Donate Your Leftover Fabric: Women of Cooperativa El Nido

Are you doing some spring cleaning and you find yourself wanting to 

put leftover fabric to good use?

photos via Coletterie

I am always looking for ways to put leftover fabric to good use! Colette Patterns has a subscription called Snippets, a newsletter that highlights weekly sewing tips ranging from helpful techniques to outreach with organizations like Cooperativa El Nido who is seeking donations from your leftover fabric scraps. You can check out all of the information on this self-sustaining community of women in the hills of Capira (just outside of Panama City) here. 

If you’d like to donate your own pieces of fabric, please send all donations to Kathryn, who works with these women in Panama. She has kindly provided a US mailing address for those of us here in the states:

Kathryn Wellemeyer

5542 Silverleaf Court

Haslett, MI 48840

You can also email the cooperative at cooperativaelnido at gmail.com for any questions.

If you know of any other organizations seeking fabric donations- especially SoCal organizations, please leave some comments so everyone can check those out too.

Ocean Conservation - Help with Beach Cleanups!

There are simple ways we can help the planet out with planning and thoughtfulness. Think of all the harmful  items we put into our ocean that could be easily avoided whether we meant them ending up in the ocean or not. What ways can we be more conscious of our actions?  Not contaminating our groundwater with chemicals, such as improperly disposed of oil or antifreeze that is dripping from your junker car, is something that you can tangibly imagine being a bad thing. Whereas, on the other end of the spectrum, flicking your cigarette into the street and leaving it behind doesn't seem so harmful in your mind. With a large portion of our global food source coming from the ocean, which makes total sense, since it is 70% of the planet, do you really want to poison and contaminate your food source.  Maybe you're indifference is that you don't eat fish... Well do you like breathing oxygen? In my enlightening session last night by Maria Moyer at West Elm she talked about how one of the smallest organisms in the ocean, plankton, create half of the oxygen we breath!!! It seems weird to say when you pollute the water you take away the air you breath but it is all connected and all important. Unfortunately, some people either don't have the knowledge or foresight to keep things nice first without messing things up. This is why we should all do our part (and then some!) and help cleanup & restore our natural wonders so that generations to come can enjoy them.

While looking for some opportunities for volunteering I checked out the ED2012 site short for Earth Day 2012 - of course a Cali website would have an abbreviation like ED2012! Super dope site that is jam packed with amazing meetup spots all along the coast of California.  Big River is the northernmost city and it spreads down the coast all the way down south to San Diego!!! Pretty exciting! it has opportunities for the whole weekend so you can go on Saturday too which is going to be a gorgeous beach day :)

TODAY at the Whole Foods in Santa Monica (Friday, April 20th from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm)

Store/community cleanup

2201 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90403

20 volunteers needed

For more information, contact Laura Martino at laura.martino@wholefoods.com

Los Angeles - Heal the Bay Earth Day Cleanup

April 21st from 10AM-12PM

Registration required. Visit Heal the Bay's website for more information

Cabrillo Beach

April 21st from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm

Beach cleanup. Visit the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium as well!

3720 Stephen M White Drive, San Pedro, CA 90731

60 volunteers needed

For more information, contact Franklin High School (J. Villamil) at jxv0362@lausd.net

For extra locations and more details check out the link here for Save Our Beach.

Here is a page with some other opportunities for volunteering in Los Angeles to check out.

More details and dates for days other than Earth Day 2012 that you can help our beaches after the jump.

Plant Trees for Earth Day

It might be because my grandpa is a Forester, but to me the month of April and especially Earth Day is always a great time to plant a tree.  What I have found in browsing the Earth Day excitement is a lot of people think planting a tree for Earth Day is old fashioned :( Seems  like everyone is celebrating Earth Day in all kinds of other ways, and tree planting isn't the main buzz. Personally I don't care what activity you participate in on Earth Day. Earth Day is a day to be thoughtful and reflective on this great gift of the Earth. It is a time to consciously give back to the Earth as a thank you for everything we take from it. Trees are in my opinion a resource that we take from that is wonderfully rewarding to help replenish and something that everyone can do.

Sadly, I haven't totally tapped into Million Trees LA yet. With the passion and dedication to plant one million new trees in the City of Los Angeles I hope to get the opportunity to plant several trees here in my new home. How can you not get excited about this sweet organization and what bringing a million trees to Los Angeles! Think about not only the beauty it will bring to the city but also what it will do for our cities air quality!!! Trees are so amazing :)  You can volunteer helping out and planting for more days than just Earth Day so I encourage you to check it out and get to planting and leaving an environmental legacy to the great city of Los Angeles!!!

Maybe you want a tree planted but hate getting your hands dirty...

Image courtesy of Alternative Apparel.

Here's a guilt-free shopping idea: For Earth Day Alternative Apparel is offering a unique deal to environmentally-conscious consumers. When you buy an item online from their Eco-friendly Alternative Earth collection now through April 22, they'll plant a tree on your behalf! This way you get some new threads and get your tree planted all at once!!! Their goal is to plant one billion trees by Earth Day, so start shopping here and be sure to enter promo code "FOREST" at checkout. 

Also, one of my favorite home store CB2 has partnered up with American Forests in honor of Earth Day. CB2 is planting a tree for every purchase on the 22nd made in-store or online. PLUS use the code "TWOTREES" at checkout and they'll double the number of planted trees! Heck yes!!! 
I also stumbled across this list of Earth Day activities here in the greater Los Angeles Area that is pretty amazing. Maybe planting a tree is not your forte but want to get out and meet new people- The events here can do just that. 

Happy Planting! XOXO, KC