Cures to boredom, or its polar: too much distraction.

Brown paper packages : originally posted by Evie Marie

For as long as I could remember I have been fond of pretty packages, yes including brown paper ones tied up in string ;) Yes these are indeed among my favourite things! Working in the architectural and design industry for over six years has likely only fueled my love for design-y packaging.

Thus my excitement upon discovering the wonderful blog world of Francesco Mugnai last month, courtesy once again of my design expert friend of Sali Tabacci and art director extraordinaire of Azure Magazine, Melissa !

All she had to say was: "Mmmmm... beautiful chocolate: http://tinyurl.com/chocolate-packaging" and I was hooked!

So how pleased was I to stumble-upon "The Dieline (Packaging Design) Awards" and Best of Show Winner : Help Remedies by Chapps Malina?

Not only did I adore the simple, clean, colourful packaging of these handy little first aid companions (which also happens to be green (made from biodegradable paper pulp and corn resin by the way!) but I discovered I was fond of their entire branding scheme even more: Website address: www.helpineedhelp.com

Enter the Boredom Cure: Simply click on the bored? button and you will be transported to a magical cheeky online glossary of cures from "Help - I want to quit smoking" to "Help - I'm not sure which fork to use." A personal fave "Help -I'm curious."

Warning: This magical cheeky online glossary can suck up a couple minutes to a couple hours of your day, easily! The solution?

Enter the Distraction Cure: Restrict temporarily yourself access to it. Highly recommended by high school senior sweet pea sis who claims this is ideal for those in finals with no self-control, introducing SELFCONTROL by Steve Lambert.

Warning: This is not for the faint at heart. A Mac OS X application. SELFCONTROL blocks access to incoming and/or outgoing mail servers and websites for a predetermined period of time and can't, I repeat can't be undone.

As Steve explains, "For example, you could block access to your email, facebook, and twitter for 90 minutes, but still have access to the rest of the web. Once started, it can not be undone by the application, by deleting the application, or by restarting the computer – you must wait for the timer to run out."

I shall test it out tomorrow, when I should be finishing a project and not procrastinating on my favourite guilty pleasure sites: YouTube. Only google and my internet provider will ever know how many hours I've wasted, ummm, I mean have done research there ;)

Happy Helping Yourself !

xo,

tee.

A Cuppa Green Tee: Remembering Whale Sharks.

With Earth Day less than two weeks away, I've been wondering what I'm going to do. Last year I held a rolling giveaway as Ecojotter. It was so much fun reading everyone's daily eco-deeds as we counted down Mother Earth's special day together! This year in addition to continuing my eco-acts before and after April 22nd, I'm thinking of catching a screening of DisneyNature's "Oceans" (trailer below).

There's nothing like viewing spectacular footage of our breathtakingly beautiful planet. I am particularly keen on seeing it, since I missed out on "Earth" on the big screen, plus I'm hoping they'll feature the world's largest fish: the whale shark.



Two years ago, at the end of January, I surprised my family with a visit to the Philippines. My one request was for Big Brother G and I to take a mini-backpacking adventure during my suprise sojourn. So off we went with Jack, a fellow wanderlust friend G met while crossing the Lao border. A 12-hour overnight non-air conditioned (thank goodness for cool nights) later, we caught a connecting van in Legaspi to Donsol, in the Province of Sorsogon. Not before a quick shot of Mayon Volcano, considered to be the world's most perfectly formed volcano for its near perfect symmertical cone shape, and the Philippine's most active one.



After securing an affordable cabana on the beach, grabbing some native cuisine, and meeting some locals, we admired the cloudless night and bright stars, before an early morning to seek whale sharks. We met a lovely German couple we'd end up sharing a "banca" (boat) with. To this day I only regret we forgot to exchange email addresses with... They had an underwater camera!



It was a long hot day, chartering the banca in search of whale sharks. One false alarm jump in to the water, found me panicking that I couldn't swim. Lesson learned: the quickest way to drown is to panic. Thankfully it turned out that my freak-out was a blessing in disguise. The crew from then on paid special close attention to me ;D

At our second sighting a crew-member grabbed my arm upon jumping in to the cool refreshing ocean, and guided me above the most enormous creature I'd ever seen! Nearly the size of a mini-bus, it was spectacular!

swimming with Whale Sharks by Photobig

This Earth Day, I will be remembering these magnificant creatures. I will recall how we learned that a small fishing community formerly known for hunting these gentle massive fish, managed to convince the hunters to seek and protect their former prey instead. The very same hunters, skilled at finding whale sharks, now take visitors on ocean adventures of a lifetime, while educating them on the sanctity of their eco-system.

How eco-cool and inspiring is that? Proof that bad eco-habits can change for the better.

xo,
tee.

A Cuppa Green Tee: Barcelona Street Lamps.

As I'm so accustomed to writing about all things eco from my ecojotting days, I can't help but be delighted to begin with this week's cuppa green tee from beautiful Barcelona...

Churros originally posted by swastruck.

Other photos by me.

I'll never forget the first time I visited the second largest city in Spain along the Mediterranean coast... Probably because it's the only time I've ever visited. For now that is ;) The warm welcoming air (even in mid-October); the decadent Churros y Chocolate (yum, perfect with a cuppa tee); then of course there's the design: the fashion, the streets (graffiti and all), the architecture: new and old, and even the fresh markets screamed vibrant colourful art!

So what goes better with design, other than innovation? Reminiscent of my ecojotter post "sensored, times and on call... lights!" this brilliant idea makes one think of all the electricity that's wasted by city lights that stay on when no one needs them.

"The solution: one Barcelona neighborhood is using a system of LED lights, controlled wirelessly, to provide light exactly when, and where, it's needed. It keeps the streets safe while saving the city money." For full story, take a "GOOD LOOK" of the video below:

Plus unlike the Dial4Light idea from Germany, it doesn't require you to use up precious cellphone airtime minutes. However, both are definitely worthy of a green tee mention! Hopefully more cities are inspired to be eco-innovative leaders...

xo,

tee.

A Cuppa Green Tee on Greenest Day of the Year.

Since it quite literally is the greenest day of the year (Happy St. Patrick's Day!) it only seemed appropriate to post this week's cuppa green tee today... A bright bamboo idea...

Via Inhabitat. "Expansive, dazzling and bustling during the day, the Colombian seaside quickly becomes a desolate and dangerous destination at night. The inability to channel electricity to the shore has created serious problems keeping beaches well-lit and safe past sun down."

Enter: Ingendesign's Flow light, a bamboo-made, self-sustaining public lighting solution which operates on the principle of vertical wind turbines. Thanks to its sexy spiral form, the lamp can capture wind from any direction.

"Each of the blades’ tips have been incised angularly in order to project light downwards to passerbys and so that the motion can be seen at a distance. With light sources positioned at the ends of each of the wind blades, depending on the force of the wind, the play of light is abundant, ranging from continuous lighting to more deliberate waving movements."

Simple in it's design and construction, the Flow light is made from eco-cheap (locally accessible) bamboo and recyclable electronics: LEDs, wires and dynamo.

Nifty, right?

Once again, Happy Greenest Day of the Year!

xo,

tee.

One Lucky Day, originally uploaded by {Ziggy}.

Since iPhones aren't yet impermeable, enter... Waterpebble!

Is it just me or are there devices for everything?

I recently found out there's an iPhone app that "analyzes your sleep patterns and wakes you when you are in the lightest sleep phase" thereby making "you feel rested and relaxed." My geeky big brother insists it works. Sorry G, that's what you get for not reading my blog ; p

Apps such as "Sleep Cycle" are what have me convinced that if iPhones were waterproof (like the the digital camera pictured to the right) then there two would be an app tracking your water usage when you showered. However, since iPhones aren't yet impermeable, enter... Waterpebble, this week's cuppa green tee...

Discovered via DVice... "The clever [little] device by designer Paul Priestman, monitors water going down the plug hole when you shower. Memorising your first shower and using it as a benchmark, Waterpebble then indicates, via a series of 'traffic lights' flashing green through to red, when to finish showering." The best part, their site claims, "each time you shower Waterpebble automatically fractionally reduces your shower time, helping you save water without needing to think about it."

At £3.19 each, the jury is still out on how usefully green Waterpebble is. In fact, I couldn't help notice this cheeky comment...

Then again, depending on the type of shower (aren't the ones that feel like waterfalls annoyingly the best?) a five-minute shower could be too long! Therefore until I get to test it out myself, all I will say, is kudos on design dedicated to saving our precious water! At the very least I think this invention deserves a cuppa green tee nod :)

xo,
tee.