Ok so I haven't posted any green links for a while so I thought I would start off by updating you on some of the things I bought back on Earth Day and give you some reviews. Lately we are hearing so much more about the enviornment especially with this crazy election and for me I found that there are some really simple, non life altering things I can do on a daily basis to do my part. At the risk of sounding like a complete dork its actually kind of fun! One of the first things I did was to sign up for Green Dimes. It is a service that for a small fee helps eliminate a big portion of the junk mail we receive. I am happy to report that it actually works!! I would say our junk mail has been reduced by about 80%. Alex is no longer getting credit card applications! Green Dimes made it really easy sign up, and there are certain companies that you have to actually write to in order for them to take you off their mailing list. For those companies Green Dimes actually sends you little postcards (with postage!) , and all you have to do is sign and send them off. Very cool and totally worth it. Next I got each one of us a SIGG bottle. These are awesome. I keep each of ours filled with water in the refrigerator. The only drawback I found with these is once you take them out of the refrigerator the water does not stay cold for very long and Im not a big fan of room temperature water. They come in great styles and even my little one likes it! Heres the one I got. Speaking of water I also got a Brita filter (I was very productive this Earth Day) and it turned out to be one of my favorite things. Seriously if I was Oprah I would give you all one right now. I was really tired of the amount of plastic bottles we were using. Even though we recycle them its a pain to save and to be honest we would waste it. Most of the time we would leave the bottles out half empty (or half full depending on how you want to look at it). This was the perfect solution and the water is really tasty!! During this time we also had our carpets cleaned. It never occurred to me that you could have your carpets GREEN cleaned! A friend of mine started a business called Foster's Carpet Cleaning and while I wanted to review it much sooner and tell the world about it to help my friends, I also wanted to make sure it really worked and lived up to the expectation. I wanted to make sure that in a few weeks the carpet stains would not resurface and the promises that were made where real. Let me tell you they exceeded my expectations. My carpets looked UHMAZING! Its been about 2 months and no stains have resurfaced. I was weary of getting the carpets cleaned because one, its hard to be gone all day when you have a small child and two the chemicals that they use to clean carpets are ridiculously toxic to the air we breath inside our homes both to us and our pets. This method of cleaning is a dry clean so the carpet was dry immediately and no harsh chemicals were used in the process. I wont go into detail about the process but you can check out their website and give them a call. Michael is extremely helpful and knowledgeable and both him and his wife are so nice! You will love them! So there you have it. A few things that can help you be a little more green. I'm currently looking into getting some cool business cards that use 100% recycled paper. Ill let you know how that goes. Also if any of you photographers have some vendors that you can recommend that offer green or more enviormentally friendly products drop me a line! Thanks for reading :) I promise to have a post with pictures soon.

The other night I met up with some friends to have sushi over in Pasadena, and since I have been doing so much complaining about the gas prices I thought I would do something to shut myself up and find a solution. So I took the Metro! Yes I took public transportation in Southern California and even walked to the station! I have been trying to do my part to help our pretty little planet and although Im no expert and I am by no means perfect or even good at this green stuff its actually kind of fun finding alternatives. I have also been making an effort to be more active and while some of you may not find walking to the metro station an activity, I think it should be an Olympic sport when its 94 degrees out. That wasn't my point. I am sharing because the ride was so cool! I loved it. We wizzed by everyone sitting in traffic it was great. Not only that, I arrived (in what normally would be a 30 minute drive) in 15 minutes!! Unreal. Its great to use that as some downtime to read a book (I'm currently reading Chris Bohjalian's- The Double Bind) or just people watch, which I LOVE to do. Im always bummed if I dont have my camera with me though. I met some interesting folks on the way back. The after 9pm Metro crowd is very different from the 5pm rush hour crowd. I'll leave it at that. Anyway if you are interested in taking the metro you can get one way ticket for 1.25 and add .30 if you want a bus transfer. All day passes are $5 and a monthly pass is $62 and that includes bus transfers and unlimited trips not too shabby especially with gas prices the way they are. Just a little green thought for the day. Final Note: Dear Lakers, Please get your crap together. Not because I care about whether or not you win the championship (because Im a Clipper fan) but because I cant stand to see a grown man mope around the house, because you managed to throw away a 24pt lead. You see, he thinks he is a part of the team so he takes this personally every time you lose. So get it together! Sincerely , Araxi

I hope everyone is enjoying Earth Day. In an effort to become more "green" I figured today is a great day to set up some simple things in our own household to stop wasting. Nothing crazy, you wont find me composting anytime soon but more power to those who do, I ain't mad at ya. Its amazing when you step back and really take a look at how much we actually waste. It's sad and quite embarassing. So today in honor of Earth Day I have signed us up with a really cool site called Green Dimes. This is a great service I found through Tara Whitney's blog that helps reduce or eliminate so much of the unnecessary junk mail. I mean seriously how many times have I actually looked at the Penny Saver? Or even opened and filled out a credit card application. Personally I haven't and I got sick of receiving this stuff. Even Alex has gotten credit card applications! WTH? It was only $20 and they plant 5 trees on your behalf, which to me was money well spent, especially since I am not a green thumb and would probably kill anything I planted. Its better left to people who know what they are doing. Another thing I did today is bought a water pitcher with a filter. We have been using bottled water (i know i know) so in an effort to reduce the amount of plastic bottles we use Im going to try this for a while. Im not saying this is the perfect solution but I figure it is worth a try. I dont know that I could keep up with saving plastic bottles and taking them to be recycled so for me this is the most realistic and doable alternative. To keep us from buying bottled water when we go out I also bought each of us a SIGG water bottle. These things are so cool and I think Alex would actually buy into it simply because of how they look. So here's to Earth Day. I would love to hear what everyone else is doing or if you have some cool ideas for us!