There's a new type of credit card in the design world called Live Checking.  It's a credit card that actually keeps a running tally of how much credit you have used which might help people manage spiraling debt problems.  This is a huge problem right now during the recession.  There are lots of people living completely off of credit right now because of the poor economy and sagging job market.  Even for those of us who are employed, it can be easy to miscalculate your spending.

The eco-friendly part of the design itself is the solar panel on the right hand side of the card.  This panel collects the power necessary to keep the card powered up when needed.  This card could also potentially really help people cut down on the amount of waste they are steadily consuming.  Perhaps people will think twice about buying disposable products or cheap junk that they don't need because they know how much they've already spent and how much they owe on this card.  Many people end up with tons of things crowding their house that they don't even need or want!

My favorite part of the design is the ability for the card to light up around the edges to let you know at a moment's glance whether you are above your credit limit or not.  If the light is blue, you are still within your credit limit.  If the light is red, you are over your limit.  I also think it's cool that the colors used for the edges are not green and red.  Green signals "go" and that is not what consumers should be doing when using their cards.

This design is by Jin-young Yoon, Wook-sun Oh, Young-ho Lee & Jun-kyo Lee.

Home Painting is one of the fastest, easiest and most cost effective ways to make a big change in the appearance of your home.  This can, however, be one of those projects that eats up a lot of your time if you decide to DIY.  It's amazing how fast a painting crew can get it done with a professional look -- none of those little oopsies that I tend to get when I'm painting!

College Pro Painters have a two year guarantee on their work, do all the clean-up and prep for the job with competitive pricing and quality products.  When you call them to come out and give you a quote, ask them about using an eco-friendly paint option.  That way, you'll support local students and the environment by choosing this company as your painter!

College Pro not only hires students locally, they're also involved in a number of charity organizations such as Kids Help Phone, Race Across America and Footsteps For Hope.  They are also heavily involved in donating time, skills and paint to improve community spaces and homes in underprivileged areas across North America.  Many of these projects run through the student's spring break which goes to show the student's (and company's) dedication to helping those in need in any way that they can.

There are a variety of eco-friendly paints that are now on the market but the key is to ask for a paint with low VOCs (volatile organic compounds).  These compounds have been found to emit chemicals into the air which can be a huge source of indoor air contamination even for years after the paint has dried!  There is conflicting research as to the toxicity of these chemicals although some have labelled some of the chemicals as carcinogens.

Ask for a paint that has a Green Seal standard which means that it has met all of the regulations to become certified "green".  It's possible to get paints that are made from all natural ingredients although some of these paints are not very washable.  This means that you'd have to repaint (and use even more resources!) every time the walls got dirty.  There are also a number of recycled paints on the market which are made from leftover paints.  These paints usually come in a limited array of colors though.  Make sure that you ask your paint expert which kind of eco-friendly paint would best suit your needs!

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Check out this gorgeous wood high chair from Fab Baby Gear.  It's the Argington Babylon high chair and is much more eco-friendly than your standard all plastic high chair like the one I used for my kids.  It's made from FSC certified, sustainably harvest wood and put together with low VOC glues.  The finishing is all completely non-toxic and pollutant free which is important because if your kids are anything like mine, they'll be mouthing this all over the place!

The chair is made in energy efficient facilities and can be adjusted without any tools.  My favorite part is just how long you could use this chair for.  It holds up to 250 pounds and can be adjusted from bistro table height to coffee table height!  You can't get much more use than that.  From ages 6 months to adult is the recommended ages for use.  You want to wait until they're about 6 months so that they can sit up independently and not just slouch over to the side.

Organic Girl has another awesome giveaway -- she and Fab Baby Gear are giving away one of these chairs in either Birch or Cherry.  I follow this lady's blog like a maniac and enter nearly every contest.  I haven't won anything yet but you'll be sure to hear about it if I do!  She reviews a ton of great kids products, some are green-er than others but they're all kinda cool.  There's lots of great giveaways too that you can enter.  Maybe I shouldn't encourage that.  I don't really need the competition!! lol

If you're one of my previous readers, you'll notice the extreme makeover of my site.  My previous addresses of ecofriendly.thebentleys.ca, paula.thebentleys.ca and mark.thebentleys.ca should now direct you here to greencoloredglasses.ca.  Please bear with me while we work out some of the technical details that this has entailed and let me know what you think of the site makeover.  My husband, Mark, has put a lot of hours into the revamping with several more still to come.

In the future, I hope to have an about me page, contact information available and other details added.  For now, expect there to be slight changes to the site format/layout and design on a regular basis until things work themselves out.  That's what I call it when my husband works his tush off on something apparently ... things just work themselves out! lol Thanks for all your help and support of all the technical details here Mark.  It's appreciated more than you know!!

Feel free to leave any comments or suggestions here and have a great weekend!

This week's featured Etsy seller is Nue to Me. This talented crafter has found a way to repurpose old t-shirts into some really cute, fashionable and practical items for kids. Each item is once of a kind and designed by her so it's not like getting your daughter a gap dress and everyone in her preschool class has it. What a terrible fashion faux pas!! lol My daughter actually loves it when people are wearing the same thing as her -- samesies or twinsies is what she calls it. Three year olds might think it's cute but I think it's more of the mindless drone consumerism that seems to be rampant. I love the custom look of these dresses as well as the green-ness of upcycling old t-shirts.

The dresses made by Nue to Me are my personal fav of her items. You can see the quality and work that goes into stitching each dress. The designs are carefully laid out according to what sorts of designs the t-shirts she's working with have. I love the two dresses pictured here...absolutely adorable! She has a variety of designs and sizes available on her site. They range in size from 6 months to 6 years with a ton of different styles so even the hardest to please little diva would be easy to shop for.

The t-shirt dresses that she makes tend to leave lots of left over bits of t-shirt material. With these bits, she makes cute hats in a variety of colours and sizes. There's the mohawk design featured here as well as a dread lock pirate version! These would be awesome when the snow starts falling soon and the temperatures are dipping. These would be great for Halloween as well! Just imagine how comfy the often washed t-shirt material would be even for the the youngest little one and the sizes would fit for quite a while because of the stretch of the material.

She also makes skirts from co-ordinating panels of t-shirt material like this Disney-inspired piece here. Check out her Etsy site for more of her designs and to see what else she makes out of the bits and pieces left over. This crafter leaves very little waste left over from her designs of wristlet bags made out of sleeves, masks, over size bibs (called dinner armour for a reason!) from the front and shoulder pieces, hair clips, etc. etc. etc. If only I was this talented!!! I'm thinking I might have to place a couple of orders from her for this Christmas...I suggest you do the same before she runs out of pieces!

She has a couple of other Etsy stores as well -- World of Whimm which features fantastic kids costume pieces for boys and girls and On a Whimm which features miscellaneous cute eco-friendly products such as tacks, pin cushions and cat nip toys. Or you could check out her blog at www.worldofwhimm.blogspot.com for more news and information on this imaginative crafter.

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If this is what your idea of an eco-friendly wedding looks like then you need to get seriously updated!! Check out a brand new Wedding Blog that will keep you up to date on all the new wedding trends and fashions. The blog is run by a team of experts (wedding planners, designers, etc.) with posts by brides and grooms that are in the midst of their own planning! They have a ton of resources for you to rely on and posts that cover a huge range of topics.

My favorite topic would, of course, be everything eco-friendly. This site has a range of wedding planning ideas that incorporate a variety of lifestyles, including the earth friendly lifestyle. I read a really interesting post about creating an eco-friendly gift registry which is something that I've never even thought about! This blogger, Melanie Salerno, will be posting an eco-friendly article every Friday as an ongoing series on this wedding blog. She is also featuring handmade finds monthly on this site which is something I'll definitely be keeping my eye on.

Whether you're planning your big day or helping with a friend's, wedding websites are a great resource for up to the minute wedding information. Weddings are a momentous life ocassion that require lots of planning, budgeting and information. They mark a new beginning and what better way to start your life together than by honouring the planet at the same time! Keep your eye on this wedding blog for hints and tips for wedding ideas for every lifestyle. They definitely have a bit of everything from make-up ideas to decorating ideas to invitation ideas! Let's face it, brides (and grooms) need all the help they can get with their big day. Turn to people who know what they're talking about!

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Designer Home Furniture can be attained while living within your boundaries of eco-friendly living.  The trick is to shop carefully!  Only buy pieces that are actually green and research to ensure that the product doesn't just appear to be green.  Many companies are jumping on the eco-friendly living bandwagon by greenwashing products to appeal to those of us who care about the sustainability of our lifestyles.

Bamboo is a good example of this.  It's an inherently green resource because it is so fast growing, requires no pesticides or harmful chemicals during it's growing period.  However, many furniture companies will build something out of bamboo and then stain it or seal it with a toxic compound.  Technically, whatever they've constructed is still "green" but is it green enough for you?

Look for pieces like this tetris inspired bamboo shelf by Brave Space Design.  It's finished with an organic herbal oil and then treated with a non-toxic durable water based finish.  This piece would look amazing in almost any space with the shapes harkening back to the good old days of the 80's.  You can look backwards in time while protecting the future!  Beautiful and sustainable do not have to be opposing terms.

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Ouono Design is a 100% Canadian design house out of Vancouver that specializes in upcycling vintage materials.  They make a huge range of products out of items that have found their way to "rag houses".  Things only generally end up at these rag warehouses after they have failed to sell at a used goods store such as Value Village.  Ouono looks for high quality, vintage materials that can be upcycled into a variety of products such as pillows, covers, throws and bags.

These trench coat bags are not only good looking and easy to match, they're ultra practical because of the weather resistant material that trench coats are usually made of.  Ouono design uses only the best quality trench coats to construct a three sizes of bags fittingly named The Agent 99, The Sam Spade and the Raymond Chandler.  The preferred brands used by the design company when sourcing the trench coats are Burberry, London Fog, Aquascutum and Bentley's.  The bags are all unique because the design of the bag is dictated somewhat by the design of the trenchcoat.

The coat's belt becomes the sturdy handle of the bag.  The lining of the unisex yet startlingly sexy bag is made from the lining of the trenchcoat itself.  The inside of the bag has assorted pockets and compartments made up of various elements of the trench coat as well that makes the interior of the bag as green and practical as the outside of the bag.  I hope Santa's reading this post because this bag would make an awesome gift for me!!  They sell these bags on Etsy as well as their own site in a variety of colours.  The colour variety is, of course, limited by the variety of colours of the trench coats they get.  It looks like khaki, taupe, sand, cream, darker khaki, navy green, navy blue and brown are the main colours.  I'll definitely be focusing in on this company again in future posts.  Love both the idea and execution behind this company!

Now you can make sure every holiday is "green" with these eco-friendly designs from dreaminggiggles on Etsy.  This designer calls these creations "wreath cycles" as opposed to re-cycling.  Clever and super funky at the same time!  She has a Masters in Art Education and absolutely loves to create.  More of her creations can be seen at her blog site dreaminggigglesdesign.com.  She does a ton of custom painting and hand lettering of signs and plaques that are absolutely gorgeous!

These eco-friendly wreaths are made from old sweaters cut up into squares and strung together.  The Halloween wreath is made out of black and gray sweater squares and then draped in gruesome spider webs.  Grosgrain ribbon is added to as a hanger and as an accent bow on the bottom.  The Christmas wreath is made out of red and green sweaters and accented in the same manner with grosgrain ribbon.

These wreaths feel totally retro and hip at the same time.  Very folksy, funky and fashionable!  She makes them in full wreath size (approx 11 inches) as well as in smaller diameter sizes (approx 4.5 inches) for ornaments that would look outstanding on any tree.  I think these would be fantastic as an ornament exchange or a teacher's gift as well.  Check out her Etsy site for info on what's available before she's all out!

Imagine being able to see a light out of a pile of trash!  That's the gift one French artist, Angele Riguidel, has.  Her art consists mainly of various pieces of trash being turned into lamps that are not only useful but great conversation pieces.  Her lamps show a rich sense of humour in the variety and use of the bulbs interspersed with the upcycled pieces of garbage.

Her work encompasses a huge range of upcycled items from automobile parts to household appliances.  In her portfolio, you'll recognize blenders, tail lights, fenders, pop cans, painted metal boxes, toys, jam jars, cake pans, milk crates, fans, cameras, pipe, a bingo ball machine, a mop bucket, cotton and hose.  You'll probably also see a ton of other items that will make you wonder just what the heck it is!!  Break out your French to English dictionary because the entire site is en francais.

It was hard to pick out a few examples of her work which encompasses so much.  I liked the hub cap lamp because it looks very useable as a desktop lamp while still maintaining the original texture of being a hub cap from a Mercedes.  This would be great in a mechanic's shop or backyard garage but still also very good looking for home use.  Many upcycled art pieces are more "art pieces" than functional pieces but this lamp rises above that.

The turn signal lamp has great bright colours that would be a cool accent piece in a little boy's car themed room.  Great use of creativity and ingenuity that really might set some serious DIY'ers into action.

I love the cookie tin because it's creepy and funny at the same time.  It's not truly functional as an actual lamp but would look kinda neat on the bookshelf.  I love that she chose the model's eyes for the light bulb placement.  This one too would make a great DIY project.

The shower head light is unlike anything I've ever seen before.  It would fit right in with clean modern lines of a minimalist bedroom with two mounted as reading lights on either side of the bed.  Viewers would have to get a close look at it to realize the lamp's previous life as a shower head.

The vacuum light is hysterically kooky.  This piece, more than any of the others I've featured here, really show off the artist's personality as well as her creativity.  It resembles an alien more than a light fixture, really and I'm sure kids would absolutely love this one.

The clock light enables one to bring the artist's creativity on the road.  The travelling alarm clock light would make a cute and weird piece to bring a little art and life into some of the boring business trips people seem to be taking more and more of lately.

Angele's work really shows what can be done with one person's trash when it's viewed as a treasure, a never-ending resource of raw materials from which to produce art.  These pieces truly define the term "upcycled art" and add a neat twist of making the art into a usable form.  In this way, garbage can again be "consumed" adding a magnificient second life to an item instead of piling up our overflowing landfills with ever more things.