in the philippines

what a long few weeks its been. this trip to the philippines was definitely one of my favorites. mainly because of the good mix of family, rest, and even a little bit of business. here are some of my favorite snaps. first we visit my grandma's house from the 50's...fish, a staple for any meal. this was for breakfast...jeepney ride to my uncle's farm...orchids from my uncle's farm to bring to my grandparents' graves...we are there Nov. 1 for all souls day where the party is at the cemetary...what surrounded us through a hike in the coconut tree forest...plane ride to Bohol in the south of the Philippines. a view of Mt. Mayon volcano known to have the most perfect cone...

these are called the chocolate hills because in the summer, the green dries out to brown and they look like chocolate mounds...

white sand beaches of Bohol Beach Club. this was the restful part of our trip, relaxing in the water, having spiked mango shakes, and getting a massage on the beach!some of parts of the beach were just made up of bits of coral...

Balay Celina

My aunt's rest house, now named Balay Celina, in the little town of Liliw, province of Laguna, Philippines is heaven. Designed by a local architect, its open floorplan and over all theme is Bali inspired. Most importantly, it is built to house mom's huge family (there are 12 brothers and sisters) which at times can bring together over 40 people on a given weekend. This is an overview of the main house...The front where we we usually hang out while waiting for our rides. This is a detail of the small pool and hand carved wood door...
This is where we all usually gather, for meals and just hanging out telling old stories. It amazing when it rains because it is covered and with a tropical climate, it is warm enough to continue whatever we are doing...
Over view of the space, even the chairs were hand carved...The guest rooms are open and sleep more of us on the floor when needed. There are also several sitting nooks to carry out the Bali theme...There is always fresh fruit, these are little bananas and lanzones. I always fall in love with the graphic tiles that feel ancient and modern at the same time...
The part that houses the kitchen...Flowers that grow in the back of the property and their buddah...
The cabana and the pool where you can take a morning swim sometimes in the rain! One Easter we hid all the eggs in this open area, crazy...
A view inside the cabana, a simple, but enormous structure which can house even 50 people on floor cushioned beds. Everything except the 2 bathrooms are made of the the bamboo and dried grass that forms the roofs. Windows are usually open at night which makes you feel like you're sleeping outdoors. The last night I was there, the sky was pitch black with thousands of stars...

The Liliw Church and a view of a rice field and Mount Banahaw where my mom's family has an amazing farm...

The ice cold river that runs down from the mountain. I have fond memories of when all of us would walk down to the river for lunch and swimming. Man on horse with a machete...
5 peso (maybe about 10 cents) per person tricycle rides which can seriously fit two behind the driver and three in the little side car. One of the many roosters that will crow at 5 a.m...

the food

clearly I took hundreds possibly thousands of photos over a 2 week period. i always do. can't help it. so many pretty things! many of them of course being the mouthwatering food... this is the buko (coconut) lychee shake. AMAZING....seafood lunch - green mango with salty fish, lapu lapu fish with black beans, squid, huge shrimp caught that morning, shaped rice and the beautiful mango shake...fresh buko juice straight from the shell...pinakbit, one of my favorite dishes made of eggplant, a few other veggies, bits of pork, and bagoong (salt fish)...

the always fascinated by rambutan fruit ~ red with all the soft prickly things all over it. my uncle has trees on his farm. he waited to pick these when we got there for lunch...

suman is sticky rice wrapped in banana leaf. you unravel and drizzle with sweet carmel sauce...

Batangas

I know I've been posting a lot today. Hopefully making up for the last month I've been away! Last one for today... my aunt's other house (she and my uncle are semi-retired and enjoy building houses), this one by the beach in Batangas, Philippines.  Wood is the theme at this rest house, all sorts of wood made by several craftsmen in the area. It's a wonderful rest home again big enough to accomodate the entire family. The sunsets are serene and the beach down below is like being on vacation all over again...kitchen and the first balcony...
indoor/outdoor shower and the dark wood staircase...craftsmanship in every detail of the house...always amazed that we all get a bed!playing scrabble by sunset...

infinity pool and path to a beach nearby...

iMac in tangerine

This week we will sadly have to say goodbye to our tangerine iMac. You can see from the dust, it's been in the attic for some time. They were so exciting back then (1999?) weren't they... I think I still have a postcard of all the candy colored computers arranged like just that - candy.

We will be recycling a total of 5 gianormous computer monitors, a scanner, a printer and a cell phone to California Recycles on Saturday at the Culver City Methodist Church. Knowing we were going to eventually do this, we have been collecting old computer hardware from family and friends knowing that if we don't take them, they will be sent to a landfill. California Recycles, will take them all apart and melt them down to be reused again.

catalogs cancelled

Called West Elm, JCrew, and FLOR today and kindly cancelled my catalogs. As the lady was typing, she recited my reason for cancelling - "shops online and going green :)"

Dwell Mag

The newest issue of Dwell is big, beefy, and all about green! Glad to see that "Sustainability is here to stay!"

Our New Prius!

Our new 2008 Toyota Prius Hybrid! Our lease was finally up on our other car making it the perfect oppportunity to green forward. We are getting about 39 mpg. Not bad compared to the 21 mpg on our other car. We were surprised that there were no deals to really negotiate at Toyota because the cars are flying off the lot. I've been hearing that a fully electric car you can plug into a regular household outlet will be out in 12-18 months!? That would be excellent!

Update: Despite the fact that we were still 2 bars until an empty tank of gas and that if you do run empty, a full battery will keep you going another 25 miles, we filled up for the first time this weekend anyway. It's been 3 weeks and we're at 43 mpg. Not bad at all :)

Drought Tolerant Garden

The native side of Santa Monica College's comparison of native and traditional gardens. I love the trees and shrubs, the pot submerged underground, the creekbed for urban runoff and gravel surface to let rainwater return back down to the groundwater supply. Find out more about it here.

LA Green Drinks 2nd Anniversary

Can you believe it's already October! Tonight we are trying our hardest to make it to LA Green Drinks in Culver City because it is their 2nd year anniversary. Barent Roth who was our Sustainable Works instructor started the L.A. chapter of this organization as a casual way to network and talk about green issues. We attended our first Green Drinks in at the Good Luck Bar in Silverlake a few weeks back and were impressed by how many great professionals we met who were passionate about the eco movement. There were about 20-25 people. The Culver City location, which is the original location, gets about 50 people attending, but I suspect there will be more tonight!

All Shades of Green and Ecoland

A new shop in Silverlake opened last week called All Shades of Green. I stopped by and picked up this comfy organic cotton ladies tank top by Ecoland. Their cotton is SKAL certified and the top manufactured in a sweatshop free factory. I was a little bummed about the excessive packaging, but it is made of 100% recycled paper and soy based inks.

Make It Right!

I love Brad and Angelina and their quest for goodness... This is Brad for the organization Make It Right in New Orleans with the commitment to bring affordable, sustainable housing to the Lower 9th Ward devasted by Hurricane Katrina.

L.A.D.W.P.'s Green Energy Program

I just signed for L.A.D.W.P.'s Green Power program. Again, seems like so little (an extra $3/month) to support L. A.'s green efforts. I found it here on their website. I needed my DWP bill in order to enter my account number, but filling out a simple form online was all it took. I liked how you could choose the percentage of energy you wanted as green energy. I've heard from others in my workshop that previously, you only had the option to purchase 20% green energy. Now you can choose from 20-100% depending on how much you wanted to support.
Makes me proud of our smog torn city.

here's an explanation form the form I filled out...

The price for new green power is slightly higher than power generated from conventional sources such as coal and natural gas. The extra cost is currently 3 cents per kilowatt hour, which is applied only to that portion of renewable energy that is chosen. The minimum contribution percentage for residential or small non-residential customers is 20%, but up to 100% may be elected. For the average LADWP customer that chooses a 20% contribution and whose monthly electric charge is $50, the additional charge would be $3 (or $6 on a bi-monthly bill). This extra cost may be offset by free energy efficiency products and services provided by LADWP. Participating customers are required to remain on the Green Power rate for a period of no less than 12 months.

Knitprovisation

Items knit from recycled clothing, yarn scraps and found objects from a book called Knitprovisation! The combining of formerly finished products that weren't meant to be so matchy, makes each piece feel so rich with a sense of depth. Via Smarts & Crafts

Green Workshop Part 3: Waste

There are so many shocking facts about waste. Honestly, I’ve spent the last 15 minutes trying to write about it more simply, but it is too much. Here are links regarding waste to the Sustainable Works blog , a great reference, or just trust that we need to create a cycle rather than a linear process for consumption or else we’ll be living in trash!

Here are the top 5 things we can do according to my Sustainable Works book…

Reuse more, Consume less
This is the mantra. Reusing is always better even if it takes some resources to clean after use. This includes plates, utensils, cups, water bottles, grocery bags. It, then, becomes a cycle, rather than a linear line to the landfill. Some one in the class asked, what was she to do about cups for a birthday party for 50 kids? Instructor said, borrow tumbler cups from friends or neighbors, or if was in your budget, rent from a party supply. Total silence from the group of course, maybe because this would be totally inconvenient, easier to buy 200 disposable cups for $8.99 at Costco, but hold up – fact: Styrofoam takes approx. 500 years to break down in a landfill (One Makes a Difference), ah, whew, okay it’s worth that extra effort. I get it. It was at this point that I realized only by knowing all these crazy messed up facts will I keep myself driven.
Consuming less plastic ziplock bags and paper towels were huge for me, but just being less of a consumer in general was even bigger. I'm just buying less and asking myself 3 or 4 times if it's really truly necessary, end of story.

Recycle Everything
Recycle plastics, paper, glass, cans, anything you can see something being remade out of. This reduced my trash greatly, to the point that in the beginning, we had way more to recycle than to throw in the regular garbage. Also, if you are not sure if it’s recyclable, put it in that recycle bin anyway. I found out that they will keep these non-recyclables stored until they find a way to recycle them.

Give away or donate things you don’t use.
I have to admit, we had so much stuff when we moved into our house, I was embarrassed to tell anyone. We accumulated so many things that ended up in storage and our parents’ homes that when they were all transferred to one place, it was overwhelming. I am proud to say, we have given away about 1/3 if not 1/2 of our stuff and in the process furnished my cousin’s apartment, clothed friends and relatives, and have made more than a dozen trips to Goodwill.

Close the Loop. Cradle to cradle.
This is the other mantra! Buy things made from the things you recycle. What a great feeling. I recycle all this paper and then purchase recycled paper goods in return. Of course! Barent, our instructor, was wearing a black t shirt from Pategonia made from recycled plastic bottles the other day! It’s amazing what they are doing now. I’ve also now been taking note of the percentage of post-consumer content on recycled products.

A few other things:
Harzadouse Waste Facility - old batteries, used light bulbs, old paint, anything with a cord should be disposed of at your nearest facility. They will leak toxic chemicals that will get into our ground water if it is not disposed of properly. Bad! I am guilty of having one too many paint sample quarts and leftover paint from the last 9 years or so. Having said that, I am happy I finally brought all of it to the Hazardous Waste Facility today. Now that I know more about more toxic waste, it’s actually a relief to have it out of the house!
Compost – so little time, but I itch to do this every time I throw veggies in the garbage! Very soon for me, I hope.
Eliminate Junk mail – I just signed up for www.greendimes.com. Will post about what happens.
Try a zero waste lunch! – very cool concept! I stopped using paper napkins in restaurants in exchange for a handkerchief.

fall flora

a lovely fro of fall flowers from Sabine.

unfortunately, we weren't invited, but i loved seeing this sunset dinner table at the chateau marmont probably set up for a special someone, their spouse and 10 of their closest friends...

Green Workshop Part 2: Energy

When I think of energy, I wonder why new homes don't come standard with solar power. It seems like the right thing to do. After this workshop we decided to divert our kitchen remodel funds to solar power.

Lighting
- This one is easy - Compact Flourescent Light bulbs. Change as many as possible to CFL's simply put, they take a fifth of the energy traditional incandescnets do, and last ten times longer. Our big question was if we should wait till the other ones burn out... the answer, and this was from the experts, was no. Don't wait one more minute. The earth’s resources are already so depleted that we cannot afford to use electricity in excess especially if there is a way to use a fraction of it. I guess this is also the case with anything that saves water - so we replaced the toilet even though it could last another few years - it was wasting water and that's what mattered most!
- Use task lighting instead of the larger overhead light. Makes sense. Need one for my desk.

Appliances
- Unplug all unused appliances, even your TV and VCR. Apparently, there is this thing called phantom energy which is the energy that is used when your appliance is idle or in standby mode. So this means everything with a remote. Appliances are waiting attentively for a signal from your remote so they are definitely on - this idle time accounts for 93% of what we are paying for! For answering machines and cordless phones, it's 98%! (Alan Meier of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) When I told my sister about this, she immediately started unplugging things around the house. The best thing to do is to have the VCR and TV on a power strip so that it is easy to turn off when not in use.

Heating and Cooling:
- This was easy. We set our thermostat to 78 degrees when we had the AC on this summer. Seemed like no big deal but apparently it will save us 3-5% of our energy bill with each degree higher. My friend Jon was shocked when he saw that his energy bill dropped to approx $50 this summer from $150 last summer after changing his thermostat one degree from 77 to 78 . Crazy.
- Got rid of our electric space heaters. They gobble up so much energy.
- Installed ceiling fans this past spring after last summer's heat wave. They're perfect all year round.
- We’ve recently installed more tinting of our windows to keep the UV rays out and create more insulation. Window tinting can block up to 50% UV rays.
- We’ve also opted for more blankets and sweaters instead of the heater which I will do gladly after these last heat waves.

Washing Machines and Dishwashers
- Run washer only when it's full. They use the same energy with a full load or half load. Turn off the drying cycle in the dishwasher and let the dishes just air dry.
- I love these dryer tips directly from my sustainable works book. I think I want to print them out and tape the washer dryer.
- line dry when weather permits: I’ve been line drying the easy to dry t shirts all summer. I put the rest of the wet clothes in the dryer and set the time to half of what I would usually set it to.
- clean the lint filter before each load – if lint is allowed to collect, drying time and energy consumption increases.
- dry full laundry loads but make sure not to overload the dryer
- do not over dry – I was amazed at how little time it truly takes to dry clothes.
- dry continuously – energy is spent warming a cold dryer.

As we remodel our home we will be
- only purchasing Energy Star products
- looking to eventually install solar panels
- also looking into a tankless water heater

the 11th Hour

Whew, what a weekend. With triple digit temperatures, a random 4 a.m. thunder storm, one brown out, and a small earthquake Sunday morning, uh, I think someone is trying to tell us something! We took refuge at a movie theater yesterday afternoon finding it quite appropriate to be watching the 11th Hour.

The idea behind everyone's message -- the earth is sick, it needs healing. The earth will survive it's sickness, but will we? The earth had been around for billions of years morphing from one form to another. We on the other hand are just one civilization occupuying the planet. Are we driving ourselves to extinction? This movie interviews dozens of independent experts who each explain, mostly through science, what brought us to the point. Industrialism, our addiction to fossil fuels, the myth that we have a limitless supply of resources, has advanced us beyond our expectations, but this as also made us become more separate from nature, therefore are not fully aware the harm that we are causing. As one woman said in my Sustainable Works Workshop, you feel so horrible and guilty in the first half of the movie, thank god the second half is about hope and the reality is that most of human kind never had the intent to be this destructive. We just weren't aware. Now is the time to become more aware and not ignore the things we hear in the news, but to take action within our own lives.

If we look at this as an opportunity, it is an exciting time to be able to redesign, well, everything we know with a new frame of mind, a new purpose to make sure the products we create from this point forward are reusable, recycable, creating the least impact to the earth. It's the idea of cradle to cradle instead of cradle to grave. It gives me, as a designer, a purpose larger than myself and beyond just trying to make a living.

Feeling overwelmed about all this is normal, so as a general rule of thumb, I'm realizing that it is more simply about SLOWWWING DOWWWWN - what are we really buying, what we are eating, where are we always going, do we really need all these material things, do we really need to consume this much???

Go see it, and see it in theaters to support the movie financially.

Other important movies -- An Inconvenient Truth, Who Killed the Electric Car.