Lots of new and interesting projects have been keeping Girl Friday so busy she sort of forgot to put out this newsletter…for four months! Geez Louise how time flies:

The Sonoma County GoLocal Cooperative is a very exciting client project I’ve been involved in that will give you the tools to create sustainability in all aspects of your personal, business and community life. You’ll save money, you’ll help restore the environment, and you will directly participate in creating a more thriving local economy. And GoLocal will make it easy for you to do all this so that not only will you benefit, but your family, your neighbors, your local businesses and organizations will, too. Everyone knows that our government, our financial institutions, and our “safety nets” have all failed us. So it is up to us, now and in the future, to re-build a community structure that supports everyone.

Sound lofty? Even a bit idealistic? Well, that’s what Girl Friday loves about this project!! VEveryone can join this marvelous project, so get more information by going to the GoLocal website, or by sending an email to Girl Friday.

Check out another client who is spreading sunshine, laughter, roses and… compost…everywhere she goes. I’m talkin’ Annie, folks. Annie Spiegelman. Also known as the Dirt Diva, she’s a writer with a charming sense of humor and practical advice on organic gardening, mothering, activism, and…making compost. I suspect that as a little girl, she loved playing in the dirt. Just a guess.

Women-on-Air is an on-line radio station run by two amazing women whose mission is to help you “redesign your life from the inside out.” Create an environment that is health and that truly represents who you are inside. Then, leverage that peaceful, powerful place inside and go out and change the world! Women-on-Air does podcast interviews with other amazing women. Very inspiring!

• Visit the coolest and most charming site ever in the history of the planet to learn more about the honey bee population collapse: Click here to Help the Honey Bees! The site is educational (great for kids!) and fun – you can pretend you’re a bee – fly around and explore a meadow! Create your own adorable bee and email her (see mine below?)! Turn on the sound to listen to a babbling brook, and the birds and the….bees! Too cute! In FACT, Girl Friday went a little bee-rzerk on this site and made it her bee-utiful screen saver! I’m bee-lerious! Bee-sotted by bees! Bee-witched, Bothered, and Bee-wildered! Someone stop me – I’m one bee short of a hive! (huh?)
  
• Hagen Daas Ice Cream built the groovy bee site – they use all-natural honey in 40% of their products, and are donating proceeds from sales to fund research into the problem. So you get to help by – you guessed it – eating Hagen Daas! I’m making a bee-line for the freezer! Bee-ware! More Honey facts you can try and bee-lieve in:

• Honey is antiseptic, antibiotic, antifungal, and antibacterial — it never spoils! You can’t bee-at that!
  
• Honey is a mild antiseptic and can help to keep external wounds, such as cuts and minor burns, clean and free from infection. By absorbing the moisture around the wound, honey can help to prevent the growth of bacteria.
• Wash with raw honey straight from the jar and enjoy sparkling clean skin. Facial blemishes and acne caused by cosmetics or allergies will clear up quickly using a nightly treatment of raw honey. A small amount needed.
• Of recent interest is the antioxidant content of honey. Honey contains a variety of flavonoids and phenolic acids which act as antioxidants, scavenging and eliminating free radicals. Generally, darker honeys have higher antioxidant content than lighter honeys.
• Girl Friday admits it – she went…she saw…she loved…The Bee Movie!

Got Marketing? YES?? Well, you might need MORE!! Girl Friday is a real….Girl Friday!..she does it all, and if she can’t do it all, she’ll find someone who can! Check out Girl Friday’s on-line portfolio at: http://www.e-girlfriday.com!

• Speaking of natural ingredients: Items that claim to be organic on the label may not really be organic, since no official agency checks every product. Look for a USDA Organic seal, which means a product has been certified at least 95% organic.
• The average woman swallows four pounds of liptick in a lifetime. Yuck! Time to search for lip color made from plant-derived ingredients instead of synthetic oils, paraffin and toxic dyes. Girl Friday uses only Jane Iredale make-up and lipsticks.
• You know those lovely smelling “body wash” products and the nylon puff/sponge you apply it with in the shower? Don’t buy it anymore. Bar soap uses much less packaging (buy the paper-wrapped kind) and that silly sponge is made from non- biodegradable, petroleum-based nylon. Use a natural loofah or washcloth! Ah….much better…for you and Mother Earth.
  
• A Girl Friday favorite ‘green’ company is Aveda. They are beauty industry leaders using post-consumer recycling in 89% of their packaging. And their plant-based beauty products are legendary; I LOVE their “Pure-fume” too!

Lastly, Girl Friday long ago threw away all of her expensive, department-store skincare products. They’re full of chemicals, cost a fortune and most are not earth-friendly! I now use a locally-made (Petaluma) line of skincare products called Bennedetta. Product ingredients are Certified Organic, made in small batches, and come in recyclable glass packages. One work: FAB. U. LOUS! Their Hydrating Elixir is the only product I use on my face as a moisturizer. It’s a WONDERFUL spray (nope, not a cream) that soaks right into your skin, is refreshing and cool, and smells good enough to drink. LOVE it! (And no, Girl Friday does not work for Bennedetta…she’s just a big fan!)

• Place a small dish of vinegar beside the stove when cooking fish. It will absorb the odors.
• Water from cooked pasta is filled with nutrients and starch, making it a great additive for house plants .
• Used coffee grounds are high in nitrogen and can be worked into the soil around plants.
• Eggshells are high in sulfur. Crush and mix into soil around plants.
• Softening laundry Fill dispenser with 1/4 cup white vinegar to soften laundry without leaving odors.
• Spray your garden tools with nonstick cooking spray each time you use them. The dirt will be easy to remove when you’re finished. In fact, it should fall right off.
• Spray the front grill of your car with cooking spray before you hit the road. Bugs and grime will wash right off.

What to do with old computers and other e-waste?
Need to find a place to recycle your electronic waste such as computers, TVs, cell phones, etc? Go to this website at California Integrated Waste Management Board where you can search by county for facilities.

Leave a smaller footprint when you do print on paper: Did you know that the average U.S. office worker goes through 10,000 sheets of copy paper a year? Me neither!! WOW!

So why not be a smart cookie and make it a habit to print on both sides or use the back side of old documents for faxes, scrap paper, or drafts. I keep an empty file folder box under my desk, and recycle all 8 x 11″ paper (first I draw a line through the printed side). Then, when I need to print drafts for myself, I load the paper in the printer tray, printed side down, and print on the blank side! Nifty! And if you can, avoid color printing and print in draft mode whenever feasible.

Recycle toner and ink cartridges and buy remanufactured ones. According to Office Depot, each remanufactured toner cartridge “keeps approximately 2.5 pounds of metal and plastic out of landfills…and conserves about a half gallon of oil.” Gosh, I did NOT even know that!

When you receive unwanted catalogs, newsletters, magazines, or junk mail, request to be removed from the mailing list before you recycle the item. Use the Direct Marketing Association’s request form to remove yourself from their mailing list. The list is updated quarterly so it may take a while for you to see results.

Recycle everything you can!
Make it a habit…Just about any kind of paper you would encounter in an office, including fax paper, envelopes, and junk mail, can be recycled. So can your old cell phone, PDA, or pager.