The New York Times recently featured an Alaskan couple living in a yurt (a Mongolian tent) in their Home & Garden section. This couple’s commitment to living a sustainable lifestyle might be extreme, but it is admirable.

Many aspects of their life, such as lack of running water or central heat, make it seem downright old-fashioned. But there are a lot of modern touches: unlike traditional yurts, which are made with wool, their yurt is made of Duro-Last with Tyvek insulation. There’s also Broadband Internet access, which brings this lifestyle into the modern era.

What’s important to you? If you want to live a sustainable lifestyle, how far will you go? What will you give up? What can’t you live without? What makes your life more pleasant, but isn’t totally necessary?

We may not all decide to live in yurts, but if we are strategic about greening our homes, we can live more sustainable lifestyles.

Photo of a traditional yurt courtesy of dwrawlinson on Flickr.

In honor of the winter storm that has hit us here in Marvin country, let’s take a look at a beautiful hotel in another snowy place.

The Old Faithful Snow Lodge, at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, houses millions of visitors every year in its 90,000-square-foot space. At 7,300 feet above sea level, the Snow Lodge offers amazing views and lots of options for exploring and skiing. Without television and internet access, the Old Faithful Snow Lodge is an oasis of relaxation.

But that same remoteness can make renovating difficult. Marvin supplied the windows for the lodge and worked on a tight schedule to ensure that the delivery was coordinated with the Snow Lodge’s accessibility.

To make sure that the windows provided adequate ventilation (air conditioning is not available), tilt turns and hoppers were used. The tilt turn is a dual-functioning window: it opens at the side like a door or tilts in at the top. Hopper windows are a great companion for the tilt turn and open at the top. Additionally, awnings were used. The Old Faithful Snow Lodge made use of authentic and simulated divided lites for a traditional look and Low E II glass for modern energy efficiency.

From cold Warroad to snowy Yellowstone, Marvin windows look beautiful and perform in winter weather!

Top photo courtesy of Yellowstone National Park Lodges

Furniture made out of paper…yes, paper. Molo’s softseating is available in kraft paper or textiles. We love this product because of its innovation for making something beautiful out of something so ordinary.

Softseating has magnets on the ends, so it can be constantly be re-arranged. Unlike traditional pieces of furniture that are statically placed, Molo’s softseating can be joined together in countless configurations.

The kraft paper softseating is made from a durable, unbleached paper. It is 100% recyclable. And never fear if you don’t want the normally tan color of kraft paper: it’s available in black as well.

A more “traditional” option would be textile softseating. This is made from Tyvek, a non-woven polyethelyne material. This version comes in black and white.

If you’re looking for a different sort of furniture, Molo’s softseating is flexible and a real conversation starter!

Photos courtesy of Molo

Recently, MLuxe contributor P. Allen Smith wrote about choosing plants of certain colors to evoke certain moods, feelings or effects in your garden. Today, we’re going to talk about a similar topic: bringing natural color into your home.

Green-living blog Re-Nest had a great post a few days ago about using naturally-occurring colors in designing and decorating your home. Re-Nest quotes a book called Color in Interior Design, saying:

The colors of nature are, in the main, beautiful, harmonious, and satisfying [...] the use of only the natural colors of materials will guarantee successful color in architecture and interior design…

The idea of natural colors is, of course, opposed to colors not found in nature. It’s more than a matter of “mellow” or “calm” colors vs. bright and bold colors. It’s a matter of designing a consistent theme and feeling throughout your home.

Natural colors cover a range from the more subdued hues in the photo at right to a variety of stunning, bright natural colors. What array of natural colors do you have in your home?

Photo of blue-to-beige slate tiles courtesy of International Slate Company

What can bamboo do for you?

With the growing interest in green living, bamboo often is mentioned. What’s it all about?

Let’s start off with what bamboo is. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not a tree. According to Wikipedia, bamboo is a woody perennial evergreen plant from the true grass family Poaceae. It grows natively almost everywhere except Europe and Antarctica.

How can you use this amazing grass? To start off with, you can eat it! Certain bamboo species’ shoots are edible. Notecook shares a delicious recipe for hot and sour soup with bamboo shoots.

If eating bamboo isn’t your style, how about giving it as a gift? It is known as “lucky bamboo” so it would be especially appropriate as a housewarming gift or for a new office.

Green Living Tips has quite a few uses for bamboo. Their list includes: baskets, bicycle frames, bird cages, blinds, boats, bridges, brushes, buckets, canoes, carts, charcoal, chopsticks, clothing, cooking utensils, diapers, fans, fences, firewood, fishing rods, food steamer, furniture, garden tools, handicrafts, hats, incense, musical instruments, paper, particle board, pens, pipes, ply, roofing, scaffold, tableware, toilets, toothpicks, toys, umbrellas and walking sticks.

If you are looking for a way to be sustainably fashionable, bamboo delivers there as well. More and more places are selling bamboo T-shirts and underwear, but Organic Bamboo Clothing has an entire online store of bamboo clothes. Bamboo seems to be almost as versatile as cotton, appropriate for a night on the town or for a newborn baby.

Look around and see all the ways you can use this amazing grass for yourself and your home!

Photo courtesy of hbierau on Flickr.

With spring transitioning into summer it is time to start packing away my sweaters, coats, hats and scarves. This is one of two occasions that I think about that household pest: the clothes moth.

The other occasion is when I pull out my winter wear and find holes in my favorite sweater or a chewed out depression running down the arm of my coat — sure signs that I did not take care to protect my clothing from this tiny but destructive pest.

It is actually the larvae of the clothes moth that does the damage. The female moth settles in your closet and deposits eggs among your woolens. The eggs hatch and the larvae begin eating their way through your wardrobe, growing to their mature size to begin the cycle all over again.

The traditional defense against moths is to scatter mothballs among your clothes, but some people find the odor too strong for their liking and have concerns about the ingredients used to make them.

An alternative method of dealing with these pests is with herbs. We have been using herbs since ancient times to battle moths, and I have found that it works quite well.

Not only are many herbs insecticidal, but the aroma of an herbal mixture will also repel the moth. Moths rely on their sense of smell to find the wool where they lay their eggs. Rather than smelling wool the female moth will smell herbs and be on her way.

So how about a recipe that blends the leaves and flowers of herbs with essential oils to keep moths on the run? It’s an inexpensive and safe alternative to mothballs because the mixture is all-natural.

In a large bowl combine the following dried herbs:

• 1 ounce wormwood or artemisia
• 4 ounces lavender flowers
• 2 ounces rosemary leaves
• Handful of cedar shavings

Then add:

• 30 drops of lavender oil
• 5 drops of rosemary oil
• 5 drops of vetiver (grass extract)

Toss the essential oils gently with dried herbs. Fill sachets or a bowl with the mixture and place in your closet, wardrobe or drawers.

More moth proofing tips:

• Clean your clothes before you store them. Moths are even more attracted to material with food stains, body oils, etc.
• If you haven’t worn a garment, scarf or hat in a while, give it to a charity. This will remove potential moth havens from your closet.
• Keep your closet clean. Vacuum the corners and shake out the blankets.
• When you bring clothing in purchased from a resale shop or garage sale, send it to the dry cleaners or pop it in the dryer. This will kill any eggs or larvae that may come with the garment.

Check out this statistic from the Chicago Tribune: “If each household in Chicago switched to cleaning products that contain low levels of volatile organic compounds, it would remove as many hydrocarbons as taking 28,793 cars off the road.”

Wow. It’s the type of stat that makes you want to start using these type of cleaning products, isn’t it? Lucky for us, the same story, written by Julie Deardorff, provides some natural household cleaning tips. Among the claimed benefits of the products listed are less air pollution and no skin irritation. Try these items for cleaning around your house:

• White vinegar: use for cleaning windows, counter tops, chrome, greasy surfaces and floors; cuts greasy residue
• Baking soda: can be placed in small bowls around the home to absorb odors, and can be used to clean sinks or for laundry
• Salt: sprinkle on pots or pans to loosen stuck-on food: add cool water, leave for one hour and then wipe clean
• Vegetable oil: two parts of any vegetable oil and one part lemon juice makes for a nifty furniture polish mixture

These natural cleaning supplies are environmentally conscious, healthy, practical and can save you money. And here’s a recipe for the almighty, all-purpose cleaner:

• 4 teaspoons Borax
• 1/2 teaspoon liquid soap or detergent
• 2 cups hot water
• Put it a spray bottle and go

Happy green cleaning!