20 green hotels and eco-friendly places to stay in the UK and Ireland

If you’re looking for a holiday or planning a trip with a low environmental impact, here are some tempting sustainable choices.

All have been awarded the Gold level Green Tourism Award.

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Featured eco-friendly business: Free Ramblin’ Kids

Free Ramblin’ Kids is a very eco-friendly kids slippers and accessories business, run by Katie Cavacco. Katie visits charity shops to buy post-consumer wooly jumpers, which she then turns into felt to make her products out of.

Soles are made of reclaimed leather. Reduce, reuse, recycle – tick, tick, tick!

Interior design focus: growing an indoor lemon tree!

At a recent – and rather hygge – celebration at my home, friends were taken with my indoor lemon tree, whose lemons have started to turn a lovely yellow colour.

They were somewhat astonished that it was growing real lemons. But it was, and still is.

‘Tis the season to be eco – a sustainable Christmas shopping guide

Recycling can apply to blog posts, too! Here’s my still-relevant eco-friendly Christmas Shopping Guide…

November is with us and thoughts may legitimately turn to Christmas shopping.

When buying presents for family and friends, do you ever think “what can I find that’s green?”, as in environmentally-friendly?

Make mine a fox!

 

Well, there’s a first time for everything – here’s how to get started, from wrapping paper to Secret Santa.

Log cabin in the city

Often the idea of escaping to the cosy quietude of a log cabin in the woods or by the lake gets very appealing for city dwellers.

But for most of us without weekend cottages/trip budgets/sheds/energy at the end of a busy week, the pipe dream stays a pipe dream.

So what can we do? Well one option is to make yourself a little retreat right at home!

Beginner’s guide to antiques auctions

Ever been curious about antiques auctions?  With estimates sometimes as low as £40-80, you might just find a hidden gem.

So you’d like to go to an auction, but you don’t know… how? Or you’d like to sell, but the same thing applies? Well read on, the good news is it’s actually quite simple. And by keeping objects, artworks and furniture in circulation, it’s environmentally-friendly too.

Introducing Hygge to your home

A steaming hot chocolate, a crackling fireside, cosy catch ups, walking on a frosty common bundled up in hats, scarfs and mittens  – these are all “hygge”.

Hygge is a Danish word to describe seeking out small pleasures that can help make the cold wintery months enjoyable. It’s a hearty, nourishing stew, it’s a sofa blanket. A cat sleeping on a bookshelf, woollen socks, a sticky toffee pudding.

Instant decor tiles

I’ve started making these eco-friendly cork and felt stick-on wall tiles. They’re instant wall art, insulating, and reduce noise – and with different colours to chose from you can form your own patterns.

I started thinking of these when I lived in an apartment with quite thin walls last year. You could hear the buzz of the neighbour’s TV from their lounge on the other side and murmurs of their conversation. Usually I had music on or didn’t notice but there are some days when you just want a lie-in or an early night.

‘Rooms from Remnants’

Looking forward to my copy of ‘Rooms from remnants: Fifty Low-cost Projects to Transform Your Home‘ by Janette Swift, bought second-hand of course. 

I think the 50 home decor projects she shares, which include picture and mirror frames, lamps and mosaics, all made from recycled materials, will be as useful and relevant today as in 1994.

Janette was ahead of the curve on what’s thankfully become a growing movement. Just look at this lovely recent drawer upcycle by thebudgetdecorator.com