Eco Chick Guide To Life

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Eco Chick Guide to Life in New Issue of Body & Soul!

I’m a long-time fan and regular reader of Body & Soul magazine and was so excited to see that my book, The Eco Chick Guide to Life: How to Be Fabulously Green, was featured in this month’s issue (July/August). The mention came within natural skin care guru Suki Kramer’s list of her favorite things.

If you don’t already read Body & Soul, pick one up; typical issues (and this one too) contain lots of great info about living green, yum local, seasonal recipes (I’m so making the strawberry muffins in this issue), yoga positions, and my favorite, guidance about living a more mindful life. “The Magic of Mistakes” in this issue was really enlightening and really gave me some valuable perspective on past actions.

There’s my book, along with two other great titles, The Green Beauty Guide, by Julie Gabriel and The Virtuous Consumer, by Leslie Garrett

books, eco chick guide to life, magazines

Eco Chick Third Birthday and Book Party: Fun for All (Species)!!

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by Starre Vartan · 12/17/08

Eco Chick is three years old! To celebrate her growing up (there are over 900 posts!) as well as the launch of my book, based on the blog, The Eco Chick Guide to Life: How to Be Fabulously Green, called for a kid’s themed party of course!

Eco Chick Founder and Editor, Starre Vartan, with Eco Chick Writer Kim Jordan Allen

I didn’t know how I was going to pull it together, but in just two days, the fabulous Kate McGregor, owner of Kaight, my favorite ecoboutique, and Arina Vikdorchik (AKA Arina Greenaholic for her eco party-planning fabulousness) offered me a venue, and some extra time and hands to help, and I HAD to go for it!

Kate McGregor and friend, and party guests!

I will, of course, be FOREVER indebted to Kate McGregegor of Kaight, for not only helping me dress fabulously, as well as GREENly but giving me such an amazing space to have my party. Thank you, thank you, thank you Kate! You are an honorary Eco Chick!

Singer/songwriter LiliAna Rose and art director for The Daily Green, Gloria Dawson

Soon, 360 vodka and Wolaver’s organic beer (both of which I buy, drink at home and serve when I entertain!) hopped on board as sponsors, which made me very happy since I consider them ‘my’ fave brands. Natura organic wines joined in with a delicious Sauvignon Blanc donation, and though I’d hadn’t heard of them yet, I was so glad they came to my party (with their wine!).

Ama the Bartender, and one of the many pooch attendees

Thanks soooo much to 360, Wolaver’s and Natura! A party without booze is no party at all (unless it’s a tea party, but this wasn’t).

Starre Vartan and Seth Leitman, author of Build Your Own Electric Vehicle, and Tiffany, Tatiana Gelfand and friend.

I am SO proud to say that all my food sponsors come from AMAZING women-owned businesses! Babycakes, which couldn’t be MORE local (it is about 3/4 of a block around the corner from Kaight) made up pretty purple and green vegan cupcakes, vegan and gluten-free banana bread, and brownie bites. They were so amazingly tasty I walked around with the box at one point but was just mostly eating them myself, hee hee. (I am NOT the kind of girl to skip eating awesome treats at my own party!) Babycakes was founded by the retro-cool Erin McKenna- thanks to Erin and her nice-as-could-be staff!

Brian Clark Howard, editor at The Daily Green, AKA DJ SocialPyramid

One of my favorite snacks, Laura’s Wholesome Junkfood, also supplied sweet vegan treats (their oatmeal raisin bitelettes are my fave low-guilt dessert when I’m at home of an evening). Laura’s is such a cool company, started by a doctor (named Laura!) who started her own good-for-you food biz. Thanks Dr. Laura!

Bonnie Hulkower and Emma Grady of Treehugger, and Boho Magazine‘s assistant editor Ashley Kittelsen and Boho fashion editor Margo Helliwell

SweetRiot, whose founder, Sarah Endline, I met years ago at NYC GreenDrinks holiday party, gave us lots of their directly-sourced, fair-trade, dark chocolate covered cocoa nibs in lovely martini glasses (I was so afraid there wouldn’t be enough chocolate!). And they were even nice enough to give me extras to take home after the party in their cute (recyclable, and original art-covered) tins. Thanks Sarah!

Guest, Elizabeth Harrington of Greenopia, and freelance writer Beatrice Aranow

Continuing with the women’s-owned theme, publisher and ecofabulista Gina LaMorte gave us a stack of Boho Magazines for our goody bags (My book is reviewed in the current issue-yay!!); the bags themselves were donated by Whole Foods (where I shop so much I feel like I practically earned those free bags, haha!). The bags are the cool new reusable Sheryl Crowe shoppers and so pretty! John Masters Organics, who makes my fave new haircare products, offered up samples for the goody bags (thanks!)

Arina Vikdorchik and Starre Vartan

I couldn’t have done this without the dogged persistence and unflagging energy of Arina Vikdorchik, who pulled all the nonsense together and made it make sense. Some unvarnished PR- use Arina next time you want to plan a party, green or not!!!

From left to right, Glenn Michael Gordon, Brook Wilensky-Lanford, Christina Rumpf and Rachel Carter, all of Columbia University’s MFA writing program.

From left to right, a friend, Josh Garrett-Davis, and Rob Verger, Columbia nonfiction MFAers

Thanks too, to all of you who came, including the incredibly supportive and loving cast of characters (I mean colleagues!) from Columbia’s University’s School of the Arts nonfiction (and fiction too!) writing program, my agent, Mary Ann Naples (didn’t get a snap of her, darn!!) of The Creative Culture, my publicity team, Emily Fry and Stephen Lee of St. Martin’s (who do a lot with very little!), Brian Clark Howard, my friend, DJ, proofreader for the book, and URTH Guy, my amazing girlfriend Cara Joy, who started off her day at her farm in Vermont gathering eggs and ended up at a book and blog party in the LES, and was indispensible the day-of, helping everything get done, and of course, Danelle Marqui Brown and Kim Jordan Allen, long-time Eco Chick writers, supporters, and fabulous, amazing, inspiring women all-around.

Shane McQuade, CEO of Voltaic systems and Margaret Lydecker, founder of NYC Greendrinks, and Meiling Chen, ecofashion designer

A big shout-out to my friends and colleagues at Greenopia, who are mostly on the West Coast, and whose NYC guidebook (and online listings) are indespensible for navigating this growing green world.

Arina Vikdorchik and Danelle Marqui Brown, Eco Chick writer

Starre Vartan, Michelle Legro, producer and host of Storyville and nonfiction MFA student at Columbia U. and James Yeh, fiction MFA student at Columbia.

Two people who could not attend but to whom I owe debts of gratitude are Dan “Mobius” Sieradski, Eco Chick’s webmaster, who’s single-handedly kept the site running all these years, and my Dad, who has supported the site since its inception, given me great ideas on how to promote it, and encouraged me to keep going with my ideas and aspirations.

Emily Fry and Stephen Lee of St. Martin’s, and Michael Schwarz, writer and animal advocate

Party Guests and a Pooch, and Starre Vartan and ecofashion designer Christine Marchuska in one of her own designs

Party Guests!

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The New York Times Features Eco Chick Guide to Life!

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by Starre Vartan · 09/22/08

Wow, I really wasn’t expecting this, I must say! In the Style section of the Sunday edition of the paper, right where I belong

You can read the review on the Times’ site here, or below. I have to say it certainly IS bizarre to be mentioned alongside Sarah Palin, whose policies I couldn’t object to more (especially her support for the Alaskan wolf-shooting free-for-all that was a program I specifically organized against when I worked for Friends of Animals). Her pro-drilling stance (we need alternative energy, not more oil to exacerbate global warming) and anti-birth control positions (like the world needs MORE people!!) are horrors to this environmentalist’s heart.

But maybe Ms. Palin will pick up a copy of my book after this- who know? Enjoy!

EVERY now and then, someone comes along who shows the rest of us how much we take for granted the freedoms of our daily lives. The eco-journalist, blogger and all-around green genie Starre Vartan is one such person. In “The Eco Chick Guide to Life,” her earth-first program for glamorous but environmentally conscious living, she mines new lodes of guilt, finding gems of awareness and providing detailed eco-wise shopping guides for the body, the closet, the home and the larder.
Not everyone will find it easy to get with her program. Ms. Vartan shares her tips for eschewing wasteful packaging products. For example, did you realize you could make your own toothpaste, dog toys and mildew remover? And turn stained scraps of cloth and tarps into handbags?
Still, she understands that most people prefer to go shopping, and allows for substitutions. For instance, once you’ve sworn off leather and pleather (whose manufacture unleashes “known carcinogens and water polluters”), you can splash out on shoes made of hemp, canvas, car tires, or wood and cork. But if you’d like to hew to her line, she has plenty of recommendations, not only for when you’re up and about, but for when you’re in the bedroom. Shun furniture from old-growth forests, and buy vintage whenever possible. As for the bedroom, “Once you see your bed as a product of the industrial chemical industry” — tainted with formaldehyde and toxic glues, and topped with a mattress “suffused in flame-retardants” — you may want to spring for one of the organic mattresses that Ms. Vartan prefers. “Sexy AND healthy,” she explains.
This all may sound a bit obsessive, despite its upbeat, energetic presentation. But Ms. Vartan argues that nature’s warning signs are so plentiful that “nobody can ignore the fact that there’s an environmental crisis going on.” She cites “wacky” weather, the spread of toxins through the food chain and the extinction of thousands of plant and animal species.
MS. VARTAN’S sensibility may be catching on. Only last week, Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska and the Republican nominee for vice president, backed off somewhat from previous statements that diminished the human role in the environmental crisis commonly called global warming. During an interview with Charles Gibson on ABC, Governor Palin said, “I’m attributing some of man’s activities to potentially causing some of the changes in the climate.”
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eco chick guide to life, media, NYTimes, Politics

Eco Chick Guide to Life Takes Off!

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by Starre Vartan · 09/17/08

My first book signing! I’m wearing a Doie silk chiffon printed blouse that was made in New York and an Ingle and Rhode recycled silver and bamboo necklace.

I’m thrilled to announce that the first few weeks have been crazy-successful for my book, based on this very blog right here: The Eco Chick Guide to Life: How to Be Fabulously Green. Thanks to everyone for all their support!

So far, the book has been featured in:

The New York Times Style Section

-Plenty Magazine’s blog (read an excerpt of the book about greening your office there!)

-Star Magazine

-E/The Environmental Magazine

-Fashion, Evolved

-The Palm Beach Post

-The Green Girls blog

-lots of local CT radio shows

……and more to come!

And I did (my first ever) book signing at Practically Green, a fabulous new green lifestyle store in Ridgefield, CT. I sold about 35 books, chatted with a local girl scout group, moms and grandmas who were all interested in greening up their lives.

Tonight I’ll be speaking at The Darien Library, in Darien, CT, which should be fun!

My youngest fans! I spoke with these girl scouts about how to look out for corporate greenwashing. They were pretty into it!