Hello Greenie! It's World Environment Day! Special Hello Sandwich Eco Giveaway!

In honour of a very special day today, World Environment Day, I would like to let you in on a little secret...I recently made a pledge through an eco initiative created by my company to make a difference for the better for our lovely environment and... as a result...I was selected to be in the final of 100 contestants and now have one in ten chance of winning a Toyota Prius!!

Here is some info from News Magazines website:

More than 100 One Degree of Action pledgers went to amazing lengths to cut their carbon emissions for 14 days during May..From transforming offices into “eco-havens”, going vegan, achieving zero car use, starting worm farms and becoming “Op Shop” fashionistas, over 100 people from across News Limited took the One Degree challenge and cut their carbon during May.

Ebony Bizys from News Magazines (Yay! That's Hello Sandwich!) is one of the “How eco would you go?” finalists.

Ebony started an eco-make over of the News Magazines offices, and began by engaging the help of Al Gore ambassador Liane Rossler. In her first 14 days, Ebony implemented a wide range of initiatives that will benefit all News Magazines staff – from negotiating a discount at a local coffee shop for employees who bring a mug, to starting a communal garden in the Alexandria business park.


I now have another 4 days to undertake further action to be in the running to win a low-emission Toyota Prius hybrid car! Wowzers can you imagine that! 

I started a eco blog for our VOGUE Living Editorial team to track our progress and inspire. You can see My One Degree of Difference Blog here.

1 MILLION WOMEN 

As another part of my pledge I would love to invite you to take part in the 1 Million Women Cutting Carbon Action.

1 Million Women - daughters, mothers, sisters and grandmothers inspiring climate action. Our goal is to collectively cut 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas pollutant triggering climate change. Every woman who joins has a personal goal to cut 1 tonne of CO2 from their daily lives within a year of joining. You don't need to be an expert on climate change, we will guide you every step of the way.

If you are a woman and would love to be involved pretty please join! It's a great step to improving our beautiful environment! Please let me know if you do join so I can add your name to a special Hello Sandwich 1 MILLION WOMEN list!

 (Special Thanks to Angela from Three Buttons Blog for already signing up!)

SPECIAL ECO PRESENTATION AND TIPS

Today, as part of my pledge, I have arranged for Al Gore Climate Project Ambassador and Dinosaur Designs' Liane Rossler to give an Eco Presentation to News Magazines staff and as a special treat to attendees I have prepared some Eco Lucky Door Prizes (above).

Each prize will come complete with a note about how the prize will help you to save the environment but I think these tips can also help to inspire all lovely Hello Sandwich readers with just how easy it can be to be kind to our environment: 

1. Eco Plant - Grow your own vegetables where possible! Delicious!

2. Heart Shaped Bento Box - The Naked lunch challenge! When packing your lunch, opt for reusable containers for food storage instead of wrapping the food with aluminum foil or plastic wrap. Enjoy a special home packed bento lunch like the Japanese!

3. Floral Gloves - Turn off the Heater - wear pretty vintage gloves instead!

4. Russh Magazine - Many of us like to leaf through the paper or a magazine as we munch on breakfast, but consider reading the dailies in communal spaces like the office or coffee shops. However, if you prefer to have your own copy, make sure you share with friends and then recycle! Start a library or book club with your friends or team mates!

5. Vintage Pussycat Bag - Fall in love with vintage again and cut down on textile waste in fashion production with this super vintage cute bag - which, by the way, I am still not completely ready to part with but...

This prize is HELLO SANDWICH'S FIRST EVER GIVEAWAY! YAY!

To win, just complete one eco friendly action on WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY TODAY and leave your name in the comments below with a little note about what you did to help save our lovely environment! 

This prize is open to anyone in the whole world! I will post little pussycat bag to the person with the best eco action! 

Special thanks to my mum Sandie Bizys  (who you might have seen here) for donating this bag and the other divine vintage prizes! Be sure to stop by her gorgeous studio in Annandale, Sydney! 

6.  Tiffany Blue Mittens - Turn off the Heater - wear cosy vintage mittens instead!

7. Stripy Scarf- Turn off the Heater - wear retro vintage scarves instead!

8. Vintage Stocking Dryer - When you are feeling at your laziest, don’t throw clean clothes in the hamper to avoid hanging them up! Wear jeans more than once…Wash your smalls in the shower with you.

9. Vintage curlers - Turn off the blow dryer and set your hair instead!

10. Candle lit dinner - As you leave the house, don’t forget to switch off all the lights and appliances at the wall unit (if you have this feature) and unplug chargers as they continue to consume even if they are not charging; saving energy helps reduce air pollution. Enjoy a night in with a candle lit dinner.

11. Napkins - Impress your dinner guests AND save the environment by banning the disposable napkin and getting out your Nanna's linen napkins!

12. Towel dry -  Embrace the Japanese tradition of carrying a towel or handkerchief around in your bag  and use towels for drying your face and hands instead of tissues that are used and thrown away. Also, hang your towels to dry so that they can be reused several times. You are after all clean when you use them!

13. Japanese vintage  fan - Consider eco ways to stay cool - In the summer/warmer months, consider using an interior fan in conjunction with your window air-conditioner to spread the cooled air more effectively through your home. While you’re at it, in winter, lower your thermostat and put on a jumper. In summer, increase it and wear lighter clothes, you will also save money!

14. Vintage buttons - Learn to sew and make your own clothes cutting down on textile waste and reduce the carbon-emitting fashion production - and look super cute at the same time! Much better to make your own than clock up carbon-emissions by making road trips driving to op-shops! Visit Meet Me At Mikes for some crafty sewing tips. 

15. Mug - Do you have a morning hot drink routine? Using a washable mug is an environmentally-friendly alternative to non-biodegradable styrofoam or plastic cups. See how our VOGUE Living team have embraced this challenge here, here and here.


Other prizes (not shown) are:

A set of playing cards - Build a community. Play charades. Have dinners with friends. Sing together. Enjoying each other costs the planet much less than enjoying its resources. Let's relearn to joke around and play in ways that cost nothing to our pocketbooks or our planet.

Handmade Recycled Notepad Handmade by Ebony (and Ebony's Dad! Thanks Dad!) - When you need a pad for lists and messages, turn over an old document and write on the back of that instead. If there isn’t an office recycling system, start one yourself! Recycling our trash actually contributes to reducing global warming emissions. And it is estimated that 75% of what is thrown in the trash could actually be recycled, though currently only 25% is.

Eco Cloth Bag - Don’t go anywhere without your cloth bag so you can just say no to plastic whenever you shop.

All of these special Eco Lucky Door Prizes come wrapped in floral furoshiki for re-use complete with Yayoi Kusama inspired 'Love Forever' eco badge handmade by Ebony and her Dad!

ECO WEBSITES

Some other sites you might find useful to help you on your eco journey are:

Be Green
Green at Work
Green Ups
Zero Waste
Sydney Flash Mob
One Hundred Months
Story of Stuff
Neco - Smart Green Living

And...If you love our environment I think you will LOVE No Impact Man Blog. It's a blog by Colin Beavan about what each of us can do to end our environmental crisis, make a better place to live for ourselves and everyone else, and hopefully come up with a happier way of life along the way! Now doesn't that sound nice! You can see No Impact Man's Top Ten Eco-Lifestyle Changes Tips here.

THANK YOU so very much for reading this very long post! Our environment loves you for it!
Happy World Environment Day!

Love Love
Hello Sandwich (and) Hello Greenie!


xxx

Special thanks to my dad for the amazing photography, badge making skills and recycled notepads!

I Just Can't Get Zines Out of My Mind!

...And posts like these aren't helping! (But secretly I love it!)

Anyway, how cute is this exhibition of zines seen at this delightful Edinburgh exhibition venue spotted on About Today Blog!



About Today is a blog by Lizzy Stewart who is a final year illustration student at Edinburgh College of Art. You can see more of Lizzy's work here.



Lizzy Stewart's zine can be viewed here or you can see all of the zines for sale at Story Motel.

Oh I reallllly can't wait to make my own zine one day! Have you made your own zine once before? It looks like such fun!

Love Love
Hello Sandwich
xxx

Pink Rice!

Oh my goodness! Amy from Pretty Pretty Yum Yum sent me an email the other day to say that she was trying to make me pink rice as a thank you for this Hello Sandwich post and you will never guess what I saw when I looked at her blog today! Pink Rice! wow! Can you believe it! No one has ever made me pink rice before! Imagine sitting down to a mizutama (polka dot) table cloth and pinku or aka (red) hashi (chopsticks) and eating pinku rice! It's a dream!



P.S. Here is another photo found on Pretty Pretty Yum Yum! How cute is her hair cut! If I was Japanese I would like to look like!

Thank you so much Amy! You are just too too divine!

And, while we are on the 'thank you for thank yous' page, can I please say a thank you to the lovely Dawn Tan for this lovely post and Make It Easy's Aron for this sweet as pie post!

Awww...blog world is just so lovely!

Love Love
Hello Sandwich
xxx

Mieke Willems

Miss Mieke Verbijlen and Miss Veronik Willems have such a beautiful aesthetic!

The super cute pair also have:
a website
a flickr
a shop

Sigh! Are all the cool creative people in Antwerpen?! he he! I went to Antwerp with a painter from my art school back in 1998 and we loved it! SUCH a cool city!

Well, I will leave you now with some more pretty eye candy from the Mieke Willems blog! Enjoy lovelies!

I Love Dawn Tan

Dawn Tan is an artist living in Melbourne, Victoria. She likes the smell of freshly grounded coffee, crispy autumn leaves, polka dotted cups, cranberry juice, vintage children books, cocker spaniels, bicycles, the accordion and so many more sweet little things. But most of all, she enjoys her days painting, taking pictures of life’s tiny happenings and writing about beautiful things. And I just love her!



Check out Dawn's blog Handmade Love and Dawn's Online Shop.



On the weekend I purchased a copy of her super cute zine! I can't wait till it arrives! I will be checking the mail box every hour until it does :) 

AND! Dawn emailed me today to say that because I have been so sweet (her words! hehe!) that she would also like to send me a drawing! HOW DIVINE IS SHE?!!!! NAW! I just love her! 

Here is a little something I found on Dawn's blog:

I paint a lot. Every morning, Every afternoon, sometimes in the evening, sometimes on my weekends. I paint!

I love painting so super much, I'm always too engrossed and forget about stuff that's happening around me. I think I have to remind myself to be careful whenever I'm working on my paintings. I tend to swallow and drink my paints and dirty water by accident! Trip and fall over random objects on the floor, get splinters in my fingers from handling my canvases. This week, I've been working a lot with glitter, and I keep breathing in glitter. Just yesterday, I found glitter in my tea! :/ Yucks!

Oh well. Dawn, please be more careful!

Isn't she just too cute!

Hello Sandwich!

Dawn also suggested I listen to this gorgeous music from Malaysia and you should too it's so peaceful and relaxing! 

Love Love

Hello Sandwich

xxx

Thank you so much Dawn for sending me these beautiful images to post.

Hello Sandwich Japan Interview # 3 - Emma Japan

Today I bring you a gorgeous little Japan Interview with my lovely friend Emma Japan! You can see the other Japan Interviews here and here. I hope you will enjoy and fall in love with Japan all over again! Oh and be sure to check out Emma's blog Le Petit Flaneur.





Like me, you seem to be in love with Japan! Can you tell us how you first become interested in Japan?
I think from a very young age I was very curious about Asia. My parents had friends that had lived in Japan, and were (and continue to be massive) fans of all types of Asian food. I vividly recall my Mum taking my sister and I for our first Japanese meal in Sydney’s The Rocks while we were on holiday visiting my great aunt. She ordered sukiyaki and, while we were initially apprehensive at dipping our food into raw egg, in no time at all we were happily gobbling it up!

At my junior school, come Year Four or Five we had the option of taking after school Japanese lessons with the fabulously inspiring Walton-sensei. She made us all the most adorable origami place cards with our names written on them in katakana. Around that time, my Mum started taking Japanese lessons; I remember the orange Alfonso textbooks and tapes she used. By the time I got to senior school and had to choose between French, Indonesian and Japanese language study, I easily chose the latter – I was totally struck.

What do you love most about Japan?
Now that is a difficult question! Broadly, that it has such a beautiful aesthetic culture – everything, from the tissue packs handed out at stations to the most expensive Rei Kawakubo knit, has been so carefully thought-out and designed.

I love the otera and jinja. They make me feel an incredible sense of calm, and I always take my shrine book (shuincho) and get it stamped and signed by the cute but also a bit cranky calligraphers.



I suppose the duality of history and modernity – Australia is such a new country that we don’t so much have that.

Um, vending machines with hot oolong and ocha? Hyaku-en stores? Muji? Freshness Burger? Sento? I could pretty much go on forever, but for the sake of you readers I will not!

How is Japan a part of your current life? Are you working in a Japanese company, researching Japan, or have another link with Japan?
I am involved with Japan now less than ever before, chops! Prior to my current job at The Diplomat, I worked for Jiji Press (one of two Japanese wire services) and also NHK (Japan’s public broadcaster). And before that at the Consulate-General of Japan, Sydney! I have recently been doing some Japan-related research for both The Diplomat and Art World, but I guess I am no longer a full-time Japanophile!

Have you been to Japan a few times or lived in Japan? Please tell us about your time there.

Yes, I studied in Japan twice, during both my undergraduate (Tokyo) and masters (Kyoto) degrees. I much preferred living in Kyoto – I consider it one of the most special places on earth. My uber-modern apartment building was right next to a rice paddy, after all! And just a few stops away from downtown Kawaramachi, which I adore.



I completed my masters in Kyoto, so I kind of feel like I left a piece of my heart (and a lot of blood, sweat and tears!) in that city.




I went back for the first time last year and it was both perfect and surreal. Returning to my neighbourhood, visiting a yakuza sento, and the Yokohama Triennial. Perfect.

What is your favourite city in Japan and what do you love about it?
Oh, am one step ahead, gomen Ebony! Tokyo is, of course, the metropolis that has to be visited (my favourite cities within the city are Daikanyama, Aoyama and Shimokitazawa), but Kyoto is more like home to me. I love to roam the backstreets of Kawaramachi and Karasuma – the hidden boutiques, amazing vintage stores, artisans selling traditional wares, the Nishiki market, funny little teahouses and ryokan. Love, love, love!

Do you speak Japanese? Any tips for anyone interested in learning Japanese? Most useful Japanese phrase for beginners?

Yes, I speak Japanese but I feel I am losing more and more each day! Zannen da yo! I really think the only way to learn a language is to be dogged and determined, and to immerse yourself as much as you can without living in a country where that language is spoken. Watch news broadcasts, television dramas and movies; listen to music; read or at least look at and try to translate magazines. And make it fun – organise a weekly conversation exchange with friends that are also studying, go on little cultural excursions and such.

Your favourite Japanese food? (Don’t tell me it’s Natto! He he)
Too hard, Ebony! I love so many kinds of Japanese food. From the simplest things like dorayaki and yoghurt with aloe in it, to fast foods like Freshness and Mos Burger, to the funny Japanese takes on Italian and Indian cuisines (which are actually delicious), to ramen and izakaya foods and mama-san style home cuisine and yakiniku and zarusoba and nabe and sukiyaki hotpots and all the lovely ame and cakes and pan-ya goods. I love mochi at New Year and the kumara chips you sometimes get at shrines. There are not many kinds of Japanese food I won’t eat – mainly dishes that are particularly stinky or have red fish in them. Oh, and I despise chikuwa! But that still leaves quite a bit for me to gorge on. Yum!

Do you cook Japanese food in your hometown? If so, what sorts of foods? And do you have any websites, blogs or magazines you refer to for recipes?
Luckily, in Sydney there are a ton of places I can go to eat Japanese, though I do cook simple things like curries and noodle salads and soups and hotpots. I love Azuma for their amazing ponzu salad and wagyu sukiyaki; Ichi Ban Boshi for their vegetable ramen; Haradokei for hearty home-style fare; Wagaya for izakaya yumminess; Ton Ton for their soups, bento and grilled kingfish… I could go on, but now I’m getting hungry!

Where do you go to stock up on Japanese food / books / treats when in your home city?
Well, I used to go to Maxim at Lumiere but it has sadly shut! So usually Konbini 8 because it is close to my workplace (on Pitt Street behind Woolworths) and Haradokei for lovely pickles and stocks. When I was at NHK, I happily patronised the great J-village going on in Artarmon – there are two fantastic Japanese grocers there, plus a great noodle soup place and Japanese pottery studio! Obviously, Kinokuniya is the one-stop-shop in Sydney for Japanese books and magazines – we are super lucky to have it.


Your favourite Japanese cultural quirk?
I love Japanese television advertisements. And that there is generally total silence on the trains – no loud mobile phone banter! The fact that nature and seasons still play quite a part in every day life. Respect for and obsession with design. The fact that you can pretty much organise your entire life in a convenience store. Funny trends that grasp the nation, like ‘Cool Biz’ (the introduction of short-sleeved shirts for salary-men) a few years back so as to stop people over-relying on airconditioning. The tendency to over-wrap and package everything (so beautiful, yet so bad for the environment). In Kyoto, I love to see oba-chan on Vespas speeding off to the supermarket with their aprons still tied on, cute!

Your favourite thing to do in Tokyo?
In Tokyo? Wander about Aoyama and Daikanyama, I suppose. Visit shrine stalls and galleries and book stores. I like to get lost in Tokyo – that is when I seem to find all the best stuff. Oh, and I always try to get my hair cut there. The best anthropological experience!

Do you have any funny stories about being lost / lost in translation in Japan?
I think these have more to do with my Mum than me (she came to visit just before I returned home after turning in my masters thesis). My Mum became quite obsessed with Japanese support underwear (the shop assistants thought her hilarious); she would loudly pronounce oki-ni! despite being in Tokyo; she would try and taste everything in the markets and department store basement food sections; she would ask to have her photo taken with random strangers; she would yell at people she considered rude. My Mum is a wonderful, vivacious woman with quite a bit of chutzpah – watching the way she responded to Japan made me realise a) it can be quite a tough place for foreigners and b) how normal it had all become for me.



What is your most memorable moment in Japan?
I think travelling to Enryaku-ji at Hiei-zan for the first time – a misty day, a procession of nuns and monks, a total adventure.

What are you like at karaoke? Or, like me, do you stick mostly to purikura?
I am an unashamed karaoke obsessive. I have been at least once a week over the last three weeks, chops! I love to sing duets with my friend Dougal best – he is extraordinary. The songs I probably sing most are ‘Lovefool’ by The Cardigans and ‘Umbrella’ by Rihanna, though I would like to sing ‘Not Fair’ by Lily Allen. Why does no one have this song as yet in Syd?


Chu-hi, Sake or umeshu? Which one is your favourite?
Umeshu. When it comes to alcoholic beverages, I have a total sweet tooth! I also love Tsunami drinks.


And what about Onsen and Super-cento’s – like them much? Do you have any favourites in Japan?
I just love going to sento! I would go every single day if I could! We went to a hilarious yakuza sento near Kyoto station last November, and I’ve been to some fantastic rotenburo in Hakone – very deluxe. Ohara and Kurama outside Kyoto also have some amazing onsen and rotenburo – it is such a special treat to go and stay at a ryokan in those towns, languish in the baths, then eat some kaiseki cuisine or hotpot. Heaven.



Favourite Japanese themed websites / blogs?
I love A-net’s Humor to see all the new stuff from my favourite J-designers; I also often look at Mottainai to check out their latest green wares. Oh, and I want everything on Truck furniture’s site! The illustrations of Yamauchi Kazuaki are favourites of mine, and of course I daily check out Hello Sandwich and Ii Ne Kore!

Favourite Japanese magazines?
This is a bit of a dorky answer, but I kind of love the big, fat, mainstream ones like Vogue Nippon, Spur and Madame Figaro. I think it’s fantastic the way that Japanese fashion magazines are very engaging and instructive for the reader – the seem to respond rather than dictate to readers.

If you could live anywhere in Japan where would it be and why?
Kyoto, because it allows the best of both worlds (history / modernity) and I like Kansai people best. In a perfect world, I would live in a little apartment near Kawaramachi and take classes in ikebana, tea ceremony, calligraphy, zazen and cooking every day.

And finally, what do you miss most about Japan?
Everything! Friends, food, the aesthetic and atmosphere, the sounds, the shopping, sento, the sense that anything and also nothing is possible.

Thank you so much lovely Emma Japan for your inspiring answers and super-cute images!

Love Love
Hello Sandwich
xxx

Anna Piaggi Oh How I Love You!

Today, as I was designing our Milan Design Week Report, I fell in love with Italian Vogue's Anna Piaggi all over again! It's always been my dream to wear big rosy round clown-like blush cheeks! Isn't she just amazing! So cool, creative and confident! I think the motto here is, too much is never enough - or - dress like you are about to go on stage everyday! Life is too short to be boring right?

Love Love
Hello Sandwich
xxx