Year: 2011

Green Thought Thursday: Cook for Good

Josephine ButlerBlog, Sustainability4 Comments on Green Thought Thursday: Cook for Good
Next time I cook a meal like this one, it’s going to be from scratch! Well…mostly, anyway.

This week when I picked up my copy of the Independent Weekly, I was thrilled to read a review of Wildly Affordable Organic, a new book by Linda Watson. In her book, Linda speaks to the importance of cooking made-from-scratch meals (something that we quite often fail to do in this canned-and-packaged-food world in which we live). Not only does Linda give you tips on how to do this, but she does it in a way that you’re eating off of $5 a day or less. That sure is wildly affordable!

If you are in the area and are interested in learning more about Linda’s cheaper (and healthier and tastier) way to go organic, then consider attending the Cook for Good Challenge this weekend. Hosted Saturday from 8 a.m. – noon at the Western Wake Farmers’ Market, Linda will discuss recipes and give out cooking tips, as well as challenge you to try her 20-minute-a-day plan of cooking around two-thirds of your food from scratch. Eventually graduating on to cook entire meals from scratch, Linda encourages participants to donate a week’s worth of savings (made from the switch between old, more expensive methods of cooking to the new and improved – and cheaper – method) to charity.

So what do you say? Are you up for the challenge this Green Thought Thursday?

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Managing up, down and all around!

Josephine ButlerBlog, Professional Development2 Comments on Managing up, down and all around!

Last week I had the pleasure of sitting in on Ken Jacobs’ webinar presented by PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) entitled, “Managing Up: Positioning Yourself for Success with Your Supervisor.” While I could go on and on about the things I learned in this session, Ken had a really interesting (and great) idea that I wanted to share with you.

 When you’re communicating with your boss (or anyone, really) follow his/her communication style.

This means if your boss likes quick email updates, then by golly, make it a paragraph. If a client wants an in-depth recap of an important call they missed, then make sure to include every last detail. If something crazy happened but your friend is in a rush, get to the point quickly.

Thanks for the advice, Ken!

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Copy Cat, pizza box style!

Josephine ButlerBlog, Copy Cat1 Comment on Copy Cat, pizza box style!

From time to time, the Clairemont team will read something that we just love. From newspapers to coffee mugs, it’s like falling in love with the English language all over again. Good copy is good copy. There’s just no getting around it, and there’s just no better way to say it. As connoisseurs of copy, we think it’s important to copy these said little blurbs of copy so that we can share them with you in a new series we’d like to call “Copy Cat.”

Today’s worthy copy – I found it on a Domino’s pizza box! The copy is part of Domino’s  recent Pizza Proverbs promotion where there were tons of funny entries (see them for yourself here). The company’s favorites ended up on pizza boxes that are now delivered across the country. The proverb on my pizza box? “It’s all fun and games till someone loses an olive,” submitted by Kimberlee Hart of Phoenix, Arizona. Way to go Kimberlee! You’re a self-made copywriter worthy of our very first Copy Cat blog post!

“It’s all fun and games till someone loses an olive.”
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Green Thought Thursday: A little local landfill love

Josephine ButlerBlog, Sustainability
Charley loves to play at Dorthea Dix! Did you know that there is a closed landfill right behind the hospital? We have our own methane power source right here inside the beltline!

It may seem crazy, but yes, I do have a little bit of love for my local landfill. I discovered this new-found love for landfills last year during my stint with AmeriCorps Project Conserve. It was during one of our monthly peer training sessions that we ventured out to a very, very cool place – the EnergyXchange in Waynesville, NC.

The mission of EnergyXChange is “to apply the use of renewable resources and practices for educational opportunities and economic development in the fields of art and horticulture.” Sound complicated? In a nutshell, this group of artsy folks harnesses the power of its local landfill, which closed in 1994, to provide energy for art studios and greenhouses located onsite.

So how does it work? Let me break it down for you (no pun intended). As our trash decomposes beneath the surface of a landfill, it produces several gases that can be harmful to our atmosphere. Two of them? Methane and carbon dioxide. The good news is that the methane, which is definitely the more potent of the two (it is 21 times more effective at trapping heat in our atmosphere than carbon dioxide), can be collected through a series of pipes and pumps and what-have-yous that are then used to power the facilities there.

And the results? Monumental. According to the EnergyXchange, the system is expected to save more than $1 million in energy costs over the landfill’s estimated 20-year reuse cycle, and its impact is the “equivalent to planting 14,000 acres of trees or taking 21,000 cars off the road in North Carolina each year!”

Not to mention, there’s a group of really talented artists in residence, as well as tons of cool stuff you can buy there. Check it out for yourself! And as for you, Mr. Landfill, maybe you’re not so bad, after all.

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Debbie Does New York!

Josephine ButlerBlog, Fashion, The Clairemont Team

Meet our summer intern Debbie Lambeth. Not only do we love having Debbie around the office, but we love hearing all about her adventures both here in the States and abroad. In her most recent rendezvous, Debbie took a trip to New York City. We’d tell you more about it, but no one can tell it better than…well…Debbie!

Debbie (right) poses with Gigi Karmous-Edwards (center), the founder of Uvo, and other Uvo interns at the Fifth Annual Independent Handbag Designer Awards

This month I had the opportunity to travel to New York City with my other part-time internship, Uvo Luxury. Uvo is a start-up, luxury handbag company created by Gigi Karmous-Edwards. She is a former engineer and North Carolina State University research scientist turned handbag designer who decided to follow her passions and establish Uvo.

For Uvo, I work on brand development and marketing, and but I’m a jack of all trades in a lot of ways. Gigi thinks that in order to be successful in this sector, I have to understand the ins and outs of the business, so she invited me and the other interns to the city for a day to explore the bones of her business, as well as attend the Fifth Annual Independent Handbag Designer Awards ceremony in the evening.

A look inside Libra Leather

The Uvo team left last Tuesday afternoon. A 10-hour drive, 3:00 a.m. arrival to our New Jersey hotel and a restful night’s sleep later, we crossed the tunnel early Wednesday morning to begin the adventure. First, Gigi had a private meeting with a potential handbag manufacturer. I got the opportunity to check out the lay of the land there. Having traveled through China for graduate school (in the NCSU College of Textiles – the same program as former intern Whitney) for a half a year, I know what a manufacturing facility looks like, and this place met every preconceived idea. It was clean with a pleasant atmosphere and from what we heard later, is a reliable and well-respected place.

Another look inside Libra Leather — so many choices!

After a New York pizza lunch with a friend, Gigi and I visited different trim shops in the Garment District for crystals and chains for her handbags. We then ventured over to Gigi’s leather supplier, Libra Leather. As soon as we stepped into their showroom, I was captivated! A vintage, rugged atmosphere with more colored and textured leather than you could have imagined in your wildest dreams. Not only were the people there extremely knowledgeable, but everything was also well-sorted and organized, a virtually flawless facility.

After leaving Gigi to do her magic haggling, the intern team made a trip to the Museum at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology), where we had a chance to see the “Sporting Life” exhibit, where outfits represented fashionable sport clothing of centuries past and present. The museum is free and allows no photograhy – only designers with their sketchpads to gain inspiration.

A busy New York City day then turned into a busy New York City night as we dressed to impress for the handbag designer awards. Hosted by InStyle and with tons of up and coming designers and already established big names, I was in heaven. After the awards were over and Gigi got the opportunity to chit-chat with the host of the event, the accessories buyer for Saks and a few other musts, we collected our goody bags, took Hollywood-esque photos with the InStyle backdrop and grabbed some food. We headed back to Jersey for some beauty rest before we were Raleigh-bound Thursday morning.

What an awesome, educational and encouraging trip! I feel so lucky to have these kinds of opportunities, and I am so thankful for my internships at Uvo and Clairemont, where my bosses are willing to give me so much hands-on experience and support my passions!

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