I was very happy to discover the SEEDSTORE today. It’s an amazing boutique that has many eco-friendly items – upcycled jewelry, vintage clothes, and awesome garage sale art work. If you live in the bay area I highly recommend you make a visit to this store. It is owned by two sisters that both have excellent taste.

SEEDSTORE
is a boutique and collaborative space that brings to the Inner Richmond men’s, and women’s apparel + vintage goods. Born out of love, sweat, and laughter of sisters, Jennifer and Cynthia Huie. We love fashion, music, art, and collecting. Our vision has been to create a space to display the fashion that we enjoy and share the stories of the designers and the love that they’ve put into their creations.

Mini eco.

I love this app. It’s so unique and beautiful Cartolina iPhone app.

Green Goes Simple: Conservation at Home

Transform Your Trash

By Marisa Belger for Green Goes Simple

The jars came first. Instead of sending my growing collection of empty glass receptacles to their usual fate at the bottom of the recycle bin, I did something unexpected — something wild. I peeled off their labels and plopped them in the dishwasher.

I wanted to see just what would happen if I gave these jars another chance. Full disclosure: I was motivated not only by the thought of transforming trash into something new, something useful, even something cool, but also by the fact that jars were clogging up my kitchen. You see, we’re a jar-centric family, tearing through what I’m starting to believe is an abnormal amount of pickles, mustard (the spicy French and yellow varieties), sauces of both apple and tomato, and jams and jellies.

Bright and sparkling, fresh from a wash, empty jars were exactly what I was missing. Without their labels and sticky contents, these vessels found instant new homes as beverage glasses (drinking jars are big on rustic charm), loose-change receptacles, pen holders, and — my all-time favorite — vases. Nobody can resist a mason jar filled with daisies. Nobody.

Not a fan of pickles? No problem. Jars aren’t the only way to reuse that which you’d otherwise throw out. Paper towel tubes, shoe boxes and detergent bottles are all contenders for a useful second act.

Paper Towel Tubes
Pulling the last paper towel from the roll used to signal the end of something, but now it’s the start of something new. Paper towel tubes in their natural state are the ultimate building blocks for art projects — they provide hours of rainy day entertainment with kids — and they serve practical purposes too. Try these ideas:

1. Glue on a pair of paper wings or a tail, then draw on a face for an instant cardboard-tube animal.

1. Attach two tubes and decorate with paint and stickers for a pair of homemade binoculars.

1. Turned upright and outfitted with orange and yellow paper flames, paper towel tubes make fantastic fire-free candlesticks. Decorate them in orange and black for Halloween, or choose a Christmas or Hanukkah theme.

1. Adults can put paper towel tubes to good use by employing them to prop up droopy windows or to hold silverware and sharp knives when camping or picnicking.

Detergent/Fabric Softener Bottles
Empty, clean detergent and fabric softener bottles can be transformed into hand-held shovels or scoops (simply use a utility knife to cut off the bottom off the bottle). Adults and kids can use these in the garden and at the beach. Bonus: remove the cap and you have a funnel!

Shoe Boxes
Yes, shoe boxes are ideal for household organizing (think: recipe cards, old love letters, office items, sewing supplies, Legos, electric cords and much more). But they’re even more versatile than that. Moving? Shoe boxes are ideal for packing smaller, loose items like tchotchkes, silverware, medicine bottles and the like. Gifting? Cover them with decorative paper, and you’ve got a homemade (and let’s admit it — more meaningful!) present package.

Marisa Belger’s work has appeared in Travel + Leisure Family, Natural Health, Prevention and on the TODAYShow.com. She was a founding editor of Lime.com — which specialized in wellness and sustainable living — and she collaborated with author Josh Dorfman on his bestselling books, The Lazy Environmentalist and The Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget.

One of our favorite mediums is crayons on cardboard. I love the way the colors look on the tan cardboard.

Lately we have been going through more art supplies. Crayons get broke into tiny pieces and become unusable. Play doh doesn’t get put away becomes hard. We paint on the front and back of everything possible.

I am keeping all of the bits of crayons thinking someday I will melt them together and make one big crayon or some cool shapes like these.

recycled crayons

I have seen a lot of recipes for homemade play dough but I haven’t tried any yet, Do you have any that you recommend?

Here are a couple great websites I have came across while looking for eco art supplies :

Clementine Art -Natural. Fresh. Real. I am going to have to check these supplies out. I am especially curious about the paint(especially for my art projects)

Eco-kids eco-kids is dedicated to offering art supplies for creative play the natural way using only the most natural ingredients and eco-friendly packaging.

We had dinner at a restaurant tonight that had amazing wall art that was all living plants. Beautiful and amazing.

Here is a website that sells these amazing works of art.

Web Shop – Flora Grubb Gardens.

Green Goes Simple: Family Footprints

Turn Something Old Into Something New

By Alison Baenen for Green Goes Simple

It’s easy to forget that the components of the classic sustainability slogan “reduce, reuse, recycle” are actually listed in order of importance. Recycling is undeniably significant, but reducing and reusing — using less and using something again — have a greater impact. Enter “upcycling.” It may sound like a tortuous spin class maneuver, but upcycling is nothing more than reusing with a twist.

The process of upcycling involves taking something old or unused and turning it into something usable — and often beautiful. The online arts and craft community Etsy.com has a seemingly endless amount of upcycled goods: Discarded fabric scraps morph into adorable dresses; buttons become earrings; and fallen timber is used as a canvas for cozy, chic wall hangings.

Want to give upcycling a shot? Read on for some tips and inspiration:

Getting Started

Start the upcycling process by finding something worthy of a second life. Meg Allan Cole, DIY expert and host of ThreadBanger’s (Threadbanger.com) Decor It Yourself web series, recommends shopping for used goods at thrift stores as well as Craigslist and stoop sales. And don’t forget your own closets: Cole turns garments handed down from her grandmother into beautiful upcycled clothing and accessories.

You can also look to nature for inspiration and materials. Home stylist guru Tim Neve’s beautiful driftwood lamps is a great project to do with the kids (find instructions at TimNeve.com). But of course, not all upcycling equipment can be found in nature. Cole recommends stocking up on a few basics: protective gloves, a glue gun, a staple gun, galvanized wire and a sewing machine. She’s found all of the above on Craigslist and at yard sales, making her projects even greener.

Finding Inspiration

Cole says the first step to a successful upcycling endeavor is changing your vision. “I’ve learned that you have to retrain how you see solutions,” she told us. “Instead of just buying something to solve a problem quickly, look at the resources you have and see how you can breathe new life into them.” For example, in honor of Earth Day, Cole turned a collection of old spoons — some of which she scooped up for cheap at thrift stores — into a gorgeous pendant lamp.

Upcycled projects can go from the simple (think DIY with your toddler) to the glamorous. Natalie Chanin, who heads the Vogue-vetted fashion label Alabama Chanin, makes her romantic, full-skirted dresses and exquisitely detailed outerwear from a combination of vintage, repurposed and organic fabrics hand-stitched by local artisans in or around her home base of Florence, Ala.

For Cole and plenty of other crafty types, materials may be cheap — or better yet, free — but inspiration is usually rich. Cole’s design idols range from Coco Chanel to Grey Gardens’ Edie Beale, not to mention a soft spot for the TV classic “Dallas.” First-time upcyclers should dream big, says Cole. “Keep your eyes open to what you’re drawn to, to where you find beauty,” she says. “Even if you don’t have a place for it now, you will.”

Alison Baenen is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn, N.Y. Her writing has appeared in Style.com, ContributingEditor.com, Epicurious.com and Concierge.com. In addition to editorial work, Alison is a copywriter for Theory, Gilt Groupe and PRPS.