An exclusive handmade EcoSalon mug. 

Hearts represent a lot of things: love, friendship, caring… all things we at EcoSalon believe in strongly. So to celebrate the month of February, we’re partnering with one of our favorite independent artists, Laura Cooke, to bring you an exclusive EcoSalon heart mug.

Based in Portland, Oregon, Cooke loves clean and simple design and intends her pottery for everyday use. This functional piece is just as usable as it is beautiful. Use it for your morning coffee, your midday chai latte and your evening tea. You won’t be able to stop using it. Get it for yourself, or give to a friend that you want to remind how special they are to you.

The 16 oz. mug is made of ceramic and has a red interior.

Price: $19 plus shipping and handling.

Liven up your monochromatic winter wardrobe with pops of mustard yellow.

Even though bright yellow seems to work best in summer, you can still sport some sunny color right now, if you just tone down the saturation a bit. Mustard-yellow hues happen to work very well with grays and blacks, which is good news for those of us who tend to buy our winter staples in dark monochromatic colors.

Stewart + Brown Knit Panel Zip Pant
These edgy pants are a take on the classic moto riding pant, but with Stewart+Brown’s signature feminine touch. They’ll become a wardrobe staple because they will go so well with all those neutrals you already have. I love the silver hardware and french terry-detail on the inside pant legs. Made in the USA from 100% organic cotton polished twill.
On sale for $122, Stewart + Brown

Envelope Cosmetic Bag by Apple & Bee
This charming envelope make-up bag by Australian company Apple & Bee is designed to fit in all your essentials and can also double as a cute mini-clutch. The outside is made from organic cotton and the inside is lined with hemp. Available in two additional patterns.
$28, Olivine

Amber Recycled Glass Earrings
These earrings are made from recycled glass bottles, individually selected and hand-cut into this circular design. Designed by Kathleen Plate from Atlanta, Georgiia, each one is hand-crafted and one-of-a-kind, which means they will vary slightly in size and shape.
$42, Jute & Jackfruit

Mischa Lampert Nolita Wool Hat
A great hat can work wonders for any outfit. Mischa Lampert‘s hand-knit wool hats are unique, stunning and warm. They’re made from organic merino wool that is naturally dyed and spun by hand in Lambert’s NYC studio (meaning she doesn’t use any electricity). Availability of styles vary.
$93.73 – $131.50, Kaight

Rickshaw Musette Bag
This medium-sized tote bag is made to fit your most important items, like a note book, newspaper, magazine and iPad. It is printed, cut and sewn in San Francisco, featuring made-in-USA fabric — Rickshaw’s signature Performance Tweed fabric made from recycled PET (plastic bottles).
$15, Rickshaw Bagworks

Julie Park Dolman T Dress & Yesstadt Millinery Hat
This comfy, casual dress by Julie Park is made from tissue-weight Organic cotton grown in Australia. The diagonal seam along the front and the somewhat shorter back give a great textured, layered effect. It’s the perfect complement to this lemon-colored hat, handmade in NYC by Yesstadt Millinery, using traditional, old-world millinery techniques. A high-quality hat like this is sure to last a lifetime.
Dress, on sale for $80 & hat, on sale for $190, both from Beklina.

El Naturalista Taiga Boot
These boots from Spanish shoe label El Naturalista are a freakish hybrid of styles that somehow just works. The lace-up detail on the bottom adds interest and ensures that they work with any kind of pants or skirts. The delicious mustardy hue is called “Leaves Mostaza,” which only makes me want them more.
On sale for approx. $238, El Naturalista

A sleep well-traveled.

These bright and worldly pillow cases are handmade by artisans in Southwest India using Batik, the traditional Indian art of creating patterns on fabric. A set of three pillows spans the globe from the Americas to Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. At $95, that’s a much better bargain than an around the world ticket, in coach.

Look for Lustables daily at EcoSalon. 100% gorgeous green finds, and never sponsored. Submit your favorite to tips@ecosalon.com

These vibrant fair trade baskets are available care of Indego Africa, a non-profit that aims to end poverty by empowering women.  

It’s hard to choose just one lust-worthy basket, so we snuck in three handmade Plateau baskets: in black, green and white; white and brown; and a zesty green/tea. These hand-crafted home décor pieces were crafted with needles and imigwegwe plant threads by women of the Covanya cooperative in Rwanda. Each takes up to seven days to weave and a great deal of skill and technique.

The baskets retail for around $30 – $45  and can be purchased here or found through the organization’s website. Regardless of your basket-buying intentions, we highly recommend a visit to the latter.

Look for Lustables daily at EcoSalon. 100% gorgeous green finds, and never sponsored. Submit your favorite to tips@ecosalon.com

These limited edition, hand-crafted beauties are worth writing home about.

You won’t find Takumi Macinari’s wood pens and mechanical pencils at Staples or Office Depot. Care of IDEA International, they are available for your list-making and letter-writing pleasure for a limited time only. With the exception of the ink refill in the pen and lead in the pencil, these handmade writing instruments are crafted entirely from wood, a labor-intensive process that results in producing only 100 of them each month.

Unfortunately, due to the time and cost associated with producing pens and pencils using this old-world style, they’ve been discontinued. The (ball)point is, now’s the time to claim yours.

The story behind the pen is an interesting one. Designed by motor vehicle engineer, Hosei Suzuki, he wanted to showcase wood as an industrial tool as well as a crafts material. The result is streamlined, sexy and ink worthy.

$45

Look for Lustables daily at EcoSalon. 100% gorgeous green finds, and never sponsored. Submit your favorite to tips@ecosalon.com

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Surf’s up: the Rogue Wave is part of designer Evelyn Hutter’s Water Pressure series.

The Rogue Wave is part of Water Pressure, an eco-friendly lighting series designed and created by Evelyn Hutter of Dwellings LTD in Brooklyn, NY. Illuminated with energy efficient LEDs, all of the chandeliers in the series are meant to convey a feeling of “suspended animation.”

Hutter took her inspiration from the tumultuous and mercurial element of water, interpreting it in all its forms: man-made, natural and in the case of the Rogue, oceanic. In addition to using LED lights, which last ten times longer than incandescent bulbs, she also uses a less toxic method called powder coating – a dry, non-leaching and resource-recoverable process to metal plate the fixture bodies and canopies. All of Hutter’s chandeliers are hand-constructed without the use of glues or adhesives.

“We believe in bowing to our environment,” Hutter explains on her site, “in which water is the most precious resource, both in production of our chandeliers and consumer use beyond.”

$2,800

Look for Lustables daily at EcoSalon. 100% gorgeous green finds, and never sponsored. Submit your favorite to tips@ecosalon.com

Sometimes I feel exorbitantly lucky to live in Portland, Oregon. Last weekend, as I wondered through the Little Winter market in the Ace Hotel, I was glowing with adoration for my creative hub of a city. Little Winter is a handmade market, with vendors that will take your breath away; this post has just a sprinkle of the vendors. If you think the scarf above looks ridiculously soft, double the notion and you may be somewhat close to the gentle, malleable texture of this gorgeous weave by Secret Pocket.

This Mossiere 2011 Calendar is quaint and charming. I have been eyeing this beautiful confection of graphics for weeks. Literally weeks. It doesn’t disappoint – it’s even more delightful in person.

Forestbound offers some of the most delicious bags, I am totally in lust. This Recycled Canvas Tote Bag would be just right dangling from my arm. Don’t even get me started on these hand knit socks from Garmet House (could these be the elusive cure to winter?!).

And finally, this metallic necklace from Sulu-Design is simultaneously masculine and delicate. Oh, how I want one. Or two.

This gathering of handmade lovelies is just the beginning. Visit the Little Winter Blog to explore all the vendors. Step into this clever video (by the talented Anja Louise Verdugo of Clever Nettle) to experience a little glimpse of Little Winter.

I don’t know how to knit, but if I did, these would both be born (by way of knitting needles) in my living room. Until the unlikely event that I take up knitting and knotting, I will capitalize on the good fortune that I can purchase these gorgeous confections of yarn. On the left, the Six Cord Knitted Necklace by A Alicia is a “messy plait” of yarn braided into the perfect winter statement necklace. On the right, the Knitted Pouf by CB2 is hand knit and versatile – think ottoman, coffee table, casual seating, winter snuggle, etc.

Craving more cable knit? If you simply cannot get enough cable knit delights, cozy up with this throw from VivaTerra.  And if you already have too much cable knit in your closet, use this simple tutorial to upcycle a sweater and whip up a scarf.

Summertime is brutal on hair – what with humidity, swimming in pools, the ocean, and all the beatings your hair takes just from whipping it up into ponytails, buns and braids. There are some great conditioners out there to help battered tresses, but for the basic styling issues, let us suggest some options to brighten your mood and of course, hold back your hair.

A Alicia Wedding is a great hair accessory line out of London that produces handmade accessories based on “exploiting the textural and sculptural possibilities of ethically produced and vintage fabrics.”

The accessories are great for weddings but also great for adding a little pizazz to traditional bridal garb. And after your wedding day, you’ll have something really cute to wear at a later date.

Frogs and Pots recycles and re-purposes cast off materials when creating her hair accessories, fashioning them into little works of art for your locks.

I love this little fabric covered button elastic.

Etsy’s Niandra combines vintage glass and lucite beads with high quality handmade findings in copper, brass, silver or gunmetal. Her unique designs are gifts to us when it comes to maintaining side swoops and overly sunblocked bangs.

You can buy from BeSomethingNew’s website or custom order a hair accessory utilizing their vintage stash of goodies. This delicate headband is so summery and pretty you’ll want to frolic through a meadow, picnic with a lover, or do both and see what happens.

California native Leslie Yang, founder and designer for Feisty Elle,  has a love for bright colors and bold accessories (which I share with her). She produces hair clips made from laser cut Merino Wool felt. Love.

Thea Starr creates the most beautiful (non-wilting) flowers out of vintage kimonos. Choose from pin forks, hair clips, bobby pins, combs and headbands.

Have fun deciding which one you like best as they’re magnificent.

Image: Evil Erin

Leave those disposable paper napkins in the grocery aisle and get busy adding style to the reusable pile!

Now that we are all invested in organic, reusable cloth (wash in cold, hang dry, of course), spruce up your table and thrill your guests with fun green napkin rings. Calories burned removing them? At least two. More if you juggle a set at the table for your guests.

Where to find ‘em? Here are a few highly tactile circles we trust:

Ring around the Rosy! Hand forged iron floral ring, Rain Collection. $38 each.

Stainless Steel appeal, $19 for two  from Velocity.

Ivory organic crochet rings with amber glass bead fasteners, $10 set from Makalewakan.

Tanned Pierced leather rings with red wine ribbons, from Etsy’s Greenbelt, $20 for set.

Spotted Shell Rings, fairly traded from Indonesia, $16.50 from Green with Glamour.

I red the news today, oh boy! Love these recycled newspaper rings, $8 at Ecoist.

Fuzzy Friends encircle your napkins, $15 from Fuz Farm in eco felt or black rubber.

Main Image: Amazon