Assaulted By Noise? Try Quietude

“Silence is a source of great strength.” ~ Lao Tzu Sound is constant. Whether it’s in the background or in your face, there our culture produces a lot of noise. Finding slices of silence are few and far between for many of us with complicated lives (myself included). Noise becomes yet another byproduct of a busy life.

If you’ve decided to slow down, treatment how do you deal with the constant barrage of noise? I believe we need to be attentive to how noise affects us and design our lives to coincide with our intentions. If you choose to live more simply, have you reassessed how you deal with noise? CLICK HERE FOR MORE

Namaste Norway

A quick thank you to Yogaportalen from Norway for making econesting's post: Ditch The Plastic: DIY Knitted Shopping Bag, their story of the week:

Ditch the Plastic: DIY Knitted Shopping Bag

“Hey, check where’d you get that great shopping bag? Oh, it’s so cute. Can I touch it?” Did you ever carry a little puppy around? If so, strangers clamor for a touch and to oogle the precious pup. If you needed any more incentives for ditching the plastic bag, this DIY knitted bag will elicit the puppy effect at the grocery store, farmers market and food coop. Creator of the Monteagle Bag, Kay Gardiner from Mason-Dixon Knitting says, “One ‘eco’ thing about the Monteagle Bag is that it can be made in almost any linen or cotton yarn (including the cheap-but-tough dishcloth cotton brands), and it looks great made of several leftover colors. So it’s a way of using yarn that would otherwise be wasted or (shriek!) thrown into the landfill." CLICK HERE FOR MORE

Making Stuff From Stuff

It’s one of those eerily beautiful, rainy days here in the Hudson Valley. We’ve hardly had any rain to balance the assault of crazy hot, humid stickiness that’s enveloped the area. The summery mood and dimly-filtered lighting is just delightful for creating projects that may have been put on the back burner because it was just too damn hot. I love creating stuff from found stuff. It is especially sweet when the stuff is free, the directions are self-explanatory and the materials are mostly natural

I’ve seen this project done before, but this morning I followed the links around the globe to find the source of the images of this simple project. My pointing and clicking started in the Netherlands at the Stylefiles (a fabulously creative site for interior design inspiration), which took me to Poppytalk from Vancouver. It’s a design blog that collects inspiration from emerging design talent. One such talent hails over at the totally awe-inspiring, aqui pelo campo blog from Portugal, which is the source of these photos.

No DIY directions needed for this one. Just create this rustic and functional coat rack from a few sturdy branches, a piece of nicely weathered leftover wood and some nails. Then relish in the satisfaction of making stuff from stuff.

DIY Gardener’s Bucket

Author Germaine Greer once said, “A garden is the best alternative therapy.” The National Gardening Association claims that an average 600 square-foot garden will yield 300 pounds of veggies. I guess that's why they call it produce! We organic gardeners are passionate about our little patches of earth, and many of us haul around some basic tools for gardening. Shovels, pruning sheers, trowels, spades, gloves, twine, plant labels and markers are just some of the implements that tag along with us into the garden. Keep gardening tools organized and carry those precious veges with this handy, easy-to-make, repurposed gardener’s bucket.

DIY Gardener’s Bucket

What you need:

• Heavy duty cotton canvas tool apron with divided pockets

• Cloth to line the bucket

• Clean bucket

What to do:

1. Tie belt around a bucket.

2. Line the bucket with cloth (I used 2 old cloth placemats).

3. Fill with tools.

4. Head out to the garden.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE