green :: a toast to the tree

Even though Christmas is officially over, I'm still in the Christmas Spirit, are you? And getting ready to celebrate the New Year at the end of the week, too! So what's more apropos then this clever Christmas Tree created by the Heineken Beer Company? This gargantuan green glass (and all these bottles are full too!) Christmas Tree stands at the front of the Nanjing road mall in Shanghai.

Heineken has always been clever with its beer bottles; Warren has written how in the sixties they considered redesigning them to work as bricks. Now in China, they are using them to build Christmas trees - right now these bottles are full - yet soon to be recycled (I wonder how this tree will be looking at midnight on New Years Eve?!)  How JUST COOL!

via Recylart and treehugger

green :: a natural hang up

If ya gotta hang up your clothes then go natural. Hang them on these nifty branch hangers. I love these!

Found on one of my favorite blogs, storage and glee, get them over at livette la suissette.

fashion :: shoes for the birds

These shoes are for the birds, literally. Take a walk in the park, have a seat on a bench, then relax and read a book. Won't tweety bird be happy...

The ‘For the Birds’ shoes are just classic flats covered with birdseed that bring man and nature a little bit closer. Designed by Arnold van Bezooyen for an intercultural exhibition where traditional Korean shoes were conceptually redesigned to create a new look and meaning, these JUST COOL shoes address the materiality and function of the shoe instead of its form. (and the birds like it too!)

via virtualshoemuseum

mattresses :: sleeping with the enemy

If you are in the market for a new mattress than listen up , because not all mattresses and mattress brands are created equal.There are many types of mattresses on the market , memory foam being the most popular choice over innerspring mattresses today. Not only does memory foam have the ability to contour itself to your body but it cradles you in comfort and support as well. But be careful when purchasing that new memory foam mattress and do your homework like I have. You will be surprised to know that the conventional memory foam mattress you purchased a few years ago may be your enemy and may actually be making you sick! Regular memory foam, also known as Visco-elastic memory foam or visco foam, is made with petroleum based chemicals and often contains toxic components in it's makeup. And because overseas manufacturers (who often produce these mattresses) have no regulatory laws regarding the manufacturing of their product, they aren't required to disclose these chemicals. Nasty ones like Cyanide, Acetone, Lead compounds , Benzene, Dioxins and Furans. Ones that have been linked to cancer, heart, lung and kidney damage etc. Yuk... just imagine these very chemicals lulling you to sleep each night. Not a pleasant thought, is it?
So how do you get a comfy, cozy memory foam mattress sans that nasty toxicity?

Enter the Essentia Natural Memory Foam Mattress, the ONLY natural memory foam manufactured in the world. Made from rubber tree sap and "adhesive free technology", Essentia's patented process infuses organic essential oils, plant extracts and water into the foam composition to give it a memory foam like feel. The result? Luxurious and outstanding comfort, no chemical off-gassing or odor,a healthy, allergy-free sleeping environment, extreme durability (a 20 year warranty!), a mattress 80% more breathable than conventional memory foam, a faster recovery time and, get this, a miracle mattress that is biodegradable! I DEFINITELY want one!You can read more about this amazing natural mattress over at MyEssentia.com and get ALL the facts for yourself . Finally a mattress that is really JUST COOL!

garden :: have a seat

Love this! Furniture that fits right into your garden. So take a seat ...



or a nap ;)



Gardening thats fun and JUST COOL!

via apartmenttherapy

green :: salad siding

What a great idea! Recycling rain gutters into mini veggie gardens. Who'da thunk that skinny scrawny rain gutters could actually grow vegetables but YES THEY CAN! And they even look good doing it.

via new world geek

recycling :: heartburn hill

Coke can recycling went to the extreme when 200,000 crushed cans were arranged to recreate a 1949 Coca-Cola billboard ad. Now that's a heck of a lot of heartburn!

The creative endeavor kicked off the start of recycle week in the UK and was a 50 meter long work of art created by Robert Bradford and his team of artists, taking a week in all to complete.Now that's JUST COOL!

via creative review

architecture :: green bus stop

talk about green recycling - and a clever idea for a dwelling

it's JUST COOL!

via bartvandamme

advertising :: water saving grocery check out

Just part of the brilliant ad campaign that  Sukle Advertising and Design created to get the word out to save water. The Denver based campaign, whose baseline is “Keep our Rivers flowing, use only what you need,” transforms grocery store checkout belts into flowing rivers. Then, to really get the message across, the bars that customers use to separate the orders bear the campaign’s slogan.

JUST COOL advertising, I think!

design :: packaging that stinks

What will they think of next? Modern packaging for today's pet poop is what! Don't get caught out on your walk with Rover without a striking and cleverly designed canister of "Olives Poop Bags". Really, they are attractive - I love the Nate Williams zany artwork scribbled all over them and the company that produces them has thought of everything because they are eco friendly and bio degradable as well.

"Olive's biodegradable poop bags are made naturally from GMO-free corn starch and vegetable oil, are certified 100% biodegradable and compost in as little as 40 days. They come in two sizes - Unisex (small) and Super Poop (large) - and are available online at www.olivegreendog.com."

Poppy Petunia will take a few cans of the Unisex, please. Cuz these poop bags are JUST COOL!

green:: lawns get even greener

Even though Earth Day 2009 is over, making a concious effort to protect our Planet Earth has really just begun. Together, everyone can make a difference that will make a huge positive impact. That means changing the way we do a lot of things . It may be switching to recycled shopping bags and getting rid of the disposable plastics altogether, or just switching to CFL lightbulbs and being more concious of our energy usage. Going green also goes outside (but of course!) to things like organic gardening, composting, growing your own vegetables...even fertilizing your lawn! I just discovered a wonderful "green" product for the lawn called Ringer organic lawn fertilizer. No nasty chemicals that may have horrendous ill effects on our health and the earths health in this great product at all! And the benefits of using it on your lawn and garden is exponential as well. In addition to helping improve the environment and decreasing the chances of accelerated disease in your family, going organic can provide mental and physical benefits, long-term money-savings, and increased vitamin and mineral content in your soil, and you feel good knowing you are doing your part - even outside - to help the earth!One of Ringer's great products, ringer lawn restore, is an OMRI Listed® and compliant fertilizer for use in organic gardening. It naturally restores your lawn,by stimulating growth and killing weeds in a safe and natural way. Spring is here and it's time to get tending that lawn and time to fertilize, so why not do it the natural way!

green :: wasted waste bin

How about a waste basket made of waste? Recycled paper (that once was waste) ,that is . This cool waste basket is made of fifty recycled paper liners that stack inside of each other. Designers Riccardo Nannini, Domenico Orefice and Emanuele Pizzolorusso exhibited their waste paper basket made of recycled paper at exhibition Dismettiamola! in Milan this week.

When the bin is full , the filled top liner is thrown away (into another recycle bin ;) ) and the next layer is ready to collect more waste paper. The pleated cupcake liner shape can be produced easily and it looks JUST COOL too!

via Dezeen

green :: Earth Hour - Turn it off to vote

Have you heard about Earth Hour? It's buzz is all over the internet, and for good reason. On March 28, 2009 -yup that's this Saturday - for one hour, 8:30 PM - 9:30 PM, millions of people of all ages,  from all nationalities, races and backgrounds have the opportunity to use their light switch as their vote. Switching off their lights is a vote for Earth and  leaving them on is a vote for global warming.The switch off happened in 2007, and in 2008,  but this year, Earth Hour has been transformed into the world’s first global election, between Earth and global warming. WWF are urging the world to VOTE EARTH and reach for the light switch and the target of 1 billion votes, which will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009.

This meeting will determine official government policies to take action against global warming, which will replace the Kyoto Protocol and the chance for the people around the world to make their voice heard. So watch the video and spread the word and don't forget! TURN OFF THOSE LIGHTS!

Let your voice be heard in the dark - it's JUST COOL!

cool product :: wooden radio

To be honest, I don't even listen to the radio anymore except when I'm in my car. Why should I, when I have cable, internet,an ipod and all the other electronic gadgets everyone has these days. Some may even consider radios near extinct unless you are in some remote part of the world.

Enter these JUST COOL and aesthetically appealing radios designed by Snggih Kartono. Beautiful, basic and crafted with natural woods, these kind of remind me of my wooden Fisher Price radio that I had as a kid - a little funky - a little cartoonish, yet these are a lot more sophisticated. The modernist me loves this design!

Kartono chooses wood for his radios not just based on aesthetics but on his appreciation of wood's simplicity and organic vitality. His workers hone the cases from sustainably grown trees making the radios eco-friendly as well.

Available in a couple designs - these radios are JUST COOL!

via designpublic

green :: bathroom moss

It's a bath mat. And it's ALIVE!

Squiggling your toes through some fresh green moss not only feels good but it's good for you too - it increases your blood circulation. This environmentally green moss carpet is the real deal, the cool idea conceived  by Nguyen La Chanh . It's a bath mat Made from imputrescible foam called plastazote, and planted with ball moss, island moss and forest moss and fits perfectly into any bathroom. The high humidity and water droplets from your shower make it thrive.

What a JUST COOL bath mat. I want one!

via yanko design

green :: ecofont -saving ink one letter at a time

Ecofont. A font that looks good and saves ink at the same time. I like that idea! If you have a printer that prints with pricey ink like mine does (Claria High Definition Ink) then you'll welcome this new font to the pack. SPRANQ creative communications' inspiration for  ecofont came from Dutch Holey Cheese. By removing circles from inside the font without compromising the shape of each letter they came up with this decent looking font that  uses 20%  less ink! It is based on the Vera Sans, an Open Source letter, and is available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux.

Read more about ecofont and download it for free  at the SPRANQ website.

travel :: a secret garden

I love secret gardens! Although this one may not be so secret anymore, it is filled with all the magic and enchantment you would expect to find in such a lush green hideaway. Hidden among the trees of the small Victorian village of Marysville in Australia, it is a world full of fantasy, beauty and whimsy. It's creator, Bruno Torf has lovingly sculpted, gardened and built one of the world's most unique and deeply inspiring experiences for art and garden lovers of all ages.

The luscious sub-alpine forests of the surrounding area made an ideal setting for Bruno's plan and luckily the property he purchased had a large section of rain forest attached. Bruno's Art & Sculpture Garden began with just fifteen life sizes terracotta sculptures, and today boasts over one hundred and fifteen pieces on display, with Bruno continually adding new pieces. A gallery that houses over 200 of his creations brought over from Europe includes oil paintings, sketches and smaller sculptures. The unique experience of the garden and its wondrous inhabitants attracts thousands of visitors a year.

I would love to visit this place, wouldn't you? It's JUST COOL!

Flemish Flowers at my Etsy Shop!

green :: LED in NYC

I'm impressed. The Big Apple is now adding LED streetlamps to it's green bag of tricks. In 2009 it will be testing this new street lighting technology in designated areas to see how workable it is. With only six experimental installations, I don't know if you'll even notice them though. The good news about these new LED lamps is of course the energy savings and low carbon footprint. Hey, maybe they should make them solar too! I wonder if that is possible.

But as planned, they will use majorly less energy as well as reduce the city’s power usage by 25- 30 percent when and if the whole city goes LED street lit. And that's not the only perk. These lamps are expected to last 50,000-70,000 hours as compared to the high-pressure sodium lights that they will be replacing - the ones that last a measly 24,000 hours. As a result, maintenance and energy costs will be reduced and the expected ROI on each lamp is 2-3 years. Impressive, huh?

So look for an LED street lamp coming to a corner near you. LED street lighting - Now that's JUST COOL!

via inhabitat

green :: woodland chair

a chair befitting any woodland elf ...

by Viola Kup

I wonder if it's scratchy - but it smells good and it's def JUST COOL!

via ifitshipitshere

architecture :: towers of green-ness

These green grassy spirals look to me like a giant ring toss game, but are actually the winning entry in a design competition that challenged the architects to create a city center for Gwanggyo, a new town south of Seoul, Korea.

The design will become one of two centers for the future new town, a self sufficient city of 77,000 inhabitants located 35 km south of Seoul.

The Gwanggyo Power Centre will comprise housing, office, culture, retail, leisure and education spaces.

The Dutch architect firm MVRDV incorporated green plantings on the spiraling terraces to facilitate ventilation, and reduce energy and water usage.

I like this futuristic design, don't you?! It's JUST COOL!Read more over at Dezeen.