Sunday, April 20, 2008

Recycle & Reuse

This morning my husband and I were talking about recycling. It is something we started doing about 2 yrs ago (paper, plastics, etc).

We realized that antiquing, junkie (yard sales),thrift stores, dumpster diving and hand-me-downs IS recycling. Our dining room is 100% recycled, living room 85%, bedrooms are about 50% and the kitchen is 15%.

We love antiques, things just are not made like they used to be.

It is something we have been doing all along.

Productive week.







Seems like I have been out of it for a while now (I finally think the cold and flu season is gone although Winter is still holding on).

This past week I have been rather creative.

I had a double baby shower (2 girlfriends both pregnant), I didn't really have money to go out and buy them things - so, I made them something (Buy Homemade, Right?!).
*side note, my mom always told me that things made by hand meant so much more then the usual commercialized stuff.
At first I was going to tie die some onesies (both are having girls, so I was going to do pink), But then again, the cost of things now days. Then it dawned on me that I can make plush bears (Duh?! I made 1 for my oldest and a penguin for my youngest).
I started going thru all my girlie fabrics (planned on doing a patch work stuffed bear). As I made the larger piece of material to then be cut into the shapes....it looked good, should have been a quilt. While I was sewing the pieces together to make the bear...it just wasn't right, all the excess material was getting in the way and the bears - yeah....I refuse to give things that I am not happy with.

I ended up going to Joann's anyway (still cheaper than actually buying something) and got 6 different girlie fabrics. Each fabric was a different piece on the bear. The end result was rather cute - as I was stitching the arms, nose and ears on; my oldest comes over and starts watching, then he starts telling me that I need to add a heart (I painted a heart on his and his brothers plush animals).

BTW - they loved the bears.

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I bought a cabinet thing from my neighbor last weekend. I was stoked about this piece and then when I was destroying the thing (to re-do) I realized that it was completely made out of plywood (not my favorite). I cut the back off it (sadly, I failed to get a BEFORE picture of the thing, but it had a triangle back). I basically, squared off the cabinet. I saw that there were several gaps from where the top touches the back - How would I fix this?
*the cabinet was made by my neighbors friend to use in her kitchen, she later sold it to my neighbor.
I cut and sanded, added filler wood where needed. I brought it in and just kept looking at the gaps....How would I fix this??? Then I thought, brown paper bags....Yep, I have some. I took a few bags and started ripping them and balling them up (for wrinkles) then pasted them to the top (looks so much better than it had - I want it to have the final appearance of aged leather).
It sat in my home for a few days with me pondering what to do to it to 'mask' the plywood look. As I walked by it one morning, my eye caught an art piece my mom did (I sent her a pic of a resent painting and she reproduced that on leather with glass beads ~ it's the size of a coin purse, I have it hanging up on my art station).
I kept seeing RED in my mind as I imagine the final product. 1 day I painted it out white (to hide the original color/design) and the next it was Bright RED. I thought really hard about painting it to look just like my painting, but then thought I would prefer something traditional. I went online and started looking. Basically, it has a Pennsylvania Dutch Hex art to it. The design I picked means: Good Luck.

It is painted out RED and I am still working on the design, there will also be a simple branch/leaf design on the sides. (will post about it when complete). Boy, will my neighbor be SHOKED when she sees it again.

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I bought a wood and iron chair at a yard sale for $5, I love this chair. We have had it for about 5 yrs and I am just now getting around to painting it. Nothing special, just painted to update it a bit. I wanted a bright color, but then I really could not commit to something so LOUD (like my RED cabinet above, that isn't loud at all!!! I guess Red is our accent color).
Anyway, I ended up buying a pale green color, it actually matches the kitchen color (I call it watergate salad green - pistachio pudding).


*you can see this chair in the above picture with the bears.

That has been my week ~ April 12-19, 2008