Eco...in this case also meaning 'economize' as we take an item that would normally have been thrown away & use it to make a cool fashion statement piece! This project is dedicated to the Green Guru Challenge and just uses household scraps headed for the trash, and turns them into a stylish bracelet. Learn how to craft this bejeweled cuff bracelet by watching this video jewelry-making tutorial.
Lady Gaga made an appearance at this year's CES to present what she claims to be "the camera of the future": a pair of photo and video capturing sunglasses, designed by Gaga for Polaroid. Though more of a novelty gadget than a useful camera, the GL20 camera glasses could potentially turn your face into a real life facebook feed.
Serious Eats' latest Meet and Eat features Todd Barricklow, creator of the Taco Bike, an eco-friendly alternative to the fast growing food truck industry. The 200+ pound bike is equipped with a propane tank, three sectioned griddle, water tank, heat exchanger, wash sink, wastewater hold, ice holder and sectioned food area, trash can, napkin holder, table, money drop, chopping boards and more.
If you fancy yourself a nomad, check out Walking House, a mobile and modular dwelling system that is pneumatically powered, all-terrain ready. The vehicle-home crawls along at a snail's pace of 60 meters per hour, which equates to less than 1/2 a mile per hour. Akin in concept to the rolling house-on-the-go (except in the way cooler insect-like robot form), Walking House also boasts some cool eco-friendly features:
A group of New Zealand students have designed the ultimate green addition for eco-friendly living: a "clip-on" Plant Room.
Cobbled together from thousands of empty cigarette packs, this electric-powered vehicle puts the "car" in carcinogen. Looking suspiciously like something the China National Tobacco Corporation would commission as part of an advertising campaign, the Bugatti Veyron-style auto is actually meant to discourage smoking. The English-language version of the People's Daily offers the following explanation:
Cyclists and unknowing vehicle participants "collaborated" on a public guerilla graffiti art piece in Berlin this last week.
Tim Fishlock’s piece entitled What Watt? showcases 1,243 suspended retired light bulbs, the center illuminated by one low-energy fluorescent bulb. Beautiful eco-friendly design.
Well suited for loft living, Studio Gorm's Flow Kitchen offers an extremely eco-friendly and efficient solution to all your daily actions in the kitchen. The Netherlands based design studio focuses on three major areas: Waste, Water and Energy. My favorite element? A cutting board that sits above a compost bin. Slide it forward, and sweep your scraps right into the (eco-friendly) trash.
You can make these lovely whimsical charms out of Friendly Plastic - a non toxic plastic that gets soft in hot water or when exposed to heat. You can mold and shape Friendly Plastic using tiny cookie cutters to make fun wine glass charms!
Are you an avid gardener who tends to your plans on a daily basis? Then before you step foot outside the door today, check out this video to learn a plethora of tips for going green with your gardening.
Get rid of all your preppy shirts by morphing them into something spectacular. This is chic simplicity. A smart and casual princess cut button-up shirt that will never go out of style. See how to turn a preppy shirt into a cute princess top in this video from GiannyL.
Have a bunch of old magazines sitting around the house you'd like to recycle? Use old magazines to make a cool basket that suits your more eco-friendly side. Learn how to make a coiled basket out of magazines with help from this how-to video.
Have a tee shirt that has lost all of its spunk? Instead of letting it linger in the closet for the rest of its life, bring it back to life with a makeover. A T-shirt doesn't just have to be a T-shirt! See how to turn a tee shirt into a sleeveless top in this video from GiannyL.
Don't have the perfect scarf? Sometimes you can't buy perfect, sometimes you have to make perfect, so create your own cozy scarf! Can't find the right material, color, or style? No problem, design your own. See how to make a a cozy scarf in this video from GiannyL.
Elegant fashion is easier to come by than many assume. This tutorial shows you how to sew your own simple V-neck women's tunic with added flutter sleeves. You don't even need a pattern, just a few torso measurements for your wearer!
Learn how to make bug spray. Follow this simple, eco-friendly recipe for an effective alternative to chemical-laden bug spray.
This low impact woodland home in Wales is the cream of the crop. The woodland home was built entirely of natural materials, and best of all - only took 4 months and $5000 to complete.
No more alkaline batteries. No more NiCad's. No NiMH's. No Lithium. Forget all of those hazardous chemical reactions in the batteries and think eco-friendly. Professor David Edwards did.
Dutch designer Anneke Jakobs created this recycled Chiquita banana box chandelier while a student at the Utrecht School of Product Design.
Finally! Counting down the days to a paperless (and errand free) banking system. Both no-hassle and eco-friendly, USAA bank has released an iPhone application that allows its customers to deposit their checks via iPhone. The process is simple: photograph both sides of the check, hit send, and void, file or discard the paper trail.
The lemon battery has a rich history in many elementary science classes as a great example of an electrochemical reaction.
How to train a cat to use a toilet - really. I could not invent this stuff. When I first saw this video, I knew my life would never be quite the same. This ranks up there with the invention of electricity or the discovery or DNA. Now, I don't need to smell that litter. I don't have to change it. I don't have to buy it in the store anymore.
Our favorite (clever, scantily clad, and South American) HowTo vixen GiannyL has yet another use for burnt out old light bulbs. Christmas tree ornaments! Eco-friendly, yet elegant, Gianny's latest craft trick makes a tired and boring tree pop!
Do you use disposable wipes for cleaning dusty tables, dirty windows or removing make-up? Ditch the chemically-loaded store brands and make your own cheaper, non-toxic and super-easy DIY wipes at home.
So, you broke a plate and are afraid you'll get in trouble? No worries! This tutorial is coming to the rescue! Turn that old plate into a very cool distressed flower vase. Everyone will be so distracted by your crafty creation, they won't even mind that you used Grandma's China to make it.
Remember Grandma-approved eco-friendly mud graffiti? London native Helen Nodding has taken a similar approach: non-destructive moss graffiti. Helen was inspired by the cold hard steel, glass, and concrete of the city:
Recently I was working outside forming a driveway in the rain. Working in and around the wet sand was not friendly on my tools, especially my tape measure. About halfway through the day my tape measure would need "encouragement" in order to retract to the closed postion. Not too much later, with force applied, it would remain standing out at 1ft. and the problem progressively got worse.
What is it about the fantasy of the treehouse? Escapism. Other worldly, bird-like elevation. Beauty and peacefulness. Backwoods simplicity (although in some cases, truly elaborate works of fine architecture). Whatever the draw is, I'm dying to have my own treehouse in the woods, and I'd gladly take any of the examples below.
Talk about taking one for the team. If you're an eco-friendly earth muffin who refuses to use anything chemical-ridden on yourself and the environment around you, then there exists a gnarly - though effective - approach to killing a tent worm infestation that you may want to try out if you're not squirmy.
Not enough storage space? No problem! In this tutorial, learn how to recycle an old cereal box into a very cool magazine holder. This video will take you step by step and soon you will be on your way to being both more organized and more eco-friendly!
With the advent of Web 2.0 sites and tools, building your own small business marketing website has never been easier. This video SEO tutorial demonstrates a WordPress plugin called SEO Friendly Images. Once installed, all the images on your blog are automatically optimized to be gulped up by search engines. For more, and to get started using SEO Friendly Images for yourself, watch this helpful video guide.
Get rid of your water-wasting sprinkler system— but not entirely! Keep your landscape and garden maintained by converting those sprinklers into eco- and pocket-friendly drip irrigation. In this how-to video, Paula Mohadjer from the Cascade Water Alliance explains how you can easily convert your sprinklers into a drip irrigation system.
In an increasingly mobile and globalized world, it’s not uncommon to lose touch with people we were once close with. Juggling between job demands, family responsibilities and our own personal needs, it’s often hard to put the time to keep all of our relationships going. Nevertheless, every now and then we get to reminiscing and feel the time has come for a reunion with people from the past.
The worst part of moving into a new place is, well...moving. It's tedious, a lot of hard labor, and it can take forever, and don't even get me started on all those labels. It's also one of the only times in your life when everything you own can be stolen at once, since it's sitting in a movable container. Rather than risk losing everything, try this DIY Moving Truck Alarm System by Tim Flint that lets you know when the loading door is opened so you can catch would-be thieves red handed.
With a little muscle and a powerful cleaner, even the filthiest oven can look new. Since it's best to let the cleaner sit overnight, try to start cleaning before bed.
"Your Mother Should Know" isn't one of the Beatles' most famous songs - it certainly hasn't garnered a sort of cult following like "Hey Jude" or "Yellow Submarine" - but it happens to be a song that's super piano friendly.
Have you ever wondered if there was a surefire way to speed things up from friendly to flirting? This video reveals how to read body language to know when they're interested and how to use body language to take it from just being friends to flirting.
In this how-to video, Angie fries up falafel for a protein rich meal that's wallet friendly. This video is part of Easy Meals, Good Deals show hosted by Angie Ketterman.
Some girls are designated as so hot they could "kill with a kiss," but with no woman is this designation so literal as Poison Ivy, whose plant toxin-filled lips kill any man she sets her puckers on.
