TIny Choices

I found this blog referenced on one of the craft sites I regularly read. It's called Tiny Choices and it's maybe obviously about making small steps toward being green. It looks very cool, though I'm basing that almost entirely on the fact that they have a link to this site, which lets you put in your address and calculates the walkability of your neighborhood. Yet more fodder for me to stay in Seattle and not move to BI. My neighbhood got a 97, work's neighborhood got an 18. Very sad.

By the way, does anyone else post on here any more?

House things

I have been wanting a new work table for a while now. My dining room table has been sufficing, but besides worrying that I'm going to run the rotary blade over it, it's really too short to be a good cutting table. I have alternated between cutting on the kitchen floor, the living room floor when I lived with hardwoods, and I think I'm getting too old for it.

What I really want is a nicer, higher version of this:
But for many reasons, it's wrong. For one, it's IKEA, which Kennet will not let me spend good money at because nothing wears well. It's also $500, which isn't ideal. What it comes down to for me is that it's just too short. So that won't be happening.

I thought I remembered there was some kind of recycled house material place in Seattle and sure enough, a little google search led me here. Maddi, I saw a screen door on it and thought of you- by the way- did you put house renovation on the exempt list? You must have, but here's some more ideas. I'd love to buy a flat door (as opposed to one with designs carved into it) to make into a table top, or these window frames for hanging on a wall somewhere.

A bounty of acceptableness

It isn't really hard to find cool, not new stuff in this town. This is a pile of clothes from Crossroads, lots of fun and cheap too. Plus a used CD from Everyday that I wanted to pass along to someone else (where burning wouldn't do) and, my personal favorite- a pile of stuff from the library. I am a big fan of the library- why accumulate stuff when you can just get it on demand?

Crossroads shopping does bring up one question that I think I don't want to know the answer to:


This super cute shirt was at Crossroads, but still has the tag on it, as things sometimes do there. What do I do? Clearly in this instance I bought it- but technically it is new. When I try to justify it, I think, the point of not buying new is partially to not create demand for new things. So in theory I'm not doing that by not buying it from a regular store which would then have to restock their inventory. But Crossroads has to restock too, they just do it mostly with used stuff. I think I'm probably in the wrong here- what do you think?

Supporting Third World Economies

I made it almost a whole month in East Africa without buying anything new. But I didn't. Kennet and I debated a bit about the tourism economy and all the shops that are mostly filled with crappy tchotchkes. On one hand, they create an income for people who might not otherwise have an income (obviously there are a lot of people in Tanzania and Uganda who do not have work or who get paid very little). On the other hand, they redirect energy that might be better used to improve living conditions or contribute to society in a more productive way.

As a rule, I am usually very discerning about purchases I make on vacation, so I don't have to carry a bunch of stuff home, but also because I care about how things are made and how people are paid. So I made two decisions while I was in East Africa.

In Zanzibar, I bought two hand woven scarves (the one with elephant butts on it is not pictured, bummer). I really wanted some fabric that could be used in a quilt or other project. It turned out most fabric there is made in India and looks it. I really wanted something locally made and I found this scarf in an alleyway shop where I could see the weaver at the loom in the back room. While I can't vouch for how much of what I paid went to him (probably little), I felt better knowing that at least production costs didn't include travel from India.

On one of our last days in Uganda, we were visiting a friend of David's who has been living there for some time. She had these baskets in her home and I loved them. She took me to a craft market where I could pick out a few- the kind of place that also carries the Bead for Life necklaces. I figured that buying something clearly handmade and well made was ok because it supports the local economy of what David says is actually becoming a Second World country.

Spending money in these parts of the world is something to be thought carefully about. I wanted to contribute to the economy and support local workers as much as possible. It's hard to do as a tourist- one has to be concerned with what money goes where because it's very easy for it to go to the wrong place. People time seems to be worth very little there, so a tip can go a long way. We tried to be generous in the right places because we can be, and not just throw money or things where it isn't right. I don't think we did perfectly, but we tried.

Though I usually try not to collect stuff, it is nice to have some beautiful things that I think I will use to remind me of our trip.

Coffee Cups

I bought a spontaneous coffee today too on the way to Karen's. Now I have a paper cup. I am going to resuse it as much as possible and start carrying a reusable with me always. A reusable mug, and a tupperware would be good companions to my water bottle. And Shelley, I'd love a beer before you leave.

An Epic

Part 1: So I'm doing pretty well with this whole thing- by which I mean I'm getting pretty good at rationalizing anything I happen to want. When this picture was taken, I hadn't bought anything new except for these three things, all approved by the tribunal:

• new shoelaces for my light hiking shoes
• HUGE knitting needles with which to make a bathmat out of old t-shirts
• a replacement bead for my earrings I've had in for 5 years

In general I've bought a lot less stuff than I probably would have before and I even returned some stuff to REI that I had bought in prep for Africa that I don't really need.

Part 2: And here's where I get into trouble. I started doing some reading about our trip next week and the hike that is Mt. Meru. That's the 4 day hike that we are doing instead of climbing Kilimanjaro, but for some reason I wasn't thinking of it as a trek. It's supposed to be less touristy and neat because you can actually look at Kili from a bit of distance. Anyhow, the point is, I started looking at gear and what people are wearing in the pictures of themselves on Mt. Meru and realized that the shoes I have, 4 years old and a half size too small, aren't not going to cut it.
The tribunal approved it for a couple of reasons, the main one being that Kennet will have to hear me whine about my feet for days upon days.

I exhausted my used resources- craigslist, second ascent, and the REI garage sale, before buying the shoes at Patagucci I've wanted for a while now, but had talked myself out of. This brings me to an interesting point. I wondered if this endeavor would save us all time that we would put toward shopping, freeing us up for other more creative and meaningful things. Hillary very astutely pointed out that there will be some times when it does actually take more time to track things down.

Here's the shoe:
They have a good percentage of recycled material in the sole, but not post-consumer, so not as amazing as they tout them to be. But they have a lifetime guarantee so I'm going to take them out to Dungeness Spit this weekend try them out.

I'm not totally sure what the mitigation for this poor planning is, but so far the options are that I either have to buy Hillary and Maddi beers, or figure out how to regift something I own, or both. I have no problem finding something to get rid of (what does that say about my level of stuff?) but finding something worthy of regifting and finding someone willing to accept it. I recently went through all my craft stuff and found a bunch of art and office supplies that I'm not sure what to do with.

___________________________________________________________________

As far as buying nonreusable stuff when we could brought our own, like coffee cups, I am all for working under the pressure of always reusing the stuff I have now. I'm glad this came up today because I just realized I left my coffee mug at work and will want to get coffee at the ferry tomorrow- I will have to talk Kennet out of his reusable mug for a day so I don't have to get a paper cup.

I noticed that in the last three weeks I've ended up with 4 or 5 take out containers I could have planned better for. One thing I'm going to do is take a container with me to Africa so I can carry stuff around without making more trash.

Speaking of trash: I keep thinking I can take multiple small consumables with me, like toothpaste, and then just throw them away and lose the weight in my pack. But that ultimately means I'm bringing my trash from a first world country into a third world country and dumping it, which is as bad as the recycling/disposal programs that just send stuff out of the U.S. It all comes down to thinking through the lifecycle of the products we use.

Portland and my "new" shirt

I first explained the 3 pockets project to my two most wonderful college friends, Meg and Meems, when we met up in Portland for Memorial Day weekend. Being the kind of friends they are, I could tell them I was building a rocket to the moon in my backyard and they would be supportive. But I felt so encouraged there as we sat in the cafe at Powells book store, I told them...

"hey, lets go shopping."

The great thing is that directly accross the street was Buffalo Exchange, a recycled clothing store that is much loved in both Portland and Seattle. We spent almost an hour sifting through clothes and finally I came away with my much loved "new" shirt. See the photo of myself and Mia, she is clearly impressed by my shopping prowess.

Initially I was worried that my visit to Portland would be a trial. I envisioned myself surrounded by shops and boutiques that would be too tempting to pass up. But I quickly realized how it is possible to travel well, eat well, and play well while keeping durable goods completely out of the equation. I would much rather have my memory of our picnic in the rose garden than a souvenier... or even a new pair of shoes.