Oh, tortillagirl, I don't have words for how pretty your designs are. Airy, feminine, beautifully draping dresses—and such care given to sourcing your materials! I really don't have the right words to describe tortillagirl's process, so I'm going to borrow from her profile:

As a designer I strive to use eco- friendly and/or cruelty- free natural textiles that I obtain only if I can see them in person, know from where they come and how they've been produced.

All materials used in the fabrication of my items are hand-picked by me from local artisans, suppliers and a family owned textile company for whom I do design work. Any silk I use is either reclaimed, upcycled, recycled or gathered from the cocoons of wild moths or spun from silk waste. The fiber used in my knit items is obtained by yours truly from a small French spinnery that lovingly houses its own animals on a farm open to the public.

Oh, but there's a little bit more. Among other things, I do not use artificial lighting during the day and create my items by natural daylight only. When evening falls, my sewing machine and serger are put away for the night.

Wow. Just, wow. Beautiful clothes and inspiring business practices. It doesn't get any better than that.

I'm so excited about the tree ring paintings by focuslineart that I wrote up today for Modish's Eco-Friendly Finds that I just had to share them here, too. For more details about these amazing little paintings, hop on over to Modish!

I'm feeling sweet and summery this week, how about you? Here are some earth-friendly finds inspired by my favorite summer beverage: yummy pink lemonade.

Clockwise from top left: Vintage Glass, Brass and Oxidized Sterling Silver Bracelet from leavesofglass; upcycled scarf from heidala's closet; Pink Lemonade Reconstructed T Shirt from muxoriginals; Lemon Zest Vegan Cupcakes from thecupcakemint; bag from upcycled fabric from masalachai

I love stained glass, but I've never been a big fan of suncatchers... something about the usual suncatcher subject matter just doesn't do it for me. But the amazing organic shapes that Western Art Glass creates from repurposed beer and wine bottles are making me dramatically rethink my suncatcher bias.  Delicate branches, firey leaves and modern mobiles all pulled from the recycling bin—love.

Here's big-scale inspiration for your weekend, found over at Inhabitat:

The mayor of a city in the Philippines recently announced two new taxis made from 90% bamboo that are powered by coconut biodiesel—designed to be a low-cost, fuel-efficient, safe, and environmentally friendly alternative to motorcycles. According to Inhabitat (this totally took me by surprise) the tensile strength of bamboo is just as good as that of steel, making it a safe, sustainable material for the new taxis' construction. Look at that detailing! Absolutely amazing.

Check out the post over at Inhabitat for more awesome photos.

I got a package in the mail last week, and while it was one of those utilitarian, not-very-exciting internet ordered packages (not one filled with handmade goodness), I was excited by the green-tinted plastic I found protecting my order.

I struggle with packing my goods in recycled materials. I'm not a fan of packing things in old newspaper, because I'm worried about the ink rubbing off on the product. I reuse everything else I can get my hands on—peanuts, bubble wrap, brown paper—and I even have people save materials for me to use. But there are certain times of year, like the holidays, when my stash of packaging-to-be-reused runs out, and I have to purchase some.

I've always liked air pouches, because they turn into only a small amount of waste for the padding they provide, so when these green guys turned up in my package I was happy to learn that they will biodegrade much faster than other plastics. The printing on them says Earth Aware Biodegradable Film, and directed me to airpouch.com. There I learned that these babies are made from low density polyethylene containing an additive that causes biodegradation of the poly in nine months to five years. Not great: it's still plastic, not a bio-plastic like I was hoping, but they'll break down a lot faster than their counterparts out there. What do you think? A step in the right direction?

This week's Shop O' the Week is the mighty mighty BananaSaurus Rex. I'm not sure I can say it any better than she does herself: BananaSaurus Rex features astonishingly beautiful things for post-modern bohemian Mamas and retro- stylish Babies — made of amazing vintage, recycled and other rescued materials.

BananaSaurus (how I love that name!) takes found and vintage fabrics and puts them together in the most amazing combinations of color and pattern to create all kinds of lovely things: market totes, eye pillows, garlands, pillows, wine bottle bags... the list just goes on and on.

The fabric combinations BananaSaurus comes up with never cease to amaze me. They are pairings that never would have occured to me, but they seem so perfectly natural in the finished product. I'm always excited to see something new in her shop!

Oh, wine. I'm not a big drinker, but my dad makes his own wine at home and I love watching the process as it progresses over the months. I especially like to see all the bottles lined up as he fills them, and there's something so nice about a well-stocked wine rack. I'm amazed at how these artists take the waste from wine-making and turn them into beautiful treasures.

Above, clockwise from top: glasses from recycled wine bottles by Rewined Recycled Glassware; recycled wine bottle lampwork beads by stringythingy; stool entirely made of recycled white oak wood from French wine barrels (!!) by StilNovoDesign; cheese platter from a recycled bottle by Mitchell Glassworks.

And because wine is a lovely color as well: Wine colored hemp & organic cotton jersey dress by SweetSkins; recycled wine cork necklace by Olive Bites (aka Uncorked).