Upcycling/Recycling/Green New Year's Resolutions for 2015!

Yayyy!! It's New Year's!!  Did you make your list of resolutions yet?  Here're mine!  Share yours too - send me your great ideas!:

1)  No more plastic bags at the grocer's. - Even though I re-use them when I get home, maybe if we all stop using them, the stores will get the idea and cut down on them.

2) Think twice, maybe three or four times! about anything non-biodegrable that I used to throw out in the garbage.  Like:  plastic containers for Chinese food, plastic utensils, old clothes.  I'm starting a quilt with some old T-shirts and jeans I was going to throw out!  Save the plastic containers and re-use them for storing food in the fridge, or paint or glue trays (for woodworking!).  Make art with any glasses or cups you break by mistake:  glue them to a cork or wooden board and make a design or even a mosaic!  Make great gifts.  Be really careful with your fingers though.  Use only the larger pieces.

3) Starting a compost heap in a corner of the yard. - Not only makes my trash smaller, but will help my vegetable garden and flower beds!

4) Blog EVEN MORE about all my green projects.  Cuz the more we talk about it, the more other people will see it and get on the bandwagon, too!

A Reclaimed Wood Christmas

More upcycling ideas

Turn old suitcases into nighttables; orange peels into candles; and wine bottles into vases!

In addition to turning the drawer into a bulletin board, you can even turn it into a medicine cabinet by adding a plank of wood to serve as a divider and papering the back with pretty wallpaper.

Eco-friendly Home in Colorado

My dream house!

Welcome to Mosca, Colorado, the site of this sylvan and sustainable home. Built in 2004 by Hisa Ota Architects, the structure’s conscious design won the AIA Merit Award for Residential Architecture in 2008. The property’s 1,163 rural acres adjoin the San Isabel National Forest and BLM land, and enjoy extraordinary views of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Luckily, the natural beauty of this land will be protected from development in the future – part of the property’s title is a conservation easement with the Nature Conservancy.

Hey now! Choose your own colors

Coming up in San Fran Nov. 14, 15, and 16!

http://www.greenfestivals.org/

REPOST: Move Over, Green Walls: Living Canopy Come to West Vancouver

At this year’s Harmony Arts Festival in West Vancouver, guests and participants enjoyed a living canopy of lush greenery courtesy of architect Matthew Soules. This article reports on the specifics of the structure’s design, production, and execution.

Image Source: archdaily.com

Imagine walking beneath an illuminated canopy of lush greenery, in the form of inverted pyramids sculpted to perfection. In early August 2014 visitors were welcomed by this succulent living roof to the Harmony Arts Festival in West Vancouver, British Columbia. Guests were guided through the fairgrounds beneath the 90-foot long canopy, creating an immersive sensory experience befitting the interdisciplinary creative arts festival. Designed by Matthew Soules Architecture and curated by the Museum of West Vancouver, Vermilion Sands was created as a temporary installation for the ten day festival. 

Image Source: archdaily.com

Traveling beneath an array of large trees and naturally occurring greenery, Vermilion Sandssolved numerous problems for the organizers of Harmony Arts Festival. Although the canopy served primarily as a stunning social space, it also provided shelter from the sun. The canopy included an integrated misting system, simultaneously hydrating the living roof while cooling the space below. Each one of the 260 modules was formed of a steel frame sewn into a geotextile fabric coated with a complex cocktail of seeds and fertilizer. The modules were grown offsite in a nursery prior to their installation in WestVancouver’s Millennium Park. 

Image Source: archdaily.com

Image Source: archdaily.com

The project received its name from a series of short stories by English novelist JG Ballard.Vermilion Sands refers to the hybridized nature of contemporary architectural design, illustrating the inseparability of natural and artificial products. Vermilion Sands serves as a physical manifestation of the future described in Ballard’s stories – a world populated by the marriage of natural and artificial creations. Find out more about Matthew Soules Architecture here.

 My name is Elizabeth Lesar and I’m an eco-design enthusiast and green furniture maker. Keep updated on my thoughts on and picks for sustainability and green designs all over the world by following me on Facebook.