Not Built in a Day

Maybe it's because I live in the hippie San Francisco Bay Area, or because there's simply no escaping it, but no conversation among friends here can fail to come around to climate change and the environment.  (And also the cost of housing and lack of decent public transit, but I digress.)  It's a big topic, and one that cannot be addressed without systemic change in our agriculture, industry, and transportation policies, but there are at least symbolic things one can do in one's own life to show that living smaller and greener is the way to go.  The newest hurdle we've tackled:  achieving carbon neutrality by buying carbon offsets.  This was something I'd considered and discussed here before , but this year (for 2014) we finally made the decision to do it.  We bought them through a program for Google employees that allows you to buy the same offsets that Google buys, so we knew that the credits would go to reputable groups and actually be used as offsets. ...

In honor of the new year, here's some stuff I made. For my sister, freehand painted Toms Classics, inspired by  a painting of her choice: I used regular acrylic paint, then covered the painted areas with a few layers of matte Mod Podge to protect them.  Now I just need to decide on what to paint on my own pair! For my family, 3D-printed holiday ornaments: I used the Makerbot Replicator 3D printer at my office (thanks, CAW!) to print the text.  I chose fonts in Illustrator, exported to Rhino, edited the text so the letters would form a continuous piece, then made them 3D and imported them into the Makerbot software.  The ornaments themselves are generic wood ornaments I bought on Amazon, with holes pre-drilled, then painted with acrylic.  The hangers are jute twine.  I thought they came out pretty well!  I was inspired by these ornaments from Crate & Barrel, which are ceramic, not wood, but maybe next year I'll get fanci...