Recycle, eh

Easter is on its way and I've got a few ideas for you that don't cost much and include recycling what you've already got on hand. Most of the ideas are child friendly too but your little ones can always use some help and should always be supervised while crafting away. 

Yes, the eggshells are real ones. I have a friend who raises chickens and has a bakery as well and she saves me all her shells. The eggshell wreath takes a bit of time to make but you can substitute paper mache eggshells. Here are my instructions to make the wreath.

The egg tree is easier and takes no time at all to make. I picked up a fallen tree branch while out on a walk and painted it with leftover poster paint (but you can leave it unpainted, too). I anchored the branch in a glass bowl filled with Easter candy and then hung up some painted and unpainted eggshells.

Here are a few more of my Easter craft projects. 

Christmas is just weeks away and I've been trolling the net to see what I can find to post in the way of unusual Advent calendars that are Christmassy but also environmentally friendly. I spotted these two similar ideas using clothespins and plain Jane brown paper wrap.

If you have any clothespins on hand, this Advent calendar would be quick and easy to make. Luckily, because I dry my clothes outside, I have a stash of clothespins I can use. The calendar should be very easy to put together but if you want instructions go to Silje Vaniljeis.  I like the idea that instead of using fancy Christmas gift wrap both use simple brown parcel wrap for each day of the calendar. So simple, economical and eco-friendly! The clothespins can be saved to reuse year after year!

I found the top photo here.

string. So sang Maria and who doesn't enjoy receiving a gift that's artfully wrapped in something as unexpected as plain old brown paper?

Here's a quick and easy last-minute Thanksgiving decorating idea.  You can get it all at your local market or grocery store and no skills required. If you wax the pumpkins with floor wax (not the liquid kind, the real wax kind) and, after Thanksgiving, store in a cool dark place, these should last until next year. So will the corn without waxing.

Have fun and don't eat the entire turkey in one sitting.

My Ottawa Citizen Thanksgiving decorating article is out today. Because I tend to reuse and repurpose things, I find it easy to make a table look decorative for any occasion. The clay pots are antique seedling pots that I've had for ages and reuse over and over again. If you don't have anything like this, you can always use those papier mache seedling pots or even the plastic ones. Tea cups or coffee mugs will do as well. Of course, I do add the gourds and leaves as I mentioned in my previous blog posting but once again, I will reuse these for Halloween (wait and see what I do).

All the ideas in the article are so simple that you could easily make any of them, no problem. That's idea # 3 above. A gourd idea (tee-hee, love a good pun!!).

The above shows you how to do idea #4. In the article, in the article, I mention the use of a glue gun as most folks use this tool. But I don't own one - I actually used bits of masking tape to hold the leaves in place on top of the masking tape edging. I did this as my table cloth is a lovely antique linen bed sheet I got in Brussels years ago and I didn't want to damage it in any way. So, once you've had your turkey dinner, just rip off the leaf edging. No mess, no fuss but somehow satisfying.

And here's another way to decorate your Thanksgiving table with leaves. Again, easy, peasy. If you're worried about using a real candle, substitute a battery-powered LED tea light instead. If you are using a real candle, pick one that has a lovely autumn scent.

I can't show you the completed projects for my Thanksgiving Day Decor Ottawa Citizen article (which will be on the newsstands this Saturday - buy a copy to see what I did) but I can show you what I worked with. If you start with only a few things you won't need to worry about dusting and keeping everything looking fresh. I tend to stick to table decor and reuse what I have on hand. 

The gourds and pumpkin came from a friend's garden in the Glebe. I promised her to make a tart once I'm finished with the pumpkin. But it and the gourds will have a second reappearance for Halloween before that happens.

I picked the leaves from her lawn but a lot of them had little white pupae on the back waving away in the breeze (yuck!!) so it took me quite a while to find perfect ones for another article project. And to be on the safe side, I even washed these with soap and water once I got home. Meanwhile my kitchen is taking on the appearance of a madhouse. My plastic milk jugs, white dishes, picture frames, and other stuff are all being roped in to create the perfect mad scientist's lab.

Until next time, my pretties................