Happy American Thanksgiving = Happy November Giveaway!

Remember the time D'Angelo sent me a shot of her awesome handmade paper pens? Well pencils are unfortunately a little harder to make since it's not so easy to pick up pencil lead to make 'em with. Enter Earthzone Recycled Pencils!

Last month Earthzone kindly offered to send me some pencils not just to test out but to giveaway!

Being my first official review-giveaway, I couldn't wait! But when they didn't show, I started to think they'd accidentally gotten lost in the mail. Turns out we have a new mailman, who's been putting our mail in a wooden box on our porch instead of our mail slot... Oops!

However, as usual, I digress... I excitedly took these eco-pencils for a jot, and I gotta say I was impressed! They without a doubt live up to their "World's Most Environmentally Friendly Pencil" claim...

• Made from 100% recycled newspaper and graphite core.
• No toxic chemicals

In fact, just like D'Angelo's paper pens, "old, whole newspaper sheets are flattened and cute into pieces. A coat of water-based glue is applied to the newspaper to tightly wrap the graphite." As shown below:

But my two fave things about these pencils...?

The Special Edition pencils keep their newspaper lookin' charm AND they make the perfect ecoCompanion to my ecojot journals, notebooks and sketchbooks!

Therefore, it only made sense for my November Giveaway to be both a 12 pack of Earthzone Special Edition Pencils and a handy 9x12" ecoKids Sketchbook... Perfect for some holiday sketching!

Contest will run till November 30th. I'll announce the winner on December 1st.

As it's American Thanksgiving today, how about you tell me what you're most thankful today as a comment entry? Such as the fact, that I am very thankful for your visit to my blog.... Thank you!

Am off to Connecticut to eat some turkey, and my Uncle M's super awesome mash potatoes... Happy American Thanksgiving!

See you back here on the 1st ;)

xo,

ej

PS- Just 'cause, how about an extra entry for helping me advertise "my first official review-giveaway" if you tweet about this post or share it on Facebook profile? ;D Simply mention if you did as a separate comment!

Thankful for poutine, pie, and most of all young people who are making the world a better place.

How was your weekend? Mine was filled with lots of food. Sunday was a full turkey dinner with many sides. And then on (Canadian) Thanksgiving Monday, a twist on the Canadian part. Jamie made a pumpkin pie and I had poutine.... That's right... Pie + Poutine = Canadian Thanksgiving, at least for Jamie, Simon and I. Ok, we had zucchini-blue cheese quiche too... Yeah can you say clogged arteries for Thanksgiving? Lol 0;D

For those of you who don't know what poutine is... It's my favourite 100% French Canadian delicacy... French fries topped with brown gravy and fresh cheese curds. It originated from Quebec, and I was very happy to discover that my local grocery store sells cheese curds!

I don't have any pics, as we rather gluttonous and so we didn't take any, but there's a shot of our more traditional Thanksgiving dinner. I love that I am fortunate enough to celebrate two Thanksgivings again this year... Canadian and American :) I'll be in Connecticut again this year with my family!

So I have no way of seamlessly segueing in to this, so I will just dive right into it... My brother G told me about this awesome story on BBC yesterday, that I can't not share... "The 'youngest'headmaster in the world..."

"Around the world millions of children are not getting a proper education because their families are too poor to afford to send them to school. In India, one schoolboy is trying to change that. In the first report in the BBC's Hunger to Learn series, Damian Grammaticas meets Babar Ali, whose remarkable education project is transforming the lives of hundreds of poor children.

At 16 years old, Babar Ali must be the youngest headmaster in the world. He's a teenager who is in charge of teaching hundreds of students in his family's backyard, where he runs classes for poor children from his village. "

There are a couple videos, and the full article here. The story is just so inspiring! It reminds us where there is a will, there is a way.

And it makes me so excited about the ways in which together with ecojot, we are working towards encouraging education and helping others all the time... And as I said in a project we're doing in 2010! So be sure to stay tuned ;)

Meanwhile, check out some photos I received from Lisa, the Development and Program Director of Teens Turning Green, one of the many awesome causes ecojot supports...

"Students are working diligently on projects greening their schools and planning some terrific events and more students are joining us weekly." - Lisa

I am thankful there are young people out there close to home and abroad, who have a desire to make a difference! Kudos.

xo,

ej