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Who says you are too old to make your own Mother’s Day Gift. She may love as much as that first macaroni necklace.
Here are some ‘big kid’ DIY ideas from that oh-so-crafty Martha for mom this Mother’s Day… (mom, don’t look!)
Pop-Up Cards (see video in right sidebar below the fold)
Finally feels like spring here in Cambridge. Sun is out, lilacs are blooming, trees are greening. All very exciting and has us wanting to get out and do something with our hands.
Here are a couple of fun spring projects – one that takes no time and minimal supplies and the other, well the other is going to take a lot of motivation, and possibly approval from the Cambridge Historic Trust…..
1) The Firefly Candles, courtesy of the Fabulous Beekman Boys, adds a little sweet simplicity and innocence to your backyard fete or front porch respite… All you need are some votive candles, glass canning jars and some fishing wire.
2) Front Slat Fence, courtesy of The Brick House blog. We say fences like these all over California and have been pining for one ever since. Just trying to figure out how that would work with a Victorian…. Still want one and the sail canopy too! Here’s the DIY for the slat screen, swoon….
Good news! If you are in the Jamaica Plain area of Boston and looking for a good composting option, Andy Brooks of Bootstrap Compost has just made life a little easier for the would be composter. Armed with a bucket and a bike, he’ll pick up your waste for $8/week (or bi-monthly for $18 or once a month for $10). When you sign up, he’ll provide you with a 5 gallon lidded bucket to keep compost under wraps and a easy to follow guide to composting. He then donates the compost to urban gardening projects in JP and Roxbury as well as to the members of boot strap. And he comes rain or shine or snow. He’ll even pick up from surrounding areas too, so drop a line if you are interested: bootstrapcompost@gmail.com
Happy Earth Day!!
It’s exciting to see how much this event has grown over the years with events all across the globe held in honor of the planet; a day to celebrate our amazing planet and to reflect on how we can make it a better place. The theme for this year’s Earth Day Celebration is a ‘Billion Acts of Green.’
I often hear from friends and family who feel overwhelmed by ‘going green,’ all the things you should be doing, all the choices between x and y, all the information that seems to be constantly changing. Our answer is always the same. Just take one step, do one thing, and make it part of your life, which is fitting with this year’s Earth Day them – a Billion Acts of Green. The idea being that if we all pledge to do one thing, that our actions combined really add up.
There are so many ways to celebrate Earth Day this year, whether it be something as simple as planting a tree, walking to the grocery store or picking up a bottle and putting it in the recycling bin, those small acts add up.
Here are some ways you can honor the planet today, tomorrow and the next day:
DO – Donate your time to a local clean-up, tree planting event or Earth Day rally. To find events near you visit EarthDay.org and enter your zip code. Nothing nearby? Grab a bag and some gloves and take a walk. Or simply take the pledge and share your act of green. Our pledge, to bring less plastic into our home. If you are looking for more ways to ‘green’ your lifestyle, but don’t know where to start, visit Practically Green, a Boston based company who, through a series of questions, evaluate your level of green and offer suggestions of simple steps you can take to live a little lighter.
SWAP – Online swap sites and events are booming right now making it all the easier to swap, borrow and share your stuff. The idea being, that instead of running to the store when you need something, why not ask a neighbor. Or instead of throwing something out, think of who might be able to use it and work out a swap. Living in a city where storage is tight, the idea of borrowing is genius – not quite sure how we got away from that. My grandfather was a carpenter and had an amazing workshop, when I was going through his things, I found this ledger, carefully documenting ever tool he had ever loaned out over a period of 40 years, and the date they were returned. Such a fascinating commentary on community and the idea of neighbor that seems so foreign now. So this is definitely on our list to try out. Re-Nest compiled a huge list of all the swap/borrow sites out there: The A-Z Guide to Sharing, Swapping or Selling Practically Anything.
GROW – Every year I say this is the year I am going to grow an herb/lettuce/vegetable garden. And I did it last year, thanks to our brother and sister-in-law, with an awesome jalapeno, chili pepper garden. Baby steps… so maybe this is the year I’ll add lettuce to the mix. There is something about planting the seed, messing in the dirt, and watching and grow that really connects you to the earth. And running down the steps to the backyard to pick and spicy jalapeno for taco night is just, well, fun – and it comes free of packaging and free of shipping from California! So whether you go big or small, indoors or out, gardens of all sizes are a quite literal way to go green. Looking for seeds? Swap with neighbors or go online and check out LocalHarvest, Seed Savers Exchange (great place to find rare heritage/heirloom seeds), or
Seeds of Change (for certified organic seeds), or Burpee.
GET OUTSIDE – Whether this means going out for a run, a picnic, a hike, a swim, sometimes the best way to celebrate Earth Day is to get out there and enjoy it. After a weekend with my nieces, I realized I don’t do this enough. As grown ups we often need a reason to go outside, a project, a mission, but with the kids, we just went out and played, ran, danced, climbed, jumped and enjoyed a day in the great outdoors. Join up with the Nature Conservancy with their Picnic for the Planet in 469 cities across the globe. Or visit a U.S. National Parks, admission is free in honor of National Parks Week April 16-24. So get out there!
What will you do to celebrate Earth Day?
Back in January, we featured the eco-friendly Chindi Bench from VivaTerra made of sustainable wood and salvaged strips of woven fabric. We loved use of color and reclaimed materials, but we’d never thought of making one of our own as did Cheryl Audry of the Cardboard Sea blog. See had spotted a bench at Anthropologie and got the inspiration to salvage an old bench stowed away in her basement.
After some puzzling, and a lot of staples, she was able to figure out how to create the woven chevron pattern and we love how it came out. Now we are on the look out for benches in need of rescue!
This year’s IDSA Northeast Conference celebrating the top minds in Industrial Design was one of the highlights of the show. The depth of the work the students shared and the commentary on importance of design social, environmental, economical, and health inspiring, enlightening and hopeful. The potential that design has to improve social, environmental, health and economical aspects of our lives is infinite, and the products, models and designs presented by these talented students only proved that point.
Students from Syracuse, RIT, MassArt, RISD, PRATT, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Carlton and more were represented at the event. Projects covered a broad spectrum of disciplines:
Several of the projects have reached the manufacturing stage while others are in concept mode, nonetheless all of the designs were created to address a problem and succeeding in creative, innovative and successful solutions. What was equally promising was how the question of sustainability was so deeply integrated into a bulk of the projects, design and environmental concerns going hand and hand. It’s encouraging to see such an ambitious and talented group of students equipped with their ‘designer toolboxes’ to make the world a better place.
The footage from the earthquake and tsunami that ravaged Japan, is unreal and the devastation left in its wake is heartbreaking. So many people displaced so many homes destroyed, lives lost. And so quickly. Picking up the pieces will be an monstrous undertaking and every little bit helps.
How can you help the victims of the earthquake in Japan? You can donate directly to the relief efforts through these reputable organizations:
To give direct to ShelterBox, go here.
In addition to making direct donations, many companies, artists and designers have committed to donating portions of their profits to the relief efforts in Japan where your purchase contributes to the recovery:
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Green Depot – 15% of all profits from online sales and in-store sales will be donated to Word Vision, a non-profit organization aiding the Japan relief efforts. |
This is the time of year when all of the magazines feature these amazing, perfectly organized backyard gardens and every spring about this time, I fantasize about what it would be like to have my very own vegetable garden, but then am reminded I live in a city, where rodents roam free and the backyard could be practically be an archeological dig for the layers of trash buried beneath the layers of soil. But then I think, what if I did a raised bed? Or the gutter garden (sounds bad, but really is a clever idea)? Or the Woolly Pockets? Or a pest-protected GrowCamp Kit? A self-contained mobile planter? With the prices of food, especially good for you healthy food, skyrocketing maybe this is the year I’ll get over my fear of city gardening. Do you have a city garden? Would love to hear about it!
Here are 6 cost-effective vegetables recommended by EarthEasy that may prove that money does kind of grow on trees…… Click to continue »
And more news on the bike front. Bikeshare programs are popping up in the US with the latest opening up in the Washington, DC/Arlington, VA area! With over 110 bike stations through the Washington, DC area, Capital Bikeshare makes it easy to hop on and hop off. The first 30 minutes of each ride are free – which means you can pretty much get around the entire city for free. If the idea of walking from one end of The Mall to the other is a little too daunting, just hop on a bike and you’ll be at the Capitol in no time. You can join for a day ($5), a month ($25) or a year($75), so even tourists can enjoy this convenient way to explore the city. You will have to supply your own helmet though. If you don’t have one, here are some of our favorites for a stylish ride.
Spring is in the air, which means more biking! And of course, one must look stylish while cruising around town. Here are our top 5 picks for chic head gear:
1. Giro Surface Multi-Sport Helmet
– $34.95-$74.95 at Altrec; 5. Nutcase Drippy Bike Helmet
