I got my prizes in the mail today.  Two reusable shopping bags from eHow.   I was so excited when I saw the envelopes.  Reminded myself of the “major award” winning father in “A Christmas Story.”

They arrived in separate packages… kind of made me want to write a “How to Save Money on Postage by Mailing Things to One Recipient in One Package” article.  Not really.   I have to say, in all seriousness, that the bags are much (MUCH) nicer than I expected.  I had expected the kind of fabric that WalMart and Target use to make their reusable bags (difficult to explain, other than to say it’s a sort of papery waffle weave).   But these eHow bags… wow!  They’re made of a lightweight rip-stop type nylon (like a windbreaker), and they are self-contained in a little pouch.  They have the eHow logo when closed and when fully opened.  AND (yay) they have a carabiner claspy thing that will allow me to hang it on my purse so that I have a reusable bag with me at all times.  Before this, I always had my van full of all of my reusable bags, and frequently forgot to get one out of the back when I ran in to the store for a couple of things.  So eHow is helping me save the planet, one less plastic bag at a time.  Woohoo!

Here’s a photo of my two bags.  One fully opened, the other tucked into its own attached pouch.