FACT: Earth Day was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in in 1970 and is now observed in 175 countries every year.

FACT: April 22 is also the birthday of Julius Sterling Morton, the founder of Arbor Day, a national tree-planting holiday started in 1872.

FACT: The last major change in the Clean Air Act, the law that defines EPA’s responsibilities for protecting and improving the nation’s air quality, was enacted by Congress in 1990.

We got a chance to chat with Lisa Marie recently to find out more about her design process and favorite green practices.  Please enjoy her delightful answers below!

Q: How did you come up with ideas for each of the new bag designs?

a) Succulents “Acqua Bag” – When Pretty Green approached me to design the fabric for their new line of bags, we discussed their focus on sustainability and the environment. Water shortage is poised to be our next big crisis, and so we discussed drought-tolerant plants.  Succulents were the first  obvious plants to come to mind. I wanted to portray the succulent as a classic, which is how the ogee pattern came about. To me, there is nothing as lush and elegant as a colorful succulent garden.

b) Coneflower “Matilda Bag” – The purple coneflower is such a wonderful flower; not only is it drought-tolerant, it’s where we get the immune booster Echinacea. Its preference for dry soil makes it a colorful addition to a water-conscious garden. Color is always one of the first things I think about when starting a new design. I keep a file of all my favorite color combinations and am always happy to find a new one. Yellow and purple are one of those old standards for.  Just the other day I saw a yellow house and thought “That house would be complete with a big patch of purple coneflowers out front.”

c) Pears “D’anjou Bag” – A thought I came away with after doing all my research on drought-tolerant gardens was the necessity to grow our own food. If you are going to have to water your plants, it may as well give you something in return!  I make it a point to start an herb garden every spring, and this year I’ve ventured into the land of radishes and lettuces as well. I would love one day to be able to grow all the food for my family, and maybe even have a chicken coop for some delicious eggs, but for now being that I’m a city dweller I’ll stick to what my meager outdoor area can handle. However, I do see a pear tree in my future.

Q: What are your favorite mediums?

A: I dabble in a little of everything but as far as pattern design I love to paint with gouache, and I equally love the digital side of things which is when I take the design into Adobe Illustrator to work out the pattern. Some other creative things I love: photography, gocco printmaking, sewing, embroidery, and next week I’m going to learn how to knit!

Q:  What inspires you creatively?
A: It may be cliche, but I am literally inspired by everything around me.  I pay attention to the details. I take long walks with my dogs and photograph anything that catches my fancy. I peruse art books at the library and draw the things I see when my mind starts to interpret those images into something else. I’m hugely inspired by the online art community, especially all my friends on flickr. And of course the real life art community here in San Francisco and Oakland, where I see amazing work at the beginning of each month with the respective first thursday and first friday gallery openings. I’m also inspired by my husband who is a musician, and love to hear him work out a song and watch the songs work into an album (shameless plug: www.hangjones.com)

Q: How did you get into textile design?
A: I find life is this ever-transforming work-in-progress. One thing always leads me to another. I started college as an English major but got swept up in the world of Photography, in which I got my BFA. After college I was scooped up by the graphic design profession, and kind of meandered in that field for a while working on print and web design.

But when I realized that I love design but hate advertising, I went in the search of the next thing to sweep me off my feet. Around that same time I was learning to sew, and could spend hours at the fabric store perusing the gorgeous prints by contemporary designers. I realized I had to marry my love for design and my love for sewing into fabric design. I took a few classes to learn the basics and now I’m following my heart. I’m currently working on a collection to shop around, amidst other projects that keep me busy (like sewing cute skirts, and my bike bag collection that I started with my brother www.hambonedesigns.com )

Q: What are your favorite green practices?
A: Living in San Francisco, it’s easy to be green. There is a city-implemented composting service, you get a free green bin for your food and plant waste and they pick it up every week with the garbage.  A few times a year they offer the rich compost they produce to residents for use in home gardens. Such a great idea!  The 4-unit building I live in has become so good at composting and recycling that we downgraded the size of our garbage can, and it still is usually less than half full.
Another thing SF has done is outlaw plastic bags at supermarkets. I keep a few Pretty Green bags by the front door and in my bicycle bags, and when I run out to the store it’s easy to remember to take one with me. I also reuse produce bags, or save the plastic bags that bread comes in, to use for fruits and veggies. It’s become second nature to think twice about using things. Why would I use a disposable coffee cup when I can take my travel mug with me and save that landfill space?

Another thing I do is keep a small bucket under the bathroom sink. When I’m waiting for the water to heat up before taking a shower or washing my face, I catch all that water in the bucket and use it to water my plants or flush the toilet. I have raincatchers outside to save up rainwater for that purpose as well.

My favorite green practice is my bicycle. I ride my bike everywhere – to the store, to the farmer’s market, to run an errand four miles away – if I’m doing anything in town, I never even think of driving the car. And it’s great exercise too!

About Lisa Marie Grillos:

Lisa Marie is an artist of the graphic variety who also plays with light in the form of photography and cloth in the form of sewing. She has a preference for fabric design and strawberry smoothies. Having lived in New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco, she is currently seeking the perfect seaside town to call home. She lives with her talented troubadour husband and two super cute yet dastardly dogs.
www.lisamariedesign.com
alittleflea.blogspot.com
www.hambonedesigns.com

Just feed the paper in backwards/upside down and print.  I ran off about 25 of those puppies and made myself a new notebook.  I love my new notebook and have been carrying it around with me everywhere to jot down ideas, notes, etc.  I never have to spend money on a new notebook again.

For all those who don’t know, Toms Shoes was started by Blake Mycoskie, who happened to on the Amazing Race in prior seasons.  On a trip to Argentina, he was really moved by the fact that there were children living without the basic necessity of having shoes.  He came back to the U.S. and started a company selling a modernized traditional shoe and adopted the One-for-One business model.  For every pair of shoes they sell, they give a pair away to a child in need.

Blake calls himself the Chief Shoe Giver at TOMS and they’ve given away over 100,000 pairs of shoes to date.  From the site, you can see that TOMS has really had a lot of attention and press because their work is truly inspiring.   When we speak of ethical consumerism, this is a great example of it and how consumerism can be used for a greater good.   Blake updates his online blog frequently – it’s a great read:  http://blakemycoskie.blogspot.com/

At Pretty Green, we strongly believe in ethical consumerism, too.   We took a long time to decide which cause we wanted to support.  Ultimately, we decided on Water Partners International (WPI) because we truly believe that clean water is at the core – a primary necessity to life.  Without clean water, people can not sustain themselves.  With climate change, clean water is becoming a scarcity in some areas of the world and the need for intervention becomes increasingly more strong.  For these reasons, we made the decision to devote a portion of all sales towards supporting WPI’s efforts.

When I first started Pretty Green, I really wanted to provide a space to feature the work of the community and how local groups are affecting change. As my 2009 Earth Day commitment, I’m going to work on seeking out groups and featuring them on our site to let others know about the innovative things that are going on at the local level.  Let us collectively BE INSPIRED.

I saw this picture on a friend’s Facebook page and I had to share with everyone. Meet Roland who is enjoying his little cracker at the beach.  Roland’s little hat matches his mommy’s Pretty Green bag. Now, that’s stylin’!

I recently learned about this cool new program that Best Buy has.  Not only are they recycling batteries and ink toners, but also used DVD players, old laptops, small TV’s, etc.  What an awesome service to provide by such a big-box store.  I’ve read through their site and it looks like they have some strict standards for recycling so I feel pretty good that they aren’t shipping it off to a third world country as e-waste.

The process was very simple.   You just go up to customer service with what you have and they take it from there.   Pretty Green husband even carried the bag in one our new bags (coming very very soon!!) so now we know – Pretty Green bags can hold DVD players!

For more information:

Best Buy Recycling Program

For more info: http://www.earthhour.org/home/

Meet our gorgeous reusable bags inspired by drought tolerant plants.

D’Anjou Bag

Acqua Bag

and finally… Matilda Bag

Bags will be for sale on the site starting April 10th!