I stumbled into very interesting people at a fantastic dinner party in Santa Barbara recently, thanks to an invite from my friend Hannah Apricot. Among them: a Canadian man who’d spent a month at Harbin Hot Springs, a firy acupuncturist and her partner who spoke openly about how Landmark Education helped . . . → Read More: Why I love a good dinner party]]> Photo by Terry Pratt

I stumbled into very interesting people at a fantastic dinner party in Santa Barbara recently, thanks to an invite from my friend Hannah Apricot. Among them: a Canadian man who’d spent a month at Harbin Hot Springs, a firy acupuncturist and her partner who spoke openly about how Landmark Education helped heal their lives, the massage therapist host, and a Native American man who led us in gratitude before our meal. Not only did we get to eat amazing food at a gorgeous house, but everyone had an interesting story. Among the guests I got to meet was Dana, who’s worked in restaurants travelling all over the world, and done construction with Gerard Minawaka, founder of Bamboo DNA.

You might have seen these recent bamboo sculptures at the LA Contemporary Museum of Art or at the music festival outside of LA, Coachella. If you’re going to the Electric Daisy Carnival, you’ll see one there. These are the biggest bamboo installations in the planet. Here’s info on their tour.

Bamboo’s been around for a while as the new green building material. But now it’s even being used to replace titanium in notebook computers, according to Wired magazine.

One thing I love about getting out to events is the people I meet. Recently at EarthFair while mingling with the San Diego Roots people, I ran across Julie, who’s started an artist collective focusing on sustainability using recycled materials and teaching people to get crafty. When she’s not sewing or volunteering, she’s studying . . . → Read More: Leave no trace, just a beautiful footprint]]>

One thing I love about getting out to events is the people I meet. Recently at EarthFair while mingling with the San Diego Roots people, I ran across Julie, who’s started an artist collective focusing on sustainability using recycled materials and teaching people to get crafty. When she’s not sewing or volunteering, she’s studying Sustainable Business in Seattle. Like me, she shares a vision of a center where people learn about food, gardening, yoga, and all kinds of crafts reusing materials. I pulled the photo above from Julie’s website, Beautiful Footprint. Check out the handbags on the site too.