We’ve talked about VivaTerra’s Root of the Earth Bowls. They are beautiful and make a great gift idea, but it’s time to feature some larger items that can really help surround you with nature in the comfort of your own home.

Set the stage for your magical getaways (a.k.a. books) with this whimsical book shelf that utilizes dense elm wood as well as Indian root and trunk materials for outer decoration. Finally something to hold all your Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and other nerdy fantastical escapes!
There is also a matching Root Wine Rack for those who like to live dangerously and drink while reading.

Now where will you set your book down while you get up to get your wine from the favorite reading spot? On this
Branch & Glass Side Table of course! Yep, with branches working together to support the snazzy glass top it looks like nature is here to serve you. A matching Branch & Glass “Console” Table (whatever that means) is also available.

Last but not least on today’s list is … say it with me kids … a STOOL! Yay for stools! (pun intended).
OK now that’s out of the way what else can be said about these reclaimed wood stools? Well they are made of wood, beautiful Japanese teak in this case, and they are great for an impromptu sit down, or end table, or they can even be magical chairs out in your secret garden.

It’s pretty much perpetually sunny here in San Diego, CA, but if I was living in an area that had winter to make me stay indoors, I’d be sure I had some eco-friendly nature inspired furniture to help keep me company.

It’s a new month and that means another awesome vintage store shall take the spot light. I hope you all added last month’s hot vintage seller, Filthy Gorgeous Vintage, to your favorite eBay sellers list so you can stay up-to-date with their latest auctions.

This month Blue Bird Apparel is Mable’s featured Hot Vintage Clothing Store and is always rockin’ the vintage styles from the 40’s to 80’s.

Blue Bird Apparel operates out of Rhode Island and currently has some killer vintage coats and sweaters definitely worth checking out. They add over 50 recycled vintage pieces to the store weekly so be sure to add them to your eBay favorite sellers list so you don’t miss out on anything.

Below is a sneak peak of some hot auctions going on right now from Blue Bird Apparel.

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It was many months ago that I randomly discovered ibride. They were featured on several design blogs and I instantly fell in love with their line of ornate wall art trays. Since they were seemingly everywhere at the time, I didn’t bookmark any online stores. Of course the name ibride quickly slipped from my memory and I have spent the last few months keeping en eye peeled for those gorgeous baroque flourishes and collages of anthropomorphic animals. Quite a hybrid of style, eh? In fact, the name ibride is actually a play on words that is meant to represent “hybrid”. The company consists of 4 French relatives, Rachel, Benoit, and Carine, who I wish I could find more info about online. Their official website is in French and is Flash based so it doesn’t lend well to translating. Anybody know more about them?

Their stunning art trays come in 3 different themes; vintage ladies, animals in nature, and hybrid human/animals attired in exquisite vintage clothing. The imagery is simply amazing, but it’s the colors that really grab me: brooding, muted shades with splashes of vivid color. Everything they make is truly a hybrid of modern and classic. Better still, the laminated trays are made from a recycled wood core!

And lest I forget to mention their newer offerings: furniture shaped like the lower half of an animal. The Basset Stool and Dog Stool (both shown above) are available in black or red. Joe the Polar Bear book shelf measures nearly 4′ tall and is super limited edition.

All but 4 of the trays offered at Burke Decor include Free Shipping in the USA.

SALE ENDS SUNDAY JULY 20th!

GreenLoop doesn’t fool around during their Summer Sale. It isn’t one of those sad “summer sales” where all the winter wear goes 10% off. They have discounted pretty much everything on their site at 20-70% off. If you’ve ever visited their store – or any green retailer for that matter – you’ve probably coveted lots of the sustainable, organic, recycled, Fair Trade eco fashion and accessories, but loathed the price tags. Honestly, they can be pretty ridiculous sometimes. But when they’re discounted up to 70% off, it’s a really smart time to pick up a few organic wardrobe cornerstones. Here are a few of my favorite picks;

• Stewart+Brown Organic Cotton Collar Scoop Shell
• Simple Green Organic/Recycled ‘Toe Stir’ Vegan Skimmers
• Anna Cohen Silky Soy Halter Dress

New items will be added all week long so check back every few days for fresh eco friendly fashion and accessories. And if you sign up for their newsletter, you will get a coupon for an additional 10% off. Shipping is always just $5 flat rate and it’s carbon neutral!

SALE ENDS SUNDAY JULY 20th!

Did you know that, on average, kids throw away 67 pounds of trash every year from their school lunches? This costs schools much needed funds to collect and dispose of that trash, as well as being a huge ecological problem. (I wonder how much adults throw away during lunch.) But we can quickly make lunch time a lesson in zero waste. Participate in the Zero Waste Lunch program by bringing your lunch, and your childrens’ lunches, in stylish and reusable bags. Check out some tips to follow that will help reduce the amount of trash purchased, created, and needlessly thrown away.

For those that want to invest in a quality reusable bag we recommend checking out Nubius Organics’ zero waste lunch section. They feature a stylish line of insulated, reusable totes for transporting your lunch as well as some large bags that are made of recycled plastic bottles. Most, if not all, of their bags/totes are PVC free, teflon free, and lead free so you know your food is safe from toxins.

Nubius Organics also carries another Mable’s favorite: the Laptop Lunch System. Made famous by the Vegan Lunchbox Blog.

We’re barely a week into summer and now feels like a great time to try something new. In an effort to inspire ourselves and create an entirely eco-fashion friendly wardrobe, we’ve decided to take the Wardrobe Refashion Pledge:

We, Mables.com, pledge that we shall abstain from the purchase of “new” manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 4 months. We pledge that we shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for ourselves with our own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. We pledge that we will share the love and post a photo of our refashioned, renovated, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftyness brings! Signed Lauren & Sean

So from July 1st – October 1st we’ll be sharing our adventures with creating, living in, and loving our “preloved” wardrobes. Honestly, being huge fans of vintage and reconstructed clothing, this won’t be a big stretch from what we’re already doing. We like the idea of making a commitment to it though, and sharing our journey with others. We look forward to trying out new refashioning techniques, scouring vintage clothing stores on eBay and better connecting with the sources of our clothes.

Are you interested in taking the Wardrobe Refashion pledge with us? You can sign up for 2, 4, or 6 month period and rest assured you will be in great company. This is the 3rd year and participation gets bigger each time. There are currently over 400 members in the Flickr pool! Whether or not you’ll be joining us in this DIY fashion adventure, what do you think of the idea? Could you avoid buying new clothes for a few months?

We just watched a documentary called Garbage Warrior which is about renegade architect Michael Reynolds and his uphill quest for sustainable housing. “Earthship” is the phrase coined by Reynolds for his version of sustainable houses built from mostly trash (used tires, bottles, cans, etc.) and dirt that he’s been developing and improving on for 30+ years.

The advantages of the Earthship are it’s self sustainability (off the grid), ease of building, uses recycled materials, has no need for AC or heaters regardless of the climate, ability to grow all your own food indoors with recycled water, it’s natural disaster resistant, and the list goes on.

Before we watched we had so many questions like; why aren’t these more popular, what does it take to build one, how long as this guy been doing this, and when can I get one? Light was shed on all these questions after viewing the documentary and what we learned the most is how inhibiting our own government can be for advances of new ideas. There is so much red tape involved with building these homes that it literally took years for the smallest step to be taken.

In the end Reynolds was met with much less resistance in other countries, especially those hit by natural disasters. Fortunately it seems this is where people can benefit most from these Earthships. Reynolds and his team were able to teach tsunami survivors how to build an Earthship from debris, trash, tires, and rammed earth. This is the “proof in the pudding”, and shows some huge payoffs for the many years of experimental buildings, uphill battles, and overall determination Reynolds shows in this documentary. Read more about the movie from the official site.

From my point of view this is definitely worth buying a copy to watch and share with everyone you know. I rank it alongside the eye opening 20 minute documentary The Story of Stuff as must see documentaries.

DVD available from eBay, Amazon, or directly from GarbageWarrior.com

View Trailer:

Father’s Day is just around the corner and buying brand new factory produced items is so 1900’s so be sure to give something special to your Dad. Now you could bust out your craft supplies and make a macaroni portrait of yourself made with love, OR support some professional crafters and buy from Etsy’s Father’s Day Showcase.

Supporting Etsy stores helps keep crafters crafting and spreads the knowledge that we don’t need to shop at big box stores for everything. There are many ways to browse an online store, but Etsy makes it even easier with their Gift Guide section that uses the community to pick gifts for special occasions or that special someone.

Don’t forget about eBay as well. They have a handcrafted category that is worth checking out as well. Below is the most popular item from the HandCrafted category.

On the Mable’s Vintage Clothing page we list our favorite vintage eBay stores, but every now we just got to feature sellers who stand out from the rest. Enter MakiMaki Vintage: a vintage boutique specializing in one of a kind dresses and other exclusive items.

MakiMaki features vintage clothing from the 1950s, mod ’60s, hippy 70s, and radical 80s. Shae, the store owner, used to be a stylist and it shows in her fabulous photos that sets apart MakiMaki from the other vintage clothing sellers on eBay.

MakiMaki has been making waves lately in the media and has been featured in VenusZine, Dorian Magazine, as well as on MTV just to name a few. I imagine one of the reasons her store is so popular – besides her great clothing & photos – is the intuitive navigation that categorize by shoes, dresses, jackets, etc. which is a huge plus for an eBay store.

Be sure to stay up to date with their latest vintage finds by subscribing to the MakiMaki Vintage blog, or by becoming a friend on MySpace or Facebook.

Today most people will examine their personal “footprint” on Earth, looking for ways to become more sustainable. But why limit our efforts to just one day? This planet is ours to enjoy, but we’re responsible for protecting it as well. That’s why we love the green slogan Earth Day is Everyday: it reminds us to cultivate concern for “the environment” (you know, that things we’re all living in) every single day.

Mable’s has green gifts all year in our Eco-Friendly Gifts category. We are consistently looking for new green gifts to add to these categories as all of our products are hand picked.

• Eco Living
• Eco Home
• Recycled Gifts
• Organic Clothes
• Plants & Gardening

Mable’s looks for gifts that use sustainable materials, recycled materials, organically grown materials, were fairly traded, reusable, and hopefully come from a factory that uses sustainable energy.

We also just added some BioDiesel Kits to easily convert your diesel engine to run off a more sustainable and cleaner burning fuel, vegetable oil. I’d be all over this kit, but I haven’t found a diesel powered scooter… yet. I guess my 80 MPG gas scooter will do until then.