As 2010 shoves on some of us are still hanging onto our new years resolutions and some of us no-so-much.. raise your hand if your resolution was to lose weight and then you went to in-n-out and had a double double?? No one? Wait.. that was me. Sigh..
Anyways, my resolutions this year were to lose weight, blog more, and be greener. I am down 11lbs, I am blogging more, and…. Confession time– we just started recycling this year. I feel so ashamed typing that, with all the “go green” in the media and even in technology — go apple! I just cannot believe it took me so long to get on board.
Living a greener lifestyle isn’t as hard as I thought it would be.. it might even be more stylish.
Last week my husband came home from work with two of the cutest reusable bags by a company called Mika&bu. The thing that I love about these bags are that they are 1. cute 2. super durable and 3. they have a cute little pocket on the inside where you can put cards, coupons, or snotty tissues.. whatever you want… I just thought it was so clever.
Today my be green giveaway is a mika&bu bag! To enter just leave a comment in in the comment box and I will use a random number generator to select a winner tomorrow at 3pm. (I am stuffing a little something extra in the cute little pocket)
THANK YOU TO ALL WHO PARTICIPATED! This will not be the last giveaway. I am already planning a little something for next month.
TODAY’S WINNER IS SARAH LANE!
10 ways to live greener
1. DITCH GROCERY STORE BAGS!
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, more than 380 billion plastic bags are used in the United States every year. Of those, approximately 100 billion are plastic shopping bags, which cost retailers about $4 billion annually.
Good for you: reusable is cool and now stylish.
2. Change a Light Bulb
Installing a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL) is the quickest, easiest way to save energy — and money.
3. Unplug Things That Glow
Anything that has an LED (light emitting diode) that glows even after you turn it off continues to draw power (that you pay for).
Good for You: Unplug appliances and electronics that glow and you could save $200 a year.
4. Support Local Farmers
Typical grocery store produce travels nearly 1,500 miles before it ends up on your plate. All this traveling burns fossil fuels and results in carbon emissions — a fancy term for pollution. Buying from local farmers means you’re not only getting the freshest food possible, you’re saving energy.
5. Fix That Drip
When you next fill your water glass, think about this: We each use about 100 gallons a day, enough to fill 1,600 glasses. Household water consumption has increased by 200 percent since 1950.
6. Let Your Grass Grow
Spending less time tending to your lawn actually makes it greener — in every sense of the word. Most grass species fare best when they’re kept at least 2 1/2 inches tall. The length creates more surface area to absorb sunlight, which creates thicker turf and deeper roots, which means you won’t need to water as often.
7. Look for the Label
A household with Energy Star products uses about 30 percent less energy than the average household — an annual savings of about $570.
8. Do Full Loads
Whenever you wash just a few clothes or dishes at a time rather than waiting for a full load to accumulate, you’re wasting water, power, and money. The average American family of four washes about 540 loads of laundry a year, which consumes up to 21,000 gallons of water, and more than 150 loads of dishes, which uses about 1,500 gallons. Let’s face it.. who likes laundry anyway?
9. Audit Your Energy
It’s easier to save energy when you know exactly how much and where you’re using it.
Good for you: On average, an energy audit shows how to save up to 30 percent on utility bills.
10. Recycle Your Electronics
Americans tossed out a whopping 5.5 billion pounds of electronics — TVs, stereos, cell phones, and computers.
Good for You: Sell unused cell phones to greenphone.com. You’ll receive about $35, and the phones will be refurbished and resold. If 1 million people recycled one cathode-ray tube TV this year, we’d keep 4 million pounds of lead out of the ground.
59 Comments
super cute!!!
fantastic little bag!! wanted to tell you I love your photoshop tips too. you are the bestest evah for doing those.
Hey there! Just entering the contest!
Thats a great idea Ashley, honestly my family should probably be more greener and get rid of those millions of plastic grocery bags cluttering up my kitchen
Too cute!!
Those bags are sweet…definitely much nicer than the ones I’ve been using for 20 -GASP- 20 years! I can’t bear to part with them:) And I agree with Kathy…it’s very generous of you to share all your photoshop tips and tutorials-they’re great and easy to learn from. Thanks:)
those are SUPER DUPER cute! love it! thanks for sharing!
Love love love the bags and way to go for green!!
Really cute bags! Easy way to go green.
Wow- these bags are perfect!
Hi Ashley! I just recently discovered your site, and I love your work!!
adore the bag.
adore you.
hugs,
deb
Thanks Ashley!
I had no idea about “glowing lights.”Funny thing though, because I was trying to buy used cell phones today.
Thanks
Love the bags and the tips!
Love these bags! Fashionable recycling!
super cute bag…
you must pick me!
That bag is so cute.
I wanted to say thanks a billion for the bright eye tutorial!!
MIchelle
What a great post, Ashley! Going to print out all these ideas!
I use cloth bags for grocery shopping and love these! I like the ones that can stand up.
Pretty bags!
LOVE these!! Fingers are crossed
look at you doing your part! keep it up girl! love the bags, they’re are super adorable. your work is such a breath of fresh air–I am so glad I found your blog!!
Those bags are TOTALLY cute! I need to start using reusable bags more often. I do recycle the bags that I get from grocery stores though. They go into my small trash cans. That counts, kinda, right?
They are so adorable. Your blog is one of my favorites to follow
those are adorable! I love reusable bags!
Amen and amen!! Thanks for posting these great tips!
Would love these!
Cute bags!
I always forget to bring my reusable bags to the store
But I would bring this one!
Love the purple bag!
oooh!! that is so cute! i love it!
That’s great! I love recyclable bags!!
What an awesome giveaway! Thanks girl!
I would love to win. I really need to start being more green.
Love them! Crossing my fingers!
these bags are so cute. hope to win
if nothing else, I have a name for a great recycle bag. how well do they fold up? i have a few cute ones that can roll into a little ball… not nearly as cute as these, but not a kroger bag either
11 lbs!! Good work!! I too am on the fight the chub and living greener new yrs res. It’s a daily battle with both! Super cute bags.
Ooh! I might have to buy those bags if I don’t win! Super cute!
This is such a cool idea! Thank you for the contest! I’m all about going green but I only have two bags so far, these are so cute!
Looove those bags! What a great contest.
Lovely bag!
I always use cloth bags for my market shopping. That one is especially cute!
i love your green tips and i love the bags so had to enter. I have to confess, I love reusable bags and always pick up cute ones here or there. And when I go to the grocery store.. I always forget to bring them in until I’m in line with 4 yelling kids, a truckful of groceries and then I am ashamed to use the grocery store ones so I buy more reusable bags!!! I need to attach them to my wallet somehow
I’ll keep trying though… work in progress
Oooooo….I LOVE it! My FAV color is purple and I LOVE pastel wash colors vs vibrant! It’s beautiful! I’m GLAD you’ll be blogging more. I stalk and always wish I could see MORE! Lol! Thanks for the awesome giveaway! :O)
Hi Ashley! Love these bags! Super cute!!
Super cute bags!!
Too cute bags… and nice photography as well of them!
Wahoo, what cute stuff
these are so stinkin’ cute!!! i need one for sure!!
and btw…congratulations on the 11 pounds – i know the struggle well, and i’m so glad to hear you have that victory under your belt…our out of it…or just…gone.
Those bags are awesome. I would love to win one.
I am ALL about a stylish bag to carry groceries around in.
Fun idea!
This is fantastic! We use these types of bags whenever we can… Love it!
I’m impressed with people who use their own bags when grocery shopping but don’t think I’ll ever be one of them — we simply buy too many groceries when we go shopping. I mean, are you supposed to take twenty bags with you to the store? But I do love all your other green tips. Some of those I’d never thought of before.
Yay for you – there are so many small but easy ways to go green!
I’d love to win
Way to Go Green!!! One of our go green household resolutions last year was to start composting (the other was to stop buying bottled water), our city already forces us to recycle and they implemented “green” boxes for kitchen waste but we felt it rather stupid to give the city our waste only to buy it back every spring in the form of dirt for our gardens. It took a few months to sort it all out out but with spring just around the corner im getting eager to see our accomplishment make our yard greener
Love the tips! Could learn sooo much from you would love to sit down with you or observe a shoot! Too bad I live so far away!!! Thanks again!
Cute! Love it
Absolutely adore the mika and bu bags
Congrats on sticking with your resolutions, Ashley! My husband thinks I am total overkill regarding recycling, but it’s so easy to do & makes such an impact, so why not?!
Super cute!!!
Love the purple one.