I like to think that alcohol in and of itself is good for all mankind.  It makes people happier, friendlier, and much more likely to dance like a fool if given the opportunity.  Unfortunately, your favorite spirits are probably not the most eco-friendly drinks on the block (or bar).  Instead of forgoing your Saturday nights, just swap your faves for these green alternatives and feel free to party on!

Veev:  An excellent substitute for vodka, Veev is actually manufactured from acai berries which are packed with antioxidants and anthocyanins.  What makes this drink even better, however, is the company’s commitment to the environment.  Veev donates $1 towards the Brazilian rainforest for every bottle sold, preserving their sustainable acai supply.  Veev is also the first carbon-neutral liquor company, powering all of their distillers through renewable energy.  Pass up the Smirnoff  and throw one of these back with friends (but don’t forget to toast to the Brazilian rainforest first!).

OneHope Sauvignon Blanc: I bought this baby on a whim at BevMo (5 cent sale, anyone?) and felt an instant karma boost.  With every bottle sold, OneHope donates 50% of the profits to the American Forest, a charity aimed at protecting, restoring, and enhancing our native trees and forests.  If you’re not a sauvignon blanc fan, there are several other wines to choose from, each with their own cause.  Drink chardonnay for breast cancer, merlot for AIDS, or zinfandel for our troops overseas.  Whichever you choose, you can bet you’ll feel a little buzz of goodness with every glass. Read More »

I’ve always been a sucker for charities. I will adopt children world wide for the price of a cup of coffee, I empty my spare change into those little cans that sit on counter tops, and I clean out my closets every spring for goodwill. But sometimes, just sometimes (Yikes, I feel a little guilty even admitting this), I eye a cute pair of earrings and wonder if the kids can wait until my next paycheck.

Of course the warm fuzzy feeling I get after I write a check out to the ASPCA is way better than a selfish purchase, but if I happened to get a bangle bracelet or maybe a new pair of shoes at the same time? Well, then maybe my soul woudn’t feel all weird every time I buy something for myself instead of saving humanity.

Thank God someone finally realized that in our failing economy we can’t all be Angelina Jolie. We can’t always afford to look chic and also cure cancer, save the dolphins and fund inner city schools. And those free sponsor t-shirts just don’t seem to be cutting it anymore. Something has to give and, sadly, more often than not, people go for the goods instead of the doing-good.

But fear not; now you can have your cake and eat it too! (Mmmm, cake!) Below are five companies that feature awesome clothing and accessories that can save the world as well as your conscience. Instead of a free (useless) gift with purchase, its like a free karmic bonus with purchase. Buy something cute and start saving the world! Read More »

It’s my belief that dads are the most impossible group of people for whom to buy holiday gifts. What do they want, anyway? Year after year, I dread the rolling around of his birthday and Christmas because I have absolutely no idea what to get for my dad.

Not this year!

Inevitably, there will always be people on your holiday-gift list who stump you (especially now that you waited until the last minute!). Maybe you haven’t seen Great-Aunt Ruby since you were ten, but you have to get her something this year because she just sent you a ton of cash for your birthday. Or maybe you just made a new friend, but you aren’t sure of this person’s likes and dislikes yet.

Charity to the rescue!

If the people you know are nice, they’d probably really appreciate a charitable gift. Not the kind of charity where you give them money—the kind of charity where you give others money in the name or honor of those you’re gifting.

Here are some great places to start.

Heifer International – This organization has a gift catalog link from their home page, which will lead you to a menagerie of offerings to give in the name of friends or family members. You can give a flock of chicks or ducks for as little as $20. Heifer is all about providing livestock to people who need it to become self-reliant, and it’s a great cause. Read More »

So, after last week’s steamy, scream-at-the-tv episode, it’s only fair to give the GG writers a break this week. Sure, tonight’s ep was full of underage drinking, fights, and Rufus trying to send Little J to jail, but it wasn’t as nail-biting as some of its predecessors. Of course, this only means that tonight’s episode was a vehicle to set up some MAJOR dramz next week and the week after.

Blair is still hell-bent on going to Yale, even though her little tiff with S. a couple of weeks ago may have maimed her chances. The solution? Serena gets Blair to babysit the Dean’s niece to earn brownie points. Only problem (and who didn’t see this one coming?) is that little Emma is on a mission to lose her virginity.

Gossip Girl put it quite poetically: Lady B…outsoxed by a young fox. Because, of course, if there’s a young, horny virgin on the prowl, she’s bound to get intercepted by the one and only Chuck Bass.

Favorite line of the night, courtesy of Mr. Bass: “The only thing I like aged is my scotch.” LOVE it.

However, Mr. Bass laments to Blair that he holds very few things sacred, and one of those things is humping in the back of a limo. How sweet, in a pervy Chuck Bass kind of way. Needless to say, the jailbait bounced and hit up a club in search of Mr. Right Now.

Meanwhile, Little J. is planning her big, risque fashion debut… at a charity gala being thrown in honor of Lily and Bart. Like that doesn’t have “disaster” written all over it. She pulls the “Do you care about me?” card with Nate…isn’t it a little early to try to whip your new boy toy, Little J.? Nonetheless, Nate takes the bait and the next thing we know, GG is loading Jenny and Nate’s second kiss into an RSS feed. Read More »

[Celebrities get paid to look good and serve as a style guide to all us common folk, and part of looking good is flaunting their totally awesome fashion sense. Each week, I will be highlighting my Style Idol of the week: a celebrity who consistently shows keen fashion sense and whose closet I would raid in a heartbeat. Of course, no celebs are immune to the occasional “what the hell were they thinking?” moment, but for the most part, these celebs look foxy and fabulous and inspire us all to do the same.]

My style idol this week is none other than Angelina Jolie. How can you not envy this woman? She does and has it all: six kids, Brad Pitt on her arm (as Rachael Ray would say, yum-o!), a U.N. Ambassador, is one of the highest paid and grossing actresses of our time, and she donates a huge chunk of her income to charity.

Oh yeah, and while doing all that, she still looks absolutely fabulous.

You can’t deny she’s one of the hottest women on the planet and she plays up her hotness with her amazing eye for pieces that highlight her jaw-dropping body and almost unbelievable beauty. And she does this even while several months pregnant with twins, or when she is going through a weird “I wear blood around my neck” phase.

Whether sporting a sexy tight leather number or a flowing maxi dress, Angelina always looks like a goddess. Read More »

On my list of all-time most annoying things in the entire world, having long hair ranks right up there with people who purposely screech their fingernails on chalkboards and drivers who cut you off and then give you the finger.

I don’t mind long hair on other people (especially guys, ‘cuz that’s hot). I mind long hair on me. My hair is so unimaginably thick that any significant length just makes it fall flat and stick to my skull. I once tried to get a perm, but my hair was flat again within an hour. How screwed up is that?

Plus, I’m a low-maintenance kind of girl, and I just don’t have the patience for long hair. It takes forever to shampoo and condition, and brushing it in the morning takes 30 seconds that I could really spend doing something else (sadly, I’m serious).

So since about the age of 12, I’ve never had hair longer than shoulder-length. Too much work! I’ve known about Locks of Love for a while, but I just figured I’d never have hair long enough to be able to donate.

Locks of Love, for those of you not familiar with it, is a charity organization that uses hair donations to fashion cool hairpieces for children who are bald or losing their hair for a variety of medical reasons. It’s a great cause, and the kids really appreciate the hairpieces.

Unfortunately, you have to chop off at least 10 full inches of hair to donate. You can have layered hair with 10 inches being the length of the longest layer, but still, that’s a lot of hair.

Read More »

Spring has almost well and truly sprung (although judging by the volume of welly-wearers and inverted brollies here in the UK, you’d never know it!). With the sunshine and cute baby lambs come the impending boom of car-boot sales (that’s yard sales to most of you), a tradition which is to me like soil is to the newly blooming flowers. Sort of.

Whilst the mass population flock to high-street retailers in a desperate bid to exchange plastic for summerwear, I on the other hand will be relaxing in the fresh spring air (global warming pending). My bargains will come from charity shops and markets, rather than the Reduced To Clear section of my local River Island.

Not only do you gain the positives of air and exercise whilst indulging in some cheaply priced Mills and Boon titles (not that, y’know, I’d know from personal experience or anything..) but you gain the sheer satisfaction of knowing you’re recycling, and in some cases helping a charity or two along the way.

Second-hand shopping is a shopping experience like no other; the feeling of knowing you are helping others can bring a perpetual glow to your cheeks. And if that’s not a true bargain, then I don’t know what is.

Got any favorite Yard Sale or Bargin Shopping areas? Let us know!

We always knew Reese Witherspoon was awesome, but now she’s proving it.

Reuters and the United Nations report that Reese is the driving force behind a partnership with Avon in a campaign to end violence and discrimination against women.

High-five, Reese!

To fund the campaign, Avon will soon be selling women’s empowerment bracelets online with all profits going toward the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). Avon has pledged to match the first $500,000 the bracelets make, for a total donation of $1 million. Yowza. In a further move of awesome, the bracelets are actually affordable for most women (at $3 a pop).

Reese is the Avon Global Ambassador, which I think is basically a fancy title meaning that she’s one actress who actually walks the walk of helping people in need around the world. If the rest of Hollywood ripped a page out of Reese’s book, I can only imagine how much money and success charities would have.

As long as I’m on the topic of giving Reese Witherspoon high-fives, I’m going to give her another one for dating Jake Gyllenhaal. Talk about a good move!

Great judgment in ethics and in men: that’s our Reese.

Like most college-aged people, I’m pretty short on cash. I consider it an extravagant treat when I let myself go out for dinner (even if it’s just pizza), and I rarely buy clothes that weren’t bought by somebody else first.

Even though I’m “poor” compared to a lot of Americans, I realize I’m fabulously rich compared to most of the world’s people. So, every once in a while I try to help out others by donating a few dollars to charity.

I don’t donate as much as I should, and I’m working to get better at that. But for those of you who are strapped for cash like I am, two Web sites have made it really easy to donate without reaching for your credit card.

The Hunger Site is part of a group of six Web sites (the Breast Cancer, Child Health, Literacy, Rainforest, and Animal Rescue sites are the others) that rely on sponsor donations to help charities. If you click once daily on the big button on each site, sponsors will donate a small amount for all the causes on your behalf.  Cool, huh? Read More »

Everyone always talks about how difficult it is to find a gift for those people who just have everything. And no one understands that more than me.

One of my best friends from school was born into an extremely comfortable lifestyle. Like private jets and large yachts, comfortable. This girl has everything. Three of everything, in fact. So, holiday time is always quite a stressful time for me as I spend days racking my brain trying to figure out what to get her.

That is when I realized that maybe the best thing to get her is something that can benefit someone else. I mean, there are only so many perfumes/bracelets/vibrators/picture frames a girl can have. Why not take advantage of this season of giving and give to someone/something that really needs it? (Note: This only works with people who are not completely spoiled and selfish jerks).

I began doing some research and found some amazing ideas for gifts that keep on giving. Any one of these would be the perfect idea for those tough-to-buy-for people on your holiday gift list:

Plant a Tree: According to the Arbor Day Foundation, “over the course of 50 years, a single tree can generate $31,250 of oxygen, provide $62,000 worth of air pollution control, recycle $37,500 worth of water, and control $31,500 worth of soil erosion.” Give the gift of trees this year and you (and your recipient) will be making great changes for our future generations. Read More »