Seattle Green Festival

I am, allegedly, going to be at the Seattle Green Festival on June 5th at 5:00 pm since we'll be presenting the pilot episode of Mission: Sustainable to all those eco-minded individuals who will be in attendance. I'll be there with cast and crew.

I'm not sure what all I'll be doing at this point for the presentation but, at the very least, you can stop by and chat if you want to meet up. Or talk about Dry Humping It next month or any other random topic.

Mission: Sustainable pilot now online!!!

For those of you who missed the pilot episode of the green makeover show, Mission: Sustainable, you can now view it online! I am the personal care consultant on the show. For notes on the pilot episode you can check out the Pilot Companion page.

To watch the pilot episode, click here.

Enjoy! To view it full screen, click on the 4-way arrow at the bottom right hand of the video. You can also watch it directly on the Vimeo page if you run into problems with the embedded video.

Another DivaCup convert

For those of you following along at home, the pilot episode of Mission: Sustainable involved me doing a personal care makeover on a family. To find out all the things I covered in this episode, you can read about it here on the Pilot Companion Guide.

One of the things I covered with the mom of the family (who is in her late 30s) is the environmental impact of menstruation. Why did I go there? Do you expect anything less from me? I wasn't sure how many shows were going to be filmed and I wanted to make sure that I squeezed in the education on menstruation for all to see. The producer and director didn't know that I was going to cover it, I just sprang it on them. But, the segment worked really well.

I found it very interesting that, in some of the test audiences who previewed the pilot, they were very uncomfortable with the topic and it completely turned them off. Same thing at the pilot premiere. One blogger just couldn't get past the fact that I suggested a menstrual cup. What can I say? Difficult subjects still need to be talked about and, since I don't have a problem talking about it, I might as well jump in! [Along that note - the video for my Sex & Sustainability seminar should be up online soon.]

However, Shannon (the mom) was very open to the idea and I spent some time outside of filming going over hints and tips on how to use the DivaCup that I got for her as part of her mission. I've been wondering how she's been faring using it the last few months so I was delighted to get a chance to see her at the pilot premiere.

As I was leaving she pulled me aside to tell me how much she loved it and was surprised that she had never heard of it before because it was so awesome. Needless to say, I was very pleased that she was so happy with it.

One down, a couple hundred million to go.....

Premiere excitement

Wow. Just wow. I really don't know what else to say about last night's screening and premiere of the pilot episode of Mission: Sustainable. I don't know what the final head count was, but there were over 1,000 people that RSVP'd to the event. Even though the event was free, it was considered SOLD OUT. The doors opened at 7:00, but people were lining up outside at 6:30. From what I heard the line was so long it wrapped around out through the Seattle Center. Just wow.

Our fantastic emcee, Gabriel Scheer, (who is the reason why I am even associated with the show because he sent me the email about the auditions last summer), kicked off the evening. He runs Seattle Greendrinks and is a partner in Re-Vision Labs, along with Melinda of One Green Generation. Melinda was there as well, filming the event (see picture at left - thanks Melinda!).

I had seen the pilot before down in Eugene, but they had done some tinkering with it over the last few weeks and the final version was really well edited. It was fun and I felt glamorous sitting in the front row and watching the show up on the big screen. I have to say I was totally giddy and nervous at the same time. People laughed at all the right times and were exceedingly receptive to the show.

After the screening we all (cast and production crew) got up on the stage for some accolades and, as we were walking out, Gabriel pulled me out of the line to let people know about my dress - that it was made from used men's neckties - so I took a turn for people to check it out. The production crew had been promoting it on Facebook, so many people already knew about it.

We then did a lot of mingling and eating and I got to meet some readers of my blog as well as chat with a ton of people who had watched the screening. There were many people interested in checking out my dress and, hands down, everyone was amazed at how awesome it looked. And, if I do say so myself, it looked awesome. The funny thing was walking around and people looking at me like they knew me and smiling and coming up to talk. I felt like a movie star.

We then headed down to a swanky club in Belltown for the afterparty and I had a great time catching up with some cast members and others. Alas, I was going to turn into a pumpkin if I didn't get home by midnight, so we wrapped up my Cinderella evening. Even though I was exhausted I had a hard time sleeping last night - I was so high from the excitement, but mostly, just happy.

Thanks to all the cast and crew and fans for such a wonderful evening!

Sneak premiere preview

Well, I did a dress rehearsal last night with some hair and makeup and thought I'd share some pictures for those of you who won't make it to the premiere of Mission: Sustainable so you can see the dress I'm going to be wearing. I apologize in advance for the poor picture quality. Also you can click on the pictures for a larger version.

I know tomorrow night it will be crazy getting out the door and I'll forget to take some pictures, so better now than never. I'm having a hard time deciding on hair down or up, but I think I'll wear it down since I'll need the extra warmth.

As you probably remember, the dress I'm wearing is make entirely of recycled men's ties. The designer did alterations to it so that it will fit me properly and, even though it is strapless, it fits really well.

I did forget to put on the "belt" that comes with it for these pictures. It's really a matching cumberbund type thing that laces up the back and gives it some definition in the middle.

The dress is not as heavy as I thought it would be. It is, however, quite thick, almost like wearing a quilt or a sleeping bag or, say, a whole bunch of ties made into a dress.

This isn't a problem because I know I'll be cold since it will be about 40 degrees outside Thursday evening. Here's a close-up of the bust of the dress so you can see the edging of the ties. The bustline is the narrow part of the tie and the fat end is at the bottom of the dress.

It's been sewn to give the ties a swingy curve around the hips. I don't know how she did that, but it's a neat effect. Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes!

Reality TV Goes Green

For those of you curious about the green makeover show that I've been working on, there is a great write-up about it here.

Here's a little snippet for your reading enjoyment:

These days, there are reality TV shows that will make over your wardrobe, your weight, your car or your love life — is there any area of life that hasn't been tinkered with yet? There is indeed: Mission: Sustainable is poised to make over your environmental impact. And it's set right here in Seattle.

The one-hour show features eco-unfriendly people who have been nominated by their friends or family for a lifestyle makeover. Environmental experts assess the nominee's current level of sustainability in all areas of their life, from the food they eat to their transportation to how they wash their clothes, identifying the three areas in which they’re leaving the largest footprint. Three specialists then jump in and help them to go greener.

"We want to be super-green [but] we want to reach out to the middle America crowd. We don't want to preach to the choir," explained Mission: Sustainable producer Rose Thornton. "On the whole, it's a really lighthearted show. This is not the drill sergeant saying, 'You must change your ways; you’re destroying the planet!' kind of show."

The pilot, which will be screened at Seattle Center's Fisher Pavilion on Feb. 11, features a local family.

"It's a fairly typical Seattle family: a mom, dad and two kids living in South Seattle," said Thornton. "Their products had a lot of 'green' labels, or 'all natural' ... [nevertheless], there was a lot of work to do with them; a lot to improve."

"We live in a really old farmhouse style house which is extremely energy inefficient," admitted nominee Shannon Saxton. "I felt that as far as our food choices went, we were doing okay. I knew that some of our cleaning products weren’t the most green."

Her husband, Ben Saxton, begged to differ...

Good sports, the Saxton family agreed to leave their house while Mission: Sustainable consultants spent the better part of a day going through the entire house, top to bottom, searching for signs of unsustainability.

When the family returned, the experts were ready for them.

"They had one person who was the food expert, another who was the product expert, another who was an energy expert. Each one went through the cupboards and the drawers and the medicine cabinet and said, 'this product's a good choice; this one's not so good; here's an alternative,'" Ben explained.

The experts assigned to help the family green-up included personal care consultant Deanna Duke, who investigated all those so-called "green" and "all natural" products in the Saxton home....

To finish reading the rest of the review, check out the original article, Reality TV Goes Green. And, for the record (because I'm a total anal retent), the shower head flow valve upgrade was one of my recommendations.

Next Thursday is the premiere of the show at the Seattle Center and it should be great fun. There will be close to 1,000 people there! If you live in the Seattle area, don't miss out on a chance to see the show!

Sustainable dress chosen!

Thanks to everyone who voted on yesterday's poll for which dress I should wear to the Seattle Premiere of my green makeover show, Mission: Sustainable. I also want to thank the readers who suggested some alternatives that were sustainable. That helped me decide to go with something that wasn't an off-the-rack dress.

And, instead of choosing a rental, a used dress or something that wasn't obvious that it was sustainable, I ended up choosing a ballgown style dress that is made of recycled neckties. I did this as it would be clear that the dress is made of repurposed materials.

In addition, the designer of the dress is local (from WA state) and will be doing some alterations to my measurements. How much more sustainable is that? Not only is the dress made of recycled materials, but it's local!

I couldn't ask for a better combination to help support the underlying goals of Mission: Sustainable. I wouldn't feel as confident wearing a commercially made, unsustainable dress and, I'm sure, the dress will be quite the conversation piece!

The pictures on this post are photos of the actual dress I will be getting. The model is my height and about my measurements, so there will be only a few alterations to get it to fit perfectly. So, what you see is what you'll get!

Anyway, if you are interested in learning more about the designer of the dress you can check out her site, Glamarita, and her Etsy shop!

See you on the green carpet!

Seattle Premiere - pick my dress!

The Seattle Premiere of the green makeover show, Mission: Sustainable, is coming up fast and I best get prepared for it. For those of you who live in the area, here are the details. It's open to the public, so please come attend and bring your friends while you're at it!

Date: February 11, 2010
Time: 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Location: Seattle Center Fisher Pavilion
Cost: FREE to the public

"Heart-warming," "Hilarious" and "Inspiring" are just a few of the words being used to describe the pilot episode of Mission: Sustainable that follows one Seattle family’s experience as they work with a team of sustainability experts [that would be me - I'm the personal care consultant on the show] to lower their impact on the planet.

Join us for the green carpet event of the season at Seattle Center’s Fisher Pavilion. Come view the 45 minute pilot, mix and mingle with the cast and crew of Mission: Sustainable, enjoy live music with special guest, The Fiasco, and visit the booths of local sustainable companies.

Oh yeah, and there will be free food from a variety of local producers and vendors.

Help pick my dress!

For those of you who can't make it (or can), you can help me out by picking what to wear. Since I rarely hit the red, or green carpet, for that matter, I have nothing to wear. I want to do something formal and may end up renting to reduce ye olde impact.

So, your job is to help me decide what the heck to wear. Here are your choices. Click on the image to see it more biggerer and vote below:

Update: I decided to go with a sustainable dress for the premiere. You can read all about it here!


Pick my green carpet dress!

Sex and Sustainability seminar slides

For those of you who attended my seminar in Eugene titled Sex and Sustainability where I covered alternative menstrual products, green contraception and sustainable sex toys, I've posted the slides up on Scribd.

So, if you want to check them out you can see them here:

Sex and Sustainability

They may not make total sense without having seen the presentation, but you've got the slides for your viewing pleasure nonetheless. Since this seminar was actually filmed, I'll eventually get the video of that up on my blog once it's available.

Oh, and, the slides may be considered NSFW. But, I think they are pretty non-graphic.

Potty Talk seminar slides

For those of you who attended my seminar in Eugene titled Potty Talk where I covered recycled toilet paper vs. conventional, using cloth wipes instead of T.P. and using urine as a nitrogen rich plant fertilizer, I've posted the slides up on Scribd.

So, if you want to check them out you can see them here:

Potty Talk

They may not make total sense without having seen the presentation, but you've got them for your viewing pleasure nonetheless.

Note: There are two photos that I use in the slides that I don't reference at the end, one is the cloth wipes picture from Wallypop and the other is a cloth wipe bathroom setup from SortaCrunchy's blog.

Good Earth = Good Times

I had a total blast this last weekend down in Eugene, OR at the Good Earth Home, Garden & Living Show, America's 1st sustainable home and garden show. We got some great feedback from the test audiences during the screenings of the pilot episode of the show Mission: Sustainable, on which I'm a cast member and personal care consultant.

Mission: Sustainable is a green makeover show that's currently in development. We are in the final edits on the pilot and will be hosting a Seattle Premiere Event on February 11th in the Fischer Pavilion in the Seattle Center. I'll post more on that soon, but if you're local, mark your calendars! After the premiere, we'll be pitching the show to cable networks.

Anyway, Eugene was a lot of fun. In addition to the screenings and Q & A with the cast members, I did two seminars. The first one was called Potty Talk and I covered recycled toilet paper vs. conventional, using cloth wipes instead of T.P. and using urine as a nitrogen rich plant fertilizer.

The second talk was called Sex and Sustainability where I covered alternative menstrual products, green contraception and sustainable sex toys. I'll try to get the PowerPoint slides for both talks up sometime soon and, since my second talk was filmed, I'll post the presentation for your viewing pleasure when our Director of Photography is done editing it.

Top 5 highlights of the trip (in no particular order):

1. The woman in the audience during my first talk who was old hat with all of my suggestions. The best part? She uses her used toilet paper as a fire starter in her fireplace. She claimed that it is the only thing that works for her to get her fire going. She even asks visitors to her home to save their used TP so she can use it to start her fireplace. Brings a whole new twist to the saying, "chestnuts roasting on an open fire." She made me seem almost normal!

2. The semi-stoned guy who visited our Mission:Sustainable booth and was totally convinced that he'd seen the show on TV before. In fact, he'd seen it a couple of times and wanted to let us know that he was going to keep watching it he liked it so much. Even though it hasn't yet been aired.

3. The peak oil, conspiracy theory nutball that stopped by the booth to blind-side us and with whom I spent 15 minutes going toe-to-toe on issues regarding peak oil with a sprinkling of environmentalism, politics and a number of other topics thrown in for good measure. Proving that we're not just a bunch of greenwashing reality show airheads.

4. Getting to hang out with some of the most awesome, talented and knowledgeable individuals in Seattle who just so also happen to be my fellow cast members and crew.

5. All the free beer and wine samples, the free chair massage, and the guys milling around outside the conference room waiting for the sex toys part of the presentation to begin. One guy waited until I started that bit and then came in, sat down, put his feet up, hands behind his head and reclined as if he were about to watch a porn show in his own living room.

There are so many more fun moments, and you'd have to have been there to understand them but, needless to say, I certainly won't forget this weekend.

Good Earth - good living

As many of you may recall, the Mission: Sustainable TV team (cast members and production staff) will be heading down to Eugene, OR on January 22-24 to attend the Good Earth Home, Garden & Living Show, America's 1st sustainable home and garden show. We'll be premiering the pilot episode of the Mission: Sustainable green makeover reality show that I'm a cast member/personal care consultant on and we'll be hosting a (ginormous) booth where participants in the home show can come and film their green living tips to be broadcast on the Mission: Sustainable website.

In addition to airing the pilot episode over the three-day weekend, we'll be doing panel discussions with the cast and crew and seminars from the cast members. That means that on Saturday and Sunday I'll be doing a seminar (3:00 pm on Saturday and 1:00 pm on Sunday). My topic is, can you guess it, Fringe Green Theater. If I'm going to be doing a presentation to a large audience, which I'm not exactly fond of doing, it's going to have to be something that I'm interested in and think is fun.

The topics I'm planning on covering, depending on the crowd, will range anywhere from cloth wipes, menstrual care, urine as fertilizer, human waste composting, alternative deodorants and sustainable sex toys. I'm planning on making it less lecture and more stand-up, which, hopefully, will be a riot. It will be filmed, so if I totally rock it (which is what I'm shooting for :), I'll post the video here sometime in the future.

If you guys are at all interested in helping support the green makeover show and cover the expenses of the trip to the home show (as well as cover some of the costs for our Seattle green carpet gala extravaganza premiere on February 11th - more about that in a later post), you can donate your nickels and dimes here. You can check out the donation page for more information about both events.

And, if you live in the Eugene area, make sure you come check out the show!

Here's a sneak peak at the commercial for the Good Earth Home, Garden and Living Show:

Mission: Sustainable - It's a wrap!

This weekend marked the last day of filming for the pilot of Mission: Sustainable and Saturday evening we had a wrap party to celebrate completion of at least that portion of the initial part of the project. The pilot still needs to go through editing, sound editing, editing and some more editing until it is polished into a bright, shiny, happy hour long makeover show to dazzle the networks and audiences worldwide.

We'll be having a green carpet premiere in Seattle in January to showcase the pilot and things are looking good for scoring a great venue to screen the show, have a Q&A with castmembers and production and, I'm sure, much more fun and merriment that will be announced. So, for those of you in the Seattle area who are interested in this project, I'll keep you posted on when and where it will be so you can join in.

The production team is also working on pre-production for the second makeover. Details are hush-hush at this point, but let me just say at this point that the next makeover will be very cool.

I'll also be attending the Good Earth Home, Garden and Living Show in January in Eugene, Oregon (see events for more details):

Cast and crew will host a Mission: Sustainable main stage featuring the pilot episode, cast seminars, and more. Join us at the booth to record your own sustainable lifestyle tips for our website. This year’s Good Earth Home, Garden & Living Show will open for just 3 days, with over 250 exhibits, and 65 seminars. The Mission: Sustainable team will be joined by other national and local experts about green building, design, naturescaping, gardening and sustainable living.

For other events, take a peek at the updated website for the show, check out the Mission: Sustainable blog for some green living tips and add yourself to the Facebook Fan page to keep track of all things Mission: Sustainable.

Everything has been coming together like crazy for this project and I can't begin to tell you how excited I am to be working on it.

All dressed up...

And nowhere to go. Well, filming was cancelled this weekend due to some issues with equipment. I was hoping to have a report of how the first day of filming went on the green makeover show, Mission: Sustainable, but, alas, not this weekend.

We will start filming next weekend and will wrap up mid-November. In the meantime, we had a cast member meeting, which was helpful, since we went over a lot more details of the production, got a chance to meet our camera guy and some other people who had been added to the production team.

One thing I did notice, that I hadn't before (since we were all sitting down), was that the producer, and four cast members (all females) are all 5'10" and over. So, there's clearly some weird Amazonian element to it. I think Becky is actually taller than me, which is very unusual. So, I think the four of us will be a green force to be reckoned with.

In lighter news, voting for Project Green Search ended Friday night, much to my relief. They are going to announce the 10 finalists sometime Sunday. I'll be back to my normal posting tomorrow!

Mission: Sustainable starts filming

I'm so excited!

Not only is production starting up for the green makeover reality show, Mission: Sustainable, produced by ReGeneration Productions, but I'm going to be one of the three consultants doing the makeover in the pilot episode that starts filming this Saturday. As you may remember, I'm the Personal Care Consultant cast member on the show, which means that I cover pretty much everything from laundry detergent to body products, cleaning supplies, pet care and beyond.

I'm also excited about working with the other cast members, particularly Becky Selengut, our local food guru. She is a trained chef who spent three years studying under Jerry Traunfeld at the Herbfarm Restaurant and is the co-author of the Washington Local and Seasonal Cookbook. She's currently working on a new cookbook on sustainable seafood when she's not writing for her blog, Chef Reinvented, or Twittering.

Over the last few months, I've gotten to know her pretty well and I can't wait to work with her since she has the same totally warped and crude sense of humor as I do. Which means that, most likely, we'll be attempting to top one another in the insanity department during the "discovery" phase of the show. This also means that there's high probability that it will be very entertaining. I don't know the other cast members as well yet, so I'm looking forward to finding out more about them, too.

What's even more exciting is that the family that we are doing the makeover on has small children, so I'll be able to focus on the kids as part of the makeover as well. Along those lines, although I already have a large arsenal of activities in mind, what are your favorite suggestions for how to teach kids to live green?

Project Green Search Nag Alert!
And, because I'm going to be bugging you all week, if you haven't voted for me in Project Green Search, what are you waiting for? Get over there now and give me some stars - the more the merrier!

And, while you're at it, Tweet about it! Don't make me beg!

Mission: Sustainable cast announced

Well, it's officially official. ReGeneration Productions, the production company for the green makeover reality show, Mission: Sustainable, has announced its list of cast members: eleven strikingly charming and well-informed individuals.

In today's press release, they list all the participating cast members, including yours truly, who has been cast as a Green Personal Care Consultant. To see all the bios and watch a short personal video of each consultant, check out the bio page. One weird thing I noticed is that my videotaped voice sounds a lot deeper than in my own head. Well, that and I need to work on my on-camera coherencivity and such like.

Anyway, the biggest thing that's next up for production is to select someone for the makeover for the pilot. If you live in the Seattle area and you know someone who needs a green ass-whooping, I mean, makeover, you can visit the nomination instruction page to nominate them. Seriously, people, go nominate them. Now. Because it will be a total hoot.

According to the press release, "Those chosen to receive a makeover will receive personalized advice and products from our experts to dramatically reduce their carbon footprints. Our experts will make over the candidate's lifestyle in a way that saves money, improves health and contributes to overall happiness."

I'm really looking forward to working with the other cast members. I can really see a great camaraderie coming out of this, along the kind that made Queer Eye such an amazingly fun show to watch. I guarantee that this group of funny (and smart) personalities will make for very entertaining television. And, hopefully, inform and educate a few people along the way.

I'll be blogging about the show's progress both on the production's website as well as here, so stay tuned for more details!

Green makeover show update

For those of you who have been following along regarding my audition for the green makeover reality show, well, here's an update. I was almost going to chicken out of doing it, but since there was so much support from you all, I figured, what the hell, why not just give it a try, no?

I was apprehensive because I haven't done something like this before and I'm more comfortable writing. So, I prepared and had my thoughts together and the audition went well.

Anyway, to make a long story short, the audition must have gone decent enough since I am now officially a cast member of "Mission: Sustainable". My role is the Green Personal Care Consultant and the TV pilot will be shot in August. I guess the production schedule has slowed down a bit because they are trying to accommodate growing media interest about the show.

Since the pilot will only feature three of the nine or so consultants, it is highly possible that I won't be in the pilot, although, at the very least, I will be in the introduction. It is being filmed by ReGeneration Productions, led by the mighty Rose Thornton. I suspect the website will be updated soon with more info.

I'll keep you posted as I find out more and as things progress!