Purple Lab + Closet Couture

You can enter to win a makeup wardrobe from Purple Lab on Closet Couture here.
Prize: $300 (first), $100 (second), or $50 (third) of Purple Lab makeup!
Enter by: May 1, 2010
Other details: You hafta sign up for Closet Couture and "follow" Purple Lab in Closet Couture.

You can see my entry here.

Win win!

So for those of you looking forward to summer ( like meeeeeeeeeeeeeee! ) you can win a pair of REUSE shorts from denim debutante!

[Material] things I love (in no order because I love them all so much I can't even chose):
1. REUSE jeans (eco friendly!!!)
2. Denim Debutante (just plain AWESOME) blog
3. Dessert
4. Seafood
5. ok, all sorts of clothes.
6. all sorts of web comics
7. this list is becoming a little ridiculous, I am going to stop.

Jasmere.com is pretty awesome. They offer lesser-known businesses the opportunity to sell their merchandise at a highly discounted price (up to 70% off) on jasmere.com . Why is that an opportunity? This way, lesser-known companies get AWESOME exposure AND consumers can try new products for much MUCH cheaper than they normally would, all guilt-free! Even better, jasmere picks only high-quality retailers. Example: REUSE jeans - jeans that are 80% made from jean SCRAPS from CHINA! Talk about environmentally friendly! Or Amella... I didn't believe in gourmet caramels until I tried them! I have LOVED everything I bought from jasmere... I wish I bought more of some things!

That said, jasmere needs help ASAP:
"Help us get on Martha Stewart's show and you could win $150 in jasmere credit. All it takes is a quick email to television@marthastewart.com ("bcc" to info@jasmere.com). If we get invited on, *everyone* who participated this effort will get $25 in jasmere credit. Click for details: http://www.jasmere.com/martha . Drawing tomr night at 10pm Eastern, so don't delay! Let's show Martha the power of jasmere's community. Woo hoo!"

If you haven't signed up for jasmere yet, please please PLEASE use my referral link: http://www.jasmere.com/referral/777779e4

Let's all get $25 jasmere credit!!!!!!!!!!!!

In honor of the upcoming earth day, I'm posting about a few misconceptions some people in the general public have about being eco-friendly.

1. You cannot "make up" for an environmental misdeed with an environmental good. For example, you cannot "make up" for driving an SUV by recycling and using reusable bags at the supermarket. That's ridiculous and not how resources work. (That's like trying to make up for murdering someone by giving money to charity.) If you're not environmentally perfect, take responsibility for it! If you drive an SUV or drive a lot in general, know and understand that you're killing the environment and no amount of recycling you do can offset that. Own up.

Every little bit of environmental good helps (so keep recycling and using reusable bags, that's good) and every little bit of environmental bad hurts. However, driving is a LOT of environmental bad, not just a little bit.

2. In most places, you can't recycle anything with food stains on it. That's why you can't recycle used pizza boxes. Where I live, we're asked to rinse out any plastic containers before recycling them. Putting things in the recycling that have food stains on them when your local recycling plant can't handle them causes a lot of problems. Don't sabotage the recycling program!

You can yell at Starbucks for not offering recycling all you want, but the fact is you probably can't recycle those coffee cups anyway! The best way to minimize the environmental impact of your coffee is to bring in a reusable mug (and, of course, get "organically grown" coffee). Go a step further and bring Tupperware (or any reusable containers) to restaurants if you know you're going to take leftovers home (most restaurants appreciate not having to give you Styrofoam).

You can also suggest to your local cafe to use compostable/biodegradable plates/utensils/napkins/cups. That will make things a little greener.

3. You can't recycle plastic bags or Styrofoam in regular single-stream recycling. I don't care if it has the recycle triangle symbol on it. You can't put it in regular recycling.

4. Reusing is better than recycling. No contest. It takes energy to recycle (electricity and water to run the recycling plant, etc), especially plastics (see Wikipedia). Obviously, reusing does not take extra energy.

Now that I made some people feel bad about themselves, I'll join the self-consternation party and list my most heinous environmental misdeeds:
1. I take long, hot showers :(
2. I eat a lot of meat :(
3. I consume a lot of everything (food, clothes, makeup, electricity, etc)
4. I do ride in a car sometimes, approximately 3 or 4 times a month.

I'll keep trying to be better.