Check out our new bungee wrap video. Enjoy!
January 13th, 2012
Econo-Maxing Your Ride
As hybrid cars get cooler looking and more efficient, there is little reason to drive gas guzzlers these days. However, no matter what your car is running on, the basic facts of fuel efficient driving still remain.
Here are some great tips:
Drive the speed limit. “Every five miles per hour above 55 is like paying 14 cents a gallon more for gas,” Fons says.
Play it cool. You use more fuel when you accelerate hard and slam on the brakes.
Inflate your tires to their maximum rated pressure. Fully inflated tires create less friction with the surface of the road, reducing the amount of work the engine has to do.
Get the junk out of the trunk. Carrying extra weight makes the engine work harder, and that can add up to a lot of wasted gas.
Tune your engine and clean your air filter. Good maintenance means better burning.
Get more tips at:
milwaukeehybridgroup.com
June 13th, 2011
Computer All Nighter Myth
Do you leave your computer on all night, maybe turning your screen off as you head off to bed? Many rumors abound as to why it makes sense to do so including the famous, “It takes more energy to boot it back up in the morning”. Well it simply isn’t true.
Here are the facts:
A typical computer uses 300 Watts of energy, the equivalent of 3 very bright lamps!
Turning off your computer when not using could save you up to $219 a year. Even if you are using energy saving down mode, you would still save over $100 if you actually turned it off.
Read more about how energy computers and other electronic devices use at How Stuff Works.
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December 5th, 2010
Holiday Gifts, Exclusively at BOBOwrap.com
New gift items have arrived and we are so excited to give you a first look.
1. Ladies Who Lunch, Insulated Lunch Tote with Bamboo Handles
A lunch tote elegant enough to use as a purse!
2. Almond Delight, Chocolate and Almond Dipped Cookie Sticks
A favorite snack in Korea, these crispy delights from Lotte Confectionery are simply heavenly.
3. My Own Lunch Bag, Cotton Reusable Lunch Bag that You Decorate Yourself
Colorful Fabric Markers are included to make lunchtime an eco-fun activity.
4. Sushi Snacker, Sheets of Roasted Savory Seaweed
Everyone who loves sushi knows that seaweed is an amazingly delicious and nutritious food. Now enjoy the crispy savory goodness anytime with these roasted seaweed sheets. Just cut with scissors and enjoy alone or with steaming hot rice. Yum!
Business, Family, Food, Green, Health, Holiday, Korea, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
October 31st, 2010
Great Scotts! Never rake again??
Raking leaves in the fall is such a huge part of our American suburban culture that most of us don’t think twice about getting rid of all those fallen leaves littering our lawns each year. Last week when I saw a Scott’s commercial advocating mowing the leaves versus raking and chucking, I was intrigued. Could this be a viable alternative or is this just another big corporate attempt at greenwashing?
Here’s the commercial:
Public service or Greenwashing?
Can this be true?
Apparently, research conducted at Cornell, Purdue, Rutgers, Michigan State and other universities since the early 1990’s supports this opinion. Here’s an example of the research:
“Between 1995 and 1998 researchers at Michigan State set mower decks to cut at three inches, then mowed up to 450 pounds of leaves per 1,000 square feet of lawn each autumn (that’s equivalent to about eighteen inches of leaves).
At such a high rate, very little grass could be seen at the end of the mowing season. However, once growth resumed the following spring the remaining leaf litter quickly decomposed. In this study not only was the excessive volume of leaves not harmful, the shredded leaves actually improved lawn quality over time as organic matter and nutrients in the decomposing leaves was returned to the soil.”
Yard waste is the second worst polluter in America’s landfills today (#1 is paper). If leaves can truly be mowed and left on lawns instead of raked, collected and thrown away, this could have a significantly positive impact on our environment.
Great job Scotts! I’m impressed and look forward to experimenting on my own lawn this year.
September 17th, 2010
A Shocking Reminder of the Life Lost in Living
The Question: If one of the finest classical musicians in the world, played some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made, during rush hour at the Metro, what would 1,000 passersby do?
The Answer: A fascinating look at what we might be missing while we go about our busy lives.
Joshua Bell plays the Metro
In an article called “Pearls Before Breakfast”, the Washington Post sets up a dumbfounding experiment of modern humanity.
The pearl reference hearkens back to the famous words of Jesus who said, ‘Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.’
I shiver to think what I might have done walking through the Metro that day. Would I have stopped to marvel at the beauty or would I have trampled it with my busy feet.
Among the many amazing revelations that came out of this experiment was the fact that every single child noticed Joshua Bell and tried to stay and listen as every parent pulled the child along and whisked them out the door.
As we head into the weekend, let’s all make an effort to open our ears and eyes and take in the pearls that surround us every day!
Read the full article here.
August 31st, 2010
Great video on reducing your soda habit.
“It’s hard to overeat without noticing it. By contrast, soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages can sneak up on you, adding hundreds of calories to your diet each day without ever filling you up.” -NYHealth Dept.
Diet soda may seem like a good way to get your soda fix if you’re already addicted, but it can actually be even worse as I recently experienced when I had Splenda for the first time ever. Let’s just say that my stomach did not agree with this additive. At all. Twice.
After some quick research on the internet, I found that many people shared my reaction to Splenda and who knows how many countless others have less obvious more long term effects. If you really need a fizzy fix, try sparkling water or club soda instead.
I feel very lucky that my kids tried soda at an early enough age that they found the experience painful and unpleasant. They still love other sugary drinks like ice tea and such so we keep a big 5 gallon water cooler in the kitchen so that ice cold water is easily accessible at all times. The most effective policy for us is not to buy it at the store. Even with all the information out there on the negative effects of soda, if it’s in the fridge, I find it very hard to resist!
Family, Food, Health | 3 Comments »
May 28th, 2010
Funny Friday: Introducing Dad to Twitter
With the myriad of funny/interesting/addicting things available on the internet, I constantly worry about our kids wasting too much time on the computer. But what about the older generation? My 87 yo father-in-law for example. He’s got a lot of time on his hands. Much of this time is devoted to a daily washing of his car and the compulsive fixing of anything in his home that might be a little loose or squeaky. He also watches a lot of tv.
One of the many funny Twitter graphics from 11points.com
That’s why we thought a computer would be perfect for him. Little did we know what we were getting into.
Have you heard of the term “click commitment”? If you’ve ever tried teaching an older person how to use the computer, you have experienced this. After a frustrating session with my father-in-law, I read a New York Times article called “It’s Better Late than Never” and finally understood why he it was so hard for him to click the dang mouse. In his generation, things that got broken were not easily fixable and usually ended up costing a lot of money and time. Clicking the “back” button was not an easy concept to understand.
Even my own dad who is just shy of 70 often clicks something only to sit back and enjoy the results of his decision to commit to that click. He also has his Yahoo portal site all set up exactly the way he likes it and Twitter and Facebook be darned, no one better mess with the Yahoo!
May 6th, 2010
The Talents of a Middle Aged Brain
Part of every healthy lifestyle is staying fit mentally but if you’re anything like me, you have a lot going on in your life and your short term memory is becoming a bit like Dory from Finding Nemo. I’ll often ask my son something only to have him look at me with disbelief, “Mom, you just asked me that 5 minutes ago!”.
Scary.
2 things really caught my interest lately in terms of brain research in adults. The first is an article from the NYT called “The Talents of a Middle Aged Brain”. This interview with author Barbara Strauch confirms that many “older” people have issues with short term memory but surprisingly declares that on the whole, our brains are better than ever between the ages of 40-65.
Strauch says that our ability to logically solve problems and find solutions are at their peak which reminded me of another interesting book I read recently by Malcolm Gladwell called “Blink”. In it, Gladwell touts the merits of thin slicing, which is a term that psychologists use to describe our ability to make quick assessments and snap decisions that are usually right. Gladwell says that we are smarter than we think and based on our subconscious knowledge and years of experience, we should often go with our gut instinct and first impressions.
Obviously, there are plenty of exceptions to this rule of thin slicing and my favorite from the Blink is Gladwell’s illustration of how the American people were duped into electing a tall, regal looking William Harding into the White House only to soon realize that he was terribly unsuited for the job.
I’ve never been a speedy decision maker and often mull things over for way too long. In business however, this is a huge liability where time is money and things have to be decided quickly. I’ve been trying a little thin slicing myself lately and feel like I have a new Turbo button for making good yet quick decisions. It’s still depressing when I can’t remember someone’s name but at least there is an upside to this ever changing brain of ours!
Here’s a great Saturday Night Live skit about a product that is perfect for all of us confused Moms this Mother’s Day. The best medicine for all our ailments is a good laugh after all.
By the way, Strauch says that exercise is the best thing we can do for our aging brains so let’s all get outside, do a little walking and celebrate the power of our wonderfully ripened brains!
Business, Family, Health, books | 1 Comment »
April 22nd, 2010
This Earth Day Join the Wrapping Scarf Revolution!
Going green can seem more than a little intimidating sometimes. Solar panels sound wonderful and as I look out at my laundry drying in the sun, I dream of the day I can harness that same great energy to power up my home. But for now, I 
reach for the lower hanging fruit on the tree of eco-living. Wrapping with fabric to reduce senseless garbage? That’s like fruit on the ground!
Giving gifts is one of the great pleasures in life and the suspense and mystery in unwrapping a gift is the icing on the cake. But did you know that during the holidays alone, Americans create 5 million additional tons of garbage and that 80% of this garbage is just wrapping paper and gift bags? These are crazy numbers and there’s a lot we can do about it without eliminating the joys of beautifully wrapped gifts.
The ancient Korean people really hated waste and considered it bad luck. They created the concept of the wrapping scarf or wrapping cloth called bojagi (boh-jah-kee), which they used to wrap and carry everything from gifts to bundles of merchandise for the market. The great thing about wrapping with bojagi is that it adapts to the shape being wrapped for a custom fit and then can be reused countless times. This was my inspiration in creating my own line of reusable wraps called BOBO.
BOBO wrapping is a lot like origami in that a square shape works best. Try the bow tie wrap technique for wrapping up your next gift with a square scarf or hankie. If you like the contrasting reverse effect, try using 2 scarves put together with a bit of light spray adhesive.
If you are crafty and have fabric lying around your home from old projects, you can make your own BOBOs by taking a square piece of fabric and finishing off the edges. Just make sure the fabric’s not too thick by grabbing a corner of material and tying in a knot. If it doesn’t knot easily, it’s probably too thick.
Stanford University Recycling Center says ”If every American family wrapped just 3 presents in re-used materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields.” Now 3 presents a year is a number we can all commit to.
I wrote The Wrapping Scarf Revolution to teach a new generation of Earth citizens a great old way to be kinder to the planet. Join the 
Wrapping Scarf Revolution and take the pledge to wrap at least 3 gifts in reusables this year. Send me a picture of your fabric wrapped gift and you may receive a nice a little gift certificate from yours truly. Happy Earth Day everyone. Let’s hear it for the low hanging fruit!
For more information and video demonstrations on how to wrap with fabric, visit the How-To Page at BOBOwrap.com. To enter a great book and wrap giveaway, check out the original site of this post at galtime.com. Write a comment there by tomorrow and be entered.
For a nice 15% off discount to try our products, use this great coupon by the Eco Diva. Code: DIVA410 Expiration: 4/30/2010.
April 21st, 2010
Mother’s Day Gift Guide
A selection of our favorites for all those special Moms out there. LOVE the new Celadon Tea Mug set from Korea. Steep loose tea in the ceramic strainer then just lift out and place on the lid while enjoying all the health benefits of a great cup of tea. All lovingly pre-wrapped with Earth friendly reusable BOBO wrap. We’ll even hand write your message on a beautiful BOBO card. Check out all the great wrapped gift items in stock now.
April 19th, 2010
It’s National Hangout Day! (But you can hang in too :-)
Is there anything more wonderful than clean crisp laundry that’s been dried in the sun? It’s amazing that we all have the power of the sun right at our fingertips yet most of us don’t consider this option in our busy lives.
A peaceful protest for my right to dry.
Unbelievably, outdoor clotheslines are illegal in many homeowners’ associations around the country including all 35,000 in the sunny state of California. In our state of Connecticut, a bill proposed to give all Nutmeggers the right to dry has yet to be passed.
Which makes me sort of a criminal for line drying my laundry.
Considering that automatic dryers are second only to the refrigerator in amount of energy consumed in homes, it’s time to rethink the issue. Not only is it green, it saves a lot of money too. Winters and rainy spells, we may need to use our dryers, but on a beautiful sunny New England day, it seems like a crime NOT to line dry!
The power of the sun also disinfects clothes and helps keep whites their whitest. Even if it’s just a few pieces, join the movement and hang something out to dry. Take a picture and send it to us this week for a $10 coupon to shop at our eco-friendly online store. BOBO Wrapping Scarves are all hand washable and best air dried.
Hanging out is awesome, but so is hanging in. Call me a prude but I think underwear is still best left indoors if possible.
Do one thing green today and try line drying some laundry using “solar power”. Remember that one green thing will most certainly lead to another.
If you believe it is the inalienable right of every man, woman, and child to line dry, check out right2dry.org and sign the petition. Here are some great ideas and pics from the National Hanging Out Day post on TreeHugger.com
Hanging "in" is great too!
Artful hanging out.
March 23rd, 2010
Red Hot Eco Mom!
A fun article on how I started my business in the April 2010 issue of Redbook. Many many thanks to Reena Kazmann of ecoartware.com for nominating me! Check it out at your local grocery store or newsstand!
BOBO Wrap, Business, Family, Green, Korea, Media | 1 Comment »
March 17th, 2010
My Love Affair with Ireland
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! My own personal obsession with Ireland began after reading Frank McCourt’s masterpiece, Angela’s Ashes. He wrote his story of grinding poverty with such truth and humor that I found myself bawling and laughing hysterically in turns. I literally rationed out the last few chapters as I couldn’t bear to let go of this heartbreakingly hilarious tale of misery and hope.
The tears would stream from my eyes as Frank’s father would time and time again leave his starving family and head for the pub to drink away his week’s wages and my heart leaped as Frank somehow found his way onto the boat that would take him to a new beginning in America. You might not think that Korea and Ireland have much in common, but there are some similarities that might surprise you. Take this quote for example:
“Could he not find in his heart the generosity to acknowledge that there is a small nation that stood alone not for one year or two, but for several hundred years against aggression; that endured spoliations, famines, massacres in endless succession; that was clubbed many times into insensibility, but that each time on returning [to] consciousness took up the fight anew; a small nation that could never be got to accept defeat and has never surrendered her soul?”
This quote by the Irish independence movement leader Eamon De Valera, could easily have been said about Korea. Both countries lay in a strategically central location and while Ireland was pummeled for centuries by Scotland and England, Korea endured the same plight in the hands of Japan and Manchuria. Maybe this is why both countries today are famous for their hard drinking and hardscrabble ways.
“We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English.” – Winston Churchill.
I went on to read all of McCourt’s books (none lived up to the first) and was miserably disappointed with the movie version. McCourt brought his tale to life so magically that I literally dreamed about the damp green hills of Limerick and at one point considered going on the Angela’s Ashes tour with a group of hard core Japanese fans. I even read Frank’s brother Malachy’s book which hardly deserves a mention and yet I still savored every morsel of information about the life and times of the McCourt family.
It’s hard to imagine that life could really have been that bad and yet Malachy McCourt says that in reality, their life was worse than Frank wrote. Asked about how they managed to survive and go on to such successful lives (Malachy became a Hollywood actor), he says, “Insane outbreaks of laughter saved us.” Whether or not you’re Irish or Korean, I think we can all relate to that!
Read more about the life of Frank McCourt: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1911633,00.html#ixzz0iRtAkxrt
St. Patrick’s Day Sale! Save 25% off all green BOBO wraps till Friday March 18th. Use Code: LUCKY10
March 11th, 2010
A Rocky Mountain Wedding
When my sister announced a few years back that she and her fiance had decided to get married in the month of January, we all said “Great!”. When she said that the January wedding was going to be in Aspen, Colorado, we said, “What?!”. Destination weddings in warm balmy places is one thing. 200 guests flying out to Aspen in the middle of winter is another thing entirely!
Having lived and worked in Aspen as a reporter for the Aspen Times, my sister fell in love with the beautiful town and her fiance was and is a ski FREAK-nuff said. Anyway, they had their hearts set on it despite protests from both sides of the family and we all finally gave in.
At the Hotel Jerome gettin my little sister ready for her big day!
Though we did have a few travel related glitches, the wedding “event” turned out to be a magical affair, with snow lightly falling amid the mild and sunny weather that is the signature beauty of a typical Aspen day.
The wedding party outside the church.
Though it seemed like a crazy and completely impractical idea at the time, we were richly rewarded with memories of a truly rarefied moment in time.
Mother of Pearl Lacquer frame now available at BOBOwrap.com.
February 22nd, 2010
Go Green or Bust
This past week, my family and I went on a ski trip to Stratton Mountain, Vermont, and noticed a lot more green going on since our trip last year. Not only were they now offsetting 100% of their energy output and greengrading many of the ginormous appliances that go into snow making, I noticed extensive use of plastics made from corn rather than petroleum and recycling bins all over the resort including the hotel rooms.
Stratton is a charming ski resort that feels like a mini Beaver Creek. No history or deep roots behind the town like Aspen or Park City, but everything feels clean and efficient with a little touch of luxury. Though it has a long way to go before challenging Grand Targhee Resort of Wyoming to the top slot of greenest ski resort, Stratton has won distinction by the Clif Bar Golden Eagle Awards for Excellence in Energy Conservation/Clean Energy. Not too shabby.
The weather conditions this year were sadly about the worst I’ve experienced with puddles all over the place and a wicked wind that thankfully died down on the third day. East coast skiing never could compare to skiing out West but the worse than usual conditions made me think that if anyone has a vested interest in stopping global warming, it would be the ski resort industry! Climate change could prove disastrous to an industry already hurting from a weak economy. In fact, the Washington Post reported that slopes on the East Coast last year closed months ahead of time due to warmer weather, some losing as much as a third of their season.
The Citizen's Climate Lobby imagines a grim future for ski lovers!
In addition to the eco-conscious changes that I noticed at the resort, I would have loved to see even more exciting initiatives like perhaps refillable shampoo and soap fixtures in the hotels vs disposable bottles made from corn. Or how about installing more hooks and towel bars to encourage people to reuse towels instead of having them washed and replaced after a single use.
In any case, we all had a blast and the kids didn’t even seem to mind the wind and ice. Swamped with work this year, I was tempted to skip our winter vacation this year, but I’m glad we didn’t. I remembered a line from one of my favorite books on raising kids by H. Jackson Browne called Life’s Little Instruction Book: “Take family vacations whether you can afford them or not. The memories will be priceless.” He’s right.
