Green Options Turns One: The Past, Present, and Future of Green Crafts

The Past, Present, and Future of Green CraftsI can’t believe it has only been one year. My first post for Green Options went live on February 15th, 2007 – just days after the blog launched. It feels like much more than a year that I have been working with these great, eco-minded folks – how the time flies.

Just a year ago, my main focus was covering the fashion beat for the site. Once a week, I’d write about a green fashion brand that was sustainable, stylish and affordable. I also had the pleasure of interviewing some very cool folks, including Jonah Sachs of Free Range Studios (the folks who did The Meatrix), Josh Dorfman (The Lazy Environmentalist), Belinda David-Tooze of Envirosax, and Danny Seo.

After just a few months, Green Options editor and my savvy boss Jeff McIntire-Strasburg gave me the opportunity to start doing reviews as well – including yoga mats, jewelry, TV shows and magazines. We decided together to start writing about more DIY and crafty fashion topics in August of 2007 and have never looked back. I still do a review for each issue of Body+Soul Magazine over at sustainablog (see my take on the Jan/Feb 2008 issue here), but when Jeff told me about Green Options changing from a single blog to a collection of blogs, the conversation about a fashion and crafty blog came to life.

Choosing between heading up the fashion blog or the crafty blog was a tough choice – in the beginning, I was planning to do both. Still, one had to go up first and in my heart of hearts, DIY won. Since the launch of Crafting a Green World in November 2007, I’m consistently taken aback by the great comments and questions our visitors post. Here is a secret: I was iffy about the CAGW name at first, but once David, Green Options’ founder, bought the URL, I wasn’t going to think about changing it. Now, the name in a thing of beauty to me – just as individual and diverse as our readers.

My knowledge of crafty life has only just begun. My family is naturally crafty (crochet, cooking, painting, sewing, knitting, quilting … etc.), but living so far away from them (my mom in Connecticut, my grandmother and sister in Indiana, while I’m in San Francisco – soon to be Portland) my interest in the topic waned during my early adult years.

The past two years have brought back my DIY desires with a vengeance and, thanks to CAGW and Green Options, I’ll be pushing myself even further in the next year to learn and do more creative things to share with our readers. I soon plan on taking a class on how to knit socks and I’m only a few supplies away from making a unique purse (both of which I will be sharing with you all). What else does my next year as Green Options’ crafty expert have to hold? Who knows!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GREEN OPTIONS

[Image courtesy of flickr.com user hfb]

Written by Victoria Everman

I think of myself as a creatively versatile eco-powerhouse. Freelance writer, life-long model, on-camera personality, public speaker, official U.S. spokesperson for Twice Shy Clothing - I'm a classic Renaissance woman and mistress-of-all-trades.

Though my days of growing up in the corn fields of central Indiana are behind me, forgetting where I came from is not an option. I lost my father unexpectedly in March of 2006, months before moving from NYC to San Francisco, which helped to amplify my zest for life and thirst to help change the world.

Perpetually looking for fresh ways to share my unquenchable green knowledge, I blog about everything eco on my own website, as well as for All Green Magazine and select others. Additionally, I am the editor/head writer of Crafting a Green World (part of the Green Options blog network) and a writer/web editor for Building Green TV. My diverse articles have been published in variety of reputable magazines, such as: Yoga Journal, Venus, CRAFT, Yogi Times, Recovery Solutions, M+F, and Office Solutions.

In my spare time, you can find me knitting, reading, singing, taking pictures, practicing yoga, taking long walks, and working on my first non-fiction book. Other random facts about me: I'm a Buddhist, latex fan, have four tattoos, and an attempting locavore.

MOVING TO PORTLAND, OREGON IN JUNE 2008

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