Natural Egg Dyeing

image from Martha Stewart

Read the article on how to get these great colors from things like onion skins, blueberries, grape juice, spinach leaves, dill seeds and more.

via two men and a little farm

Repurposed Old Door into A Coffee Table

Here is another old door that is now being used as a Coffee Table.  I'm glad to see they didn't try to disguise it but left on the old hardware instead. Here is another one now being used as a desk.

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Tea Towel Farmers Market Bags | DIY

Use tea towels and twine to make produce bags to take to the farmers market. Dirty vegetables? No problem. Just turn inside out, give them a shake or two and throw the bags in with the laundry. Such a great eco-friendly idea. via Green Wellies

Cargotecture Architecture | Recycled Shipping Containers

You have to read this article if you find this cottage made from shipping containers as attractive as I do. The cost was $59,500. You could really seal it up tight when you were away. This would be the perfect vacation home for me. The interior is stunning.

Cargotecture by HyBrid Architecture: The term cargotecture is used to describe any structure built partially or entirely from recycled cargo containers. The c-series consists of five models ranging in price from $29,500 to $189,500. The home featured at the Sunset show was the c192 nomad which costs $59,500.

DIY Lavender Linen-Freshening Spray

Homemade Linen-Freshening Spray

• 1 cup vodka
• 1 cup distilled water
• 16 drops of lavender essential oil

Mix the ingredients and put into a spray bottle. Spray directly onto towels, sheets and pillows.

This sounds like a great recipe for Sweet Dreams.

Source: The Joy of Green Cleaning

Read more

Monday is my usual laundry day but I don't think it's happening today or even this week as you can see by the weather for my area. I'll probably just do a load of small items that can dry on racks in the house. It's feeling very jungle-like here at the cottage after a wet weekend. I am so glad I got the grass cut beforehand. See you later.

Genius Block Soap Dispenser/Grater

I love this soap grater invented by Nathalie Stämpflia, a design student. I use a micro-plane grater to grate my soap for my homemade laundry detergent. I'd love to have one of these in my kitchen. I've never been a fan of liquid hand soap because the containers are way too unattractive for my taste as well as being expensive. More photos and information about Nathalie's invention here.

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20 Wonderful Bedrooms | Architectural Digest Slideshow

The prints on the bedroom walls are all from Audubon’s original folio, and most of the birds on view, such as the passenger pigeon and the great auk, are long extinct. The owner/designer says, “I put them there to remind me every morning of my environmental responsibilities to the world.”

I like the bookcase bed and I imagine the view out the big window wall has spectacular views of the countryside in upstate New York.

View more wonderful bedrooms in a 20-photo slideshow.



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How to Make Your Own Seed Tape | Tutorial DIY

I've spent quite a lot of time lately cleaning up all my bookmarks. I ran across this site I've been saving forever and it's the perfect time to post this wonderful tutorial since summer's over and there are tons of seeds to be saved. This is the ultimate recycling project that looks like a lot of fun.

"The intent of seed tape is to make planting easier when you have teeny tiny seeds that need to be planted just inches apart (like carrots and radishes). But it’s also fun for gifting flower seeds or giving away seeds you’ve collected from your own garden. And it’s a pretty simple and very kid-friendly project." How to Make Your Own Seed Tape

Don't forget this little seed planting rhyme:
"One for the fox, one for the crow, one to rot, and one to grow."

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Summer House or Greenhouse from Reclaimed Parts

I love this small outbuilding made from salvaged architectural parts. My geraniums would love living there for the winter. It's being constructed by this clever blogger.



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Watch TOXIC AMERICA on CNN June 2 and 3 at 8 p.m. ET

Dirty dozen' produce carries more pesticide residue, group says - CNN.com:
Is enough being done to protect us from chemicals that could harm us? Watch 'Toxic America,' a special two-night investigative report with Sanjay Gupta, M.D., June 2 and 3 at 8 p.m. ET on CNN.

This two-part TV show tonight and tomorrow night should be a good follow up to my recent post about the Dirty Dozen/Clean 15.




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Shopper's Guide To Pesticides

Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 ~ Download and Print here.
Watch companion video with Dr. Weil here.




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NBC to Air Prince Charles' Film on Environment

NBC to Air Prince Charles Film on Environment, Harmony
"NBC is teaming up with Prince Charles for a new TV special about the environment.

HARMONY, which is slated to air in November, stems from Prince Charles' three decades of work fighting climate change and searching for new solutions to the worldwide environmental crisis.

Watch videos of Prince Charles

This looks good. I shall watch the movie this Fall. I wish he would do a video on how to build a wattle fence. I've always wanted one.




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My Recycled Kitchen Farm Sink

Here are several shots of my re-purposed kitchen sink found on the side of the road. It's a vintage porcelain double laundry sink with a center divider and slanted front for the wash boards. The drains are solid brass. It was awful looking when I found it a few doors down from my old house in a pile ready for the yearly trash pickup. Yes, you read that right...yearly. Around here people have to save their non-garbage stuff for a whole year and believe me it leads to pack-rat behavior in many households. This sink had been used in a basement forever and there were lots of rust stains from old tin cans, paint splatters, and just plain dirt. I though it would clean up nicely and it did with lots of elbow grease, CLR, steel wool, Softscrub, Zud, and whatever else I could find that wouldn't harm vitreous porcelain. I even got the shine to come back. Then I stored it in my barn for the day my plumber could tell me if it would work as a kitchen sink in my cottage. As you can see, it's perfect. It's super deep and wonderful for soaking big soup pots, washing sweaters, filling up my watering can, etc. It's under-mounted with a marble counter on top. I couldn't be happier with it. Lucky me!

Save Those Egg Shells For Starting Seeds

Just a reminder to save your egg shells or eggshells for starting your seeds. Save the egg cartons too. This is the ultimate in recycling.


via


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Unpackaged Grocery Store in London

An Idea Whose Time Has Come ~ Bring Your Own Container is the theme at Unpackaged, a London grocer offering many of their goods without packaging, or at least in refillable containers. Items range from the usual bulk and whole foods, but also include items not normally found in bulk, like herbs, oils, vinegars, soaps, toiletries, and even wine.

I can remember when most health food stores were like this. They would weigh your container when you entered the store and you could fill up jugs or jars with honey, oil, shampoo, peanut butter, milk, etc. Everything old is new again, right?

The Unpackaged Grocery Store in London


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Corrugated Art | Trash To Treasure

Corrugated art, is how the artist refers to it. Using entirely reclaimed corrugated boxes from his trash and neighborhood, Mark Langan transformed the everyday material into something other than its original intended purpose…aesthetically beautiful three-dimensional art. Armed only with a razor blade, a cutting edge, a mat and some non toxic glue, each artwork is created by layering sheets of corrugated into aesthetically pleasing patterns. The corrugated lends itself well to patterns. When viewed from different angles and lighting, each piece changes. Cardboard has never been more beautiful, has it?


Design Year Book


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Emma Watson | Fair-Trade Ethical Clothing Fan

'Rather than give cash to charities you can help people in poorer countries by buying the clothes they make,' says Harry Potter star Emma Watson, who's lending her considerable fashion savvy - and the modelling talents of friends - to a covetable new fair-trade clothing range. Read more. The more I learn about this lovely young lady, the more I like her. A shining star indeed with a conscience too. http://peopletree.co.uk/ (fair-trade and organic fashion)

Have a great weekend. I'm so happy that I live in the part of my state that did not get very much snow. It was mostly a coastal storm.




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