We hope you’re all having a great holiday weekend.

We want to see our cities overflowing with urban gardens, horizontal and vertical, until our cities are thoroughly home-grown. Over at Wired, Clive Thompson is of a similar mind – except it’s victory gardening that he wants to see as the driving force. (Here’s our Vanessa on the same topic).

"You know you’re a shopaholic if a thief steals all your credit cards and goes on a shopping spree, but when you get your monthly bill it’s the lowest one you’ve had in years." So starts Jeff Yeager’s suggestions for a short fiscal fast, over at Daily Green.

Epsom salts – straight in the bath? That would be a shame, when they’re so good in the garden, in the bathroom or even in your car battery. Reader’s Digest has the know-how.

Here’s a boat journey with a difference – the boat’s made from 15,000 plastic bottles and the remains of a Cessna light aircraft. And somehow it’s seaworthy – as it’s just sailed into Hawaii after travelling 2,000 miles in 3 months, to highlight the plastic pollution fouling our sea-lanes. Read the official blog here. (via Grist).

How well do houseplants purify our air? The people at Little Green Blog have been reading B.C. Wolverton’s book on the subject, and have a few suggestions for us. (via Hippyshopper).

However much we love innovative eco-housing, and however much straw seems a terrific idea as a building material…this strawbale cabin gets our "huh?" award for the week. (Let’s hope it’s meant to be Art as opposed to Architecture).

Sea glass pushes our buttons – especially when it’s combined with recycled silver and turned into sea glass jewelry like this, over at Cornwall’s Glasswing. (via Alternative Consumer).

However much you trim down your energy usage, there’s only so far you can go if your gadgets are thirsty for electricity. That’s the challenge for traditional desktop computers (pushed into the shade by energy-efficient laptops)…and Akhter have met it, with the LoCO2 desktop PC. Energy usage: less than a traditional 60W light bulb, they claim!

So planes get turned into rafts (see above) – but what else could they be used for? Eco footwear company Worn Again hit upon the natty idea of turning old Virgin Atlantic airline seat covers into chic bags – and as Smartplanet shows, the results are spectacular. 

Finally, over at Metaefficient the first affordable kinetic motion charger is upon us – and perhaps the start of a very personal solution to our energy problems.

Have a great holiday!

Image: J. Rosario

Find the space.

This week’s featured photographer: James Jordan

I love this photo because to me it says “Yes, this is ridiculous…and there’s nothing you can do about it!”

It reminds me of so many memorable stunts from the indomitable women I am lucky to have in my life. Stasie, a suburban church-going schoolteacher and young wife, running over the arbitrarily placed circle of cones at a concert in calm defiance of stupidity. Apparently she’d just had enough! (I’m pretty sure her husband loved it.) My mother shooing a young rattlesnake out of our Northern California mountain townhome with a broom – unforgettable to my four-year-old eyes because Mom was furious, not frightened. (I honestly believe the animal was terrified of her. The nerve of that silly snake, venturing into her kitchen!) A dear friend’s Southern-bred grandmother – I’m not naming names here, but the one who owns the word “decorous” – stealing a half-bottle of wine she liked from the Sedona country club by tucking it beneath her cashmere wrap. My own grandmother’s escapades are famous (or maybe just infamous, if you believe my grandpa).

Call it “getting in touch with your inner child”, being a little shameless, or just fooling around – kudos to the women, including ourselves, who revel in occasional moments of the ridiculous. I’ll spill mine if you spill yours.

This week’s featured photographer: Riot Jane

"Sara, don’t reheat the coffee!"

Wise words from an office mate who caught me in the hopeful (all right, desperate) act of reheating my latte.  What she meant was that by "reheating the coffee", we are tempted try to recreate the memorable intensity of a satisfying experience, whether it’s that infamous trip to Palm Springs with your best girlfriend…or just a really great latte. Of course, this never works because it – whatever "it" is – is no longer fresh but forced.

The time he said "I love you" – and meant it. The hug to erase all hurts. The school-of-fish sensation when everyone in the room is sparkling with the energy of the moment.

And then, we have to clean up the petals – you can’t put the past in the microwave. It’s a bittersweet truth and a reminder to be mindful and grateful, right now. Soon enough, the present gets swept away.

This week’s featured photographer:  gadl "After the wedding"

We live in a culture where beauty is just another commodity and our things own us instead of the other way around. Things to fix us, things to make us better, things to make us beautiful. Of course, when we focus only on external sources of improvement, we are reduced to mere things, as well. Ours may be a culture that sanctions shopping as the highest good and considers a perfect appearance of paramount importance, but despite the crush of it all, I hope you’ll stop for this moment to remember:

You’re already beautiful.

Visit YouAreBeautiful to learn more, and forward this post to all your friends who need to be reminded that they’re very beautiful, indeed. To our male readers, please make your mom’s, sister’s, daughter’s, girlfriend’s or wife’s day and do the same.

This Week’s Featured Photographer: *Zara

Whatever you’ve done, he does not approve.

I’m choosing Mr. Angry as this week’s photo because every time I look at him, he makes me laugh. We all know those souls who take themselves a little too seriously, don’t we? Of course, sometimes it’s you. Combative, self-righteous, or garden-variety moral outrage, we all have those moments where we become comically defiant. (I know this because I am famous among my friends and family for what they refer to as “lectures”. I prefer passionate expression but that’s me.)

Fortunately, in the company of those who love and respect us, our tempests in teapots quickly simmer down and we can laugh at ourselves. As for Mr. Angry, I fear he’s fluffed beyond repair.

Featured photographer: law_keven

Sara, your editor, here. I hope you’ll take a moment with me to enjoy this cheerful slice of life pictured above. Take a moment to forget about tasks and things and lists and stuff.

It’s easy to dwell on the past and worry about the future instead of accepting the joy in the present moment. Our culture all but sanctions it. You don’t have to read Eckhart Tolle (or any of his philosophical predecessors) to know that the act of simply being is essential to fulfillment.

Personally, I’m just not a big fan of this all-American "pursuit of happiness". To me, it seems that grasping for happiness is elusive at best and impossible at worst – and the more we fight for it, the more stressful life gets.
I believe that focusing on contentment is much more realistic – and human. As my best friend says, how often do we stop to breathe, to be still, to appreciate that life is right now?

As you get to know others at EcoSalon, I hope you’ll feel both inspired and welcomed. This site is a gathering place for you to feel refreshed. By Fridays, the last thing most of us want is another task to complete or habit to instill – we’re scattered and worn out.

Every Friday, I’ll be sharing a favorite photograph with you so we can all take a moment just to be. If you want, leave a comment about those flowers, or take this as an opportunity to share with other readers what you’re grateful for. (You never know whom you might inspire.)

Take a breath: just be.

Featured photographer: Felixion