How To Make Haiti’s Water Safe

With the terrible events in Haiti fresh in most people’s minds it is good to know that some technology already exists that can at least help to ease one of the problems – lack of clean drinking water. Actress Ashley Judd, board member of Population Services International, shares a very interesting video about the dangers of unsafe drinking water on CNN. I would have liked to see the whole process start to finish, but as it takes 30 minutes it’s a little unrealistic.

The Environmental Cost Of Cut Flowers

Givingplants.com has created a video about the environmental cost of cut flowers. We’ve written about this before and it’s always worth thinking about it when buying flowers. While this basically and advert for Giving Plants in the US, there are more and more places to buy environmentally friendly flowers from. In the UK Arena Flowers is a good place to start.

Do You Need An Eco-Friendly Kids Chair?

I was sent a press release about a new product designed by Spinifex, the SPLAT Child’s Chair, has just been launched online. It will be sold through their own site, the Hidden art shop and Mimimyne the designer eco shop for families. It’s a fully biodegradable chair made from reclaimed cardboard that doubles as a storage unit for art materials, games and small toys. It can also be customized.
Compartments in the back hold art materials while paper is stored under the seat. It’s made from laminated cardboard sheets threaded on postal tubes, and measures 50cm X 50cm X 30cm.

Recommended for children aged 3-6 years old. The chair comes in normal brown cardboard and you can choose a brown, white, red, blue, green, yellow or pink seat color. It’s not cheap, at £80 including delivery, so I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has bought one.

Bringing Back Hand me Downs

Remember when you got given the jumper your older brother/sister had finished with instead of getting a new one? Well that never seemed cool to me, but British brand Howies is trying to change that.

It’s new range is called Hand-Me-Down and while not used in themselves, the products in the range are guaranteed for 10 years meaning you’re bound to pass it on to someone when you’ve had enough of it.

Currently just comprising of three bags and two jacket, the range obviously has good eco-credentials with the jacket being made from organic ‘ventile’ (a thick cotton) and organic tweed. This is a long process and means the finished product doesn’t come cheap – the bags are around £195 and the jackets a eye-watering £400. But it’s an answer to fast-fashion, something that’s not disposable and you’ll keep for years. And the jacket’s nice too.

Win Jewellery from Adila.co.uk

It’s competition time at Life Goggles and we’ve got some stunning jewellery to give away courtesy of our friends at Adila. One winner will win both a bracelet and a pair of earing from Adila’s sparkly new summer range – Xhenoga.

The bracelet, or ‘beaded tube arm ring’
is pea pod green around 9cm by 1.5 and worth £29. The tassel earrings are a meadow green and have a 20cm drop and look fantastic. The pair is worth £20.

And a bit of info on who made the prizes: “In 2002, designer and founder Jeannette Gibson started an independent empowerment and skills training program, employing thirty women from the surrounding informal settlements of Cape Town, South Africa. The studio is filled with laughter, song and plenty of chatting as the women weave and crochet the extraordinary designs created by Jeannette. Xhenoga not only creates much needed employment, but also provides a base for the traditional community spirit to flourish.”

All you have to do is answer the following question and enter you email address:
How much is a beaded cuff in the same range as the bracelet and earrings? For a clue, click here.

This competition is now closed. Current subscribers are automatically entered.

If you don’t win, don’t worry, there’s plenty of them online at Adila and they come in many colours.

Loquax Competitions
The Prize Finder – UK Competitions

Song of the Day – Minnie The Moocher By The Band From TV

The Band From TV comprises of Hugh Laurie of House fame (although Blackadder is his finest hour) on the keyboard, Desperate Housewives’ James Denton on guitar, Heroes‘ mind-reader Greg Grunberg on the sticks and various others.

They came together after Grunberg was asked to get some names together for a charity concert at The House of Blues and they kept going. Their version of Minnie the Moocher (which I can’t find on You Tube) is the most popular on iTunes – there are over 50 others. The video is just a slide show, but the song is cool.

If you want to know more, I’ve added this video as well:

Welcome to LifeGoggles!

Welcome to LifeGoggles. It really is exciting!