We here at Snailbird (look at me sounding all professional) believe in the Earth and the good that it does for us. In return, we feel that we should give back in every possible way. Recently, Ash and I took part in Earth Hour, a yearly event to call for action on the hot topic of climate change. Of course, we do the best we can in our daily rituals as well. We recycle, we compost, the majority of our food is organic, our cleaning supplies are non-toxic or homemade, and lately we’ve been sharing one car (though that one is kind of forced at the moment). While we aren’t as extreme as some, I feel we do more for the world than most. So why not make my blog go green as well?

Make it Green!

The Make it Green! (German) project is a small but growing initiative in Germany that is attempting to get the blogging world involved in helping the environment and reduce their carbon footprint. How will this help?

“We are planting trees in cooperation with the Arbor Day Foundation in Plumas National Forest in Northern California for our project to neutralize the carbon footprint of blogs. Thousands of wildfires have burned in many national forests over the past ten years and 88.000 acres of Plumas’ were destroyed by two fires in 2007. For replanting this area we need help from bloggers all over the world! For every participating blog, we plant a tree. One blog – one tree.”

How awesome is that? I’m more than willing to do my very small part in this project. Are you? Visit the How You Can Join page (English) to find out more. Blog for a better world!

There’s a new article from me over at Fuel Your Illustration called Helping the Hodges. It’s about Matthew Hodge and the ebay auction that’s going on right now to raise money for his family (you can read about his accident and why they need help over there). There are a few pretty cool examples of art that’s being auctioned off by famous artists in his name. Let me know what you think!

So, I have a favor to ask of you: there’s this group on Facebook called Maddie’s Corner (also found on twitter @MaddiesCorner), founded by Kristin Chenoweth (Galinda of Wicked, in tons of movies, was on American Idol tonight for those of you who don’t know her). They’re a pretty amazing organization that celebrates animals and the people who love animals. Well they’re holding a contest right now. The person who sends the most fans their way wins $1000 for any non-profit animal organization they want. We want that to be us.

Of course we want to try and get the money for the feral cat group that we volunteer for. It’s called Central Texas Feline Rescue and we’re a Trap-Neuter-Return group. We go out everyday, 365 days a year and feed the feral colonies that live in Austin and the Austin area. Almost every Tuesday we are out there trapping feral cats to have them spayed or neutered and given rabies shots before returning them to their colonies. We’re also an extremely small group, completely volunteer run. Most of everything we do comes out of our own pockets – our founder, Elizabeth spends the most to keep the group running. This year we TNR’d over 300 cats. Ash and I fostered a kitten we found on the streets and named her Mika. On Christmas Eve, she was adopted by some really wonderful people and they tell us she rules the household now.

$1000 would go far for this group. But we need your help. Here’s what you can do. Go to the Maddie’s Corner fanpage on Facebook and fan the group, or you can start following them on their twitter. Then post a comment/reply and tell them that Ashley Niels of @RescueAnimals sent you (Ash is in charge of the twitter account so they know her name). Make sure you add the RescueAnimals part since that’s the common name we’ve been using (on twitter and facebook). The more people the better so feel free to share this note.

Come on guys! With your help, we can win Central Texas Feline Rescue a much-needed $1000. They really deserve it. Thanks to everyone who helps us out! If you have any questions, please ask us and we’ll get back to you ASAP.

Help the kittens! =^..^=

After the devastating earthquake hit Haiti, I was at a loss as to what to do. I’m still at a loss, but I hope that even this little effort will make a difference. I recently joined the livejournal community HELP_HAITI and decided to throat my hat in the game. I’m auctioning up some of my design work to try and raise money for a hurting country. Here’s the info:

You can see things I’ve created at: designcoyote.com (for designs) and (for icons)

I am offering: A set of 20 icons OR a WordPress Design from my DC Shop (either for WordPress or to be modified as an LJ design if possible)

Fandoms (if appropriate): For icons, it can be any fandom.

Additional Info (optional): As with most others, I would prefer if you gave me the images to work with for the icons – they are yours, so wouldn’t you like to have the say in what they look like?

Designs currently up in my Design Coyote shop can be viewed here. If you want a blogger design, make sure to choose one with that option, I won’t be modifying them for blogger for this bid (only to LJ).

Starting Bid: $15

If you’re interested, please go here to comment and make a bid – bidding will end January 20th, so make sure to get in fast. All proceeds that I make will go to the charity of your choice, and (taking a leaf from Leigh), I’ll match the winning bid with my proceeds going to UNICEF. Let’s try and give a little back to the world, shall we? Let’s do it!