butterfly wings

grandmas are green. have you ever noticed that? i cherish every moment i get to spend with my grannies when i visit north carolina, and i love to take note of all their little eccentricities. my favorite of all is that they are green, and i’m not even sure that they know it.

- they garden. season after season they garden and garden.

- they make things from scratch. homemade pie crust, pasta sauce and biscuits.

- they compost. even if they don’t need to use it in their gardens, they still compost.

- they eat leftovers. nope, you won’t see them throw any food away!

- they can. if you don’t can your seasonal veggies, then what are you supposed to eat in january?

- they save. they carefully preserve the wrapping paper at Christmas and re-use their plastic straws time and time again.

- they reuse. all the things they save? the reuse them. old tool boxes become planters, cereal boxes become gift boxes.

- they recycle. after it’s been reused, it gets recycled.

- they take good care of things. my grandma still uses her electric mixer from the 50′s and all her dishes, too!

- they save energy. they hang clothes to dry, read instead of watch tv and use the beauty of the natural daylight.

the only thing i can think of that uses very much energy is how much they love to heat their homes- and i think they deserve that.

is your grandma green? i think we can all learn a little something from the good ‘ol days.

wrap up: {grandma} {green} {recycle} {reduce} {reuse} {simple living}

If you’re looking for ways to upcycle or use materials you already have at home this holiday season, there are endless possibilities for gift ideas. Clothespins are versatile, and you may already have them around your home. Here are three sweet and simple gift ideas using clothespins – perfect for stocking stuffers or Secret Santa at the office.

Make Photo Gallery Clip Kit

example by SmoothPebble via sfgirlbybay

Wall photo galleries with wire and metal clips are quite popular, but you can make your own with clothespins and twine. Packaged neatly in a small drawstring bag, this gift is both useful and resourceful (see top photo).

Cut your twine to the length you would like – mine is about 1 yard. Tie the ends in a loop for hanging, and knot them tightly.

Air Plant Planter

This project is quite simple – all you need is an air plant, a plastic container, and clothespins. I suggest using a short container, such as a yogurt cup or any plastic container about two inches tall. This is a wonderful opportunity to reuse plastic. If you don’t have one short enough, you can always cut one down.

Pin the clothespins to the edges of the cup, all the way around. Place the air plant in the center of the pins. That’s it!

Decorative clothespins

Clothespins can also be used as desktop organizers, and are useful on calendars and cork boards. Use calligraphy to label clips for days of the week, tasks, and names.

Or, you could cover the clips with adhesive fabric, felt, or decoupaged paper. Hot glue flat thumbtacks to the backs of the clothespins to be used on cork boards as organizers. The possibilities are endless!

Out to find ways to make life simpler, Ashley is tackling life one DIY project at a time. Learning as she goes, she also spends her days writing Indie Pretty Projects and creating for her Etsy shop.

wrap up: {clothes pins} {crafts} {diy} {eco friendly} {holiday} {ideas} {recycle} {reuse}

isn’t this beautiful?  you won’t believe what it’s made of- old t-shirts! the fab tricia at oh so crafty cut up one of her old t-shirts for the ruffles and used one of her husband’s old dress shirts for the front and back of the pillow.  the pillow closes in the back by buttoning and unbuttoning the dress shirt!  you can find step by step instructions on oh so crafty and be snuggled up with this fancy t-shirt pillow in no time.

wrap up: {craft} {diy} {pillow} {project} {recycle} {reuse} {t-shirt} {upcycle}

hi dearies! look at what i made this weekend!  a quick and easy magazine wreath that was so fun to make. you could use lots of different materials to give it a different look too- old sheet music, pages from a vintage book, even pictures!  i tried to put the seemingly endless supply of holiday catalogs to use- here’s how:

supplies:

-a few magazines (or other material of your choice)

-a stapler

-glue gun

-cardboard

i cut the cardboard out by tracing a big round baking pan then a smaller plate inside- then used an exacto knife to cut the wreath out.

while letting the glue gun warm up- you can start ripping out the pages that you want to use.  i tried using the brightly colored ones, and then some white ones to calm it down a bit.

rolling them in half, i stapled about 5 together at a time.  if you can see, i then bent back the ends to give some sort of a surface to apply the glue to.  after you have your bundles of five or so pages, start gluing them around the wreath. just be mindful of maintaining your ‘inner circle’ and i don’t think there’s any way you could go wrong- it’s as easy as that!

wrap up: {christmas} {craft} {decor} {diy} {holiday} {magazine} {magazine wreath} {project} {recycle} {wreath}