For Earth Day Buy Furniture?!

Well it's Earth day and here in Eugene it's a big deal. There are free events at 5th St. Market for example and sales (i.e. at Oak Street Vintage) galore. Last night Mr. Schmitz & Mr. Plummer came over to talk about final touches in the kitchen and mostly about trim. We talked for 30 minutes about all things trim including where this wood is going to come from. Buying wood is definitely a conundrum. We talked about buying a ready to go maple trim and Mr. Plummer suggested it would be FSC or Forest Stewardship Council certified. We also talked about using Appleply for the trim and I asked Mr. Plummer if that wood would be FSC certified and he said no. For another client they bought FSC applyply and in the end discovered that the core was from China which then leads to a whole bunch of questions about carbon production and shipping from across the world - not very earth friendly acts! They made the point that even though the applyply that we have in our house is not FSC it is locally (Oregon) harvested and manufactured (Lane County). So you see it's not so easy being green! 

We're trying to make the best & most eco-conscious decisions during this remodel by taking more than just a simple label into mind. Thus my dilemma about buying furniture for Earth day. I want to but do I need to? NO! Here's some rationalization for you though if you care to indulge me. We'll be getting rid of some furniture on Craigs or via a garage sale or donating it to Goodwill or Bring Recycling which will keep it out of the landfill. This is good. But then is it a good idea to consume more stuff on a day that celebrates not consuming more shit? Not good. I think in the end don't buy anything at CB2 today just because they're going to plant a tree for you (you can plant a tree yourself). Falling for that sales pitch is not very eco-savvy. If I have to buy furniture it seems like supporting a local vintage store is a great way to consume stuff in an earth-friendly way. Plus Oak Street has marked everything in the store off 22% for April 22nd!  You're saving furniture from the landfill which I think is an Earth-friendly action. Probably instead of buying stuff at Earth Day sales it's probably best to just get out into nature and remind yourself why we have this day to begin with. Another good Earth Day activity is donating to a small environmental non-profit like Cascadia Wildlands - a small group that is on the front lines of old growth and endangered animal protection in the Cascades from Oregon to Alaska! Also right now you can double your donation because of a generous offer from a great business Mountain Rose Herbs.com. Happy Earth Day, Modern monkeys!

Modern Kid's Gifts in Eugene

So we were on the prowl for toys for our nephew recently and found ourselves over at the 5th St. Public Market mostly because going to Toys-R-Made-Out-of-Plastic felt a bit too overwhelming and potentially hazardous for the kids in our lives who we love. Specifically we were hanging out in the Elephant's Trunk. We ended up with some fun items for our 7 year old nephew but as we were checking out I was pleasantly surprised to see some great items from Paul Frank and Sukie. I've seen Sukie stationary around over at Luxe (see the link in the sidebar) but didn't expect to see the calendar at the toy store. It's a cute little calendar that sits on your table or desk. You rotate the wheels at the back to change the date, day of week, and month. What a fun tool to teach your child about numbers, months, seasons, days of the week and all that good stuff! The truth is though that for a moment I thought about getting the calendar for myself for my office and I already know all about days and months - it's just such a pretty little item - like having art sitting right at your desk every day. My point though is that there are cool modern items for kids too - it doesn't have to all be in primary colors and it can be found right here in Eugene! You don't even have to drive to P-town or buy it on the internet. So thanks to Elephant's Trunk for carrying a a memory game that today's Auntie Mame would want to play with her modern day Patrick! Cheers.