Eco-Chick · The modern girl's guide to living green & fabulous.

Escapes Giveaway! Gorgeous, Recycled Plastic Heys Suitcase

Heys has long been known for producing quality suitcases and travel gear. And now their new eco-friendly line, EcoCase (they are made from 100% recycled plastic) proves they are conscious too. (And I think the hard-case style is pretty cool.)

So naturally, we are giving one away to Eco Chick and Eco Chick Escapes readers!

(Heys does make a soft fabric suitcase, also made from recycled polyester fabric, as well.)

The giveaway would be for ONE Turquoise EcoCase carry-on piece, pictured above.

To win: You have the chance to win the prize. How? Simply like the Heys Facebook page and Eco Chick Escapes Facebook page and let us know you have done so in the comments below. Easy!

Deets: Eco Chick does not sell or lend email addresses we collect. One reader will win the prize. Entrants must be 18 or older and located in the US or Canada. Submissions will be collected until February 15th at midnight eastern standard time. Good luck!

Flickr Image via TheeErin

Heroines for the Planet: Jill Danyelle, Eco Interior Designer

Jill Danyelle is, quite simply, too talented to fail.  Her artistic prowess, indomitable desire to evolve, and adoration of nature led her to recently launch the interior design business she was always meant to create.

She has triumphed as a therapist, eco-fashion designer and green fashion writer, and with hobbies that include art, photography and travel, it seems apropos that interior design would transform into her next business venture.

Jill recently found some time in her busy schedule to share with us how she incorporates sustainability into her projects, the challenges she’s faced as an entrepreneur, where she turns to for design inspiration, and how her travels have shaped her.

Lindsay: You started your career as an occupational therapist, then studied fashion design with a focus on ecology. What drew you to interior design?

Jill:  Before I went to graduate school to become a therapist, I studied fine art in high school and college, so I’ve always had the desire to be creative.  After graduate school I worked as a therapist and kept artistic hobbies, but at a certain point I felt that my creativity became too marginalized.  I wasn’t happy and knew I needed to make a change.  I experimented with some other careers, such as fashion design and writing/editing, but ended up crossing them off of the list for a variety of reasons.

I have always been drawn to design and style.  I love to  hunt things down and mix them together, but I like the problem solving and functional aspects of designing a space, too.  I was thinking more and more about how design impacts our lives as I began to edit the contents of my own life and change the space I live in.  One day it just hit me.  I thought, “I like to work with people and I like to design spaces, maybe I should try this.”  I felt I had something to offer, so I started doing interior design for free with friends and friends of friends and it took off from there.

Lindsay: Can you tell me about your new interior design business? Why did you decide to start your own firm?

Jill: Wow, firm sounds so… big.  It is just me and some contractors I have on speed dial.  I hope I never lose the intimacy of that as I really enjoy getting to know my clients.  I have been an independent contractor for most of my professional life, even as a therapist.  It just suits me, as I really value my independence.

Additionally, without an interior design degree and work history it is difficult to get a firm to hire you as an employee.  I also know what I value in my work, so if you narrow things down to the firms that I would want to work for, the opportunities become even fewer, so the choice was kind of made for me.  I decided to work for free on my own in order to gain experience and it ended up paying off.  Working independently with paying clients was the logical next step.

LB: I pulled this quote from one of your blog posts. You said, “I always say that it is easy to be a critic, but to put energy into a creation and launch it into the world takes courage.”

How did you become so courageous? What challenges have you faced along the way?
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Eco Chick Escapes to Kaua’i: Hiking and Staying in Sustainable Style

The walk from the St. Regis Princeville to the beach.

My favorite kind of wedding to attend is, by far, the destination wedding. While an open bar is never not fun, it’s even better if the drinks are located in a country that takes a passport to get into. And a wedding is a genuine excuse to blow your budget to travel (I barely need an excuse to get out of town, but it’s always nice to have one).

So when my boyfriend received an invitation to nuptials in Kaua’i, I started planning the trip immediately, even though I had never met the bride or groom. Having sojourned on the Big Island and visited Oahu numerous times growing up, I was excited to check out “The Garden Isle” of Kaua’i, which I’d heard so much about.

The Makana Terrace at the St. Regis is just one of the hotel’s restaurants that serves local, organic food. Image courtesy St. Regis Princeville.

After scouring the web for ethical accommodations, I ended up at the St. Regis in Princeville, a stunning hotel in the old-school style, with impeccable customer service and a lobby that I’ll never forget (picture several story-high glass windows fronting a view of one of the most famed spots in Kaua’i and miles of ocean and sky).

While not a small lodging, the St. Regis is well integrated into its environment, and unlike many of the newer hotels I’ve lately seen, it doesn’t try to be more than its location. I have a major antipathy for cheesy, overdone, glitzy hotels that seem designed in Des Moines and plopped down wherever tourists are flying this year. The St. Regis is not one of these, but in its elegance, seems almost to serve to remind us why a boutique hotel isn’t always the way to go.

I had a bit of a stretch out on the rocks in the bay off the beach at the St. Regis.

I had the chance to have a lovely breakfast with Stephanie Reid, the Director of Public Relations for the hotel; she is both a native Hawaiian from Kaua’i (going back 10 generations) and a wealth of knowledge of the natural and human history about the area where the St. Regis is located.

To read the rest of this post, and see all the amazing images, please click over to our sister site, Eco Chick Escapes.

Lindsay’s Going to Costa Rica: Advice and Recommendations Needed!

After a long day last week, and a green event to cap off the night, I checked my mail right before I entered the subway and one particular email caught me off guard. It seemed way too good to be true. So I re-read it, and even walked back up to Columbus Circle to get better reception (to read it again).  Here’s an excerpt:

Lindsay,

Because of the large readership of the Brown Loves Green blog, your influence through 2Booms.com, and your involvement in other eco-friendly blogs across the web, Costa Rica’s Tourism Board would like to give you a free trip to Costa Rica.

Costa Rica is sending out a select number of these Gifts of Happiness in the form of customized trips, and because your values align with Costa Rica’s belief in Pura Vida, you’ve been hand-selected to receive a trip for two.

Say what? I had that whole “if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is” internal dialogue going on.

But as it turns out, I was not delirious from exhaustion.  Nor had I sniffed too many naturally scented eco-friendly products at the event that eve. And it wasn’t too good to be true.

Costa Rica’s tourism board really has so graciously given me a gift of complete and utter happiness: an all-expense-paid trip for two for eight days to their beautifully green country! But that’s not all …

Read the rest of this article over at our sister site, Eco Chick Escapes…..

Cuval Bags Make Chic, Classy Travel Effortlessly Cool

Cuval makes the most perfect, sweetest travel bags I’ve ever seen. Whether your trips involve jetting halfway around the world or just heading out of town for some toes-in-the-sand time, these totes are must-have. I don’t need to convince you – just take a look!

The hip bag. Defintely not your mom’s fanny pack!

I’m obsessed with the belt bag and the backpack specifically – due to my travel- loving ways. All bags are made with a combination of 100 % natural Turkish leather and mill-end fabrics (which means that if they weren’t used here, they would end up in the landfill!). I had a chat with Ayse Ozgunes, the designer behind Cuval, about her lovely line.

The perfect chic travel backpack? YES!

To read more, check out the rest of the article (and images) on our new sister site, Eco Chick Escapes!