1. This Brand New Pianist- We bought our niece piano lessons for Christmas, and she still seems pretty excited about it. We even got to hear her play her first pieces. She proudly told us she was all the way to page 16! The gift wasn't any more expensive than what we would have bought her in physical gifts, and she seems so proud of herself. Building self-confidence and learning music! So excited about this.

2. Artifact Uprising- Ordered my first book off Artifact Uprising's book editor, and the process was really easy and fun once I got the hang of a different editor than Shutterfly. I feel like it might be too cool for me, but I love the way it looks and the simplicity of the book. And all of the pages are recycled paper, so that adds another layer of awesome.

3. Airports with water bottle re-filling stations- Someone out there knew there would be an overzealous sunshine guerrilla who would take borderline irrational joy from reading just how many bottle had been filled. One of the ones in SeaTac has saved us over 1 million water bottles in lanfills. How cool is that?!


4. Kiss my Face in Franklin- Don't tell me you can't make more eco-friendly decisions living in a small town! Walking through a little grocery store in our local mall, I spotted my favorite face soap, wrapped in paper and made with organic materials. No more plastic bottle microbead soap! Check out your local small groceries- you will find treasure after treasure in there.

5. Plastic is Political- We are obviously all living in a politically charged moment, and if you care about the environment, news on the federal and state level can be pretty depressing.

But I am just tickled and fired up again to see these organizations putting up fights left and right and to help public lands or to fight Nestle's newest grab for free American water. The Story of Stuff is taking Nestle on, and I couldn't be more excited about it. Screw those guys.

Just another reminder that you can be part of the problem or the solution. There is no neutral when it comes to plastics and the positives for letting go can be as personal as your health, as deep as your very morality and stewardship, and as broad as the state and resources of our country. Skipping single use plastics is always worth the hassle!