Reusablog

Geeky gifts (and some projects, too!)

Acorn Studios offers up bits and bobs made from recycled circuit boards, floppies, cds, keyboards, etc. Nifty little stocking stuffers!

And be sure to check out the project page. My favorite for whimsy is the Car Mirror Shelf, and for plain old simplicity and ingenuity, the Cassete Case Business Card Holder.

Fiendishly easy

Here's a little silly I threw together while gorging myself on all those fantastic fall premieres. It's easy enough that an older child could make one (with bigger "mosaic" pieces advisable), and it costs literally pennies.

Mine used:

The plastic bakery tray from my delicious birthday cake

Scraps of adhesive-backed foam sheets from other projects

A length of black ribbon, saved from a gift

Adhesive foam letters and ghosts (or whatever!)

Sharp scissors, a sturdy hole punch (for the hanging holes), and a bunch of time to cut and fit little scraps together

My photo probably makes it difficult to see, but the tray had perfect shallow "wells" to comfortably hold the mosaic and orange field, which is what gave me the idea!

Books for your books

Via Crafster, a thread on turning your old books into bookshelf for your new books. Tres cool!

complete with nest

My favorite Upper Peninsula Flickr-er posted this photo of a rusty, recycled, red-breasted robin. Charming!

Who'd have thought?

...that even an old crab trap could find a new, decorative life?

So eggciting.

I admit, I probably go through more than my fair share of Hapi cans. And, since they're such a nice size, and sport such a sturdy plastic lid, I hate to just toss them in the recycling bin.

And so, I wondered... how could I use them for the Easter holiday?

I think I've got it -- a much more permanent, capacious, and attractive take on the traditional plastic egg. Stay tuned...

Bikes reborn...

...as fun, funky furniture. Rumor on the street says it's all comfy and sturdy. All crafted in my favorite little city in the world, Marquette, Michigan.

There's even a prototype for a kid-sized seat. Neat.

Green Waste kudos

Everybody in town seems to love our new waste collectors. They make recycling so much easier, which of course only encourages it, and that's good enough for me.

Gross said the company can already tell recycling is increasing in Petaluma, which was one of the council's goals in choosing a garbage hauler.
"It's more than we projected, which is a good thing," he said. Some residents had saved recyclables from 2005 in anticipation of the expanded list of materials Green Waste would be recycling, he added.

Glass said the new system of putting all recyclables into one bin, instead of three separate crates, is proving popular in town.

"I hear a lot of folks talking positively about single-stream recycling," he said.

The bub likes them, too:

Build your own geodesic dome!

I love this -- build a weather-resistant dome shelter out of recycled cardboard triangles (and a bit of wood and rebar).

Vice to virtue

So I was in the pantry, clearing the blades of the shredder (clogged with the latest credit offering to which my own alma mater sold us out), when I saw one solution to the bag dilemma sitting right there on the shelves:

If you can't tell from my incredibly bad photo, it's the wrapping that comes around an eight-pack of paper towels. I hacked off the top, and now, though still a bit large, it will fit inside the shredder basket. It should be clear enough for the recyclers -- they just need to be able to see the contents.

So that's one reason to feel a tiny bit less badly about the paper towel addiction...

Monster Mache

I love messy crafts, and Papier Mache has always been a favourite, so I think I'll have to have a go at creating one of these birdhouses out of a juice carton.

The Papier Mache Resource has tons of tutorials, and some interesting articles, the on-going weatherproofing trial will be useful for my birdhouse.

The article about recycling features an elephant that was made to promote recycling by my local Council. I'd like to make one of them for my garden, but I think the birdhouse is a more practical size.

ReadyMade Blog

Because we all knew it was going to happen sometime... the ReadyMade Blog.

Phoning it in

The new garbagescout.com allows users to take cell photos of discards spotted on the street, and then email it to the site, where it's listed and Googlemapped.

Listings are only in NYC at the moment, but hopefully it'll spread to other urban areas. Another great way to keep stuff out of the landfills!

I'm partial to Bey

Graceful post-consumer chopstick table lamps. Nine different designs, at fairly reasonable prices.

Of course the little "I could do that" voice made an appearance as soon as the page loaded.

ETA: Here's the source: Kwytza Kraft. And they're right in Sacramento!

Pillow whimsy

Mother Mary Klein and daughter Shelly Klein craft these delicious embroidered pillows from only organic and recycled fabrics.