The Eco Gift Expo

Today I got to attend the eco gift expo.  I had SO MUCH FUN!!!  (almost as much fun as I hear the Beehive Bazaar is) It was at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and it was filled with vendors that are eco-conscious in one way or another.  Some people sold clothing that was made from recycled fabric, (leftover remnants or old clothes) others made beautiful clothing from organic cotton, bamboo, silk, and hemp.  Almost everything was handmade.  There were towels, robes, sheets of bamboo. (Bamboo is a very renewable resource and grown without pesticides.)  There were vendors selling beautiful things from various countries that were fairly traded.  There were delicious heath foods, such as raw nuts, dried fruit, (wolf berries!) tea, nutrition bars, CHOCOLATE!  All organic!  There was also delicious organic prepared food-- soup, veggie lasagna, raw food.   I ate so many yummy and healthy things!!!  And there were so many beautiful things!  I could have bought the whole place!  I contented myself with the things pictured here (and a few other items!)  I LOVED this bag that says "Paper NOR Plastic."  The guy selling them called it "the inconvenient bag" because the convenient one is the one they give us at the store--  the inconvenient one is the one we have to remember to bring in.  We try very hard to bring in our cloth bags when we go shopping.  I'm hoping this cute bag will help me better remember.  I bought the Klean Kanteens because I want to stop buying bottled water.  In LA, we already have to buy purified water, and we use 5 gallon bottles that we refill.  In the past, we have used a lot of bottled water but I hate using so many plastic bottles even though we do recycle them!! (and I hate drinking from plastic!) so I bought each of us a stainless steel bottle so that we can minimize our use of bottled water.  The beautiful batik t-shirt was made by a very old friend of mine, Victoria, who I met at the Saturday Market in Eugene, OR back in 1991.  She and I both had booths there.  She has been consistently batiking ever since!!  I was thrilled to get one of her beautiful t-shirts which, are made of 100% cotton and made by American Apparel, (USA made and sweatshop-free.)  Victoria uses beeswax and low-impact dyes.  Isn't that wonderful? I highly recommend that you look up all of these things to learn more:  www.ecogift.com, www.theinconvenientbag.com, www.kleankanteen.com, and www.victoriabatik.com.