Terrariums: A How To

What is a Terrarium? A terrarium is a miniature landscape with living plants (and even sometimes small animals like lizards or turtles) like the ones below.



Terrariums are perfect for small apartments and people who perhaps aren't equipped with a green thumb. They are self-sustainable ecosystems that need little care and a whole lot of admiration.

You can create your own in about an hour. All you need are the right materials. Here's a list of essentials. Just to let you know there are different terrariums you can make, so get creative!

• Glass containers with tops - this can be ANYTHING you have around the house or a great find
  
• Gravel, sea glass or beach stones
• Activated charcoal (found at a nursery or pet supply store)
• Plants (best to go with ferns, moss, bamboo or you can make a topless terrarium for succulents)
  
• Sterile potting mix
• Moss (optional)
• Decorative elements (optional)

Depending on what type of plants and container you selected, start with the gravel and charcoal for the first layer, this serves as drainage. Next step is the soil / potting mix, followed by the optional moss and plants. Last step is place decorative elements amongst the plants. There you have it!

Here are some resources for various terrariums:

Martha Stewart on Succulent Terrariums
About.com on Terrariums
Moist Terrariums
Inhabitat on Terrariums

Our Paper Doll

The Square Project from Jesse Benjamin on Vimeo.

Check out LLNY / LL Blogger Tara St. James on Paper Doll!

Check out:
http://www.paper-doll.com/blog/187/0/Be_Part_of_New_York_Fashion_Week.html

sheetseat

Ikea has been ahead of the sustainability game with flat packing their furniture to save their customers' money (and space). But this new design by Efecem Kutuk puts even the Swedish masters to shame. Sheetseat is a folding chair cut from a single sheet of plywood with a thickness of 3/4" when collapsed. This simple innovation in flat-pack seating allows for storage and transportation in even the tightest of spaces.

Grow your own building

I've been very impressed with my little self this summer, I set out to grow a mini garden on my fire escape and I now have a lush space with tomatoes, kale, spinach, plenty of herbs and even a flowering vine. But then I read this on Treehugger today and I'm green with envy (pardon the pun).

German architect Ferdinand Ludwig is creating a whole new branch of architecture: he grows buildings. Ludwig and fellow architects, Oliver Storz and Hannes Schwertfeger, call their new specialty "building botany." As part of this the three men are building structures made from plants as well as studying the elasticity of plane trees and examining how effectively willows can grow around steel pipes at the University of Stuttgart's Institute of Basics in Modern Architectural Design.

"The basic rule is this: All forces pass through the wood, from top to bottom," Schwertfeger explains. And the trio has already built their first structures. For example on Lake Constance where a group of willows surround a metal walkway. And in the Bavarian Forest, trees form a "diagonal support frame" for a bird watching station. And now the pioneers are planning to build a "green room" in downtown Stuttgart. The project, dubbed "Satellite," will consist of a 120-square-meter (1,290-square-foot) pavilion for exhibitions and concerts.

It would be great if we saw some of these buildings "sprout" up around Williamsburg instead of the metal monstrosities that are destroying our landscape.

Book signing in NYC

Join eco-model, author and activist, Summer Rayne Oakes, for a talk and book signing.

Tuesday, July 14th at 7 pm
Barnes & Noble
97 Warren Street (at Greenwich)

more info on the book here.

DIY Eye make-up remover

In the spirit of the recession, and wanting to give a little back to the environment, the next time you run out of eye makeup remover, don't replace it, just follow the recipe below.

Eye Makeup Remover

What you need (local and organic whenever possible):

• 3 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 tsp castor oil (find at your local drugstore)
• tsp grape-seed oil
• Measuring cup with spout
• Fork
• Small bottle (we reused an old toner bottle)
• Cotton balls to apply (try 365 Organic Cotton Balls from Whole Foods)

Directions:

1. Combine all three oils in a measuring cup.
2. Stir together with the fork and slowly pour into the bottle (make sure it's clean).
3. When ready to use, place cotton ball over the top and turn upside down.
4. Never double dip your cotton ball, use a different one for each eye.

Pamper your feet at home

It's time to switch your winter shoes for all those cute summer sandals that have been gathering dust at the back of your closet. That means your poor little feet are going to need to readjust. Give them the soak they deserve, without paying for a full spa pedicure.

PEPPERMINT FOOT BATH FOR TIRED FEET

1 tbsp Epsom Salts
10 drops peppermint essential oil*
5 drops tea tree oil*

Fill a large bowl with warm water and dissolve all the ingredients - swirling them around the water for 30 seconds. Immerse your feet and ankles in the warm water, close your eyes and breathe deeply. Allow yourself to relax for 10 minutes as your feet soak up the soothing/invigorating oils.

*You will be able to find these essential oils at most health food stores, or you can order excellent oils from Mountain Rose Herbs.

Women We Love: Environmental Heroines

While I really believe this month's NYLL guest speaker, Summer Rayne Oakes, should be on this list, TreeHugger has compiled a fantastic list of powerful women who are fighting to save the planet.

Check out the post here or see the list below:

1. Wangari Maathai, is a woman of many firsts: not only is she the first African woman and first environmentalist to bring home a Nobel Peace Prize, she was also the first Eastern African woman to receive a Ph.D. in 1971 and the first woman to hold a professorship at one of the universities in Nairobi, Kenya. Her inspiring story is one of incredible tenacity and purpose. Her work ranges from women’s rights, to combating poverty, to the struggle for democracy in Kenya. Maathai is also famous for being the frontwoman of the United Nations Billion Tree Campaign.

2. Rachel Carson is credited with bringing ill-managed DDT pesticide contamination under national attention with her 1960s ground-breaking book, Silent Spring. The book helped to crystallize the beginnings of an American environmental movement, and was a catalyst for changing national pesticide policies. Her work provided formative inspiration for the deep ecology and eco-feminist movements, in addition to laying the groundwork for organizations such as the Environmental Protection Agency.

3. Vandana Shiva is an outspoken campaigner for protecting seed biodiversity against biotech-profiteering and genetic engineering. Her grassroots approach has helped to redefine food security and the “green revolution” as a movement that empowers local food growers, rather than big agribusiness. She is the founder of Navdanya, a NGO based in Dehradun, India that promotes organic farming and seed-saving.

4. Maude Barlow was recently named as the U.N.’s Senior Advisor on Water Issues, Barlow is a Canadian activist and author whose work deals primarily with the unsustainable practices that are wasting this precious gift. For Barlow, water is a “public trust” that must be preserved in our culture and laws, and must be delivered as a “public service, not a profitable commodity.” Her so-called “blue covenant” boldly calls for access to clean, affordable to be recognized as a fundamental human right.

5. Kate Stohr is co-founder and managing director of the humanitarian non-profit Architecture For Humanity (AFH), and was instrumental in shaping this grassroots organization that believes design can help serve the greater good. Some of AFH’s major milestones include providing disaster relief and reconstruction services during the Hurricane Katrina and Southeast Asian tsunami crises. Beginning in 1999 with a single online competition, AFH has now blossomed into an international organization with forty chapters on five continents, working with local partners and innovative development models. In 2005, AFH won the TED Prize which allowed them to develop The Open Architecture Network, a unique ‘open source’ platform for sharing sustainable and humanitarian design solutions.

6. Majora Carter is the founder of Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx), which has been instrumental in leading a number of sustainable restoration projects along the Bronx waterfront, including Hunt’s Point Riverside Park. SSBx also runs the Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training (BEST) program, one of the first urban, green-collar job training programs in the country. Carter has since left to build her own private consulting business, but has won a number of awards for her pioneering work, including the MacArthur Fellowship and the Rachel Carson Award from the National Audubon Society.

7. Isabella Rossellini, Italian actress, filmmaker, author, philanthropist, and model, is well-known for her work in conservation, ranging from her involvement in the Wildlife Conservation Network to the Central Park Conservancy. Her latest contribution is the quirky but educational Green Porno series done for the Sundance Channel. As a complete departure from the reserved likes of David Attenborough, Rossellini’s unforgettable films focus on the sex life and mating habits of the animal world, charting a fascinating and brilliantly surrealist direction in teaching a subject that would usually be quite tedious.

8. Daryl Hannah is busy raising awareness about environmental issues ranging from whaling to urban sustainability. But Ms. Hannah doesn’t do the celebrity cakewalk or easy photo-op. In fact, she’s spent time with the Sea Shepherd crew on high-risk anti-whaling operations, and also brought the forced closure of America’s largest urban farm to international attention by chaining herself to a walnut tree for three weeks. It may not be a Julia Butterfly Hill, but still definitely hardcore. Her personal life is also exemplary from an eco-point-of-view: her house is built entirely of green materials and is solar-powered and she drives a biodiesel-fuelled vehicle.

9. Safia Minney’s innovative fair trade clothing company People Tree was already using eco-textiles and helping skilled, local artisans gain access to markets. She’s known as one of the world’s foremost social entrepreneurs, establishing World Fair Trade Day (observed every second Saturday of May). Minney’s work strives to change the fashion business by addressing integral issues of fair wages, gender equity, transparency, accountability, capacity building, improved working conditions and environmentally sound practices.

10. Eileen Kampakuta Brown & Eileen Wani Wingfield: In the mid-1990s, these two Australian aboriginal elders and septuagenarians led the fight to stop the Australian government from dumping nuclear waste in the desert lands of Southern Australia. Having survived the fallout of nuclear bomb testing in Southern Australia during the 1950s, the two women and their communities knew that the radioactive waste would eventually contaminate the groundwater, poisoning humans and animals alike. With other women of the community, Brown and Wingfield (not pictured) formed the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta Cooper Pedy Women's Council, or Kungka Tjuta, in 1995, and launched their anti-nuclear campaign, called “Irati Wanti” (literally meaning “the poison, leave it”). Awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2003, the council was eventually successful in stopping the multimillion-dollar dump in 2004.

Mind Yo (Eco) Business!

Photo by Mauricio Alejo via Kitsune Noir

Author, model and Discovery TV host Summer Rayne Oaks is in the spotlight for Ladies Lotto New York's April meeting. She'll discuss the integration of business with an eco-conscious lifestyle.

Our own eco blogger, Tara St. James hosts this night of fashion, ecology and dollar, dollar bills y'all.

Special goodies will be on tap for early birds.


Wednesday, April 22nd
7:00-9:00 pm

Hooligan Studios
177 N 10th Street Unit B
Brooklyn, NY 11211

- $10 pre-paid by April 21st
http://tinyurl.com/llny4-09

- $15 day of WITH RSVP
rsvpnyc@ladieslotto.com

- $20 day of WITHOUT RSVP
We urge you to PRE-PAY or RSVP


Catering by Rabbit Mafia
Beverages by 44 North

Wink Eco Beauty Bar

Introducing new Wink Eco Beauty Bar in Prospect Heights.

W!NK eco beauty bar is a Green Nail & Day Spa dedicated to providing eco-chic beauty that's good for you AND the earth. From waterless detox pedicures to Green Glama body treatments, the menu of 40 services is as sustainable as the rehab of this sunny storefront. Note the biodegradable slippers; natural cleaning solutions; and vegan products free of parabens, formaldehyde, and other toxins.

Organic scrubs are mixed at the apothecary bar to stay (see: Soul Shine body polish treatment) or to go. Fanny facials, seaweed wraps, and massages are enhanced with clay, salts, sugars, herbs, and essential oils.

And as a rare treat for New Yorkers, you can also request a treatment room overlooking the garden.

Wink Eco Beauty Bar, 602 Vanderbilt Avenue, between Prospect Place and St. Mark’s Avenue, Prospect Heights (718-230-3443). Appointments available now for Saturday-April 6; regular hours start April 7

Greendepot - home DIY for enviro nerds...

Looking to do some home renovations, a little DIY project at your studio, or just some regular Spring cleaning (ahem, Spring, where ARE you?!)? Before going to your regular hardware store, try Greendepot's new warehouse like location on Bowery. It's got low-VOC paint and sustainable cork tiles (instead of covering up your wall with PVC-coated wallpaper). Plus, it's got other stuff like nontoxic cleaners, CFL bulbs, even a power strip that monitors electricity use for saner Con Ed bills.

Green Depot, 222 Bowery. Map It (212-226-0444).

And thanks to today's newsletter, mention Ideal Bite at the register and get 10% off a box of Natural Cork Wall Tiles through Apr. 3.

Eco Friendly Hotels

Do you travel for work or pleasure and feel guilty every time you check into a hotel knowing that housekeeping will be changing your sheets and towels everyday, dumping toxic bleach all over your bathroom and throwing away all the plastic bottles (or mini bar purchases) you've consumed? Just opt for a green hotel, where you'll get efficient lighting and water fixtures, alternative-fuel service vehicles, recycling, and if you're lucky, an organic mint on your pillow.

The benefits:

• Lower energy lodging. Help decrease the $3.7 billion per year the hospitality industry spends on energy.
• Healthier maid service. Some hotels use green cleaning supplies that minimize workers' exposure to toxic chems.
• More than just free shampoo. Progressive hotels support habitat conservation programs and donate partially used soap and shampoo to people who can use it.

Traveling soon?

• Element Hotels - new Starwood brand of hotels, featuring LEED-certified architecture. Green info here.
• Fairmont - uses efficient lightbulbs and faucet fixtures, and all check-in computers are powered by wind. Green info here.
• Kimpton - U.S. chain (hotel names vary) that uses eco-cleaning supplies and efficient lighting, and offers in-room recycling bins. Green info here.
• Leading Hotels of the World Leading Green Initiative - carbon offset your lux hotel room's energy use when you book through this site.
• Environmentally Friendly Hotels - search user reviews of eco-hotels, and submit your own.
• DIY Bite: When you check in, ask that they don't change the towels or linens, or deliver the newspaper if you aren't gonna read it.

Best Air-Filtering House Plants... thanks to NASA

Having good indoor air quality is very important, especially since many of us spend so much time inside. NASA did a study to find out which plants were best to filter the air of the space station, and their findings are available to all.

Read on to see which house plants are best to filter the air (not only producing Oxygen from CO2, but also absorbing benzene, formaldehyde and/or trichloroethylene.

• English Ivy (Hedera helix)
• Spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum)
• Golden pothos or Devil's ivy (Scindapsus aures or Epipremnum aureum)
• Peace lily (Spathiphyllum 'Mauna Loa')
• Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema modestum)
• Bamboo palm or reed palm (Chamaedorea sefritzii)
• Snake plant or mother-in-law's tongue (Sansevieria trifasciata 'Laurentii')
• Heartleaf philodendron (Philodendron oxycardium, syn. Philodendron cordatum)
• Selloum philodendron (Philodendron bipinnatifidum, syn. Philodendron selloum)
• Elephant ear philodendron (Philodendron domesticum)
• Red-edged dracaena (Dracaena marginata)
• Cornstalk dracaena (Dracaena fragans 'Massangeana')
• Janet Craig dracaena (Dracaena deremensis 'Janet Craig')
• Warneck dracaena (Dracaena deremensis 'Warneckii')
• Weeping Fig (Ficus benjamina)
• Gerbera Daisy or Barberton daisy (Gerbera jamesonii)
• Pot Mum or Florist's Chrysanthemum (Chrysantheium morifolium)
• Rubber Plant (Ficus elastica)

Madame Paulette's Couture Green Dry Cleaner

Need someone to look after your extra special clothing? Couture green dry cleaner Madame Paulette can clean up your fanciest outfits, like wedding gowns, heirloom coats, and vintage dresses. Celebs like Cam Diaz and Vera Wang are fans, thanks to MP's wet dry cleaning process, which uses nontoxic detergents, non-perc solvents, and soy-based conditioners.

Extras galore: biodegradable bags, free pickup/drop-off, alterations, and clothing storage. It'll even come and organize your closet for you. How's that for service?

Madame Paulette, 1255 Second Ave. Map It (347-689-7010). Vintage lace dress cleaning, $135. Closet Concierge, starting at $250/hour.

Turning computers into planters

TerraCycle's Urban Pots are made from 100% e-waste. Using items like crushed computers and fax machines that would otherwise be destined for landfills, the organization gives them new life as a planter.

TerraCycle is known for making waste products into mainstream consumer products, and supplies for those of us with green thumbs. Their latest addition is this line of pots.

The pots are made from e-waste and painted by urban artists. Click here for a video on how they're made.

Eco Font: your printer will thank you

Looking to green your office? Just download Ecofont, a brand new typeface designed by some Dutch geniuses that’s made up of tiny little holes.

Here’s the backstory: Most printer cartridges end up in landfills. The more ink we use, the more garbage we create. So Spranq designed a font that uses 20 percent less ink by simply removing as much of each letter as possible, while still leaving it readable. Basically, the whizzes got rid of the line that connects the dots to create the characters.

It’s free to download and use, so there’s no reason not to.

Available online here.

Washing your clothes in hot water?

A full 90 percent of the energy used in washing clothes goes toward heating the water, so it stands to reason that using less energy by washing in cold, unheated water would create significant environmental savings. But just how much difference are we really talking about?

TreeHugger did the math, and came up with some pretty interesting results. It turns out that pressing the cold/cold button (instead of the hot/warm button) on your washing machine has the same impact as...

...driving about 9 miles in a car or the production, transportation and storage of a six pack of beer. It may not be too surprising that one load of laundry doesn't make a huge amount of difference compared to, say, not eating meat or dairy. But, multiply those impacts by 392 -- the number of laundry loads an average U.S. home washes in a year -- and, all of the sudden, there are some real impacts.

Washing laundry in hot water is really wasteful
To wit: Washing every load on the hot/warm cycle (in a top loading machine and an electric water heater) for a year is equivalent to burning about 182 gallons of gasoline in a car; in an average (19.8 miles per gallon) car, that'll get you around 3595 miles. So, wash in hot/warm, or drive almost 3600 miles -- same difference.

Similarly, if you wash with the hot/cold cycle (in a top loading machine and an electric water heater), you'll end up with 2407 pounds of CO₂ per year -- just over a metric ton -- which is equal to about one round-trip cross-country flight (6171 miles of long-haul flying).

What does this all mean? Aside from being a great example of how little decisions add up to make a big difference, it shows how wasteful heating large quantities of water can be. Just selecting the "cold/cold" cycle has the potential to save as much CO₂ emissions each year as thousands of miles driven in a car, or even an airplane flight or two.

Thou Shalt Covet This

Form plus function; times eco-consciousness equals Tara St. James' line, Covet. Bamboo, organic cotton, soybean rayon and natural dyes are just a few of the elements that make Covet stand out in a world filled with unpronounceable frankenfabrics. Tara has been described as "a beacon of light in the dark, jagged landscape of the fashion industry (Discerning Brute)."

Covet's got more fashion and eco cred than you can shake a stick at so you'll want to get your hands on these two offerings from Ladies Lotto's Charity Water benefit auction.

Covet this line, not clean water.


Photo: Cepolina

See Janie Dry Clean

HOLY CRAP! For those of you who spend too much at the dry cleaner, this one is for you!

Save money on dry cleaning by removing spots and stains with our Janie® Dry Cleaner Stick. The all natural clay absorbs stains and, when dry, can be brushed off with the included brush. It's effective on all types of fabric for removing oil, grease and dairy-based stains. It's perfect for traveling, at the office or in the glove box. source: container store

This sweet thing retails for merely $4.99. Has anyone tried it?

Green your Wiki

Wikia, the leading provider of information on every topic under the sun, has today announced the launch of Wikia Green, a website that will be home to a breadth of information about the ever-evolving eco-world.

Created by Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley, Wikia Green was the love child born when Wales met Al Gore, just before Gore received his Nobel Prize. After researching existing green resources, Wales realized that information about green topics was scattered and often overly scientific. Wikia Green took shape from his desire to unite the passion of the green community into one highly accessible resource. He also wanted information to be understandable to eco-neophytes.

Much like Wikipedia—also the brainchild of Jimmy Wales–Wikia Green is a collaborative repository of content that can be instantly updated to reflect the most current information in the rapidly evolving world of eco-consciousness. Unlike a stagnant dictionary definition, Wikia Green will be an incredibly dynamic, user-friendly resource of environmental ideology.

So when you find yourself scratching your head, wondering what the heck parabens or carbon footprints really are, you now know where to look.