Photo by allthosetrees

I love these rings made from precious metal clay (i.e. reclaimed silver) and embossed with running stitches. ($29, Etsy.com)

Photo by allthosetrees

Photo by Living Creatively

Ain’t serendipity grand? I stumbled across Living Creatively recently and I’m ALL OVER its projects page. Above, a series of painted animal silhouettes, and below, a linen mobile that uses rub-on motifs to dazzling effect.

Photo by Living Creatively

Photo by TimeOut New York

Here’s a great tutorial on TimeOut New York on how to weave a swanky bracelet out of those pesky magazine-subscription cards. Unless you’re a complete mag hag, however, it might take you a while to get the 81 cards you’ll need for this project. I wonder if this will work for candy wrappers, too.

Photo by Kunklebaby

How darling are these? Made from 100 percent domestic organic cotton by Kunklebaby over at Etsy.com. The hand-stamped seahorses absolutely SLAY ME. And I covet that pleasant blouse, and not for my kidlet. ($16-$50, Etsy.com)

Photo by Kunklebaby

Photo by Kunklebaby

Photo by Camden Rose

• Baby Earth
• Blueberry Forest
• ChildTrek
• Craftsbury Kids
• EcoLeeko
• Goblin Toys
• Hazelnut Toys
• KidBean
• Little Alouette
• Little Sapling Toys
• Mahar Dry Goods
• Magic Cabin
• Maple Grace
• Natural Pod
• Oompa
• Organic Bebe
• Palumba
• Planet Happy Toys
• Stubby Pencil Studio
• Tree Hollow Toys
• UrthChild
• Wild Dill
• Willow Tree Toys

Tip: Find out if your child’s toys contain lead and other toxins at HealthyToys.org

Photo by Forest Bound

I’m completely enamored with Forest Bound, artist Alice Saunders’ absolutely breathtaking—for there is no other word for it—collection of accessories that recall a time long-past, complete with sepia-toned photographs, ink- and tear-stained love letters tied with ribbon, and the plaintive strains of Glen Miller and his orchestra crackling from a Victrola.

Photo by Forest Bound

Photo by Forest Bound

Photo by Forest Bound

Photo by Forest Bound

Photo by Willywaw at Etsy.com

These gorgeous bags, handmade by Ashley Van Etten of Willywaw, make me think of boardwalk jaunts and sand squishing between your toes. Crafted from 100 percent organic cotton canvas grown and milled in the United States, then printed with water-based inks, the totes are finished off with straps made from hemp webbing. ($28-$50, Etsy.com)

Photo by Willywaw at Etsy.com

Photo by Willywaw at Etsy.com

Photo by Willywaw at Etsy.com

Photo by K&Company

It’s been a long time coming, but American scrapbooking companies are finally catching up to the green party bus. Just two years ago, the realm of eco-friendly scrapbooking was a wasteland in terms of commercially available supplies—which is ironic because the earliest scrapbookers were coaxed by the spirit of thrift and preservation. (And the lack of a Joanne’s within buggy-driving distance.)

Today, options made from post-consumer recycled paper—and printed with soy inks—abound. Here are some of the companies heeding the call for virgin-tree-free products:

DCWV: Green Stack Collection

K&Company: Amy Butler Lotus | Remake

Piggy Tales: Cinderella | The Steadfast Tin Soldier | The Ballad of Mulan | Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Paper Trunk: 1974 | Batik | Gigi | Jellybean | Wrangler | Maybe Baby | Socialite

Jilibean Soup: White Collection | Kraft Collection

Photo by kaytethinks, under a Creative Commons license

Happy Halloween, the most frightful night of the year! (Of course, with the state the world is in, who needs extra chills and thrills? I’m already petrified with fear.) Coincidentally, it’s also the third anniversary of the day I first registered The Worsted Witch; I didn’t pick Halloween intentionally but perhaps my subconscious latched onto the significance before I did.

Fall days just cry out for pumpkin pie or soup, and I have two organic sugar pumpkins ready to sacrifice themselves for the cause. The challenge now is finding a good-size pot, since we donated the last of our Teflon-coated nastiness to Goodwill last week—I couldn’t cope with nightmares about PFOA and “Teflon toxicosis” anymore—and we haven’t had time to stock up on stainless steel just yet, so I’m down to one cast-iron pan and a ceramic-coated skillet.

Click on each image for details

Click on each image for details

Photo by KupKup Land at Etsy.com

Pincushions or surreal landscape art? KupKup Land’s deliberately assembled tableaus belie their original purpose as places to corral sharp sewing implements. Based in Athens, Greece, KupKup (the store’s gray-clad mascot, who is really a lady named Kima) likes “big treasures, friendship, the sky and the stars, the sun and the forests. Small treasures, buttons, glass beads and all kind of nice stones.” He also likes to eat canned tuna fish and is “totally in love with Clhoé.”

I would be terribly remiss in my duties as a lover of fake baked goods if I didn’t mention the mouthwatering pastry brooches KupKup and Kima have whipped up. ($42, Etsy.com)

Photo by KupKup Land at Etsy.com

Photo by KupKup Land at Etsy.com

Photo by Kirstinflo at Etsy.com

Kirstinflo makes adorable little girls’ jumpers out of men’s button-down shirts salvaged from thrift stores—and sews them out of her bedroom in Astoria, Queens, no less. I love the little clues to the fabrics’ origins that you can still spy on the dresses: a Lacoste alligator stalking a pocket here, a Columbia Sportswear label peeking from a seam there. A new silhouette with a billowing skirt, coupled with coordinating rickrack running across the bodice, imbues these former workhorse togs with a soft, Laura Ingalls-esque femininity. Frontier chic, anyone? ($85, Etsy)

More things you can do with discarded men’s shirts: Turn them into scented sachets or an apron.

Photo by Kirstinflo at Etsy.com

Photo by Kirstinflo at Etsy.com

Click on each image for details. Photos by Areaware.

Hand-knit from Scottish lamb swool, British designer Donna Wilson’s collection of creatures and oddities, now available stateside at Areaware, are packed with oversize personalities and utterly, utterly charming. (I can’t get over that kitty tea cozy!) You can even make your own monster using one of her kits, no sewing skills required.

Click on each image for details

Photo by Topsy at Waygood, under a Creative Commons license

Waste of any kind makes my eyeballs itch; one-off disposables even more so. Despite the recent upswell in conversation about energy independence and the need to wean ourselves off foreign oil, few people seem to realize that plastic bags, clamshell takeout containers, and that iced-coffee cup are petroleum-derived conveniences—ones we don’t need festering in our landfills for thousands of years. (Methane, a greenhouse gas found in landfills, is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide when it comes to trapping heat in our atmosphere, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.)

I usually pack lunch when I travel into the city for another bout of in-house editing at some magazine or another, but I’m laxer when I know I’m going to be in midtown because I love the hot-food counter at one particular organic deli on Park Ave. South. (I’m addicted to the sweet-and-sour seitan.) It’s easy to get swept up in a maelstrom of difficult-to-recycle plastic waste, but you can step around it with a bit of diligence.

1. Bring your own Tupperware: Because of the recent hullaballoo about toxic chemicals leaching from plastic, I’ve taken to toting along a stainless-steel container to fill up with hot foods at the organic deli. The lovely gent at the register weighed my empty container last week, so I don’t have to pay for the extra weight.

2. Bring your own flatware: One thing this world doesn’t need is more disposable plastic cutlery in the landfill. I have a fork-and-spoon set in a reusable pouch that I just toss into a bag with my lunchbox.

3. Choose wrapper-free snacks: A juicy organic Anjou pear or Gala apple doesn’t have any packaging to dispose of. I save the core for our weekly trip to the community garden’s compost heap.

4. Bring your own bag: I love my Whole Foods ChicoBag. When I’m done putting away its contents, I simply stuff the bag back into the attached pouch and throw it into my purse. No fuss, no muss, and no forgetting to pack a bag.

5. Bring your own water bottle/commuter mug: Apparently Chris Meloni from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit banned plastic bottles from the set and bought everyone reusable water bottles. What a guy.

I wrote about toxic air fresheners some time ago for Discovery’s Planet Green Web site, but with the glut of TV commercials featuring women gleefully huffing synthetic, chemicalicious fragrances (Glade and Febreeze, I’m looking at you), I think it bears repeating. I’d rather have a slightly stinky room than cancer and brain damage, thanksverymuch.

Click on each image for details

Click on each image for details

Click on each image for details

Photo by freshlyblended

Nestled in upstate New York with her husband and a mini-menagerie, Nicole Lecht runs freshlyblended, a one-woman studio that churns out elegant, nature-inspired journals and notebooks deftly assembled from found materials and post-consumer recycled paper. The talented and effervescent Nicole and I chatted about sustainability in crafting, how she became a “green” designer completely by accident, and where cork paper comes from.

1. How did freshlyblended come about?

Well, I actually went to college for Illustration (that’s what my degree concentration was) and graphic design, but in my last year of school, I took a bookbinding class on a whim and totally fell in love with the structural aspect of it. After graduating, I got a job as a book-cover designer for a publishing house, which opened the door even wider for me, so I ran with it and started to do some research about materials and business.

The word “freshlyblended” came about when I was in a local coffee shop sketching and reading the back of my coffee cup. It said, “… from a fresh blend of eclectic ingredients …” I didn’t hesitate with that name because, at the time, I was struggling over how to hone in on my multiple abilities and eclectic influences. freshlyblended represents just that.

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Photo from Sparkability

If you don’t want your chilluns getting their sticky fingers on your antique Victorian dollhouse, the Dutch-designed MobileHome is made from 100 percent recycled cardboard. Has 8 rooms, stair openings, and spyholes, plus an attic for storage. Another 10 smackers gets you a kid-size playhouse they can paint and decorate. ($35, Sparkability)