Just look at what we are giving away this week because we love you.

“What are you, some kind of trustafarian?” your friend demands. But no. You just read EcoSalon.

This week and this week only, at least until we do this again, we’re giving away gorgeous green gear to you, Susty Spice. Five one-of-a-kind designs, one for each day, five lucky winners.

It’s easy to enter. Just sign up for our newsletter and then like us on Facebook. We’ll take care of the rest! Before the orchestra starts up, I’d better get to showing you the goods:

Exhibit A of our temporary insanity is this exclusively designed Pendleton poncho from VivaTerra. They are limited. They are stunning. You could win one. Isn’t our sister company VivaTerra nice to do this? We explained how hot this look is this fall and they completely understood. (If you want to make sure to get one instead of waiting to see if you’ve won, I recommend moving fast because these won’t last.) $395 value.

Nope, not kidding, not even a little. We’re giving this bad boy away. This gorgeous recycled leather tote is used by a number of girls on the EcoSalon team and we can’t get enough. At $279 it’s hardly a ho-hum handbag, yet I can report that it’s really rather a steal considering the superb quality. Let’s just say I wish I’d dropped for this instead of wasting $400 on a Kooba bag that spends more custody time with my tailor than with me.

Regal flash. NYC-based Bright Young Things designer and fierce girl-about-town Eliza Starbuck loves her handmade, fair trade Mirabai necklace. You could win one, too. Please note Ms. Starbuck not included. $214 value.

Now we come to the warm and fuzzy part of the story known as Hug Me. We’re giving you the blanket, the pillow, even the organic pillow insert. How hipster happily-ever-after can it get? For best results, just add a him. Or a her. Or a Pomeranian.  $187 total value.

At $89 per sheet, this is possibly the most fabulous eco-friendly toweling in existence. It’s the kind of oversized, plush luxury you’d steal from a hotel if it were at a hotel. And because we are extra-extra nice, and because one is never enough, we’re giving you two of these bath sheets, along with a hand towel and wash cloth. No need to thank us. Just promise to use paraben-free shampoo on those strands. And don’t steal. That’s wrong. Total value $226.

Winners will be informed next Monday. Good luck! We love you.

The fine print: You can only sign up for the newsletter once; multiple entries will be removed. We keep your information 100% private. In the unlikely event an item is unavailable or out of stock, a comparable replacement gift option will be made available. EcoSalon staff and family are excluded from this offer. If you have already subscribed to our newsletter and are friends with us on Facebook, you are already automatically entered in our weekly giveaways. This one here is for the newbies, sug.

All goods are available exclusively at VivaTerra.

EcoSalon’s weekly playlist pick from 8tracks.

Today I woke up to the sound of pouring rain. For a quick moment I thought about complaining – an easy thing to do when it’s 6 am and dark and dreary out – but then I decided that the change of seasons probably required a change of attitude.

That’s why I am loving this EcoSalon exclusive playlist put together for us by the lovely Gretchen Jones, called Changing Phases. A wonderful collection of her favorite songs for fall, in honor of our fall playlist giveaway contest. So take a listen, get inspired, and send us your own fall mixes that are making you fall in love with the season all over again.

1. Great Life by Caveman
2. The Future Starts Slow by the Kills
3. The Landing by The Lines
4. Bad Ritual by Timber Timbre
5. Desire Lines by Deerhunter
6. Wildfire by SBTRKT
7. Sutphin Boulevard by Blood Orange
8. Truth by Alexander
9. Truth Sets In by Avi Buffalo
10. Cruel by St. Vincent
11. Lord Knows Best by Dirty Beaches

Listen by clicking here.

On Music Monday we bring you a featured playlist from one of our favorite music sites 8tracks. From indie rock to electro pop we hope it’s a playlist that kicks your week off right. 

Image:

An exclusive  EcoSalon + 8tracks contest: submit your favorite fall songs to win.

Well, it’s fall. Warm weather days are over, hot drinks sound so much more appealing compared to the last several months and if you’re biking to work you’ve started to stash your rain pants in your bag whenever you leave the house. We happen to love fall, and one of the best ways to get in the mood is to throw on some good tunes, be it for background music as you curl up on the couch with a warm cup of tea or for inspiration as you throw yourself at making a delicious pumpkin concoction in the kitchen.

We’ve got plenty of songs that we love to listen to this time of year, but as the leaves start to turn and you pile on another sweater, we wonder what are your favorite songs you can’t live without?

Send us your top eight songs that keep you fueled in the autumn months. We’ll pick our favorite and turn it into an official 8tracks playlist, to be featured on EcoSalon and 8tracks.

What’s in it for you? Well, besides the pure fame of having your favorite songs featured on both EcoSalon and 8tracks, we’ve got a sweet prize package for the winner. If we pick your playlist, you’ll win some stuff from three of our favorite brands:

• a classy pair of boots from El Naturalista
• a laptop bag made from upcycled bike tubes from Alchemy Goods
• a cute pair of eco-active capris from Restore Clothing

You can submit your songs here in the comments or send them via email to marketing[at]ecosalon[dot]com. Get them in by October 31, 2011. We can’t wait to hear what you come up with!

Images: Anna Brones, Restore Clothing, Alchemy Goods, El Naturalista

EcoSalon launches new Foodspotting guide to help you navigate your way through the foodie world.

Are you a foodie like the rest of us here at EcoSalon? Then we’re sure you’ll love Foodspotting.

Forget regular old online restaurant reviews, Foodspotting is all about highlighting your favorite foodie picks in a quick and interactive way. The concept is simple: snap a shot of a dish you love and rave to the world about it. In need of a place to eat? Use the mobile app to help you track what dishes are close to you and what looks appetizing. It’s visual, it’s positive, it’s global and we are in love with it.

Not only does Foodspotting let you search cities for what dishes are hot, they also have curated guides so you can get some of the best eats from names you trust, like EcoSalon. That’s right, we’ve got a brand spanking new Ecosalon Foodspotting page where we’ll be highlighting some of our favorite foodie spots and dishes from around the country. Check us out, say hello and let us know what dishes you love!

To celebrate the official launch of our new EcoSalon Foodspotting channel, we want to hear what local foodie destinations you love. Is it a taco truck, a hole-in-the-wall vegan joint or a wine bar with a local selection of wines and cheeses? We want to know! Submit your own list of Top 5 Locavore Picks from your city and we’ll compile a Readers’ Picks guide with a selection of our favorites. Even better, the person with the most intriguing list will win a Root of the Earth Platter from VivaTerra, perfect for serving up cheese, fruit, bread and beyond at your next dinner party.

To enter, please submit a list of your Top 5 Locavore Picks in your city to food@ecosalon.com or add your recommendations to this Foodspotting guide. Entries must be received by July 1, 2011 12pm PST.

ColumnCongratulations to our winning Foodie Underground entry by Johanna Kindvall!

Last week, in celebration of Foodie Underground‘s one-year anniversary, we asked for your own foodie submissions. We received many interesting, creative recipes, photos and artwork.

As I wrote last week, writing this column has been an exploration of how food is appreciated and enjoyed in all circles. Not just amongst professional chefs and wine connoisseurs, but people who enjoy finding, cooking and eating food, thinking about where it comes from, and what it means. Our submissions were an excellent reminder of that.

Everyone has a recipe or food story to tell. And being more active in the underground food movement is in turn making it more mainstream. Even renegade markets are getting mentioned in the New York Times. The more attention we get on underground markets, local farmers, sustainable culinary options and beyond, the more potential we have to really create a food system that sustains us in way that’s beneficial for us and the environment.

We could only choose one winner for our contest, and we’ve chosen Johanna Kindvall.

A food blogger, Johanna submitted not only a recipe and a story, but a visual interpretation of herself and her husband making potato pancakes. Since we’re suckers for food illustrations here at EcoSalon, and I’ve got a personal thing for Scandinavian inspired recipes, our editors agree the prize goes to Johanna. We appreciate everyone who participated – we loved seeing your artwork, reading your essays and learning about why food is special to you.

Congratulations to Johanna! Here’s her winning story and illustrations:

“What can be more foodie underground than making potato pancakes while house squatting in London? The fact is that next door to one of the Rolling Stones in Chelsea, my husband M learned how to make Potato Pancakes. It was during the punk era and M had just been thrown out from home. House squatting was one way to survive while struggling with his studies at the AA.

The recipe is simple: (for two people) Peel two potatoes. Cut them in smaller pieces and mash them in a blender. If the potatoes are too watery you need to squeeze out some of the liquid before adding two small eggs. When the mixture is blended add some flour and season with salt. Heat up a standard frying pan with some butter. Pour about five – six small amounts of batter into the pan and fry over medium heat until golden brown, turning once only.

The pancakes can be served with many different things. Back in Chelsea, M ate them with just butter and sugar. Today we serve them with a variety of small sides, for example, lingonberry jam, freshly grated carrots, sautéed bacon pieces, goat cheese, sour cream and caviar.”

Johanna won these beautiful Festival Sol Mini Bowls from VivaTerra. Stay tuned for more contests on Foodie Underground!

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, finding what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

ColumnFoodie Underground is turning one year old. Help us celebrate and win!

“From supper clubs to mini farmers’ markets to beyond…weekly!”

Those were the words of my editor last March. I had just finished writing a roundup of farmers markets around the country, and in the process, had found an assortment of all kinds of other “DIY markets.” That had the potential for at least another story. And then another article turned into another and another, and suddenly, we had a weekly column on our hands.

The words “weekly column” were mildly daunting as I wasn’t entirely sure how this new feature would take form, and to be perfectly honest, I only had a couple of story ideas lined up. Certainly not anything to get me through a year. But I forged ahead, racking my brain, my connections and the internet for all that seemed “underground” and avant-garde. And Foodie Underground was born.

With lots of direction and ongoing tips from said editor, Foodie Underground has become a beloved feature where we take a look at food trends of all kinds. It’s also allowed me to take a ridiculous amount of food photographs.

I like to think of Foodie Underground as a place to explore “democratized foodie-ism.” If anything has become clear in the last year, it’s that food lovers exist in all circles. We’re not pretentious culinary pros with our noses in the air. Some of us love to cook and some of us are happy never putting a foot in the kitchen. But we all appreciate good food, where it comes from and the stories behind it. And we don’t take ourselves too seriously.

There’s coffee delivered on bikes, cookies baked in an apartment and served out of a window on a string and underground markets gone wild with home brewed kombucha. It’s all part of a movement that’s making us not only enjoy food, but think about it as more than just something we consume for sustenance.

Foodie Underground turns a year old next week, and to celebrate, we want you to take part and show us your foodie favorites. Maybe it’s a hand-me-down recipe that you can’t go to a dinner party without, maybe it’s your favorite local food truck that serves up a mean plate of organic tacos, maybe it’s a photo of your home brewed liqueurs, maybe it’s a painting rendition of a classic recipe, or maybe it’s your weekly indulgence for taking food porn shots. Whatever it is, we want to see it! Get creative.

Send your photos, recipes and Foodie Underground favorites to tips[at]ecosalon[dot]com. Our favorite submission will win a set of Festival Sol Mini Bowls, made with recycled glass, from VivaTerra. So cute!

Good luck, and see you next week.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground. Each week, Anna will be taking a look at something new and different that’s taking place in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to culinary avant garde.

Images: Laura Cooke Ceramics, Anna Brones, VivaTerra

Tweed, camel, natural materials and textures, and understated elegance: could these snuggly boots be any more perfect for fall 2010?

They say all the things you would want to say if you could actually afford an outfit from those outrageous Aspen catalogs, minus the unfortunately high-wasted jeans look said catalogs still insist on, and the unsustainable manufacturing practices and materials. (You know the catalogs. Lots of shining beautiful people lounging around impeccable bedecked ski lodges looking successfully anorexic and conveniently rich in designer velvet jodpurs. It’s marvelous how many different leather-elbowed sweaters one can wear just going from vintage Range Rover to distressed leather fireplace-adjacent armchair, isn’t it? Oh, the hairspray of it all.) Distaste for daddy’s hunting trophy wall aside, we all lust for gorgeous chunky sweaters and beautiful boots to wear at a price point we can swing.

These beauty booties are a vastly more conscious approach to being ruggedly glamorous in the country (or on the porch), and they’re also just ever-so-slightly more attuned to the current economic realities at a reasonable $169 a pop. That’s not much more than a pair of Uggs, and these have the benefit of actually being attractive. Not to mention on-trend.

They’re also 100% eco-friendly, being made of natural, not synthetic, fibers like rice husks and latex. (Note: maker VivaTerra employs genuine vegetable-tanned sheepskin, so vegans will want to opt for the wool tweed version.)

They say comfort. They say clean. They say swaddled in sustainable style. And they can be yours!

To purchase at a discount you can feel cozy with, click here and enter SNUG at checkout for $25 off the retail price. That’s just for you, EcoSalonners. You can also win a pair outright by simply leaving a comment on this post. Good luck!

This is the last in my special series of fantastic giveaways from our sister company VivaTerra. I personally adore these new products and I think you will, too. Let me know if you want me to feature more giveaways in the future by dropping me a tweet @ecosalon. Contest and discount end next Thursday at midnight, so scoot.

(Legalese: Giveaway rules and FTC compliance.)

Ahem. We’ve been longing for this bag in a big way. Lusting for it. Pining and yearning and possibly drooling, too. We’ve more than once reminded our mothers we have a birthday coming up*. Equal parts stunning and sustainable, the Ruffled Hemp Bag by VivaTerra is the best everyday bag of the season, and today…we…give it away.

You lucky duck.

To win, just leave me a nice comment below. The contest runs through next Wednesday midnight (last week’s Apple Dutch Oven winner will be announced tomorrow), and your odds are pretty good, sweet cheeks. But in case you can’t wait, you can still get the bag for a fantastic deal – do it before it runs out of stock! – by using the discount code HEMP at purchase. $25 bucks off the purchase price of $198? Done!

It’s eco. It’s chic. It’s the kind of ruffled sweetness J. Crew just wishes it had thought of. And, I have to say, this bag reminds me of a certain not-at-all-green leather Valentino bag from a season or so ago that I really loved but wasn’t about to buy owing to its toxic credentials (well, that and the fact that it cost nearly three thousand dollars). This one is better, not just because it’s 100% sustainable, but because it’s an almost unbelievably great price for a luxury tote bag. I love that it has a (removable) shoulder strap as well as traditional bowling handles. The black leather is recycled (of course it is!) and we all know how strong hemp is. Hemp = the spidey fiber of the apparel world, so you can take this baby from the office to the beach to the art show without a second thought, all season long. The slate hue is a perfect contrast for all the red and camel you’ve got flying around this fall, too.

Good luck, and grab this bag before it goes!

*Okay, maybe that was more me than we.

(Legalese: FTC and giveaway rules.)

Are you here to enter to win the giveaway? Just leave a comment on this post, below.

Not quite on a Le Crueset budget but just so over combing the aisles of TJ Maxx for cheap cookware that inevitably flakes and burns? It’s time to break up with Teflon.

Make like Julia Child and get yourself a cast of (enameled iron) characters sure to make your culinary adventures more successful for years to come. Allow me to introduce a very chic – and 100% green – chef-worthy cooking set, complete with the cutest darn Dutch Oven I’ve ever seen. The whole set is affordably priced – especially if you’re looking for lifetime cookware you don’t have to replace every third crepe attempt – but what I love most is that juicy little apple Dutch Oven. That red is red.

Julie knew what she was talking about: nothing cooks, grills, bakes, braises, sweats and sears like enamel cast iron. And you know how wonderful it feels in hand: substantial, forever, legit. It’s not going anywhere no matter how many times you scrape, scrub or scratch it.

The apple, however, is: we’re giving one away this week to one of you lucky commenters, so tell us what dish you’d whip up, and you may just win.

Can’t wait? I have been loving this piece so much, and think you will too, so I asked our pals at VivaTerra to offer a special, serious discount just for you. We’re not talking some puny 5% off promotion, either. Nope, just cold, hard cash! This versatile oven goes for $129 but if you click to buy and use the promo code APPLE, you’ll get $25 off, instantly. You’ll notice the promotion on the site for the next week, and if you think it’s a cool deal, let us know!

As for me, you can find me spoon-deep in the garlicky buttered mashed potatoes, curried sweet potatoes, roasted rosemary stuffing, minted couscous salad, claypot ginger chicken, wait…where was I?

Leave a comment here to win. One comment per person, and this giveaway ends next week (Wednesday, August 25th, 2010) at midnight. Good luck!

(Official obligatory rule part: you can check out our sponsored giveaway, contest, legalese FTC compliance stuff here.)

World of Difference is a 501(c)3 organization that gives African children and chance by helping communities build schools and train teachers, as well as assisting them with supplies needed to provide a proper education. Each year this 100 percent volunteer organization leads expeditions to the slums of East Africa to build schools and classrooms for orphan children. The organization runs a blog which aims to bring the reader closer to the peoples, events, cultures, and customs of Eastern Africa, and they are currently holding their first online contest which will be open until this Friday at noon (PST). This is a caption contest provide the most clever caption for a photograph from East Africa, and the prize is a hand crafted perennial calendar that was acquired on one of the many expeditions to the region.

Link to the contest: http://makeaworldofdifference.blogspot.com/2010/07/contest-1.html

Have a flair for putting words into other people’s mouths (in the nicest sense)? If so, World of Difference needs you right now – and is ready to reward your efforts!

The nonprofit organization is dedicated to helping African communities provide their children with the standard of education they deserve. Schools, teacher training, individual child sponsorship, the list goes on – every effort made to improve the lot of children made orphans by disease, warfare and abandonment.

And here’s where you come in. Not only can you get involved directly through volunteering or donating, but World of Difference are also running their first competition, ending August 6^th. To enter, click here, come up with an apt and witty caption, and leave it in the comments. If you’re the winner, you’ll be receiving a unique perennial calendar, hand-crafted in Eastern Africa.

So – what’s he saying?