Woolly pockets; so novel, so perfect so woolly

No matter what size your space is, even if your home is pocket sized, you can grow your own.  Woolly pockets are canvas planters that you can hang on any wall anywhere.  It's perfect for porches or tiny yards.  You could instantly have a small herb garden growing right in your kitchen.  They are kinda pricey, so perhaps you could play on the same concept and make them out of an old canvas shoe organizer.  I'm sure all the mildew that would take over the canvas could make it look kinda cool.

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Parks & Recreation: Cocoa Riverfront Park

It's spring, which means it's time to get out of the funk and get into the green.  Green spaces are all around Brevard and I plan to visit them all, find out if they are kid tested and mom approved.  My first stop, the Cocoa Riverfront Park near 520 and Cocoa Village.  The park is jammed packed with all kinds of family fun; from a mini water park fountain, a giant sandbox, lots of open green space and a decent sized playground, there's enough activities to stimulate the little ones and yourself for at least an hour.  On the weekends, the park is buzzing with activity.  My favorite time to come is around dusk, when Lily can actually get a turn on the baby swing with out me having to bribe other kids off.  The sad baby face works pretty well though.


One of the most eco-friendly aspects of the park is actually no where in sight, but under your nose. The park houses a significant storm water treatment project, which traps 12 acres of run-off. The three underground basins trap and filter pollutants before pumping the water to an off-site treatment plant. The water is then treated and sent back to feed the water park's fountain.  What's left over is then available for irrigation use as well as the city's overall reclaimed water supply for residential use.

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The Earth Day Resolution

It's Earth Day, so I thought I would come out from the chaos cloud that is my life now and perhaps update my green blog. It's been 4 months of blog neglect and I am inclined to apologize. But for what really? I'm a working mom of a 7 month old, I use my "free" time to sleep.

If you read any green-lifestyle blogs it's probably just Treehugger.com, which is all you really need right?? So I think if I'm going to spend the few moments of free time I have these days blogging, it better be for something that brings value to people. I would like to take this blog in a little bit of a new, more focused direction.

I will be trying to highlight eco conscience efforts of my local community with an emphasis on the east coast, specifically Brevard County. I might rename my blog to reflect that, but i'm cheap and have no interest in buying another domain name. So not sure when that will go down. But expect more posts highlighting the green efforts going down in my hometown of Cocoa-Melbourne area.

Thus my Earth Day resolution is to hunt out locals doing green good and promote their efforts. One person recycling and blogging about it is ho hum, but an entire community doing it is extraordinary. It's really time for me to talk less and do more. I have some really great things in the pipeline to bring more green to my community and I would like to kick it off by dedicating my blog and time to my community.

If you are a local Brevard business, school, non profit or individual doing some green good, connect with me so your story or action can inspire the change we want to see in the world.

Happy Earth Day!!!

now lets go hug some trees and shame some litter bugs

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THE COVE - it will make you cry

If you don't cry while while watching this movie you have no soul and might be eaten by a bear.

The movie centers around one seemingly crazy old dude named Richard O'Barry. Ric was Flipper's trainer back in the 60's and has been trying to overcome his role in dolphin captivity for the past 35 years. He wrote a book in 1989 called "Behind the Dolphin Smile" that I read when I was 12 and was infatuated with dolphins.

The movie picks up where the book ends and brings us to the modern exploitation of dolphins. It centers around one small cove in Taiji, Japan where 23,000 dolphins are herded and slaughtered by Japanese fishermen every year. It is the MOST DISTURBING footage of dolphin slaughtering I have EVER seen. The movie was created and produced by the Oceanic Preservation Society and they did a truly superb job. Thought it's a documentary, it shows like a movie, an environmental activists Oceans 11.

The cast of characters include;

Louie Psihoyos, the producer

Joseph Chisholm, the roady

Simon Hutchins, the Marine,

Mandy & Kirk, the FreeDivers,

Greg "Moondog" Mooney, the uber Scuba Diver.

This mod squad each brings something unique to the table as they attempt to covertly hide HD cameras around the heavily guarded cove. Infarred cameras, heli-camera, faux rock housing, night vision divers, one crazy old decoy , some covert ops sh*t.

Movie Highlights:

Countries that are paid by Japan to attend the International Whaling Commission to vote favorably towards Japan's agenda don't even know whales are native to their own country. Come on , you can't even do a tiny bit of research before showing up to the International WHALING Commission. WTF?

Salty ole' Ric O'Barry strapping a monitor to his chest with the dolphin slaughter footage playing and then crashing the IWC. Classic.

Dolphin meat has toxic levels of mercury. Mercury levels that rise 2% every year from the burning of fossil fuels and polluting our oceans. Just another reason we need to find fuel alternatives, and quickly. 70% of the human population relies on seafood as a main food source.

This story, as horrifying as it is, pales in comparison to the larger issue of the depletion of our fisheries throughout the world. Our excessive consumption is creating a deficit that we might not come back from.

"No real change ever comes from the government, it comes from people" We have to stop waiting for our government to fix all our problems and injustices, cause it will never happen. It takes people with a common vision and passion to create change.

Movie trailer: http://thecovemovie.com/

What can you do about it? Visit this site

Hopefully I did a good enough job scaring the shit of you, now go watch the movie and get pissed off.

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My Pool Goes Green

Yeah, that's my pool.  It's a swamp, there are creatures in it. But it's "green" and chemical free. 

Who wants to take a dip? 

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Habitat for Humanity Orlando Green Home Review.

A few weeks ago, Habitat Orlando reached out to me and the PulseofCentralFlorida to visit their new green home community* We met up with their volunteer coordinator, Jennifer Gallagher who is one of the nicest chicks you'll ever meet.  She put up with all my annoying construction questions and you can't help but be inspired by her passion for what she does.  It's truly contagious, one of those "I can change the world" feelings. 

* (I previously did a post about the sites green features, check it out here.  The Pulse also has a site review here with all the photos.)

It's awesome to see a non-profit take on the challenge of building a green community.  It's such a perfect fit since one of Habitat's mission is to make homes affordable, now they are making them affordable to operate.  

I think the most impactful features Habitat Orlando incorporates into their homes are white roof shingles, low-e windows, energy efficient appliances and CFL's.  These features are going to help the new homeowners keep their monthly utility bills super low.  I was able to talk to a future homeowner, who was really excited about keeping her bills low while being eco-friendly. Energy efficient appliances and CFL's are obvious power savers to most people, but white roof shingles are going to save the planet according to Al Gore.  Just kidding...sorta.  Most roofs have dark shingles, which absorb heat.  White roof shingles deflect the sun which helps keep the attic cool, which in turn helps keep the home cool.  Since Florida life means running the AC for the majority of the year, this feature will have a huge impact on the homeowners utility bills.  The same light deflection concept comes into play with Low-e windows.  What does low-e mean anyways?  E= Emissivity = the amount of light ( or heat) that flows through a material.  These windows prevent heat transfer from light into the home.  Both white roof shingles and low-e windows aren't too expensive and will make a serious dent in your home operating costs. Which is sweet!! 

One of the great things about this community is that the homes will also be Florida Green Home Certified.  The director of construction, Terry, focused on making the homes energy star, and in doing so, was also able to qualify the homes to be FGBC certified.  Right now the homes qualify to have a silver rating, but there is a possibility the homes could get an even higher rating.  Go Terry!!!  

If you want to volunteer your time, money or supplies don't hesitate to reach out to the team.  You'll be glad you did  :) 

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Join the Million Baby Crawl

OMG, this is sorta scary... babies are crawling their way to Washington to demand reform of toxic chemical policies.





Seventh Generation is sponsoring the Million Baby Crawl to get congress to require the EPA to have stricter policies towards what goes into household cleaners. The EPA has required safety testing on only 200 of the more than 80,000 household cleaners. That is crap.

So what can you do about it? Email your Congressman/woman and have them get the Toxic Chemical Reform Act passed. Better yet, throw a pacifier in your baby's mouth and point them in the direction of Washington. Lily is already on her way....

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