As I was out shopping the other day, I was thinking about how our lifestyles contribute to all of the energy problems--not the best thought when you want to buy stuff. Yet, it is all the 'buying stuff' that sometimes makes us hyprocrites, myself definitely included. I realize in my day-to-day life that recycling of say, a can, is good, because it takes less energy to make another can out of a recycled can than to start from scratch. However, when it comes to decorating and buying cute knick-knacks, I don't generally think too heavily about how much non-renewable energy went into producing and shipping the items I am buying, to our local stores. The good news is that I and apparently, many other people, are starting to think about these things a little more. Recycled, reclaimed, sustainable, salvaged, etc., etc. are suddenly chic terms that people are looking for when they buy products. When you think about it, why not buy an item made from a reclaimed piece of wood, rather than buying one where energy needed to be put into cutting a whole tree down? Of course, some of this may just be hype, but it still shows a growing trend for consumers to think a bit more about where their household items are coming from and how they are made. One noteworthy example is an advertisement I saw in the New York Times on Sunday for ABC Carpet & Home, a pricey store in NY and NJ. The ad referred to "the organic landscape of modern - Fall 2006." Dining tables had recycled steel legs, stools were made from salvaged tree stumps, shelves were made from old rooftop material, etc. Shipping these items from their place of origin to Manhattan still probably involves using a lot of fossil fuels but hey, nothing's perfect. Hopefully, this is one design trend that won't go out of style next season.