Organic Holiday Guide : Items to Calm Body and Mind

Calming and uplifting natural bath items are available at Paper Street Soaps 

Calm Your Body and Your Mind 

When buying natural and organic items for your body and mind make sure the actual items are being made  with eco friendly processes in mind.  Packaging and manufacturing processes should be taken into consideration when shopping to better the environment. These pics we found online and the fact these items are all made in the United States makes for great holiday gift giving!

Conscious Clothing on Etsy has this infinity organic scarf for just $48 made in Michigan!

Energy Balancing Organic tea in Eco Tin made in Santa Fe, New Mexico $15 here on Etsy.

Who doesn't like healthy banana lollipops? A sweet and healthy treat by Sugar Bakers Bakery in Pennsylvania. This set, $18.

Roll On Perfume Oils made from natural components and essential oils, priced at only $9 here.

Paper Street Soaps out of Minnesota makes all their beauty care products by hand including bars of organic soap.  They say, "We make bars of cold process soap as well as many other body care products from all-natural and organic materials. We also offer many vegan-friendly items. Items are made by hand in Minnesota from the finest organic ingredients to leave your skin healthy and glowing.

Cold Process Soap has Clove and Cornmeal, and is only $6 here.

Funding For The Abominable Dock Lamp Upcycled Love

One of many designs in the prototype line Up-cycled Lamp and Charging Dock

Check out this,  The Abominable Dock Lamp.  What is it?  It's the nifty name for a new series of handmade lamps that double as docking stations for your phone. The prototypes have been designed by hand with clever design. Made in California, they are fashioned from reclaimed wood, recycled wine bottles, and salvaged wiring.

Different designs in the prototype line show how detailed and lovely these items are.

The prototypes are design worthy, ingenious and unique. The wine bottles are the globes, and the lights are LED.  They serve as a charging dock for your phone. Not just your phone, ANY PHONE.  How can this be? They say, "Currently, we have one block that works with every phone and tablet on the market and one block made exclusively for Apple’s 30-pin connector (iPhone 1-4S and iPad 1-2)."   That in itself makes it Tech-Savvy.  If they go into full production with backing they will quite possibly be the only 100% Handmade & Upcycled handmade lamp that also doubles as a charging port.  Their goal?  They said,  "Our goal would be to get rid of excess wiring and charging cords by making a lamp out of 100 percent recycled material that charges any phone or laptop and making the earth a cleaner place. "

I for one over the years have switched phones like I switch my t-shirts and think this is a fabulous idea. They are asking for $45,000 start up costs which includes expansion of equipment (currently they are small scale operational off of two CNC routers.) .  This also allows for a production line, a staff force and ordering additional quantities of parts via suppliers.  

 Helping them means donations as small as $1.00

View their Kickstarter campaign, where we nabbed all the photos from!

Green Eco Friendly Gift Guide From Etsy

From Home Made Kharma, $24.68 on Etsy.

FOR THE CRAFTY ONE

Here's a few links to some great green gift ideas on Etsy. Using sewing tapes in art, fashion and jewelry is becoming a fast growing trend, partly because they are so wonderfully colored.  That said, here's a the perfect gift for that sewing diva in your family!

A Bike Bag , Upcycled from old banners! Find it at FoolHeartedly, about $37.

FOR THE GUY

 Those hard to buy for guys, sheesh, what to get them? How about this banner that's been upcycled into a bike bag? Plenty of options made by FoolHeartedly, who uses old vinyl banners and makes them into useful objects. What a great idea!

Retro Chalet upcycled this little tin car into a wearable pin, $8.95

FOR THE VINTAGE GEEK

Geek or geekette may appreciate this vintage made in Japan tiny tin car that is now transformed intoa  wonderful wearable art pin. Made at RetroChalet, so cute and wee.

Who is on your shopping list?

For the Love of Nature Petal and Sprig

Petal and Sprig offers this over-sized canvas tote, $30!

Do a few things today to go greener!

1.  Check with Earth411.com to see who in your area takes those old plastic grocery bags! On the East Coast you can take your old plastic grocery bags to Giant, where they will be recycled into new plastic items. 

Along these same lines:

2.  Use a reusable grocery bag for your shopping. Petal and Sprig on Etsy offers great oversized canvas totes for $30, which would go great at the Whole Foods Market when buying lots of items. The main complaint about the eco bags is they are too small. These are larger and big enough to take to the gym, the grocery store or shopping mall!

Petal and Sprig on Etsy offers lovely floral print of Allium for only $10. What a great gift idea.

For a gift:

3. Give flowers, but not the real kind. Why kill beautiful flowers, pay someone to waste gas and deliver them, when you can give the same with a lovely floral print photo?  Petal and Sprig on Etsy offers $10 gorgeous close up floral photography in 4x6 size. These are are lovely accent decorations on the wall.  You can buy a cheap frame for, and give the gift that keeps on giving----these flowers won't die, lose their smell or require water!


4. Use cloth napkins. Overall using cloth napkins will prove to be a way to reduce paper towel and napkin waste in your house. As for using more washing cycles, you  have to do the laundry anyhow and these napkins can easily be done with your laundry and not take much more room. 

5.  Buy a watch that operates on natural movement and does not require batteries!


Have a great green day!

Upcycled Cabinets at Bench Mark Custom Signs

Phil's art niche is custom woodworking out of his shop, close to Metamora, Illinois (which is ironically in Woodford County.) He was formerly trained in avionics (aviation electronics) while serving in the Marine Corps. If you look closely, you can see Marine Corps memorabilia and jet aircraft photos decorating his woodworking shop. He currently tests software by profession, so it’s not a surprise to find that his digital day job often overlaps his woodworking night life.

Maple carved plaque uses Phil's v-carving technique.

Although he learned about woodworking through classes in high school, he credits the natural abilities inherited from his father.  Phil recalls, “My dad did cabinet making on the side. I was the gopher from an early age. The first project of my own that I remember was an exact scale replica of a battleship made from cut-offs from whatever project my dad was working on. I was probably 6 years old at the time so you can imagine just how ‘exact’ the replica was." Phil found himself into his woodworking endeavors when he bought a house.  He says, "There are a lot of sophisticated (and costly) projects you can do yourself if you have the right tools and skill." When not creating, he writes for his woodworking web site or answering woodworking questions on Internet forums. He has been featured in Wood Magazine.

These monogram plaques run about $35 in Phils's Etsy shop

How He Designed the Machine to Make His Designs Phil taught himself to use CAD software for his profession, and soon found it too useful to resist when doing his woodworking projects. “With CAD software, you can design or plan your project so there aren’t too many surprises at the end", he says.  Over time this eventually led Phil into woodworking with CNC equipment. This equipment can be quite expensive, out of reach of most hobbyists and even many professionals. So, Phil took the challenge and designed and built his own CNC router. (I'm certain having a background in electronics and CAD helped!)   Phil explains that "The CNC has opened up entirely new avenues in the areas of design.  If I can draw it, I can make it.”

Family signs are a great gift for the new bride and groom.

 Mission Style Meets Military  Phil’s design Aesthetic on signs would be considered Mission (Arts & Crafts), Shaker, and Western Victorian. Phil says, “I just love all the old trim work and designs used in the mid 1800’s.” His CNC machine in his shop is decorated with these scroll designs, similar to those used on gun engravings reminiscent of that era. 

Note the old engravings.

Phil prefers to work with native American hardwoods. Some of his stock comes from trees he felled himself and had sawn into lumber. Phil also gets some of his lumber from a local tree feller. He explains, "You cannot buy some of this wood in a lumber yard, it’s just not available at this quality level.”  Phil will also use upcycled cabinetry, such as doors in some of his designs--but only if they are real solid wood, no veneer! Connect with Phil  Phil is relatively new to Etsy and Facebook, and would love for you to drop him a line to say hello, critique his shop, or give him some new ideas! He is looking forward to becoming part of the Etsy community! Bench Mark Custom Signs and Wonders on Facebook Bench Mark Custom Signs on Etsy!

This post written by Ira Mency, for inclusion on Handmadeology.