Recycle, eh!

Since my rant about my bamboo socks, I received a challenge from the folks at Bamboosa to test out a pair of their bamboo socks. According to Mo who sent me the comment, not all bamboo socks are created equal. Check out their website as it gives a lot of information regarding the cultivation and uses of bamboo. Lots of good looking items as well. I'll let you know the results of my test.

Well, I decided to buy a few pairs of spanking new bamboo socks and what a disappointment. Costing twice as much as my 100% cotton socks (which are getting harder to find), these don't last a month before popping a hole. Ah well, all is not lost, they'll go into my neighbour's compost and get broken down for the garden. Don't waste your money. Did you know that you can compost anything if it's pure wool? My mom used to do that when our woolens were no longer possible to recycle.

Here are a couple of more ways to recycle what you've got at home into clever Valentines for your sweethearts. If your Valentine loves gardening or is a great cook or even both, create a tiny lawn or herb garden for them by filling the bottom half of a tin or plastic heart-shaped candy box with potting soil and then sprinkling herb seeds on top. Cover seeds with a layer of soil and water. Place in a sunny window and wait for the seeds to sprout. Use catnip if you want a fast crop. Otherwise, herbs seeds will sprout in about a week to 10 days. Of course, you can always fake it with faux grass!

By the way, if you don't have a heart-shaped box, reuse whatever plastic or tin biscuit box you have.

If your Valentine has a sweet tooth, you can recycle empty glass or clear plastic jars by filling each and alternating layers of  two or more of your sweetie’s favourite candy or chocolates. Tie with a ribbon and you’re done. Recycle whatever small jars you have on hand - if kids are making these up, use clear plastic jars like mayonaise jars. Be sure to clean the jars thoroughly before filling them up.

Both of these Valentine projects are kid friendly crafts and can be made at home or in the classroom. You can also fill them with just one type of sweet treat . 

I spotted this Valentine's Day idea for recycling a cardboard candy box into a pretty photo frame at the Kodak project website when I was looking for Valentine ideas and couldn't resist making my own version. Since I don't have a lot of patience with long instructions, I modified it to just a few simple steps.

All I did was take a tin heart-shaped chocolate box (the same kind I use for my clocks), cut out a favourite photo (a copy, not the original) to fit inside the bottom of the box and attached the lid to the back of the bottom but upside down (see photo). This makes the frame stand up. I used double-sided tape to hold the whole thing together. Easy, no??

You can use tin, plastic, or cardboard candy boxes for this project. A velvet covered cardboard one would be lovely. I also spotted some Valentine candy boxes covered in faux leather to resemble a football or soccer ball. Nice for the man in your life (and you can eat the chocolates if you like before you make the frame - shhhhh - no one needs to know that!).

I've blogged before on how you can create envelopes and cards by recycling magazines and junk mail. Well, you can do the same with old calendars. Because the quality of the calendar pages is usually heavier, they're excellent for envelopes.  It's not hard. You can also make gift bags,  paper beads, book marks or use them as gift wrap for small gifts. If the pictures are really nice, why not frame a few?

Decoupage is another way to go. You can decoupage boxes, trays, flower pots; heck, I've even covered a chest of drawers in old calendar pages.

Since selling my lovely vintage preserve canning jars, I started to think about how long these have lasted (mine were from the 1920s, 30s, and 40s and had a lot of use) and how many different ways I’ve used them over the years. No – I didn’t do a lot of preserving except for fruit jellies and jams which are easy to do. But these jars followed me from home to home and I always found a new use for them. Besides storing food supplies such as beans, rice, flour, and sugar in the kitchen, I also filled some with pencils, crayons, felt pens, buttons, elastic bands, and sewing whatnots in my studio. And they were great for my homemade soap bars and bath salts in the bathroom.

I also used some of them to hold votive candles when we ate al fresco on summer evenings. Some I sent away filled with dry cookie and soup ingredients to my daughter at university or to friends who needed a boost. And did I mention how great they are for sprouting seeds? If I still had them, I would probable use them as pieces of sculpture, leaving them empty in rows at the top of my bookshelves. But now most of them are gone – I sold them to a lovely guy who is rebuilding a farmhouse and will be using the jars in much the same way I did. It’s nice to know that these will continue to be used.

Of course, any type of glass jar or bottle can be recycled, vintage or not. All you need are the jars and I’m sure you can come up with dozens of new ways to recycle that jar. And did you know that by recycling a single glass jar or bottle, you can save enough energy to light a 100 watt light bulb for as much as 4 hours. So you’re also helping the environment. Cheers!

This year I'm upcycling my cache of Valentine tins and boxes by transforming each one into a Valentine clock for friends and family. These heart-shaped chocolate boxes are too pretty to discard, so why not?.

Making a clock is easy if you use those quartz clock kits but I prefer to recycle old  parts from old clocks that I have or that I've found here and there. It's pretty simple to remove all the bits and pieces and put them back together again in a new way.

To present the clock in a pretty way, I also recycled paper shopping bags that I hoard by covering the store label with a photocopied print with a suitable text. It's a great way to gift something special without the cost of a store-bought bag (I even used recycled tissue paper!).

What sweetie could refuse this gift?

I'm in the process of moving and found myself with tons (well, not quite) of unwanted possessions that I needed to unload. Because it's winter and a garage sale is impossible, the best way for me was to sell stuff online. It's easy, and best of all it's free.

It can be hard to let go of things because a lot of household items hold memories of another time in my life. Since most of my stuff is second-hand, each one has a unique story about how I acquired. Like my Louis XV style day bed that I bought at auction in Montreal. Solid cast iron, it took two friends to lug it up to my third floor studio where it sat in front of the bay window where I could lounge and work on my Mac.

I also had a lot of what I call 'orphans', stuff I found on the street or bought at garage sales. A lot of it bashed, scratched and basically in need of some love. But all had the potential at a second life. A fireplace grate that was a street find became an impromptu fireplace when I filled it with strings of flickering Christmas lights during the winter months and then in spring and summer I fill it with pots of flowers or herbs.

Every thing has the potential to become something else; that's why recycling is so great. Once you're done with something, someone else gets to reuse it and enjoy it. Give it a try..

Ciao!

Once the holidays are over comes the arduous task of packing up and storing your Christmas and holiday decorations, lights, wreaths, garlands, and trees. Reuse whatever boxes your decorations came in but if you don't have any or they are too grungy to reuse, take a look around the house for material you can use instead. Cardboard boxes with dividers (from the liquor store), egg cartons, and cardboard or tin coffee cans are only a few of the items you can bring into service. Plastic dry cleaning bags make good dust covers once you've organized your decorations and other Christmas items.

Every Christmas (actually any kind of celebration) comes with the inevitable unwanted or unneeded gift or present.  Getting rid of these without offending the person who gave you the gift requires a lot of skill and diplomacy. And you do have some options. Selling online on sites or through local consignment stores will give you a little cash to buy what you really wanted all along or just to save for something in the future.

Regifting is another option but you have to make sure that the new recipient is not a close friend of the original giver - it can get complicated. Donating unwanted gifts to charities is an excellent option. If it's games, DVDs, CDs, or books, consider taking these to a local hospice or respite centre. It will be greatly appreciated and you will be teaching your children a valuable life lesson.

Here a re a few local sites to visit if you do have unwanted presents:

Consignment:

hushresale.com

clothesencounters.ca

totalhomeconsignment.com

boomerangkids.ca 

thepurplecrayon.ca 

reruns-ottawa.com

threebagsfullkids.com

Swaps:

swoplot.com

swapace.com

swap-it-now.com

swaptree.com

trashbank.com

barterquest.com

money.howstuffworks.com/bartering.htm

u-exchange.com/home

barternetworkonline.com/xob2b07/Home3/Login.aspx

Selling

usedottawa.com

ottawa.Kijiji.ca

ottawa.craigslist.ca

BookScouter.com

ebay.ca

Donate or give away

Freecycle.org

Go to my Charities page for a list of charities to donate to.

Did I miss anything?

Happy New Year!