Lovely Cards

I saw these beautiful electronic cards today at Fig and Sage and immediately fell in love. These cards are designed by Carolyn who owns ecojot a Canadian company that makes divine stationary using recycled paper and vegetable dyes...

I used to be a real hoarder of post cards (please, the ones you get at museums and antique shops...not the ones from the tourist shop)...I have been slowly using my supply...so happy to find these (as opposed to the flashing bears and balloons you typically find online)...green and gorgeous...now there is no excuse not to send a beautiful card. xxx

Have a Beautiful Weekend...xxx

Some beautiful photos to inspire you this weekend to enjoy the last of our Summer-like days and to celebrate the first day of Spring in the other Hemisphere...Happy Weekend. xxx

Images: www.vi.sualize.us

Gorgeous Eco Heroes

Glamor Magazine just published their pick of the top 70 Eco Heroes in the US. It is an impressive Who's Who of Green and includes Sara Snow, Karen Behnke (Juice Organics), Summer Rayne Oakes (author of Style Naturally), Laurie David (Founder of stopglobalwarming.com) and the list goes on......Well, I thought I should share some of Australia's Gorgeous Eco Heroes...Here are a few of mine...

Lisa Gorman has to top any list...we all love her beautiful range of organic clothes... but did you know she runs a beautifully sustainable business? Composts in the office, uses eco-friendly products in the shops, chooses green suppliers and even gives discounts to customers who ride a bike to her shop...makes me want to buy a bike...

Penelope Cohen and Emma Gathercole of Skin and Threads design a beautiful range of clothes made from organic and natural fabrics...honestly, you will just want to buy the whole range...

For the home, Murchison-Hume would have to be one of my favorite products...the glamorous Max Kater (who is also a friend - lucky me) developed this range of organic, natural cleaning products...I love the Heirloom Dishwashing Soap...so beautiful you will not want to hide it under your sink...

Then of course there is Rachel Bending of Bird Textile...beautiful hand printed fabrics using water-based dyes...plus her business is completely climate neutral...I adore her tableware, pillows, fabrics...pretty much everything...

Kate Hanson has just launched Ikigai, an organic and natural online beauty boutique...fabulous products (including my favorite natural sunless tanner by Lavera), great articles (she is also the Beauty Editor for Peppermint Magazine) ...a lovely package just arrived for me from her website this week!...

Providing us with a green alternative to Vogue, Kelley Sheenan launched Peppermint Magazine last year, Australia's first magazine devoted to green fashion and style...Next issue of Peppermint Magazine is due out soon so be sure to order a copy as the first one sold out...

Finally, when it comes to food Kylie Kwong could certainly make the Global Eco Hero list...she is an advocate for organic food and sustainable everything...she supports Oxfam, Fair Trade and Australian Marine Conservation Society...and her restaurant is always full (definitely worth the wait for a table)...She is changing the way we think about food...

Pretty inspirational group of women I think...I wonder whether the green or gorgeous came first for each of them? Let me know who else you think should be on the list. xxx

Goody Green Shoes: Stella McCartney's Organic T-Shirts for Red Nose Day

There are so many things to love about Stella McCartney...besides defining the term 'It Girl', she is a vegetarian, passionate about the environment and applies those ethics to her business...she uses no leather or fur and has just launched her first organic range of clothing...Now she has teamed up with Red Nose Day to design organic t-shirts to raise money for Comic Relief, a UK charity that helps disadvantaged people in the UK and Africa.

I love the idea of putting together the green cause with the social cause...so often fundraising has a pretty big eco footprint...think about all those gala balls (invitations, food, bottled water, imported wines, lighting, etc.), the same is true for aid concerts and even direct mail has its environmental impact...it certainly has me thinking about the charity I am involved in ...Any ideas for a goody two-shoes? xxx

Image: Red Nose Day Facebook

Beautiful Green Gift Wrapping: The Art of 'Wrapping Bling'

I went through a serious Martha Stewart phase in the 1980s...so much so I even bought an electric glue gun so I could apply dried flowers to all matter of things in order to achieve that country look in my New York Eastside apartment...While I cannot remember how to make a flower wreath, I do remember that Martha had a gift wrap room in her house.

Now while a gift wrap room is not on the top list of priorities for any extra space we have, I love the idea of a room filled with beautiful wrapping paper, bows, ribbons, perfectly sharpened left-handed scissors and a wonderful assortment of gorgeous gift cards. At Christmas, I am the type of girl that comes up with a gift wrap 'look' and all the presents are wrap-coordinated (don't laugh). Problem is that gift wrapping is just so ungreen (and outrageously expensive)...While the best things would be to leave everything unwrapped - where is the fun in that?

So here is my solution...I like to call it Wrapping Bling...

• Buy plain brown wrapping paper from the newsagent ($2.50 for an enormous roll)...figure there is no bleaching, dyes, etc. (can't find any plain recycled wrapping paper and the printed recycled paper costs a fortune)...
• Save every ribbon, button, decoration that passes through your doors...
• Ask at second hand shops for any lose baubles or buttons (aren't these ones divine? They are from Tara Frey's gorgeous blog)....
• Save old fabrics and lace for ribbons and beautiful photos from magazines
• Buy beautiful, recycled gift tags from etsy shops like Percival Road Designs....
• Then let the 5 year old kid in you out and create some serious Wrapping with lots of Bling.

I told you I am a repressed Arts and Crafts girl at heart....but I bet you you would love one of my packages...xxx

Photo courtesy of Tara Frey

I Love a Sunburnt Country: The Impact of Climate Change on our Natural Icons

Saving Australia's Special Places: The Natural Icons We Stand to Lose from a Weak Response to Climate Change. I read this report this morning...we were away for the weekend in Thredbo (the Australian Alps - though it is stretching the meaning of Alps!) for a music festival. It was so beautiful to be there in summer and take the chairlift up and walk where normally you would ski...

But, it was also incredibly sad...CSIRO has estimated that by 2050 the average length of the ski season will be reduced by 15 (low impact scenario) to 100 days (high impact scenario)...the ski season in Australia is only about 110 days...But it is not just our Alps...the WWF estimates that by 2050 less than 5% of the Great Barrier Reef will remain due to climate change, unsustainable fishing practices and coastal development...In the Australian Bush the number of extreme fire days is expected to increase by 100 to 300% by 2070...our Wine Region, Wet Tropics, Kakadu, Murray-Darling Basin, Beaches are all at risk...as are Natural Icons all over the world...I couldn't help think about what Dorothea Mackellar would think...here is a small excerpt from her poem 'My Country'.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror --
The wide brown land for me!

What if we lost it all?...I sent a postcard to Kevin Rudd today letting him know how I feel about Australia's carbon targets...go to Who On Earth Cares (part of the ACF) and send your own postcard (it takes only a few minutes)...I would love to tell my grandchildren that we helped to save the snow. How magical would that be? xxx

Pink Eyecandy for a Sydney Summer's Weekend

We are off for a long weekend....enjoy the beautiful flowers from Tanakawho at Flickr.

A Stiletto Summer: Miss Dior Cherie Commercial by Sofia Coppola

The New Miss Dior Cherie Commercial by Sofia Coppola is divine. I came across this at Pink To Green where Meg said she could live in this video...so true...While technically this is not really about being green...the girl in the video looks as if she would only wear natural make-up, her dress looks vintage chic (as do the sunnies), she only walks or rides a bike and she buys her cupcakes at the local patisserie (very few food miles)....just what I would imagine a stiletto summer to be like in Paris. Au revoir ma cherie. xxx