William McDonough: The wisdom of designing Cradle to Cradle

Architect and designer William McDonough explains his philosophy of "cradle to cradle" design, which bridges the needs of ecology and economics. He brings up some interesting thoughts like these:

Talking about the power and elegance of trees.
"Designers --imagine this assignment.
Design something that:
makes oxygen
sequesters carbon
fixes nitrogen
creates micro-climates
distills water
makes complex sugars in food
changes colors with the seasons
&
self replicates!
Why don't we knock that down and write on it?"

Why we need humble design:
"It took us 5000 years to put wheels on our suitcases!"

cute idea

I liked these lightbulb vases. Aren't they simple and fun?

Thankful List

I felt compelled to write a few things I've been especially thankful for this past month.

friends who show you how important you are to them.
the thoughtfulness of others
my ability and know-how to do hard labor and common household fixes
suavitel fabric softener
ice cream
hospitality
new key-shortcuts I've discovered for my MacBook Pro
(did you know about command + esc? or ctrl + option + command + 8? -- try them!)

The pleasures of living in Minnesota

My mom took these pictures of the April snowstorm that hit home yesterday/today. Would you ever believe these were taken on April 26th!?

yummy!

I think everyone who knows me recognizes how much i lOVE french toast. How cheerful & lovely to have one of these plates of kabobs set in front of you for breakfast?

(via swissmiss)

i'm so glad i went to class today . . .

because this is what we watched!!!
This bEATbOX kid is set for life. What do you think?

i love my family!

These old pictures are priceless. Don't you think?


GOOBER SAYS HEY....say hey goob!


bowL cut!


BABY DROWSY! awww...


my only cute profile picture.


My uncle Wes helping me do a puzzle


Look at those young bucks! ow oww!


Nice shades dad and gretch! pretty sure I'm the only normal looking one here :)

Let's have tea & cookies

How cute are these little tea cups with your favorite tea cookies embedded in the bottom of each mug? With these, you won't be able to have tea without cookies!

Dad & Gretchen (aLL other cat haters) this post is for YOU!

Oh. My. Goodness. This has nothing to do with design but it's so FUNNY! I came home from track tonight and turned on the CBS news. A segment came on about CAT AGILITY. You know -- kinda like dog agility where dogs jump over hurdles and go through tunnels, etc. WELL, now they have cats doing it. The difference is cats are LAZY and have absolutely no ambition. They went on to say they created the sport simply to get cat owners out of their home and off their couches. hahahaha, are you kidding? It isn't much of a spectator sport because it takes the cat forever to finish. (or do anything for that matter) They ended their segment by zooming in on a bigger woman trying to persuade her cat and said, "It's almost more of a sport for the owners, as some of them have gotten a little 'Garfield-esque!'"


These people are so proud :)


scary!

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when i get biG, i wanna ride on the bus with dretchen to scooL!

This is my big sister whom I've wanted to be like since . . . well, before I could ride the bus. She's 26 today! LOVE YOU GRETCHIE!

PEPSI TV ADS

I CANNOT stop laughing . . .
these are hilarious!

pRETTY pLATES

The White Snow Project by Vittorio Locatelli in driadekosmo

ilOVe.

I went speechless when I first saw this post on fortysixth at grace. Apparently I still am because no words can do justice to describe these beautiful chocolate pencils. I hope you enjoy as much as I do. The company concept is also wonderful.

World's Coolest Solar Collecting Building

Check out this piece of architecture. It has over 5,000 solar panels generating 500,000 KWh of energy! Between the solar panels are multi-colored lights that can be activated to form any shape or letters -- so fun and green!





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