We all like to receive coupons or discounts on products/services we actually buy or use right? I hate flipping through pages of cat food coupons, designer check offers, coupons for fast food places I never eat at…bleh. Wouldn’t it be nice to receive a coupon circular tailored just for you!? That’s what is so great about a deal-a-day site such as Roozt.com. I already know I prefer to spend my money on products that are recycled, produced using sustainable practices, or that contribute to charities I deem valuable. Roozt has the same values and partners with companies that produce such products. AND they donate a portion of every purchase to a socially responsible non-profit which you personally select at check-out!  That’s a quick overview- let’s get into the details now…

To use Roozt you sign-up for an account on their site. This provides them with your email address to which they will send  your deal-a-day notices. Roozt features a highly discounted product each day for a limited time- often 24-48 hours or until the designated quantity is sold out. Examples of types of products they offer include:

• fair-trade/organic coffee
• all organic/natural skin care products
• fair-trade or organic clothing lines
• Eco-Bags
• fair-trade/organic chocolates
• eco-friendly stationery products
• and lots more!

A sample deal would read something like this: “$33 gift card for “Brand” natural make-up for $18″ See image below:

The savings are significant. My own experience with Roozt got me an $80 gift card for only $18!!  I can personally attest to the great-ness of the deals. Each product also gets a “Roozt rating” telling you if the product is “Community Conscious” or “Organic” or “Eco-Friendly” etc.

Another thing I like about it is that it introduces me to brands and products that I wouldn’t necessarily see otherwise. And, it’s great for gift ideas. I have a wedding coming up so I am always looking for gift ideas for my 5 wonderful bridesmaids (they deserve the moon!!) and a deal-a-day site like Roozt is perfect- with my $80 gift card for only $18 I can now easily get each of my bridesmaids a product from that company and at such an affordable price! Not to mention, I am spreading the socially responsible message on to them (they don’t mind!) and supporting a company that aligns with my values.

I really encourage you to join Roozt and start learning about the companies and products featured on the site. It’s really amazing the products that people are creating these days that are eco-friendly, recycled, or that benefit society through charitable giving. Come back and share your finds and/or purchases with us here at HoG!   Enjoy!

JOIN ROOZT TODAY BY USING MY LINK: JOIN ROOZT

How many of you have old 2010 wall calendars that are now useless? Before you recycle them (because certainly none of you just toss them in the trash…right?!) I’d like to ask you to consider sending it my way instead! I re-use old wall calendars (and other old materials like maps etc.) to make envelopes and I would love to re-use any calendar you are thinking of getting rid of! Any genre is fine- you’d be surprised what turns out looking awesome as an envelope!

Here are a few photos of finished products so you can get an idea of what I do.

My envelopes come with a hemp paper card and adhesive to seal them shut. They also come with one address label per envelope and are sold in themed packs of five. They’ve been sold in Virginia, Washington, and Idaho so far and not to mention, shared just for fun with friends and family all over the world! They are completely suitable for use in the mail- I’ve successfully sent them within the US and internationally. I have fun uncovering materials to re-use in order to create something that will hopefully bring a smile and happy message to someone else!

I greatly appreciate any and all old wall calendars you can send! If interested just email me at  yellowgreenNW@gmail.com for the mailing address. Also, please feel free to share if you have other creative ways of using old calendars! Finding creative ways to make use of something is always a good thing!

The film I found is called Earthlings (2005). Apparently it is film 1 of a trilogy and the second film is due out in 2011. What drew me initially to Earthlings was a simple description on the Ecorazzi website that read: “Often referred to as the ‘vegan-maker,’ Earthlings is an award-winning film that details the suffering of animals for food, fashion, pets, entertainment and medical research.” I definitely didn’t expect sunshine and butterflies or sugar-coated good times from this film, but I also did not expect…well, I guess I didn’t expect the truth.

Now, I will admit to you I have only watched part of the trailer and only the first 7 minutes of the film. It’s hard to watch. It’s very very hard to watch. But, I feel it is important to do so and important to ask others to do so as well. It will hurt. It will challenge. I plan on making my way through it as I can a little bit at a time.

My initial thoughts after viewing part of the trailer were that I am disgusted to be a human being. I don’t know what to do with that.

Please watch the film- or they also have an audiobook version. Part of making the world a better place is educating ourselves about the harms we do to it. Realizing we are not the only ones here and that we should not assume we are the ones to control it all how we see fit. I’m not asking for you to become vegan or vegetarian- I am asking for you to look at and question our choices.

The film is Earthlings and you can watch it online for free at www.earthlings.com – You can join the Facebook group or follow the film on Twitter too (@EarthlingsMovie). Please share it with friends and followers and host viewings in your communities. And, always, please come share your thoughts here!

As announced on the Capital One website, the major difference in the playoffs is that there will be NO TEXT VOTES during the playoffs. As of November 22nd only online votes count! Bookmark the voting website for easy access: CAPITAL ONE MASCOT CHALLENGE VOTING WEBSITE

Remember, voting online is UNLIMITED. You do not have to vote for all of the match-ups. You can simply use “Joe” as the required Nickname and you must enter the CAPTCHA security code to ensure a valid vote. If you cannot read the words it gives you just refresh the code by clicking on the circular arrow icon in the CAPTCHA code box. Each match-up lasts 1 full week so be sure to check back and VOTE EVERY DAY!!

This week’s match-ups are not over yet so Joe’s official playoff ranking is not determined. The playoffs consist of the top 8 mascots and a loss is an automatic elimination. So, JOE MUST WIN TO CONTINUE ON!!! The Quarterfinals start Monday Nov 22nd with Joe facing up against UTEP’s Paydirt Pete for the second time this season. Our previous bout with Paydirt Pete was an intense one that stayed close all week long. Joe Vandal accumulated over 100,000 votes that week!! We must rally voters over Thanksgiving break and make sure we tell everyone to GO ONLINE TO VOTE!!

Thank you to everyone who has sent in votes for Joe during this challenge! It’s a fun competition that has really given Idaho and Joe some good publicity. Keep showing your spirit! GO VANDALS!!

Apparently Green Smoothies are pretty popular- and there are many different ways to make them but I adhere to the guidelines my friend sent me since I trust her nutritional knowledge far more than random articles found through a Google search. I’ve followed her guidelines all week (4 days so far) and each time the result has been a delicious, nutritious, filling, and fun creation!

So the point of doing these smoothies for me personally was to pack in some nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and energy that I am not getting enough of through my current diet and that my body is depleting more now that I run. I imagine most people would cite a similar reason. I see them also as a tasty way for picky eaters (or children) to get certain foods. I also think a smoothie form is much easier for digesting and absorbing all the goodness found in these foods.

Okay- on to the guidelines and a recipe to try!! All you need is a simple blender to make these smoothies- nothing fancy. You will want to cut pieces up and introduce them slowly so you don’t overwhelm your blender though. And as my friend pointed out, you will want to blend, blend, and blend some more and then blend more on top of that!

To start: Begin with a cup of filtered water in your blender. Add to it some kind of water-based food such as cucumber, melon, or celery and blend it up. This is like your base that the rest is built on top of and provides you with a nice liquid start.

1st Round of Ingredients- The Greens: Choose 2 1/2 –3 cups from the following: Kale, Collards, Beet Greens, Dandelion Greens, Parsley, Mint, Fennel, Avocado, Cucumber, Zucchini, Spinach, Romaine Lettuce, Green Cabbage, Turnip Greens, Celery, Sprouts (Pea Shoot and/or Sunflower sprouts recommended). Any green in season or growing in your garden will do!

2nd Round of Ingredients- Fruits/Sweet Veggies: 1 fruit/sweet veg or about 1-1/2 – 2 cups from the following: Apples, Bananas, Pear, Blueberries, Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Pineapple, Papaya, Mango, Pomegranate, Cranberries, Kiwifruit, Figs, Watermelon, Lemon, Carrots, Sweet Potato, Beets, etc…

3rd Round of Ingredients- Superfoods: 1 tsp – 1 Tbs of 3-4 of these:
Raw Cacao, Flax Oil, Hempseed Oil, Walnut Oil, Almonds, Goji Berries, Dates, Coconut oil, Bee Pollen, Coconut (fresh or dry), Hempseeds, Chia Seeds, Spirulina, Ginger, Cayenne, Raw honey, Sesame Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds, Nut/Seed Butters are good options if you have a weaker blender.

Optional Additional Liquids: Ice (if you like it cold), Vegetable Juice (100% veggie), Coconut water (not to be confused with coconut milk), Nut or Seed Milk, or Herbal Tea (such as peppermint or ginger tea). You can also add water to create a consistency you prefer- I have never had to add to mine but it’s a personal preference of course!

Day 1 Easy Green Smoothie Recipe:

That first smoothie I had was absolutely delicious! I hope you try it and become as hooked as I am! I’ve since made a different one each day this week and I’ve loved every single one. That one was pink/red in color due to the beets and raspberries. Today I had one with blueberries and pomegranate so it was purple in color. Others I’ve had and used Apple and Lime which turned out a perfect green like the photo at the top of this post. You can really get creative- and as my friend pointed out, if you concoct something that isn’t so yummy, just feed it to your garden! It has a less discriminating palate!

I encourage you to try the sample recipe and then have fun experimenting to create your own favorites…and most of all, share the smoothie joy with others!! In the short time I’ve been doing these I’ve already had about 4 or 5 people contact me asking me how to do it! Look for natural food stores in your area as well- it’s important to use organics if at all possible. And, I would suggest keeping your ingredients to RAW foods…no canned fruit (eek!), no milk products, no sugary juices, etc. Trust me, the recipe above is DELICIOUS without any of those products.

Good luck- HAVE FUN and feel free to come back here and share some of your favorite ingredients or mixtures you discover!

This week Joe has an intense battle against Montana’s “Monte”. Monte fans have brought over 100k votes THREE TIMES so far during the challenge and Monte currently sits in third place overall. Joe and Monte have been trading leads this week but Joe is currently (Wednesday) behind by about 1500 votes. Nothing insurmountable but we really need to encourage more people to vote for Joe!! Remember, you can cast UNLIMITED votes online at  http://www.capitalonebowl.com/vote/main It is important to know this website because for the playoffs the only form of voting will be ONLINE voting- no text voting in the playoffs (which is in just a couple weeks!).

With all this exciting talk of playoffs we can’t get ahead of ourselves…let’s take a look at what challenges Joe still has to face in the regular season. This week is the tough competitor Monte, next week Joe faces the equally tough (just behind Joe at #7) Cincinnati Bearcat followed by the also fierce Tennessee (sitting at #8 currently). That brings us to the end of the regular season and Joe will have to be ranked in the top 8 to continue on. Each of these remaining battles will be TOUGH and probably very close. SO TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW TO VOTE FOR JOE!!!

The “strategy” for the remaining weeks is to remain in our #6 spot (or move up). This means we have to keep our eyes on those just behind Joe- UC Bearcat, Tennessee, Big Red of WKU, and Vanderbilt’s Mr.C – we want to see these foes lose in the next few weeks while we pull out wins. That way we will stay ahead of them by Win/Loss records. We also need to beef up our total vote count in case we find Joe tied with any of them in Win/Loss. This week we sit at 5-4 which is tied with Bearcat but we are luckily ahead of them in votes by nearly 100,000. They are posting big vote #s this week against Ohio State though. So- don’t give any votes to these competitors in the coming weeks – UC, WKU, Vanderbilt, Tennessee. And do keep in mind that Ohio State supported us heavily against UTEP (and continues to do so) and might make the difference for us in the coming weeks so we need to return this favor!! Especially this week as they take on the UC Bearcat. A loss for UC and a win for Joe would boost us ahead in the Win/Loss record and give us a little bit more confidence in making the playoffs. So- VOTE FOR JOE and VOTE FOR BRUTUS!! They ARE doing the same!

I continue to encourage all you fans out there to post the  weekly Joe Vandal Mascot Challenge banner image in your Facebook profile and set your status update as a Vote for Joe reminder to all your friends! We need to show our spirit everywhere we can and that includes online spaces like Twitter and Facebook!! Please share with us any creative things you do to help spread the word! We’d love to hear about your love for Joe!!

VOTE ONLINE HERE: http://www.capitalonebowl.com/vote/main

After a rough and tough battle last week vs. UTEP’s Paydirt Pete, Joe has moved up to #6 in the Mascot rankings! Despite suffering a loss, Joe accumulated 121,758 votes which moved him ahead of all other mascots with the same Win/Loss record. This is a tremendous achievement and we should definitely thank ALL the voters who took time to vote last week! Great job!

This week Joe is up against LSU’s Mike the Tiger. Mike may be sitting down in 11th place but he’s looking to make moves. Last week his voters put forth 27,000 votes- so let’s not underestimate him Vandal fans! We have to keep our voting intensity up through these last few weeks. We have some TOUGH opponents to finish out the regular season. Joe’s season ends with, Monte from Montana (3rd), the Cincinnati Bearcat (8th), and Smokey from Tennessee (7th). We need to bring a LOT of votes against all of these opponents in order to stay eligible for the playoffs!! Remember, Joe needs to be in the top 8 to go to the playoffs. AND- for the playoffs voting will take place ONLY online- no text voting in the playoffs!!

This week’s focus needs to be on gaining some on campus support and involvement. Other schools are doing a great job of making T-shirts, signs, posters, stickers, sending out emails to students, having the mascot attend campus events, etc. It’s hard to get those things started myself since I am an alum and away from campus- so anyone reading this who IS on campus- let me know what you can do to help out and get the whole campus and community rallied around Joe!! A good, simple way to start is for you to change your Facebook status to read:  Vote for Joe Vandal in the Mascot Challenge! Text JoeVandal to 69866 or vote online at http://www.capitalonebowl.com – or something similar. Also – feel free to post an image of Joe as your profile photo such as the one here! I’ll post a new one each week.

Good work voters- 1keep spreading the word!Vote for Joe Vandal! –> Capital One Mascot Challenge

***** update regarding image use on Facebook: I’ve replaced the original image with one that will actually post to a Facebook acct. They have to be a specific size. Use it as your Facebook profile image- Joe does!

Some comments on the original article mentioned how “weird” or “difficult” it would be to sit with pumpkin all over yourself…here’s how I dealt with that. I did a quick shower so my skin would be “clean” as specified in the recipe instructions. Then I sat in the empty bath tub and applied the body butter and sat there reading for the specified “10 minutes or so” – making it then easy to rinse off under the shower and not making a mess on anything. It worked great. Now, for my review…

PHENOMENAL. Truly- it was SIMPLE to make, smelled heavenly, and really did moisturize my skin! Not to mention- it was absolutely well, intoxicating, to sit with fresh food rubbed all over! It felt so natural and nourishing- not like rubbing some mass-produced, chemical-laden, over-priced lotion all over. It not only made my skin feel great- it made ME feel great. It made me want to toss all my products (even those claiming to be “safe”) and turn to purely natural fruits and veggies for my all my skin and beauty care. Seriously.

Now, there is one caution I would mention that is NOT mentioned in the original article. Cinnamon CAN burn the skin or cause sensitive skin to react- so do NOT overdo the amount of Cinnamon in this recipe- especially if you have sensitive skin. It felt terrific- and warming- as the recipe promises, but I would be careful putting it on your face if you know you have sensitive skin. It wouldn’t do any horrible damage, but it might make your skin a bit red. It can be combated by taking an anti-histamine (if extreme) or probably by applying witch hazel to the skin. I did not experience this anywhere on my body except slightly on my face and the slight redness quickly disappeared.

Enjoy! Please try it- and come back and let us know what you thought! Any recipe variations you would suggest? Any similar concoctions you’ve tried and loved?

A quick Friday update about our intense battle this week against UTEP’s Paydirt Pete. We came within 1700 votes or so last night (AWESOME JOB VOTERS!) but this morning we’re behind about 5000 again. Last night’s voting effort was PROOF that we can snap their lead FAST! So, whatever you did last night to vote for Joe Vandal- do it again (and again!)

This week Joe is beating EVERYONE in the challenge (except UTEP) in number of votes- this is phenomenal- we have OVER 60K votes so far! The Vandal Nation is NOT to be underestimated! Ohio State has also become vocal about their support of Joe Vandal- so don’t forget to repay the favor in weeks to come! We’ll also be looking for their support in the future as well. I don’t know how many votes such alliances are actually bringing us- but ANY LITTLE BIT HELPS! So- I encourage you to tell everyone to vote- your neighbors, your parents, your siblings, your housemates, your professors…EVERYONE needs to be voting Joe Vandal!

Now, in preparation for Saturday’s homecoming game, I’m going to ask that you not forget our lovable Joe and his votes! Take your phones to the game and text during the game! Make signs that read “VOTE FOR JOE- Text JOEVANDAL to 69866” – seriously! We need to get some attention of those who still aren’t voting!

Yesterday I had the chance to do an interview (over Skype so the video is a little sluggish) with the woman who Capital One asked to run the female blogger contest for the Mascot Challenge. Her name is Danielle Smith (http://www.extraordinarymommy.com) and we sat down to talk a little bit about Idaho and the Mascot Challenge. Following my portion is an interview with the Ohio State blogger, who kindly mentions the voting alliance and their support of Joe Vandal!! Love it!

Here’s the link to the interview on YouTube:

Capital One Mascot Challenge Interview

Vote for Joe Vandal!!    http://www.capitalonebowl.com/vote/main

This week Joe is head to head with voting powerhouse, UTEP. PayDirt Pete sits at #2 in the Mascot rankings and is currently undefeated. He pulled in over 100K votes last week to beat Ohio State. He may be feeling confident, but let’s take him by surprise and show him who the best mascot really is- LET’S HAND HIM HIS FIRST LOSS!!

We hung close all day Monday in the votes and we’ve started Tuesday off about 3,000 behind- which can be made up QUICKLY. The important thing this week is that we are TEXTING OUR VOTES IN!! This is much quicker and you can get more votes sent off. Let’s review the texting rules- you can send up to 250 text votes per hour. Once you reach that number your phone number is restricted from voting for 12 hours- SO, don’t hit 250- do 249!!! If you know anyone with unlimited texting plans ask to borrow their phone and send in some extra votes! It’s simple- TEXT the word JOEVANDAL to 69866!!!

In other voting news, an alliance was formed last week with the Ohio State Buckeye voters. They also want to see UTEP lose and they have A LOT of voters. We do not go head to head with Brutus (we already lost to him earlier) so it is a safe alliance to build. We can really benefit from any extra votes the Buckeyes can send us- so, from now until the end of the regular season VANDALS VOTE FOR BRUTUS and BUCKEYES VOTE FOR JOE! I’ll be sharing OSU blog posts and Tweets supporting Joe as I receive them.

We can do this, Vandals! Do whatever you need to do to keep the heat on Pete! You must hate to lose more than you love to win- he’s a big opponent but he underestimates us! I’ve managed to make contact with WAC groups this week and have seen Tweets on Twitter from them asking for votes! Tell everyone you can and spread the word! Follow Joe on Twitter – @Vote4JoeVandal and RT to all your friends, local businesses, football fans, alumni, professors, clubs, etc.

REMEMBER- Tell everyone how to vote by text! This is the fastest and easiest way to rack up votes and send Pete home with a LOSS this week!!!   Text JOEVANDAL to 69866!!