[Part of my challenge to give something away every day for 29 days, again]

Thanks to five friends’ birthdays, the completion of a PhD, and the end of Emerald City, I had lots and lots of occasions to give — So this final day of the second 29-Day Giving Challenge is actually a list of gifts given but not yet mentioned –

Me: Every guy should have a good flask.
Summer: Every guy over 30 should have a good flask.

Matt turned 30 on Tues — and got a flask from me (actually, I think it’s still en route).

Gina too had her birthday on Tues; we celebrated with drinks and food at Bodega –

Tony gets these Sol Tumblers — made of recycled beer bottles and smallishly perfect for orange juice — for all his support and help with the Emerald City blog since he became the editor of all the blogs at LATimes.com.

Happy summer everyone! Kick off the new season by taking the 29-Day Giving Challenge yourself!

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[Part of my challenge to give something away every day for 29 days, again]

A pair of Acquarella nail polishes — pink and white — go to Katie, as a thanks for writing about yummy food and the farmers’ market in Emerald City.

Acquarella’s a water-based nail polish that avoids many of the toxic stuff in conventional nail polishes. I reviewed it here.

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A twice-weekly sharing of eco-shwag.

Today’s giveaway is a pink pouch of “Fairy Dust” from Sprinkles of Magic. I think the idea’s to give it to kids to play with, though I suppose you could use the sprinkles to decorate home made cards and stuff.

I got the dust in shwag bag from eco-boutique Visionary’s opening party. What’s eco about it? According to the tag, the fairy dust’s made of 80% scrap material — shredded cellophane, remnants of packaging and bags, and other miscellaneous bits. “The remainder 20% is confetti including the glow in the dark confetti, pink moons and stars,” says Kimberly Nelson of Sprinkles of Magic.

So I don’t recommend giving it to kids who might put it in their mouths. Comment or email by Friday to get into the drawing, which’ll happen Saturday. US addresses only.

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[Part of my challenge to give something away every day for 29 days, again]

A “sea glass” (aka greenish) Jimi — the recycled and recyclable compact wallet — goes to Kathryn Pope, as a thanks for writing about her de-car-ing adventures on Emerald City.

Kathryn got a motorboard, a bus pass, and a love for a car-free lifestyle after her old car broke down. She’s actually gotten rid of the motorboard — “Apparently, I’m just too hard on the thing to keep it working,” she says — but is now biking and loving it.

Want your own Jimi? I got this one via my friend Summer’s eco-boutique, BTC Elements.

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Update, 11/17/08: Kathryn’s now got her own blog — and has de-car’d entirely!

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[Part of my challenge to give something away every day for 29 days, again]

A red (different from pic) Jimi — the recycled and recyclable compact wallet — goes to Cassandra, as a thanks for writing about her Valley girl take on L.A. sprawl in Emerald City.

Want your own Jimi? I got this one via my friend Summer’s eco-boutique, BTC Elements.

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[Part of my challenge to give something away every day for 29 days, again]

A blue “Ebb and Flow” organic cotton T-shirt goes to Alex Thompson, as a thank you for writing fun bicycle activist posts at Emerald City.

Alex actually covered pretty much all you need to know to become an uber-biker in L.A. Don’t see why you should bike? Alex has 8 billion reasons why. Don’t have a bike yet? Here’s a two-parter on how to find one that’ll work for you. Want to become a bike activist? Just follow steps one, two, and three.

Thanks to Alex for all the bicycling encouragement and advice. You can get ebb and flow and other eco-friendly T-shirts at Summer’s boutique, BTC Elements.

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[Part of my challenge to give something away every day for 29 days, again]

Barent, Green Drinks organizer, also is a green design expert and teaches a sustainable packaging class at the Art Institute of California. Yesterday, the students had their final presentation — and Summer and I sat in as guest critics.

Each student presented 3 different eco-product packaging ideas for RadioShack products — some of which were really innovative and professional-looking! All was great except one aspect: It all kicked off at an hour I rarely experience: 7:30 am….

This is the first gift of time from me in this challenge! Thanks to Barent for inviting me — and for the Clif bars and for lunch at Mrs Winston’s Green Grocery post-critique.

Photos by Summer Bowen

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A twice-weekly sharing of eco-shwag.

Today’s giveaway is a Hero Bag, made of 80% recycled cotton scraps (pre-consumer) and 20% recycled plastic bottles.

This Hero Bag’s a cute, sturdy woman-designed bag that’s fairly-made in the US using 100% reclaimed materials, from a woman-founded Cali (local for me) company. I reviewed the eco-friendly bags here.

Comment or email by Sunday to get into the drawing, which’ll happen Monday. US addresses only.

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[Part of my challenge to give something away every day for 29 days, again]

This challenge has become less about giving something away each day for 29 days and more about giving away 29 things at random intervals during a 29-day period….

Gift 18: A glass of white wine for Gina at Bodega wine bar — to welcome her back to L.A., at least for the summer while she’s taking a break from engineering classes at MIT.

Gift 20: A lemon drop plus dinner and a movie ticket for Sarah, who had a birthday last week! To celebrate a bit belatedly, a group of us went to see Sex & the City at The Bridge. We picked that theater because it has a bar — but the service was sadly really horrendous. Still, the movie was fun –

I got a gift too, from Kristen, for getting my PhD. She gave me a lil figurine — I think because I got a bit obsessed with hers the last time I went over to her place.

I’ve named her Miel (for mini Siel) — She now dutifully blogs beside me –

Gift 19, BTW, was the Wednesday freebie!

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A twice-weekly sharing of eco-shwag.

Today’s giveaway is a Heal the Bay beach tote that commemorates the nonprofit’s Back to the Beach benefit dinner, which happened last month.

The tote comes with a detachable coin purse and is made of cotton — which appears to be conventional — by Macher. On the upside, it’s cute and looks like it’ll be pretty durable.

Comment or email by Sunday to get into the drawing, which’ll happen Monday. US addresses only.

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