Alicia Silverstone's Blog, page 131

kind events: horseless carriage cocktail party in nyc

Hey everyone I wanted to share this event with all you kind lifers in or around NYC:

It’s a fundraiser for NY-Class New Yorkers for Clean Livable And Safe Streets to put an end to horse-drawn carriages in New York City. This is a cause that is very important to me as well as the lovely Lea Michele who guest blogged about it here.

All the food served will be vegan and they’re having a silent auction of some great items. Here are the details:

NY-Class Horseless Carriage Cocktail Party

Date & Time: May 3 2012 7pm-11pm
Location: Tribeca 360 10 Debrosses Street NYC
Buy tickets HERE.

Have you taken a bike or taxi in NY? They are pretty cool! How do you think we can put an end to this silly and very sad practice?

Related Stories:

Guest Blog by Lea Michele from "Glee"
Lea Michele's Guilty Pleasure
Kind Quickies: Souen Restaurant for Superhero Food in NYC
My Favorite NYC Restaurants

watch this: chimpanzee with jane goodall

The amazing Jane Goodall is continuing to raise awareness about chimps's plight with a new movie called Chimpanzee. Here's the trailer:

In a recent blog for the Huffington Post Goodall says that the chimps desperately need our help. She says:

"Their numbers have plummeted over the past hundred years. ... They are in 21 countries but spread thin...I hope that people will understand that they matter as an individual. Every single day the choices they make will have either negative or positive impacts on the environment on animals and on human health. So it's really really important to live each day knowing you make a difference."

A portion of the film’s proceeds will go to the Jane Goodall Institute so go see this movie and get everyone you know to see it pronto!

What do you do to make a positive difference in the world each day? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

For more info about helping chimps...

Chimps Are People Too
Help Chimps
Help Captive Chimps
End Experimentation on Chimps

lil kind life: 10 ways to help your kids go green

Your child is never too young to do their part in helping the environment so it’s important to teach your little ones to go green from the start.

Teach him/her to turn off the lights.
Remind little ones to turn off the water when brushing their teeth.
Spend time with your children playing outside and away from electronic devices that use/waste energy.
Buy eco-friendly toys and products for your children.
Buy in bulk. Instead of buying “snack packs” buy in bulk and then divide into individual servings using reusable containers.
Recycle toys and electronics. Show your children how to properly recycle batteries and electronics so that they don’t end up in landfills.
Teach your children how to cook and where food comes from.
Carpool to school.
Let the kids sort the recycling.
Donate gently used toys and clothing to others who can use them instead of throwing them away.

What are some other fun energy-efficient activities you can do with your little ones?

For eco tips...

Lil Kind Life: Last Night I Swam with a Mermaid
Kind Classics: Easy Ways to Conserve Water
Kind Classics: Calculate Your Carbon Footprint
Kind Classics: Electronic Waste Recycling

Photo Credit: Kids Gone Raw

lil kind life: last night i swam with a mermaid

I wanted to share my friend Kimberly Muller’s beautiful book with you. It’s called Last Night I Swam With A Mermaid and it’s all about fun ways for kids to recycle conserve water and live green lives in general. I think what's cool about this book is that I loved reading it..so its just as fun for the parent. And the images are mesmerizing!

 
Here’s a little video trailer for the book.

Check out the website if you want to see more amazing pictures: Last Night I Swam With A Mermaid.
 
What other books to you recommend for teaching children about conservation and living greener lives?

For more kind books...

Diaper Free by Ingrid Bauer
Your Vegetarian Pregnancy by Dr. Holly Roberts
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
Girls Gone Green by Lynn Hirshfield

kind quickies: souen restaurant for superhero food in nyc

When I went back to New York for the Vamps screening Christopher Bear and I went twice to this organic macrobiotic restaurant we love called Souen. This is a superhero restaurant….minus the fish of course!

What I love is the yuba skin soup. Yuba is this sweet-tasting skin made of soy protein that forms on top of soy milk after it's been heated and then cooled. So delicious! The tempura there is also super yummy and the macro plate is of course so healing and tasty.  I got some cookies for the plane ride back to LA--so good!! The green tea mousse tastes kind of like the green tea ice cream I used to get when I was a kid. It certainly does the trick. Yum!

It also makes for great airplane food. I always pack food for the plane so picking up some Souen makes a guaranteed good flight.

We almost always stay downtown so this place is our lifesaver for superhero style. It’s just such a great place to grab a bite when you need to stay healthy and are running around like crazy and working a ton. They have three locations but this time we went to the SoHo one. Nourishing and delicious as always.

What are your favorite superhero restaurants or restaurants that serve superhero food?

Related Stories:

Have You Tried Café Gratitude?
My Favorite Restaurants in Detroit
My Delicious Dinner at Jean-Georges
The Best Veggie Burger in LA

Photo Source: souen.net

its entres week on made just right

Last week we announced the Spring to Life Recipe Contest brought to you by Earth Balance®. They’ve just wrapped up the beverage round of the competition and now they are moving on to vegan entrée recipes.  

Submit your original vegan recipes for a chance to win great prizes! The grand prize winner will receive:

• A weekend trip for two to San Francisco
• 1000 in spending money
• A stay at the eco-friendly Orchard Garden Hotel
• A five-course dinner at Millennium
• A 1 year supply of Earth Balance® products
• An Earth Balance gift pack featuring Earth Balance gear
• A copy of the book Skinny Bitch Book of Vegan Swaps by Kim Barnouin
 

Do you have a yummy vegan entrée recipe? Submit it to the contest here! Entrée recipes must be submitted by 11:59 EST on April 29th so get cookin’! The following and final week of the contest they will be accepting dessert recipes. You can submit as many vegan recipes as you like. They are even giving out special prizes for 'Most Recipes Submitted' ‘Best Photo’ and ‘Most Creative Recipe’. 

So submit your own vegan recipe today!

Today’s post is brought to you by

my husbands new basketball shoes

My husband finally found some leather-free basketball shoes that he loves…here’s the full saga!

Basketball Shoe Diaries
By Christopher Jarecki

I love basketball and play at least once a week. Shoes are very important because rolling an ankle is one of the worst things ever. So I need good basketball shoes. Now besides the temperature of our house my hippie wife doesn’t believe in air conditioning or heating this is a topic we argue about once a year when I go to get shoes.

My argument is that they have not come up with the technology to make good basketball shoes that properly support your feet without using leather. My wife’s argument is that I am a pussy and don’t care about the planet or the suffering of animals.

In general I’m conscientious - I don’t buy new leather wool or cashmere. For example I wanted some cashmere sweaters once and told my wife I couldn’t find any good used ones…I was hinting that I might have to buy new ones. Well she dragged my ass to the flea market on a football Sunday and spent two hours looking for the used cashmere sweater dude. But by god we found him and I have the greatest cashmere sweaters ever. All used.

Anyway I dug my heels in year after year about the leather basketball shoes and took my verbal whippings like a man. But guess what they’ve finally made some amazing shoes with no leather. They’re awesome and super light. I never realized how heavy those leather shoes were. These leather-free shoes are made from some crazy new material that is for astronauts or something I don’t know this for sure but that is what everything new and cool seems to be taken from.

They’re made by Adidas – they’re called the Adizero Ghost Shoes and they’re endorsed by Derrick Rose from the Bulls that dude is so good.

The “ghost” shoe is no longer available but the “rose” shoe is the same deal. You can find it here.

My Hippie Rebuttal...aka…How Cute Is My Husband?

This is Alicia! Thank god for these shoes! The leather ones really bummed me out. 

Okay the heater and air conditioner - while I’m not a fan of either I’m not 1000 against a little climate control. I just like to be as close to natural as possible for health and energy conservation. When it’s cold out I ask that we all wear sweaters and layers instead of cranking up the heat. Right now it's cold so the game I like to play is "how low can I have the heater and still be comfortable?" I add more blankets and layers to use as little heat as possible. That's my game. And then I do the opposite for the summertime. Whereas my husband what he'd prefer to do is sit around when it's cold in a t-shirt and crank the heat up. When he wants to tease me he'll send me a text when I'm not home saying something like "Bear and I are at home in our underwear with the heat cranked up" or in the summertime he will say "Baby I love you. I'm at home with the air conditioning blasting wearing a sweater." Just to mess with me! So that's one of the fun crazy games we play in our house and it is probably the one things we've fought about over the years—in a friendly cute way.

In my cute husband's defense there have been times when he's said "Baby it's cold!" and I'd tell him to put more layers on. He'd come over and show me his 5 or 6 layers--a pair of long johns a pair of sweat pants 4 shirts and a sweater. Or two sweaters on top of each other! It makes no sense to me that he's cold but I'm not. I guess I have a lot more squish on me than he does. Ha! But anyway he tries!

I feel good about keeping the thermostat around 62 degrees maybe 63 or 64 if I want to be spoiled. And for hot days I ask that we strip down to cute undies or whatever is comfy before cranking the AC. That said I can understand setting the thermostat to around 76-79 degrees. When my husband is not around I go to 80…

Anywho thank you to my husband Christopher for guest blogging! Have you made any awesome veg-friendly discoveries lately? Share them in the comments below!

Related Stories: 
Behind the Scenes: Where My Ecotools Collection is Made
Ten Nature Documentaries for Earth Day
Kind Classics: Beware of Plastic Water Bottles!
Happy Earth Day!
 

could you live for a year without toilet paper?

"Yesterday I shared ten great eco docs to watch for Earth Day. One that really piques my interest is No Impact Man about eco writer and activist Colin Beavan and his family.

 
I haven’t watched the whole film yet but the trailer has me intrigued! In a nutshell Colin and his family commit to a full year of living without making any impact on the environment – that means no takeout food toilet paper TV electricity…all in the middle of Manhattan! It sounds intense but he and his family seem to have a great sense of humor and the doc looks informative and funny.
 
See what goes down over the Beavans’s no impact year by streaming the whole film on Netflix or you can buy the DVD here. You can also get a bunch of eco-living tips on Colin’s blog like this video reminding us how the "good life" isn't the same as the "goods life" buying lots of stuff that's marketed to us everywhere. I love this and I think it's so important! It's super quick and easy to watch and it's great reminder for Earth Day:

 

Have you seen No Impact Man? Let’s discuss! Share your thoughts in the comments below.

happy earth day!

Every day is Earth Day!

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For more beautiful Earth Day images check out my gallery here!

What do you do on Earth Day?

Photo Sources: duskyswondersite.com desktopjazz.co.uk varolmak.com

happy almost earth day kind lifers!

Get your Earth Day on!

Check out all of these great ways you can make a huge difference for your health and the health of our home the Earth:

1. Follow a kind diet – following a plant-based diet is the best thing you can do for yourself and the planet. If you need help getting started get your hands on a copy of my book then check out the forum here on The Kind Life for a wonderful community that will support you on your kind journey!

2. Calculate your carbon footprint – find out what your carbon footprint is and if you don’t like the answer I’ve included some tips for reducing it.

3. Make some Earth Day eco resolutions – here are some ideas for kind meals for work and school getting involved with your community and showing others about a kind lifestyle.

4. Make a habit of conserving water – some easy and important tips for decreasing water waste.

5. Reduce reuse and recycle  - some tips for being less wasteful at home and at the office.

6. Be conscious with every flush – how to make your trip to the toilet a little more kind. Plus some tips on saving toilet paper.

7. Avoid plastic bottles – why plastic water bottles are nasty and how to avoid them.

8. Be the neighborhood sheriff – how to talk to your neighbors or friends for that matter about their unkind or wasteful ways.

9. Unplug your electronics – some energy-saving tips for your household electronics.

10. Know when to say "no" – how to avoid waste when getting take-out food.

 



11. Recycle your electronics – here are some locations and resources to help you recycle your electronics. Also try ebay’s easy electronics resale program!

12. Travel green - where to find kind traveling luggage.

13. Diaper the kind way – a green way to diaper.

 

And in honor of Earth Day I wanted to share with you this great video from the first Earth Day in 1970. This was on CBS News Special Report with news legend Walter Cronkite.




HAPPY EARTH DAY!


What are you doing to celebrate Earth Day?


For more on Earth Day check out some of my past Earth Day posts:
happy earth day!
oprah’s earth day advice
earth day is coming!!!