Filed under: business, design, environmental issues, savvy tools | Tags: business cards, FSC, green printer, letterhead, recycled paper, soy inks
We’ve crossed a milestone in our “little” endeavor and it’s about time we have our own business cards! We’ve been meeting a lot of new contacts recently and decided that writing our contact info on the back of reciepts found at the bottom of our purses isn’t the most professional. Little did we know, there are so many choices to choose from in the world of business cards…. one sided, 2 sided, inks, papers, colors, and of course the overall aesthetic of the card.
If you haven’t noticed in our previous posts, we all have what one might call a “greener” conscience. This being said, we’ve decided to go with a company called Greener Printer. This is an eco-friendly online printing company that produces everything recycled from business cards, letterhead, brochures, catalogs, posters, etc. They have 8 different papers to choose from, all of which are 100% recycled or post consumer materials and 4 that are Forrest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified. They also have the option of printing with soy or vegetable based inks…. This hardly breaks the surface of the company’s capabilites, environmental impact and green business practices.
I wanted to post the designs we’re leaning toward, but I’m not that computer savvy….hopefully we’ll have something for you to see soon!
Kelsey – Vail, CO
Filed under: architecture, design, environmental issues | Tags: LEED-H, Margarido house, MdDonald Construction & Development, Medium Plenty, Plumbob Architects, Sally TV
I had the privilege of touring the Margarido Houseon Saturday. It’s Northern California’s first LEED platinum home and the first home in the nation to be both LEED-H certified and GreenPoint Rated. The place is absolutely gorgeous! It’s located in the Oakland hills and has stunning views out over the bay towards San Francisco. I had no problem picturing myself with a glass of wine in the roof top garden watching the sunset over the city.
You can check out a video tour below from Sally TV.
As is to be expected of a LEED platinum home, it has all kinds of sustainable features like:
-Solar panels on the roof providing all heating & hot water, and most of its electricity
-4,000 gallon rainwater cistern that collects all the water on site
-Living roof covered with native grasses and succulents
-Exterior cladding and interior flooring made from Heath Ceramics’ used kiln shelves
-Reflective cool roof
-All LED/ CFL lighting
and much more…
The owner/developer is Mike McDonald with McDonald Construction & Development. He partnered with his brother Tim McDonald from Plumbob architects in Boston and interior designer Ian Read from Medium Plenty. McDonald Construction and Medium Plenty had already partnered on the 24th street house that was featured in Dwell Magazine in their June 2007 issue.
They’ve definitely shown that going green is not a sacrifice. If you ask me, they’re living in the lap of luxury. I’m hoping homes like this will inspire people and we’ll start seeing a lot more green homes around the country!
Rebecca_SF
Filed under: design | Tags: functional kitchen design, Karbon Faucet, Kohler
The Karbon “Articulating Kitchen Faucet” by Kohler may not be new to some of you. I’ve had my eye on it for quite some time now, but I have yet to have the perfect job for it or see it installed. The fascinating thing about the Karbon faucet is that it has 5 pivot points which gives it a unique range of motion to allow for those akward and hard to reach positions. It also gives you the options of stream or spray; can be installed with a low flow aerator to conserve water; has a reach of over 13″ in every direction; and let’s be honest….it looks pretty slick.
This may sound weird and I’m not try to dis the Karbon because it’s more than functional and has a very unique design, but for some reason it kind of brings me back to 1986 and the movie Short Circuit! It makes me wonder if this character was part of the designers inspiration?? I’ll let you be the judge 🙂
Kelsey – Vail, CO
Filed under: design, fashion, fun!, san francisco | Tags: Etsy, Hello Lucky, Loyalty and Blood, Mucca Pazza Marching Band, Nous Savons, Renegade Craft Fair, The Poster List, The Weekend Store
I made a stop by the Renegade Craft Fair this Sunday. It was amazing! It’s certainly not like the craft fairs your Grandma goes to. This was more like a collection straight from all your favorites at Etsy. I spent way too much money and I would have taken home much more if I could have. Here were some of my favorites:
Hello Lucky Printing Press:
Ahhh… I couldn’t help it. I had to get the tool necklace….
More beautiful necklaces from Jocelyn Nguyen at Nous Savons.
They specialize in recycled vintage jewelry. I got a necklace with a twig dangling from it and a button ring, but they had a huge assortment of things made out of old typewriter keys and clock parts as well that I thought were pretty cool.
Amazing screen printed posters! I want to own so many! Good thing they’re only $10.99 each.
And to really make the day perfect the Mucca Pazza Marching Band from Chicago performed. They were crazy and highly entertaining! Their myspace page refers to them as an astounding circus punk marching band and I’d say that would sum things up pretty well. I loved it! They’re playing in town at the Rickshaw Stop on Thursday and I just might have to go.
_Rebecca, SF
Filed under: design
So I haven’t posted highlights from ICFF this year. Overall I didn’t see too many ‘new’ items at the show. It was an exhausting day for me treking the city 8 months pregnant but it is always nice to see what is new and educate yourself. These were my favorites that I saw while I was there.
I’m pretty impressed with the Hida Collection of furniture that I viewed last year. They have now picked up a retailer in the US but I haven’t used or seen their products used yet in the US. The wood is made from compressed Sugi wood that is a grown in Japan. Apparently the wood is soft and not used for construction but with compressing the wood it can be used for furniture.
-Jackie, W-B
Finding green materials & products is one of the biggest hurdles for designers & consumers in general. A group called the Pharos Project has been working diligently to solve that problem. I had the privilege of hearing one of the founders, Tom Lent, speak at a USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council) meeting a week or so ago. Apparently, the whole thing started with a casual discussion at another USGBC meeting a few years back. Designers & Architects were complaining about the market, all the greenwashing, and how even if a product says its green, you don’t really know what that means. A few napkin sketches later and the pharos project was born.
It’s not in use yet. They’ve been developing this for awhile, because they want to make sure they get it right. They’ll be doing some testing with private companies this summer, doing beta testing in the fall, and ideally launching early next year, from what I understand.
It’s meant to be the most comprehensive green review of products out there. All products are rated on a scale from 1-10, in 16 categories, which are divided up into 3 sectors: Health & Pollution, Environment & Resources, & Social & Community. It’s all represented on an easy to read circular chart that gives you a good idea about all aspects of the product at a quick glance. There are many other green material rating systems being developed right now that cover some of these categories, but most leave out Social & Community. This sector includes some vital things like the occupational safety of employees of the company, consumer safety, fairness & equity, community contributions, & corporate leadership.
All the information is gathered from questionnaires the manufacturers themselves fill out, plus third party certifications like energy star & green guard. They even have a percentage next to each category showing their confidence level in the rating. i.e. If the only information available is from the manufacturer, their confidence level would be much lower. There are also forums where you can argue the rating if you disagree.
The entire database is stored online and seems to be incredibly user friendly (at least in theory). You’re able to filter your searches and prioritize categories. For example, if you only want to see products with good air quality ratings. Or, you can filter all products with ratings in all categories of 3 and above.
I can’t wait for this to get launched. I was so impressed by Tom. He seemed to be so genuine in his desire to create a good tool and help fill that need in the industry. It wasn’t about money or the green trend. You could tell this was something he believed in and that he had put a lot of thought into. I think it could be incredibly helpful and really streamline the entire design process. I’m hoping that eventually it could be extended to all products on the market. Maybe it could even become part of a required label on the packaging. Manufacturers would be held directly accountable and with all the information out there and in people’s faces, I have a feeling that bad behavior would start changing quickly.
Rebecca_SF
Filed under: design, environmental issues, travel | Tags: Green Guru Designs, Jeremy Collins, Recycled Art, Recycled Bags, Teva Mountain Games, Vail
Every year I can always tell summer has finally come when the Teva Mountain Games come to Vail. I had the opportunity to join in the festivities a couple weeks ago and I couldn’t believe how popular it was this year…it was flooded with people! To give you a little background…the Teva Games is basically a celebration of all mountain sports. Locals and athletes from around the world come to compete in events such as kayaking, rock climbing, mountain biking, trail running, fly fishing and even dog jumping. Aside from the sports, tons of tents are lined up throughout the village where the events take place. If I had to guess, the tents consisted of approximately 40% outdoor gear, 30% health foods, 30% anything “green”… aka lots of great shwag!
Not only am I recommending that everyone check out the Teva Games, but I wanted to share with you all some of my favorite finds.
Green Guru Gear – Located out of Boulder, CO and is an “innovative eco-conscious line of bags and soft goods developed for people who want tough, dependable, functional gear, yet do not want it at the expense of the environment”. All products are made of billboards, car/bike intertubes, climbing ropes, bamboo, hemp, and organic cotton. They make anything from messenger bags, to wallets, bracelets, clothing, goggle straps and even surf and snowboard bags.
Re-Art – Artist Jeremy Collins along with a couple other artists created amazing art on site. All of their pieces contained only materials found in junk yards and were auctioned off at the events. I was astounded by how great the “trash” art turned out and am now regretting not bidding on anything. The best part is that Collins is from my home town Kansas City and his studio is in the Crossroads district!! If you check out his website, it looks like he uses all types of media in his art. Unfortunately he doesn’t have any of his recycled art shown on his website, but I’m hoping that is was such a hit that he starts producing more.
There is so much more that I could share with you, but I don’t want to spoil you all in one day. I hope you find as much enjoyment in the above as I did!
Kelsey – Vail, CO
Filed under: design, who we are | Tags: 52 p rojects, Hula Seventy, Jeffrey Yamaguchi
I’m not a girl in need of yet another project. My plate seems to be pretty full these days, but I am a girl in need of some creativity. I like things that inspire my life. 52 projects is just such a thing. I heard about it from the blog hula seventy. She seems to always have some fantastic project going and I love it! I loved it so much that I bought the book: “52 projects- Random Acts of Everyday Creativity”. Written by Jeffrey Yamaguchi because as he says, “I feel the most alive when I am creating something.” I flipped through the book and found other bits of wisdom like, “The creative energy built up around a project ends up seeping into the other parts of my life where energy is lacking.” and “It’s a cycle of physical & mental momentum, one that I use to keep pushing forward and higher, to places I’ve never been before.” I love it! That’s what I long for. You can see why I had to own it immediately.
It’s filled with so many fantastic ideas. Some top ones on my list:
#5 Make a piece of art and hang it somewhere you’re not supposed to.
#19- Write down the story of the best night of your life. Or a variation- write down the story of the night that could have been the best night of your life, but wasn’t.
#29- Get an enevelope & address it to someone special. Then, stuff it with as many things as you can: a letter, photographs, torn out magazine articles, poems, recipies, artwork… Make sure to stuff it so full that it barely seals and mail it off.
#36 stay up all night
#49 During the next summer rainstorm, walk outside to a place without shelter and immediately take a picture of yourself and whoever else you can convince to join you. Keep standing in the rain until you’re soaked to the bone and take another photo.
I’ll keep you updated on my progress.
Rebecca_SF
Lotta Jansdotter is a busy girl these days. Her new book Lotta Prints was just released and I had the privilege of meeting her and getting her to autograph my copy. I know, I’m a dork! The Craft Gym is a cute little studio a few blocks away from me and they were hosting an event to intro her book. She was giving free print making lessons using some of the techniques she demonstrates in the book. The place was packed, as to be expected, but she was a gracious host and made time to help everyone with their technique. All of the ideas in the book are pretty simple & straight forward, but the pictures are pretty inspiring and definitely got me thinking about some projects that I’d like to take on.
I also own her book- Simple Sewing and I’ve made a few things out of it as well. It comes with patterns in the back. All the projects are perfect for someone like me who’s just trying to get into sewing. You can check out her entire design portfolio and find a list of all the stores that carry her products on her website. Enjoy!
Savvy Lifestyle 
