DIY pop art at the Brooklyn Indie Mart

We'll be craftin' it up at the Brooklyn Indie Mart on Sunday. Stop by to create your own candy dish or soap dish out of soda bottles. The only way to make it more craftacular would be if you joined us!

I'm in love with my friend's CSA

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is all the eco-rage lately. You basically pay for subscription fee to a farm and come pick up your share of the veggies once a week. A friend was out of town and had me stand in to pick up her veggies at the Brooklyn Red Shed Garden. CSAs always sounded good in theory to me, but this was my first first-hand experience. So fun! It's early in the season but they had multi-color radishes. And kale. And green garlic. And garlic rings. And lots of other green stuff. My friend said it's a culinary opportunity to use veggies you wouldn't normally get. Yum. I'm sold. I just have to wait another season until they're taking new subscriptions again. I'll just have to keep hangin' at my local farmer's market.

eco-smackdown tomorrow on Planet Green

If you're one of the lucky cable subscribers to Planet Green, be sure to catch me on the show "G Word" tomorrow (Monday, June 8th) at 7pm. At least I'm pretty sure that's when I'll be on. The episode is called "Nano Wires". In a short segment, I visit a car junkyard with our friend and eco-designer Evette Rios. We dig through car parts to scavenge and create furniture from the castoffs. What kind of car-part furniture do we make? Well, you'll just have to tune in to see.

TerraCycle - worm poop and more!

If you haven't heard of TerraCycle, well now you have. They're a fast growing eco-powerhouse that produces both eco-friendly products AND packages them in reclaimed materials. How cool is that? They got their start with Worm Poop and package it in soda bottles collected by students. Students raise money. Students learn about recycling. Terracycle gets inexpensive packaging. AND the bottles stay out of landfills. Brilliant? Yes.

I visited their New Jersey office earlier this week and they have mountains of discarded materials just waiting to be turned into new! It's like a big playground of scrap just itchin' to be given a second life. And what better person to help them with that, than me? Keep an eye on them. Lots of new, good, recycled stuff coming soon...

Happy Anniversary!

I ran an eco "Pop" workshop yesterday with Sustainable NYC and showed a few crafty New Yorkers how to convert old soda bottles into soap dishes, photocuffs and more.

One person even made a soap dish and is giving it to her husband for their 25th wedding anniversary. Wrapped in paper we found in the recycling bin. Now that's true handcrafted love.

June recycling projects in New York City!

You can catch us this weekend at the Gowanus Goes Green Festival in Brooklyn. The event is on Sunday, June 1 from 11am - 6pm.

We'll be at the mini Maker Faire in NYC on June 6th from 6:30pm - 9pm.

And on June 14 we'll be at Children's Day at the South Street Seaport from noon - 5pm.

We'll have free recycling projects at all of these events. What a great way to start out your summer!

tie transformation

Need a good eco-friendly way to hold your cell phone or ipod? Here's my latest project - gadget cases made from old neckties.

Visit our Etsy Shop for more colors and patterns. Some of them were even made from my dad's old ties. I wonder if I gave him any of these ties for gifts as a kid. It might make a great regifted Father's Day present.

And if you have old ties or large-ish buttons you want to send my way, please do. I'll put them to good reuse! Here's where to send 'em.