Crochet Covered Smart Car

What do you get in Rome, when you cross a smart car with a crochet hook? Fabulous.

Happy New Year from 973 Third!

Easy Peasy Holiday Decorations

These are frantic days at 973, as Christmas is less than 4 days away, and I am scrambling to finish putting on the holiday touches.

Still to be done: (admittedly last-minute) green, minimalist decorations


I consider this the antithesis of the NYT article in last week's Home" section, "Even the Tree Has a Stylist." If you missed the article and you are the type who can manage your own holiday decorations, don't fret. Consider yourself fortunate enough to have the creativity, vision and leadership to do what some others seeking to find beauty and comfort at home at Christmas must pay dearly for.

Images for inspiration: plain glass ornaments filled with simple compositions, from Country Living, burlap (or other recycled household textile) makes a charmingly provincial stocking, from Better Homes & Gardens.

Simple and Rustic Autumn Party

With the refreshingly crisp weather and beautiful colors of autumn, perhaps it's not too late to host an impromptu harvest lunch party this weekend?

For more ideas on keeping it simple and rustic, click here.

Fun and Easy Outdoor Lighting

Here's a great idea from Martha's magazine years ago. Start with a wide drinking glass, at least 2 colors of colored sand, a votive candle and its holder. Add some sand first in the larger glass to set the votive holder with the candle centered inside the outer glass. Then continue with a funnel adding sand in layers of color to fill the space between the containers. The outer glass also serves as a hurricane shade.

This works well with a concealed vase for flowers, too. Easy and fun!

Click on the photos for Martha's directions.

Environmentally Sustainable Behavior

National Geographic has just completed its second annual study on personal choices toward making the world more sustainable. Working with GlobeScan, an international polling company, the results are presented as their Consumer Greendex.

A total of 17,000 consumers in 17 countries answered questions on their energy use, conservation, transportation choices, food sources, use of green vs. traditional products, attitudes toward sustainability and the environment and knowledge of related issues. The study will continue annually to track the changes and progress.

You can test your personal Greendex, too. Click here to measure your own sustainable behavior.

Greening the Champs-Elysees

Over the past weekend in Paris, the Champs-Elysées was covered in grass, plants, trees, cattle and sheep along the 3/4 mile stretch from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde. The event was organized by the Young Farmers Union to encourage French consumers to reflect on "what they have on their plates and how it got there."

The transplanted countryside offered a showcase of Gallic agriculture and biodiversity. Visitors also enjoyed tastings of regional specialties and selections of plants and produce for sale. The organizers hoped to attract about two million people.

For more images, click here.

Happy Earth Day

There has been a lot of talk about the last 40 years of Earth Day and the progress we have made. What started as a grass roots project to bring attention and clean-up efforts to the horrible pollution of our air, water and land has made the Earth a better and cleaner place.

Sure, there are new concerns and challenges, but we are better equipped to deal with them, not only as a concerned nation, but a global community.

Here are two interesting short videos on the history of Earth Day and our progress:

Click here for an animated tribute, Earth Day turns 40, from the Mother Nature Network

Click here for a Washington Post video, Unfinished Business: Earth Day at 40

We believe in celebrating Earth Day every day at 973 Third.

Recycled Tennis Balls

Go green with recycled tennis balls crafted quite cleverly into a stylish chair, by Hugh Hayden.

Be eco-comfortable court-side or inside.

Green Christmas Trees

Again this year we struggled with the concept of a green Christmas Tree and what it should be. As much fun as it sounds to find a vintage white or aluminum tree that we can save and make our own - it's just not happening in time this year. We couldn't find that old artificial tree looking for a good home. But we did enjoy the hunt. Instead of a tree, we happened upon some fabulous retro vintage ornaments and dazzling decorations long forgotten and still quite fabulous. But I digress.

We toyed with a living tree, root ball intact, but it seemed harsh to subject it to our indoor climate, then expect it to adapt again to a garden and thrive after all that excitement.

A tree of recycled paper seems environmentally thoughtful. And some may argue a tree of green bottles is sort of responsible, too.


We're still most enchanted with the trees we featured here last year and think they offer the eco-conscious style and classic beauty we admire and respect in a green holiday tree.

Color of the Year

It's not surprising that the color Pantone, the professional color standard, has selected for its 2010 color of the year is: sort of green. But it's green made better, with a blend of blue and called Turquoise or 15-5519. It evokes the calm image of tropical waters and the vacation we so desperately need at this time of year. (Okay, well maybe I should only speak for myself).

For more info on this or any color, visit Pantone.

Green Walls

If you're already a fan of green roofs, green walls seem a logical next step. But creating a vertical garden that stays where it's intended to, is considerably more challenging. That, of course, is what makes it so interesting.

Living walls are fascinating outdoors and in. It's magical to enter an interior space with a green wall. As you get closer you can't help but feel healthier. The planted wall is reducing the CO2 while adding oxygen to the room. All that good energy and it is visually enchanting, too.

Here's a New York Times article on edible walls and here are more examples of living walls.

Frugalista

frugalista (froog'gal-ees-ta) n. "person who leads a frugal lifestyle, but stays fashionable and healthy by swapping clothes, buying second-hand, growing own produce, etc."

It may not have made the New Oxford American Dictionary's 2008 Word of the Year, but it is a deserving strong finalist. As we face the hard facts of the surround-sound economic crisis crumbling around us – frugalista appears to be a word with staying power. It is a power we’ll need to use as we tighten the belt once again, dust off the sewing machine and serve up dinner of rice and beans for hungry family and friends.

I'm not sure of the protocol regarding new words if they don't yet appear in a dictionary. But it’s such a good word I’m excited to add it to my vocabulary. I would also like to expand its definition. After all, it is such a recent addition to our language certainly the word is still evolving and malleable.

There are plenty of us all over the globe who have learned the art of stretching the wampum, by necessity and practicality. We (hereafter known as frugalistas) know how to make do, quite stylishly, with less. We are not only managing and discovering new ways to do it better, we are also eco-conscious in our choices. From time to time, we might even be a little eco-chic. We reduce, recycle and reuse to the limits of our imaginations.

Special thanks to William Safire for his article On Language - Frugalista in the New York Times Magazine, November 23, 2008 and Natalie McNeal for her blog, The Frugalista Files.

Good looking and sturdy market and tote bags made of earth-friendly materials each sell for under $1.50.