Posted by periwinkleporte | Filed under inspiration
Bloom.
30 Monday Apr 2012
30 Monday Apr 2012
Posted by periwinkleporte | Filed under inspiration
24 Tuesday Apr 2012
Posted environment
inTags
Composting is a great way to help the environment, while also producing a valuable end product. Yard trimming and food waste together makes up about 27% of the US municipal solid waste stream. Starting a compost pile of your own can significantly cut down the amount of waste your family sends to the landfill. Compost is an organic material that can be used as a soil component or a medium to grow plants and is created by combining organic wastes in proper ratios into piles.
What to Compost:
What Not to Compost and Why:
Now that you know what should and shouldn’t go into your compost, we’ll cover tips for successful composting in Part III next week.
— Rachel Blackburn
23 Monday Apr 2012
The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope. — Wendell Berry
Posted by periwinkleporte | Filed under inspiration
19 Thursday Apr 2012
Posted environment
inI’ve been dreaming about the day I could start a garden ever since I moved out of my Dad’s house to go to college, almost 6 years ago. When I was younger and living in New Jersey, my Mom had a huge garden (in my eyes at least) and she also had a compost pile near the back of the yard. I remember saving eggshells and vegetable scraps for her to take to the pile, and I knew that it produced fertilizer for our garden, but I didn’t know how or why.
Now that I finally moved into a house with a back yard, I am excited to learn how to garden and start a compost pile of my own! The first step is to decide what kind of pile you would like – one made from scratch, or one contained in a bin. Luckily, my house came with a basic compost keeper in the backyard, but you can start a compost pile from scratch, without a bin, if you have the proper space for it.
There are a few different options out there for compost bins to purchase:
Basic compost keepers similar to this one are sold at stores such as Target and The Home Depot. Most are made from 100% recycled plastic, offer ventilation on all sides, and access panels at the bottom to retrieve the fresh compost. Compost can be mixed in the keeper with a pitchfork or gardening rake.
Wooden compost bins, such as this one, are also available. This bin, made of weather-resistant cedar wood and chicken wire, has two large sections so that you can keep two compost piles going at once. This is a great option if you often compost leaves, which take up a lot of space. The cedar slats are adjustable to allow easier access to the piles.
The next step above the basic compost keeper is a compost tumbler. This one features an aerated internal bar that mixes the compost and allows airflow. The tumbling feature is a convenient way to mix the compost without a rake or pitchfork.
Of course I found the top of the line composters while researching as well. Automatic composters are electronic and can do all of the work for you. They are even offered in sleek, stainless steel designs that can sit right inside your kitchen. They are odor free, and ensure that the compost is kept at the correct temperature to speed up results.
While compost tumblers and keepers are compact and convenient to use, a well-managed, homemade compost pile can handle a lot more material, and it is less expensive to start. But, they could require more maintenance, and you will want to make sure that you have a good location for it. Here are some tips to keep in mind when selecting an area:
Once you have selected an area, you will want to build some sort of structure to contain the materials. One suggestion would be to build a small (3-4 feet wide) “cage” from chicken wire, welded wire, or plastic gardening fencing. You don’t want it much bigger than 5’ x 5’ because it will become difficult to turn and maintain.
You could also build a container out of wood; even four boards connecting to make a square would work. Keep in mind that the wood will need to be replaced as the pile decomposes it. Recycled pallets are a great way to create a DIY compost bin, too.
We’ll discuss what and how to compost in Part II. Stay tuned!
— Rachel Blackburn
18 Wednesday Apr 2012
Posted by periwinkleporte | Filed under inspiration
17 Tuesday Apr 2012
Posted inspiration
inIn February, Associates III was invited to speak about the interior design profession at KIPP’s Denver Collegiate High School Career Night. Debbie and I volunteered to attend. The 109 national, open-enrollment public schools known as KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) assist kids living in disadvantaged communities by leading them to a successful college career and life. With 87% of its students hailing from low-income families, it’s remarkable to observe that over 90% of KIPP middle school students graduate high school, and more than 80% of their alumni enroll in college. Students, teachers, and parents pledge a Commitment of Excellence with the motto, “Work hard. Be nice.” Love it! Classes are scheduled from 7:25am to 5pm, and all students are required attend class in the summer. KIPP relentlessly tracks the results of their efforts, which prove quite impressive: 96% of KIPP classes outperform their districts and 100% of KIPP senior classes outperform their district-wide average SAT and ACT test scores.
During career night, we had about 7 minutes between the two of us to talk about Associates III to a rotating class of students. Naturally, the entire set of dazzling facts I had prepared flew out of my head before I opened my mouth. Instead of sharing how employment in interior design is expected to grow 19% from 2008 to 2018, faster than the average of all other occupations (National Bureau of Labor Statistics), I scrambled to compact my past, my college career, and my job description into 3.5 minutes. It didn’t sound far from “Thought I’d be an engineer… but found myself sensitive to interior environments…decided interior design…college…green design is good…internship…talk with clients…write specs…school is valuable…stay in it.” Apart from teaching me programs like AutoCAD and how to effectively space plan and think like a designer, school was a great experience that simply rounded me out.
Recently, I was listening to a debate on NPR where the topic was “Too Many Kids Go to College”. One of the debaters for the notion argued that not everyone strives to be a lawyer or doctor and, therefore, they should not have to pay college loans; in addition, specialized trades like carpentry will suffer if everyone chooses college. For me, college wasn’t just a pathway to a career, but an opportunity to acquaint myself with the different topics of the world (microeconomics, history of textiles, animal biology, to name but a few) that I would never have had the patience or time to discover on my own. You might consider college a starter kit to exploring the world! In the end, it was wonderful to see how KIPP pushes their students toward college and opens their minds and hearts to the many wonderful opportunities out there… I hope a little of my rambling helped.
— Agatha Strompolos
11 Wednesday Apr 2012
Water is fluid, soft and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong. — Lao-Tzu
Posted by periwinkleporte | Filed under inspiration
10 Tuesday Apr 2012
Posted design, environment
inTags
Asia, Child labour, Fairtrade, GoodWeave, India, Nepal, South Asia
Do you know about the efforts of GoodWeave?
We’ve been aware of their work in the rug industry for more than ten years. One of the showrooms we turn to for beautiful custom handmade area rugs from all over the world has supported their work and, in turn, has helped Associates III become more conscious of GoodWeave’s efforts to end the illegal use and abuse of young children in the production of rugs.
At the heart of the GoodWeave (GW) certification is the prevention and rehabilitation of child labor. GW works to end child labor in the carpet industry and extend educational opportunities to them. To date, GW has focused its efforts on India and Nepal with extraordinary results; the number of “carpet kids” in South Asia has dropped from an estimated 1 million to 250,000. Now they’re expanding their model to Afghanistan – where a third of all elementary school-aged children are put to work.
Since 1994 GW has focused on its no-child-labor requirement; however, their newly expanded certification standard now adds mandates to protect adults from abusive labor conditions, such as forced, bonded and exploitative labor. It also includes environmental criteria, such as managing run-off from dyeing and washing. The new standard is in response to consumers, industry and weavers who wish to see more benefits associated with one label.
This broader scope of criteria improves GW’s effectiveness in addressing root causes of child labor. The lack of secure income for adults and the exploitation of children are interrelated; fair work for adults translates into families having their own children in school, support for mothers through daycare availability, and can help break the cycle of poverty.
The newly written standard is organized into seven principles:
First, no child labor under 15 years of age is allowed, and under 18’s work must be monitored and recorded to meet legal requirements.
2 through 5 are a set of principles relating to working conditions for adults:
No forced or bonded labor is allowed. Freedom of association and collective bargaining are recognized. No discrimination is practiced. Decent working conditions are respected.
Principle 6 addresses environmental issues: negative environmental impacts of production are to be identified and minimized, as well as potentially harmful chemicals, materials and processes through Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) and effluent testing. Each rug producer is required to work with GW to develop a plan for improving environmental impacts over time and, in turn, GW will collaborate with producers to the extent possible to identify appropriate environmental measures for different types and sizes of production facilities.
And last, principle 7 requires transparency and adherence to local regulations in business practices. Rug producers must demonstrate compliance with the standard’s social and environmental criteria by cooperating with GW’s monitoring and inspections system, including registering all production sites, providing necessary documentation during inspections, allowing inspectors access to production sites for unannounced inspections, and allowing them to conduct confidential interviews with workers.
As before, the standard continues to cover rug making processes in factory, cottage industry and home work situations from receipt of raw material until the finished product, including all sub-contracted processes, such as weaving, washing and dyeing.
Next time you contemplate buying an area rug, ask how the rug was made as well as by who and where it was made. While certification programs like Fair Trade ban child labor in their standards, the GW program is the only one offering remediation in the form of rescue, rehabilitation and education for any child being exploited on a loom. And when you hear that 215 million children ages 5-17 are engaged in child labor in Asia alone, you realize how important a need there is to protect young children from losing their childhood and provide them with access to education.
Find a listing of retailers who carry GoodWeave certified rugs here.
— Debbie Hindman
05 Thursday Apr 2012
Posted by periwinkleporte | Filed under inspiration
04 Wednesday Apr 2012
Posted design, inspiration
inDuring my childhood, my mom denied me of two things I envied: white bread and cable. Henceforth, whenever my family stopped at a hotel on one of many of our family road trips, I begged to watch music videos on MTV. Even throughout high school I’d try and film my own music videos. Unlike sitcoms or films, to me, music videos didn’t have to make any sense; they just had to communicate a vision. In this post, I pair music videos with rooms and designs that convey similar elements.
Spider Webs by No Doubt
The great contrast between Gwen Stefani’s anarchical punk style and this ornate, traditional room evokes the spirit of the Sex Pistols’ album cover for God Save the Queen. This idea of “Royal Punk” is now more familiar, but still very fun.
Weapon of Choice by Fatboy Slim
The dated, eighties capitalist glamour décor of this hotel and the “squareness” of Christpher Walkin and his tie make such an odd but humorous combination. The staid color combination of mauve, teal, brass, forest green, and blush pink are re-worked in the room below.
Even though this room was designed in 2008, recently I’ve been seeing a lot of interiors adopting this faded glamour look. It seems the farther we get away from a decade, the less afraid we are of it!
Headlights by Sean Lennon
The combination of dusk and neon go together beautifully in this video. Also, the use of symmetry creates psychedelic but eye catching effects.
While this room does not entirely remind me of the Headlights video, its artistic pieces do. The small neon piece by Tracey Emin reading “Trust Me” is nonchalantly placed above the gilded frame like another framed piece. It’s a jolt of color balanced by the crimson chair on the left. The Gary Hume painting over the mantel also has a psychedelic flare that’s tempered by the antique pieces in the room.
— Agatha Strompolos