The following is a guest post by the contributor of DIY-Guides.com, where you can find other useful decoration tips. Photo by suzette.

If you have an old household item that you just don’t use or maybe even don’t like any longer… why not give it new life and use in your home? It will be more eco-friendly – by not filling up our landfills, and help on the pocketbook at the same time. It’s a win-win situation.

So don’t think of a piece of furniture or household item as “old” or “useless” – repurpose it into something useful that will fit and even enhance your home decor.

While searching for some ideas, I found some great ways to repurpose some old items I have hanging around the house. One of them is on how to make new pillows. I happen to need new pillows for my guest bedroom – without having to trash the old ones and spending more money.

I fell in love with this first idea. In fact, I’m working on the pillows right now. And plan on giving these other ideas a try, too. Maybe you’ll find them useful as well:

Turn a Shirt into a New Pillow

As I said, I was looking for a way to make new pillows, so this idea was up my alley. My husband had several button-down shirts in his closet that don’t fit anymore or have had small stains on the sleeves. Perfect. And my guest bedroom is blue and white so blue, white and white/blue striped dress shirts are just what I’m looking for.

Here’s the easy to follow instructions to make your own button-down pillows at MarthaStewart.com. I also ran across another idea using old blankets. So I’ve decided to use one of my son’s baby blankets to make a special pillow as a keepsake. Here’s an easy how-to at DIY Guides.

Turn a Mason Jar into a Soap Dispenser

This idea is ingenious! You know how you hear about something and wonder, “Why didn’t I think of that?” That’s exactly how I feel about this idea. My mother-in-law cans a lot of vegetables, jams and pickles each year and shares them with us. I have these mason jars that I use to store buttons, etc. in, but have plenty that I just didn’t know what to do with… until now.

You can find step-by-step directions for making your own mason jar soap dispensers at ApartmentTherapy.com.

And if you really want to be environmentally safe – make your own soap to put in it. Here’s an easy recipe from TipNut.com.

Jewelry into Magnets

Most of us have some old vintage jewelry from our mothers or grandmothers, especially brooches or pendants. Well, you can turn them into beautiful magnets. Check out these 3 easy steps from Country Living and you’ll turn your refrigerator into a work of art.

Turn Sheets into Curtains

I have a friend that does this often. She has turned sheets, before they’ve gotten to worn, into curtains. As well as buying sheets new and made curtains out of them. Because sheets (all you need is the flat sheet) are much cheaper than custom made curtains.

I found two great how-to’s so you can make your own curtains. Here’s one from eHow and another from craftstylish.

Turn Plastic CD Cases into Frames

This is a great way to reuse those plastic CD cases and make an interesting and beautiful piece of art to frame on your wall. It’s a creative way to showcase your child’s artwork. Check out these directions at Care2.com.

I’m sure there are dozens of things you can repurpose in your home. Here’s one more quick tip – don’t limit yourself by thinking that a particular piece of furniture has to stay where it is, forever. You can move it to a different room and give it a new purpose. You’re only limited by your creativity and imagination.

See, I’m putting in serious effort at learning to cook!

My love of food comes from three main sources; one primal, one inculcated, the third learned as an adult. First, my natural appetite for delicious, healthy meals and snacks is fairly well-known (I think I can count on one hand the times in my life when I wasn’t hungry!), and I can eat absolutely anything, with no known food allergies or sensitivities.

Second, my grandma raised me on garden-fresh produce and a combo of Lebanese (hummous, tabouli and pilaf being staples), Armenian that she learned from her mother-in-law as a young wife (green bean and local beef stews, lentil dishes, chee kufta), Jewish (picked up through osmosis as she grew up in NYC- she made a killer matzoh ball soup for an Episcopalian!) and American food from the Joy of Cooking and the Settlement Cookbook (written in 1901 and hilariously subtitled “The Way to a Man’s Heart”). Grams was a legendary cook, and I was lucky to grow up in a home where 90% of what I ate was made from scratch (we even had our own apiary for the freshest of honey, and eggs from the chickens that roamed the woods between our house and our neighbors’. And homemade bread!).

Third, for three years, I wrote about food for The Fairfield County Weekly, a job that gave me a culinary education in my twenties I couldn’t have paid for. (Actually, I paid for it as I gained about 15 pounds during my tenure at that job! But honestly, it was kinda worth it.) I got to eat at pretty much every restaurant in Fairfield County, which is in Connecticut just north of New York City, and has a very rich combination of predominantly Italian and Greek cuisines, which has been supplemented more recently by excellent Indian and Asian, and in the last 5-7 years wonderful raw, vegetarian and health foods.

But truth be told, I’m not the world’s most accomplished cook, though I can put together a beautifully-sourced, complementary tableaux of appetizers. But when it comes to cooking a ‘real’ meal, my only saving grace is those great ingredients and some talent with baking pies and cookies (so at least I end on a good note!). The last few years, however, I’ve made a slow and determined march forward in teaching myself to cook, and recently have been enjoying the books below. While I’ve been vegetarian for 17 years, both these books are great for veg and non-veg alike (I use them regularly without problem, but there are plenty of meaty dishes in each too). What unites the two tomes is that they focus on local, healthy, seasonal, whole foods cooking, which I am naturally drawn to as it’s what I was raised on.

In the Green Kitchen, by Alice Waters

This is not a traditional cookbook, though it does contain plenty of recipes. But instead of simply a compendium of delicious food combinations, this book focuses on what kitchen pioneer Alice Waters (of Chez Panisse restaurant and Edible Schoolyard fame) has realized was missing from the aspiring conscious chef’s shelf: A technique-driven, full-of-instructions volume that includes how to’s from the prosaic to the intimidating.

Beginning with washing lettuce and dressing a salad, through making bread, to poaching an egg, blanching greens, pickling vegetables and filleting a fish, and onto baking fruit, the instructions here are based on recipes (the bread baking chapter includes general instruction, as well as specifics for creating soda bread, buttermilk biscuits and a no-knead loaf), which is perfect for someone like me who learned some basics but not others – or only half remembers what my grandma taught me ages ago.

Gorgeously designed and photographed, I’ve given myself the challenge of working through most of the 28 chapters (excising the meaty ones like grilling a steak and roasting a chicken). I feel like I’ll come out the other side with a much more solid knowledge of food processing and a few new recipes to work into my retinue too.

“Proceeds from the book benefit the Chez Panisse Foundation in support of Edible Education – a national movement to change the way children eat and and how they learn about food in the public schools.”

And now it’s a TV series! You can see the first episode here, featuring Alice Waters and her daughter, Fanny Singer.

The Homesteader’s Kitchen, by Robin Burnside

One of the first sentences in Burnside’s book really resonated with me: “The very act of making a meal from scratch fills an ancient need in us that cannot be met with even the tastiest store-bought products. We miss that primal process of making food; the creativity and attention it demands, the delightful alchemy of ingredients coming together to form so much more than the sum of their parts.”

Burnside was also heavily influenced by her grandmothers- Italian on one side, a professional caterer/chef on the other. She went on to open her own specialty cheesecake bakery in Monterey, California, which eventually blossomed into the Carmel Cafe, and then following a move to Big Sur, opened the famous Cafe Amphora at Nepenthe, right on the bluffs overlooking the Pacific. Finally, Burnside worked at the Esalen Institute, feeding the staff and attendees from the huge gardens there. Despite her serious cred in the natural foods movement, Burnside is incredibly encouraging towards those of us who are starting from scratch.

“Begin creating your kitchen by doing what you can, wherever you are, with what you have on hand. Your kitchen can be a knife and a cutting board balanced on the tailgate of your truck parked at the beach.” (Here I wonder if Burnside has been peeking inside my dreams at night, that sounds like the best ‘kitchen’ ever!). She then starts us off easy with a chapter on beverages, and moves on to Morning Meals, Soups and Sauces, Salads, Veggie Entrees, Fish and Meat and finishes with chapters on Breads and Desserts. Some of the recipes I’ve marked are “Asian Salad Rolls with Chile-Lime Dipping Sauce and Gado-Gado”, “Granny’s Stuffed Artichokes” and Tempeh and Chard Enchiladas.” The salad dressings chapter is especially exciting to me as I’ve long spent way to much on pre-prepared (and less-fresh) versions.

The photography is gorgeous and inspirational, and most chapters have instructional pages; for instance, the Salads section has details about how to sprout various seeds, what kinds of roots and firm veggies combine well in salads (and how to cut, grate, or chop them).

You can read an informative Q&A with author Robin Burnside here (details on how to prepare egglplants and artichokes!)

NatureVsFuture from water&power on Vimeo.

Nina Valenti’s been designing eco fashion longer than most people have even known what the phrase meant. Her line, NaturevsFuture, debuted in Spring, 2002, and her iconic details have been staples of the eco fashon scene for years, landing her coverage in major fashion press. Her cutout dress is currently included in the FIT exhibit, “Eco Fashion: Going Green” through November, 2010.

What works about Nina’s pieces is that they are timeless and yet never look boring or old-fashioned. Her Autumn, 2010 line is filled with her characteristic angled plackets and hems and variable necklines, and utilizes hemp, organic cotton, flax, and surplus wool: Jackets and tunics, pictured here, are particularly strong standouts, but her skirts and blouses are always office-appropriate, and interesting to boot.

Natural hemp/organic cotton/ramie/flax textured coat w/ angled button front & High funnel collar

Nina hails from Brooklyn, and all her designs are made in NYC, reducing the carbon and energy footprints of her designs, and giving her step-by-step control over quality. I own three of her pieces; a pair of geometric-detailed long shorts, a hemp jacket in always au courant olive khaki and an organic linen dress that’s perfect for summer garden parties. All of these pieces have worn exceptionally well and seem to get better over time.

Charcoal hemp/organic cotton yarndyed angled zip up jacket

“The more we advance the more we need to consider nature before we deplete it. In this tension to find balance is the living energy of the collection and hence the name.” says Valenti, explaining how she came up with NaturevsFuture.

Chocolate surplus wool w/ silk lining double breasted swerve coat and 2 Tea hemp/organic cotton draped neck tunic top

Currently, NaturevsFuture’s online shop features summer’s designs, but Fall will be available very soon!

Charcoal organic cotton/organic wool button waist detail funnel collar tunic top

All photography by Yucel Eroogan.
Video by Rob Perri.

I had lots of fun judging the first-ever Princeton Eco Fashion Competition back in May; and now there’s a great video that gives the winner, and second- and third-place designers a chance to speak about their designs. Check it out!

For more on Princeton’s Eco Fashion Competition, check out my judges’ coverage here.

As a runner who definitely finds inspiration to go a little further (or a little faster; I love to sprint) through music, I thought the Mi-Bra was total genius as soon as I saw it. A sports bra with a pocket up front to hold your iPod or MP3 player in (and a wee space for your headphones cord to thread through), it’s ideal for those of us who run with iPod in hand (which is really annoying).

Like me, Mi-bra creator Carolina Baker found that the arm band music holders didn’t work for her, and instead of just complaining about it, she solved the problem herself:

I created the mi-bra while training for several marathons. I was having chafing issues with my other sports bras and running with my music was becoming a nuisance because my armband kept sliding down my arm. I started putting my iPod in between my sports bra and tank top and it stayed put quite well. I started searching the internet for sports bras with pockets and couldn’t find any! That’s when I knew I had an idea I could run with (no pun intended) and so I did.

We have a close family friend whose in manufacturing and he put us in touch with someone that could create the mi-bra. We went back and forth a couple of times with samples and received our first order January of this year. It was exciting and nerve wrecking to see so many boxes of sports bras arrive.

And the bra’s ecofriendly to boot, made from 90% organic cotton! The pocket is on the OUTside of the bra, for easy access so you can change up your songs mid-run if you like, and could obviously be used for cash, Metrocard, or credit card (I like to combine runs with trips to the post office for stamps or a one-way run, one-way walk store stop-over instead of taking the car).

Available for a very reasonable $20 plus shipping, a portion of the proceeds of the bra benefit Back on My Feet, a charity organization that uses running as a means to get homeless men and women back into jobs and school.

Eco Fashion designer Lara Miller is an Eco Chick fave; her supermodern, often convertible, sensuously romantic, yet travel-friendly designs are deceptively simple but always on point.

Lara says she didn’t plan her designs for the travelling types (though they suit us so well), but that her ideas come from a playful, fun place that happens to result in highly variable separates (think dresses that can be worn three ways, or trousers that have adjustable hems):

I graduated from a very conceptual design program at the School of the Art Institute where I researched Eadweard Muybridge images and architectual theory by Gregg Lynn. I was fascinated with the idea of animation and gestures in every day life, especially when getting dressed. I wanted to give the wearer a relationship to their pieces and allow them to be more individual. As my line and I have grown up, the functionality has really become key.

The Fern Flip wrap in recycled cotton

Lara uses the most cutting edge eco fabrics, experimenting with fibers made from seacell, bamboo, organic cotton, lyocell, flax- and soy-based fibers and hemp. “My most favorite lately has been recycled cotton yarn – regenerated from scraps of t-shirts by a company in North Carolina. I especially love knitting it in a mesh like stitch that reminds me of fishnet,” says Lara.

Focusing on sourcing fabrics from US-based mills is one way to cut her company’s carbon footprint; having all the garments sewn in her native Chicago is another. She also uses low-impact dyes and researches all her fabric sources.

The Stevie T-Shirt Tunic.

Lara’s fave pieces from her Fall, 2010 collection include the cardigans, “…especially the Fern Flip Wrap (above) in the recycled cotton. And of course tunics and dresses – the only thing that makes me excited about Chicago getting cold again is The Mila Kimono Sweater Dress and the Stevie T-Shirt Tunic (pictured above and below).”

The Mila Kimono Sweater Dress

Lara stresses that she doesn’t want to make her clothes too conceptual and if you take a look at the offerings in her online shop, or previous and current collections, you’ll see they are made up of traditional colors and drapes, but each with a twist.

Being a “green” company means much more to me than just using eco-friendly fibers. It means supporting the local economy and using the least amount of energy possible. It means using a local printer that only uses recycled paper and partially runs on wind power. It means giving back in every way that I can to my employees, my community, and the world.

Lara’s entry in the Yesterday’s News: Do Gooder Design Challenge

Lara is also one of the designers in the Yesterday’s News Do Gooder Challenge, though Lara says the toughest part of working with recycled newsprint is that she can’t knit it on her loom. “After we had our first phone call with Yesterday’s News I tried to figure out how to knit it but the texture was too hard,” she says. Take a look at her video diary above for more!

Eco-luxe designer Linda Loudermilk, a Lexus Dark Ride partner, designed the beautiful Luxury Eco driving glove (above) especially for the company. The glove will eventually be available to all shoppers but it is now part of a limited edition run and being offered to Lexus Dark Ride cardholders at 20% off.

What is Dark Ride? Well, first it’s an interactive short film where you sit shotgun next to indie bad boy Norman Reedus (it’s actually really fun, like an updated Choose Your Own Adventure). But then it’s an affinity card, The Lexus Dark Ride Card, for which they lined up some cool hotels, nightclubs and fashion partners that offer anything from “off-menu” cocktails and major discounts to limited-edition items, inspired by the company’s latest hybrid, the CT 200h.

If you’d like to get your hands on a pair of these gloves (haha!), you can try your shot at procuring the Dark Ride card. Available while supplies last by emailing info (at) lexusdarkride (dot) com.

Della Bags are a perfect compliment to this Summer and Autumn’s mad-plaid pattern-on-pattern trends. Well executed, with colorful, African-inspired motifs, they are quick and inexpensive anecdote to The Boring Tote, but crafted with a simple shape and strap so all the busyness is self-contained in a basic package, which is the key to working with extravagant colors and patterns.

Each bag is signed on the inside of the strap by one of the women-artisans of HoeHoe, Ghana who made it. This direct trade project enables the women who sew the bags to “gain financial independence by providing jobs, education, and skill training.” All the hobo bags (pictured here, and see more colors and patterns on the Della site) are made with vegan, sustainable, West African textiles.

I’m loving my new American Express Zync card, not only cause it looks supersleek, but because it’s a charge card, NOT a credit card, which means that I HAVE to pay the bill every month (which is a good way to keep out of debt! Or at least not get any deeper, right?). I’m also a fan because I get to choose my own bennies, like discounts on green merchants (see below) and exclusive access to music events. And all cards come with American Express’ protections like replacement of lost or stolen items that are bought with the card, and automatic travel insurance.

The deal with the Zync card is that you get to put together your very own personalized card, choosing from the packs available and adding those you want (I chose the Eco pack, the Style pack and the Go pack for travel) and ignoring the ones you don’t (there’s also a Restaurant pack, a Connect pack, and more). Some of the packs are free (like the Eco one, and the Give Back that helps you hook up your favorite charities), and some of them have a fee attached, with the idea being that if you use the benefits, you will more than earn what you pay in rewards back.

This year marks SPIN’s 25th anniversary, and to celebrate, the magazine has teamed up with ZYNC from American Express to put on a series of five concerts over five nights in New York City, July 26-30. The shows will feature some of rock’s most exciting performers, including the Flaming Lips, Smashing Pumpkins, the National, Spiritualized, and the Black Keys. Additional tickets are on sale now by visiting Facebook.com/ZYNC and are going quickly!

To win 2 tickets to see The Flaming Lips at Terminal 5 in NYC on July 27th, leave a comment below telling us which AmEx Zync pack you would choose if you got the card and why. When you fill in the comment field, it will ask for you email address. This is the address I will use to contact the winner, so use a real email. Tickets will be provided courtesy of ZYNC from American Express.

Deets and Promises: Eco Chick does not sell, lease or lend any email addresses we collect. Contest ends midnight EST, Wednesday, July 21st, 2010. Good luck!

Disclaimer: I’m consulting with American Express on this card, but I only agreed to do so because I believe in its benefits and promises, and because it’s a charge card and not a credit card.

Meet Seth Leitman and Brian Howard, the authors of Green Lighting, McGraw-Hill’s new book in their Green Guru Guide series during the Rock The Reactors benefit at the Hiro Ballroom in New York City on July 14, Bastille Day, 88th 9th Av. starting promptly at 8pm.

Rock The Reactors, an anti-nuclear group dedicated to the shut down of the Indian Point nuclear power plant 30 miles North of Manhattan, which includes many ex-Indian Point workers working green jobs in the solar and LED industry, is inviting the anti-coal and anti-nuclear leadership to meet trend setters in the green fashion and design community, creating a strong coalition in support of the work done by dozens of IPSEC member organizations to prevent another catastrophic accident.

Anyone and everyone with something to say, something to sing, will have three minutes on stage. Commoners and celebrities alike. Poets, musicians, activists, dreamers, salesmen, dancers… three minutes to express your dismay, desire or involvement in shutting down Indian Point! (or BP)

Bastille Day at the Hiro Ballroom is sponsored by the Project Green Search modeling competition, in partnership with Greendrinks, GreenMUA and Global Green USA. Sonic soundscapes provided by Martin Ear. Performance by C.B. Heinemann.

For all the information on the event, sponsors, participants, visit the Rock The Reactors website and the Greenloop blog.