Powered by fans, Bicycle Music Festival (BMF) rocked Golden Gate Park and the streets of San Francisco this past weekend.

Fully powered by pedaling, BMF is the world's largest 100% bike-powered festival in the world. Founded in 2007, BMF works in collaboration with the San Francisco Parks Trust to promote sustainable living and biking through interactive exhibits and activities on site during the festival. Host to a unique blend of local bands, artists and activists, every element of the festival was transported to the site by bicycle, including sound equipment, staff and instruments.

You can learn more about Bicycle Music Festival over at our sister site, Green Up Music.

Guerrilla gardening is a great way to add some green to a blighted space. Whether we're talking seedbombs or late-night plantings, guerilla gardeners everywhere are doing their parts to make the urban landscape a bit greener.

Steve Wheen takes the idea in a whimsical direction with his pothole gardens. Potholes are an eyesore and sometimes a hazard, but with a little bit of greenery, Wheen turns these blemishes into something straight up beautiful. Not only does he plant greenery and flowers, he transforms potholes into miniature environments!

Here's a video of Wheen talking about his pothole gardens:

I love that he calls them "little moments of happiness." Those bursts of color definitely make me smile!

Have you guys seen (or done!) any creative, cool examples guerrilla gardening? I'd love to hear about them in the comments!

h/t: CRAFT

You know we love a good yarnbomb around here, and this one that the folks over at Street Art Utopia shared combines yarnbombing with something else close to my heart: bikes! I just discovered this street art site this morning and am slowly becoming obsessed with it. There's so much guerrilla art eye candy!

History of the Yarnbomb

Yarnbombing got its start back in Houston, Texas in 2005 when one savvy crafter, Magda Sayeg and a few of her pals decided to liven up their urban landscape by covering things like lamp posts, street signs, and benches with yarn.

The group was called Knitta Please, and they kept up the yarn bombing goodness until around 2007. Sayeg still yarnbombs, for fun and profit! In 2010, she covered a bus in Mexico City, and is working now on covering the air conditioning ducts at Etsy headquarters.

Since 2005, yarnbombing has caught on all over the world. You can see bursts of knitted color in almost any major city, and there's even an International Yarnbombing Day!

Have you gus spotted an awesome yarnbomb near you? I'd love to hear about it or see a photo!

Joel Henriques of Made by Joel shows us how to make these little seafaring vessels out of walnut shells, toothpicks, a small piece of paper and a little candle wax.  These are perfect for the calm waters of the bathtub or even the raging rivers that form along the street and in the yard during a heavy rain (and you wont feel that bad if one ends up in a storm drain).

If you want to make your diminutive dinghies even more natural, try replacing the toothpick mast with a twig and the paper sail with a leaf!

Checkout the instructions over at Made by Joel.

Natural Home reports that "board game purchases were up 23 percent in 2000, and since then world events and tumultuous economic times have boosted their popularity." Families that are striving to return to a simpler, more sustainable lifestyle are drawn to the imaginative play that board games encourage, as well as the opportunity to engage each other in an activity that promotes eye contact instead of staring at a screen.

You might also be surprised to learn that several of the most beloved games are already being made in an eco-friendly fashion, no greenwashing required.

Many of the Chinese Checkers sets that you might find in a thrift store or discount store are still made from recycled paperboard with recycled glass marbles, just like they were in the 1930's. And did you know that U.S. Playing Cards, the world’s largest manufacturer of playing cards, uses certified sustainably harvested wood, Georgia clay, corn syrup, and cornstarch to make the classic Bicycle deck that has been a best-seller for 100 years? It's true.  And the company even recycles all of its scrap!

If you like the idea of trying out lesser known board games, there are plenty of exotic options available from fair-trade retailers like Ten Thousand Villages and Novica.com, which both sell beautiful wooden board games complete with stone, wood, and clay playing pieces that have been handcrafted. A portion of the sale of these games is reinvested in the artisans and their communities.

MindWare offers a four-person version of mancala, a well-loved African game, as well as several other board games, made from sustainably grown rubberwood with glass “pebbles.” Rose and Pentagram Design uses industry scrap and thrift shop finds to produce one-of-a-kind game sets and tables embellished with elaborate Celtic art (Natural Home).

For the very motivated (or creative!), there's no reason why you can't also make your own board games from materials found around the house. Cardboard boxes, paper squares, pebbles, golf tees, egg cartons and beans can all be used to craft custom versions of popular games like checkers and chess.

Happy Gaming!

(Image credit: Flickr Creative Commons - viZZZual.com)

Ok, I know it's Monday now but I haven't gone to bed yet so it still feels like Sunday.  Enjoy!

via The Atlantic Journal-Constitution

So? What if it's a big hoax?  What are the catastrophic consequences of taking action to curb carbon emissions that we are going to regret?

Energy Independence, renewable energy sources, preserving the rainforests, sustainability, creating new jobs, more livable cities, less pollution, clean water, clean air, healthy children...

I can't go on, it's just too terrible!

via The Fun Times Guide to Green Living via @TwilightEarth