Check out the pic of this lovely Cardboard Palace sent in to us over the weekend by Ruby and Rosa. The girls opted for a very appropriate shade of pink which we agree looks very smart and should attract any lonesome Prince Charmings in the neighbourhood to come a-knocking.
Guaranteed to provide hours of creative play, the Cardboard Palace is currently available for £11.99 and for the boys check out the rather menacing looking Pirate Fortress for some swashbuckling adventures.
Chicken Doorstops, Snake Draught Excluders and Catnip Mice – three of our favourite products here on ECOutlet and all born from the minds of Kerry and Nick Robertson. We recently caught up with Kerry for a chat who filled us in on the origins of their eco-friendly creations.
Your products are all made with vintage and reclaimed fabrics and attention is paid to ensure all packaging is biodegradable or recyclable. What motivated or inspired you to set up business in the green sector and work in an environmentally conscious manner?
When we set up in 2005 we thought that if this was going to be our business then it should reflect our ethics and concern for climate change. If we were going to go into manufacture and retail whatever we did had to have a minimal impact on the environment.
From the beginning we started to design things with that in mind, using recycled vintage fabrics, sizing objects so that there would be little waste or creating items that could be made from the offcuts. Even the idea of making the chicken doorstops flat packed was born out of the wish to have something that was light to transport so that we didn’t need to drive our car to Greenwich Market every weekend – now we can take the bus! Creatively speaking, thinking in that way gives us a definable boundary to work within so we’re not blinded by options, for example we may never have come up with the buckwheat hulls as stuffing for our snakes if we hand not been looking for a sustainable, biodegradable alternative and it turns out that they work far better than the traditional fibre filling.
The materials you use are described as vintage and reclaimed. Can you give us an idea of what types of uses they might have had before or the kinds of places you source the fabric?
For the last 5 years I have built up quite a hoard of fabric which I source from markets, ebay and secondhand shops. I can spot what I’m looking for in a instant, the design for our funky chicken doorstop was based around the repeated patterned fabrics that were very fashionable in the sixties and seventies so if I see any of that whether it be on a pinny, tablecloth or pair of curtains, I grab it and will have it fashioned into a chicken in no time.
All the items are handmade here in the UK by yourselves. How important is this aspect of the business to you?
We are very proud of the fact that we have not outsourced the manufacture of our products to China or India which would really be defeating the object – though even if we wanted to I don’t know if it would be possible to send an old pinny to china and have it come back as a chicken doorstop!
The snake draught excluders are definitely in my top three eco products of all time. Do you have a favourite eco friendly product?
My favourite eco friendly product has to be the good old sewing machine – it’s amazing what you can do with one – make and mend and even start a whole new career. If I was a purist I would get an old peddle-powered singer but I may not get much work done.
If you could give our readers one eco tip to incorporate into their lifestyles this month what would it be?
If you want your perfect pair of jeans to stay on the right side of worn and you don’t want the thread bare bits to turn into rips iron on some mender to the inside, something like korbond, you can get it from the supermarket and it’s a super easy way to extend the life of a garment.
Finally, which came first the chicken or the snake?
Now that would be telling.
If you are up for trying your hand at a little Grow Your Own this year, we have just added a whole new category to the website which includes Raised Bed Kits, Patio Raised Beds, Tomato Planters, Strawberry Planters, Potato Planters and Grow Bag Covers – a whole plethora of goodies to ensure that even those of us with the smallest of outdoor spaces can reap a crop of home-grown veggies and herbs this year.
Here’s our Top 10 reasons why we like growing our own food!
If you believe the forecasters, 2010 looks set to be a sizzler (possibly maybe) with temperatures matching that of the 1976 summer heatwave.
Sounds nice! After our extended Winter the thoughts of a long, hot summer and lazy evenings with a beer outdoors definitely push lots of buttons for me. But as we gear up for Summer, whatever the weather outcome, you can be sure the warmer months will be putting pressure on the UK’s precious water resources.
According to Waterwise, the South of England has less water available than the Sudan and Syria and many parts of the UK are currently dealing with the lowest groundwater and reservoir levels for decades.
One of the problems is our thirst for water which has been increasing by 1% a year since 1930, a figure which is not sustainable in the long term. To address the problem, we can all make a difference by reducing our consumption and using water more efficiently at home.
Showers account for around 12% of our water use and one way to decrease this water usage is through the installation of a water saving shower head such as the Nordic Eco Shower Head. This innovative shower head reduces average flow rate and thereby water consumption by 50-70% without any reduction in shower comfort thanks to a clever technology which works on a soft pulse basis.
This week marked World Water Day and to do our bit to raise awareness for the rest of March and throughout the month of April, we have placed the Nordic Eco Shower Head on sale with a special offer price of £38.50 which is 15% of the usual RRP of £44.99.
We also have 3 Nordic Eco Shower Heads up for grabs in our latest competition. If you fancy your chances of winning one and saving up to 70% on water usage in the shower simply send an email to comps@ecoutlet.co.uk with the subject title Nordic Eco Shower and your email address will be entered into the draw.
Competition is only open to UK and Ireland residents. Three winners will be selected randomly on April 30th and will be notified via email.
Following my last blog post we have been busying away over the weekend making a few new videos for the website.
For our first foray into product videos we decided to go with some of our favourite picks from across the store so for your viewing pleasure we bring you the premiere of the Paper Potter, Eco Kettle 2 and Presso Coffee Maker movies below!
Video is the latest new feature on the ECOutlet website and for some easy to digest product information you can now view a number of short films on several of the product pages.
So far we’ve added videos for the Ecoflap, Pedalite Bike Lights, Presso Coffee Maker and several of the recycled glasses including the Sol Beer Bottle Glasses.
Over the coming weeks and months we’re looking to make this is a regular monthly feature so keep checking back here for updates on all the latest new additions.
We all love to treat our Mums once in a while and if youre planning a little gift for yours this coming Mothers Day how about something with a lighter footprint on the environment or which might inspire her to live a little greener? Here’s a few of our favourites from across the store:
Gardens will soon be springing back into life and if your mum’s the green fingered type, the gift of a Tree is something which will give pleasure for years to come, our two favourites at this time of the year – the Plum Tree and Grape Vine Gifts will make a special gift for any Mums who love spending time in their garden and appreciate growing their own fruit.
Mums who garden will also love the ever-popular Paper Potter which makes biodegradable paper pots for seedlings whilst the floral and vegetable shaped Forget Me Not and Grow Recycled Plant Labels are a pretty way to organise vegetable and flower patches. For the disorganised Mum in the garden, this Garden Planner made from recycled coffee cups should help ensure all those little jobs get sorted.
Alternatively the Pocket Garden plant range make a thoughtful gift for Mum’s with no outdoor spaces and are an easy, attractive way to grow house plants such as Lavender, Marigold, Poppies and Sunflowers. Or for the Mum with a windowsill full of plants, these Pot Plant Holders add a big cheery, splash of bright colours using recycled vegetable sacks.
If you’re a practical gift giver, perhaps you’d like to help your Mum save some money on energy bills and for this we’d suggest the Eco Kettle which helps ensure only the correct amount of water, energy and money is spent each time the kettle is boiled.
If Mum’s living with draughts, then one of our vintage Snake Draught Excluders will keep chills at bay, heating bills down and will have her reminiscing of the psychedelic 70’s when these were a familiar site in everyone’s home.
Finally if you just want your Mum to have a little ‘me-pampering-time’ then something from the Figs and Rouge Bodycare range will be perfect. Combining natural and vintage inspired aromas with organic ingredients, this gorgeous range moisturises and nourishes from head to toe. Choices include the Sweet Geranium Gift Set, Rambling Rose Hand and Foot Set or Rambling Rose Facial Toner, Facial Cleanser and Day Cream.
If you fancy giving your loved one a treat on Valentines Day, check out our top ideas for eco friendly gifts this year from ECOutlet.
Wheatgrass juice anyone? If youre detoxing in 2010 or just looking to be a little healthier then this one might be for you – the Easy Health Seed Sprouter, one of the latest additions to the shop here at ECOutlet.
This manual seed sprouter is used to grow wheatgrass and sprouts on windowsills, kitchen tops or anywhere with indirect light. It packs in two trays for growing barley and wheatgrass and two separate sprouting trays divided into four segments so you can grow up to eight different varieties of sprouts including alfalfa, mung bean, beetroot, cabbage, fennel or sunflower.
We like the idea of helping people to grow more of their own produce at home – you know exactly what goes into it and it helps to avoid all the packaging and transport miles associated with supermarket purchases. It’s generally cheaper too – for the cost of a shot of wheatgrass juice in your local juice bar you can grow enough sprouts and wheatgrass to last a week with this device.
Sprouted seeds are highly nutritious and can be eaten with salads, sandwiches or as an accompaniment to other meals whilst wheatgrass has been praised for its numerous health benefits due to a seriously high chlorophyll content. Chlorophyll oxygenates the blood and organ tissue, impedes the growth of harmful bacteria in the digestive tract, neutralises toxins and helps purify the liver. Regular intake of wheatgrass is said to improve blood sugar disorders and digestion and reduces blood pressure.
Wheatgrass juice is generally taken in small shots but not all juicers are suitable for making it. The Easy Health Manual Wheatgrass Juicer is however perfect for the task as it cold presses the wheatgrass which helps preserves all the natural nutrients. It does’nt just do wheatgrass, if you’re tastes are more traditional you can still get healthy with some homemade orange, lemon, grapefruit, carrot or apple drinks.
In the ongoing drive to reduce our carbon footprint here at chez ECOutlet, we recently acquired a wonderful wood burning stove. Our mission was to heat the office through the cold winter months as sustainably as possible and burning wood is a great way of achieving this goal. Wood is a carbon neutral fuel source in that it only releases as much carbon dioxide as it absorbs when the tree is growing. So long as we replace the fallen tree with a new sapling it’s sustainable too.
We’ve been getting our wood deliveries from Certainly Wood who source it from sustainable, well managed British woodland and they also kiln dry their wood (to make it more efficient) using wood to power the kilns.
Choice of stove is also crucial, as the more efficient it is, the more heat you get for the smallest amount of fuel. Most of urban Britain is also a ‘smoke control area’. That means its legal only to burn wood (or smokeless fuel) in a stove that meets the requirements of the clean air act.
After a consultation and visit from the experts we opted for a Scan Anderson Multi Stove which was installed by a really nice team from Embers Fireplaces and Stoves. We’ve been saving up for this one for a while, they don’t come cheap but after a couple of months of use we’ve already seen a considerable drop in our fuel bill and the place is much warmer than the last few years even in this cold snap.
If you want to know more about Wood Burners there is a good article on the Channel Four site, the only thing it fails to mention is how lovely (and occasionally distracting) it is to have a warm, flickering fire at work.
PS That’s one of our Recycled Planters in the pic which we’ve found is the perfect vessel for storing wood and it looks really cool next to the wood burner too!
