Ideal Bite

Apparently I’m one of them now…well, me and 400 others. On Tuesday, I attended the Audubon Society’s Women in Conservation Luncheon at the Plaza. They honored six women with the Rachel Carson Award, whose ground-breaking 1962 book "Silent Spring" helped launch the modern environmental movement. The award recognizes women who demonstrate great leadership and commitment to conservation and in the past included Majora Carter, Bette Midler, and Teresa Heinz Kerry. This year’s honorees were: Read the full post... 

Turns out, we at Ideal Bite aren't the only ones who celebrate Earth Day every day  – the six extraordinary winners of this year's Goldman Environmental Prize do the same, and their every day actions have added up to enormous social and environmental change in Africa, Indonesia, Russia, South America, India, and our own Appalachian backyard. How? They’ll tell you – every day this week, look here for a different interview, eco-confessions and all.

First up: Yuyun Ismawati, Islands, Indonesia

So on Friday I met up with Goldman Prize winner Yuyun Ismawati, founder of Bali Fokus, an org that teaches people in poor Read the full post... 

I got my fall fashion on at Gen Art's runway show this past Friday at the awe-inspiring, historic Los Angeles Theatre. I had a double invitation (read: double motivation to go downtown) because one of my friends had her collection in the show and another works for Gen Art.

If you haven’t gotten in on the Downtown LA Fashion Week action yet, check out this artsy fartsy fashion charity event affiliated with EcoNouveau tomorrow night at the MOCA. The cocktail reception kicks off at 6 pm, but the main event - the vintage runway show curated by fashion authority Cameron Read the full post... 

To due clickititus in my pointer finger, it is very hard to write this blog.  I am chicken pecking with my other nine fingers.  Speaking of chickens, had a Chicken Coop Consultant over last night.  I am totally going to build one.  Plus he is hot.

Off to not click anymore, I bet I saved at least 20 acres of forest while on that conference call. - Jen

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Why is it so difficult to buy gifts for Dads?

I took a little informal survey amongst my friends, asking if it was easier to buy for Moms or Dads, and – no great surprise here - got the following replies:

“Dude.  Moms are just easier – mainly because you can just send flowers.”

“It’s harder to figure out what dads even LIKE for some reason.”

“Oh Sh-*!  It’s Father’s Day soon???!”

I’ve always been at a loss to know what to buy for my dad.  In part, I’m sure it’s because he’s relatively easily pleased.  He’d be as happy with a set of golf balls as he would with a trip to a beach or a homemade painting.  In a weird way – with everything as an option - gift-giving gets complicated. 

So – since my dad reads this blog (and clearly, I can’t tell you all what I am getting him) – why don’t you share your own great green gift ideas for father’s day?  (Or

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Once my brother and I, when we were little, devised this incredibly stupid plan to take the money our parents gave us to put in the church offering plate.  Then we were even more stupid to talk about it in the same room where my mom was supposedly asleep. We are 8 and 10, but that was my introduction to charitable taking (and then taking a spanking).

Then I got into this 'armchair activist' mode and wanted to do more than give money (yes, I gave money to one charity a quarter, usually WWF or some animal related charity, and when I was at IBM it was great b/c they would match it).  I got pretty active with 20/20 Vision and before I knew it they had some TV producers coming out to follow me around my NYC office, back on the subway, back to my home where I whipped out my laptop and wrote my congressman a very pointed letter that really showed I did my research (or at least showed I

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I grew up in the middle of the Rockies, but I honestly never went hiking until I was about 10 or so. My best friend's dad took us on a hike, and I remember - at first - thinking that it seemed stupid to walk at a slow pace through the woods, no real destination in sight.

But somewhere on that aimless walk, I understood that call to the woods. It made some sort of inexplicable sense to me.

Years later, sweaty Brooklyn summer, I received a heart-wrenching call. My best friend's dad - a dad of sorts to me - had died unexpectedly. My heart broke mainly for my friend. But a little piece of it mourned for me - for that loss of the first person who really showed me the woods.

That first lost Father's Day, I bought a plot of trees from the American Forests in memoriam. To this day, it might be the best money I ever think I spent.

This fall, I'm heading to that

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OK, I really can't stomach writing about credit cards in today's blog, because trust me - I have a heady relationship with my credit cards already and think about them too much. Instead, let's celebrate the dawn of a new year...

Yep. Yesterday was the start of the Lunar New Year. The Year of the Dog, as the Chinese would have it. 

Not being a huge fan of dogs (well, except for Cricket and Harlow, of course), I'd be inclined to think that the Year of the Dog would be a sort of boring year - slobbery and whining.

But I gotta say, I am looking forward to it (because while the Year of the Rooster was truly transforming and amazing for me, it was also a bit of a thrilling and bloody cockfight, and I'm looking forward to some snuggled-up warm fuzzies instead). 

Some things that the Year of the Dog should hold in store for Read the full post... 

Do you know the notion of “stuff-stress”?  You know, where all your STUFF is causing you stress?  You have to care for stuff, store stuff, clean stuff, find stuff, dust stuff, move stuff, maintain stuff, unload stuff, re-organize stuff, shuffle stuff around to find other stuff. WHEW.  That’s a lot of doing stuff to stuff.

 

I tend to date some strange characters. One of my boyfriends, after living a few years with me in NYC, decided to absolutely disavow materialism, and even gave up his shoes! Of course this made for a great topic of catty conversation with the girlfriends, but down deep I really understood… you have to look for shoes, clean you shoes, tie you shoes. 

 

Maybe it is my age, or maybe where I am in the ‘socio-economic’ non-cosmic order, but I feel that

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