Biome Lifestyle Blog: Eco Design, Ethical Fashion and Green News

I just love our new bird feeders – they are so simple yet stylish and best of all, they keep birds and wildlife happy!

Available in two cool colours, grey and black.

We are in love with these beautiful cushions and mugs from designer Michelle Mason and can’t wait for them to come into stock very soon!

Michelle Mason designs contemporary interior and giftware products with all products being designed and made in the UK.

This new collection of cushions shows scenes from London life and features the iconic red Routemaster bus. Digitally printed onto soft but hardwearing cotton satin and backed with unbleached calico.

We will also be stocking these lovely travel mugs with a twist! These new fine bone china mugs, made in Stoke on Trent, follow in the footsteps of our popular bus destination cushions. Three colourways depict different London routemaster bus destinations and include: Angel Islington, Trafalgar Square, Brixton, Chelsea World’s End, Oval, Dulwich, St Pauls, Ladbroke Grove, Hoxton and many more.

Adorable! We can’t wait to proudly stock these products and many more from the lovely Michelle Mason range.

The sun is shining and it’s time for a good old Spring clean!

Here are some of my favourite Springtime tips to help freshen up your home below:

• Open the windows. After a winter of closed windows and almost constant central heating, open all the windows in your home to let the fresh air in!

• Bring sprigs of flowering plants indoors
I love a few daffodils in a jar to add some Springtime cheer to your home! Or even better purchase a few potted plants which will last much longer and add some fresh greenery to your home.

• Enjoy citrus. Lemons can be used in so many ways around the home, they provide a fantastic natural detergent. For example, rub lemon on your faucets to remove lime scale, hard water stains, and soap residue. Or for a mild, stain-free bleach, soak your delicates in a mixture of lemon juice and baking soda for at least half an hour before washing.

• Light an all-natural, soy or beeswax, lead-free candle in a springtime scent like bay leaf, tomato leaf, eucalyptus, citrus, meyer lemon, and more.

• Clean the sheets (and couch cushions and pillow covers and dog beds for that matter)! Opt for an all-natural lavender or eucalyptus scented detergent and then top it off with line-drying in the sun.

• Make your own chemical-free homemade air freshener: Follow this easy to recipe to freshen up your home:

* 1 oz gin, vodka, or rubbing alcohol

* 6 oz filtered water

* 20 – 40 drops of essential oil, a few suggested oils are: peppermint, jasmine, citrus oils

My preference is to use gin as your alcohol and jasmine as your essential oil, but you should experiment to find a mix that you like. Simply mix in a spray bottle and spray around for instant freshness. This mix will keep well for at least a month.

• Line the closets and drawers with sachets of fresh lavender. You’ll feel more relaxed, and all your linens will smell ready for spring.

Our Tefal Quick Cup, after 2 solid years finally gave its last chug, splutter and cough today. It’s been a great kettle and I am contemplating buying another. I loved the fact I just had to press one button and hey presto, my tea was ready in a matter of seconds (ok apart from the milk and sugar bit)! It has been so quick and efficient making my beloved cups of Yorkshire & green tea that I feel I have lost a friend!

However, my friends and family hated it! They complained it was “tricky” (you only have to press one button!) “noisy” (this I can’t really argue with) and down right “annoying” (hmm).

So I am now in a dilemma – do I buy another and further annoy my acquaintances or look out for a new (preferably energy saving) alternative?

Do you use an eco kettle, if so which one and would you recommend it? Any help soon would be appreciated, after all boiling a small pan of water on the hob every time we want a cuppa is not the best for the environment or my patience!

Oh the dilemma!

Bamboo is surely uniquely versatile.

It’s the only plant providing sources of food, building materials and woven fabrics. One of Edison’s early light bulbs had a carbonised bamboo filament. Its strength, resilience and cheapness make it a widely used scaffolding material throughout Asia. The fibres of bamboo poles have high strength both in tension and compression. Indeed, its compressive strength is roughly twice that of concrete and weight for weight bamboo has roughly the same tensile strength as steel.

Largest members of the grasses family, some bamboos are said to be the world’s fastest growing plants. Given the right growing conditions there are claims that bamboo can grow 24 inches (60 centimetres) in a single day.

Bamboo ticks lots of boxes for anyone buying eco gifts, or eco-friendly items for the home. For a start, it’s a highly sustainable raw material. Its fast growth means that local people can cut down as much as they need for carving, weaving, sawing or splitting and still have as big a forest at the end of the year as they had at the start. On the global warming question, since it comes from a plant source, any bamboo product contains a significant part of its weight in atmospheric carbon. Any plastic equivalent has already added to the atmosphere’s carbon level!

Another point; because it’s natural, bamboo has variations in quality and appearance that make it difficult to use in most mass production processes. You can be pretty sure that a craftsman has literally had a hand in any bamboo item you buy. If you go to an ethical store you’ll also know that the craftsman got a fair wage for his or her work, and that no one living in the third world was exploited by western buying power. Finally you’ll be sure that the product you buy hasn’t accumulated air miles in its journey from craftsman to your home.

With eco credentials as strong as these, it’s wonderful that bamboo products can also be very good-looking. But then again, it’s not surprising that a handmade product can be made to look great by a skilled craftsman! How about using the natural “tubular” nature of bamboo to produce useful, chic storage jars? Then have a look to see how the craftsman can take the natural shape and “stretch it” into a salad bowl that’s truly modern.

And finally, in the opening paragraph of this short piece in praise of bamboo, I mentioned woven fabrics. Sceptical? Then check out this bamboo bathrobe! It’s soft, absorbent, and amazing! Bamboo really is a unique resource for us all.