Posts Tagged ‘holiday tips’
Trees are your best antiques. ~ Alexander Smith
January 9th, 2010 | 
Author: 
Well, maybe not these.
My brother, who lives in Brooklyn, sent these photos through his iPhone as he was taking his dog out for a run. As much as I love New York, one image that always sticks with me are the piles of garbage that line the streets almost every evening. When he went out the other morning, garbage pickup day had a little more festive ring to it.
(more...)
Posted in air - land - quality of life, food and consumer products | 
Tags: Christmas trees, holiday tips, New York | 
No Comments »
Next Year, Babysit a Tree!
So it's the day after Christmas, and hopefully your tree will last till New Year's Day, or if you have some Armenian or Eastern European blood in you, it will hold out until January 6. I do not have a problem with buying a live tree, as long is it is mulched by the city, or you pay the local Boy Scout troop a few bucks to have them recycle it for you. Plus my impression of most Christmas tree farms is that they are run by small business owners who care about the land and are responsible. I was, however, educated about an entrepreneur who has a fantastic idea: renting trees.Scott Martin has found a budding market in Los Angeles for his rented trees. He operates a web site, The Living Christmas Company, where customers can select from several tree varieties and then rent them for three weeks. The prices range from $50 for a Charlie Brown-sized tree to $185 to something more appropriate for the White House. Martin's business is a winner all the way around: he hires adults with disabilities, will haul away Goodwill donations, recycles used Christmas wrapping, and his fleet of delivery trucks run on biodiesel.
Launched as a pilot program in 2008, Martin, a landscape architect by trade, rented about 500 this year. Let's hope his business surges even more during 2010.
Merry Christmas! Holiday Cards, Part 2
Finally, it's that day off to spend family and loved ones. Or, if you don't celebrate Christmas, it's a great day to indulge in all the new movies released today. Enjoy!
Here are some final holiday cards sent off here and there . . .
Halla-san, Cheju Island, Korea
Posted in art and culture, food and consumer products |
Tags: holiday cards, holiday tips |
No Comments »
Holiday Cards, Part 1
It's Christmas Eve, so GreenGoPost is in Northern California visiting family.
As I mentioned on December 1, I had heaps of old post cards that were never sent. Well, they have been doctored up: enjoy!
I visited Monticello a few times. I think TJ's house looks better spruced up for the holidays.
Posted in art and culture, food and consumer products |
Tags: holiday cards, holiday tips |
No Comments »
Holiday Cards, Part 0.5 – Washington, DC
One of the most beautiful cities in the world is Washington, DC. It feels like a national capital with all the huge buildings and monuments, and you can focus on them during your visit, because the city is not littered with billboards (LA, take note). If you happen to be there in winter when it snows, you are in for a treat . . . monochromatic winter tones await.DC has respectable public transportation thanks to Metro, but the best way to see the city is to put on your walking shoes and walk from Union Station, to the Capitol, along the National Mall, then up to the White House. Enjoy the neighborhoods of Northwest, starting with U Street/Cardozo, weave your way through DuPont, Adams-Morgan, and the post neighborhoods of Northwest DC. Be sure to walk up Massachusetts Avenue, then traipse through Georgetown, finally winding your way to the Lincoln Memorial. The walking tour takes about, oh, 10.5 hours but is worth it.
Seeing DC will eventually be easier once the new streetcars are up and running . . . they are currently running on time in . . . the Czech Republic. (more...)
Posted in art and culture, food and consumer products, transportation |
Tags: holiday cards, holiday tips, public transportation, Washington DC |
No Comments »
Designing Outside the Box
Holidays are a wonderful time, especially if children are in the mix. You’d have to be a complete curmudgeon if you’re not moved when a child gets that gift he or she always wanted. The 1983 classic, A Christmas Story, sums it up best when Ralphie blurts out his desire for an “Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle,” which saved his holiday after his humiliating debut in his pink bunny suit.
Ralphie almost shot his eye out, which hardly seems a danger now considering scares involving children’s toys the last few years. Furniture is not much better: volatile organic compounds (VOCs), medium density plywood (MDF), chemicals in plywood, and petroleum-based compounds that go into furniture components are all just one reason we should be concerned about the air we breathe. (more...)
Just 24 More Days
We'll have some holiday fun this month as we countdown to that ultimate holiday celebration . . . it's great to celebrate the season, while over-spending, over-eating, and over-stressing. You have plenty of sites telling you how unsustainable Christmas and the holidays are, so I won't pester you by lecturing how bad all those holiday traditions are for the planet.I'll tell you what we're doing to give our Christmas a little more tinge of green:
The Definitive Holiday Eco-Viewing Guide
Happy Thanksgiving! It's the start of a month of holiday merriment and madness, so enjoy! I offer no lecturing about that antibiotic ridden turkey, the BPA hiding in the lacquer that makes the gourds in your table centerpiece shimmer, nor the evils of excess packaging. Today I encourage you to watch the following classic holiday specials that also impart timeless messages about sustainability.
(more...)
Posted in International, art and culture |
Tags: Absolutely Fabulous, Clueless, holiday tips, Keeping Up Appearances, South Park, Ugly Betty |
No Comments »
One More Week Until T-Day!
It's that time of year again: the season for excess and debauchery, and hopefully, quality time with friends and family. I am not going to preach any holiday tips, nor have I looked at any "green" web sites, because I can only imagine the wrist slapping over all these not-so-sustainable practices. What I will do is discuss what we do during the holidays--sustainable yet sensible, of course--and we'll have some fun while we're at it. (more...)
Posted in food and consumer products |
Tags: holiday tips, Los Angeles, Lynne Rossetto Kasper, organic, Thanksgiving |
1 Comment »
A Happier Halloween!
Halloween holds a special place in my heart—my birthday is close to the holiday, so growing up, my mother often had very creative ideas for my Halloween-themed birthday parties . . . I remember one birthday party where we made individual caramel apples, using licorice, of course, for those 70s moustaches. Years later, in my mid-20s, I put dry ice in fruit punch for a cool “witches brew” effect. When I lived in Korea, my friend Janet threw a party to remember, featuring bobbing for apples, and we wore army uniforms that I had salvaged from a pile of unwanted clothes at the lobby of my apartment building. (more...)
Posted in air - land - quality of life, art and culture, food and consumer products |
Tags: conservation, consumption, Halloween, holiday tips |
2 Comments »