Monthly Archives: April 2012

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Super Mario Bros. the Cast

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I had a small outpatient surgery last week to correct my DeQuervian Tenosynovitis.  When I woke up from surgery, I found a big cast on my arm.  It was unexpected but during the last week it’s turned into my favorite accessory.  I’ve had it hot pink, black, red, yellow, white with a “POW!” and now, my coup de grace, it’s Mario Brothers World 1-1.

The cast started out white and I covered it with Coflex which comes in a bunch of colors, I chose light blue and grass green.

Then I made the decals- tunnels, bricks, clouds, man eating tunnel flower- out of white fabric medical tape and started arranging them on my cast.

And now I have a cast that any 80’s baby could be proud of.

Save the Princess!!
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Why don’t you make me?: Three-Tiered Terra Cotta Planter

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With limited space in my small city yard every inch counts so each Spring I am faced with a decision: do I want pretty flowers or a functioning vegetable garden?  I envision myself having friends over for dinner and quickly running outside with my schears to an adorable, and lovingly attended to, little vegetable garden- I’d grab fresh herbs for the potatoes, pluck some peppers and lettuce for the salad and maybe bring in some grape tomatoes for my friends to snack on before dinner.  They just love that.  Then, after dinner we’d all get in my spaceship and go visit Unitron, the home of the last living unicorn.  In other words, it’s not going to happen.

What did happen however is this- a triple-decker half veggie/half flower tower of compromise.  I’m taking baby steps to becoming the world’s best hostess by growing only the greens to my future salads and I still have room for flowers! 

Here’s how I did it:

First, I invited Liz over who did everything.  (This was an important step because Liz is wicked good at this stuff and because I have a cast on my right arm up to my elbow right now.) 

Next, we took pots from the pot graveyard on the side of my house and selected 3 in decending sizes.  (These don’t have to match perfectly, as you can see.)

Pick a sunny spot in your garden to place the biggest pot- we nestled ours right into this Vinca Minor- and fill with soil until just below the top.

Add a small dowel or bamboo rod into the largest pot and thread themiddle pot onto it burying the pot about an inch into the soil of the largest pot.

Then trim the dowel until about 3-4″ is showing to be inserted into the smallest pot.

Now have Liz thread the smallest pot right over the dowel and press into the dirt on the lower level burying it slightly.  Great job Liz!

And finally, you are ready to plant your Garden of Compromise.  Liz and I decided on some green lettuce, purple lettuce, white & purple flowers, 2 small cascading plants and topped the whole thing off with a ponytail fern.

Now we truly can have our garden…and eat it too.

Thanks Liz!! ❤ ❤ ❤

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HAPPY EARTH DAY!!

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Today is Earth Day!!!

Find an Earth Day celebration near you!

Today is the final how-to on my 10 ways in 10 days challenge.  Thanks for following me along and I hope some of these ideas stick with you or you were reminded of an earth friendly activity you’ve grown away from.

Today’s project: Make a plant waterer, keep a bottle out of a landfill, feel good about it!  Those are the directions and the description!

Have a Wonderful Day!!!
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Day 2: Craft Day!

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It’s Saturday, aka craft day!  I decided to try my hand at the trash-to-trasure example from yesterday:


the recycled bottle cell phone charging station.

 For this project you’ll need the following supplies:

  • a bottle destined for the recycle bin
  • 1/4 yard of scrap fabric
  • mod podge
  • X-acto knife
  • sandpaper
  • outlet cover
  • sharpie
  • paintbrush
To create this charging station, cut your plastic bottle in half, you’re creating a small cup.
Cover this cup with your scrap fabric using your paintbrush and mod podge.  
On the back of the cup, add a long piece of fabric to attach to he outlet cover. (seen below)

 While that dries, cover the outlet cover with the same fabric.  Follow my tutorial here.

Once both pieces are dry, cut the fabric extension into 3 pieces and cut out the middle piece- you’ll be left with 2 strips on either side to adhere to the outlet cover.

Place the cover face down on a surface that is level with the cup and mod podge the pieces together, below.



Allow to dry, plug in your phone and you’re done!

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Day 2: Recycled Crafts for Kids

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Teaching kids at a young age what it means to reduce-reuse-and-recycle is always something taught in school but to really drive the point home, it’s important to incorporate those things into real life.  Here are a couple of great crafts to do with kids to show them ways to recycle bottles into something fun and  useful.  

Ages 9+: Ashley over at Make-It-&-Love-It made this awesome cell phone caddy out of a lotion bottle.  This craft would be great for older kids, especially those just getting their first cell phones or iPods.

Ages 5+: This awesome bowling set made by CreativeDish would be perfect for kids old enough to wield a glue gun and is a great way to keep 10 bottles out of a landfill!

Ages2+: And finally, check out this “lava lamp” made by Rainbows & Unicorns (great name by the way!) made with a plastic bottle, oil, water, food coloring and complete with sea creatures!  This is a wonderful project for little ones- also consider throwing in some glitter or sequins!

Happy Friday!!!

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Day 3: Plastic Bottles in the Garden

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It’s 3 days ’til Earth Day and 30-days into Spring so today on the 10WAYS/10DAYS countdown I’m taking it to the garden with 5 easy ways to repurpose plastic water bottles in your garden.

You can use plastic soda bottles to create a hanging garden like Recyclart did.








Or use bottles as a cloche to protect young seedlings from weather and help them grow.

Another style of cloche from House and Gardening Addicts.



I love these clever self watering pots by Desperate Gardner.

http://www.desperategardener.com/2011/03/creative-containers.html

And finally, the automatic plant waterer by Practically Living.

I hope these ideas motivate you to reuse some things you already have…I’m off to dig in my recycle bin for inspiration right now!  

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Day 4: Reusable Bags: Not Just for the Grocery Store

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By now, pretty much every body I know has caught on to using re-usable grocery bags as part of a daily routine.  They all have a small cache of them to bring to the grocery store or to a weekend farmers market.  What’s not common practice however, is to use them when they’re out shopping at clothing stores, junk shops, the beer store, etc.

Re-usable bags can and should be used in place of plastic bags whenever possible.  Today’s easy way to save the planet is to try to make it your practice to carry a small reusable bag with you wherever you go for those impulse buys you weren’t expecting like a quick stop at the drugstore or when you just can’t resist a sale at Forever21.  
You can buy small EcoBags for just this purpose.

To help understand why it’s so important for all of us to lessen our dependance on plastic Inspiration Green laid out these statistics for us:
Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide.
That’s over one million plastic bags used per minute.
planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/plastic-bag-facts.html

Every year, Americans reportedly throw away 100 billion plastic grocery bags.

www.worldwatch.org/node/5565

The average American family takes home almost 1,500 plastic shopping bags a year…
NRDC www.nrdc.org/media/2008/080109.asp

Americans use and dispose of 100 billion plastic shopping bags each year
and at least 12 million barrels of oil are used per year in the
manufacture of those plastic grocery bags.
The Wall Street Journal

Less than 5 percent of plastic grocery bags are recycled in the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency.

Plastic bags can take up to 1,000 years to break down,
so even when an animal dies and decays after ingesting a bag, the plastic re-enters the environment, posing a continuing threat to wildlife.

There is now six times more plastic debris in parts of the North Pacific Ocean
than zooplankton.
And for those times when you simply cannot use a re-usable bag, please please please recycle it or repurpose it. 
To find a recycling center near you go here.
(Did you know you can recycle the plastic that toilet paper comes wrapped in?!  Me either!!)
Or!
Weave them into a rug like Homestead Weaver or make a rainjacket like PenFelt on Etsy.

JUST SAY NO!  to plastic bags.
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Day 5: Buy Vintage, Save the World

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                                              Photo property of Poor Little Rich Girl

On Day 5 of “10 Easy Ways to Save the World Without Growing Out Your Armpit Hair” we are going to celebrate the world-saving power of simply buying vintage.


There are plenty of reasons to buy gently used or vintage clothing and furniture: it’s unique, has a history and it can be an investment.  It’s also recycling!   Buying clothes and furniture from a local second-hand shop or antique store  is beneficial to you and your community by:


                                 Found on Craigslist this morning for $50.

Keeping clothing and furniture out of landfills
Everything you buy second-hand gets another life and thereby skips it’s fate in the landfill.


Saving on gas consumption and air pollution
By not having your new dresser delivered to you in a big, gas-guzzling delivery truck from a warehouse in the middle of nowhere, you’re saving precious natural resources and keeping exhaust out of the air.  Good job!


Buying local helps the local economy
Money spent locally stays local.  It’s the easiest way to boost your own town’s economy.  In an article in  Time magazine on the topic they said that “Money is like blood. It needs to keep moving around to keep the economy going, when money is spent elsewhere—at big supermarkets, non-locally owned utilities and other services such as on-line retailers—it flows out, like a wound.”  


Keeping Pesticides out of the Soil
The average conventional cotton t-shirt takes 150 grams of pesticides to produce.  According to one study, America throws away two quadrillion pounds of used clothing each year.  Wow.  Getting the most out of vintage clothing will eventually slow the demand for these new items and keep some dangerous pesticides out of our soil and our water table. 


Some of my favorite local places to find vintage treasures are
Craigslist, 
Freecycle, 
the Cambridge Antique Market, 
Poor Little Rich Girl, 
The Garment District, 
The Collector on Highland Ave. (brand new!), 
Goodwill 
and rest in peace, Savers.  

Go shopping and save the world!

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Day 6: Meatless Monday

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According to MeatlessMonday.com:
 
“Ghent, Belgium became the first city to go meatless in May, 2009 and Paul McCartney introduced Meat-Free Mondays to the UK soon after. Since then, Meatless Monday has rapidly expanded into an international movement! The campaign’s simple message allows each nation to bring its unique culture, customs and cuisine to the table. Join the movement. It’s good for your nation’s health, good for the planet!”

And here are 6 reasons why you should join in and go 

Meatless on Mondays:
  • LIMIT CANCER RISK
  • REDUCE HEART DISEASE
  • FIGHT DIABETES
  • CURB OBESITY
  • IMPROVE YOUR DIET
  • REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT
Not to mention that there are a millieu of delicious vegetarian dishes out there to try, like this one that Liz made for me last week that was so so so delicious I can’t even stand it:
For more recipes, information and to pledge to go Meatless on Mondays, go to MeatlessMonday.com now!