Origami Bowl from tea bag wrappers:

Origami Paper Swan:

Pleasantly Plump Origami Swan:

Origami bigger bowl:

It’s correct in color Origami Swan:

Stationary is just not very original compared to these cool works of art.

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If you are looking for interesting and good quality art for your home it is a great place to start that search.  With collections from abstract to landscapes, etchings, illustrations, commercial and everything else.  I have a love-hate relationship with art collecting, I love finding interesting pieces, but it takes so much time to find something- trips to antique stores galleries and there is so much that isn’t my style.   This place has an online site, it’s like a huge gallery at your fingertips.

The best part is that the art is reasonably priced.  Seriously.

This G. Heald oil on canvas board is priced at $315.00, it reminds me so much of hiking in Yellowstone and the Tetons.

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This is made out of DC!!! Well at least maps.  Find it here on Etsy.

I also really like this scarf on wireless.com:

Last, but not least some fabulous napkin rings!

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We recently ventured to Guanajuato, Mexico for our dear friend’s, Warren and Estela, wedding.  Traveling there I knew nothing about the area, except what Wikipedia said: UNESCO World Heritage Site, mining history, yadda yadda.  Getting there was pretty easy, fly to Houston, fly to Guanajuato/Leon and then take a short car ride to the city.  Once we got there we quickly realized that this was an extremely beautiful historic area.  Many of the roads are under the city in old aqueducts or pathwayd carved for traffic, so taxi rides are kind of neat darting in and out of ground.  The houses are all beautifully colored due to subsidized paint costs to make the town welcoming and colorful.  The central square with its thick perfectly groomed trees is a wonderful place to hang out and relax while settling in to the rustic beauty of the area.  And they have a Starbucks for you who need your fix.

We stayed at the El Camino Real.  This was a great hotel. The restaurant and bar had wonderful staff.  The rooms were nicely appointed and spacious, the beds were comfortable, the hotel was impeccably clean, the staff were friendly.  I especially enjoyed the pool which had a zero entry platform so you could lay in the water and relax.  We had one of the rooms up on the terrace and ours had a brick dome ceiling that was really neat.  (Check the internet for specials, their website list price is much much more than what we paid.)

We had a lot of planned wedding activities, but luckily we had some time to explore the city, as well.  There are many beautiful historic buildings definitely worth checking out.  I highly suggest going in the ornate Teatro Juarez near the main city square, if there is a show playing it would be worth the price to see the show and the theater.  Lots of marble and ornately carved wood make this a real jewel. Many of the buildings date back to the 1600s when the Spanish still occupied the city.  Just wander through this city and it’s winding corridors around the central square, the university and the market, giving yourself time for stops. Stopping in the churches and neighborhood squares you can admire the beauty of the areas architecture.

The market is a great place to plan a stop.  There are food stalls to eat at, fresh produce, local crafts and all sorts of goods for sale.  I found some really well crafted leather purses, as well as, some neat gifts for family and friends at home.  I picked up a great, colorful woven market basket for me, that even when packed full is easy to carry.  Specialties in the area are candies, silver and gold jewelry, leather goods and pottery.  You can find jewelry ranging from very classic hand crafted to modern and sleek styles.  Wandering around town make sure you stop into one of the local candy stores to pick up some goodies.  I especially liked the caramels and coconut candies.  This was my favorite part of the visit.  Every corner revealed more city with interesting buildings and neat neighborhoods and stores.  Often one store had many functions, the neat traditional jewelry took the counter space in the front of a shop, while barbers groomed clipped and shaved in the back.

Another neat stop is the Capelo Art Gallery, website here.  One of the galleries also featured really neat pottery from the area.

If you want to see where all that silver came from head up to the La Valencia Mine.  This is where the wedding took place and it is a neat old mine, now a garden and quite challenging golf course.  Surrounded by stacked stone walls you can envision what it would be like when those shafts were active.

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We had some great meals downtown.  Casa Valadez was a great breakfast spot, with out of this world bread and salsas. I highly recommend huevos rancheros. But really you can’t go wrong on their breakfast menu. I wish we could have had another meal here, as well. Website here. They also have nutritional information on the website.

We also ate at the Hotel Santa Fe and both had enchiladas mineras a regional specialty. Chicken thigh over cheese enchiladas with a sauce with tomatoes, carrots and potatoes. A tiny bit bland for what many think of as Mexican food, but very good and homey, especially with the chile sauce that was on the table.  This is comfort food for this area.

The rest of our meals were at planned wedding events, save a stop at a local bakery for some freshly made doughnuts.

This town is best for the laid back traveler who wants to be off the beaten path from the touristy beaches, and wants stuff to see and do, but not a jam packed schedule.  It was really fun to wander, shop and interact with the people in the town who were all generally very friendly.  Not much English is spoken though, and we appreciated help from our friends communicating at times as we know no Spanish.  And do be alert to drinking water and eating vegetables washed in water when you aren’t in a big hotel or central restaurant.  El Camino Real has filtered water even in the showers which meant less worry when you were showering and brushing your teeth and you didn’t have to ask if the water for your morning tea was filtered.

This is a place that I loved.  This to me was very quintessential Mexico. It was about people and experiences.

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I was delighted to find out the source of all these goodies is the Welsh Garden in Warrenton Virginia.

A sustainable lavender farm.  I am big on supporting local small business and micro-enterprise and I am thrilled to get my lavender fix from Virginia and nearby Virginia too.  They are at the Thursday White House Market, Saturday Silver Spring Market and Sunday Palisades Market.  They have an online Order Form for their products here, but now they have one up-ed themselves by opening a store in the main hall of Union Station, so go check them out and you can sample their products too.

I particularly like the lavender shortbread cookies, which are great tea dunking cookies.

Photos courtesy of their website.

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But this Penguin by Soda Stream USA is not being posted for my obsession, but for that of a friend.  My friend Warren loves sparkling water.  And this little guy turns regular water into sparkling water pronto!  He can also make sodas.

The great thing is he does all this without batteries or electricity.  So my friend Warren could even take it on his sailboat.  You can add flavors or juices and you can control the level of fizz.  So on a hot day you could add a twist of lemon or lime without any cutting.

And the reusable glass bottles save you from buying plastic bottle after plastic bottle.  I tend to drink more water if there is a splash of flavor or some fizz, don’t you?

Available at many places like William Sonoma, Amazon.com and etc.  And no, Warren, this isn’t your wedding gift from me, but you should register for it.

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I have lots of books I have read that I could pass on, or jewelry from Grandma (all those clip earrings I don’t wear).  I have made spiced nuts in the past or cookies.  I have given presents of cleaning and organizing closets.  Unfortunately sometimes, especially when you are moving around a lot for school or just starting out, you don’t have a lot of things or time.  But don’t worry you can still find some cool sustainable finds:

Decking the Halls

Recycled Paper Garland- what a neat and colorful Christmas decoration.  My family always had particular garlands that we used around greenery and this one would look great with all the colorful nutcrackers I hang on my garland.  Available on Etsy, here.

I love making beaded jewelry for people at Christmas.  One of my favorite necklaces is made from paper beads that my stepsisters made.  Paper Beads is a great blog for learning to make paper beads, and then using the paper beads for different uses.  Below are Paper Bead Ornaments you can make with instructions on the Paper Beads Blog, such a neat creative site, definitely check it out! If you aren’t up for making them yourself, you can already buy ready made ones at another great Etsy site here- upcycling paper and reusing it, very sustainable, while supporting small artists.

Upcycled Gifts

Beer has always been a treasured thing.  But perhaps not all those empty beer bottles.  Luckily now many of them are recycled, but here is another cool use- drinking glasses.  Unlike the above beads, I suggest not trying to make this at home, but check out this Etsy Shop with many different beer bottles to choose from.

Need a more flowery find?  I absolutely love the jewelry made from old spoons.  The details that went into old silver spoons are just incredible.  This ring is beautiful and a bargain.  I don’t know why I am even posting this, now it will be sold in no time.  Luckily this artist has lots of neat spoons to continue making really neat things.

Recycle that Wrap

My brother in law wraps his Christmas presents in Newspaper, my brother wraps his in Trader Joe bags.  Both are great ways to save paper, and then that paper is of the type that is normally recyclable too.  I save my ribbon all year long to use again at Christmas.  Another great embellishment is to stamp them with a cool Christmas stamp.  Since we don’t get daily papers I steal them from recycling downstairs where they stack them in big piles.

Plan the Party

Here in Virginia there is a lot of wine to love, and how better to show off the benefits of staying sustainable than practicing what you preach.  Keep your party hopping with local wine, and keep it fresh with beautiful, unique bottle stoppers;  I like this one made from recycled materials.  Find it here.

Dress up your sweet treats with these vintage reusable cupcake toppers!  You could also use them as reusable toothpicks.  Just make sure you have a small basket for them to be discarded in, so you can wash them and reuse.

If you live out in the country you can even buy a Christmas tree with the roots and plant it afterwards.  My friend Suz’s family did that one year.

So even if you feel the need to buy gifts try to buy local, buy recycled goods or buy things that you can turn into something neat.  I turn to Etsy because I like their artists, but a quick search and you can find other places with recycled goods.  But don’t forget your own merits.  You don’t have to be a jeweler or baker, give someone some hours of your computer skills, or teach them a skill you have they might enjoy.  Giving someone your time and company is always the best gift.

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If I had time I would jet off to Nemacolin Woodlands Spa for a Lavender Kur- consisting of a nice lavender body scrub, bath and massage with lavender lotion application, but alas no time for that.

So in the interim I am using the Lavender Bath and Shower gel and the Lavender Lotion sold by Crabtree and Evelyn.  The lotion doesn’t leave you greasy and only has a light scent so it isn’t over powering.  I also like their bath and shower gels because it doesn’t over dry your skin.  The most important thing to me though is they don’t mix the lavender scent with vanilla, because while it is nice to cook with, I really don’t like the two smells mixed.

I then  extended the foray into a life of lavender by purchasing for myself some laundry detergent and sachets from Sweet Grass Farm, which I really like.  The great thing about the laundry detergent is that it is a more natural detergent than your store brands so it is great for sensitive skin.  Also it is low sudsing so it can be used in high efficiency and front load washers.  And they leave your clothes lightly scented, and the environment better off.  You only need about 1/8 of a cup for a load, so at that rate it is just a tiny bit more pricey than your normal store detergent.  I buy normal detergent for Hubby, and do his separately, and since so many of my clothes are dry cleaned it really lasts me a long time.  The sachets can be used for multiple rounds of drying or they can be stashed in a drawer or closet.  I have one in the drawer of my pajamas that has really made everything smell lovely.

When I was at Landsdowne Resort they had lavender eye pillows for guests and I really liked the scent as I was falling asleep, so I bought a couple lavender diffusers for the bedrooms, so my guests can enjoy that same soothing scent to fall asleep.  The diffuser is $29.95 so it is a little less than those at Pottery Barn and other stores, and the refill fragrances are only $11.95, so you can reuse them easily.  I am big on having a nice smelling house, I think it is part of having an inviting environment where people feel welcome.  So I like to have diffusers because there isn’t the hazard of lighting a candle in another room and forgetting to blow it out.

If I really wanted to go all out I think Sweet Grass Farm’s Lavender dusting oil and cleaning spray could really fulfill the wish, but I don’t think overwhelming Hubby with Lavender all at once in that big of a quantity would be good for the overall cause.  But it is a consideration for the future.  Sweet Grass farm also has some other really nice clean not over the top scents if you aren’t as partial to lavender.  And the scents aren’t overwelmingly powdery or floral so they don’t overwhelm your senses it is justa  subtle, fresh scent in the background.

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