Josie Maran Cosmetics

Do You Tee-Tote?

The tee-tote is an awesome, multi-purpose, eco-fashion statement. It is a handmade shirt made from renewable and/or organic fabrics that transforms into a bag you can use rather than going the plastic route. 

It's a tee and a tote! It was designed by Molly de Vries of Ambatalia, who had this to say about her creation:  

"I created tee-totes to be an inspiring force in replacing plastic and paper bags. Consider cloth shopping bags as a positive life style choice. Tee-tote was created for people who love fashion and also love and want to take care of our earth. More and more I see people bringing their own cloth bags to the market yet I find it rare seeing shoppers buying clothes or gifts with reusable bags in our neighborhood shopping centers, streets and malls.

Tee-tote is my best effort towards this end. I hope you have fun with this and see what kind of changes you can make in simple ways each day. I have found taking challenges, whether it's not using my car that week, taking a plastic bag tally or even just bringing a cup with me in my purse for a coffee or tea out. I notice a few changes in my habits can bring BIG awareness. It's pretty awesome. I hope my idea of a great looking, handmade, sustainably sourced, classic teeshirt that turns into a shopping bag inspires you and your friends to rethink how you shop."

Click here to get your very own tee-tote! So chicological....

 

Love IT

 

 

Shoes with an Eco-Afterlife

Check out these awesome green sneakers that are entirely made from biodegradable materials!

Not only are they extremely stylish, but they leave no mark on the environment when you're done with them.

According to OATShoes.com, you can bury them in the garden, woods, or compost, and when you water them regularly, flowers will bloom from your old sneakers!

Amazing! 

Unfortunately, OAT Shoes are not for sale in the U.S. yet, but maybe if they get enough love on their facebook page, they will make the move! www.facebook.com/OATShoes

-Posted by Nicole, JMC Social Media Intern

Photo via www.treehugger.com

Wrapping Left to Do? Go Eco!

Do you have presents left to wrap? How about going eco with your paper? These cute boxes showcasedon MarthaStewart.com are covered with vintage wallpaper, Chinese newspaper, a recycled map, and a grocery bag with Japanese beads. 

Reuse, Recycle: Old Crayons

One of my favorite moms who blogs, Heather of Shivaya Naturals, has posted these wonderful photos of her latest project - Holiday Crafting with recycled crayons.

If you have younger kids, it's the perfect way to have a fun project with them and they can give the results to their friends as gifts. Win, win!

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Spray holiday themed cookie trays with cooking spray. Sort crayons into like colors (paper off) and fill trays. Put in oven for 5 to 10 minutes. Let cool on a wire cooling rack and voila!

For more great crafty inspiration, check out Heather's online magazine Rhythm of the Home. 

Photos and idea from ShivayaNaturals.com

How Pretty is Your Drink?

This is a margarita. Yes. A margarita. The image was made by crystallizing the drink on a slide and then photographing it through a polarized light. Who knew?

Via Time Magazine

@SFGirlbyBay = Favorite Design Blog

Victoria Smith has the most delightfully bohème design blog called SFGirlbyBay. It showcases interior design, art, fashion, handmade, photography, and more! It is so chock full of gorgeous inspiration that sometimes I feel overwhelmed by beauty when I visit. You should check it out and get overwhelmed, too.

Architecture and Nature

Great book alert! Check out this stunning coffee table must-have Natural Houses: The Residential Architecture of Andersson-Wise. 

For Arthur Andersson and Chris Wise, the fundamental elements that give buildings meaning are found in nature. Imbuing day-to-day activities with poetry and awe, their designs address both pragmatic needs and the psychological yearning for refuge and contemplation, centering and escape, joy and comfort. Their work is best experienced through the senses. Tactility, expressed through an eloquence of craft, the use of textured materials, and the logical design of structural systems, gives their buildings a rightness within the landscape. In their hands, daylight becomes a building material. Small wall apertures, three-sided dormers, clerestories, and other details grab, bend, and thread sunlight from one end of their houses to the other. Full of light and atmosphere, the houses are the physical embodiment of the great Charles Moore's influential tenet that architecture is about enhancing a sense of place. 

Natural Houses presents seven of the Austin, Texas–based firm's exquisitely crafted projects. Precise and cool, with forms often derived from the American vernacular of barns and cottages, these are painstakingly crafted houses made from regionally appropriate and aesthetically timeless materials. Natural Housespresents a range of sites and residences—from a small cabin in the woods to a multibuilding camp. Sited on a cliff, the House Above Lake Austin uses terraces to descend its steeply hilly site. The building's simple materials celebrate the site and climate not by drawing attention to themselves, but by blending in. The stone foundation is similarly tied to the natural stone of the mountain. Smooth plaster walls above the stone foundation appear to have been chiseled from the rock itself. In a deceptively simple boathouse the walls fold down to become impromptu diving platforms. 

 
 

How Does She Do It?

Christy, fiercer than the youngins. 

Thank you, Meisel. Thank you.

Sewn News: The Art of Lauren DiCioccio

Artist Lauren DiCioccio has a great new series of work out now called Sewn News. 

She says: "As news-gathering departs from paper form and is conveyed instead through the television and internet, the newspaper becomes a nostaligic and old-fashioned object. I describe the beauty of the ritual experience of newspaper-reading by describing the paper as a tactile and fragile object in the language of craft. The pieces in this series are entire issues of The New York Times encased in hand-embroidered cotton muslin. I select a photograph from the paper; usually a strong image suggestive of power, leadership or communication; and embroider the image onto the fabric, applying colors in a painterly way and layering line and thread. Portions of the image remain as outline and threads tangle and unravel from the fabric."

Fabulous!