Send Free Starbucks Ice Cream to Your Fave Vacation Rental Owner?

Eco and econo conscious as I am, my vacation rentals are full of cool goodies for guests like coupons, discounts, and free stuff free stuff. Where do I get them, guests ask? Come on, you can Google anything... okay, okay, here are links to the ones I hit most often:

Frugal-Freebies.com
Current Offer Free Starbucks Ice Cream: Up to 20,000 coupons for a free pint will be shared every day through July 19. Send one friend a coupon to enjoy a complimentary pint of new Starbucks Ice Cream. Over 800 coupons for a free pint every hour. You can only send one coupon to one friend, so choose carefully! If it says restricted, try back later.

The Freebie Blogger has an offer now for free luggage tags.

I also check CoolSavings.com and SmartSource.com

Just kidding about you sending me ice cream. Send me a video review of Casita Colibri instead and you can get a free week in the Sedona vacation rental (based on availability and a few excluded dates).

Hug It: Dana's Top Five

1. Leverage your impact with CarrotMob.com and their new ways of activism. In the first ever Carrotmob event, a liquor store agreed to invest in upgrades that made their store more energy-efficient. In exchange, hundreds of Carrotmobbers showed up at once to support the winning liquor store.

2. Win a Green Home from HGTV. Enter until June 5, 2009.

3. Research Shows Dancing Improves Health for Seniors.

4. For the birds. Check the Audubon's Climate Change Quiz and see if you can beat my score: 7 out of 8.

5. MACA urges O'Bama's to use pesticides in their organic garden because, among other reasons, "Americans don't have time to grow their own food."


This blog is for bottom-up dispensers of cool who enjoy eco-travel deals and healthy living. We feel that "the small, the slow, the local, and the personal" will build the new economy. Your comments will help enrich this information for all of us. Please share your tips and experience.

Ottawa Family Catches Red Rock Fever (Freebie Alert!)

Vacation rental guest, Jennifer Chandler writes about her recent trip to Sedona. Jennifer has devoted her life to providing a low or no-toxin environment for her family. This commitment to healthy living is a legacy she gets from her mom, Jane Chandler. Jane's Etsy Shop will be featured in the next issue of Mothering Magazine, she sells eco modern design stuff for babies, kids and kids at heart. There's a fab giveaway going on for one of her beautiful quilts on Cloud9 Design. Now back to Jennifer and Sedona.

Here in Ottawa, my partner, daughter and I have taken quiet time and a good number of conversations to focus on how, when, and why we want to return to Sedona as soon as we can. We spent almost two weeks in Sedona at the beginning of January, and it was both a time of re-awakening and relaxation - simultaneously! Staying in Dana's family home, Casita Colibri was the nexus, the highlight, and the incredibly comfortable grounding for our adventures and quiet evening nesting after long hikes.

As a couple, and now as a family, we have committed ourselves to living with as small an ecological footprint as possible, and to limiting the toxins and body-burdening chemicals that are so prevalent. This is why we chose to visit Sedona after having found Dana's healthy vacation rentals on an Internet search, not the other way around!

Normally, one chooses one's destination and then figures out where to stay. Having an eco, non-toxic, and toddler-friendly place to stay was our paramount concern, and we were fortunate to have found Dana's healthy home. Without it, I'm quite sure we would not have made it to Sedona and had an enriching experience that featured the most solid family bonding we have had since my partner took a few months off work when our daughter was born.

Our daughter learned a great deal during this trip - about a whole new part of the nature, about the kind of experiences we can have as a family, about what hiking is, and how to avoid touching a cactus - and undoubtedly had spiritual experiences she was not able or willing to identify or share. Sedona is a truly special place to us, and at the heart of that is Dana's lovely home, something we are working on visiting again soon.

Photo of Red Rock Crossing, Arizona by Steve Beinhorn
This blog is for bottom-up dispensers of cool who enjoy eco-travel deals and healthy living. We feel that "the small, the slow, the local, and the personal" will build the new economy. Your comments will help enrich this information for all of us. Please share your tips and experience.

Vacation Rental Travel Deals ~ Free Stuff, Super Bowl and More

2009 Red Hot Rate Specials for FREE stuff. Going toxin-free, plastic-free, oil-free, and smoke-free can get you rent free, jeep rides, workshops along with good health in 2009 when you enter our health promotions. Subscribe to this blog by email or RSS feed so you don't miss the offers like the ones below for smokers, women and Super Bowl fans.

Give Yourself the Gift of Health and be our guest. Win a 3-Day Weekend Sedona, Arizona or St. Augustine, Florida. If you quit smoking for New Years or plan to quit in 2009, you could stay for free in one of our healthy vacation homes. We're running promotions this year to encourage people to get healthier, starting with a promotion to support those kicking cigs or whatever you smoke.

Don't smoke? Forward this to a friend who does and get them to take you on the vacation when they quit.

To enter, just write to Dana and tell us two things, 1. What you plan to do to replace the cigarettes (chew gum, call your coach, take a walk) and 2. Why you want quit. If you make it smoke-free for 90 days, you can stay for free at the waterfront treehouse or Red Rocks Retreat in Sedona. Taxes and cleaning not included, based on availability. Entries will be posted on the blog, so let us know if you want your name included or not.

When you quit smoking:

• In 20 minutes your blood pressure will improve.


• In 8 hours the toxic gasses drop by half and oxygen levels return to normal.


• In 48 hours your risk of heart attack drops, nicotine will have left your body and your sense of taste and smell returns.


• In 72 hours your broncial tubes relax and your energy will increase.


• In three to nine months you can win a vacation and your coughing and wheezing problems will go away.

The Gift of Shift, FREE for two women. Two scholarships available to the Sedona Women in Transition Retreat, Jan 31-Feb 1. Scholarship not based on need but on willingness to "pay it forward." $899 fee paid by sponsor. Email Dana for details. $25 registration fee required.

Super Bowl Savings! St. Pete, FL vacation home rental, $333 a night. Smoke free, pet free cottage sleeps four. Email dedeskye at msn.com for details. Minimum stay required.

Free Staycation--From Your Desktop

Take a trip around the world and return feeling uplifted FOR FREE. Watch this short Flash.

Here's the News You've Been Waiting For--Forget the Election and the Economy

Many thanks to those of you who answered my survey. Your insights about the economy and travel will help shape what shows up on the blog and in our vacation rentals.

The winner of the DVD "Living Temples" is Molly Hillstrom of Philomath, Oregon. This beautiful film is a welcome respite from the anxiety of the elections and economy. Not only is the imagery soothing, but the narration by Academy Award winning Linda Hunt is inspirational--which makes watching the film a rejuvenating experience.

A few key findings from the survey:

-10% of you have given up traveling and will not travel in the next year or two due to the expense and the economy
-24% plan to vacation close to home--on staycations
-56% of you plan to travel as usual, one to five trips a year

What you like best about our vacation rentals is
-Affordability: the great price
-Green Homes: eco-friendly features.

What you want to read about on this blog varies, but there was some agreement about wanting to see rate specials on vacation rentals and more about how being green saves money, as well as the earth.

The Best Things In Life Are Free

Going green can help you save--on health care costs, fuel bills, tuition, and admission fees. There's something free for everyone--indoors for culture vultures and outdoors for the more adventurous.

Top 10 Free US Attractions

1. Bellagio Fountains, Las Vegas, Nevada
2. Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia
3. Waimea Canyon, Waimea, Hawaii
4. Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California
5. Angel's Landing, Zion Park, Utah
6. USS Arizona Memorial, Honolulu, Hawaii
7. Pacific Coast Highway, Route 1, California
8. US Holocaust Museum, Washington, DC
9. Freedom Trail, Boston, Massachusetts
10. Central Park, NY City

If you bank with Bank of America your sheck or debit card gets you into 70 museums free of charge. Details at the Bank of America Museums on Us website.

Even the Ivory Towers have opened up and gone green. Try any one of the 2,000 free courses online from MIT. Daredevil, Walter Lewin is an Internet legend for using stunts to demonstrate the laws of physics. Yale, Notre Dame and Berkley offer freebies from Psychology to Nutrition.

What freebies do you like for going green?

Joe The Plumber? Survey Says...

The early results of my survey about this blog indicate readers want to know more about how to save money going green and more green freebies. No one mentioned Joe the Plumber. Phew.

Ask and you shall receive.

Terra Furnishings is holding a drawing to give away cool home accessories (think “Free Holiday Gift” or keep it for yourself). Enter here. Don’t wait, last entry must be in by Halloween.

The face? McCain says he made it because he couldn't figure out which way to get off the stage. Odd to me that this photo made front page news in five European countries that I could find, maybe more?

Can I Get Your Opinion? The Coffee Is On Me

Coffee coupon to say thanks for answering my survey.

If you haven't take a minute or two to give me your opinion and enter the drawing for the free movie, click here.

I'll announce the winner of the DVD by November 1.

Take a Short Survey, Win a Mini-Vacation

Can I get your opinion? Answer my brief survey about travel and enter to win a DVD here. I'll enter you in a drawing to win a copy of a newly released film by Emmy Award winning director, Jan Nickman called Living Temples which takes you on a journey to feel nature's beauty and the importance it plays in our lives. Order your own from ThirdPlanetProductions.com.

The survey is at this link http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e2duq03ffmjwefyl/start