Continent: Oceania
Country : Australia
Poo Paper providing animal: The Kangaroo
Famous Kangaroo Poo Paper Brands:  Roo Poo Paper by Creative Paper Tasmania

Continent:  Oceania
Country: Australia
Poo Paper providing animal: The wombat
Famous Wombat Poo Paper Brands:   Creative Paper Tasmania

Continent: Europe
Country:  United Kingdom
Poo Paper providing animal: The Reindeer
Famous Reindeer Poo Paper Brands: The Exotic Paper Company LTD

If you are wondering how paper is made from these animals’ poo and you’ve got doubts about using poo paper because … well it’s made from animal waste…then visit this page on the Elephant Dung Paper website. They have detailed the process with photos to help educate consumers which should help you better understand why it’s safe and a great idea that you should support.

In fact it’s not just sheets of poo paper available these days; there are also other poo paper products available such as scrap books and greeting cards, so do check the possibilities out.

Now weight loss is a very sensitive and passionate issue for some, but we’ve come a long way from people just blinding consuming everything that ‘promises’ weight loss. I’d like to think that today’s society is a little smarter and a whole lot more careful about what they put into their bodies. These days if given a choice, in a heat beat everyone would go for the natural based alternative…but again just because it’s green doesn’t make it safe. So make sure when you read a label on contents, you don’t just scan for the line “derived from natural sources/products/ingredients”.

Let take the world renowned Chitosan as an example. It’s a natural polymer, it is environmental friendly, it is biodegradable, bio-compatible and digestible in both plant and animal tissues. Chitosan is derived from Chitin and from a health benefit perspective, it acts as a fat binder – which means it has the capability to interact with lipids (fat) from the digestive system and limit their absorption in the body, thereby helping a person lose weight.

Weight loss – fat binder – natural, these three descriptive words are enough to make Chitosan a household name for the fight against fat. Whether it effectively works for you is one thing – is it safe is the other.

Chitosan and Chitin are derived from a natural source but how many bothered to read enough of the label or information about the product to learn that the natural source used is shellfish? Chitosan is wonderful because it gives a new purpose to the wastes of marine food processing industry. Crustaceans and molluses are rich sources of Chitin, so that really means consuming Chitosan is similar to consuming seafoods such as prawns, crabs and squids…deadly to those with allergies!

So the moral here is, read the label and understand everything that’s in the ingredients list…just because it says natural doesn’t necessarily make it safe for you.

The Greeks had
Gaia/Gaea
Gaea, in Greek mythology, was a titan. She was daughter of Chaos, mother and wife of both Uranus (the sky) and Pontus (the sea). She was worshiped as the primal goddess, the mother of all things.

Artemis
Artemis is the Goddess Diana of Roman mythology. She is the daughter of Zeus and Leto. Her twin brother is Apollo. She is the virgin goddess who holds all wild animals sacred. She is the lady of the wild things and protector of the young.

Demeter
Demeter (Ceres in Roman Mythology) is the mother Persephone (wife of Hades). She is intimately associated with the seasons as legend has it when Persephone was abducted by Hades to be his wife in the underworld, she laid a curse upon on the world that caused plants to wither and die as the lands became desolate from the cold- she brought winter upon the earth.
Zeus managed to bring Persephone back but as she had eaten while in the underworld it meant Hades now had a claim on her. As a treaty, it was decreed that Persephone would spend four months each year in the underworld and it is during these months Demeter grieves her daughter’s absence, with the onset of winter. Upon her daughters return, she would bring spring.

The Africans had:

Obatala – Goddess of Earth and People, Creator
In this culture, she is the goddess who created earth and people from clay and gave them life.
Legend goes; she was drunk from drinking plum wine and that how she ended up making everyone so different from each other.

Aren’t stories fascinating?

And here’s why.
1.    The ingenious crafters tape
The Japanese made ordinary masking tape extraordinary when they made it out of washi paper.
Coupled with amazing adhesive, they basically invented eco-tape.
2.    Unique qualities of Japanese washi tape
Because it’s made out of washi paper, the tape has the lovely quality of being matt with a semi- transparent finish.  It is strong yet easy to tear. Its absorbent so can be easily personalized/written on. It can be safely repositioned without fear of compromising its ability to stick and won’t tear out whatever you had stuck it on to.
3.    Colourful & Cute tape
It can’t be Japanese if it’s not elaborately beautiful. So obviously Washi Tape is very Japanese. They come in all colours and design under the sun – everything for plain coloured to kimono prints. They are crazy beautiful and a scrappers God sent. You should see how beautiful scrapebooks can turn out with the right tape to hold the pieces in place.  I’ve even seen people decorate their phones with these tapes! And from afar you really wouldn’t realize it’s just tape!
4.    Expensive
Well nothing cost more that packaging and ultimately what’s selling the washi tape is their beautiful appearance. They are affordable but obviously cost more than your normal plain tape.
And if you’re a crafter like me, you’ll know how you can get overly excited about materials and end up buying more than you had expected simply because they have so many designs and you just have to get them all…which easily translates to like $40 worth of artsy tape.

Now unless you’re an atheist I do firmly believe that every now and then you give your thanks and seek refuge from the hardships of life in the comforting promises of a deity – We seek guidance from Saints, shelter from the Angels, blessings from God etc. Every culture, religion and race has their own beliefs and we respect all that. But let us today look a bit deeper into Patron Saints – the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a particular cause. Even if you do not believe (which you are not in any way obligated to), do read on as this would make for a pleasant story.
Well did you know that Nature too has a Patron Saint? St. Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of animals and ecology. Many know that he is the advocate of animals, but not many realize that He too watches over ecology. Born Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone, St. Francis of Assisi was the son of a rich cloth merchant who would later renounced his father and his patrimony to he live as a beggar in the region of Assisi to serve out his beliefs.

St. Francis was passionate about poverty but his love for animals and humility towards nature made him the Patron Saint of Animals and Ecology. Living in a time where there war and famine was at large, people treated animals with horrible cruelty – there was unnecessary infliction of pain and suffering on animals that was considered social norm, but St. Francis stood against it.

St. Francis believed that as nature was created by God, we are to love it and appreciate it – not reign destruction and abuse over it.
Saint Francis’s feast day is observed on October 4 but if you have a prayer you’d like to say for the New Year, why not let it be the asking for blessings for Earth and all the animals…

Happy New Year! May this be a blessed year where more people take up the green fight and more breakthroughs for eco achievements come true!

But ah how times have changed and things have moved on. What was previously just a creative way of filing memorabilia is now a full blown commercial industry. Scrapbooking has evolved so extensively that it is no longer just another hobby but rather a hobby that names the hobbyist. People who embrace the art are “scrappers” and the companies that sell them scrapbooking supplies are “rich”!

Scrapbooking today is no longer just about pasting bits and pieces of your memory in a book and journalising your thoughts that go with it. No, scrapbooking today is about making the memory a decorated art and it would seem as though the embellishment of the book itself takes precedence over its contents.

I have seem quite a few modern scrapbooks and they are amazingly beautiful. The pains the Scrapper takes to put book together is admiral but as most of the materials used are commercialised store bought supplies, they just come so heavily laced with carbon sins.

But scrapbooking is a wonderful hobby and it would be such a tragedy to say no to it. I mean I’d much prefer my child to spend his time with a topic of his passion and put together a book of it then have him sit glued to the screen of some new gaming device.  But alas the children of today are a bit of a screen addict – so I think we should meet them half way. Let them have their computer screens, but let them embrace digital scrapbooking!

Digital scrapbooking is a greener option because it mainly saves from the creation of waste (similar arguments to using e-cards instead of conventional paper ones). And on top of that, you and I both know the ability of digital artistry to doctor is limitless so imagine the possibilities that could be with your digital scrapbook!

So here’s our two pennies worth, if you want your child to learn something valuable and yet be able to balance his need/love for digital things, then introduce him/her to digital scrapbooking. There are many free software and templates available to help you get started.

I was walking past rows of stalls when my nose pounced upon a delightful scent – a beautiful fresh scent to be more accurate, a scent that I knew could only come from ‘soap’. I immediately took an about turn, searching back to the source of the lovely scent and was absolutely overjoyed at the sight of a table with piles of colourful bars of soap, neatly stacked according to their colour. The lovely vendor was a young woman who quickly explained to me how her soap swere all natural and the recipe for each of them -a rich Palestinian tradition. She explained about Nablus, an ancient city famous for its hand-made soap since the tenth century – the main ingredient was virgin olive oil! The soaps were shaped as plain little bricks, but their unique soft pastel colours and heavenly scent just made me itch to try them.

Now even though the traditional Nablus soap was the plain olive oil one, she had others made with special herbs and spices and I was particularly drawn to the one that said “Dead Sea Mud” but that was already sold out. There were many other choices to pick from as each used a specific herb or spice as its main ingredient. I’m not surprised when I see soap made of mint, lemon or lavender but I most certainly am when it reads black cumin, saffron, fig and dates.

The Nabulsi soap tradition might not seem like anything special to you, but it is famed as the choice soap for Queen Elizabeth of England so surely there must be something more to it?

Our use or rather dependency on plastic is quite alarming. We don’t just use them to carry our produce home, we also use them to store our produce! So basically when we bring out own bags, we’re just eliminating one very plastic involved activity, there’s still the other one to deal with back home.

What’s really great about storing produce without plastic is how it actually keeps your food a lot fresher. And all it takes is a glass or ceramic container and water! Of course granted it is a little more inconvenient but seriously how difficult is it to change a container of water every few days? Especially when you know the amount of carbon foot prints you are lifting off the earth?

Truthfully this is new to me, so I do not yet have my own solutions to keeping all your fruits and vegetables fresh and alive without the help of the Berkeley Farmers’ publishing. I swear it’s my new bible because they cover practically all sorts of produce! My old method would have involved keeping everything in the fridge but clearly sometimes the food just doesn’t keep well that way. Even Nicole Richie does it!

Please visit the Berkeley Farmers site to download a copy of how to keep produce fresh and healthy without plastic! Also if you’re really serious about getting into a life with as little as possible then you’ve got to visit ‘Fake Plastic Fish’ – Beth Terry, she’s my inspiration!

And it really is really quite appalling for various reasons; namely how on one hand we lose one of the most magnificent arts of mankind (think the Japanese Washi) and on another we risk the health of the environment and all her living creatures.

Why is this so? Well it’s because the modern pulp and paper production is an energy-intensive activity. In fact energy costs makes up to 25% of the total manufacturing cost.

The industry is also the single largest producer and user of biomass fuels (wood residues, residues from forestry operations, bark, black liquor and production residues), which basically spells greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and carbon dioxide emissions (CDEs). The combustion of fossil/biomass fuels pollutes the air with the release of by-products such as carbon dioxide (CO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particles.

But GHGs and CDEs is not all we have to worry about because this ‘new and improved’ paper making industry also affects our water. You simply can’t make paper without water. It is consumed in nearly all stages of the pulping and papermaking process, inevitably picking up effluents as a result. These waste water effluents contain mainly solids, nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and organic substances such as organic chlorine compounds (AOX) which occurs naturally in wood or through the chlorine bleaching process. And when the waste water is not properly treated before it’s ‘disposal’ you can imagine how that affects the health of the eco-system.

But paper is vital to our lives in this modern age. Everywhere you look there’s paper. It’s in use to communicate information, for artistic and cultural expressions (they even make clothes – Sasawahi), to transport and protect products (packaging) for health related causes (personal hygiene and in medicine/healthcare).

So what can we do? Going entirely paperless isn’t exactly an aim within our feasibly reach (yet anyway). Our only temporary solution – support sustainable paper (recycled paper and the manufacturers who embrace sustainable paper making) and learn to appreciate paper as more than just bio-degradable waste (ration your usage to preserve the environment).

• Beautiful, fun and never plain (something that will always delight the eyes)
• Practical (something that the recipient needs and sometimes doesn’t even realise it)
• Economically affordable (it’s worth its price)

Personally I find it quite hard to match all 3. I mean practical things are usually quite the bore but mom always finds one that isn’t.  And it isn’t as though she walks around looking for inspiration. No, she somehow always already has an idea in her mind and goes out to merely find that object to embody it.  

Just this weekend we went out looking for a gift for a lovely little girl whose 5th birthday is just lurking around the corner. All I had in my mind was a beautiful doll but I suppose mom was right when she said a child’s youth should not all be wasted on toys alone and suggested books.

So if you’re in the market for some books for children, then do consider these:

1.    Earthwise Eco-Friendly Kids Books

They come in 3 titles, each story is tastefully written and beautifully illustrated providing an entertaining story with helpful suggestions on Earth preservation. Each story is led by an animal character that is bound to steal your child’s heart.

• Save the Land (Birdie the red bird)
• Save the Ocean (Tippy the turtle)
• Save the Wildlife (Pauli the Polar Bear’s the guide)

For the price of $10, you can get your child an eco-friendly paperback book that is printed on recycled paper withsoy based inks that comes delightfully packaged in a biodegradable/reusable jute gift bag.

2.    Little Green Books

Little Green Books is a new eco-friendly series (printed on recycled paper with vegetable/soy ink, 100% recyclable, most books made with FSC certified paper)  from Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division that cover a variety of subjects. It is written to educate children about eco-awareness  such as:

• the dangers of global warming,
• the benefits of recycling,
• helping endangered animals

Little Green Books has many titles to pick from but my favourite is I Can Save the Earth! – authored by Alison Inches
and illustrated by Viviana Garofoli. It’s an amazingly colourful book that bound to catch your child’s attention. Furthermore, Little Green Books and The Big Green Help teamed up to offer you green books from your child’s favorite Nickelodeon characters:

• Blue’s Clue
• SpongeBob
• Dora the Explorer
• Wonder Pets