The more popular name for the Vietnamese New Year is Tet, where as the formal name is Nguyen-dan. Tet is a very important festival because it provides one of the few breaks in the agricultural year, as it falls between the harvesting of the crops and the sowing of the new crops.

The Vietnamese prepare well in advance for the New Year by cleaning their houses, polishing their copper and silverware and paying off all their debts.

It’s customary for elders to give lucky envelopes with crisp new bills to the their  younger relatives for good luck.  Thanks to my procrastination, all the banks I went to were wiped out of new bills so I got rolls of brand new dollar coins.  Not exactly baller status, but hey, we’re in a freakin’ recession!

Happy Lunar New Year!  Chuc Mung Nam Moi!   Gong Xi Fa Cai!

And here’s our prez wishing us the same!

Oh and for that other Vday celebration, here’s a little treat from Grist.  A DIY guide to making your very own non-toxic love juice, made from water and flax seed.  Yeah, that stuff you get a Trader Joe’s to sprinkle on your cereal.

You try it first and get back to me.  Thank me or hate me later.  ♥ ♥ ♥

Vietnamese/Chinese New Year is just a few days away and many of us are cleaning our homes for the festive period.  Here are a few tips to having a red + green new year.

When house cleaning, be sure to use cloth or old rags that can be washed and reused instead of disposable paper towels which are convenient but wasteful.

It is a tradition to buy new clothing and new stuff to replace the old ones, but think twice before buying new stuff. Do you really need them? Consider donating old clothing and items instead of throwing them away. And recycle where possible.

Reunion dinners are a time when family members get together to have a feast. While cooking, make sure that you have sufficient but not excessive food. Too much food not eaten ends up as waste. Remember that the quality of eating dinner together is more important than the quantity of food.

While visiting relatives and friends or going sightseeing, try to take public transpo or carpool. Share your car with others and spend time together. Also, reuse old red packets or hongbaos to make art decorations and lanterns for your home. Be creative and have fun.

Wishing everyone a green and happy Vietnamese/Chinese New Year! Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Below is a pic of my long drawn out project of lessening my load of “stuff.”  I chose to start off with the most dreaded section= my electronics.  I went through all of my chargers, usb cords, random plugs, cell phones, batteries, ear pieces, mp3 players, old keyboards, dvd players and more.  I organized what would be kept, what was broken, what could be recycled or donated.  The pic below is some of the stuff I’m distributing out.  It feels good to get rid of the clutter.  Next up, my closet.  Oi vei!

I wish!

Off to Ojai Valley for some early birthday madness.  If I have the brain cells, I’ll write a few posts from one of those chairs up above…but I’m not making any promises!  A drink would feel so much better in my hand than a laptop.

Happy Birthday to all my fellow Capricorns!  This one goes out to the ones I’ll be spending this weekend with.  xo

Happy New Year everyone!  Be back once I recover from being FUBAR!!

Thanks for the pic Julia!  x

No Mariah Carey, Bing Crosby or Chipmunks here. Enjoy!

Founded in 2008, the Living Christmas Company, a socially conscious-based business headquartered in Redondo Beach, Calif., introduced a new concept of celebrating the holidays: Renting the highest quality local varieties of living Christmas trees as an environmentally conscious alternative to traditional cut or artificial trees.

You get a live, potted tree delivered to your doorstep. Simply choose from a wide variety of locally-grown trees and they will deliver it to your home or business. After Christmas they ‘ll pick up your tree and return it to their nursery until next year. You can even watch your tree grow as your family grows by adopting the same tree year-after-year.

This year, Living Christmas paired up with Goodwill, so if you have any clutter you want to unload, just have it ready when they come to pick your tree up and they will deliver your donations for you!

I don’t do holiday decorations any more but this is making me want to, especially if the owner- Mr. Scotty Claus is doing the deliveries himself. *wink*

WTF? Grody to the max!! This is the description on the Jones website. Drink at your own risk.

Some people are crazy for turkey around the holidays… others not so much. For those of you with veggie leanings, Jones teamed up with the good folks at Tofurky® to bring you a meatless option.

We created this special soda for all you veg-heads out there. Best served with mashed potatoes and a couple of laughs, we hope you enjoy drinking it as much as we enjoyed making it.

Happy We-Stole-Your-Land-and-Killed-Your-People Day! Oops, did I just type that?

Off to SF for gluttonous activities for the next 4 days. xx

Here is the holiday fashion story co-styled by Sarah Griffin and myself. The lines that we received for this story renewed my faith in eco-friendly fashion. Talk about good, green and glam!

Listed below are a few of the lines that were used.

• Beyond Skin
• Allison Parris
• Susan Woo
• Sielian’s Vintage Apparel
• Thien Le
• Mr. Larkin

Go to Coco Eco Mag to see the rest of the issue.