I love Mr. Ellie Pooh!!!

First of all, let me just profess my undying love for elephants.  I positively adore them!  I think the love affair began in my childhood, when my mom read The Saggy Baggy Elephant to me. I loved him and I have loved all things elephant-related ever since.

I first encountered Ellie Pooh paper products at the St. Louis Zoo (The best free zoo in the states!  Holla!!).  I was enchanted by the cute little elephants adorning the stationary packaging and just had to buy one!  The paper is beautiful and sturdy, perfect for practicing the endangered art of the letter.  That's letter not email.

And who could resist contributing to such a wonderful cause?  This is a product that redefines the word recycle, while helping preserve my favorite animal ever, AND allowing people in Sri Lanka to earn fair trade wages!  Another cool thing about this organization - they do fundraisers!  What a fantastic alternative to selling candy or wrapping paper!!

Parents As Teachers... As Parents!

My BMF (best mom friend) Wendy is a very thrifty and creative mom.  It doesn't hurt that before she was a mom, she was a Parent Educator for the Parents as Teachers program in her district.  My daughter and I visited her this weekend and I just had to blog about the amazing and educational toys she has created for Baby E. 

Genius toy #1:  The Corn Syrup Kaleidoscope
Materials: one clean, empty, 20 oz soda bottle; one cup light corn syrup; food coloring (optional); sequins, beads, other visually interesting small plastic objects

Remove the label and any other markings from the soda bottle.  Mix a few drops of food coloring into the corn syrup, if desired.  Pour corn syrup into bottle and add sequins, beads, etc.  Spread a strong glue, such as hot glue, Super Glue®, or J.B. Weld© on the threads of the neck of the bottle and put the lid on.  Wipe away any glue that squeezes out and check the instructions on the package to find out how long the glue needs to set up before it's permanent.  This makes a very fun and interesting thing for baby to play with, especially when rolled across the floor!

Genius toy #2:  The Zipper Bag Social Story Book
Materials: photos from a recent event, clear zipper food storage bags, hole punch, ribbons, duct tape, sticky labels
Wendy used photos of herself and Baby E on a trip to the St. Louis Zoo in this project.  She chose photos of single animals and placed two in each zipper bag - back to back, so you can see both photos.  She placed a sticky label on each page and wrote the name of the animal on it.  The duct tape was used to seal the tops of the bags, to protect the photos.  Each zipper bag got three holes punched in it on one side, to bind it like a book.  She cut ribbons and tied the zipper bag pages together.  I love this book!!! 

Pictured here is Baby E's absolute favorite; Genius toy #3: the garlic bread bag mat.  Materials:  garlic bread bag; plastic grocery bags; duct tape
You know those big bake-and-serve loaves of garlic bread you get at the grocery store?  They come in these wonderfully durable silver bags.   After a delicious dinner of spaghetti pie with garlic bread (Wendy is also a fabulous cook), she washed and dried the bread bag, then turned it inside out to make this super-easy toy.  She cut the bag to the desired length, and then stuffed it with a few of the plastic shopping bags we all seem to accumulate, and sealed it up with the ever popular Duct Tape.  Baby E loves the crinkling sound it makes, as well as the shiny visual texture of the bag.  In the picture, my little aspiring babysitter was throwing it up in the air and then catching it, keeping him entertained while the mommies had supper. 

Wendy has so many great ideas like these!  I'm looking forward to many more Wendy-riffic idea posts in my blogging future.   :-)

Awesome Play Makeup!!

This idea came from Emily at Not So Idle Hands.  She cleaned out used makeup containers and added fingernail polish to create beautiful, fun play make-up for her daughters.  I thought these were so cool and just had to try it out, myself! (the pic on the right is from Not So Idle Hands; the pics below are mine)

I dug through my make-up basket last night, in search of partially used and no longer useful items.  I found three eye shadow containers and one lip gloss case with a nice big mirror.  I cleaned them all out, let them dry, then dug through my nail polish basket (yes, baskets are how I organize) to find just the right colors.  I chose the cheaper polishes and those that were almost empty and got to work.

Just like in Emily's tutorial, I made sure to pour the polish slowly into each little tub.  My hands aren't as steady as hers, but I think I'll get it right with a little practice.  For now, my six year old (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABY BEAR!) can play make believe princess without making a big, powdery, sparkly mess.

Find It! Game

I was inspired last week by a game I found online called Find It.  It's basically a clear plastic tube filled with tiny colored pellets and tiny objects to find.  It's a totally self-contained game, which I thought would be perfect for the car. 

I decided to make my own version, of course, and here's how I did it:

I washed an empty sports drink bottle (because it has a wider neck than the individual soda pop bottles do) and let it dry COMPLETELY.  I then removed the label, using GooGone® to remove the glue.  I removed the date stamp from the bottle using non-acetone nail polish remover.

I searched the junk drawer in my kitchen, my desk drawers, the bottom of my daughter's toy drawer, and various other nooks and crannies for items small enough to fit through the neck of the bottle.  I ended up with 20 items - a button, pencil sharpener, feather, chain, toy ladder, paperclip, diaper pin, clothespin, jack, magnet, rock, thumb tack, coin, tag, candle, hook, bolt, chalk, toy gremlin, and an old key.

I put the items into the bottle, then filled it to an inch below the top with salt.  That's right - plain, old, inexpensive table salt.  I then superglued the lid onto the bottle and voila!  A new and mess-free travel game!

This was just a prototype, of course, but my daughter got quite a kick out of it.  We played several times yesterday, with me timing her and counting the items she called out.  Next time, I'd like to use more items.  I think that, for older children or adults, I would color the salt with tempera powder or use a colored material like sand.  For my kindergartener, however, the plain white salt worked perfectly.  Have fun making your own and happy playing!!

Kid-friendly Upcycling

My five (almost six!) year old daughter absolutely loves upcycling!  She's always been big on promoting the three R's - reduce, reuse, recycle - but she has only recently become aware of what she can personally do to minimize waste in our household.  Most recently, we were inspired by the TerraCycle website to try upcycling food packages in new and unusual ways.  Pictured here is my first attempt at creating something useful out of juice pouches and I think it's the beginning of a beautiful friendship. 

I've learned a few things from this first experience, so please allow me to share my new wisdom:

• Juice pouches are slippery.  Use double-sided tape to temporarily hold the pieces together while you sew.  Straight pins just don't cut it.
• Use some GooGone® or other oil based cleaner to remove the glue that held the straws on BEFORE you sew it together, then wash each one with dish soap and water and let them dry.
• Because the material you're using is so slippery, it's difficult to get an even stitch.  It sometimes moves too quickly and sometimes too slowly through the sewing machine.  I'm thinking that practice is the best way to solve that problem.

Obviously I'm not an expert on juice pouch bags yet, but I'm encouraged by the results of this first TerraCycle imitation.  I am definitely going to try my hand at some of those cookie wrapper pencil cases and chip bag binders!

A Very Green Christmas!

Yes, I know - it is shockingly early to see Christmas decorations in the department stores.  If you're a compulsive crafter like me, however, you know how important it is to start planning and working on gifts ahead of time.  I get so excited thinking up ways to upcycle things to give as gifts!  I'm your typical "jack of all trades," so the gifts I give vary, depending on which hobbies I'm immersed in at any particular time.

The year I learned to knit, all of my friends and family members got scarves for Christmas.  I have recently learned a wonderful green knitting trick, too, and I can't wait to put it into practice!  Instead of buying new yarn, unravel an old sweater to make it into something new and useful, using your knitting or crocheting skills.  Here is a great tutorial on unraveling a sweater.  Can't crochet or knit?  Last year I made a pair of cute little mittens for a friend, by cutting the pieces out of a pretty thrift-store sweater and sewing them together.  Instructables has great directions for this project.  You don't have to be limited to mittens, either.  Make a sweater bag, a sweater blanket, hat, or whatever strikes your fancy.

I have a girlfriend who I knew admired the mirrored dressers we had seen in a furniture store once.  For her birthday one year, I made her something similar using an old nightstand (another thrift-store find) and six mirror tiles left over from another project.  After painting the piece white, I used Liquid Nails® to glue two mirrors to each side of the nightstand, then broke up the remaining two mirrors and glued them on to the top and the drawer fronts, mosaic style.  I gently sanded the sharp edges of the glass pieces, then filled in the gaps with pre-mixed white grout.  The only things I purchased new for this project were the grout and the glue. 

I was digging through my fabric pieces last week and discovered an unfinished quilt that I had started several years ago.  It was my first attempt at quilting, and it was made of - what else? - repurposed materials.  I remember thinking how soft my daughter's old receiving blankets were and wondering how best to use them, now that she's a big girl, then it hit me - upcycle-quilting!  That first attempt wasn't so beautiful and I have a couple of new babies in the family this year, so this week I began my second upcycle-quilting adventure.  I do not have the time or the attention span to hand-stitch anything, so I did the whole thing on my beloved sewing machine.  The top is nine squares cut from old flannel receiving blankets, the "batting" is actually an old blanket, and the back is cut from a pretty, but worn, second-hand bedsheet.  I initially intended to create a checkerboard pattern with the quilting, but I really like this kind of crazy, random look that I ended up with.  It is nearly finished, but I ran out of green thread and then got distracted with other sewing projects, so you can see in the photo that it still needs some quilting.

Giving upcycled gifts is a great way to minimize waste, but giving something intangible is, in some ways, even better.  Sometimes a simple helping hand is the best gift a person can receive, AND it doesn't add to their clutter!  As I've said before, I simply cannot bear the thought of paying someone $30-$50 to do simple car maintenance, such as oil changes.  For this reason, I learned how to perform maintenance and many repairs on my own vehicle.  I have found that to be a very useful skill and, in the interest of reducing clutter, will be giving oil change gift certificates to Lana's Garage as Christmas gifts this year.  You can do the same.  Use your computer to print gift certificates for babysitting, lawn care, dinner preparation, house cleaning, musical entertainment, party planning, costume making, or whatever you're good at.  Download gift certificate templates from here to get started.

I've started a list of people to give gifts to and what I want to make for them, which really helps keep my projects on track.  In the next couple of months I'll be making some more quilts like the one pictured above, mixing up some of my favorite beauty products to put in pretty jars, exploring my rudimentary jewelry-making skills, and making several trips to Home Depot® for building supplies.

If you have questions about any of my projects or have green gift-giving ideas of your own, please share them in the comments section.  I'd love to hear from you!

If necessity is the mother of invention, it's the grandmother of improvization.

There comes a time in every woman's life when she has to admit to herself, "I need a new garage door." 

While I have come to the conclusion that replacing the door would be the most attractive option, it is not currently within my budget to do so.  So, when the pains in my back let me know that I could no longer crab-walk under the half-open the door, I knew I needed to find a creative solution.

As you can see in the photo, the wheels of the door are covered in rust.  I wasn't sure if that was the problem or not, but thought I should try to address that first.  Of course, there is no WD40 to be found when you really need it, so I went searching for something else to lube the wheels. 

Being the frugal do-it-yourselfer that I am, I cannot bring myself to pay to have the oil changed in my car.    I generally store the used oil in the bottles that the new oil came in, which is what I came upon while crouching on my knees, peering into the garage.  I poured the used oil into an empty spray bottle, screwed on the sprayer, and went to work.  After just a few squirts on each wheel, the door worked like new!  (It doesn't LOOK like new, but it does WORK like new :-)

Resourcefulness: one; rust: zero.