Go green without looking ugly
These days, you don't have to hug trees or wear Birkenstocks to show your love for Mama Earth. You can go green and still look good doing it.
I recently picked up a cute, eco-friendly handbag for $34 at a local festival, courtesy of the Tampa-based company GoGreenItems.com. It's made out of colorful juice boxes woven together in a groovy pattern and topped with wooden handles. I carried it around shopping last weekend and got oodles of compliments.
Here's why I feel good about buying it: The recycled bag was made by a women's cooperative in the Philippines, which recycles non-biodegradable items into purses and other accessories and uses the income from the sales to support 200 families.
GoGreenItems, which went live last November, offers some other cool items too, such as this wood cuff bracelet, organic cotton tank top and these mirrors. Owned by Jennifer Meier, the company's motto is "saving the earth 1 item at a time."
I'm down with that -- to a point. Just don't expect me to wear bamboo shoes.
~ Deal Diva Colleen
(Photo: The recycled juice box purse. This one is dominated by yellow, mine is more purple. No two are exactly alike!)
Stephanie Hayes came out of the womb wearing high heels. While other kids were reciting multiplication tables, she was learning to calculate an extra third off the half-price discount during buy-one-get-one week. She loves animal prints, black mascara and anything that sparkles. She objects to visible panty lines, Crocs and anything that costs more than a car payment. And she doesn't drive a nice car. She can be reached at (727) 893-8857 or 
Since she was a little girl Nicole Hutcheson dreamed of dressing like a Vogue cover girl. But her reality was more JCPenney catalog. The fact only honed her better ability to find luxury for less. Always on the hunt for markdowns on designer labels, this Deal Diva’s weaknesses are good jeans and killer heels. She can be reached at (727) 893-8828 or 
Colleen Jenkins learned two invaluable shopping tenets from her mom: 1. Buy quality. 2. Get it on sale. Then she added one of her own: Accessorize, accessorize, accessorize! This Deal Diva’s idea of a blissful Saturday includes a trip to the Ellenton outlet mall. She loves mixing classic with trendy and cheap Target accessories with her markdown Banana Republic duds. She can be reached at (813) 226-3337 or 
A disciple of the little black dress classics school, Letitia Stein stretches her budget by looking for styles with staying power. She lives for 80 percent off shoes at DSW, floral sundresses and bohemian chic tops. She confesses to being a bit of a snob when it comes to handbags and jewelry. She can be reached at (813) 226-3400 or 
I can't say enough about http://www.GreenChicBagCo.com . The bags are absolutely fabulous and are a little less expensive than the one at GoGreenItems.
Posted by: Sandra J | April 13, 2009 at 07:36 PM
I would totally carry this little gem on my forearm.
When I was a wee sprite of a girl, my friends and I would weave gum wrappers to make purses for our dolls. Who knew we were green ahead of our time. Mind you, they weren't nearly as cute as the one pictured, but we were on to something!
Posted by: Marissa | April 02, 2009 at 08:28 AM
Ha! Yes, I should have mentioned that the purse DOES NOT smell like Hi-C. Though that would give it a nice throw-back quality :)
Posted by: Colleen Jenkins | April 01, 2009 at 10:29 AM
I saw Colleen's bag in person. It's a dream. Had no clue it was made out of Ecto-Cooler!
Posted by: Stephanie Hayes | April 01, 2009 at 07:51 AM