It is now officially beach season – the perfect opportunity to personalize your summer beach rental – or your weekend getaway – with a vintage-looking original sign created by an artist on reclaimed wood. We always support creating home furnishings and new pieces from eco-friendly salvaged wood and materials – saving trees and keeping valuable raw materials out of the local landfill.

These weathered-looking signs come complete with a ‘beachy’ vibe and look like they’re as old as the sea – in reality they have been custom-created from reclaimed lumber to add that touch of character and authenticity every beach shack, or waterfront palace, needs. The distressed character of the graphics blends beautifully with the inherent beat-up quality of the reclaimed wood – the perfect canvas for this kind of thing.

Designer and artist, Christina, of Mango Seed also makes wedding signs, prints and a variety of home decor items in her distinctive vintage distressed style – all on beautifully distressed reclaimed wood.

Each item is handmade in North Carolina and designed to reflect the rustic artistry, old-world craftsmanship and relationship to the environment that went into their creation. The custom signs retail for $35 and up @ Mango Seed.

Building a eco-conscious lifestyle begins at home. While we might invest in organic and whole foods, furniture built from recycled material, and citywide recycling programs, it is important to evaluate the way we operate our homes and our impact on the environment.

By making smarter choices in our household operations we contribute to a greener world. As an added benefit with often increase our personal health and de-clutter our lives. While eco-friendly choices are not always the easiest to make, they are always the right choices to make.

Decrease Meat Consumption
You can eat eco-friendly by decreasing meat consumption. If you already live a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle, great! If not, consider going meatless a few days a week or as Mark Bittman suggests: be vegan until 6pm. While animal muscle meats provide necessary proteins and vitamins, animal farming practices often cause major damage to the earth. Pollution from cross country shipping and carbon dioxide produced by farm animals like cows themselves takes its toll on the environment.

By reducing animal consumption, you make not only a healthy choice for the earth but a healthy choice for yourself. Meat in itself contains many healthful benefits, but also contains saturated fats and cholesterol that may impair heart health. Generally the American diet lacks unprocessed vegetables, replacing some of the meat in your diet with green things fills your plate with vital nutrients and fibers.

Clean Up Your Banking
Instead of merely recycling paper statements, request that banks and credit card companies make your accounts paperless. Do all of your banking online. If a card company continues to send you offers through the mail, contact their customer service department to lodge a complaint. While you won’t be released from the mailing list, lodging enough complaints will let the company know that their customers favor eco-friendly practices and they will adapt that methods accordingly.

If you compare credit cards when looking for a new credit card company, consider signing up for a card that participates in an offsets program. The Brighter Planet Visa credit card through Bank of America offers offset purchase as an incentive versus traditional airline miles or cash back rewards. The Sierra Club Visa donates a percentage of purchases to the conservation efforts of the club.

Making smart choices about your finances and the way you receive financial reports helps declutter your home from needless paper waste.

Use Natural Cleansers
The use of everyday household cleaners exposes groundwaters to toxic chemicals. Instead eliminate all noxious chemicals from your home and opt to use less harsh natural solutions for cleaning like white vinegar, baking soda, and salt to clean your home.

A combination of vinegar and baking soda makes and excellent grout cleaner that protects your home and lungs from harsh chemicals.

Consider also using the same combination to clean your body and hair. A solution of baking soda and vinegar cleans hair without stripping the scalp like other shampoos. This stripping process often causes the scalp to overcompensate and produce more natural oils. The baking soda/vinegar solution cleans hair while maintaining the integrity of the scalp.

Living an eco-friendly lifestyle means evaluating your day to day and taking actionable change to reduce your imprint on the environment. Eliminating chemicals, excess paper waste and reducing meat consumption all help lighten your tread. Continuously seek new ways to improve your at home behaviors. Making eco-friendly choices not only helps keep the earth healthy, those choices also keep you and your family healthy.

Our latest roundup of annotated eco news.

• I await the outcry of those freedom fighters who want to retain their right to throw everything into the landfill… NYC Mayor Bloomberg to Introduce Food Composting Program – livescience
• The worst appears to be over… for now. (video) Firefighters Tackle Lingering Hot Spots in Colo. – nbcnews
• This will take a lot of hard work and investment… Beyond NYC: Other Places Around the Globe Adapting to Climate Too – ap/myway
• Solar Plane Lands Near Washington D.C. – newsdaily
• So going green can make you some green… Energy Saving Measures Boost House Prices, New Research – enn
• This natural rule seems universal… Genetic Diversity Key to Survival of Honey Bee Colonies – sciencedaily
• I guess that’s why they call it ‘global’ warming… Climate Change Overseas Likely to Affect UK Food Supplies – bbc
• Disorder in canines mirrors the human version. Is Your Dog OCD? – natgeo

Cape Cod beach photo via Shutterstock.com

full disclosure: a sample of the following product was provided to us for free, for the purposes of a Tried and True Green Product Review.

Blondes do indeed make better t-shirts! Award-winning Norwegian designer/artist Lise Ellingsen is the creative genius behind the Blondes Make Better T-shirts line – a snazzy line of eco-friendly t-shirts that embody humor, style and a healthy respect for the environment in both their messaging and the use of eco-botanical fabrics.

Blondes Make Better T-shirts are really pieces of wearable art – destined to become collector’s items or take up an honored position in your style hall of fame. The shirts not only look and feel great but they’re sustainably made — using only 100% sustainable, sweatshop-free and ethically responsible fabrics. One fabric, Promodal, is comprised of 40% beech tree and 60% eucalyptus tree. Another fabric is made of 50% recycled plastic bottles mixed with organic cotton.

The graphics are silk-screened by hand in California with water-based ink – some of them implore us to help endangered animals (both blonde and not blonde) while others pack more humorous messages relating to “blondeness”. The tees are made of the highest quality materials and come with special care and wear labels so even a blonde can safely wash and dry them.

I wore my super-comfy “animals” t (above) and then gave it a wash – strictly cold water – and air dried it. The shirt retained its full vibrant color and didn’t shrink one iota.

The shirts come in 3 lines: Oopps Tees, Blonde Moment Tees and Save the World Tees. See, and buy, more great eco-friendly t-shirts @ the blondes make better shirts website

Perfect for a warm, muggy summer night… this feathery soft ‘mushroom’ top (also from komana) is made from supple, earth-friendly bamboo fiber. The whimsical mushroom print has been skillfully hand screen printed. This wearable work of art is made-to-order in London by komana and designer Livia Henne. $120.48

Note: komana plants a tree in Nigeria for each garment sold.

Need some happening sandals or flats to go with that summer outfit? Check you eco-friendly Naya Shoes. I have a pair of their Painted Sock sandals (above left) – they’re super soft and look great!  You can find Naya’s full line of shoes at retailers like Nordstrom’s, naturalizer and Dillard’s and online @ amazon.com.

Note: For each pair of Painted Sock sandals you buy Naya will plant a tree in fire ravaged areas of Colorado.

Get in the spirit of summer with a chunky bracelet made from a recycled old skateboard deck. Focus Skate Jewelry makes all manner of jewelry from recycled skateboard decks – many in vibrant colors.

$45 @ Focus Skate Jewelry

This handmade OOAK bag by Treesizeverse will haul your summer stuff around in style. Handmade in Belgium from recycled 100-year-old antique linen. $129

Woodworking craftsman Dave McDonald creates his rustic-modern beds and headboards from a variety of reclaimed and salvaged woods, including – Douglas Fir, hemlock, and walnut. The beds and headboards pictured above and below are from his PacificDrift series – created to evoke the weather-beaten, sea-worn and burned pieces of natural driftwood and building debris washed-up along Dave’s local Oregon coastline.

The sustainably-harvested wood is drilled, ground, sanded, burned, and finally clear-coated to achieve the final exotic-looking result. Many of the nail, screw and drill holes from the woods’ original life remain part of the design to enhance the worn, weathered texture – aggressively shaped to take advantage of the wood’s natural sculptural qualities and inherent old-growth character.

The beds are usually constructed with all of the wood elements attached to a steel frame for a solid foundation and can be custom finished dark or light.

The burning and drilling process creates bed components that have a very unique visual appeal – bordering on works of art.  You can see more of Dave’s great woodworking creations at his ModernDrift shop.