we're back! did you miss us?

We missed us!

How did it happen? Somehow the Sew Greeney goodness kind of petered out last year, and I think I can speak for all the contributors when I say this, but um, well, I was kind of busy and sort of let it slide.

But that's all in the past! We've regrouped and reorganized, and we are planning some fun new stuff for the summer. The Sew Green contributors list will finally include a dude (dude!), and we're hoping to have old friends come back and visit with guest posts from time to time as well.

If you don't already know us, the Sew Green contributors are a group of artists, crafters and designers. Some of us are also scientists, parents, gardeners, musicians, and a great number of other things, in our daily lives. We're trying do all that we do in ways that are more sustainable, and that's what we write about here (especially the art, craft and design part). It's important to all of us to not just make our own daily lives and work better, but to change the larger systems we live in to be more sustainable as well - though we all do it differently, from art to activism.

Be looking for weekly posts this summer, and let us know what else you want to see here. You can also follow our regular tidbits on Twitter. Thanks for sticking with us, or for coming by to check us out!

the price of food

i grew up in LA.
we were not the farmers market shopping, canvas bag toting, family biking type of family. it surprises me when i think back on it...
my mom was from germany and gravitated towards those things.
she always stopped at the roadside stands on the coast for strawberries & green beans wrapped neatly in white butcher paper.
she bought pasta and cheese at the italian grocer who flirted with my shy, soft-spoken, red-headed mother who always had at least 2 kids in tow.



i care an awful lot about what i eat.
although i am not the chef of the house,
we are always trying to buy (& grow) all organic, local produce.



my partner and i had a long discussion about a blog that he read
which has received a lot of press called $5 dinners.



we couldn't get over how much praise she was getting for making cheap dinners with little regard (nutrition is mentioned) to the quality of food that she was feeding her children.



now,
i totally understand that many families need to cut costs during these tough economic times, some have fewer choices than others,
but there is a cost/benefit depending on where you decide to cut.
i couldn't find on $5 dinners where she usually buys her food, but if she is buying most things on sale or with a coupon at prices, such as chicken breasts, sliced ($1.66), i think it's fair to make the assumption these are mass-produced items.
is this really the meat you want to feed your kid?

certainly you pay a price for buying cheap.

how can feeding the cheapest quality food to kids (or yourself) be the best way to cut cost? yet americans will cut food costs before they cut cable (also here).

my point is not to criticize this woman for trying to keep costs down
but rather to question why cost is the most important consideration.
i also want to emphasize that it is always important to recognize the place (and priviledge) from which our perspectives evolve.
not everyone has access to the same foods or the same choices.
i speak directly about those who DO have those choices.
if you are on the internet, blogging about food and what your family eats, then i think you have a certain responsibility to your readers.

i would argue for taking local vacations, cutting cable, your second car, or unlimited texting on your mobile but not sacrificing the quality of food.

as my partner put it,
the sacrifice that $5dinners talks about is only temporary... real sacrifice is sustainable...it has to be or we (or our children) will wind up here again.

we'd love to hear your thoughts.
xo

note: this was cross-posted here.

"If you need it get it. If you don't need it - forget it." -- Thelma May Beets b.1918

Over breakfast this morning I read my girls a really inspiring article in today's LA Times - memories of survivors of the Great Depression.

The children of those times learned things that they would remember for the rest of their lives. They discovered how to make endless pots of soup, how to use corncobs for fuel, how to make undergarments from bleached feed sacks. They learned the value of a wild imagination and honest neighbors.
They were good lessons.

You can read the article in its entirety here as well as images, and very moving audio from the interviews conducted.



cross-posted at twogreenchickens and jumilla bugs

book review: fruitless fall

wanted to recommend fruitless fall by rowan jacobsen to you all. the book is about the honey bee and colony collapse disorder (CCD), which is a serious threat to the honey bee (and therefor to life as we know it). while the topic is frightening and depressing, jacobsen managed to completely engage me in his book. almost every page is filled with fascinating information about bees and pollination and how bees are essential to us for so many reasons. even the more scientific info is really accessible.

i recommend reading this book in conjunction with the omnivore's dilemma, because CCD is almost certainly caused by the effects of industrial agriculture. for me it reiterates the urgent need to transform our broken agricultural system. in fruitless fall, jacobsen examines the myriad of factors that have been considered in trying to figure out why CCD is happening. in the end, CCD is mostly likely due to a combination of factors including:

*pesticide, herbicide and fungicide use (and the complete lack of studies on how various pesiticides, etc. react/combine with each other to become potentially exponentially more harmful) (pesticide use is probably the most influential factor. did you know pesticide safety is determined by test results reported BY THE PESTICIDE MAKERS!)
*the transport of hives (trucked cross country and flown between countries)
*bees forced to feed on monocrops (like almonds)
*habitat loss (lack of competition with wild bees, lack of varied nutrient sources)
*use of corn syrup to feed bees
*climate change
*development of wild and farm land (blocks flower scents)
*noise
*possibly even the structure of traditional bee boxes.

jacobsen goes into detail about how all of the above affects the honey bee, and i think you will be surprised by a lot of what you learn about these factors and how they interrelate.

so good! now i want to read some books he recommends, including the forgotten pollinators.

let me know what you think/thought of the book!

bee links
pollinator partnership
bee spotter

cross-posted at mecozy

box of food links

(photo of the excellent book fatal harvest, from the chapter where they talk about CSAs)

i find myself getting more and more into food/farm books/issues. here are some good links i've come across lately:

civil eats "promotes critical thought about sustainable agriculture and food systems as part of building economically and socially just communities." (i also love their logo.)

local harvest is a great place to find sustainable farms and CSAs near you.

organic consumers association is a politically-focused site that posts great articles (from various sources). their millions against monsanto page is super informative and important. you can watch the documentary, the world according to monsanto here. i have only watched part of it, but that part was chilling and infuriating.

and finally, some action! if you are interested in getting america to move toward a more sustainable agriculture, you can sign a petition to get some good folks in beneath the agriculture secretary: food democracy now's sustainable dozen.

(cross-posted on mecozy)

last-minute ornaments

(posted today at f.pea)



Last year I first tried my hand at making some découpage ornaments.

This is a fancy French way of saying that I glued some stuff on glass balls from the store. Sadly, the balls weren't hand-felted from locally-raised sheeps' fleece or anything like that, they were just on sale after Christmas. Glass (or glass-like) ornaments also turn up in the thrift stores right after Christmas, which is a good way to both be more green, and to stock up if you're one to plan holiday projects 11 months in advance.

Anyhow, last year I really had a great time with it, and decided to do it again this year. This is a fun project for one evening at home with some hot chocolate and a new album of holiday songs. It's a very kid-friendly project, as well. I'd love to see versions made from kids' drawings!

Last year I made a set of Darth Vader ornaments for a friend, made with dark purple glass balls, and Vader pictures from a comic book. This year I decided to use drawings I'd done myself of little crafty scenes, and a couple of boxes of silver balls, to make ornaments as little gifts for my friends.

Here's everything you need for this project:



1. A box of ornaments; 2. A set of small drawings (small enough to fit on your ornaments, which is pretty small); 3. Mod Podge glue and a paintbrush for applying it; 4. Colored pencils or crayons; 5. Scissors; 6. Glitter (optional, but why would anyone skip the glitter??).

Just color the little pictures and cut them out carefully. Don't use markers to color them - the glue could make the colors run. Crayons or colored pencils work best. When trimming the pictures, I like to cut away as much white space as I can - this eliminates paper wrinkles when you glue them onto the ornaments.



Paint the back of a picture with Mod Podge, and then carefully place it on the ornament. Don't worry if it doesn't lie flat at first. Paint over the top of the picture, smoothing it down as you go. There will probably be some minor wrinkles - just try to keep them in the blank spaces rather than in the drawing itself. Flatten them down with the handle of your paintbrush, and make sure that everything is lightly and smoothly painted over with glue.

Sprinkle lightly with glitter. Really, a light touch is plenty here. The ones I did when I was generous with the glitter don't look half as good.

That's it! You can do a whole box of ornaments on one mug of hot chocolate if you're quick.



====
Okay Sew Greeners, I know you can come up with some ways to make this project even greener. I've been thinking about greener sources for the ornaments themselves (the thrift store, your attic...). What else could I do to make this a more eco-friendly project in the future??

Green Giving :: For the Kids

December has arrived, and Advent has begun in our house. The countdown to Christmas is a tradition brought from my own childhood where we would be rewarded daily with a new picture to discover behind the flap of a paper Advent calendar. In an effort to minimize "stuff" - and inspired by Stephanie - we made a move to a homemade "experiential" calendar a couple of years back, where every night would bring us a new activity. Build a Fort. Take a Walk to look at the neighborhood lights. Have breakfast for dinner. Write letters to Santa. Lie in the backyard and look at the stars. We tucked these ideas, written down on paper, into numbered miniature stockings I made out of felt and hung by the chimney with care.

There are many great ideas for handmade advent calendars to be found. A few from flickr:

1. first, 2. advent calendar, 3. Baby sock advent calendar..., 4. Advent garland, 5. Advent calendar for the boy, 6. advento, 7. advento, 8. stockings 1234, 9. Advent calendar, 10. advent calendar, 11. stockings_1234, 12. advent calendar


and more at the Creative Advent Calendars group.


And this great pattern over at the Purl Bee.





Another source of holiday inspiration, the New American Dream website is chalk-full of ideas. I find myself rereading many of the articles this time of year. A good start here.

abundance and revolution

Last night I watched this documentary on PBS about the Karuk tribe of California. They live along the Klamath River. The logging companies and the federal government’s fire suppression policies have almost destroyed the Karuk. The Karuk cannot gather their medicinal plants, make their traditional foods, practice their ceremonies, etc. like they used to, because the landscape, their home, has been altered so much. Fire suppression and the planting of fir trees has almost wiped out many of the native plants in the area. This also affects the river water (fir trees drain the water) and thus affects salmon and other river flora and fauna.

The Karuk believe that the earth provides everything we need. Watching this documentary, I recognized a lot of similarities between the Karuk’s values and those of the Slow Food movement. There is an understanding that ecology and culture are inextricable, and that the only way to maintain cultures is to respectfully and correctly manage the environment. This is also the only way the earth will continue to provide for us. This kind of value system is not an economic one, but a subsistence one.

Now when we’re in this big economic crisis, I think these values are vital for us to ponder. When we don’t trust that the earth and our community will provide for us all, we become greedy and we try to figure out ways to produce/extract as much stuff as possible at any cost. {As an example, industrial agriculture plants monocultures of crops, because in the short term that is the easiest way to produce a lot of food. This ruins the soil fertility however, which will not only make the land unproductive, but also endangers surrounding communities because the soil won’t absorb water. Thus when there is a flood, it is far more devastating. There are tons of examples how overuse like this not only leads to depletion of resources and the obliteration of biodiversity but also makes us much more susceptible to flood, fire, hurricane damage.}

In the book Plenty, the co-author imagines what the part of Canada he lives in looked like before Columbus. The abundance of animal and plantlife described struck me. Our earth has become and is fast becoming less and less abundant because of our incorrect management of the environment, our shortsighted overuse/exploitation of resources and our blindness (or willfull ignoring of) how we are connected to all creatures and plants. In the focus on profit, we (industrial societies) are killing cultures, we are killing plant and animal species, we are endangering lives by making communities more vulnerable to natural disasters, we are polluting water. The list goes on and on.

I worry that in hard economic times, people will look to the short-term solutions that (the agriculture, oil, etc.) industries offer, instead of re-evaluating our capitalist value system. But I hope having a visionary leader (in America) who seems to want us to fight for community and for what is right, might inspire us to work towards just and respectful ways of living on and sustaining this earth and the earth's abundance.

Cross-posted on Mecozy.

to the next farmer in chief

a teacher of mine tipped me off to this rad article by michael pollan to our president-elect.

bicycle built for 2 (or 3)

cross posted at twogreenchickens

We are lucky that our situation allows us to be a one car family. My husband rides his bicycle / public transit to work daily, and after we walk the "big sister" to school, I try to use my bike, with the "little sister". She is growing though - and the trailer seems a bit too small these days.

So looking into a "longbike: for carrying the kids - and cargo.

These bicycles are becoming increasingly popular - and in turn more choices are becoming availalbe. Yesterday's Los Angeles Times weighed out some pros and cons. (You can find the article here.)

What I am looking at:

$1199 Xtracycle Radish


$895 KONA Ute longtail


$900 Yuba Mundo Cargo bicycle

Commuting by bicycle? Lots of info at 1 World 2 Wheels.

placemaking

cross posted at jumilla bugs

1. stop, look, listen

2. make the most of what you've got

3. offer people a place to sit

4. think small for big results

5. enjoy more time out in public

6. rediscover the front yard

6. tear down fences

from The Great Neighborhood Book by Jay Walljasper

do it yourself oil changes

hi all... my dad wanted to post this article on green tips for changing your car's oil! [i know ideally we all wouldn't have cars, or cars that run on gasoline, but i think that part of what we can do as concerned folks is do the best we can with what we have and can afford]

it's from the union of concerned scientists - their website is actually a huge wealth of knowledge

here's the article on greener oil changes .

i'm actually due for one....

new architectural materials

an architect friend sent me this link to a lecture by Blaine Brownwell .

the lecture is really great - he talks about new materials for buildings [like windows that actually house solar panels with in them instead of having to place panels as an add on]. and then goes through a litany of recycled, re-purposed products [a cool lamp out of drinking straws]. it's really cool.

watch the video

Dwell - How Green are You contest

AIA & Dwell Magazine have a how green are you contest going. Entries are accepted through June 30th [so you have a few days!]. all you have to do:

1) Pull together up to 4 images of your green or sustainable project, please include photo credits if the shots are not taken by you.
2) Write a simple yet specific 250 word description of the project highlighting the most important aspects of the project. You may include material names, vendors, etc.

First place is $1000 and 2 runners up get $500. not a bad deal m'thinks.

click here to enter.....

Your House Without You

Have you seen this? Guess how many years it would take for your home to disappear - then watch...



And that seems to be not withstanding all the stuff that would be in your house.

From the site for Alan Weisman's new book, The World Without Us.

green AND Greener

Our friends Alegre and Sean have realized their dream of a brick and mortar location. Come join in the fun!


Green and Greener Grand Opening
June 10, 2008 10:00am - 6:00pm
Eco-living general store and design center, Green and Greener opens its first physical retail location at 4838 Laurel Canyon Boulevard, Valley Village 91607. There will be a grand opening eco-living inspired art show (until July 10th), free gift with every purchase on the 10th and an on-going 10% off discount if you don't drive to the store. Bike rack located in front of the store and public transportation map available here. Regular hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-6pm.