Maya Bradshaw

Free Downloadable Tech Backgrounds for October 2021

September 30, 2021 By Maya Bradshaw Leave a Comment

Fall is here, and so are our October desktop backgrounds! We hope you find a little joy in this month’s selection, featuring moody colors, playful graphics, and intricate designs. Happy Autumn to our wonderful Live Creative community!

Download October Background

Download Music Background

Download Velvet Wallpaper Background

Download Organizer Background

Live Creative is a sustainable business, marketing, and shopping hub. Our Creative Studio offers authentic marketing, branding, and sustainable business expertise to ethical, sustainable, and purpose brands. And Sustainable Business Team offers sustainability strategy and goals setting as well as sustainable packaging services. And, our Lifestyle Team curates our global Sustainable Marketplace, the Durango Sustainable Biz Guide, and Get Real—our inspiring Innovation for Good weekly newsletter. Follow us on Insta: @livecreativestudios, like us on Facebook: Live Creative Studio and join our FB Group: Sustainable Business Idea Exchange.

Free Downloadable Tech Backgrounds for September 2021

September 2, 2021 By Maya Bradshaw Leave a Comment

The end of summer has arrived, and with it, our new September desktop graphics. This month’s selection features minimalistic linear designs, pastel colors & retro vibes: marking the transition from lazy summer days to crisp fall evenings.

Download September Background

Download Good Vibes Only Background

Download Calendar Background

Download Sunburst Background

10 Sustainable Clothing Brands to Love this Spring Season

May 19, 2021 By Maya Bradshaw 1 Comment

When it comes to fashion, less is more in terms of sustainability. The fashion & retail industry produces 10% of all carbon emissions, and an excessive amount of unwanted clothing winds up in landfills every year. While we’re excited for all the new warm-weather clothes and bright patterns, we can’t ignore the impact fast fashion is having on our planet. We all have a responsibility to make conscious, informed choices about the brands that we support, and we’re excited to share our list of those that are striving to make sustainable fashion accessible to everyone—and that we proudly support ourselves.

Here we’ve rounded up our favorite eco-friendly & ethical brands with spring styles for everything, from athletic to evening wear. And if you don’t see what you want here, check out our global Sustainable Marketplace and bookmark and shop sustainably from fashion to food to furniture!

Everybody & Everyone

Everybody & Everyone features sustainable essentials for the busy woman – plus, they’re organic, biodegradable, eco-innovative, and recycled. Their extensive size range means that everyone can find something they like.

2. Cork Element

The products by Cork Element are a renewable, eco-friendly, vegan alternative to leather, water resistant and beautifully designed for the fashion-conscious individual.

3. Eco-Stylist

Eco-Stylist is convenient, ethical, and tailored to men. Eco-Stylist compiles sustainable clothing from 50+ brands all in one easy-to-use marketplace. They also use badges that signify items as eco-friendly, fair for people, or vegan, so you can shop your values. DISCOUNT: Use code ‘LIVECREATIVE‘ to get 20% off a “Total Closet Overhaul” and get this $500 service for $400. Simply select “The Gift of Personal Style” option for $500 from this page.

4. GOEX

GOEX uses a simple tee to connect the customer and the maker. Customers sustain fair wage jobs that liberate workers from poverty and empower them in their families and communities. When you wear a GOEX tee, you’ll not only feel good because it’s soft & comfy, you’ll feel great knowing there’s good woven into every fiber.

5. Allegorie

Allegorie’s revolutionary approach to fashion starts with transforming “unwanted fruit into wardrobe essentials”, Their collections are made of fruit, such as apples, mangoes, sugarcane, and cactus, and many other bio-based and eco-friendly materials. They collect fruits and plants discarded by farms and grocery stores to create truly sustainable, unique bags.

6. Reformation

Reformation wants to celebrate the feminine figure, and they do so with sustainable and lovely fabrics. They’re working toward 75 percent of their products being made with plant-based, renewable, or almost all natural fibers.

7. Ettitude

The loungewear at Ettitude is 100 percent organic bamboo lyocell, a resource-efficient plant. Their sustainable process uses a non-toxic, closed-loop system that reuses water up to 200 times and recycles 98 percent of it.

8. prAna

prAna is a sustainable clothing brand that specializes in activewear for everything, from yoga to climbing. The quality of prAna’s fabric & fit matches the dedication that they give to ensuring each step in their production process is sustainable, ethical, and good for both planet and people.

9. Symbology

Marissa Heyl founded Symbology after researching the relationship between fair trade and craftswomen in India. Symbology partners with women across India and other developing countries and features their handcrafted, traditional products.

10. Knickey

At Knickey, you’ll find cotton underwear that’s breathable and comfortable. The cotton they use is from certified organic environments and is free of toxins, carcinogens, and other harmful chemicals. They also provide basics in different skin colors, shapes, and sizes.

We hope this post has inspired you to shop consciously this spring! You can head to our Sustainable Marketplace to browse many more ethical & sustainable brands form A-Z: No more searching, just bookmark the Sustainable Marketplace and shop your values for anything you need, anytime, every time.

____________________________

7 Sustainable Denim Brands We Love

March 18, 2021 By Maya Bradshaw Leave a Comment

Eco-Friendly and Fair Trade Denim

Everyone has that favorite pair of jeans, the ones that seem to fit just right and make you feel confident every time you wear them. Maybe denim is your go-to for everyday wear, from casual to classy, as it is for us! A great pair of jeans or a chic jean jacket combine style and function in a way that not many other pieces of clothing can (except the Little Black Dress, of course!).

The Live Creative Studio team is passionate about sustainability and also committed to looking good. So, we made a list of our favorite eco-friendly denim brands that bring together ethics, quality, and style. Forget the fast fashion trends and say hello to a pair of long-lasting, conscious jeans!

If you’re on the search for a new denim brand that has both your style and the planet in mind, check out our list below or visit our Sustainable Marketplace to discover a whole world of like-minded ethical brands leading the change in how we make everything good for people and the planet—from apparel and beauty to outdoor gear, furniture, and home goods. (Yes, the “spending power” revolution is happening, check it out here.)

1. Reformation

Reformation’s design mission is to make effortless silhouettes that celebrate the feminine figure. They are committed to making fashion sustainable by using 75% of fibers that are:

A–Allstars: Natural fibers that are rapidly renewable, plant-based and have a potential for circularity.

B–Better than most: B fibers are almost all natural or recycled fibers.

2. DL1961

Beautiful denim garments that are the perfect fusion of fit, fabric, function and sustainable manufacturing. DL1961 is a family-owned company that’s been in the denim business for decades. They are “dedicated to creating the most optimized facility possible for water, energy, and dye use; as well as creating a vertical supply chain, which allows us to control and audit the entire process.

ECO-FRIENDLY MATERIALS

Touted for their durability and derived from nature, all Lenzing™ brand fiber types used to make DL1961 are certified as compostable and biodegradable, and can fully revert back to nature.

CLEAN DYES

By using laser machines and Ozone technology, we eliminate the need for harmful chemicals and bleach in our finishing processes. We use Dystar 40% VAT, a clean form of liquid indigo. We’re one of only 12 mills on the planet to utilize this pre-reduced indigo blend that minimizes water usage and has no harmful byproducts.

3. Bluer Denim

“Selvage denim inspired by the past. Sustainably sourced and kindly made for the future. Trend hunters need not apply.” Bluer Denim responsibly sources their fabrics to make classic, long-lasting jeans. They are carbon neutral and ethically produced. Further, they established a “Denim Rescue program” to rescue denim from the landfill. Before tossing your old jeans, send them to Bluer and they’ll give you a $10 credit. If your old jeans are in good condition, they’ll wash them and deliver them to a Pacific Northwest shelter. If they’re well-loved, we’ll recycle them into earth-friendly insulation materials. Stay tuned, as Bluer Denim just may figure out ow to recycle jeans into new selvage denim in the future.

4. Mott & Bow

Premium-grade jeans at a reasonable price. Mott & Bow uses the finest denim fabrics from responsible mills and applies a manually intensive artistic process to transform the materials into an effortlessly beautiful denim.

5. LEVI’S WellThread Collection

Levi’s WellThread collection is the pinnacle of their sustainability efforts and aspirations. They’re lowering their impact on the planet at every step of the design and manufacturing process, and producing high-quality denim along the way.

FULL-CIRCLE WITH LEVI’S® WELLTHREAD™

This is their most sustainable collection. It’s designed and modeled on four guiding principles: Materials, People, Environment and Process. We make Levi’s® WellThread™ in Worker Well-Being facilities with rain-fed Cottonized Hemp, Water<Less® technologies and as many recycled materials as we can. And every thread is designed to be recycled (not that you’ll need to replace anything from this collection anytime soon).

COTTONIZED HEMP

Something you’ll hear a lot about as the industry becomes more sustainable is Cottonized Hemp. Why hemp? Because compared to cotton, it grows quicker, uses less water and leaves behind cleaner, healthier soils. Specially designed for Levi’s®, this new innovative hemp yarn is soft like cotton — and easily woven into styles like their Stay Loose Jeans.

CLEANING UP THE FINISHING PROCESS WITH WATER<LESS®

Unless you’re buying raw denim, your denim’s been finished. It’s the last but most crucial step in denim production, giving jeans and jean jackets a broken-in look and feel from day one. Unfortunately, this process uses a lot of water. Or, it used to. Levi’s® Water<Less® innovations have saved more than 4.2 billion liters of water from the finishing process (that’s enough to fill 1,680 Olympic-size pools!) and recycled over 9 billion more (you do the math). And by 2021, at least 80% of Levi’s® jeans will be finished with Water<Less® techniques. So instead of washing denim with fabric softener to create that worn-in feel, LEVI’s tumble jeans with bottle caps and golf balls, taking the water out of the wash altogether.

6. Unspun

Wan’t perfect fit jeans, ever time in every style? Unspun allows you to pick your cut, sytle, fabric, and more. Then you create a body scan using your iPhone, which Unspun then uses to custom-make YOUR sustainable denim pair of jeans with a perfect fit. Amazing, really. Unspun is a leading model of zero-waste fashion.

7. SLOW by Canvaloop

Jeans made out of naturally anti-microbial and breathable denim —spun from sustainable Himalayan Hemp. Enough said.

Best of luck on your quest for the perfect pair of jeans that not only look good, but do good. You can head to our Sustainable Marketplace to browse many more ethical and sustainable brands form A-Z. No more searching, just bookmark the Sustainable Marketplace and shop your values for anything you need, anytime, every time.

____________________________

Your Sustainable and Eco-Friendly Holiday Gift Guide for 2020

November 18, 2020 By Maya Bradshaw Leave a Comment

The holiday season is here!

Gift-giving is a thoughtful way to pass on a passion for sustainability through a meaningful product that has a story. Our green, eco-friendly and ethical holiday gift guide includes some of the best sustainable brands making beautiful products that benefit people and planet.

Scroll down to find the best eco-friendly gift ideas for minimalists, self-care lovers, travelers, vegans, fashionistas, kids, and more.

HAPPY GIFTING

1. PROJECTKIN | LUGGAGE

ProjectKin creates sustainable and stylish luggage & travel accessories for the mindful traveller. Their suitcases and other travel products are designed with simplicity and functionality in mind—a perfect gift for the minimalist in your life.

OUR PICK: The Kin Carry-On

Shop | $199

2. BY HUMANKIND | PERSONAL CARE

ByHumankind is a zero-waste personal care brand whose products are designed to reduce single-use plastic waste. byHumankind’s products are also made out of non-harmful, natural ingredients that are safe for daily use. Their small, cute packaging makes their products perfect as eco-friendly stocking stuffers!

OUR PICK: Daily Routine Set

Shop | $38

3. BESAME COSMETICS | MAKEUP

Besame is a unique, vintage-style makeup company whose products are all-natural, cruelty-free, and come in refillable reusable containers. Good for you, good for the animals, and good for our planet! Cute, vintage-style packaging & branding makes Besame a great gift for any makeup-lover.

OUR PICK: Refillable Mascara Cake

Shop | $20

4. PELA | TECH ACCESSORIES

Pela Case is a sustainable phone case & accessories company whose mission is to create a waste-free future for our planet. Pela uses biodegradable plastics to produce phone cases, air pod cases, sun glasses, and other technology accessories that are 100% compostable. To top it off, they’re perfect stocking stuffer gifts that come in a range of colors and sizes.

OUR PICK: Black Honey Bee Phone Case

Shop | $39

5. THE LITTLE MARKET | ARTISAN ITEMS

The Little Market is a nonprofit fair trade shop featuring ethically sourced, artisan-made products. They feature products of all kinds, from handwoven blankets to beautiful, artisan jewelry: A perfect place to find unique presents for family and friends.

OUR PICK: Reusable Shopping Tote

Shop | $20

6. TACT & STONE | MENSWEAR

Tact & Stone is a sustainable menswear company; a stand-out brand committed to sustainability in the world of wasteful fast-fashion. Thoughtfully and beautifully designed men’s garments with style & purpose, for the sophisticated man in your life.

OUR PICK: Joshua Upcycled Pocket Tee

Shop | $55

7. VETTA | CLOTHING

Vetta is a sustainable fashion brand with a unique system– they create mini capsule wardrobes made up of five versatile pieces that can be mixed and matched to create a month’s worth of outfits. You can buy the entire capsule or shop individual pieces to start building your dream wardrobe. Their versatile designs can be worn multiple ways, and everything mixes + matches. Perfect for the indecisive fashionista!

OUR PICK: The Blazer Dress

Shop | $179

8. SAMARA | BAGS & ACCESSORIES

SAMARA is a sustainable company that creates beautiful, quality vegan leather products. Their goal is to provide luxury vegan fashion that is as simplistic and elegant as true leather, without harming animals.

OUR PICK: The Laptop Sleeve

Shop | $85

9. Click A Tree | Give the Gift of Reforestation

CLICK A TREE plants trees all around the world. It’s the perfect gift for the nature-lover in your family. Planting more trees does so much to alleviate poverty, to absorb carbon, to support a healthy water cycle, and to reduce desertification cause by deforestation.

OUR PICK: Trees for Entreepreneurs in Ghana

Shop | $25

10. ITEMERIE | HOME & PERSONAL

ITEMERIE hand pics high quality and ethically made products for you and your home. Indulge with a conscience.

OUR PICK: Lady In Red Non-Toxic Nail Polish

itemerie-red-nail-polish-sustainable-holiday-gift-guide

Shop | $14

11. MADE TRADE| CLOTHING + HOME

MADE TRADE believes in making the world a more beautiful place by holding ourselves to a higher ethical standard. They call it being “ethically elevated. It means we put artistry above efficiency. Fair wages above profits. Sustainability above mass production. Quality craftsmanship above mindless consumption.”

OUR PICK: Handmade Stoneware Hanging Plant Holder

natural-stonware-hanging-plant-holder-sustainable-holiday-gift-guide

Shop | $45

12. SIMBLY| FURNITURE

SIMBLY believes “great design and environmental sustainability can come together to improve our lifestyles and create balance with nature.”

Simply manufactures well-designed, minimalist furniture made of sustainably harvested, FSC certified wood. Their factory is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Asheville, North Carolina.

OUR PICK: Coffee Table

simbly-coffee-table-sustainable-holiday-gift-guide

Shop | $499

13. KOTN| CLOTHING FOR MEN + WOMEN

KOTN believes in setting the standard for conscious creation and consumption. Developing products around the principles of considered design, relentless quality, honest value, and positive impact.

OUR PICK: Men’s Baseball Jacket

kotn-men-sbaseball-jacket-ecofriendly-holiday-gift-guide

Shop | $103

14. ECO LUNCHBOX| ZERO WASTE ITEMS

ECO LUNCHBOX believes in creating a zero waste food culture. If you don’t have non-toxic and no-waste lunchware in your pantry, it’s time to tool up. With ECOlunchbox, it can be easy for you and your family to ditch the plastic tubs, plastic baggies, pre-packaged cheese sticks, yogurt squeezies, wrapped cookies and food bars.

OUR PICK: Seal Cup Large

eco-lunch-box-sustainable-holiday-gift-guide

Shop | $16

15. GREEN KID CRAFTS| STEAM BOXES FOR AGES 2-10+

GREEN KID CRAFTS believes in empowering the next generation of environmental leaders using creative, nature-based STEAM activities.

OUR PICK: Rainforest Science Box

green-kid-crafts-sustainable-holiday-gift-guide

Shop | $35

16. UNSPUN| CUSTOME JEANS

UNSPUN mission is “to permanently alter how garments are made with technology used for good.” Send your measurements and Unspun will make your jeans just for your body. Their goal is to get to zero waste, starting with zero inventory and what denim is left over from cutting fabric to your exact size, they donate to make denim insolation for homes.

OUR PICK: CLICK TO GET 10% OFF

Shop | $100

17. Simply Straws| Zero Waste Sipping

SIMPLY STRAW believes in changing the way we sip our favorite drinks. Rightly so, as 500 million plastic straws are tossed daily. Going reusable will offset 30,000+ straws in each of our lifetime. Simply Straws is a great place to get started.

OUR PICK: Mason Jar Lid & Metal Straw

Shop | $13

18. BATHING CULTURE | PERSONAL & PLANETARY CARE

BATHING CULTURE “celebrates the simple necessity of bathing. How it bonds humanity and cultures across time and space.” They use all natural and environmentally friendly ingredients, zero waste to low-waste re-usable containers, and embrace a positive vibe and culture.

OUR PICK: Big Dipper Mineral Bath

Shop | $30

19. EARTHLOVE | ECO-FRIENDLY SUBSCRIPTION BOX

EARTHLOVE curates eco-friendly self-care, educational, and home decor items from ethical and sustainable brands. Choose from a one-time gift or a subscription box that keeps giving throughout the year. With carbon neutral shipping you can’t go wrong.

OUR PICK: Season Gift Box

earthlove-subscription-box-sustainable-holiday-guide-2020

Shop | $75

We hope you enjoyed this guide to eco friendly and ethical holiday gifts, and that it inspires you to shop mindfully this holiday season. For more eco-friendly gift ideas visit our Sustainable Marketplace.

Live Creative is a branding and marketing agency as well as a community hub for sustainable innovation, business, and lifestyle tips. Our Creative Studio offers authentic marketing, branding, and sustainable business expertise to ethical, sustainable, and purpose brands. And our Lifestyle Team brings the curious and the conscious inspiring sustainable lifestyle, zero waste tips, and examples of innovation changing business for good.

Save Your Coffee Grounds for this Simple DIY Coffee Scrub Facial

September 23, 2020 By Maya Bradshaw Leave a Comment

This DIY recipe is very simple to make, nourishing for dry skin, and uses up leftover coffee grounds from your morning coffee! Coffee scrubs like this are great for exfoliation and removing dead skin cells – but also gentle on more sensitive skin.

HOMEMADE COFFEE SCRUB

Why make a DIY coffee scrub instead of buying one from the store?

THE BENEFITS:

YOU choose the ingredients—-that means no chemicals or harmful preservatives that are present in many commercial skincare products.
Coffee, coconut oil, and brown sugar are natural, nourishing and exfoliating for the skin.
Made with everyday ingredients you can easily find in your kitchen, and also prevents used coffee grounds from being thrown away.

THE INGREDIENTS:

Coffee Grounds: Slightly abrasive but still gentle as a skin exfoliator.
Brown Sugar: A little more abrasive than coffee grounds, but gentle enough to be used on sensitive skin. Since the sugar is sticky, it helps the scrub stick together and form a smooth consistency.
Coconut Oil: Very moisturizing, adds a nice aroma.

RECIPE

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup coffee grounds (fresh or used)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup coconut oil
Optional: 1/2 tsp vanilla, peppermint, or almond extract for desired aroma

INSTRUCTIONS:

Mix ingredients together and store in an airtight container.
Store any leftover scrub the fridge (to prevent mold) and use the rest within two weeks.

We hope you enjoy this little sustainable DIY project and that it inspires you to continue finding creative ways to prevent food waste!

Not so into DIY? Head to our Sustainable Marketplace for eco-friendly brand & product recommendations, updated weekly.

__________________________________

If you liked this and want more, subscribe to our weekly eNews Get Real— an Innovation for Good mash up of marketing and lifestyle tips and positive news about cool sustainable brands and innovators changing business for good. Get Real inspires and offers practical pro-tips to help individuals and businesses increase their positive impact.

Live Creative is a leading resource and community hub for sustainable design, innovation, business, and marketing. Our Lifestyle Team brings you inspiring sustainability and zero waste tips, ideas, and more. Our Creative Studio Team offers authentic marketing, branding, and business expertise to ecopreneurs, socialpreneurs, and purpose-driven brands.