Must See!! "Journey to Planet Earth - Plan B: Mobilizing to Save Civilization"

Lester Brown gives us the crystal-clear vision to save civilization and planet!! I was super honored to see him in live when he came to school the other day. Instead of usual comedy movie tonight, enjoy this meaningful movie to educate your loved ones, families, friends and yourself :D  Narration by Matt Damon.

First Tomato ;D

The luscious first hydroponic tomato in our garden!
Too precious to eat..... but I had a bite and it was delicious.....!!!

Follow a bumble bee! :D

Saturday Field Trip for Ecology class ;) What a fun assignment: to follow insects around in the angelic Garden in the Woods!
Here is a beautiful hard-working bumble bee landing on Black Cohosh (Actaea Racemosa).

In this precious wildflower garden, Garden in the Woods, there are more than 1,000 native plants including rare and endangered species. This field trip was about pollination syndrome. I really enjoyed your class, the wonderful professor Mark Leighton and the awesome TA Jen Palacio! The best class happens outside, under the sun ;)

Nature makes amazingly gorgeous patterns...

Found a super natural green roof ;D

This could be a dazzling chandelier design, don't you think?!

Wow! Lucky me! "Tombo" (Dragonfly) landed on my assignment sheets!

Sweet frog baby!! This Japanese Tree Frog (Hyla Japonica), we call "Ama Gaeru = 雨蛙," in Japanese, which means Rain Frog :D
I used to play with these wet & smooth sweet frog babies in Japan ;)))

I looove Nature; Nature makes me happy! ;D

Eco Presentation @ Warren Prescott Elementary School ;)

The dynamite team Alisyn Johnson, founder of Quench, and Wayne Sentman, Oceanic Society Biologist & Naturalist, asked me to present something green and artistic to Warren Prescott Elementary School Green Team :D Since their teacher, Tina Champagne, is a science teacher, I decided to present something science related: a fun way to start growing vegetables at home (or classroom) ;D
(I have been thinking to upload this news and time just flew awayyy!!)

This is what I brought (all biodegradable):
- Organic Yellow Bell Pepper (You can take seeds out from a fresh one or use the dried ones you already took out; either one works!)
- Paper Pot Maker and 8.5 x 11 recycled paper (cut in half before using)
- Paper Egg Carton from Organic Eggs (You can either plant seeds in an egg carton or paper pots)
- Coir Pellets* or Soil
*coconuts husk fiber: excellent water retention, free from bacteria and fungus, saving the environment since they are usually are waste products!
- Hot/Warm Water

The fun part:
- You can enjoy watching your vegetable babies grow! Your appreciation for food goes up ;D
- When you have a fully grown plant, you don't have to buy vegetables from a supermarket = "super" local & organic produce at home (or in classroom)!
- This could be a fantastic gift with a personal message around the paper pot! (which I do sometimes ;D)

All the students had fun playing with coir pellets and watching them expand super fast in hot/warm water ;D They wrote their names and whatever they want to draw on the surface of the paper pots :) Some brought the paper pots home and some left them in the classroom :D
When those babies grow, the kids will smile ;D


Several days later, Alisyn, Wayne, Tina and the Green Team visited Harvard Community Garden ;D Brendan from Office for Sustainability and Tyler from Harvard Community Garden showed us around.

They have all the vegetables you can think of, even watermelon babies!! :D Watermelon plants need more care. They put plastic bottles to protect them from cold nights.
Below are super happy swiss chard and zucchini plants in the back. First time for me to see zucchini plants! They look very similar to cucumber plants but much bigger than cucumber plants!

Gorgeous Mesclun Lettuce Mix!! Bon Appetit~!! ;D

Thank YOU so much for this fun inspiring opportunity, Alisyn, Wayne and Tina! I really had fabulous time with you guys!! It was such a beautiful sunny day!!! :D

(from left to right: Chris, Wayne and Nolan)

About two weeks later, the organic yellow pepper babies stick their beautiful heads out!! ;D

Urban Homesteaders' League Market Stand Poster ;D

Designed the poster for Urban Homesteaders' League Market Stand!

Lisa, Thank YOU so much for your warm support and superb opportunity! Lisa Gross is the founder of Urban Homesteaders' League, and she continues inspiring local communities through sustainable activities :D

The poster hung on the wall at Crema Cafe in Harvard Square ;D

Lisa and me at the Union Square Market in Somerville :D

Canoe Trip to Never-Never-Land!

Used my tiny biceps and triceps at the Harvard Extension Environmental Club Eight Mile Canoe Trip, hosted by "The" Mike Mahoney! Here is the video (3 mins 26 sec) for you :D

You will see the fun crowd and wild tarzans: Warren Anderson and Brandon Welti doing a rope-swing! Next time I will bring my swimsuits and bigger arm muscles! 

The President of the Club, Super Fun Mahoney!

Mike gave everyone Native Indian names for the canoe trip; mine was "Hononegah", which means "Dear Little One." Here is the pioneer woman!

And here is me :D Since I didn't have feather to look more like a Native Indian, I put a Hawaiian flower on my head, which my friend Hon-Yin gave me :)
Yes, breeeathe deeply, smell the water and grass, hear birds singing, watch fish swimming, feel the sun energy.... Nature is the best playground! ;D

Super Hydroponic!!

Earth Day, Everyday! ;D I would like to share one of the ultimate ways to reduce our carbon footprints for both human and planetary health: create an organic hydroponic garden in your urban apartment ;D If you live in a house with a yard or greenhouse, it's even better!
This basil plant is happily growing in filtered water and nutrients! This is the first time for me to see basil flowers and I am speechless in their beauty...!

Here are our baby seedlings in "coir": fiber from coconuts husk:

Happy cucumber babies:

Beautiful sunflower baby is coming out:

Our tiny yet super-local organic garden ;D 

If you live in Massachusetts and want to set up a hydroponic garden, you should definitely visit Greenlife Garden Supply in Billerica! These awesome hydroponic gurus, Steve and Matt, will help you all the way to create your garden! They are always fun, the store is full of colorful psychedelic graphics and reggae music is playing so I am feeling at home ;D

From left, Matt, Mihoko and Steve:

All the fun colorful graphics:

And of course their green babies are growing amazingly!! Here is their Swiss Chard; they are as long as my arms!

Super healthy Collard Green:

Matt told me that these purple lights create no heat:

Let's bring organic produce to your super-local garden to keep us and our earth healthy and happy! ;D

Fabulous Moo!

The Altpick Awards gave me the opportunity to create business cards at Moo.com; the Moo experience was so pleasant! Moo's logo and fonts are lovable and the web-interface is an eye pleaser. Their super-user-friendly instructions are crystal-clear all the way! :D

The big difference between a regular printer and Moo is that with Moo you can print various images on your cards! For example, if you are printing 100 business cards, you can have 100 different images if you like. And Moo cares about the environment! They now have 100% recycled paper, which is produced using wind energy! ;D 

My box of Moo cards arrived several days earlier than the estimate delivery date! I respect and admire Moo's packaging ability :D They are thinking about the person who is opening the package; it is a feast for your eyes and super smooth to handle ;) The quality of the "Moo Green" business card is really impressive! All my colors are printed exactly the way I wanted. Several environmental printing companies once told me that the hot pink is very difficult to print on 100% recycled paper but Moo makes it possible!! 

Now when I meet people I fan out a deck of my cards and let them choose the one they like, but they quite often love several of the different artworks so I end up giving multiple cards to each person. So the only problem is that you will give away a lot more cards, which is actually great for your business so it's not really a problem at all! ;D

Sending my Huge Thank YOU to Moo for making artists happy & sparkle, and special thanks to Maria Ragusa-Burfield, the founder of Altpick, for introducing me to Moo! ;D

As a side note, my name in Japanese is 羽方 美穂子 (Hakata Mihoko). On the information side of my business card you may notice the pink stamp, "hanko" in Japanese, showing the character of my first name 美穂子. I curbed the stone and polished it to create the hanko probably back in junior high school in Japan! Dango shape was my inspiration because it is so comfortable for our hands. When you hold this super smooth and sleek hanko, it will make you want to keep stamping! Usually we use red ink for hanko in Japan but of course I chose hot pink color for the business card! ;D

Car-Wrap Design!

The first car-wrap design experience! YAY!
Submitted the car-wrap design below for 1978 Chevrolet El Camino to Mayan Metzler at MyPlanet and MyHome! Looking forward to hearing his feedback :))) This was challenging because the client wanted to include all the keywords and company information. I incorporated the letter itself and created the design :) The logo will be a reflective green so that even at night people can see it very clearly!

If you click the image and enlarge it, you can see I also included a solar panel texture as the background to wrap the whole car. The pattern itself is beautiful and the message it carries is perfect for this green construction company! Thank YOU for this exciting opportunity, Mayan! :D

Aloe Baby from Maureen :D

Dear friend, Maureen, gave us a baby aloe! Here is the Thank YOU Card I made for her ;D

This soil is the most fresh & softest soil you have ever touched! It is made by our 24 hours open worm factory and this is the first time to plant anything with the soil! I am really excited to make a little garden near the windows here :D The hard-working earth worms digest our organic vegetables and fruits scraps and their poop become the amazing soil :D They are the smartest & perfect pet you can ever have ;P

You can get to know more about the worm factory here, the fabulous article written by Brandon Welti :)))

Happy Amazing New Year~!!! YAY ;D

Wishing You A Wonderful Super Amazing New Year!! ;D

Hope you, your families and friends are all relaxed and feeling good with radiant spirits of 2010!!

And... Happy Fabulous Birthday to mihokooo, Happy Birthday to meee~!! I really appreciate your New Year's and Birthday messages!! Just what I needed to start a brand-new-born year! :D

My sweet friend Thomas Lehn from Switzerland, who soon will be publishing his first book, gave me bookmark competition information at Book Depository in UK. Congratulations again, Thomas~!! :D

I have submitted above design for the bookmark with a wish of saving lives of our precious trees! You can enlarge it by clicking the image. Hopefully mine will be chosen ;D

Let's make this 2010 another superb year with lots of joys!! ;D

Very GREEN Massachusetts :D

Oh dear Bloc11 Cafe~!! Found my new favorite place in Massachusetts ;D It is a real deal "Green" cafe with a touch of East Village coziness and New York City cool-ness ;D

Friendly people with delicious food and coffee... I wish I lived near this cafe! Yeah then I would come here every day ;P

They DO recycle, everything! The register lady told us that they have composting bins in the back. And you see, they use "ecotainer" here ;D Viva Bloc11~!!!

You will see only his back in this pic but that is my new fabulous friend Max Jackson with his creation Didgeridoo :D Visit his website to see his Didgeridoo, purchase one, listen to his music and more!! ;D

Maureen sunrise ;P Enjoying delicious brunch in their beautiful garden terrace :D I LOVE this picture of her!

This building was a bank before and they kept the bank doors! How cool is that! Fantastic idea :D Kids were playing inside of the vault ;D

And in Concord, MA, where I spent the month of August, you have to pay $1.50 for these Green tickets and put them on your garbage bags when you throw away :) That is a gooood thing~!!