Avery's tastes just run a little on this side of weird

Andy was sleeping one day and Avery thought it'd be a good idea to bathe him.

Generally I tend to not go into rants on my blog because who wants to read a bunch of rants? I try to keep more of a positive feel around here. There is already enough negative floating around in the world so I try to spread the good joo joo. No bad joo joo around here.

Today however I have to share something that made me kind of upset. I didn't make myself too familiar with the Casey Anthony case but I know what happened, I think its sad, the end. Its an unfortunate event and I'm neither here nor there about whether she did it or not, I just know a kid died and that's sad. Other than that I don't know any details, I did not watch the trial, I hardly even use my TV. When I have time to watch something I'm all about Netflix.

So Facebook, annoying at times but handy in keeping up with the world, is where I learn about everything. If it happened, you'll probably read about it in your news feed. Like I learned today that Amy Winehouse died today. Travesty in the music world if you ask me.

I have a tendency to stray from topic, can you tell?

This particular Facebook event notified me that I was welcome me to come remember Caylee Anthony by releasing balloons into the sky. Touching thought. I think its great when people gather together to stop and realize that horrible things happen and we should be contented everyday that we have what we have, that we're very lucky people. That life is short and very serendipitous.

My beef is with the balloons. Balloons are detrimental to wild life and the environment. I feel like its counterproductive to be sending balloons into the environment. Why not honor her memory with some less advantageous and more considerate options? It's like showing the environment you have manners. That sounds weird but it's like:

That doesn't sound like something in the spirit of homage to me. Why can't something else be done?

• Peace Garden
• Candlelight vigil
• Using the funds for the balloons to donate to a cause that fights for abused children.

I don't mean any disrespect to the situation at hand of course. My heart goes out to all those involved. I just feel certain courtesies should be payed even while paying our tribute.


Now in memory of those lost I leave you with my favorite Amy Winehouse videos.









i.

Epic 80s video of the week

Greatest Elvis movie scene ever

The Gospel of the Seuss.

I'm sure like myself many of you were raised on the genius works of Dr. Seuss. I think half of the moral fiber that went into making me into the girl I am was due to his genius. Every single story has a moral to it. If you read his books as many times as I have you too must feel that Dr. Seuss was an incredible guy. From Horton Hears a Who's message, "A person's a person, no matter how small," to I can read with my eyes shut, "The more that you read, The more things you will know. The more that you learn, The more places you’ll go." Who doesn't believe that equality and the drive to learn more are amazing morals? Nobody that's who! These are incredible rules to live by in my opinion.

If you ask me Dr. Seuss knows everything there is to know about everything. My all time favorite story by the great doctor is The Lorax. This is the greatest story ever written if you ask me. There is no greater message than spreading concern about the environment. "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."

That my friends is true wisdom. Nothing will get better unless we do something about it. If I ever have the opportunity to raise children one day I will most assuredly preach the gospel of the Seuss.

"You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose."
- Oh the Places you will go!

Happy 27th Birthday to me!

Hey loyal followers, it's me again! In just under 2 weeks I will be turning the big 27! Instead of gifts this year from those of you that are on a gift giving basis with me I would like you to donate to my fundraiser with Charity:Water. My goal is to raise $200 by my birthday giving 10 people clean drinking water. This is a tremendous gift that we can all give in honor of my day of birth. I also encourage everyone that isn't on a gift giving basis with me to donate as well. Let's see what we can do!

http://mycharitywater.org/27thbday

Earth Hour 2011

Hey fellow environmental enthusiasts! Its that time again! That's right Earth Hour. What will you do for Earth Hour this year? What will you do beyond Earth Hour to help make a sustainable world for your children or your children's children. If you want to make a difference but don't know where to start, try Earth Hour and go from there. Its amazing what we can do when we put our minds to it. Saturday, March 26th at 8:30pm no matter where you are in the world shut off your lights for one hour to make a stand against climate change. Last year's Earth Hour was the most successful yet so lets make this year that much better!

Plastic State of mind.

As some of you know I am an avid reader of Alicia Silverstone's Kind Life Blog and she always has great information and tidbits to share. Today she posted the coolest video about banning plastic single use bags. So I thought I'd share it! Great message and cute video!

Our Valentines gift.

So as I said before, Andy and I aren't keen on giving each other more stuff. We have enough stuff to get us through a lot of years. So this year instead of giving each other cards that would end up in a landfill if we weren't avid recyclers, we decided to take that money we would spend on gifts for each other and put it to good use. We took that $50 and put it towards clean water by donating to Charity: Water. Just $20 can give 1 person clean water to drink so even if you have only a little cash to spare you can still make a difference for one person. Its amazing what we can do when we're not going through life thinking only about ourselves. I think we're going to make this a tradition for all holidays.

I just gave to charity: water - you should too! 100% goes to clean water projects for people in developing countries. http://bit.ly/TmWS

Valentines day for sustainably minded people in love

My husband, Andrew, and I are about to spend our first Valentines day together as a married couple. We don't ordinarily do anything at all but get something to eat and go shopping together because Andy isn't the best shopper when left to his own devices. I have heard from several of my girl friends that their significant others suffer from the same problem. This year we've been trying to donate and declutter all the masses of things that collect after combing two homes and receiving a multitude of gifts for our nuptials. So in this respect we weren't so keen on going out and buying each other more stuff. We've come to a point where we're not all that materialistic. I mean we like stuff, but who doesn't. We just want less stuff so we can actually enjoy what we have. In addition we're not so keen on buying new stuff to create more waste. Sustainable Valentines shopping seemed to be the way to go. If we were going to buy something it was going to be something we were going to use and something that was repurposed. In my search I found quite a few interesting sites of fully repurposed items, sustainable goods and Eco friendly products.

Here are a few of my favorite sites:

http://www.modernecohomes.com/gifts/for-him/

All the products in this site have been made from something else. My absolute favorite item is the bookends made from salvaged street signs. Very cute!

http://www.goodcleanlove.com/

The products from Good Clean Love are all Eco friendly, intimacy products. They call it chemistry without the chemicals. I am a big fan of having some V-day love without all the yucky stuff that generally comes with your prophylactics.

http://www.nature.org/

This site was my absolute favorite. Basically you can do one of several things. You can order organic flowers for your loved one, which is pretty sweet but I'd probably go with a potted plant as flowers with eventually die. With this site you can also adopt an acre of several different kinds of Eco Systems in your love's name. Among the choices are an acre of Australian outback, an acre of rain forest or even an acre of humming bird habitat.

http://www.sweetfreedombakery.com/

And last but not least don't forget the lover of sweets in your life. Sweet Freedom Bakery is an amazing vegan bakery based out of Philadelphia. You can order your special honey some vegan, allergen-free goodies and they'll ship them UPS for you. I am presently trying to stop myself from ordering as many double mint chocolate chip cookies as I can.

No matter what your special love's passion is in life there is a site out there to fulfill their needs with Eco-friendly, sustainable products. If you're really looking to make it as Eco-Friendly as possible, cook at home and forgo all the waste that can be accumulated by restaurants. At least at home you can reuse your dishes as well as recycle any packaging you're going to use. Andy and I are probably going to make ourselves a little picnic on our living room floor, with some organic wine and watch a few movies. If you ask me, that's way better than anything else we could have done. Happy Valentines Day!