By Mariah Olson, Sustainable Business Accounts Manager

When I hear the phrase DIY, I immediately think of clothing, accessories and jewelry. And sure enough, there are spaces all over Seattle where you can go and use other peoples' sewing machines and craft tools to express this kind of creativity. I had no idea that there was also a network of organizations in the community that supports DIY technology alongside its crafting counterparts. More...

The theme of this week's events seems to be "hands-on". Learn how to "green up" your family and home life, peruse Seattle's largest indie craft show (buy handmade or get inspired to create something on your own) or encourage the kids to start working on some crafty portraits!

Green Expo and Sustainability Fair 
Umojafest African Heritage Festival and Parade in partnership with national eco-justice organization, Green For All, present the first annual Green Expo and Sustainability Fair. Bring the whole family to learn about hands on ways to incorporate sustainable practices into your daily life and ensure eco-equity for all!
July 31-Aug 2
Judkin's Park

Urban Craft Uprising Summer Show 2009
More than 100 indie designers will be on hand selling clothing, jewelry, housewares, baby items and much, much more!
Aug 1-2, 11am-5pm
Seattle Center Exhibition Hall

Get Crafty Saturdays! Photo Portraits
Using a digital camera and printer, kids will start by taking a portrait of themselves, printing it out, then decorating it to create their own über portrait. Cut it, rearrange it or color it!
Aug 1, 1pm-3pm
Bellevue Arts Museum  More...

What the heck is eco anything, these days, let alone something as ambiguous to begin with as fashion? Good question. I don’t know. I gather that few people really do. I monitor my annual carbon footprint, bike to work, avoid excessive plastic purchases, unplug appliances. But the footprint of my fashion haunts me. Pesticide use in cotton, let alone the synthetics with petroleum bases...it's hard to shoulder that. Yet there is no fashion impact calculator, no quick online test. This will be my attempt at one, and exploration of alternatives.

What am I getting into? More...

Every season of project runway (and I’ve watched them all twice) has challenges where they deal with uncommon fabrics. One of my favorite season three challenges was when they took the contestants to a recycling center and had them compose outfits from the "waste" materials they found there. That brought a win to the fabulous Michael Knight and a pass-over-but-should-have-won to the genius and overall winner of the season Jeffrey Sebelia. Michael created a lovely ensemble from peanut sacks with a wrap made of plastic bag. Jeffrey created an incredible dress out of paper, but, in my opinion did not win because he used so much paint to create the final product (including the cutest tromp l'oeil belt), while Michael used the products as-is.   More...

AHHHH.....I just had a good workout, not a hard workout, trust me I dove off my elliptical a few times in agony, but a good workout as it was one I needed and I saw all the way through. As I was sweating it out I was thinking about this blog and how and what I want to write on it.  More...

Jeff Moran, Quality Engineering Manager at Adobe Systems
Neighborhood: Works in Freemont and lives in Greenwood.

We interviewed Jeff Moran in the spring of 2007. View his interview in the 08' Chinook Book on page 36.

Talk about your biking lifestyle
I manage the Adobe Seattle Bike Club email list, put together the majority of the internal Bike to Work Day events, and am a board member of the Bicycle Alliance of Washington. There are about 400 people assigned to this Adobe location, and about 85 members in club, though 30% don’t ride frequently. Adobe couldn’t offer more to bikers, we jokingly ask “what could Adobe do shy of coming to your house and dressing you in Lycra?” We have a bike cage in the parking garage that holds 75 bike slots, in that cage I’ve been allowed to build up a fully functioning bike shop, and there’s lockers down there for helmets etc. Inside the building we have locker rooms and showers. As part of their commute trip reduction they will pay $30 a month in coupons just for biking 50% of the time, per month. They support Bike to Work Day at the 10k sponsorship level. They do a lot to encourage us, we have a lot of free reign. More...

Layton Wakatsuki
Grocery Coordinator for West Seattle Store
Time at job: 25 years with one break, only a handful of others have been there as long.
Neighborhood: Broadview, near Carkeek Park

How do you commute? I bike commute quite a bit.

Who inspired your environmentalism? I grew up on a sugar plantation in Hawaii, so my whole childhood was close to nature. I lived on the edge of one of the villages, which were surrounded by acres and acres of sugarcane with the mountains beyond them. As children most of our time was spent outdoors exploring all over the plantation on foot or on bicycle, we would play and swim in the reservoirs. Hawaii is a very nature intense place, so I grew up in that environment. When I came to Seattle for the university I was amazed by all the evergreens. My first dream was to live in the forest. I remember I took a trip with my brother who was in architecture school, we went to the Olympic Peninsula to see an artist who lived in a moss covered cabin and that fascinated me. Later as an adult I took a drive to Eastern Washington and fell in love because it reminded me so much of the plantation, all the colors and the smell of the air, so I bought some property out there. In the high desert like that you can see what I like to call the bones of the land—nothing is hidden. More...

On Friday, May 2, Nau announced that "due to crisis in the capital markets" the company was unable to obtain enough funds to move forward. They did it with their typical charm, even nabbing the best headline, "Goodbye for Nau" for their press release. Through their 5% donation program, Nau donated $223,000 to non-profits in just under one year of business. That's an admirable achievement for a little company struggling to stay afloat.

I covered Nau twice before they launched, first for Ultra PDX in November 06' and later for Plenty Magazine, so this is the death of one of my pet companies. The offices were buzzing with energy back then, and the people could not have been nicer or more enthusiastic. They were heavy hitters too, coming from years of experience at places like Patagonia and Nike. So, what went wrong? At the risk of kicking Nau while it's down, I saw this coming. More...