Accessories

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or email newsletter.

One thing that I absolutely love about the sustainability movement is the ingenuity it breeds. Once you become conscious of the fact that everything you buy and use will eventually reach the end of its life cycle and have to be either discarded or recycled, you start thinking of ways to reuse and reinvent everyday items. Take this daisy vase, for example. It is a brilliant reuse of a simple, disposable Bic pen case.

One of the things I have learned to appreciate since I began my green journey is products that are handmade. There’s none of the waste or emmense energy use created by a factory, and often, handmade items are one of a kind. While mass-produced products might offer a little bit of a convenience, when you buy handmade, you know you are getting an item than the artist took time and care in creating, and that kind of attention to detail is priceless. So when I started looking for a clock for my daughter’s newly decorated room (more on that later, including photos), the first place I looked was Etsy.com. Although the clocks aren’t necessarily the style I am looking for, the handmade clocks from Infinity Arts are beautiful pieces of art.

If you’ve been reading the Dreaming of a Green Christmas series, you should be well on your way to having a well-decorated, eco-friendly holiday season. Except for one little thing: the gifts.This week, I’m going to help you find great, sustainable gifts for everyone on your list.

First, don’t feel obigated to spend loads of money on gifts simply because its Christmas. If you are going to give, stick with thoughtful, useful gifts that are handmade, made of recycled or sustainable materials and that serve a purpose or have value beneath the surface.

First, I want to thank everyone for all your well wishes on my move. There were some bumps along the way, but at least the hardest part is over.

And of course, moving to a new place means I get to decorat — I am loving every second of it. In the few days that we’ve been in Tennessee, we have basically gutted two rooms of everything in them and started over. We’ve painted (more on that later this week) and furnished, mostly with items we already had.

For the past few years, I’ve made New Year’s resolutions that have fallen by the wayside within a few weeks. This year, I’ve decided to make a few resolutions throughout the year in hopes that I’ll be able to start the new year with most of them already complete. One of them has been to do a better job of organizing my work area. I’ll have to start over pretty soon as we prepare to move to a new state in a few weeks, but one of the things I know that organized work area will need to have is a great calendar. These would also make great, inexpensive green gifts for those on your holiday list. Here are 5 stylish, eco-friendly options I’ve found:

When I was younger, purple was my all time favorite color. So obsessed was I that for my 13th birthday, my mother gave me 13 things that were purple. They were small things, like a set of pens, a small bag, some erasers, a tiny teddy bear, etc. But I was ecstatic! All I saw was purple, purple and more purple. Thankfully, I’ve gotten over that phase, but every now and then I’ll find a purple product that reminds me of how giddy the color once made me. This is one of those moments.

As much as I love my digital camera, its a sa fact that most of the photos I have taken over the last few years are destined to spend an eternity locked inside my computer or on flash drive somewhere. But wouldn’t be very green of me to print hundreds of photos I’ll probably never put in an album, and though I like the idea of a digital frame, something about it is a bit too cold and impersonal for my taste. I’d much rather print out a select few beautiful shots, then put them in an equally beautiful frame for all to admire.

Ever since I got an iPod for Christmas a few years ago, I have rarely bought CDs. There’s some stuff I just cant find on iTunes, but for the most part, I just download the songs or albums I want. I’ve also converted most of my CD collection to MP3 format, so I don’t use them much any more. However, I do have quite a stack of software CDs on and around my desk. I keep them on hand in the event I ever need to reinstall. I also have a sizable supply of blank CDs and DVDs so I’ll always have one on hand to provide native files to my design clients.

As much as I hope to become one of those crafty mavens who can make beautiful adornments for my home out of everyday trash, I have yet to complete (or start) my first project. So for now, my recycling is limited putting #1 and #2 plastic and other recyclables in the bin. Lucky for me, recycling ingenuity comes in many different forms, and this well-executed idea comes dressed in gorgeous Amy Butler fabrics!

I read somewhere that the only way to guarantee that your food is organic is to grow it yourself. That’s definitely a statement I can get behind, particularly since my hubby likes getting his hands in the dirt. But the funny thing about living in a rural county with a back yard that’s not fenced in is that the edge of the backyard is a thick grove of trees. Planting anything outside would be an open invitation to the deer, rabbits and who knows what other animals make their home back there.