What were my fantastic readers enjoying this past month?

1) National Love For My Knitting Prose: “While perusing the October issue of Yoga Journal Magazine (they have a great new site layout, you should give it a browse), I decided to read through the Letters section to see what readers have been saying about the publication. Much to my surprise …”

2) Keep Your Keyboard Company: “Working in a tiny cubicle, home office, or in my case as of late, your living room couch, loneliness and boredom are constant factors. Thankfully, I’m not the only one who realized that - specifically, I’m talking about freelance visual artist Von Glitschka. His latest, newly launched …”

3) Tara Hogan Turns Ink & Wit From Indie to Eco-Modern: “Big businesses aren’t the only ones who are seeing than many benefits of going green these days. Smaller companies and the ever-present indie start-ups are getting in on the act too. Being an advocate for the “little guy”, I’m honored to feature a woman with vision and beauty who sees sustainability as …”

4) Snapping Takes A Modern, Kitchen-y Twist: “My favorite childhood toy, hands down, was Legos. Truth be told, if you put me in front of a box of Legos right now, I’d have a field day. The ability to mix and match any and all pieces to create something of beauty or function is a key part of modern design …”

5) Twenty Gauge Vintage American Steel Furniture: “Some may see steel as a cold, emotionless metal, but from an environmental sense, it has a lot of style and can be easily reused. Southern California’s Twenty Gauge furniture is vintage steel from a fargone American era which has been …”

What did you enjoy this past month?

What would you like to see more of?

It’s here, it’s here, it’s here! Sorry, but can you tell that I’m a bit excited? Over a year ago, I agreed to write a few restaurant reviews for a San Francisco travel guide. Unfortunately, none of us contributors got paid (boo-hoo), but at least I can say that I have been published in a book (woot). On Friday, my copy of Hungry? San Francisco arrived in my mailbox; yup, a very good cause for a squeal. Here’s how Amazon.com describes the book:

Want to leave your heart in San Francisco, but keep your wallet? Hungry? San Francisco gives you the lowdown on the best meals and deals that can be found in the Bay Area for $15 or less. Hungry? features 500 entries—from out-of-the-way pizza parlors in Alameda and Indian adventures in Berkeley to trendy-on-a-budget secrets for Italian in North Beach to a homey bistro in Marin. Forget that other guide — this is the only resource you’ll ever need to navigate the culinary scene in SF.

Worth a celebration? You bet! I had a spectacular vegetarian burrito from Taqueria Zapata (which I review in the book, see page 69). It’s been at least two months since I last had one of their fresh concoctions - maybe that’s why I lost weight (haha). To check out all of my reviews (and one sidebar) in the book, flip to the following pages: 44, 48, 55, 65, 69, 110, and 114.

Before the leaves start falling and the chilly temperatures set in, there’s still time to get a fresh coat of paint on your house, garage, tool shed … etc. Maybe that’s why Portland-based Yolo Colorhouse just released their line of Green Seal-certified exterior paints.

Available in three different finishes (velvet flat, satin, semi-gloss) and sizes (quarts, gallons, fives), the “Outside” collection is zero VOC, 100% acryclic, and especially designed to handle full sunlight. A palette of 36 colors are arranged into six families - cloud, prairie, forest, ocean, desert, and canyon. It goes without saying that all of them are inspired by nature, along with mixing and matching seamlessly.

Ready to give your favorite exteriors a new coat? You can buy all colors and sizes from Yolo’s interior and exterior collections online. Living in the United States? Find a nearby retail location to check out Yolo in-person (and save on shipping).

[Building Green TV; via Apartment Therapy: Green]

Ghouls, goblins, and tasty goodies are just around the corner. That’s right, Halloween is now just a month away - have you decided on your costume yet? If not, your green style maven is here to help with two collections of affordable, easy-to-make outfits for both adults and kids, care of Ms. Martha Stewart.

For the younger tots, 7 Grocery Getups features hula dancers, a cheerleader, cowboy, princess, flapper girl, space invader, and a knight and dragon duo (perfect for close-aged siblings hitting the sidewalk together). A number of the “ingredients” for these costumes are ones you already have around your house, thanks to your last trip to the grocery store, helping to save you both money and the planet’s resources.

These designs were first published in 2004, so some of the elements aren’t as green, such as the 55 Styrofoam cups needed for the space invader get-up. With the process of sustainable dinnerware (hello, potato starch!), finding a eco-alternative for most pieces is a snap.

Don’t worry, I didn’t forget us adults - we deserve to have as much fun as the kids, right!? The 8 No-Sew Costumes feature, first published in 2005, still has a host of great ideas and unique ensembles: “with supplies from the craft store, supermarket, thrift shop, and your closet, you can create fantastic disguises without a stitch.” The great guises to choose from include a bubble wrap jellyfish, spider web mother and sock spider baby, garbage bag witch, tulle ghost, coffee filter godmother, umbrella bats, silk leaf swamp couple, and a feather and felt raven.

Just reading the names of the costumes springs to life a host of green options, such as those socks in your drawer that you never found a match to (sock spider baby), that broken umbrella that you don’t know what to do with (umbrella bat), and the last must-have item that you ordered online that came with [gulp] plastic packaging (bubble wrap jellyfish).

What as your favorite past Halloween costume?

Can you think of a way to make it more sustainable or easily recyclable?

According to new study from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), regulation is the most effective means to achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions from buildings - “a sector which accounts for some 30-40 % of global energy use.”Released in a study titled “Assessment of policy instruments for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from buildings” at the Sustainable Buildings 07 conference in Prague two days ago, these findings are vital to the continued development of the green construction industry.

“According to the latest assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, around 30 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by 2020 by measures such as improved energy efficiency in residential and commercial buildings. Importantly, this could lead to gains in global GDP-not costs,” said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director

“The new UNEP SBCI study demonstrates the critical roles that governments need to take in establishing, implementing, and enforcing regulatory policies so as to realize these emission reductions and these environmental, social and economics gains,” he said.

Interested in reading the report yourself? Supported by a database that showcases the lessons learned from the 80 case studies, copies can be downloaded from the UNEP Sustainable Buildings and Construction Initiative website.

[Building Green TV; via ENN]

Remodeling or building new - which is greener? This is a debate that has been raging on for years, and it seems that remodeling is starting to come out on top. In addition to using less newly harvested and manufactured resources, remodeling exisiting buildings is now proving to be an intelligent investment as well.In a recent feature article on GreenerBuildings.com, Tilde Herrera discusses the green makeover that an 80-year-old art deco office building in Seattle is getting, thanks to the Jonathan Rose Companies.

The trend toward retrocommissioning existing commercial structures using green building principles is quietly taking shape behind the louder activity of the new construction sector. More than 5,000 new buildings await LEED certification, compared to 480 existing buildings on the waiting list, according to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Only 7 percent of buildings that have earned LEED certification are existing buildings.

Using the existing building inventory goes to the heart of a core sustainability argument: it is often more wasteful to tear down and replace buildings, even if the replacement is green, than it is to improve what’s already there. “One of the most beneficial aspects is you’re using existing infrastructures and not adding to sprawl,” said David Lehrer, director of partner relations and communications at Center for the Built Environment (CBE) at the University of California, Berkeley.

Does this mean that we will be seeing a lot less new green construction? Not by a long shot, but it could mean big business for all variety of renovators and remodelers - this an unspoken area of sustainable building that deserves much more public attention and growth.

[Building Green TV; Greener Buildings via Treehugger]

My serious interest in the Portland, Oregon area began about two months ago after noticing that many of my favorite crafters and visual artist were living in the area. Knowing a lot about San Francisco (thanks to living in the “city by the Bay” for the past year), I couldn’t help but be curious as to why so many indie folks were making their home in one of the greenest cities in the United States. With my first trip to the area (and a possible move in June 2008) on the horizon, I’ll be featuring a host of interviews and features on the local area’s green and crafty communities.

Artist, Illustrator, Photographer, Animator, and Web Designer - if I had finished college, that’s probably what my resume would read; thankfully, Amy Ruppel did invest in an advanced education and now graces the world with her spectacular talents. From growing up in rural Wisconsin to becoming the “it”-girl of the Portland artist scene, Amy’s life has been a beautiful journey, filled with many creative pursuits.

With her 2003 wedding featured in the local paper and countless collaborations with notable design brands, Amy is on her way to being one of the most recognizable faces (and companies) in the ever-expanding independent creative community. All of the articles saying she is a pleasure to talk to couldn’t be more right - her bubbly personality comes through even in her emails; personally, I think it is because she is doing what she truly loves (which is a good lesson for all of us).

In one of my most extensive and exciting interviews ever, my chat with Amy includes information about her college studies, the source of her fondness for feathered friends, her must-read blogs, upcoming shows and the very-soon-to-open restaurant her and her husband established … and that’s not all!

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Ah Mondays - the busiest day of the week for me. I plan on posting at least one entry a day from now on, and since my schedule is so full, a Top 5 list seemed like the perfect thing for a Monday … maybe I’ll make it an ongoing series? I could call it TFM (top five Monday) for short.

In just the past two months, my website has been growing in leaps and bounds, including content, coverage, and support. In August, I had nearly 7,000 unique visitors; September as brought in around 5,600 already - will I break my August record? Who knows!?

The following websites have sent the most readers my way this month (so far). With one week left, I can only imagine what exciting developments will come to pass.

1) Apartment Therapy - San Francisco (featuring my interview with Bay Area author Meg Ilasco in one of their infamous Slinks posts)

2) Kirin Notebook (featuring a mention of my interview with company founder and blog writer Lara Cameron)

3) Supayana Clothing (now living in Montreal, I’ve been friends with DIY fashion queen Yana since my days in New York)

4) Hugg.com (featuring my post about INV/ALT designs’ snapping dishware, which ended up being mentioned on Treehugger.com as well)

5) Craft Magazine Blog (can’t say enough good things about CRAFT - I’ve interviewed a Bay Area costume designer for their Volume 4 issue and they have mentioned three of my blog posts already, the most recent being my interview with Ink & Wit craft maven Tara Hogan)

Already featured on every major modern design blog (along with Treehugger, naturally), Night Owl Paper Goods has quickly become a familiar name in stationary, thanks to their line of eco-friendly wooden postcards. Made from sustainably harvested wood, thinly sliced using very little power and no water, the collection features Night Owl’s unmistakably modern-with-a-touch-of-vintage graphics.

Started in 2004 by Alan Henderson and Jennifer Tatham, Night Owl Paper Goods was more of a side project to their respective professional design careers - until recently. The letterpress-created brand has become so popular that it is now a full-time job for the both of them. Though the sustainable postcard collection has garnered the most attention, it is by no means the full extent of their creations. Also available from Night Owl Paper Goods are: baby and moving announcements; holiday cards and photo mailers; birthday and correspondence cards; and everyday notecards.

With all the green hype around Night Owl, I couldn’t resist the urge to chat with them. Thankfully, Jennifer was nice enough to spare some time from her letterpress-filled schedule to answer a few of my questions. Read on to find out more about Night Owl Paper Goods’ future eco-plans, where their name comes from, how they have become so successful, and what wood goods are coming out next.

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Hoping to embrace the natural energies of the earth but avoiding installing solar panels (for whatever reason)? Well, how about your own personal wind turbine?In one of Atlanta, Georgia’s oldest neighborhood, the area’s first small-scale wind turbine was installed in Christine and Curt Mann’s backyard. Though not all of their neighbors were as amped about the new energy saver as the Mann’s were, the turbine will generate enough power to run the entire home and “eliminate as much CO2 from the atmosphere as an acre of mature, healthy trees.”

This particular model was designed especially for residential customers that tap into an traditional power grid. “The blades are curved and shaped for quiet operation. It is the first backyard-sized wind turbine that includes a built-in inverter and requires no external components.”

When asked about installation of the wind turbine in this urban setting with relatively low wind speeds, Roger Cone, founder of Southern Energy Solutions, said, “We all went into this project knowing that this was not an ideal placement of the Skystream. Our target markets for the Skystream wind turbine are those areas of Georgia with greater average wind speeds, such as the mountains of north Georgia and the coastal areas of southeast Georgia.”

It’s clear that solar panels are still the most logical choice for most homeowners and builders, this new residential turbine is more proof that Americans are ready to take the health of the planet into their own hands. Will the Mann’s neighbors install their own turbines in the near future? Probably not, but this could be a big development for those living in coastal (and more breezy) areas.

[Building Green TV via ENN]

Remember how bummed you were when your favorite sweater got a hole in it? Even with similar structural blemishes, I find it hard to part with my favorite garments — ones that have been worn during so many memorable moments. With a few snips, unravelled rows, and sections of knitting, you can easily turn these old, damaged favorites into fashionably new creations with Knitty.com’s Frankenknits column. Knitty was started back in 2002 by Toronto-based, New Jersey-born knitter Amy R Singer, who still edits and publishes the “web-only knitting magazine with a sense of humor and absolutely no doily patterns.”

Each quarterly issue features 10-15 new patterns tailor to each season, as well as columns, articles, interviews, product recommendations and more. One of the consistent columns, titled “Frankenknits,” is written by Kristi Porter, in which she chops up clothing, and transforms them into updated items of wonder (perfect for us reuse-loving crafters). Knitty’s Fall 2007 issue recently went live, and the Frankenknits column features two handy dress incarnations: one for women and another for baby.

Past installments of Frankenknits, which became a regular column last year, include dying wool with Kool-Aid, knitting superheros, duplicate stitching (also known as Swiss darning), intentionally adding dropped stitches into designs, transformed bags, and shibori scarfs (which make great quick gifts). If you happen to love knitting for your pooch, you should check our Kristi’s first book, Knitting for Dogs: Irresistible Patterns for Your Favorite Pup — and You!, released in 2005.

[Green Options]

Speaking of the October issue of Yoga Journal Magazine (click over to my previous post for some smile-inducing news), I found yet another nifty piece of “news” within its page. One of the feature stories for the issue is titled “Labor of Love”, about the many benefits of prenatal yoga.

First off, I was enamored to find Stephanie Snyder, a teacher who I talked with many times while working at Yoga Tree, as the model for the article. I’d heard via her e-mail list that she was pregnant, but wow - she looks fantastic!

While reading the piece by Catherine Guthrie and admiring the images of Stephanie taken by David Martinez, I noticed something that seemed oddly familiar in the background. The beautifully framed print sitting on the sideboard cabinet turned out to be the “HELLO May” print from Etsy.com artist (and one of my personal favorites) Ashley G from St. Louis.

Big congrats to Ashley for the great national press and props to Yoga Journal for featuring one of the many great sellers from Etsy.com!

While perusing the October issue of Yoga Journal Magazine (they have a great new site layout, you should give it a browse), I decided to read through the Letters section to see what readers have been saying about the publication. Much to my surprise did I find a letter - a positive one, I might add - about my first nationally published piece from their September issue:

A Stitch In Time

While I have not yet mastered knitting on two needles, I have crocheted for a number of years. I have long thought that handicrafts - or fiber yoga, if you will - can be meditative. So thank you for Victoria Everman’s article on knitting (”Stitched Together,” Sept. ‘07).

Cynthia Parkhill
Kelseyville, California

I squealed out loud when I read that; cheesy, I know, but I did. A big thank you to Cynthia for taking the time to write in to Yoga Journal to show her appreciation for my piece. Also, a mega thank you to Tara Jon Manning, who graciously spared some of her busy time to answer some questions for the piece. Tara also mentioned the article on her blog today, so go and show her some love!

Haven’t read the piece yet? You nut bar! Though I recommend buying the whole issue (I’ve been a subscribed for years and haven’t once been disappointed), you can also read the piece and see scans from the magazine here on my site.

Looking for a meditative and/or sustainable knitting book? Check out my recommendations from the article below:

Widely promoted customizable carpeting company InterfaceFLOR can now earn builders up to two extra LEED points via Innovation in Design credits.The “Innovation in Design” credits are awarded for products that have net zero greenhouse gas impact under the LEED Green Building Rating System.”The availability of this new credit provides further incentive for manufacturers to reduce the environmental footprint of their products,” said David Hobbs, president of InterfaceFLOR.

“We have long taken ownership of the impact of our products across their entire life cycle, so we invest to offset the impacts from the rest of our supply chain. We are pleased that the USGBC has taken this step to ensure recognition for qualified, third-party analysis of products’ environmental claims.”

Interface has two different lines - one for commercial usage and another for homes. Though we aren’t working to achieve LEED certification while building and designing our own homes, the USGBC’s new design credit system will help drive companies big and small to continue to advance their sustainable processes and products.

[Building Green TV via ENN]

The Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Center for Health & Healing, located in the 38-acre South Waterfront Central District, is one of the largest LEED Platinum projects in the nation and the first medical facility in the world to be built to this standard.

The 16-story, 412,000-square-foot building has eight levels devoted to physician practices, surgery and imaging, and three floors that house a health and wellness center. The wellness center features a gymnasium, four-lane lap pool, therapy pool, weight training and a day spa.

Four levels are dedicated to education and research activities, including space for a biomedical engineering program. The ground floor houses retail space, including a pharmacy, optical shop and a café.

With new medical data on the benefits of green building and eco-lifestyles being released every month, we hope that the OHSU center is the beginning of an intelligent trend in medical architecture. For more details about the plans and principles behind Portland’s new medical center, check out NRDC’s Case Study (note: the link leads to a PDF file).

[Building Green TV via Gerding Elden via ENN]