Who doesn’t love a baby? Even if you’re pre-procreation or just undecided in the “bringing a human into the world” department, it’s hard to resist the soft skin and fresh smell of a little bundle.

When my sister-in-law gave birth to my nephew I wanted to steal him, I mean buy him...every outfit on the rack. But the green in me screamed “don’t do it”. Babies are bundles only for a moment, quickly growing into little adults who walk and talk. So instead I bought three organic and unisex “onesies” from Little Lark, which she reused when my niece was born 2 years later.

Little Lark is a mother-owned and operated company based in Portland, Oregon. (Yes, another fabulous momtrepreneur!) They sell unique, hand printed baby and toddler clothes made of 100% organic cotton. Their designs are “modern, hip, fun and non-gender specific…exhibiting simplicity and style with a sophisticated edge”. They aren’t kidding, as you can see here and even better here.

Available in sizes 3-6m and 6-12m for $24 (and tax free) at fawn & forest, each onesie comes in a printed, reusable muslin bag - perfect for gift-giving.

Now that my brother and sister-in-law have confirmed “two is enough”, they’re giving their onesies and more to friends and family still in the baby-making mode. Hand-me-down has never been greener.

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Camilla Norrback believes that skin should be exposed.

Exposed - that is - only to nontoxic textiles. The Norwegian designer aims to fuse responsibility and freedom in her designs. Think sophisticated cuts with a childlike charm.

Norrback's designs also fuse decades, drawing patterns from the transition between the '80s and the '90s and emphasizing the best of both worlds. Off-the-shoulder designs meet fitted waists and wide, flowing sleeves and pant-legs. Detailed eco-luxury features like Corzo nut buttons in lieu of plastic are featured throughout the collections.
 
  

With this post, Camilla Norback can consider herself exposed (to us, at least).

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When a client said she wanted to do Swedish fabrics in the bedrooms of her remodeled vacation house in Tahoe, I went searching for sources other than IKEA for textiles that could translate into gorgeous bedding. While I think some of IKEA's ready-made bedding is cheerful in that whimsical Scandinavian fashion, the texture is too rough for my taste. Bedding needs to be not only visually inviting but soft to the touch.

The Northern lights led me to Textile Arts and its line of appealing eco-friendly fabrics,  including Traditions, a folk art brocade, and the ultra-modern Louisa's Squares. The fabrics in this collection are all comprised of organic cotton, linen, hemp and bamboo, grown without pesticides and bleached with hydrogen peroxide instead of the usual toxins. This wonderful source for fabrics (as well as other modern decor) gives discounts to trade members who register. In addition to the eco line, the company offers a large assortment of  printed cottons and oil cloths in traditional and retro patterns.


For anyone seeking vintage Scandinavian textiles, such as the Josef Frank designs of the 1940's, check out Just Scandinavian and the stunning botanical motifs of the designer who died in the mid-1960's but whose designs are still printed (show here and above).


And at Scandinavia Design Center you will also find a range of lovely Nordic upholstery fabrics to suit your Viking hunger for all things Swedish.

Now, here's a tip for customizing bedding: I seek out local upholstery sewers, like Dreams in San Francisco, and ask them how much yardage I will need for a queen or king duvet. Usually, I take the down comforter into the work room with me to get the exact fit. I also love to customize bedskirts since generous ready-made ones are hard to find. This requires measuring the drop from the top of your box spring to the floor. If you have a carpet, the drop will be shorter than on hardwood. I like the skirt to extend to the floor without about a half-inch extra to puddle. Look for a work room in your city and customize your own Scandinavian ensemble.

Matching sheeting is easy with all that's on the market. My favorite retail source: Cuddledown. I really love the eco-friendly, 400-thread-count Sateen Hotel bedding with simple embroidered stitching which coordinates beautifully with busy prints.

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In the current economic climate of massive corporate lay-offs and gas prices nearing $5 a gallon, it would seem risky to open a posh green home design store peddling eco fireplaces ranging as high as $12,000. But Fred Segal is banking on its reputation as the hippest L.A. store around since 1976. If the brand could invent the first fashion jeans it can certainly market ultra cool fireplaces fueled by renewable green energy.

So two months ago, it boldly opened the doors of Fred Segal Green at the tony address of 500 Broadway in Santa Monica, where Segal opened its second fashion store years ago. The 1,200 square-foot green decor showroom featuring a stunning array of furnishings, accents and books, has already drawn in the celebrity crowd, including Robin Williams and Meryl Streep.

"David Caruso bought some recycled can top bags by Dalaleo for a friend," shares salesman Phillipe Dubois in a lovely French accent that must work quite well in the pristine, upscale setting. Dubois tells me the response has been excellent from not only the loyal Hollywood clientele that has been buying designer jeans and trendy frocks from Segal since 1976, but from all over the world since the Santa Monica retail mecca is already packed with summer tourists.

What will you find at the new, sustainable Segal's? Those stylishly surreal felt rocks by Ronel Jordaan; The efficient and low carbon Ecosmart Fireplaces from Australia which run on denatured ethanol; Laptop bags by Monacca and throws and cushions by a variety of pure wool and cotton textile brands. Dubois adds there's a great selection of architecture and design books, as well as fun toys for rich kids, I mean, for cute little green kids of all ages.

The store is currently designing its new web site but has one page up at fredsegalgreen.com. If you are visiting L.A. soon, you won't want to miss this new eco haunt. (310) 395-5699.

And don't feel bad if you don't buy anything. According to Dubois, even Meryl was "just looking."

Image: Hello Dollface

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Since early last century, modern architecture has struggled for a distinctive middle ground, somewhere between the staunch angular rationalism of Le Corbusier and the nature-directed style made famous by Frank Lloyd Wright. The latest arena is the eco-house. So what architectural style would you feel comfortable living in?

The 12Wide miniHome?
Simon Dale's homemade house-in-a-hill?

The prefab delights of the DWR Kithaus?


Earthship Brighton? (What's an Earthship? It's one of these).


Michael Jantzen's work (this is his "Wind Shaped Pavilion")?


Illy's Quick House? (Let's presume they'd throw in four walls and a proper roof as well).


The Orchid House?

Color's a powerful thing. Our moods are tied in with the colors of the seasons - and that's why I'm a fan of seasonal redecorating (as Tina is, here). Does the hue of your room suddenly feel out of place? A lick of paint is the quickest of makeovers.

Except there's an even quicker method - spray-painting. Now, you may remember a few issues around the word "aerosol" - namely, the volatile organic compounds that are equally good at coating walls and the inside of lungs. Happily, the industry has innovated itself out of a corner, and much lower-toxicity paint (not zero, not yet) is available in the form of the Krylon 21-colour range of latex sprays. Get some on the carpet by accident? Soap and water is all you need.

If your trigger finger is itching to begin, here are a few suggestions:

Start looking at second-hand furniture not for what it looks like - but what it could look like. It's a whole new spectrum of recycling.

Remember: the color wheel is your friend. You can download a variety of them in different shades from TigerColor here.

Get some nice wide Sellotape (it's compostable - which is why the WWF happily sells it). Use the tape to create those arresting borders between colours, and protect the furniture. And don't forget to put papers down - spray paint drifts in the air!

Keep that mask on! Eco-friendly sprays are more eco-friendly, not totally so. Ventilate the room as best you can, creating through-draughts between back and front door. Play it super safe.

Read twice, spray once. Look at the work of others, such as this resprayed lantern over at Dose of Design. Hunt down a book or two (say, this one). Don't spray a drop of paint until you know exactly what you're making. Imagining is half the fun, like a kind of window-shopping - so have fun.

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Image: sarae

When I think of felt - I think of 5th grade. That’s the year my best friend, Eden, and I created a 2-foot-high UCLA basketball player out of papier-mache. We captured him mid-stride with an orange Styrofoam basketball hanging from his hand. The light blue and yellow uniform, socks and shoes were made with felt.

Back then, I had no idea I was working with an organic textile. (We won’t discuss the Styrofoam ball or the loads of toxic glue). I also didn’t think of felt as aesthetically pleasing in any way.

But times have changed. And Selina Rose has changed the way I see felt. The British designer runs her own design studio, working with industrial and 100% wool felt colored with environmentally-friendly dyes. Her intricately-designed textiles - rugs, window panels, table runners, room dividers and more - are created using an innovative watercut technology, non-PVC decals and water based non-toxic inks.

Check out her newest collections - Bloom and Botanica. Simply spectacular, stylish and chic. I adore the panels (available by commission) - I’d hang one or two to break up my open space plan apartment in a subtle way.


The bloom rug with floral cutouts measures 4’ x 4’ ($900). There’s also a 4’ round botanica rug ($900). See her cushions ($150), table runners ($195) and lampshades ($168) at the online shop.

Selina Rose textiles can also be purchased in person at Eco Age, the new London eco-shop owned by British actor Colin Firth, his wife and brother-in-law. Their online store is coming soon. Or order by telephone +44 (0) 7803 147898 or via email.

I've never felt so green.

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Recently we've spotted a new trend in eco-chic decor. Let's call it Things That Make You Slightly Uneasy. (Like this, for example).

The latest items to raise the hairs on the back of your neck are those of the Witches' Kitchenware range. No doubt about it - the sustainable two-tone Guatemalan wood looks gorgeous, and reaffirms my belief that plastic kitchen utensils are thoroughly last-century. But....it's the prongs, the spikes, the tangs. The dagger. There's also a gorgeous-looking cauldron - sorry, casserole dish, and a set of witch-inspired gloves and aprons.


If you're happy with feeling like your kitchen belongs in the world of a certain boy-wizard (or, more likely, if young children have out-voted you on this matter), keep an eye on Artecnica's site - they seem to be looking for a new distributor at the moment. And when you're equipped, you could even try out a few "authentic" recipes from Kate West's book here.

(Disclaimer: Ecosalon does not take any responsibility for anyone accidentally being turned into a toad. Thank you).

Images: Artecnica

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Read through all our articles for the week? At a loose end? Curl up with a few of these...
The home of Good Housekeeping over in Harlem, NY, has had an eco-friendly makeover. LEED-certified, the new building opens July 30th and is running tours of the premises shortly after. (Ecorazzi gave us the heads-up).
CFLs: great while they're working, not so much afterwards. That mercury is a problem for consumers and recyclers alike - so let's applaud Home Depot, since as Grist reports, the biggest DIY store in the States now collects CFLs for safe recycling.
Amanda Melodini's article here (great title) tells of the latest innovation in air filtration: it's called a plant. (In fact, the breakthrough is all about aerating the leaves and roots so the plant can filter as much air as possible).
Curling up with a good e-book? However eco-friendly, it's a hard sell - but Sony is amongst the companies trying hard to change our minds. Gabrielle at Daily Tomorrow got hold of the Sony PRS-505 E-book Reader. Have a read of her very thorough review - is it worth the $300 price-tag?
Is this the ultimate faucet? It's touch-free, and when the water comes out, it powers a turbine that generates electricity for the touch-free sensor!
With some people, it's shoes. But the latest chic-to-collect is the tote bag. If you're one of them (and you're not alone by any means), don't miss the Savior bags - decorated with a quote that you may recognize.
Here at Ecosalon we like to keep up with the latest in stylish and practical technology. May we introduce the Solar-Powered Bra. (And also point out that those two sentences have nothing to do with each other. Thank you). As usual, it's Environmental Graffitti keeping us abreast of things.
Being fans of Nigel's Eco Store, we were delighted to see the man himself has given an interview with Adam over at Life Goggles. (You even get to see him juggling flying saucers).
EcoStreet has 10 suggestions for looking swish as you cycle. Unsurprisingly and entirely correctly, "Not Wearing Tasteless Lycra Outfits" is right at the top. Wild applause.
Old wax crayons kicking around, edging nearer the trash? Grab them, read Hippyshopper's article, and get sculpting.

Happy reading!

Image: gripspix

A summery weekend ahead - and there's no real excuse to be indoors during the day (no arguments, please). But if you find yourself online just now, here are a few links worth a read:

Whip Up are keen for us to reap the benefits of the homemade and the handcrafted: be sure to make some time for them.
Shown above: sea kelp is everywhere! Mostly in the sea, of course, but here on land we keep bumping into great sea kelp products (for example, in our first linky feature) - and now there's this Natural Hair Wash with Sea Kelp and Organic Kelp Shampoo Bar over at Pretty By Nature. It looks like chocolate. Can you eat the stuff as well? (Aha!).
Tracey "Tao" Oliveto has been looking at alternatives to plastic shower curtains (and finding that even antibacterial hemp needs a through-breeze to stay pristine.
Over at Grist, Katharine Wroth is getting in a lather over green dish soaps. Me, I like being up to my elbows in Ecover.
Shown above: Solar-powered gadgets over at Re-Nest: love the oven, not so convinced by the lighter (what's wrong with these?).
Recyclable plates that survive the microwave and the freezer....and they're made from fallen leaves and water? Yes, really. (Thanks, Triplepundit).
It's true - you can make notebooks out of anything - and as this article shows (found via Hippyshopper), that even includes tea tins.
Shown above: how much do we love recycled shipping containers? Answer: lots. Therefore we're floored (and walled and ceilinged) by the sheer genius of the illy Quick House, reported on by The Style Files.

We like the recycling suggestion by Tracey Stokes at eco street - turning washing machines into furniture! (Using up discarded items other people don't look twice at - that's classy).

Vanessa at GreenAsAThistle has just finished her 365-day lifestyle makeover. Wander back through her archives (here's day 1) and see how she found the experience.

Enjoy the sunshine!