Wear What When

Gift Map II: Made in Seattle

Send something locally made to someone woefully far away by accessing our handy map.

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Dec 10, 2010 at 08:00AM 0 Comments

The locally made gift of the season: The skipjack scarf, for sale at Far 4. Find other things that were blown, built, sewn, and crafted with our Made in Seattle map.

Time was, if you wanted a Seattle-y gift, you settled yourself with those Space Needle-shaped pastas from the landmark’s gift shop. Hey, I remember.

But these days, the city is a veritable artist’s studio; the best boutiques carry gorgeous goods by local makers, and it’s super easy to send your best friend in New York some stitched, blown, built, or otherwise crafted object that’ll make him/her feel like a real jerk for living so far away from all this awesomeness.

Top on my list of locally produced giftables is the skipjack scarf from a line called Victory Garden Yarn. The woman behind this line happens to have worked at Polite Society before that lovely little place shut down, and I can you for certain that she’s a great gal — which only makes her scarves more special.

I’ve seen the convertible cowl/scarf live on Jenny Klimenkoff a number of times this season, and I watched her field multiple compliments about it on each occasion. Now, watch it all come together here: Klimenkoff sells the skipjack at her store, Far 4, and Far 4 is one of the seventeen stores on this week’s shopping map.

At Fancy, they’re having trunk shows on Sundays for the rest of the month; at Nube Green, whatever isn’t local is at least from the U.S.; and at the new Urban House you have access to goods that weren’t just built here, they were grown here hundreds and hundreds of years ago. And that’s just a rambling random sampled. Check the map for more.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Locally Made, Gift Guide, Locally Designed, Sustainable Such and Such, Gift Maps 2010

The New White

Green wedding planning party at Phase 3 by Gary Manuel Salon

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Jun 09, 2010 at 08:00AM 2 Comments

Photo: Courtesy Adele Wechsler

Where: Phase 3 by Gary Manuel Salon

When: Monday, June 21 from 6 to 8

What: An evening of smart, mindful hair, makeup tips from the Gary Manuel/Aveda stylists, and a preview of gowns by Adele Wechsler, who uses organic hemp and silk, vegetable dyes, remnant fabrics, and fair trade labor to produce her collections.

Oh, and there will be cupcakes from Trophy and snacks from Herban Feast, too.

Green brides and grooms can register to win an Adele Wechsler headpiece and Gary Manuel products at the event; they may also enter in the national drawing (the Seattle stop is one of several across the country) for an Adele Wechsler wedding dress or a honeymoon vacation at the Hamanasi Adventure and Dive Resort, an eco-friendly destination hotel in Belize.

Get there on time: The first 100 guests get a swag bag.

Contact Gary Manuel with questions.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Weddings, Seattle Wedding Gown, Sustainable Such and Such, Health and Beauty

Outside the Box

You’re invited to an open house featuring NuBe Green’s repurposed cardboard furniture

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on May 28, 2010 at 03:00PM 0 Comments

Three cubic yards of Styrofoam peanuts once slept here: Graypants’ repurposed cardboard headboard at the Broadway’s open house

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Three cubic yards of Styrofoam peanuts once slept here: Graypants’ repurposed cardboard headboard at the Broadway’s open house

View Slideshow » Illustration: View Slideshow » Illustration:

What’s next? Movie theater seating made out of those boxes that soy milk comes in?

Local design duo Graypants (we featured their slice chair and more here), whose repurposed cardboard lighting fixtures you’ve seen all over town from the bar at Vermillion to your cousin Ray’s rad pad, used their favorite material to craft a custom headboard for the Broadway, a new Built Green 3-star certified building overlooking Cal Anderson Park at 1620 Broadway.

You’re invited to an open house there, where a model unit is staged with cardboard furnishings from NuBe Green, including those aforementioned.

So go, on Thursday, June 3 between 4 and 8, and make yourself at home (use the building entrance off of Nagle Pl). It’s a cool opportunity to see innovative design work in a natural setting, and also to spy on new living quarters and imagine a world of fully sustainable cool.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Home Decor, Locally Designed, Sustainable Such and Such

Where to Find It: Happiest Place on Earth

Planet Happy, where socially responsible, mom-owned, and otherwise green play stuff is a good time

Posted by: Caitlin Creel on May 28, 2010 at 08:00AM 3 Comments

View Slideshow » Illustration: View Slideshow » Illustration: View Slideshow » Illustration: View Slideshow » Illustration: View Slideshow » Illustration: View Slideshow » Illustration: View Slideshow » Illustration:

Hello parents and concerned friends-of-small humans, still scarred from all those toxic toys incidents? Planet Happy to the rescue.

Find safer, organic alternatives to mass-produced plastic toys for your little ones at this Ravenna store (find the store itself tucked behind the University Village) – stuff like Max’s Mud, a non-toxic, gluten-free rice flour-based sculpting dough exclusive to Planet Happy and produced by a Seattle-based mom-owned business, backyard tree swings, and Reusies; dishwasher-proof lunch bags. Check the slideshow for images.

And check this out: Each product in the store comes with a seven criteria tag listing whether the item and its manufacturer are fair-traded, organic, socially responsible, recycled, mom-owned, green, and natural.

Now how’s this for mom-friendly: Planet Happy offers after school activities like eco-friendly science projects and drum circles. If you can’t catch one of the scheduled events, don’t worry, the fun station is always open. (And the store pet, a hedgehog called Little Foot, is always around.) Little ones can make magnets or mirrors using the button machine, and a natural beauty bar makes it easy and fun to cook up lotion, bath salts, and fragrances using essential oils, all natural lotion bases, and the shop’s special house-ground flower petals.

Check Planet Happy’s June calendar for after-school and weekend activities.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Locally Made, Locally Designed, Sustainable Such and Such, Seattle Kids' Style, Where to Find It

Spring Cleaning II: Clean Slate

Locally made and nontoxic cleaning solutions and more at Goods for the Planet.

Posted by: Laura Cassidy on May 13, 2010 at 06:00AM 1 Comments

Slideshow: The goods at Goods for the Planet; here, Usta-Bees 80s-sweater-turned-Swiffer cover

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Slideshow: The goods at Goods for the Planet; here, Usta-Bees 80s-sweater-turned-Swiffer cover

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Do they work? Only one way to know, but you don’t have to spend too much time around Goods for the Planet owner/buyer Suzanne O’Shea to get the feeling that she doesn’t really abide by too much uselessness.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Swiffers, sure, I guess so, but for most jobs, a good old-fashioned broom does the trick. At Goods for the Planet, they’re sustainably built, and attractive.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Considering what’s in some of the stuff that you use for the heavy duty duties, this thing seems worth a shot.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Suzanne pointed out that Country Save (you’ve seen it at the grocery store) is a local product, made in Arlington. Really interesting story, actually.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

In addition to a few somewhat esoteric and niche products, Goods offers a great selection of natural, non-harmful all-purpose cleaning supplies — without the toxins, waste, and excess baggage.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a product that makes as much sense as the Swiffer replacements by Usta-Bees. The local woman who created them uses old sweaters to fashion washable, reusable covers for Swiffer-brand mops that save money, resources, and landfill space. You can get them at Goods for the Planet, along with stuff like Soap Nuts and good old-fashioned push brooms built with sustainable materials by at-risk communities.

Spring cleaning has just never felt this good. Usually the sense of tidying one’s life is somewhat clouded by the fact that, well, you could be napping or hiking or playing the piano and instead you’re tidying your life. But there’s something so gratifying about stocking up on non-toxic materials and supporting smart, innovative entrepreneurs. I won’t say it makes cleaning fun, but it makes it less terrible. See the slideshow here for more.

And then there’s this: Goods for the Planet is also a recycling center for hard-to-get-rid-of items like outdated CPUs, junky TVs, empty ink cartridges, and broken printers. Florescent bulbs, too. The shop’s website has more info on all that, but think about it: The more you clear out, the more room you have to bring new stuff in.

Then again that’s how you got in this mess to begin with.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Locally Made, Locally Designed, Sustainable Such and Such, Spring Cleaning