New to cosa verde this week: Botanical photographs frames with reclaimed wood by Earth Plus Art. Gorgeous photos, and the frames are recreated from old kitchen cabinet doors, acquired through the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. How cool is that?

cosa verde seems to be having quite the little growth spurt right now, and it seems like all of a sudden we have a bunch of recycled glass work to share! Branscome Glass is a very new addition to the cosa verde family, and one I'm excited about. Jeff and I both looked at the application and just said, "ooooooooooh."

Branscome Glass collects beverage bottles locally from restaurants, bars, and friends. The bottles are smashed, melted and shaped into swirling glass bowls or lacy designs. The end result is something so lovely that it is hard to believe it was once an ordinary old beer bottle.

What I find really interesting is that a few weeks ago, we heard from Brian Western of Western Art Glass about how he turned to using recycled beer bottles in his art because he couldn't get curved glass without a kiln. Now here's Branscome Glass using the same beer bottles as raw material in a kiln, and the end results are two very different, very lovely lines of glass art, both stemming from the reuse of the same material. Hooray for beautiful recycling.

A few weeks ago, we sent out a survey to our members, active and inactive, to ask what they'd like to see happen with cosa verde in the future. We got a ton of great responses, and we wanted to take some time to share the results and what we'll be working on in the months to come.

First of, a HUGE thank you to all of our members who participated in our survey. And a big congratulations to survey respondent #57, Elisa Shere Jewelry, for winning our random drawing for credit!

You guys are awesome. You are so sweet and supportive, and you have a ton of amazing ideas about what we can do to make cosa verde better. Overall, you left us feeling all warm and fuzzy about the job we've been doing, and how much you want to see cosa verde succeed. Thank you! And we want you to know that we've taken your comments to heart. This is a lot of information, but we're excited to be able to share what we're changing now and what we're working on for the future.

Your #1 concern: more traffic for less money

And we hear you! We're working night and day to get our traffic up. That includes more advertising (check out our ad on design is mine, for example,) carefully studying the returns that we get for every ad dollar, and more promotions and partnerships, especially over the next few months. We've also revised our pricing to give you more for your money. Because you deserve it. And we're not interested in taking your money... we want to earn it. Check out our new pricing plans.

As one of you observed, "I know this isn't a cash cow, more a labor of love. I hope you stick with it." We believe in cosa verde, and we ain't going nowhere. As far as the "cash" in "cash cow", we believe in transparency; here's a quick breakdown of our finances: in all of 2009, we were paid a total of $2598.30 in subscription fees. Of that, $329 went to plant trees, and $247.29 went to charities. The remaining $2022 (plus a few grand of our own cash) went into fees, hosting, maintaining and promoting the site. So, yeah, definitely not a cash cow. But that's just fine.

So what's next for cosa verde?
You guys have a ton of amazing ideas, and we've already started implementing them.

Things we've already done:

• We're adding more tools for you! Check out this page on how to make the most of your cosa verde subscription.
• We're expanding the blog to feature more content, including seller interviews. Email us to be added to the interview schedule!
• We've added a bar of random items to the bottom of the home page.
• We've made our badges easier to find, and we're working on adding personalized badges or mini shops for you to post to your blog.

Things we're working on:

• A way for YOU to curate the front page.
• An easy form in your profile where you can submit blog posts. In the meantime, we'll take posts by email. Contact us for specs. (If you mentioned you'd like to write something in the survey, we'll be reaching out to you!)
• An announcement space within your shop for special promotions, etc.
• A way to upgrade your shop mid-subscription.
• An easy way for shoppers to sign up for a (separate) mailing list, so we can keep them updated and promote your work.

Things we're looking into:

• Adding a way to "favorite" or bookmark items.
• Adding a "post to Facebook" feature, and a "Tweet this listing" feature.

Things we'd love to do, but we just can't:
We got about the same number of responses saying that you love that cosa verde isn't a selling platform as we got saying that you wish it was. We won't be adding a check out feature any time soon; we'd love to, but we're just too small to compete with the big players already out there. And staying small is important to us.

We also can't track which of your sales on Etsy (or other sites) come from cosa verde. We'd love to, but it isn't possible. We are not affiliated with Etsy, and their API can only give us so much info. We are working on a tutorial, though, on how you can use Google Analytics to get a better idea of which sales came from cv.

The nicest thing we've heard all week:
"cosa verde is a website I can be proud to be a part of"

Thanks again guys!
Hearts,
Liz + Jeff

I see a lot of handmade goodies listing "ecofelt" as a material, and while I knew ecofelt comes from plastic bottles, I wanted to learn a little bit more. So, using the trusty internet, I did a bit of digging.

Kunin, an eco felt supplier, lists their fabrics as being made of eco-fi (formerly ecospun). Here's the condensed description of the recycling process, from eco-fi's website:

Plastic PET containers are picked up at curbside and community recycling centers, and then sorted by type and color. They are stripped of their labels and caps, washed, and crushed, then chopped into flake. These tiny pieces are melted and extruded to create fiber. The fiber produced is crimped, cut, drawn and stretched into desired length for strength, then baled. The baled fiber can be processed into fabric for a variety of textile product end uses.

Eco-fi is, essentially, polyester fiber made from 100% recycled PET plastic bottles. Pretty cool, right? Their fibers go into more than just felt. Other fabrics, batting, even carpeting can all be manufactured from eco-fi. And it can be blended with other fibers to create a wider range of textures. The best part is that eco-fi fibers (so they say) are "chemically and functionally nearly identical to those made from non-recycled fiber." They just come from bottles that might otherwise be in a landfill, instead of depleting natural resources (and using up a whole bunch of oil) to make new fibers.

Pretty nice. I have a whole new resepct for felt, in all its candy-colored wonder.

AWESOME eco-felt wall art from DashingEtc, bottle photo via wikimedia

Spotted this morning: these upcycled vintage suitcase tables from Love Nostalgic Whimsy

Happy Friday, everybody. Looks like Karen and I both have tea on the brain as we enter this weekend. I don't know about her, but I'm looking forward to heading to a certain tea party sometime soon. Enjoy your weekend, and enjoy these pretty little eco-tea-party finds...

 burlap and vintage tea cup pin cushion from OliveandFern

girl's organic cotton tea party shrug from KnotOriginal

flower pin made from chinese book from OnceAgainSam

tea bags of whole jasmine flowers from good4you

soy wax candle in tea cup from TwilightSpells

There's nothing better than a steamy mug of tea at the end (or beginning, or middle) of a long day. Even though I drink tea every single day, I am still mystified by its soothing powers-especially on days when I, say, sprain my ankle at the rock gym. (sigh!) Today, wildroot teas are calling to me. Organic, locally grown, and fair trade certified, buying them will feel almost as good as sipping them!

Cupcake + Apron = Cupcapron. Who doesn't need a cupcapron like this one from Glue and Glitter? Made with vintage and upcycled linens and recycled felt.