Contest where you win and a non-profit wins!

Greenwala has now launched its Socially Conscience Contest for everyone to enter!

There are 3 different contest. One for cooking, one for photographers and one for designers. You dont necessarily have to be a master at any of those topics to enter, just the motivation to actually do it!

The first one is about cooking your favorite meal using organic ingredients. It can be a summer time salad, a party dip or a breakfast quiche! Just make sure its good for you and good for Mother Nature. Record yourself cooking this meal and submit it to Greenwala. Come back and vote on it, get your friends to vote and you could win $250 to Whole Foods. Not only do you win but Greenwala will give $250 to KIVA, the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe.

The other contest is for those that want to show the Earth they appreciate it by giving it a big 'ol hug! Snap a photo of you hugging a tree and submit it to win $250 and a new canon PowerShot! Plus Greenwala will donate $250 to Trees for the Future to help them plant 250 more trees around the world!

The last contest is about designing a green t-shirt for Greenwala. It can be a simple saying or a funky design as long as it portrays the message about being green. The winner will win $250 and so will Ashoka. Ashoka is the global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs—men and women with system changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems.

So what are you waiting for? The only thing you have to loose is a couple minutes of your time but you have lots to gain!!

For more information and instructions on how to enter check out http://www.greenwala.com/greenwala_contests

While you there vote for my photo http://www.greenwala.com/greenwala_contests/all/1-Hug-A-Tree-Photo-Contest/entries/all/19-Treehugger

I'm terrible at updating this thing!

Wow! Just realized I'm terrible at updating my blog. But I guess I'm just so wrapped up in other social sites that it's hard to keep up with all of them.
I recently was hired by a green social networking site called www.Greenwala.com which is a fantastic site! Since joining it I have learned so much about reducing my carbon footprint. I already knew some stuff like recycling and reusing, buying local and what not but now I have started reusing stuff as crafts, making sure appliances that are not being used are unplugged and I'm even encouraging others to take this path.
I really like this life style but some people still fight it. I hate when you meet someone who claims that they are "green" then they'll throw a plastic bottle in the trash!
People know that they need to make a difference to help make this planet more sustainable but they just dont want to make the extra effort, we have become so lazy!
Is it going to take another disaster to wake people up to the fact that we are running out of resources, we are causing the earth to heat up in some spots and cool down in some spots?

Sick Kitties

Ugh, I've been home for the past week taking care of 2 sick kitties. For the first half of the week it was the new little guy and of course we where scared because of him being so young and not having developed his immune system yet but after several trips to the vet, 3 medications, and lots of money later he's doing just fine and wanting to play EVERY second someone is home!
My poor cat soki on the other hand just started showing the symptoms the little guy had so I took her to the vet and they gave me some advise on what to do but as its a virus there is no medicine they can give to cure it, just let their immune system fight it off in time. Its frustrating see my poor cat suffer but there's only so much I can do for her.

Still not a quitter...

So we didnt make it past day 1 of the diet. Its pretty ruff. I was doing fine during the day but when I got home and had 2 more of the drinks I started to feel really sick and puked up the last drink I made. After that I got a huge headache and felt like I was going to puke again. We decided that instead of just throwing our bodies into something so extreme that we would ease it in. So these next couple weeks are going to be eating very small meals to get our bodies prepared for the diet of not eating anything.

Time for a spring cleaning

Starting tomorrow, Colan and I are going on the Master Cleanser. It is sort of like a diet but its not mostly promoted as a diet. The Master Cleanser is a detox for your body. It flushes the system, cleans the organs and improves your body in many ways. In the 70's, the creator Stanley Burroughs discovered this diet to help people with sicknesses and diseases. It is said that when the system is flushed all the infections and diseases get flushed out of the body, thus improving your immune system and such.
Lately I have been feeling pretty crappy and getting sick all the time so I'm hoping this will help me alot feel better, give me energy and improve my self being.
When reading about it, it sounds like a fast. The basic ingredients are maple syrup, lemon juice and cayenne pepper, you mix that with water and drink it 6-12 times a day for 10-40 days. No extra vitamins or whatnot are needed because all your basic vitamins and minerals are in the syrup and lemons. The only thing your not giving your body is protein but its not a long enough diet to really give your body protein deficiency.
Many people rave about this cleanse and how wonderful it is, so I thought I would give it a try.
I'm starting it tomorrow so i'll write more about the progress as it goes on :)

In my attempts to be healther this year...

I am thinking about signing up for this, a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), you pay a weekly fee & you get a basket of fresh, organic food everyweek! http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

Venice Beach = HIPPIE'S!!!!

I recently started my new internship at a production company in Venice, CA.

Even before I moved to California, I knew from the grapevine that Venice Beach was a hippie town, but now that idea is cemented in my brain.
On my first day at my internship they had me run some errands, so this meant I got to drive around town! I was stoked, cuz I was going to get to see a new part of California that I dont venture to that often living in Orange.
Driving down Abbot Kinney Blvd through Venice is full of fun shops, vintage clothing shops, Asian inspired shops, metaphysical book stores, artist galleries, mom and pop restaurants, organic medicine stores and even some liquor stores.
Once I had gotten back from this adventure out in Venice and Santa Monica, my "boss" told me that if I wanted to go grab something to eat I could and she told me to take my time, walk around a bit, check out the place. So I took the hint and left to go on another adventure!
I decided to go hit up alittle sandwhich shop called "Abbot Habit" specializing in organic foods. Walking up to the place, I immediately fell in love. Outside they had some locals hanging out, including a guy with long dreads, walking two adorable puppies. I said hi to these people and walked into the place. I had ordered a "chicken gobo" (yummy chicken sandwhich) and sat down at the nearest table to people watch. As soon as I sat down, in walks a couple, dressed in ragged clothes covered in paint. I loved it. I knew that they where artist because alittle bit after they had arrived, a man walked up to them and asked how much it would cost to get a mural of his family painted in his store. Soon after, a couple more paint splattered folks walked through the doors.
I soon finished my sandwhich and left to walk back to work. But not before I took a couple detours into some shops :)
All in all, I am falling in love with Venice. I love surrounding myself with artsy people, people to gain knowledge and inspiration from. They even have a first friday's on that street, I havent been to it yet, but I plan on going next month!

Life out in Cali

So I have officially moved out to Orange, CA. It is a cute little town hidden in the big cities in Orange County. It has an adorable downtown area where I guess the Back to the Future movies where filmed (I'm going to need to re-watch those movies to be sure) but it has a very 50's country town feel to it. I love it so far!
Although I dont have a job yet, I have had a couple leads. I have some family members looking into contacts for me, I have been to a couple interviews (one for a PA job on a Documentary about Obhama in his Chicago years). But for now I have a part time job on Saturday's taking photographs of little kids sports teams, but even then its only a couple days a month, so I'm not exactly rolling in the benjamins out here. But I am keeping faith that some good things will come my way. I juse have to keep putting feelers out there and something will grab on sooner then later.


But on another note, this is the first time I have ever lived with a boyfriend. It is an interesting experience. But I am really in love with this guy so I am excited to see how our relationship develops from here. Things are a bit rocky with me being unemployed and him being a student, we are always short on cash but were managing to stay afloat in these times of recession. He's being very understanding that I am trying my hardest to find something in my field but it just might take a bit longer then expected.

But on a lighter note, Valentines day is coming up... :)