicle with a capacity of at least 4 kilowatt hours you can qualify for a credit of $2,500.  For each kilowatt hour of battery above this you might be able to add $417 to credit with a maximum of $7,500- that could really help out!

Aside from car purchases, you might be able to claim upgrades and improvements you completed in your house, which could give you up to $1,500 of tax credit.  You may qualify if you installed new insulation, weather stripping, a new energy efficient roof, or even if you switched to CFL bulbs.  You can go to the Energy Star website and put in your zip code and figure out what rebates you are eligible for.

Here is an example of what is available to claim in Littleton….

Special Offers and Rebates Search Results

The links below will take you to Web sites external to the energystar.gov domain.

You may be eligible for federal tax credits if you make energy-efficient improvements to your home. Read more about federal tax credits for energy-efficient improvements

There’s not that much time left but hurry to the Gap with your old denim. From March 5-14th the Gap will be taking your old denim and converting it into natural fiber insulation for communities in need… plus you get 30% off new jeans if you donate your old hole-y/ripped up/too big/too small ones!

Read more about it on the cotton website and on the CaraGreen website (insulation manufacturer)

A Guest Blog From Erika of  The 30 Something Beauty Blog

In my early twenties make up was a source of creative expression, a celebration of the feminine, and a really cool hobby. But then things changed, in my mid-twenties I became very passionate about environmental issues and animals right. I started to learn all about the toxins in my makeup and all the horrible animal testing that they did to make these products that I gained so much pleasure from. I was totally horrified. So, I started searching for products that would meet my eco and animal friendly expectations. Unfortunately, finding products that met my needs and didn’t irritate my sensitive skin was way more challenging then I thought it would be. So, I pretty much gave up. I occasionally (embarrassingly enough) used the makeup I still had from early 20s when I really needed it for special occasions (consequently it held up pretty well — which makes you wonder what they put in it to give it such a long shelf life). But, for the most part I got away with some sunscreen, some natural lip gloss and mascara.

When I hit my 30s things started to get a little more complicated. I was diagnosed with Rosacea, making my already sensitive skin more challenging to work with. You can’t get away with lip gloss and sunscreen when you hit your 30s, believe me, I pushed it as far as I could. Unfortunately, all the Rosacea skin care and makeup products I found that produced great results were not natural at all. So, I have spent the last 4 years trying to find the right skin care and makeup products that would be kind to my sensitive skin, animals and the planet. Trust me when I tell you this is a very tall order!

So, far there has been a lot of trial and error, costly mistakes, and disappointment. It has been a hard journey, but I feel like I have come a long way and learned a lot in the process. As I continue to learn, it is important to me to share with others who I know must be struggling with the same or similar challenges.

My approach to making eco-friendly choices is all about compromise. By nature, I can be a perfectionist and I wanted to get it right when I went green. I quickly learned that like many things in life, going green is about finding balance.  We are all individuals; we have to make the right choices for ourselves depending on our individual needs, what works for me may not work for you. I also learned there is never going to be a perfect solution. The very best thing that you can do is educate yourself and then make choices in awareness that are the best for you. When you are aware of the impact of your actions and choices you will not take these things lightly. So, I encourage you to learn, research, know yourself and make your best choices in awareness.

I recently discovered makeup blogs where women reviewed products, did demos and shared technique and product knowledge. I learned a lot watching these videos and reading blogs. My favorite sites are: http://www.xsparkage.com/ and http://www.youtube.com/user/Jjacks48
The blogs that I found, so far, are done by women in their early twenties or by makeup artists, and while informative, they don’t speak to the stage of life I am in. So, I thought wouldn’t it be great to start a site that would focus on makeup demos, reviews, and techniques for professional women in their late twenties and thirties with a focus on eco and animal friendly makeup and skin care. I started talking to some friends and they all loved the idea. So, this blog is the first in what I hope to be an ongoing series on a site that is being developed now. Please visit our website at Thank you!

Erika

Here is a great list of 25 ways you can go green in your home starting today.  I got this great list from Easy Green Living: The Ultimate Guide to Simple, Eco-Friendly Choices for You and Your Home by Renee Loux.

1. Clean kindly

2. Be wise with laundry

3. Choose natural personal care products and cosmetics

4. Go for recycled, naturally bleached toilet paper, paper towels, and tissues

5. Use unbleached coffee filters for a dioxin-free cup o’ joe

6. Install a water filter

7. Get a low-flow toilet, or make your existing toilet low flow

8. Don’t be a drip–fix leaky faucets and toilets

9. Kick off your shoes

10. Bring in houseplants

11. Plant a tree every year

12. Opt out of getting junk mail

13. Go veggie 1 day a week

14. Use energy-efficient lightbulbs

15. Turn the thermostat down 2 degrees

16. Set your water heater at 120 degrees F

17. Smarten your fridge and freezer.  Turn their thermostats up and make sure the seals are snug

18. Use power strips and unplug unused appliances

19. Choose green residential energy service options

20. Buy local

21. Go organic

22. Take a cloth bag or basket to the store

23. Inflate your cars’ tires to their proper pressure to save gas and money

24. Get a travel mug

25. Recycle your cell phone

You know that feeling when you go to your mailbox and you are so excited because it looks like you got a bunch of stuff and then you take it out and realize it’s all bills and junk.  I know the feeling all too well.  I don’t know why, it’s not like I have a pen pal or that people, besides my friend Katie, actually write letters anymore.

The problem with all the junk in your mail is that is is using up a lot of paper and ink and well, is unnecessary.  It’s great if you recycle this junk mail but an even better step would be to contact the businesses and tell them to stop sending you crap.  While that may seem like an overwhelmingly big task don’t worry, Catalog Choice has made it super easy for you.  All you have to do is sign up for a free account and you can remove all your unwanted catalogs and/or add the ones that you do truly care about.  Although, don’t forget that you can always view products online so if your not super attached to your catalogs try getting rid of all of them.  You’d be surprised how empty your mailbox will get.

If you miss your full mailbox start sending letters to your friends and ask them to do the same.  A much better surprise when you open your mailbox:)

Catalog Choice – Control the catalogs you receive in the mail.

If you love fashion but are concerned about the impact of looking great, check out Fashion Pulse Daily where a great list of green fashion advice will help you get on track.