"Art is only art when it is synonymous with living." Mid-century designer Alexander Girard said this and he is the inspiration for this DIY project.

I recently went up in the attic looking for a sun-faced poster that I had as a kid. It was a popular '60s design by Girard. While I was digging around in the dust, I spied some pictures leaning next to old wood frames.

Many were handed down in our families, some of them ornate and gilded. They just don't work with our decorating style now. I'm not bringing the pictures back into circulation, but those frames possess untapped potential.

Picture frames are fun to collect and easy to pick up in antique, thrift, second-hand stores or flea markets and tag sales. Don't forget to search for unusual frames when you travel.

10 ways to repurpose a vintage picture frame:

1. Frame a tray.


2. Frame a calendar.


3. Frame vintage wallpaper or vintage fabric (I like Marimekko), old calendar pictures, greeting cards, magazine covers or record albums.


4. Frame a mirror.


5. Display photos or a make a collage.


6. Make a bulletin board from a frame without a glass. Back it with cork or wine corks.


7. Make a magnetic bulletin board.


8. Cover a digital picture frame. Cut the frame and glue it over a generic digital picture frame.


9. Make a scrapbook display or an inspiration board for all your DIY. ideas.


10. Frame a pocket display board -- for organizing bills, photos, business cards. Use colored library book pockets, envelopes or fabric.

No vintage frames? No problem. Check out this vintage frame tape to frame anything, anytime, anywhere. Vintage frames have wonderful decorative potential. Is the picture or the frame the art? Live with it and find out.

What would you do with a vintage frame?

Ronnie Citron-Fink is a writer and educator. Ronnie regularly writes about sustainable living for online sites and magazines. Along with being the creator of www.econesting.com, Ronnie has contributed to numerous books about green home design, DIY, children, and humor. Ronnie lives the Hudson Valley of New York with her family.

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There is something mystical and romantic about walking through a garden on a summer evening.

The moonlight casts a spotlight of shadows capturing and emphasizing moody white flowers and shimmery plants amongst the greenery. The sounds are quietly eerie. Day lilies are closed up tight and sleeping.

Nightfall brings entirely new and intoxicating fragrances that awaken the senses to a unique garden experience.

What is a night garden?
A night garden incorporates plantings whose, color, texture, sound, and scent can be appreciated in the evening. Sometimes night gardens are called "moon gardens".

Are night gardens new?
According to this Lifescript article, night gardens have been around for a long time: "A night garden is not new to the contemporary world. Moonlight gardens were planted in medieval Japan using white or pale-colored rocks and sand. Pools of water caught the shine of the moon and white chrysanthemums cast a ghostly profile. In the 1600s India's mogul emperor planted a stunning night blooming garden using fragrant and beautiful flowers like jasmine, narcissus, and lilies all in white."

Why plant a night garden?
People who work all day and have busy schedules that keep them away from home until the evening get to enjoy the beauty of the garden. For those who want to unplug and unwind in the evening to the sounds of nature, a night garden is the perfect place to relax.

Where to plant a night garden?
Plant it in a place where you will enjoy it most. Small container night gardens are perfect for those with limited space.

What plants to plant in a night garden?
These plants listed on the DoItYourself site are night bloomers and aromatic, making them perfect for night gardens:

• moonflower
• white sand verbena
• fragrant plantain lily
• evening campion
• yucca
• night-flowering catchfly
• thornapple
• scarlet gaura
• citron daylily
• lemon lily
• evening iris
• evening star
• gumbo lily
• soapwort
• vesper iris
• evening primrose
• night-blooming tropical waterlilies
• four o' clock
• desert lily
• white gaura
• evening stock

Do you have a night garden? Add some plants that you enjoy in the evening hours to the list above.

Ronnie Citron-Fink is a writer and educator. Ronnie regularly writes about sustainable living for online sites and magazines. Along with being the creator of www.econesting.com, Ronnie has contributed to numerous books about green home design, DIY, children, and humor. Ronnie lives the Hudson Valley of New York with her family. 

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(Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by grahamking)

We live in a short attention span society. Between the hours most of us spend in front of the television and the time we spend online, our ability to concentrate is practically under siege on a daily basis.

Yoga is a great way to improve concentration, just by its nature. Working a few of the postures and breathing exercises below into your practice can help boost your power to focus even more!

1. Salutation Seal

This simple breathing exercise is a great way to start your practice. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, bring your hands into prayer position. Try to quiet your mind, focusing instead on inhaling and exhaling deeply while keeping your spine nice and straight. Salutation seal really helps bring focus to the rest of your practice....it's so centering!

2. Alternate Nostril Breathing

Another breathing exercise, practicing alternate nostril breathing for a couple of minutes can really help clear your mind. Like with salutation seal, you'll sit cross legged. Hold your right hand with your palm in front of your face, and fold down your pointer and middle fingers. Before you inhale, use your thumb to hold your right nostril closed. Hold onto that breath, then release the right nostril and use your ring finger to hold your left nostril closed as you exhale.

Now, inhale while still holding the left nostril closed, then switch nostrils to exhale. Repeat this cycle for a couple of minutes to focus your mind and clear your head of distracting thoughts. 

3. Tree Stand

Balance poses are excellent for concentration! You can do tree stand in a number of ways, but to start stand up straight with your hip distance apart. Bend your right knee and grab hold of your right knee with both hands. Once you feel like you have your balance, move your grasp so you're holding your right foot, and slowly place that foot on your left thigh with the toes pointed toward the floor. Move your hands into prayer, and breathe here for about 30 seconds.

If you feel balanced with your hands in prayer, you can move them over your head and either hold them with your arms straight and palms facing each other or place your palms together over your head. Repeat this on your left side.

4. Crane Pose

This is another balancing posture, but this time you're balancing on your arms. Start out in a squat with your feet hip distance apart. Move your legs so that your shins are right in line with your armpits, then place your palms on the floor in front of you. Ever so slowly, tilt your weight forward. The idea here is to get your feet off the floor, so you're balancing fully on your hands.

Crane pose is a bit tricky, but if you keep at it, the payoff is so worth it. Not only does this help with concentration, but it's so gratifying when this posture finally clicks.

5. Seated Forward Bend

A gentle forward bend goes a long way toward quieting the mind. To do this simple posture, sit on the floor with your feet out in front of you and a straight back. Inhale, and lift your arms above your head, stretching your spine. On your exhale, fold forward at your hips, reaching toward your feet. Grab your leg wherever you can reach - knees, shins, or feet - then just relax and breathe here for up to 30 seconds. 

6. Camel Pose

Backward bending is about facing our fears, which goes a long way toward quieting those distracting thoughts in our heads. Start sitting on your knees, then raise your bottom off of your feet, so your thighs are perpendicular to the floor. Place your hands on your lower back, then inhale and arch back slowly, letting your head hang gently backwards.

If you feel comfortable there, you can take camel pose to the next level by taking your hands off of your back and grabbing your right foot with your right hand and left foot with the left hand. Stay here for 10-12 deep breaths.

Regardless of how far you take the pose, make sure you move your hands to support your lower back as you come out of it, and come up slowly. Your head should be the last thing you straighten.

7. Reclining Hero Pose

Relaxation poses help you focus in a way similar to some of the breathing exercises. Sit on your knees, then move your feet apart slowly until your bottom is on the floor. Inhale and straighten your spine, then exhale as you lean backwards. The idea here is to relax your back onto the floor. Lay your arms at your sides, palms facing upward and focus on taking deep breaths. You can hold this pose for 30 seconds or up to five full minutes.

If this is too much on your knees, you can try savasana instead. Rather than laying with your knees bent, just lay on your back with your legs straight out and feet hip distance apart. Relax, breathe, and clear your mind.

 

Do you guys have any favorite yoga postures for improving concentration? I'd love to hear about them in the comments!

 

More from Care2:

• 8 Tips to Focus Your Mind
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(Image Credit: digitalART2 / Flickr)

By Paula Alvarado, TreeHugger

Bodies that work with the Earth's magnetic field to determine location. Female-only societies. Telling whether you're a friend or a jerk there to make trouble with just one whiff. Homes so efficient they keep one steady temperature all the time. No, we're not talking about new X-Men or other comic book characters, we're talking about animals with skills we can only dream of.

These seven animals are way smarter than us -- just another reason to pay some respect when we encounter them in the wild.

 

1. Homing Pigeons

While most humans need several types of maps and a compass to find their way home after a long journey, the homing pigeon can return from extremely long distances (more than 1,100 miles) without any guidance.

Well, as a matter of fact, they do have some help: According to research by the University of Frankfurt, these pigeons have iron-containing structures in their beaks, which help them sense the Earth's magnetic field independent of their motion and posture, and thus identify their geographical position.

Research results released this year indicate this magnetic charm is present in other birds as well.

 

 

(Image Credit: DavidDennisPhotos.com / Flickr)

2. Ants

Despite their size, the world's many varieties of ants have amazing skills. One of the most impressive is the mycocepurus smithii from the Amazon, a super feminist species that has developed the ability to reproduce via cloning -- dispensing with both sex and males -- to evolve into an all-female breed.

According to research from the University of Arizona, it's not clear when the change happened, but by reproducing without sex, the ants avoid the energetic cost of producing males and double the number of reproductive females produced each generation.

Unlike us humans, ants have also learned super efficient ways to organize their traffic. And 2006 research by the Berkeley University of California has established that the trap-jaw ant (odontomachus bauri) can close its mandibles at an incredible speed: The strike lasts 0.13 milliseconds, 2,300 times faster than the blink of an eye. This allows them to jump enormous heights for their size.

But don't take our word for it, check out the video:

 

 

(Image Credit: exfordy / Flickr)

3. Elephants

They're huge, and sometimes they seem tired and slow. But it's no surprise that this mammal's peculiar nose is really something: Research from the University of St. Andrews suggests that elephants can keep track of up to 30 absent members of their family by sniffing out their scent and building a mental map of where they are. How useful would this little feature be for moms with several kids?

Even better, according to another study by the same University, elephants can tell whether a human is friendly or a threat by their scent and color of clothing. So good luck trying to fool them.

 

 

4. Termites

In Zimbabwe, the termite species Macrotermes michaelseni has developed a precise technique to farm a specific fungus they feed on. As this fungus can only grow at 87 degrees Fahrenheit, and temperatures outside range from 104 degrees Fahrenheit during day and 35 degrees Fahrenheit at night, the termites have come up with a system to keep the temperature steady in their mounds by constantly opening and closing heating and cooling vents.

This is such a useful idea that Loughborough University has conducted research in order to use the same technique in human buildings. Case in point -- the Eastgate Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe has been modeled after the termites' system.

 

 

(Image Credit: belgianchocolate / Flickr)

5. Chimps

Much has been said about the intelligence of chimps, with some people claiming they're geniuses and others saying they're only as smart as a three year old kid. Of course, the actual facts fall in between.

But there is at least one area in which chimpanzees are smarter than humans -- photographic memory. A study by the Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University proves young chimpanzees have an extraordinary working memory capability for numerical recollection, better even than that of human adults tested with the same apparatus following the same procedure.

Presented with the same sequence of numbers, small chimps could recall them, outperforming humans. Not too shabby.

 

 

(Image Credit: MShades / Flickr)

6. Crows

Contrary to the massive amount of animals and species facing extinction, crows are thriving, reproducing all over the world, with the small exceptions of the Arctic and the Southern tip of South America.

But, although they're proven to be smart in many ways (as Joshua Klein explains in this TED talk), officially scientists say they're not smarter than humans.

However, their amazing capacity for fast adaptation and ability to live in cities show they could be a lot more than they are today. And who knows, one day they might top us.

 

 

(Image Credit: J. D. Ebberly / Flickr)

7. Dolphins

Ok, again, not officially smarter than humans yet, but dolphins have recently been declared the world's second most intelligent creatures (after humans). A zoologist from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, according to The Times, has even gone far to say that their "neuroanatomy suggests psychological continuity between humans and dolphins," and called for reconsideration of human-dolphin interactions. Another scientist from the Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles has even called them 'non-human persons.'

So yes, dolphins are smarter than chimps and with communication skills similar to humans'. Their brains are only second in mass to the human brain, making them cultural animals with distinct personalities with the ability to think about the future, among other faculties. How long will these clever animals put up with human abuse? We hope not too long.

Have more suggestions to help us reconsider the way we look at animals? Put them in the comments.

 

More from Care2:

• Chimpanzees: Even More Like Humans Than We Think 
• Are Chimps Smarter Than Humans? (3 videos) 
• Our Pets as Spiritual Teachers? 

(Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by moosicorn)

It is hot out there! We know that insulation helps us run that air conditioner a bit less, but what you might not know is that there are lots of different insulation options, and certain types are much more environmentally sound than others. Insulators like spray foam contain harsh chemicals and even emit greenhouse gases.

Here are some insulation options that get it right:

Blue jeans

In 2008, Levi's recycled over 200,000 pairs of discarded jeans into insulation for the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, and you can find recycled denim insulation for the home, too. Not only is denim insulation easier on the environment, you're keeping all of that discarded material out of the landfill!

For folks looking to score denim insulation for the home, Bonded Logic makes home insulation using post-consumer cotton and denim.

Sand

Sand is a renewable resource, and EcoBatt has sorted out a way to turn that into home insulation. They combine sand with post-consumer recycled glass to create natural insulation that's Greenguard certified. They even have a handy locator tool to help folks find it by state.

Straw bale construction

Straw bale is a totally natural insulator that's easy to source locally in many areas. It's a great addition to a natural building project, because it's easy to work with. A great insulator, straw is a renewable resource and contains none of the harsh chemicals you'd associate with conventional insulators.

A great way to learn more about natural materials like straw bale is to hunt down sustainable building courses in your area. The more you know how to do yourself, the more money you can save on construction costs.

Paper

Companies like Celbar offer insulation made from recycled paper. Like denim, this does double duty: Providing eco-friendly insulation while reducing landfill waste. Celbar even has spray insulation, a great alternative to conventional spray foam for insulating crawl spaces and attics.

Insulating from the outside in

Greensulate has a unique take on eco-insulation. Rather than focusing on what's inside your walls, they have options for creating green walls on your home. Talk about multiple benefits! Green walls help save energy, of course, but the greenery itself improves air quality and helps fight climate change.

Soy

While too much soy might not be the dietary ideal, it's a great alternative to conventional, toxic spray insulation. Perfect for attics and crawl spaces, soy-based foam helps improve air quality. If you want to find soy insulation for your home, you might check out companies like BioBased.

Did I miss any alternative insulation options here? Let me know in the comments.

Becky Striepe is a green blogger and independent crafter with a passion for vintage fabrics. She runs a crafty business, Glue and Glitter, where her mission is to use existing materials in products that help folks reduce their impact without sacrificing style! She specializes in aprons and custom lunch bags. Like this article? You can follow Becky on Twitter or find her on Facebook.

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