Natural and organic scrubs, soaps, butters, and creams -- on sale for a limited time!
Gaggle of Chicks special: Get 40% Off Personal Care Items by buying here! Act now! This deal expires midnight on Wednesday! Expires midnight on 7/13/11. While supplies last.
Brooklyn, New York: After graduating with a BFA from Central St. Martins of London in 2003, Shanan Campanaro has developed a vibrant studio practice and exhibition schedule, has received significant support from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and has worked as a senior designer in fashion textiles and graphics in New York City.
In the sring of 2008, she launched a line of bespoke wallpaper made to order. The surge in interest prompted her to launch ESKAYEL at the Brooklyn Designs Juried show in May 2009.
Since her launch of Eskayel her work has gotten critical acclaim and been featured in the New York Times, Interior Design Magazine, House Beautiful, Luxe interiors, and Daily candy.
Special Designer Offer: Use code NL0707 to receive 20% off Shanan's pillows!
Austrian-born graphic designer and typographer Stefan Sagmeister's 7 rules for creating happiness on TED.
Italian firm StARTT (winners of the MoMa/P.S. 1 Young Architects Program) turned the stone courtyard at the MAXXI Museum into an artificial oasis of enormous red poppies and shallow reflecting pools. The most incredible feature: The entire Whatami installation will be recycled or "replanted" in other parts of the city that needs a splash of color. Check out all the pics at Inhabitat.
Mae West said it best; try everything (at least!) once. This is the mantra of One 2 Try. They gave our Primitive Recycled Glass Hurricanes a fab review -- loving the unique texture the bubbles make in the glass. And just image... it could be yours! Here's how:
Mandatory Entry (First entry) 
• Visit DIGS and tell me in a comment a product you would love to have.
Additional optional entries: Eligible after completing mandatory entry above: You can do any or all of the following for one entry each unless stated otherwise. Please leave a separate comment for each that you have done.
• Like DIGS on Facebook.
• Like One 2 Try on Facebook.
• Sign up for the DIGS E-Newsletter (Top Right of page).
• Enter the DIGS giveaway at New Age Mama. Leave me a comment letting me know you entered.
• Subscribe to my blog and verify the subscription. Current subscribers are eligible too.
• Follow my blog on Google Friend Connect or Networked Blogs (see the right side bar to sign up) Already a follower, just leave a comment saying that you are a follower.
• Follow DIGS on Twitter.
• Follow One 2 Try on Twitter. Current followers are eligible too, just leave a comment saying that you are a twitter follower.
• Tweet about this giveaway and leave a link to your tweet (Can tweet once daily, tweet button above).
• FOR 2 EXTRA ENTRIES – Share this giveaway on your favorite social media site, your choice (other than twitter above). Leave me the link to the location.
• FOR 5 EXTRA ENTRIES – Make any purchase from DIGS. Support an Artisan! Post FIVE separate comments about your purchase. Subject to verification.
Giveaway ends on July 11th, 2011 at 11:59 PM Pacific time. ONE PERSON PER HOUSEHOLD and IP address. Open to Continental US addresses only. No PO Boxes. Must be 18 years of age and over. Winner will be chosen randomly using “And the Winner is plugin” and contacted by email. Please respond within 48 hours or a new winner will be chosen. To be fair to everyone, comments not meeting requirements will be deleted. Rules.
We have an awesome giveaway starting today! Check out what you can win, how you can win it, and who you can win it from:
New Age Mama has discovered DIGS! It was hard for them to pick a favorite product, but they simply fell in love with our Alabaster Cube Votive... and it could soon be yours!
Here's the deets from New Age Mama: 
"One lucky winner is going to receive the same beautiful alabaster cube votive that I received to review. To enter, just visit Digs and tell me another item you love. For additional entries you can do any of the following, but you must complete this initial entry first. Any entries that do not follow these guidelines will be deleted.
1) Subscribe to my blog by email 2) Follow my blog on friend connect 3) Blog about this giveaway with a link to New Age Mama & Digs(5 Entries) 4) Follow me on twitter and tweet this giveaway using the button at the top of this post (Daily) 5) Become my friend on face book or a fan of New Age Mama on Face Book (one entry each) 6) Grab my main button and tell me where I can find it 7) Follow New Age Mama on Network Blog 8) Follow my author blog on friend connect, twitter, or face book (one entry each) 9) Post this giveaway on any sweepstakes site, Mr Linky, or other networking website-leave the link where I can find it (1 entry each 10) Become a fan of Digs 11) Enter Rita's Digs Giveaway at One2Try 12) Follow Digs on twitter 13) Subscribe to the Digs newsletter
This giveaway will end at midnight on 7/11/11 and is open to the continental US only. Only one set of entries per person/household/IP address. The winner will be chosen via a random number generator. Thanks again to Digs for offering this great prize!"
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using 'Content here
I’m not referring to the iconic 1970’s sitcom starring Fred ‘Rerun’ Berry. But while we’re on that subject; who could forget that great guest star appearance from The Doobie Brothers that taught us all that recording concerts and selling them is against the law. And while we’re still on that subject; why was Dee always snitching on Raj? What’s up with that? Nobody likes a snitch. And before I leave this subject; did you know and realize that the title of this television show actually included the two exclamation points? It’s true.
What I am referring to and what I’m asking is what’s going on in the world today? If it’s not tornados it’s Schwarzenegger. If it’s not earthquakes it’s Strauss-Kahn. If it’s not triple digit temperatures in early June it’s Weiner. Seems that my news coverage choices of late are natural disasters or male disasters. Perhaps there should be some new reality show where the two phenomenons are somehow combined. Natural Male Disasters. I'm seeing this as a joint venture between The Weather Channel and Spike TV. If that doesn’t have ‘instant hit’ written all over it, I don’t know what does. -dave
Section 2 of the High Line opened this past weekend! The renovated train track with views of the Hudson is now doubled in length thanks to Section 2. The new tree-lined extension boasts an expansive sun lawn, lounge, and drop-out section where you can see through the walkway into the skeleton of the structure. The High Line is arguably one of the best places to "people watch" in the city!
Check out the High Line's Flickr Pool!
Gainesville, Florida: Haskell and Melanie Martin, founders of Moksa, have created a clean revolution. "Our products allow us to do what we love and it allows us to work with progressive people and groups that help minimize society's impact on nature and eco-system. Our mission focuses on habitat preservation and conservation. Soap helps us accomplish that. That's what we call 'soapy love'."
No more bulk packaging, wasted materials, lists of ingredients a mile long that few people can pronounce, or ingredients and packaging that contribute to environmental hazards or questionable ethics. Their products will never include palm oils. Soap makers use palm oil because it's cheap and readily available. Commercial harvesting of palms for their oil is the leading cause of the ecosystem's loss of habitat and deforestation.
Melanie and Haskell have chosen ingredients with the least amount of environmental impact. Moksa's packaging is tree-free. They use post-consumer waste, recycled materials, and no virgin plastics. Moksa's ingredients are certified organic, fair-trade whenever possible, chemical-free, and support women's cooperatives, environmental advocacy groups, sustainable businesses, local businesses, non-profit environmental organizations, and they're certified carbon neutral!
Special Designer Offer: Receive 20% off Moksa's Athlete's Secret Body Butter and Kona Athlete's Body Bar. (For pampering even Dads love!) Code NL0614 at checkout!
Many of us can’t let go of our always-reliable-holy-grail skin care products, but unrefined Shea butter can do wonders for your body and health. Funlayo Alabi, founder of Shea Radiance, said, “Unrefined Shea butter contains a sizable quantityof medicinal properties or bio-actives.” From healing small wounds to eczema to even frost bites, unrefined Shea butter can now be part of your medicine cabinet. Heading to the beach this summer? Alabi says unrefined Shea butter also contains cinnamic acid which provides some level of UV protection.
The problem with the refined Shea butter products found at your convenience store is that they have very little cinnamic acid which lowers Shea butter’s medicinal properties. There can also be a lot of funky ingredients in refined Shea butter, so stick to pure and natural.
“Your skin is your largest organ and what goes on your skin is absorbed to some degree into your system,” Alabi said. “Natural products are more wholesome and tend to be more effective than synthetic products.”
Shea Radiance’s Shea is fair trade which helps African women make their own money. They are allowed to spend it however they want, whether on education or medical needs. “When women prosper, the entire family is impacted, especially the children,” Alabi said. The Shea trade also benefits whole communities, allowing more jobs – trucking, storing, packaging, etc – and reinvesting the money earned.
Designing More With Less symposium at Cooper Union's new Morphosis building (one of NY's greener buildings) gave me a chance to check it out from the inside. The downstairs lecture hall and gallery spaces are well thought out and I liked the use of crinkled mesh on the ceiling of the auditorium. The semi- transparent rippling water effect covered up the mechanicals, while being calming and textural without being distracting but enough about my idle observations of the space and onto the discussion at hand.
MUJI was hosting, IDEO's Iaian Roberts, Jeremy Heimans of Purpose/ Avaaz.org and Simon Mainwaring who just wrote book We First (which I am looking forward to reading) were presenting, speaking and taking questions...Robin Dorian was the moderator, co-founder of Find Eat Drink.
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The presentations were short but all seemed on point. Iaian talked from a design point of view, Jeremy from a social media perspective and Simon from a marketing view point. I took note when Iaian pointed out that design needs to step back and look at the problem/solution not get bogged down in design with a capital D looking to how developing countries solve basic problems from inception with fresh eyes vs. with our myopic western view from plenty. He cited Zipcar as a good model of shared ownership & that it removes 15 cars from the road…also cited an interesting fact that most cars generally sit idle for 90% of the time in garages etc. Natura Brazil is another example of rethinking how brands approach markets from the solution first not the traditional design protocol and also ITunes & the new cloud will completely shift an already vastly changed industry streaming music questioning how we see “ownership” in the future and the potential consumption/waste ration of CD & DVDs/packaging etc. within only the last 5 years .
Heimans talked about brands need to look at marketing as a “dialogue not monologue with consumers” and must find compelling easy ways to engage and communicate on mass levels for sea change. They recently did the “Meu Rio” campaign in Brazil using this method. He made it seem easy to mobilize millions across the internet in real time by grasping the root of the issue with clarity and honesty while keeping them engaged…he also looked about my son’s age, amazing, and boy do I feel old!
Simon Mainwaring a guru in marketing circles, had some compelling statistics and was also very well spoken, something that stuck for me was the notion of valuing the wealth of a company by its partnership with community, shifting power to the consumer, contributory consumption where social enterprises give back with every purchase and cross sector collaboration to respond to market shift towards mindful consumption, social entrepreneurship, social media inspiring social activism. I look forward to more compelling lectures sponsored by Muji and to reading Simon’s new book We First.
- Rhea Alexander
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Confessions of an Overworked MOM is giving away our Black Felt Bag!
Ellen says, "This bag is the perfect fashion accessory for the college student heading off to school this fall. It's room enough for a laptop or a note book and book with a few pens and pencils as well. The classic black means that it will be an easy accessory to match with any outfit whether a casual pair of jeans or a more dressy outfit for an interview or internship position. The bag is also available in mauve and grey. I just love the rich, soft feel of the wool felt. It's very well made and is holding up quite well to constant use."
Click here to find out how to enter the giveaway! Good luck!
Portland Picks quote Coco Channel in their fab review on our felt brooches: "In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different." "Swooning" over our brooch selection ensued! Swoon away! Thanks Portland Picks!
WoodNet Market Council is directed by Sandra Morgan in New Hampshire. WoodNet was one of the first groups to be certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council. Recently, Sandra answered some questions from DIGS about chain of custody certifications.
DIGS: Why is it important to trace the origin of a tree to the forest? What does this teach consumers?
Sandra: There are many reasons to connect the products we purchase with points of origin. Was the harvest of the tree legal? Were CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) treaties honored? Was the land managed responsibly? Did we respect the rights of the people in the local community? How much regard or what value was placed on wild life habitat?
Carefully considered, these questions remind us that: all prosperity is dependent upon natural resources, natural resources are finite, and finally, the protection of these resources are imperative to our survival.
Hopefully when we trace the origin of the product from our homes back through all the links in the supply chain we will learn to walk softly on the earth.
D: Why is this process needed to counteract destroying entire forests?
S: I'm not sure this process is necessary to counteract the destruction of the forest; however, it is the best solution we have at the moment.
Third party certifications like the Forestry Stewardship Council aren't just about stopping the destruction of the forest, although that is the primary concern. Take a look at the 10 Principles of the Forest Stewardship Council. The development of these policies involved more than concern for the forest. These principles demonstrate environmental concern inside a socioeconomic framework. FSC certified forests are healthy working forests that support entire communities while providing sustenance for wild life and the protection of the forest's ability to cleanse the air we breathe and the water we drink.
To consume less and recycle or repair more frequently will stop the destruction of the entire forest more rapidly and have a greater positive impact on our environment. What drives us to replace our clothes, shoes, floors, furniture? Do those items really need to be replaced or are we driven by style? Marketing? Planned obsolesce?
Do we really need exotic or tropical hardwoods for our floors? Take a moment and think about this – which is a better choice: locally grown, harvested and processed flooring or an exotic tropical hardwood that must be transported thousands of miles to be installed in my home? If I am measuring positive environmental impact then it's the local product. Does a certification label applied to that exotic tropical hardwood make it a better choice? The reality is that certification labels make us feel better about our purchase, but those labels don't always lead to the best choice. Become an informed consumer; check on both sides of the story visit the FSC and The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification websites to learn about certification programs then check out FSC Watch and PEFC Watch for the rest of the story.
Try to avoid the hype that comes with forest certification brand awareness campaigns. There is competition in the market among the certification bodies. The European Union and others are calling for mutual recognition among certification bodies to reduce confusion in the market place. Once FSC was the most credible standard, but today, what once was, simply isn't.
[caption id="attachment_672" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Wood from a Peru forest, courtesy of Rhea Alexander"]
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The fact is only 10% of the world’s forests are third party certified – FSC, PEFC and others combined. If we are truly concerned about saving the forest then we, the consumers in the world, need to encourage unity among the providers of third party certification.
Third party certification provides me, the average consumer, with the ability to participate in the protection of the global forest. I believe in third party certification because sustainably responsible forest management standards encourage restoration of severely degraded forests, discourage clear cutting, and help to reduce or prevent the use of harmful pesticides while protecting wildlife habitat and local economies.
Stewardship is an active partnership between nature and all people.
D: How do you know the process prevents destroying entire forests? Do they take little by little? In other words, what is the exact process?
S: Have you ever heard the statement, “You can't see the forest for the trees?” The forest is more than a body of trees.
On a very simple level we can say the forest includes air, animals, people, plant life, trees and water. We protect the forest by managing what and how much we harvest. By taking this concept, we protect the forest by managing how we harvest. Finally, we protect the forest by managing our use of what we extract from the forest. For example, to insist on quality of design and long term usefulness is one way we can manage “our use” of forest based products.
[caption id="attachment_673" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="A Peru forest, courtesy of Rhea Alexander"]
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The exact process starts with the development of science based management strategies meant to protect all of the forest. Harvest planning includes consideration of wildlife habitat, protection of bodies of water, legality of harvest, rights of indigenous people and landowners. After harvest the “chain of custody” aspect of third party certification comes into play.
D: What is the “chain of custody?”
S: Chain of custody is how we track a forest based product from its origin in the forest through all the cycles of production to your front door. Each member of the supply chain helps to maintain a record of ownership. For example, I bought some timber from Betty Blue. I sawed Betty Blue's timber into lumber then I sold my lumber to Robin Red and I used Mark Magenta Mobile Freight Systems to deliver my lumber to Frank Fuschia's Flooring Company. This record-keeping continues all along the supply chain until the final consumer purchased the Chain of Custody Certified product.
D: How many members do you have currently? Is that number growing?
S: Currently we have 94 companies participating on our certificate.
Yes, that number is growing. Unfortunately, there are not enough groups working to develop group certificates and there are not enough people working to assist companies as they attempt to become FSC certified.
Here's an exciting stat for you, on March 18, 2011, the 20,000th FSC chain of custody certificate was issued. What we need to do now is double that number through consumer demand. We still need to make consumers aware of the availability of FSC certified products in the market place.
This time-lapse video shot by nature photographer Terje Sørgjerd stunningly captures arctic light. In a world of post-production enhancements, CGI, and photoshop, this video is completely unaltered - colors and light so divine, there is no need. Shot in Lofoten, Norway, this inspiring video serves as a reminder of how gorgeous our planet is, and how grateful we should feel to be surrounded by her beauty. Watch the video here.
