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On Sunday, February 18th, we at bluehouse were delighted to host a conversation with local designer Hope Karen Gerecht, author of “Healing Design”, in celebration of the Chinese New Year. Hope has been practicing the ancient art of Feng Shui for 19 years, including four years of study with a Tibetan Feng Shui master. She has consulted on more than two thousand projects.

Hope spoke with us on creating a balanced & harmonious environment, and promoting health, happiness, and prosperity in the home and workplace. Workshop participants enjoyed free coffee, tea, and goodies in our cafe.

In keeping with the bluehouse tradition of showcasing emerging local talent at our events, the afternoon kicked off with this original poem by our own Amanda Rothschild:

New Year’s Aubade

The new year blooms like plum blossoms
Curling themselves open,
Tired limbs opening their eyes as ice
Melts over them –
The ice trapping memories
Inside them, frozen in layers.
Today, my feet glide over that ice,
And it cracks gently to free what has been
Held inside. The memories too are awakened,
But transformed. They are silvery fortunes
rushing out to the street.
And because the future
is something new to hold on to,
my shoes sink deep into the ice,
bound by spring’s promise.

bluehouse hosts many such free, informative gatherings. You can stay up on what’s happening in our store by subscribing to our newsletter, via the box on the left of this page.

Q: What do bluehouse and “Extreme Sports” have in common?

A: FSC Certified Wood! (Oh, and we’re both really attractive and exciting.) An actual fact: While bluehouse has been offering FSC products since we opened in 2005, ESPN’s X Games have been using materials accredited by the Forest Stewardship Council since 2004, lapping us by a whole year. That’s jocks for ya. (The Games have also implemented solar stages, vegetable oil powered generators, and on-site recycling, proving once again that the cool kids care about protecting our home planet.)

The sustainable lumber in question was used in the construction of ramps for skateboarding and bicycling, and for an “Interactive Park” where children learned to skate and bike from professional athletes. Even more inspiring: Instead of being stored, or thrown away after the competition, the ramps were donated to the neighborhood of Compton, California. There, they took on a new life as a skate-park for inner-city children. The park not only provides a venue for much-needed physical activity, but also acts as a social hub where the kids can interact, build social skills, and just plain exist, without any pressure to consume.

Bob Burnquist, Pro Skateboarder and Founder of the Action Sports Environmental Coalition, has this to say about why Extreme Athletes make good Ecological Activists:

“It’s really hard for a skateboarder to take ‘no’ for an answer. I’ll go out and skate, and if I’m trying a trick, I’ll try it all day long, and if I don’t make it, I’ll try again the next day until I make it. Try it again, fall again. Try it again, fall again. I think that it’s just so powerful because we’re not going to stop trying. We’re just going to keep trying until people are taking notice.”

Award-winning Baltimore firms— bluehouse and Luke Works—showcase sustainable bathroom furnishings.

(BALTIMORE, January 31) – Luke Works and bluehouse have brought a beautiful, modern, environmentally friendly sensibility to bathroom vanity cabinets. The two Baltimore-based businesses have joined forces to manufacture and market
Katharos Collection 2007, a line of fine bathroom furnishings made from sustainably-grown bamboo and recycled concrete.

Luke Works is a studio that handcrafts furniture, counters, metalwork, and other architectural elements. bluehouse is a leading retail purveyor of eco-friendly furniture and home accessories.

“Katharos is Greek for clean,” said Luke Works founder Mark Melonas. “That’s the spirit we wanted for this furniture. Its lines are clean, its manufacture is clean, and its function is clean.”

The Katharos Collection vanity is wall-suspended bamboo cabinetry available in two colors. This is topped by a countertop made from a proprietary blend of 30% recycled concrete and glass, cast in one piece with a basin. The countertop is available in three different colors in lengths of 36″ and 48″ and with three configurations of cabinet doors and drawers.

Rounding out the Katharos Collection are a unique bamboo-framed mirror and L-shaped exposed shelving, also fashioned from bamboo. Every piece is made by hand, signed, and dated.

“It’s a work of art,” bluehouse proprietor David M. Buscher said, noting the recessed cabinet and drawer pulls and aligned bamboo grain that are suggestive of a solid block suspended 12″ from the floor. “From material choices to the finishing details, these are beautiful elements in a thoughtful home.”

The collection is available locally in the bluehouse showroom and nationally through their web store at bluehouseLIFE.com.

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Founded in 2005, bluehouse is an independent furniture and home accessories retailer committed to the promotion of stylish, fairly traded, and environmentally conscious merchandise. Its Baltimore, Maryland flagship store in fashionable Inner Harbor East is also home to The Café at bluehouse, which serves organic coffees, teas, and light fare.

Luke Works is a custom manufacturer of contemporary fine furniture specializing in the use of alternative, green and sustainable materials. Each piece is made by hand in Baltimore.