Earth Divas Fair Trade and Natural Fiber Bags

Good morning all! I’ve been a busy little bee lately with work and finishing up my book but now that things have settled down some I can get right back to doing reviews and I couldn’t think of a better place to start than Earth Divas!

I was contacted by these folks directly and sent a super fun, practical, functional and great looking tan bag, hand made by a talented artist in Nepal, from rapidly renewable hemp fiber.

With two very generous outside pockets in chocolate brown and three inside pockets (in addition to the main bag) I will certainly not run out of convenient spaces for my smaller items. With magnetized snaps or zippers the pockets will keep everything safely tucked away. And the bag is sturdy too.

The casual messenger style is great for me because I always have a couple checkbooks and my day planner with me so the roominess is great too.

The company is a wonderful model -- they provide free training and pay their artists direct under fair trade practices. With a 10% donation that goes right back to the artists Earth Divas claims to pay 10-25% higher than the standard labor rate, 30% above the local wage rate. At the end of the year all profits are paid direct to the artists and the owner of the company, Ed Edmundson, doesn’t even draw a salary!

The price is not outrageous for such a well made, socially responsible item either. The bag I was sent retails at $29.99 but their catalog is chock full of items that run under $20 too. The range in price does not diminish the quality or functionality however.

With so many positives -- natural/renewable fiber, social responsibility, training and encouragement of the artists, sustainability, functionality and durability -- and such a wonderful company model overall I am granting Earth Divas a Four and a Half Leaf Rating!

Now for the best part…for those of you who stuck around to read the whole review, Green Leaf Reviewer, in conjunction with Earth Divas, is doing a giveaway of one of these awesome hand made bags! That’s right and you could win it!

Here are the rules:

Get on over to the Earth Divas website.
Find your favorite bag.
Come back to GLR and leave a comment about which bag is your favorite.
Tell me why you think hemp is a smart choice for the planet.

I will be picking the winner on Tuesday July 6 at 6:00PM EST so get your votes in now and you might just find a super cute, well made, socially responsible bag on your front doorstep!

Thanks Earth Divas for helping to make this planet a better place ♥love♥

Turn Off Your ‘Shift’ Key, America by Danial Orange

A friend of mine, Dan Orange, wrote a note titled Turn Off Your ‘Shift’ Key, America and posted it for all of his friends to read over on a social networking site. It is so well done and truly embodies the spirit of what we stand for here at GLR that I immediately asked permission to repost it in its entirety here. Dan said he would be honored so without further ado, here is something we should all keep in mind every day!

This is reposted just as it was originally written**

Dear poets and poetically-minded friends,

I conjured this up on my commute to work this morning. I'd love to get some feedback.

Turn off your ‘Shift’ key, America
by Danial Orange

if we turn off our ‘shift’ key, america
instead of talking @ people, we’d have to talk 2 them.

we’d be forced to see that hatred, fear and ignorance
are problems that exist within the US
because they really exist within us.

people in our nation’s capitals
would have to pay attention to our nation’s lowercases
living in lowerplaces, earning lowerwages,
with children exposed to risk at lowerages.

we’d place more value on =
and less on having +
if we turn off our shift key, america.

with ‘shift’ on, our thoughts are all $!
switch it off and we could be all 4 1
and maybe 1 4 all.

there’d be less emphasis on “I”
if we turn off our shift key, america.

**Photo taken my moi!

The EcoBags Series -- Day Three: Reusable Canvas Bags

In the final day of our continuing series I am going to be reviewing this super sturdy canvas bag that EcoBags has sent me to try out. It is a fun bag and definitely does the job.

You probably all remember I reviewed another reusable bag in the past; for trips to the grocery store that would still be my first choice because it has the reinforced square bottom but this canvas bag from EcoBags is going right into my car so I don’t forget it when shopping for everything else!

The straps impressed me because they are long enough to go over my shoulder. Most canvas bags only provide hand held sized straps so this will be ideal when out walking around a fall festival or craft fair or even at the mall. The seams on his bag are double stitched to avoid fraying, just like their produce bags.

Also the same as with the produce bags, the more of these that are purchased, the price will come down. One bag sells for $16.00 but two or more are only $13.99 each. For a printed and unlined canvas shoulder bag I was impressed with the price point. Additionally, a portion of the purchase price is donated to the Environmental Media Association.

This is just one of many options available in the canvas bag line; the printed line alone offers twenty fun designs. All the canvas bags are created from responsibly harvested cotton and this one in particular is 100% organic.

I am a little concerned at the cost, as I have seen bags that have more pockets and a similar size selling for less.

Overall I am thoroughly excited to have my car canvas tote to ensure I never go with paper or plastic again and feel this bag is deserving of a Four Leaf Rating!

Thanks for keeping a responsible eye on the planet through use of your socially and environmentally responsible practices and products EcoBags, I can not thank you enough for the opportunity to test out your cool products! ♥love♥

I Have Heard of a Vegan But What Is A Freegan?

Right off the bat I need to say that when I typed up the title for this post in Word I had to add Freegan to the dictionary, meaning that it is such a new word that Microsoft does not even recognize it. Of course what I discovered this morning is that even though Microsoft does not know what it is there is an entire world associated with and dedicated to this not new concept. With the country and economy in the state it is in I can definitely understand why it is gaining steam.

Yesterday while researching the Tiny Free House built exclusively from pallets I came across the word freegan a couple times while reading his blog. I did not think too much of it at the time but decided to use it as a tag for the post anyway. The fact that I was not entirely sure what it was though had been gnawing at me all night because I do not want to lead anyone down a misinformed path or put something out there that I am not entirely sure about so this morning it became clear that what I needed to do was dedicate an entire post to this one word.

Perhaps someone may say it is impossible to write an entire article or lengthy blog post on the basis of just one word. Well those people clearly do not know me and the way I do research! I discovered websites, blogs, articles, tips and even a wiki dedicated to this one word. If I were really ambitions I could likely dedicate three posts to it but I will leave that second layer of exploration to the individual discretion of each person reading.

So what is it already right?

Freeganism is about sharing. Freeganism is about community, freedom and generous social interaction. Freeganism is about dumpster diving, especially for food.

Wait, what?

On the website freegan.info the tagline states “Strategies for Sustainable Living Beyond Capitalism”. It is basically a conscious decision to remove oneself from the place of support for what companies stand for by boycotting the purchasing of products created by them. It goes for all companies. Yes this does also mean food.

Yesterday I discussed the fact that we would be utilizing free shipping pallets to construct our entertainment center and it opened up a can of freegan worms that, if we so chose, would propel us down the path of: no longer paying rent (either squatting or living in the “wild” purposefully), no longer paying bills (paying the heat bill encourages the production and use of fossil fuels and all that is associated with that concept), begin rummaging through dumpsters for food (waste should feed people, not be thrown away) and a literal myriad of additional ways to completely remove our foot print from the planet or provide positive impact only (composting, communal living, etc).

I am certainly all for people doing what they like and although I could never picture myself going down a completely freegan path, I can understand the inclination because just the research into the concept has caused me to think about the following:

☼ Buying only what we need to survive and using it to its fullest extent so as not to waste
☼ Living in just the amount of space we really need and conserving the resources used within that space
☼ Donating even more than we already do to charitable organizations (not just monetary but material as well)
☼ Repurposing materials for alternative solutions if possible
☼ When looking to procure or get rid of something check craigslist free in my local area first (for example Matt wants a bike so he has been on craigslist Boston to find one for free)
☼ Begin researching where my goods come from and noting what impact it has/had on the planet to not only construct it but to get it to where I am from where it originated
☼ Start clipping coupons for everything I buy
☼ Share as much as possible with whomever I can and accept when others do the same for me

What are some of the ways you could see yourself being free?