Then there are some times when you go on a virtual house tour that gets you really buzzing with excitement again. This was the case when I saw Alysia’s Treehouse by the Lake on Apartment Therapy L.A. Alysia’s decorating philosophy was inspired by The Recycled Home by Sally Bailey. She begged, borrowed, swapped and repurposed. One of the best results was this ottoman she reupholstered with an old coffee bean sack a local roaster gave her.

via Apartment Therapy L.A.

See the entire house tour here.

images via Apartment Therapy L.A.

The seeds were chosen because they are native to the midwest, but they will work all over the U.S.A. They include:

Queen Anne’s Lace, Upland White Aster Aster, Prairie Aster, Pot
Marigold, Cornflower, Siberian Wallflower, Shasta Daisy, Godetia,
Farewell-to-Spring, Lance-Leaf Coreopsis, Plains Coreopsis, Sulphur
Cosmos, Wild Cosmos, Chinese Forget-Me-Not, Wild Larkspur, Sweet
William, Purple Coneflower, California Poppy, Perennial Gaillardia,
Indian Blanket, Globe Gilia, Baby’s Breath, Wild Annual Sunflower,
Dwarf Sunflower, Dame’s Rocket, Rose Mallow, Baby Snapdragon,
Candytuft, Scarlet Flax, Blue Flax, Perennial Lupine, Russell Lupine,
Annual Lupine, Four O’Clock, Baby Blue Eyes, Evening Primrose, Red
Poppy, Mexican Hat, Prairie Coneflower, Black-Eyed Susan, Gloriosa
Daisy, Sweet Coneflower, None-so-Pretty

The muslin bags were made in the USA and screenprinted by hand with the Midwest Seed Bombs design. Inside each pouch is the full list of the seeds included. Each filled pouch weighs approximately 4-4.5 ounces. When you’ve used up the seed bombs, reuse the pouch or frame it!

To order, click here.

P.S. If you’d like a house tour of Maya and Michael’s former beer hall home and studio, click here.

Labor Day is over. This is when I start to think about switching up my bedding to cozy up for the winter – I like my room cold with lots of blankets to snuggle up in, and I find it’s the easiest way to switch things up when I get bored. Since I am trying to incorporate being more eco-friendly into my life, I decided go for 100% organic cotton and thus browsed DP’s sustainable bedding section.

The easiest way to keep your bedding different is to keep a neutral duvet cover and shams, and switch out your throw pillows, quilt, and/or blanket. Unison’s Larch print provides such a graphic punch that I’m picturing it changing up my bedding, and then once I get antsy to change things up again up there, throwing it over the back of my sofa to give my living room a new look.

That being said, it’s probably hypocritical to pick a favorite green product to tempt you with, but I’ll tell you why I feel comfortable recommending the STAACH Cain Collection Bench. It’s made by two hands with two tools right in New York, and it’s made from certified sustainable wood sourced in the U.S.A. The reason I thought of it after reflecting upon my makeover frenzy is that this is a multipurpose piece. You can rotate it in and out of any room in your home. In the living room, it’s a coffee or side table that doubles as an extra seat. In the kitchen, you can use it to boost you up to the high shelves. In the bedroom it can serve as a bench at the foot of your bed or as a nightstand. In the bathroom it can hold folded towels next to the bathtub. If you choose black, gray, maple, poplar, or white, it will go with almost any color palette.

So, what lazy green thing have I been up to this week? I signed up to follow AltUse on facebook. That way, when they tell me some wacky way to reuse something or a new way to use something simple and organic and it’s not crazy, it will stick in my head and I’ll waste less. It doesn’t really get much lazier than simply following something on Facebook, does it? I never claimed I was a go-getter.

Also, I really loved this article over at Styleture about Sustainable Interior Design. Check it out here.

Now, for the sustainable product of the week….drumroll please…

I LOVE the Vitra Cork Stools. I love that there are three shapes, though I kinda wish there were four, just to even things out. The top one reminds me of fungi, and the bottom two remind me of chess pieces. I think it would be really cute to have two pairs of them around a kids table, since they are only 13″ high. This is also good coffee table height, and end table height if they are next to a low modern sofa or daybed. I have to say, the pricetag forces me to think of these more like functional art in the form of sculpture, but when I pick my favorite products, I have no budget constraints holding me back.

So what makes these eco-friendly? Cork. Cork is a natural product harvested from trees in the Mediterranean basin of Spain and Portugal. While many people think cork is a new technology, it has actually been used for thousands of years. Unlike hardwood, the useful part of a cork tree is the bark, not the lumber of the tree itself. Cork is only retrieved from mature cork trees and is limited to being harvested in 9 year cycles so that the same tree can harvested for generations making it an environmentally friendly resource

Anyway, it was hard for me to stop rinsing my dishes before stacking them in the dishwasher. It feels gross. Also, a word to the wise, if you have a bowl with bits of cereal or parmesean cheese stuck to it, you’re going to have to give it a little soak or a wipe in order for it to get clean; your dishwasher is not a miracle worker, however, press on! In Georgia, now that we are conserving water so well, the price of water went up in order to make up for the water company’s lack of profits, which is really bad karma for the water company, but anyway, the less water used, the better and even the cheaper. If you aren’t concerned about water usage yet, go pick up this month’s issue of GOOD magazine. Personally, I’m not real anxious to drink my own urine anytime soon, so I’m happy to do my part to conserve water.

Onto more fun things: The Product! This week I looked under my nose to see if any sustainable products here on DP were calling my name and low and behold, it was the Unison Larch Organic Blanket. This blanket is 100% organic cotton. I love the photographic quality of the image and how striking it is. While I think this looks great in the styled product shot, I can also see it used more as a spread, and in my own home, I think I would drape it over my super boring neutral sofa in order to give it some oomph. This also makes a good wedding present, so long as you have a good idea of the couple’s taste. Personally, I am usually way too disorgainzed to get to order from the registry before all that’s left is a $150 knife from Crate and Barrel.

Tires are pretty much the bane of the planet’s existence. When Lake Lanier was so empty during the drought last year, way too many of them were discovered dumped in its basin. Have you ever seen a tire fire on the news? They rage on for days. I say, whatever uses we can find for used tires, go for it.

While I’m not sure how I would truly use this as a bowl, I picture a bunch of them arranged into some fabulous composition on a wall. A straight line of them would be great in a loft space with high ceilings, and a random arrangement on a smaller wall would be very graphically striking.

Here’s the rest of the scoop on what makes them green, and also how they help to alleviate poverty in Vietnam:

transNeomatic is designed by Estudio Campana and handcrafted by skilled artisans from rural Vietnam. Through Vietnamese non-profit organization Craft Link, Artecnica collaborated with Hai Tai rattan weavers and Hmong women weavers to create each piece. Disadvantaged Vietnamese youths were also enlisted to assemble the totes, providing them with artisan training and a framework by which they could establish sustainable livelihoods.

transNeomatic is a conceptually innovative container bowl crafted from a repurposed scooter tire and natural wicker. Each tire is thoroughly steam-cleaned and finished in an eco-friendly sealant. transNeomatic comes with an optional handwoven hemp cover that slips over its rubber base. Each piece is packaged in a reusable drawstring tote.

In the right under my nose category of living greener this week, I pick the Artecnica TaTu Coffee Table as the product I am currently coveting. Besides the fact that it can break down into a large bowl, tray, and basket, and that it is handcrafted by South African artisans, here’s what makes it green:

Artecnica’s Design with Conscience® products spotlight the design process from concept to creation, calling recognition to the value of artisan labor and craft techniques. In creating these products, Artecnica uses eco-friendly materials and production methods, promoting manufacturing processes that are environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable.

If you dig this, be sure to check out the TaTu Side Table and the TaTu Stool.