This Mother's Day, wow the lucky lady on your list with a personalized basket of her favorite goodies. Thanks to our friends at Pier 1 Imports, you can now build your own gift basket. Choose from an oh-so-tempting Spring selection of fragrant soaps, bath products, jewelry, chocolates, and lots more. Tuck in six to seven items, a bit of tissue paper, then tie with a super-colorful ribbon, and voilá! A one-of-a-kind gift created especially by you. Perfect for Mother’s Day. PS: Coming soon – Pier 1 Imports' exclusive new bath collection.

Thanks to Pier 1 Imports for sponsoring this post.

Unfortunately, just because you're holding your wedding ceremony in the great outdoors that doesn't mean your celebration is good for the planet. If you want some ideas for cutting down on the environmental impact of your big day, take a look at my tips.

For a Greener Wedding

• Who doesn't love flowers? You can keep your flowers eco by buying organic blooms or buying the flowers locally.
• When considering where to hold your wedding, think about where most of your guests are located. Midwest? East Coast? The Southwest? Then, consider holding your ceremony there. It will cut down on travel expenses as well as the environmental cost of planes, trains, and automobiles.
• You can now buy compostable cups, plates, and utensils for your shindig. This means that your guests' plates will end up enriching the soil instead of sitting in a landfill.
• If guests are traveling from a long distance, ask them to offset the carbon produced from their travel. It's cheap, quick, and easy. In lieu of wedding favors, which are often thrown away or forgotten, you could also offset your entire wedding guest list's carbon output. You could have a message telling them about the carbon offset "gift" printed up on wildflower seed cards that are left on each guest's plate. Make sure the guests take the cards home and plant them.

For the rest of my tips, just read more

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To kick off Earth Day here on Casa, I thought I'd show you a very cool way to bring a little green into a cramped-for-space home or garden. The ELT Easy Green Living Wall ($39 - $249) is a modular-living wall panel that you can buy pregrown or that you can plant on your own. Made of 100-percent recyclable plastic, it is environmentally friendly, not to mention aesthetically pleasing. A vertical garden of sorts, it's a great option for those lacking green space, but it also has a wonderful, modern visual quality that I've seen nowhere else. Each Living Wall looks unique, as its appearance all depends on which plants are used. There are numerous ways to use Living Walls; you can take a traditional route, using it as decor (like a planter), give it function, using it as a fence, or take a modern approach, livening up an exterior wall, as shown. What do you think? Would you buy one (or several)? I kind of want one . . .

If you happen to be in Kobe, Japan, make sure to ride the rails, since through May 6th, the train is decked out in Ikea seating and textiles. The Kobe Portliner Monorail has been decorated in Ikea gear to celebrate the launch of an Ikea store at Port Island.

I know that I get tired of the bland interiors of my train. Don't you think it would be refreshing and reinvigorating to ride in one of these?

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