Backyard Offices : Hip, Hot & Sustainable Design

Garden office by IN.IT. Studios. I might never leave work if I had this in my backyard!

In 2050, will most professionals work remotely from their homes?
We seem to be moving in that direction. I am jumping on the early adopter band-wagon and thinking about moving my office to my backyard. There seem to be so many advantages...

• Instead of commuting to work, you stay at home and save both gas and time.
 (It's nice to save money, and it's nice to have more time. And it's nice to know that you aren't polluting while commuting. It's a win-win-win.)

•Working from home offers more than a few perks.
(For me, this means my favorite cup of tea, the perfect radio station, and doggie-walks at lunch. Pulling left-overs right from the fridge instead of packing or buying a snack at work is always nice, too.) 

On the flip-side, welcoming clients into your personal living space for creative pow-wow sessions is not always ideal. And sometimes people find it difficult to disconnect from work, and to focus on family time.
(My office calls to me at all hours of the day, because I love my work.) 

A backyard office seems to be the perfect solution. It would allow you the benefits of being at home, and it would also help keep those home-work boundaries a little more rigid. It wouldn't be a stretch to run something this size on solar power, so you could even be absolutely sustainable in your space from 9-5.

I am drooling over some of these lovely out-in-the-back solutions that would allow me to really close the door at night. They would also look awesome from my living room window. This means that I could still enjoy the view while spending quality time where I belong: at home.

 Ecospace Studios designs these work pods, along with other equally gorgeous
backyard structures. Goodbye fence, hello ultra-cool office!

Another example of Ecospace Studios architectural design

And for my teeny-tiny backyard space, this office on
castors might be a better match! 

Occupy Wall Street : Shifting Ideas, and Creating Art.

Designed by Richard Perez. Purchase from

Occupyposterproject.com

This year we were witness to huge historical political events. The Arab Spring and Occupy Movements will be talked about by future generations. In 2011, people all over the world demanded change.

*Something is afoot. And it feels like something big.* Paradigm shift? 

Even those of us who like to check out of reality by tuning in to realities - couldn't escape these ones. They were bigger than that!

So with a huge salute to those brave souls that are defiant enough to demand change, I am posting a few of my favourite Occupy Poster Goodies.

These bits of historical illustration and design are available from $10 screened onto newsprint.
I would purchase a higher quality paper stock if I were you. Your great grand kids will cherish these!

Designed by Laura Dickens available for purchase at the OccupyPosterProject.com

Designed by Dan Cassaro and available at http://occupyposterproject.com

My obsession with skid pallet decor continues....

PART 1: Repurposed Skid Pallets, A Way to Look at the World here.

(The recycle-upcycle-repurpose movement has truly mainstreamed.)
It's wonderful!
We already know that we need to slow down our over-zealous desires to consume shiny new things.... right? But it can be so hard!

So, here are some guilt-free ideas to spice up your interior. New materials optional.


Unique Palette Ideas & Furniture Made to Measure: Creative ways to use wooden pallets!

Pallet Accent Wall, DIY !
(Please sand and seal.. pallets are sprayed with pesticides during shipping)

Wooden Skids Used as Shelving

Desk Love.

More Wood Palette Coffee Tables: These just keep getting better.

Okay, so this is more of a desk than a coffee table. STILL, AMAZING.

Who would have thought they could look so classy?

Painted Union Jack Repurposed Skid Palette Wonder

Bright Chartreuse Coffee Table. Modern Interior Decor!

How NOT to save the planet with persuasive advertising

If there's one thing that working in advertising has made me- it's a critical viewer of all ads.
Creative copy writers can spin a lie on it's head and make it look as innocent as Pollyanna herself. When they add a little heart-string-rhetoric to the mix, they can effectively create an ad that delivers just about any message, and still have us shaking our heads in approval at the end of the clip.

It took a few minutes for my alarm bells to go off on this one.  
This is one of those "It's so good it's scary" ads.
Quite literally.

The persuasive rhetoric promotes ethical tar-sands oil.
(Ethical oil?)

It suggests that by purchasing oil from Saudi Arabia, we are inadvertently backing the discrimination of women in those countries. It says that we are "funding their opression." Instead, we should buy ethical oil.... (and if we continue using this same string of logic) by not buying this "unethical" oil, we can then help to liberate those same women? Right? (No!)

This backwards half-truth rhetoric is so pervasive in political ads and campaigns; we must be easily swayed by flags and trumpets and pretty green fields, and anything that makes us feel proud of our home country. It is stunningly scary when we see these same tactics being used to sell us a point of view on something that is so blatently harmful to the environment.
Tar sands oil is not ethical. 
Spin it as you will master spinsters, I will not buy it. 
Sell me a story of solar power, wind energy, or about cars that run on water using hydrogen. Please stop assuming that our vision is so easily blinded by pulling the wool of "liberation" over our eyes.