Let spring inspire a fresh touch in your home.

As spring’s pollen swirls and buds plump up to open, these vivid products will incorporate a bit of charm into your home while channeling the saturated colors and whimsy of nature. Leaf prints, mercury birds, wine bottle tumblers, a notebook to hold your thoughts, organic sheets, and a pillow reminiscent of grass blades are just what the season demands.

Clockwise from top left:

1. Coconut Palm Letterpress Specimen Print – Mossiere, $10
2. Antiqued Mercury Glass Sparrow – My Sparrow, $12
3. Wine Punt Drinking Glasses – Pigeon Toe Ceramics, $10 – 12
4. Diamond Notebook – Piegeon Toe Ceramics, $8
5. Azure Fern Sheet Set (Blue) – Anthropologie, $119.95
6. Ziddi Linen Cushion (Green) – Branch Home, $128

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Biodegradable and compostable single-use tableware.

Wasara Tableware ($20 at Branch Home), is a fusion of sugar cane fiber, bamboo, and reed pulp. Not only are these confections of curves biodegradable and compostable, but they fulfill my aesthetic demands, too. Disposable dishes have never looked so good (or weighed so lightly on my conscience).

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

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These gifts are for the little ones (kids) in your life – maybe even your own inner child. From building blocks to woolly seals, we have gathered some of the best eco-friendly holiday gifts for your gifting pleasure.

Outfit the little guy or gal with a map of your hometown hood, offer them a cute and cuddly friend to snuggle up with, encourage their aspiring Picasso, and prep them for preschool with A-B-Cs and 1-2-3s.

Clockwise from top left:

1. Brooklyn Onesie – Maptote, $25
2. Mavis the Monkey – Branch Home, $75
3. Natural Modeling Dough – Clementine Art, $9.99
4. Uncle Goose A B C Blocks – ChildTrek, $39.95

Or give the kids hours of epic and educational T.V. time, wrap them in something fuzzy and fun, warm their footsies with friendly faces, and offer them a perfect place to store their books and stuff.

Clockwise from top left:

5. Planet Earth DVD Set – Discovery Store, $39.99
6. Babyseal – Birkiland, $111.74
7. Toddler Sock Monkey Slippers – Uncommon Goods, $18
8. Ecotots Bonsai Book Caddy – Organic Bug, $100

It’s never too early to teach them manners at High Tea time, or how to safely venture into the wild (backyard) on an African Safari.

9. Toy Tea Set – re:modern, $27
10. Plywood Animal Menagerie – Branch Home, $62

And finally, make sure they always have a place to play or put their tushies (and you’re party-prepared with extra seating), and let their imaginations run wild with a home of their own design.

11. Three Blocks by Kalon Studios – Greener Grass Design, $750
12. Large Kid Playhouse by Tooko – Greener Grass Design, $55

Click here to devour all of our 2010 Gift Guides.

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These gifts are for the souls in your life that are brimming with charisma and personality (or maybe those begging for a hint of humor). From ski masks with facial hair to balls of seeds, we have gathered some of the best eco-friendly holiday gifts for your gifting pleasure. Give a handful of pencils fashioning mustaches, an Icelandic ski mask, wooden tools to serve up your salads, an Amish made scooter, or a tin to help you budget for a new tattoo (complete with hysterical instructions, including, “Do Not Tattoo Your Face.”

Clockwise from top left:

1. Office Mustaches – Atypyk, $14.85
2. Beard Cap (Gray) – Birkiland, $91.20
3. Salad Wrenches – Atypyk, $25.65
4. Amish Made Scooter (Orange) – Reform School Rules, $245
5. I’m Savin’ Up for a New Tattoo – VideoSift, $7.95

Or how about giving someone a book that’s illegible, a ceramic shutter, gumball seed pods, facial hair on a stick, a pinhole aperture, or a roadkill necklace.

6. Romeo & Julienne – Atypyk, $23.62
7. Ghost Camera (Polaroid) – Branch Home, $68
8. Seed Bombs (West Coast) – Anthropologie, $6
9. Mustache on a Stick (Bartender) – Something’s Hiding in Here, $36
10. Paint Can Pinhole Camera – The Conran Shop, $20
11. Geo Necklace – Roadkill, $110

Still haven’t found the perfect gift?  How about this plastic aversion bag or this five year memory?

Click here to devour all of our 2010 Gift Guides.

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The pallid and soft tones of this living room are an alluring invitation. The furnishings are pragmatic and the details are whimsical. The composition of artwork and frames is the perfect anchor for the three dimensional piece of Mother Nature (yes, it’s a real branch and yes, it’s gorgeous).

This is the warm and relaxed living room of Eldrid. She has explored her imagination and found this wildly creative use for bringing nature inside – her intention was to create the ambiance of sitting magically under a tree. It is magical.

Here are five (almost) effortless ways to realize a similar look inside your walls.

1. Scour your nearest form of Mother Nature for a fallen branch. Look for one that is structurally interesting with lines that make you stare, ponder, and drool. Mount and/or hang your new confection of sticks on the wall.

2. Score this Reclaimed Tin Picture Frame (in white). The secret – don’t fill it. Let the pallid grey of your walls shine through.

3. Use two of these Bakery Bins as a base for an inspired coffee table. Top these gorgeous wooden crates with glass, a simple window pain, or a reclaimed slab of wood.

4. Rest a few of these Red Tick Decorative Pillows (in greige) on your couch for hint of texture that you can sink into.

5. Rest a Vintage Antler on your coffee table next to a gathering of Soy Candles – the organic lines of the horn will gleam under flickering flames.

The patina of vintage and repurposed pieces adds a lot of charisma to this living room – to really perfect the look, peruse some antique stores and flea markets to make it your own.

If you love the look of grey, but you crave a little color – click here to adore a gorgeous room grounded in grey and brimming with mustard and camel (complete with three ways to get the look).

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Summer is the era of casual picnics and easy, light impromptu meals. Be ready for those glorious impromptu meals with these picnic picks that are easy and light on mother earth. With such a delicious gathering of commodities, your eyes will be as satisfied as your stomach.

Indulge in the illusion of luxurious silverware with this Picnic Cutlery Set ($5 per set). Enjoy your clean conscious after scraping your Biodegradable Plate clean because these sugar cane fiber creations are completely compostable, biodegradable, and affordable (starting at $5.50 for a pack of 10).

Not to be outdone by your plates, the biodegradable Wasara Tumbler is a mixture of sugar cane fiber, bamboo, and reed pulp; these lovely little vessels can deliver hot or cold liquid to thirsty lips ($10 for a pack of six). The Buckley Organic Blanket (starting at $59.95) provides a soft place to rest while you savor picnic wares – plus, no one will notice if you spill a little mustard or drop a deviled egg. 

And finally, a gaggle of bugs you actually invited to the blanket, each Beetle Napkin provides ample absorbent cotton ($27 for a set of four).

Now head over to the Food and Recipes section and peruse scrumptious culinary delights to pack up for the picnic – and don’t forget the bug spray.

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After a morning spent watching National Geographic Carnivore with my 9-year-old future vet (lions preying upon a limping, unsuspecting buffalo), I was happy to encounter this gentle Jungle Friends Mobile in which the only thing eaten is the blankie by the little thumb sucker inhabiting the crib.

I love the laser-cut bamboo plywood figures, which are assembled by a non-profit agency that employs adults with disabilities. $76 at Branch Home. The artwork can enjoy a circle of life after baby. Let it migrate to another space for an exotic conversation piece.

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