Why am I doing this?

Let me tell you a little about the Green Bag Lady project. . .

I started this art project in Jan/Feb of 2008. I am an artist/college professor but I mainly do photography and digital imaging (which is what I teach). This project could be classified as more of a "performance art piece." I do events where I go into public spaces, set up my sewing machine and give out bags as well as give them out on a daily basis. With Green Bag Lady, I would like more artists to think about the ecological impact of their art as well as producing work that has a direct, positive impact on the environment. I love that the audience is directly involved in this project.

The project started one day when I was scolding my husband for getting plastic bags at the grocery and he said he had to because there were no fabric bags in the other car (we normally only use one car) so I decided to go through my fabric bins (many of them!) and dig out fabric that had no other use. I ended up with quite a pile and I just started making bags. They were not very uniform in size when I started, but eventually I figured out what size worked best and that is the size of the pattern I now give out as a pdf. I started by bringing the bags to the college kids in my classes and then my friends. It has just grown from there. It has now taken on a life of its own!

I am adamant that I am NOT selling the bags or getting any compensation for them. They are a gift. I want the receiver to feel obligated to use them, that is why I require the promise to use them instead of paper or plastic. If one were to buy them from me, they become a commodity and there is no obligation any longer because the person owns the bag. A gift is owned by both people. I know that usually one bag is not enough but if I GIVE you one, you might start thinking about your usage and buy other bags to supplement your collection (and maybe even start thinking about recycling, composting, consumption and consumerism).

My favorite comments are from people who say things like, "this is the push I need to go more green" or "I have been thinking about switching to fabric and this will help me do that!" or "I am going to start making them and give them to everyone I know" or "I am going to have my Girl Scout Troop make them."

I should also mention, I am the mother of 3. Two girls ages 9 & 6 and a little 3 year old guy we affectionately call "Squeak."

Go green, live green, stay green!

Thanks for all the emails and great response to this project. Teresa

A few of my FAVORITE comments. . .

Thank you all who responded by leaving comments for bags after the last CNN airing of the Green Bag Lady story. They were great! You should have heard from Bagette Dad about getting a bag in the mail. I so appreciate you taking the time to tell me how you would use your bag. I laughed out loud to some of them, others were so kind they brought tears to my eyes. If you didn't read them all, here are a few of my favorites:

ppoff25 said:
I love being green,
it helps out our planet.
If a bag's made of plastic,
we simply must ban it.

If I had a Green Bag Lady bag
I'd use it each day
To the farmer's market, the store,
And this message I'd convey...

Why would you harm the earth
using cruel plastic?
Try something much better,
cloth bags are fantastic!

Thank you Green Bag Lady for all you do! Keep up the wonderful work!

Heather said:
I saw the piece that CNN did in regards to your making reusable bags from recycled material. It touched my heart to see that you're doing so much to help the environment. Myself, I recycle regularly and I have started using reusable bags since I moved into my new home in Sept 2008. I'm so proud to say that I haven't used a single plastic grocery bag since! I have a small collection of reusables in each car to always be prepared and I use one to take my lunch to work in everyday. My mother has recently started using them after she saw how maybe plastic bags she accumulated since I moved (over 400 plastic bags vs my 6 little reusable sacs)! I will certainly be downloading your patterns to make bags with, I have some old patterned sheets that would be perfect for a spring floral bag!

Lynnette said:
Greetings! I watched CNN screen your video the second time and decided that I ought to do something to make contact with you. I felt really convicted over the amount of plastic bags I lug home each time from grocery shopping. With embarrassment I say this ... I've just counted the number of plastic bags in my kitchen. It's a whopping 582! (Please don't faint!). What's worst is... I plan to teach Earth Science and Environmental Geography at a college in near future! (Another moment for you to faint). But so far, I'm doing good, I've been recycling paper and glass bottles. In addition, I haven't drank out of a plastic bottle in that past year! 3 cheers!
So if there's ever a candidate for a green bag. Pick me! Pick me! (waves frantically!)

Dan said:
You know, I've thought about buying fabric bags for a long time now. Every once in a while, I see someone using their own bags at the check-out and I think "I gotta' get some of those" but then I forget to do anything about it. I even came really, really close this Christmas to buying some for my wife, as a stocking stuffer. I was holding 3 nice canvas bags in my hand, I walked around the store with them, then I put them back. Why is it so hard to jump in and make that commitment? Am I really that self-conscious that I couldn't bring myself to pull out my own bags at the grocery store? Or am I just perpetually lazy? I hope not. I saw the segment about your bags on CNN and something really "clicked" in my brain. I had to write to you and congratulate you on your cause. I'm so sick of "feel-bad" news stories. Your story really made me feel like some good stuff is going on in the world. Keep it up. If you can finally stir me to action, you can probably convince anyone. Dan

Happy GREEN shopping! The best to all of you--Green Bag Lady Teresa

We Are Nashville

We Are Nashville
by Patten Fuqua (sports writer and Belmont University graduate)

Allow me a moment to step away from the usual voice of this website.

What I am about to write has absolutely nothing to do with hockey.

If you live outside of Nashville, you may not be aware, but our city was hit by a 500-year flood over the last few days. The national news coverage gave us 15 minutes, but went back to focusing on a failed car bomb and an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. While both are clearly important stories, was that any reason to ignore our story? It may not be as terror-sexy as a failed car bomb or as eco-sexy as an oil spill, but that’s no reason to be ignored.

The Cumberland River crested at its highest level in over 80 years. Nashville had its highest rainfall totals since records began. People drowned. Billions of dollars in damage occurred. It is the single largest disaster to hit Middle Tennessee since the Civil War. And yet…no one knows about it.

Does it really matter? Eventually, it will…as I mentioned, there are billions of dollars in damage. It seems bizarre that no one seems to be aware that we just experienced what is quite possibly the costliest non-hurricane disaster in American history. The funds to rebuild will have to come from somewhere, which is why people need to know. It’s hard to believe that we will receive much relief if there isn’t a perception that we need it.

But let’s look at the other side of the coin for a moment. A large part of the reason that we are being ignored is because of who we are. Think about that for just a second. Did you hear about looting? Did you hear about crime sprees? No…you didn’t. You heard about people pulling their neighbors off of rooftops. You saw a group of people trying to move two horses to higher ground. No…we didn’t loot. Our biggest warning was, “Don’t play in the floodwater.” When you think about it…that speaks a lot for our city. A large portion of why we were being ignored was that we weren’t doing anything to draw attention to ourselves. We were handling it on our own.

Some will be quick to find fault in the way rescue operations were handled, but the fact of the matter is that the catastrophe could not have been prevented and it is simply ignorant beyond all reason to suggest otherwise. It is a flood. It was caused by rain. You can try to find a face to stick this tragedy to, but you’ll be wrong.

Parts of Nashville that could never even conceivably be underwater were underwater. Some of them still are. Opry Mills and the Opryland Hotel are, for all intents and purposes, destroyed. People died sitting in standstill traffic on the Interstate. We saw boats going down West End. And, of course, we all saw the surreal image of the portable building from Lighthouse Christian floating into traffic and being destroyed when cars were knocked into it. I’m still having trouble comprehending all of it.

And yet…life will go on. We’ll go back to work, to school, to our lives…and we’ll carry on. In a little over a month, I’ll be on this website talking about the draft. In October, we’ll be discussing the new Predators’ season with nary a thought of these past few days. But in a way, they changed everyone in this town. We now know that that it can happen to us…but also know that we can handle it.

Because we are Nashville.

You can read the original article here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you are having a good one! Our festivities will start about 4. I like doing dinner later as it gives me time to get ready without rushing. Truth by told, I am still in my jammies. Why cook and get good clothes dirty? I promise to change before company arrives!

Here is the dining room. Isn't my table cloth lovely? Fabric compliments of Harmony. Thanks Harm! I told her I wanted to get it made before Tday. Guess when I made it. Yes, an hour ago. hee hee. I took pics for you to see. Little Girl made the name tags.

Then I came upstairs to see all the American Girl and Madam Alexander dolls have a feast of their own. I like how it looks as though they are actually talking to each other. . .

We bought the tiny apples yesterday at Whole Foods and printed out the turkey from the computer this morning. . .

What are you thankful for today? I wish for you and yours many blessings. Teresa