Friday, May 15, 2009

Ways for Writers to be Fantastically Green Part One

Ways for Writers to be Fantastically Green Part One
VH Melville
I am the author of the soon to be released Ecotastic, the Fabulously Free Green Guide. I am also the author of Death Toys for Quasar at Diskus publishing.
1. If you run a blog to promote your writing think http://eco-safe.com/ it is a button you put on your blog that people can make pdf copies instead of printing and creating paper waste destined for landfills. Tip from twitter handle @imagenie .
2. If you want to save trees buy packets of seeds and give them as your door prizes.
3. Grow a story garden. A county or school garden where author cover plaques can be made of which other donated what trees and vegetables.
4. Eat less meat. You don't have to become vegan just three to four meet free dinners a week can help the earth and save you money for your writing as well.
5. Twitter about your green causes and maybe slip in a note about your writing. I haven't been using twitter but it's a great PR tool and it's also away to get quick green tips.
6. Use a mug instead of foam or plastic cups.


Death Toys for Quasar by VH Melville
http://diskuspublishing.com/vhmelville.html



Thankful List

Husband Little ones
sunshine
candy
pizza
powdered milk

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Post Your Follow Fridays and Thankful Thursdays Here

I'm working on a new way to do Follow Friday thankful Thursday.
The new way to recommend people seems to be to create dynamic content.

Since I've been told that @yourtwiiternamehere will now be private for people following you
only. I personally think that's what DM are for and I love recommends from
people I trust.


I will post my recommends on the twiiterso that my followers can see them. Though One or two might not know about it.
So I decided to post my recommends here that way I can go more in
depth. You can post your recommends in my comment section Thursday
till Monday.
No spam.
I will also have select guest posters as well with their recomend.
Many of my recomends are green but not all.

Not all are following me but if they follow you pass it on.

Rules
Just don't recommend porn tweets this is not that sort of
site it’s green and family. No recomending your own site but you can
put a short bio
with your tweet name.

These are my Thankful Thursday, Follow Friday, Ecomonday recommends.
You do not have to follow me to post but you will get updates more
regularly if you do.


Learning
@imagenie magic and learning

Business
@EnergyBook a friendly tweet
@CardboxDiva friendly to advice and kind. Uses shredded paper for packing.
@greencleaningmd very friendly asks for advice instead of just posting ads

Green Info
@Greenopia good articles a lot of people retweet this poster and for reason.
@EcoMonday a haven for learning of new green sites
@greenbaby_nyc if you are green parent this is a must have follow
@Ecosaveology so kind and thoughtful
@ecocheckie good posts

Baked Goods
@cakeywakeywoo

Helpful peeps
@joyntheir so friendly and helpful


End


More Eco Sins
I threw stuff out today. I am also looking to plan a vacation but I
am going to make it closer than originally planned.

Time Management
I am saving time I am using tweet deck more but still use the web too
but the deck is faster. I also got rid of some of my old blogs.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Learning Ideas

Learning Ideas
VH Melville
These are my favorite
I home school during the summer.

Starfall.com a lot of free interactive stories teaches reading and vocabulary. They also sell materiel for schools and homeschoolers. Go to speech stores online and make your own products. I made a flip book of rhyming words including the photo of difficult to pronounce words.
Discarded magazines are great for learning new words.

Music and movement
Favorite songs
Can be combined with controlled bouncing, bubbles or dancing.

DVDS
Signing time and baby syringing time. Can be at some libraries and on some PBS stations.
Baby babble One and two. Baby babble two is my favorite of the two DVDS but my little one loved one
They might Be Giants Here come the 123s great music without making you nuts.
They might Be giants here come the abcs

Monday, May 11, 2009

Simple Ways to Green Work at Home Businesses

Simple Ways to Green Work at Home Businesses

Working at home can be very green from just cutting out the commute but here are more green up business ideas from work at home.

1. Ship with shredded paper or edible corn based peanuts instead of home.
http://www.creativecustomcardboxes.blogspot.com/ packs products in such a way.
2. Use virtual cards as reminder cards to clients instead of post cards. Make them personal though.
3. Sell a product that is partially recycled but better if it's something you don't have to pay for.
4. Get a water filter and quality mugs reusable water bottles.
5. Turn off the lights of rooms you aren't using.
6. Use the library for research
7. Instead of getting in your car to find people to mentor you look for places such as twitter.



Thankful List
Husband, little ones
books
cookies
wheat grinder
tofu

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Green Wedding Gift Ideas

I've been working on my eBook again in the past couple of days.
I also am working some easy green birthday party ideas but I want to try them out first.


Green Wedding Gift Ideas
VH Melville
Many of these items can be purchased on Amazon.
1. A $25 to $300 dollar gift certificate to a favorite online green store "find out if they expire quickly"
2. Cloth shower curtains if they are polestar which is still better than plastic but not as nice as organic cotton or hemp range from $11 to $20. Hemp shower curtains are usually $40 to $60.
3. A basket with organic herb seeds, a nice cup to grow seeds $15 and under unless you buy a lot of seeds.
5. Shea butter and bamboo wash clothes From $10 to $50
6. A bamboo cutlery set
7. If you can sew a homemade quilt of recycled cloth would be nice and cost effective.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

My Green Journey

My Green Journey

I've always been a little green since I was 17 but now I am going further. I made a deal with my husband green wouldn't cost anything more and made a deal with myself that green would cost less and save us money. I don't think debt is green. I don't think buying things just because they have a green label is green. Right now I live very comfortably but love the challenge. It then gives more money for fun things and activities.
I bought "Green lotions" just to find they were packaged in PVC which I have talked about on twitter.
Of course I can buy fun stuff with the savings that are cheap and sustainable.
I did make some green investments with yearly mad money my little amazing hanging dryer. Yes it’s flimsy but saved more in electricity bill than it cost $12 with shipping. I also use free plastic hangers with clothes because the local store doesn't recycle them.
I will only offset for free meaning I use clickable rainforest charity sites, charity search engines and let advertisers pay my offsets. An offset is a fee for an eco sin.
I have eco sins. We all do. Sometimes I have to ride a plane, sometimes I throw things out I know I should give away but was too busy.
I don't recycle as much as I want to so I use more reusable items.
It's honestly easier to twitter than do the blog but the blog is where I plan for now to park my free eBooks. I have children's eBooks edited with art and a green book for adults I am working on.
I will use the blog for news and articles too long to fit in twitter. I also might get other posters as well.

Goals
1. Lower my foot print and have fun.
2. I want to not just have organic options but ban the most toxic of chemicals and pestides so even people who can't buy or get organic foods will bennifit.
3. Helping other be green for free. Well kind of free. The eBooks as I stated in early posts are pay it on.




I am into other things too
1. Children's education
2. Baking
3. My Wii "Not green but so fun" I do put on a power strip though. It also keeps my happy at home.




Gratitude
I had a self pity party winter it was a bad winter and hope to get back to my thankful self.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Save Money by turning off the Lights

My husband told me how the electricity bill was this month. It was 88 dollars it will be higher in the winter because we need more light. I am not sure I can top that or match this month. I had to laundry almost 4 or five days straight but I only used the dryer twice the first time damp dry mode. I wrote an article on spirituality and being green.

1. I am keeping the lights off when I don't need them.
2. I unplug stuff and added other stuff to power strips
3. I am partially drying clothes over the tub.
4. I make use of my crank lamp but need a more powerful one.

Thankful list

Husband little ones
Baked goods
Being able to spend money on fun stuff instead of power bills
Exercise
I am thankful to be able to be green