THESE ARE PERFECT

oh. my. gosh. 

these are perfect for me. i'm always reusing my tiny not-exactly-reusable sandwich bags!! i would love the orange polka-dot or the skull and crossbones bag! made of washable cotton and nylon, flap is secured with Velcro. who wouldn't love eating their lunch out of one of these cute pouches?

BPA Free - ReSnackIt Reusable Snack Bags

from edenhome

the daily green

several months ago i stumbled across the website "the daily green." [i believe i was led there through Real Simple, probably an article on easy ways to go green, unless it was from Domino or long enough ago to be from Blueprint]. anyway, i was excited to see that some of Knoll's products were featured in their "green homes" section on "green office furniture." [they are numbers 15 - 19].

The Joys of Chicago

Can i just say i LOVE Chicago? it is by far my favorite big city [ok, i've only been to Washington D.C., Baltimore, Toronto [but only saw the airport], and Pittsburgh...if those are even considered "big cities"].

Our Sunday flights from Erie to Detroit to Chicago went without a hitch. We got into Chicago about 10 i believe [that'd be 11am Erie/Pitts time]. We got to our amazing hotel, i took a short nap, and we went to an absolutely insanely awesome place around the corner for lunch owned by The Cheesecake Factory - Grand Lux Café. The decor was awesome, let alone the delicious food. We had two appetizers, AJ got soup, and Dory & I had awesome entrées. We split the New Orleans Beignets for dessert...absolutely amazing. When we left the café, it starting pouring insanely, so we waited it out. I guess a bunch of flights were grounded going to Chicago, so we heard a lot of horror stories about waiting for flights and delays and missing luggage. We were so lucky to have left earlier!!!

Sunday afternoon we changed and went to the Merchandise Mart for a dealers-only showing of the Knoll Showroom. They had expanded from last year, and it was awesome! I took way too many pictures.

Sunday night we had a party at Shaw's Crab House for Spec Furniture, then went over to Hotel 71 for a party for Versteel in the Penthouse.

Monday morning was the Knoll Dealers' breakfast, where they unveiled some new things and gave us an overview of what's going on with the company. Then we headed back to the mart to visit some more showrooms [Nucraft, OFS/First Office/Carolina, Sit on It and Inscape].

Monday night we went to Fulton's On The River for a Sit On It party, then to Carmine's for dinner. It was soooo tasty, but i could barely eat all my food.

Tuesday morning our flight left at 10:10 from Chicago. Our Detroit-to-Erie flight was a little irritating...overbooked...boarding late...they filled up the fuel tanks too much for the Erie airport so we had to sit off to the side on the runway for about 45 minutes...turbulance sucked, i was at the back of the plane, i was tired & nauseas...but we got back to Erie at 315, safe and sound and tired...

I have a bazillion pictures, and you can check out my favorite...300...here. but here are some of my best of the best:

Grand Lux Café

Limencello Lemonade & White Sangria - Grand Lux Café

New Knoll Fabrics - Luxe Collection

More Knoll Fabrics

Knoll Showroom - Graham Collection

Knoll Stools

New Loewenstein Collection

Inscape Showroom - Conference Room

Knoll Fabrics & Ottomans

Chicago!

Nucraft - Neos Collection

going green?

the whole "green movement" has always peaked my interest and i would love to be more environmentally aware and have a smaller ecological footprint. you can find your footprint online, here, which i had done in college, and completed again today. My footprint is "21" - we would need 4.7 planets if everyone lived like me...[and i'm sure most people DO]. when i was younger [like, 12], i envisioned myself driving [like at age 17 or 18] some stupid looking solar-powered car that i couldn't be in when it got dark. i didn't want that. now, i realize, obviously i would be able to drive a "solar powered car" after dark, but also i wish so bad that i didn't have to pay these crazy gas prices and could have an anything-but-gas powered car.

i would love for it to be easier to be "green". magazines i read talk all about using light and solar energy to power their homes, using recycled materials, public transportation, energy efficient appliances...but for me, that's not really very realistic [or affordable]. however, there are some things i'm sure i could do to make a difference.

i stumbled across The Daily Green website which has a bunch of cool and easy things you can do to "go green". you can sign up for their newsletter by email as well.

here's a list of some things i can think of that are easy, and some i got from the website.

1. recycle. recycle. recycle. i'm not sure how much of a difference it would make, but it would at least help me to feel better to not toss every sheet of paper i don't need at work in the trash, or shove every plastic bottle in the garbage. i would also like to use recycled paper more, as well as other recycled materials [we have a lot of panel fabrics at work that are made from recycled fabric - one is made from recycled pop bottles or something.]
   
2. drive less or carpool. this is something that is possible for me, but out of probably selfish needs, i don't do. i could drive with my dad to work and home, but so often i don't go home right after work, so there's a problem.
3. Project Switch - switching your inefficient incandescent light bulbs. i don't really know much about this but i found it here on EarthDay.net.
4. pay bills online. how simple is this? i do it anyway, now just make sure you aren't getting the paper bills sent to your house as well.
5. eat produce from local growers. this seems fairly simple, as long as you can find where to get the produce.
   
6. "fill the fridge" - keeping it full helps it run to its max capacity.
7. "power shower" - take a 5 minute shower. this may be somewhat difficult [for those of us with long hair], but i'd say it's doable every so often.
   

Greenroom Eco [sold at Target stores] creates "environmentally friendly" paper products. Not much on their website, but i have a clipboard in the bottom red pattern made from recycled cardboard, and it's pretty cool! i have to get to Target to check out more things, then i can take some pics of that.

Earth Day is Tuesday, April 22nd. What can you do?