I posted a contest giveaway over at the Method blog today.   Head on over there and leave a fun comment for a chance to win the Heart of Green Awards gift bag full of eco-friendly goodies.   More chances to win!

http://peopleagainstdirty.typepad.com/people_against_dirty/2009/04/win-a-gift-from-our-coconspirator-danny-seo.html

It’s not everyday an Indonesian/Dutch fast food restaurant with an organic/eco slant opens up in your neighborhood.  Actually, it never happens.    So, you can imagine my surprise when I was walking down 57th street in New York City (starving) and stumbled across this place.   Daily Danny readers: I introduce you to Danku, a naturalicious fast food restaurant worth a visit.

First thing you notice is that the interior of Danku is fun, inviting and very European.  This is a good thing.   Think Ikea Cafe, but (sorry, Ikea) but with actually good food.    Here, a communal table is upfront made from salvaged wood.   Cozy enough to throw down a tray and eat a quick lunch, but communal enough to not feel like your crashing someone’s table if you join them.   

The menu is a mix of Indonesian and Dutch specialities.  Yes, you read this right. The menu at Danku is inspired by the popular Indo-Dutch cuisine served all over the Netherlands — Danku’s birthplace. At one time, Indonesia was a Dutch colony and Indonesian ingredients and dishes have left a delicious and lasting impression, becoming an integral part of the Dutch culinary repertoire.   So, you can have stir fried noodles with a spicy sauce and then finish it with apple cinnamon fritters.    It sounds bizarre, but it works.   Almost all of Danku’s ingredients are natural and organic, which means they were not subjected to synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, additives, radiation or genetic modification.

Just as fast as a normal fast food restaurant, but better organic ingredients and a true effort to be as green as possible.   PLA biodegradable straws and utensils, recycled paper napkins, compostable containers and recyclable beverage containers.  On-site recycling takes all the packaging—including the compostable containers—and disposes of them properly.    Eat, enjoy and throw nothing away. 

Clear instructions on what to do with your waste.   I peered into each bin and saw most people followed the rules pretty well.

And as I sat there and at my noodle spicy shrimp wrap and iced tea, I took this photo of the wall.   Why?  It just looks colorful and nice.   Seriously, when was the last time you were inspired inside a fast food restaurant?  Thank u, Danku.

It’s no surprise I have a lot of fun buying gifts and looking around Anthropologie.  The flagship store in Rockefeller Center in New York City is worth a visit, even with the hustle and bustle of the tourist crowds jamming up the sidewalks and streets.   It’s their largest and by far most creative store and it just never disappoints.    This might be the first time I ever say this, but this $1100 chandelier is worth every penny: it is all hand-wired and assembled using nothing by wire and sea glass.

Here’s a more detailed shot.   Seriously, as much as I like to get ideas and try to replicate them myself back at home in my craft studio, I have zero interest in even trying to make this.   If you want a piece of art, something that’s colorful and eclectic, this piece is it.   Oh damn it…I just might have to get this for the guest cottage at my house.   It’s going under renovation now and I do need a chandelier for the cottage’s small kitchen…..  let me google Anthropologie Rockefeller Center for their phone #….

This was also something handmade by their props dept at the store.   It’s not for sale, but it sure is functional.   It’s just empty wine bottles wired together to make a water fountain.  Water comes up, it trickles down the bottle, fills up the urn and starts all over again.

And how exciting is this?   A Wholearth Beauty and Bath table!    There’s something surreal about seeing your product in stores…especially in a store you you think is designed to be an aesthetic experience.   Seeing the Wholearth body wash, Wholearth lotion and Wholearth mist all on one table was exciting.    It’s for sale also on Anthropologie.com.

The Wholearth fine fragrance collection in store!   I love the tester bottles…you can smell and spray yourself with each and decide if you’re a #4, #7 or a #10.    #4 seems to be doing the best right now; saw boxes of it behind the register with hold slips of paper on them.

And then looking up at the ceiling, there was a portrait of a lady looking down.   It’s all done with nothing more than thumbtacks.   Seriously: thumbtacks.   Anthropologie should do an entire book on handmade crafts; I would buy 100 copies and give them away on this blog if they did.  I’m not kidding.

Everybody thinks I live in New York City even though I call Bucks County, PA home.   I think the reason might be this: I’m in New York City ALL the time.    But as tempting as it is to move back to the Big (organic) Apple, I am quite content to have the space and the land in the keystone state (plus it only takes 1 hour to get into NYC anyway).   

The other day, I thought it would be fun to take you guys through a typical 24 hour period in NYC with me.   First up: a sparse Fifth Avenue in the morning at 515AM.     I’m standing at the corner with the famed Plaza Hotel behind me walking to CBS studios to do one of my regular “going green” morning show appearances.  This morning, I was walking over with a bag full of eco cleaning products to a do cleaning segment.   As much as the network insists on sending a car to pick me up, I could never give up my routing in walking a few blocks on the empty streets of NYC in the morning.  Something calming about it….

After the segment, I headed back to my hotel and loved what the landscape designer was doing outfront.  At the Gramercy Park Hotel, they have these boxwood bushes all densely grouped together in varying heights and trimmed into perfect sphere shapes.   I took this snapshot because I was thinking it would be great to do something like this in a medium planter I have in front of my house.   I just need to figure out which type of boxwood is deer-friendly.

This evening, I was invited to the Heart of Green awards at the Hearst Building and had nothing to wear.   I had just flown in from Tampa, FL where I was doing on-air appearances for Home Shopping Network, got a call to come to NYC for CBS, and took the next flight.   So, I headed to Bergdorf Goodman to checkout some shirts and pants to wear.   But before I jumped in, I saw this window display and took a snapshot to remind me to checkout the industrial light fixtures at Lowe’s for possible use at home.   I love the combination of inexpensive caged lights as pendants.   Something raw about it….

Into Bergdorf Goodman:  found some great clothes to wear and then I looked at the price tags.  How on Earth can a shirt cost $695?   As much as I love Michael Bastian, I just can’t justify paying that.    But before I darted off, I saw these burlap covered chairs in the lobby and had to take a photo.   I’ve made throw pillows out of vintage feed sacks, but never did a whole chair.  It’s kinda fun, isn’t it?

Back at the hotel, I did a few hours of meetings, interviews and frantic typing on my new HP netbook (which I LOVE and it has become my new portable office).     I found a great organic cotton sweater at Gant (of all places) to wear and off I went to the Hearst building for the event.   Final photo: the check in table.   There was something really fresh and green about this arrangement.   Lime!

It was a dizzying week for Earth Week and quite honestly, I wouldn’t want it any other way.   But even though I’ve been sacrificing sleep to get lots of green messages out there, I wanted to take a moment to announce a contest here at Daily Danny to win my brand new USDA certified organic bath and beauty products.

The Wholearth Beauty and Bath line has launched in Anthropologie stores nationwide where you’ll have a chance to touch, feel and sample them in person.   But I’m giving one lucky Daily Danny reader a Wholearth USDA certified organic fine fragrance, body wash, body lotion and body/room mist spray.

The fine fragrance collection–#4, #7 and #10—are my absolute favorites for two reasons: they all smell sweet and delicious and they are the first USDA certified organic fragrance to come to market in the U.S.    It’s packaged in a stacked river rock bottle that was inspired from actual rocks collected from the Delaware River outside my cottage.

The Wholearth body wash and body lotion are also organic and are packaged in 100% post-consumer recycled plastic bottles, which are sprayed black to act as a UV-light blocker to help preserve the product.    Free of harmful parabens, petrochemicals and surfactants, both products do an amazing job cleansing the body and moisturizing it, all while being certified organic.

And something I find myself spraying all over my office is the Wholearth body and room mist spray.   I’m giving the winner the Grateful Planet scent, which is certified organic fragrance and smells like delicious, ripe citrus.   It’s a winner for sure.

So, one winner gets all four products.    Tell me by leaving a comment: What should be the next Wholearth product? 

Contest closes Friday.  Good luck!

CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED.  CONGRATS TO ANN K FOR WINNING!