Resoluting

It’s that time again. It’s hard to believe that I started this blog a year ago. It never got to the point that I wanted that point where I would call it a success. That’s a bummer, I won’t lie, but I learned a ton. I’m not sure the future of this blog, but I think it’ll be what I first meant it to be and that was a upcycling DIY blog, but we’ll have to see. For now I’d like to say thank you to all the people who have been following me through the good and the bad, the positive and negative. And to my mom who read even the crummiest of posts and who made everything I’ve done possible.

And so it’s time for my favorite time of the year, New Years. The time that makes me feel a bit hopeful because it makes me feel like if I really try, I can make the change I’ve always wanted to. Last year I wanted to be able to run a 5k. That soooo did not happen. It’s pathetic, but I’ve got a new plan. And I did make it through the apocalypse, so that’s something.

This year I will make the following resolutions:

1. I will only have one Dr. Pepper. I need to explain this. I didn’t actually resolute to not drink soda, and it’s not like I drank it all the time, but maybe a couple a year or so, but I wanted to be healthier and stop supporting evil corporations and it just kind of happened. I may have had a few sips here and there, but it was so long ago and since I didn’t actually resolute, I don’t know for sure if I ever had one or not, but I’m pretty sure a full pop bottle was never in my hand. For the last few months, I’ve been craving my poison of choice like something terrible and it’s been EVERYWHERE. Every family occasion, every junk food machine (luckily, when my willpower just happened to slip, I never seemed to have any money), every party, everywhere I turn it’s been there just within my reach. I was so close and I had been so good for so long that I just couldn’t give up the willpower. So this week or maybe when school starts, whenever I get a chance that poison is mine, but then that’s it. For another year.
2. I’m not giving up on my dreams of being able to run a 5k. I’ve tried several programs and one of two things happens. A, there are too many people at the gym and just can’t get up the courage to look like such a loser. Or B, I start to run and then I realize how much of a loser I am because I can’t even make it to the certain point before I start gasping for air, so I just quit before I give too many people a change to notice. I don’t have enough patience with myself and I need to get over it or I’ll never be able to run a stupid 5k.
3. Ride my bike more. There are a few reasons why I don’t ride my bike everywhere. I won’t bore you with them, but I’m hoping to find some answers out there on this great World Wide Web.
4. Write down every good thing that happens on a piece of paper and put it in a jar. I’ve seen this idea floating around. It’s kind of cheesy, but kind of cool. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to keep up because every time I get a monthly, weekly, daily calendar I can’t even keep up with flipping the thing, but that’s what new year’s is about…trying new things. Then at the end of the year, you take out all of the notes and read them all.
5. I think…I’m going to keep a journal. I’ve never been able to keep up with it and I’ve never really wanted to, but I think way, way too much and instead of just keeping those thoughts locked up tight, I think it would be healthier to at least get them out somewhere. Plus, I think it will help me get out of deadening writer’s block rut.

I do hope you guys have a happy New Year and feel free to leave a comment about your resolutions.

Happy Holidays

Yesterday was Christmas. Yesterday it snowed. My family had a lovely day and last weekend we saw my mom’s side of the family, which was great. Since I’ve started this journey, I’ve gotten nothing but support from my family. I’ve learned so much over the past year about the environment and about appreciating my family. All of them, make me want to do better. Be more creative, to work harder to do things even though they’re less convenient and to just generally carry on even though I don’t think it makes much difference, which is the hardest thing for me to do.

This weekend was full of upcycling and crafting while keeping the environment in mind.

We made reindeer ornaments out of corks.

And bottle cap ornaments…out of bottle caps, which we had to cram seven people into a bottle cap size circle to go into the bottom bottle cap. We haven’t exactly finished that.

Everyone, even the guys, were totally on board with these crafts, which is interesting because when my aunt and I try to get them to do stuff at home it doesn’t work out quite as well. But there they were like Martin Stuarts!

I got a solder from my grandma and an awesome upcycling books book from my aunt.

My great aunt made me a lamp from a glass coke bottle that she found in the lake and popcorn bucket from the theater (I don’t think it was used).

And she made adorable bird feeders for my mom and aunt made from terracotta and old license plates.

My mom got me cruise control added to my car, which is a gift that keeps on giving and a ‘keep it green’ shirt  and more love than one could ever hope for.

I appreciate all the effort my family goes into caring about the things that I care about.

Magical Bikes

In case you’re not interested in the whole taking a week just to mod podge a crappy ol’ bike, but you still want to make the world a cleaner place and save some cash then I may know of something that will interest you.

A magic bike. A bike that not only doesn’t give off emissions, but actually removes them the air. A bike that you could throw away, guilt free and without taking up any space in the landfill. A bike made from…bamboo. That’s right. Bamboo.

http://www.5bbc.org/events/events2011.shtml

The organic bamboo is grown Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. All the other materials used are recycled and to bind the everything together Marty Odlin, founder of The Bamboo Bike Studio in New York City, hardens the fibers with flame treatment, glues the tubes together, and binds each joint, wrapping them in epoxy-soaked hemp that hardens.

Bamboo, which grow a meter a day in the better scenarios (something I’m pretty sure aluminum and steel don’t do), is known for its strength and flexibility and is said to be as strong as light steel. The bamboo absorbs the vibrations of the road and grows up to a meter a day.

The only catch is that one of the reasons to ride a bike that I talked about does not apply here. And that reason is that you don’t have get a loan to get a bike, but this bike cost $10,000. Or you could build your own for $699. I do have to appreciate the magical carbon absorbing aspect, but I think I may have to be satisfied with meager $80 reloved bicycle.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/655642–riding-a-bike-made-of-grass

If spending $10,000 for something that doesn’t even have air conditioning (although I must say sometimes, depending on how hot it is, the wind can make a lovely air conditioner) then maybe the cardboard bike may be more up your alley. Yes, a cardboard bike.

http://www.thefootdown.co.uk/2012/08/10/izhar-cardboard-bike-project-video/

And it has its own kind of magic. Three engineers told the creator Izhar Gafni that something like this couldn’t be done. And they definitely didn’t think it could carry around a 485 pound person. And the best thing is that it’s only $90.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/08/recycled-cycling-the-cardboard-bike/

Homemade Hair Products

I’ve been inspired to make some hair care changes lately and they seem to be paying off. Find more toiletry recipes here and hair products here.

There is this style called beach waves. I’ve always liked them, but I never knew how to get them. I brought this up to my hair dresser and she told me how I could do it. She recommended that I go find stuff called salt spray or texturizer spray at a beauty supply store. I didn’t find the salt spray and there weren’t a whole lot of texturizer sprays, so I just grabbed one to make sure I had an option. When I got home I looked up this salt spray because I was thinking that it shouldn’t be that hard to make and turns out it’s really not.

You need:

1 cup of warm water

2 Tablespoons of sea salt- you need sea salt and not table salt

1 Tablespoon of coconut oil- if you can find some virgin coconut oil, in other words it hasn’t been processed to death then it should have a nice coconutty smell.

Some recipes will recommend a tablespoon of hair gel for extra hold, but the reason I was making my own was so it would be chemical free. If I added the gel then it wouldn’t be. For me it works fine without it.

Put it in a spray bottle and spray under the top layer at the roots and all over. Take a towel and smash up from the ends. Blow dry on the low setting. Mine usually looks fine at this point, but sometimes I have a side that likes to be a little flat. If this is the same take an inch section of hair twist it and then use the flat iron. Do as many sections as you need and then carefully run your finger through the twists to loosen the wave.

My success with this inspired me to make my own shampoo. I had found a recipe that sounded interesting a couple of weeks before, but one of the ingredients was castile soap and no one sold it here, so I had to wait for it to come in the mail. Nothing kills inspiration and motivation like having to wait.

When I finally used the shampoo I thought that it worked really well, but there are a couple of things about it that I don’t really appreciate and some of my family members didn’t either. It gives my hair a kind of sticky, oily feeling, but that comes out if I use the rinse that is recommended and if I don’t then it’s not that noticeable with my beach wave hair that I usually do. Because I take a shower at night, if I don’t blow dry my hair then I have a bit of a greasy issue. Both those problems are easily fixable. I just noticed that it’s only supposed to be used once a week instead of everyday. Taking that into account I don’t think the smidge of extra consideration is that big of a deal.

Here’s the recipe:

3/4 cup distilled water

1 Tbsp peppermint

1 Tbsp lavender

1 Tbsp nettle- I didn’t have any of this, so it’s not in mine. It may make a difference.

1 Tbsp rosemary

Add the dried herbs to boiling water and make a tea. Once the tea has steeped and cooled, add the following ingredients.

1/4 liquid castile soap or vegetable glycerin

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp witch hazel (alcohol free, plain, or scented) or aloe vera

It lasts about a month and for once a week use.

I used lavender and rosemary from my mom’s garden and aloe vera from her aloe vera plant. It was pretty fun not to have to go to the store for everything.

For the rinse that is supposed to be used with and helps remove that somewhat sticky, greasy feeling add:

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

16 cups water

Use every week or two with the shampoo. Wash hair, add rinse, leave in and then rinse hair with cool water.

Last 6 months.

I got the shampoo and rinse from here. It also has several other hair products that didn’t really work for me, but feel free to try them out.

Want more ideas? Check out my DIY page.

Luffa Sponges DIY

Luffa pads/ Loopha sponges/whatever you call them can be found in just about every corner of the great Interweb, most of them fairly cheap. But I’m here to tell you that you can grow them yourself, for almost free. It’s pretty amazing actually.

There are a couple of things you should know about growing luffas. One, patience, which is needed for growing most things, is a must. It takes a while for the seeds to germinated, for the things to grow, but once they do they really, really do.

Two, it’s a vine. It needs a trellis.

Three, I’m no luffa growing expert, so I’ll leave the rest to someone else.

I do fancy myself somewhat of an expert in luffa harvesting and I have the amazingly soft hands to prove it.

You can tell when they’re ready to be picked because they have a yellowish color instead of green and the skin feels loose and soft. It took us a good few months before we got to this point and when we did they were pretty large.

Almost ready luffas.

Once your darlings are ready to be picked, carefully twist or cut it off the vine.

The next steps will only get messier. Seeds and sap will be flying, so do this outside or in the kitchen.

Step 1- take your luffa and bang it on the edge of the table. This will knock some of the seeds loose.

Step 2- at the opposite end from the vine there is a weak spot in the skin, dig your thumb into and pull that piece of skin off. This will make it easier to get the rest of the skin off. It’s very sappy.

Step 3- cut the luffa into sections. Depending on how long it is, you may be able to get two or three sections from it.

Step 4- Next you’ll shake the seeds from the luffa. You’ll probably want to do this into a bowl. This part is a bit time consuming at least. Again, banging it against something helps make the seeds come out.

Step 5- Take your seedless luffas and soak them in water for a couple of hours.

Next, take each luffa put a spot of soap on it and hand scrub the rest of the sap off. When you can squeeze the water from the luffa against the sink without any soapy type residue that usually means you got the sap off.

Once you’ve got that done, let the luffas dry out for a couple of days.

And that’s it. You got yourself some new luffas and some amazingly soft hands.

If you want some seeds, check out my mom’s etsy page.

And if you don’t want to do all the work but still want luffa sponges then you may check her page out because have the sponges for sale as well.

Want more ideas? Check out my DIY page.

Sun Made Record Bowl DIY

My plan was to have a pretty cool DIY for you today, but instead I have an idea, the do’s and don’t's and proof that this project does work even if I don’t have the cut and dry exact rules just yet.

A couple of months ago my mom was got some large spools for tables and chairs. These spools had some big holes in the middle and my mom didn’t want spiders or bugs to be able to crawl up through the hole, so she decided to cover the holes up. She got some records, covered up the holes of the record with broken pieces of other records and then glued them down on top of the spools. Needless to say they melted.

Here is what our spools look like.

And that is how I came up with this idea of making record bowls in the sun.

What you need:

Records- I got mine from super scratched up and unusable at the thrift store for 10 cents. I knew this would be a learning process, so I got a bunch.

Dishes- especially if you’re going to use the oven. The taller the items, the deeper your bowls will be. You need some taller for the bottom and something wider than the bottom dish for the top.

Lots of Sun

Lots and Lots of patience

I’ll give instructions for the oven verison first.

Step 1- Turn on the oven to 200, which is the lowest most ovens go. If your won’t go down that far then 250 will work. Stack like so. I used a funnel type colander for the bottom and a wider colander for the top. Put it in the oven. The great thing about this is that the bowl pretty much makes itself. I made these a while ago, but I believe that after 10 or 20 minutes the records get soft enough that you can start to mold them how you want.

If you want to make the plates, then just turn the plate upside down and place the record on top.

I believe the blue one was the one I made with the colander. The orange I made with a a bundt pan. It was more shallow.

Here is how the plates turned out. We ended up making a three tiered appetizer type stand with ours. The deepest bowl which ended up being the narrowest bowl on top and the plates went on the bottom.Turned out pretty cute.

For the sun method, things are a bit different. There is no dish stacked on top and most of the molding you’ll do yourself. You can either let the record melt into the bowl, like shown, or you can let the record melt over the sides of the bowl like it was shown before, but without the bowl on top.

The sun seems to be a bit tempermental. This doesn’t work just because it’s ridiculously hot; It works because the sun is beaming directly down on it. If you put these in your back yard and the sun is still beaming on your roof then it won’t work. As the sun moves, your records have to move.

I tried to make these at my aunt’s house. I had to put them on concrete because she didn’t have any tables that were in the sun and it didn’t work. By the time I got my records out and found a decent place to put them, it was a little later in the afternoon, so maybe that’s why.

At home the best place for me is from 1-4 and I’ve only had luck on these white tables. Why it worked I don’t know, maybe I waited too late at my aunt’s house or any other time I worked on a different surface, but it’s something to consider if this doesn’t work for you.

Some other things you should know: I broke a lot of mine because I was impatient. Some of the records are extremely flimsy, so they seemed to be soft and bendible, but they weren’t ready. I ruined a lot of mine that way. Check them every 20 minutes or so. You want to get those extremely flimsy ones because they melt faster and they’re easy to mold. You’ll know what I mean once you buy them. Once you start your bowl, try to finish because the sharper curves make it hard for the sun to reach that part of the bowl.

This may sound hard, but it really isn’t. You just have to have patience and be willing to try different methods. What worked for me may not work for you because it’s all about the sun. You may be tempted to just throw them in the oven, but making them in the sun is better. It’s free, you won’t create extra heat in your already hot house and it gives you a little extra time outside. It takes about 20 minutes or so for it start to make it workable and it cools pretty quickly, so shape fast.

You can use these bowls for any number of things. I think I’ll make mine into a planter for a shallow rooted plant. Or maybe even into something like this.

And most importantly  have fun with it.

Want more ideas? Check out my DIY page

Hummingbird Feeder DIY

Hummingbirds, actually all birds, are quite delightful. I’ve never had an interest in birds. I didn’t not like them, I just thought, ‘oh, there’s a bird.’ Now I think ‘THERE’S A BIRD! AWWW…’  Caring about the environment has given me a whole new perspective. It’s quite nice. Most of the time. Anyway, back to the point. Because hummingbirds are so delightful, here is a feeder DIY, so that you can appreciate them and take care of their habitat. NOTE: It may take a couple of weeks for the hummingbird to the nectar and start showing up. Change the nectar once a week.

You will need:

A pop bottle, preferably red but I don’t know if there is such a thing. If you know of one let me know.

14- 20 spoons- again preferably red.  We used spoons from various other places like Cherry Berry, which  has red and pink, and other ice cream or frozen yogurt places. The point of upcycling is to use trash. I’m going to ask that you don’t go out and buy red spoons. Use ones that have already been used. Yeah, it sounds gross, but that is what soap is for.

A red lid- if you don’t have red spoons then get a flimsy red lid like one that are on gas stations to-go cups or even one of those metal peanut jar lids. Not something hard like peanut butter lids.

A candle, not a tea light

Hot glue gun

Pliers

A feeding tube- these you are allowed to buy.

A chain- my aunt had hanging plant pots that she was going to make into a chair pot and she didn’t need the chains any more so we used those. You could probably use any kind of chain.
Hummingbird Nectar

Step 1- Take off the little ring that meets with the lid and the bottle wrapper. We got the sticky part off with goo gone, which you can get from lots of places. It’s just an adhesive type remover. Take your red lid and cut a hole in the middle so that it is wide enough to fit over the mouth piece of your bottle. You can cut petals if you want or leave it. Reinforce it with hot glue.

Step 2- Melt the spoons. For those of you who were here for the flower project or who did the flower project then you know that this seems to be an art. I’ve found that not all plastic spoons melt the same. Don’t hold the spoons in the flame. It’ll give it a burnt look.

Step 3- This is what you want your petals to look like. Up until the other day, when my aunt and I were doing our recent version, the pink spoons were giving me a rotten time. The red spoons were always perfect, but the pink ones just wouldn’t do anything but separate or just turn droopy. Miraculously, I managed to get the last set to look similar to the red one. How exactly I did this I don’t know, but I do know that I moved it around a lot more. I had tried this method before, but for some reason it just worked this time. Keep this in mind when your melting spoons. Experiment and if all else fails then try to bend it with pliers.

Step 4- After you have the bowl part bended and rounded as you want it, then cut off the handle about an inch or so away from the bowl. Put it in the fire and get it hot enough that it starts to droop. The heat may burn, so you may want to use pliers. Don’t use gloves because they’ll stick to the plastic.

Step 5- Place the spoon around the mouth of the bottle in whatever arrangement you want. I made two rows and used about seven spoons on each row. On the back row I staggered the seven spoons between the spaces of the front row.

Step 6- After you put on each spoon reinforce it with hot glue. As a general rule, the stick of the spoon should have melted enough to stick to the bottle when it dries, but it still needs to be reinforced.

This is the first row, plus one on the second.

And here is the final picture with the feeder tube in it. Not too shabby, right? This was our first one, so it has the unperfect pink flowers and it doesn’t have the red lid either.

You can also try to do these in a toaster oven. Beware. You have to watch it every second because it takes around 3 minutes or longer depending on what kind of spoons you have and if you look away for one second you could turn around and it will look like this.

Or this. I don’t know why, but my aunt and I love these. If I had been at home doing these and they did this I probably would have cried with frustration, but my aunt and I just burst out laughing. We’re trying to figure out someway to use them, so if this happens to you, keep them because we may come up with something.

Wrap the chain around where the lid ring had gone and at the curve of the bottle near the bottom. Connect the two. The feeder tube should be level. Fill it up all the way and it will act as a vacuum to keep it from dripping.

The handles of the spoons.

Want more ideas? Check out my DIY page

Garden Stepping Stones DIY

I do believe this will be my last garden related post for the time being. Sooner or later I’ll put photos of my mom’s garden up, but I probably won’t do that until next week.

Things you need:

Molds (one bag makes 13 or so 8×8 molds, so however many you want to make)

Sand Topped Quickcrete

A Bucket to mix in- we started out with a paint bucket and moved to a wheel barrel. (Make sure if you use something that you’ll need again to wash it out.

Something to mix with- we used with a shovel. (Again, make sure you wash this)

Creative medium- we used everything from glass to marbles to rocks to plastic. Most of the glass was broken at a thrift store so they gave it to us. The marble were given to us by a friend. Some rocks came from our yard or another friend. We did buy a couple of glass and plastic pieces from a thrift store, but we didn’t buy anything new. Don’t use metal, it will eventually rust.

If you decide that you want to make the patio you’ll need:

Sand-for our 10×10 block we need 20 bags of sand

Gravel-10 bags

Select an area, however big you want it. Mark it off and dig down four inches. Make sure that the area is as level as possible. Add your bags of gravel. They should be about one inch deep. Then add a few bags of sand. We needed 16. Lay out your stepping stones. Then cover the stones with sand. Take a broom (one that you don’t care if it gets ruined) and move the sand in between all the cracks. This is pretty hard work, so be prepared. Every few sweeps, spray it down with water. When it’s pretty spread out, you can continue to spray the sand in between the cracks.

Step 1- One bag of concrete makes 13 8×8 stepping stones. We got our molds from Hobby Lobby and some from the internet. I’ve also heard that you can use pizza boxs. Just reinforce the inside corners with tape and spray pam all over the inside so that the concrete will come out. Slowly mix water in with the dry mix. Keep mixing until there isn’t any dry left.

Step 2- Keep interchanging between adding water and mixing. You want it to be mushy, but not soupy.

Step 3- Shovel a couple of scoops into your mold and tap the mold so that the concrete smooths out. When it is completely smooth it should almost fill up the mold.

Step 4- Step 3 completed. Now just add which ever creative materials you wish. The world is your oyster! Let the concrete set in the molds for a week. After that week take them out. Wait another week before putting any weight on them.

Most of our stones are kind of random, but we did attempt to make some pictures. In the front row, the white with a blue clump in the middle I made. It’s supposed to be an eyeball. The purple spiral with a green head is also mine and it was supposed to a snail. The one to the right of the eyeball is a tree. I don’t remember who made that, but it sure is cute.

There is a lot of colors and patterns that I like. After the first 10×10 block, we started running out of ideas so one weekend when our family visited us, we enlisted their help. Some of these throughout the pictures are there. The grapes in the right middle was made my grandma. She’s a creative genius. It’s too bad I wasn’t passed some of these genes.

That wanna-be spiral with a blob as a head was supposed to be my first snail. Obviously it didn’t turn out well.

I like this group too.

I really like that tree.

Some of these have no rhyme or reason, but they are all beautiful in their own way. None are left plain, but not all of them have color. Some have indentions.

In the beginning we each did our own stones with our names and hand prints in them. The family unit would have, of course, not been complete with out the cats stones. You can’t see them very well because rocks have filled the holes, but their paw prints are in theirs, too. This one is Mr. T and Mystique’s.

Melody and Harmony’s stone.

Cheerio’s.

Garden Planter DIY

Planters, besides the plants obviously, are the essence of a garden. They help define the garden. If you guys are thinking the same thing I was when I started this little search then you’re probably thinking that there isn’t much exciting things to say about a bunch of terracotta planters. While terracotta plants are nice and it may be some people’s thing, it’s simple and minimalistic which I’m typically a fan of, but this is just one thing that I feel like gives me a chance to be creative and I want to take advantage of it. The world is our oyster people and it can be a free oyster.

That being said, all of these are meant to be upcycled ideas. The garden is meant to be a natural place and I think a rather eclectic place.  I picked ideas that were made out common things that can be found in dumpsters, in parking lots (I’ll let you know where they are usually common) without having to pay a dime. I didn’t make any of these myself, I’ll give credit where it’s due and if they require more than one step then I’ll make sure there is a tutorial to go with them.

Tires. Sometimes you can find these on the side on the road, but usually they’re too battered to use, but sometimes you can find a decent tire on the side of the road. Although, businesses are supposed to dispose of these properly, I have found one in a dumpster. If all else fails, there are used tire stores. We have one in town and it sells them for $8 or you may be able to go to a mechanic, tell them what your needing and why and they may give to you for free or at a price.

http://www.recapturedcharm.com/2010/06/ever-tire-of-flowers.html

http://media-cache2.pinterest.com/upload/252553491573770707_AqqWNaYO.jpg

http://www.craftylittlegnome.com/2011/08/how-to-make-inside-out-tire-planters.html

http://www.studiogblog.com/plants-natives/kitchen/diy-recycled-tire-garden-planters/

Shipping Pallets. They’re everywhere. Take a walk behind any store or in an alley behind strip mall or something and you can find them. If all else fails, walk in and ask for one.

http://lifeonthebalcony.com/how-to-turn-a-pallet-into-a-garden/

http://themicrogardener.com/20-creative-ways-to-upcycle-pallets-in-your-garden/

This site has tons of ideas for pallets in a garden. Sometimes you can find the DIY’s by clicking the picture and sometimes there is a link.

Shoes. These aren’t technically everywhere, but they’re not hard to find. I’ve also found these behind store alleys, thrift store, apartment and dorm dumpsters. Your closet?

http://mydamagedpostcard.blogspot.com/2011/05/upcycled-boot-planter.html Has steps that could be used for the rest of these.

I find the fact that they’re using cacti as plants for these shoes ironic and somewhat symbolic.

http://www.greendiary.com/entry/hot-stilettos-upcycled-into-elegant-flower-planters/  I couldn’t find any DIY’s for this, but http://www.thedailygreen.com/living-green/recycled-tupperware-clock#fbIndex1 has the best description I could find.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cuttlefish/4494062162/

http://instagr.am/p/K02FeoSBi_/

Books. I think obsession with books is becoming apparent. They’re very aesthetic.  Ruined books can be found at thrift stores or the discounted section at a book store, especially the dumpsters. Dorm dumpsters may also have them. Please don’t ruin good books to make these, I’ll be heart broken.

http://greenweddingshoes.com/diy-book-planter-with-succulents/

Plastic Bottles. These aren’t always the cutest planters ever, but they can be and plastic almost never decomposes and they’re hard to recycle which makes these the environmentally friendly choice other than not using them to begin with. You can find these everywhere. If you don’t drink pop then they can found in work place, gas station, dorm and other trash cans and dumpsters of places like that.

http://www.gardeningclan.com/hanging-garden-planters-recycled-soda-bottles.html

http://www.rosenbaum.com.br/blog/rosenbaum-responde-ldl-48-horta-vertical/ (This isn’t in English, translate it here. Just copy and paste and it does all the work for you.)

There are many variations of these which you can google plastic bottle planters DIY images and look at them. The planters themselves aren’t that wowing, but the plants just seem to make it work.

Kitchenwares. These can often be found at thrift stores or apartment dumpsters.

http://www.inspirebohemia.com/2011/07/unique-garden-planters-and-displays.html This site has super cute ideas.

http://www.kidzworld.com/article/26877-homemade-mothers-day-gifts

http://urbancomfort.typepad.com/.a/6a01156f70f21e970c014e883874d6970d-popup

http://themicrogardener.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Colander-planter1.jpg

Lighting. Thrift stores would probably be a good place to find these, but any place remodeling would be a good place to ask. You may not be able to find these exact pieces, but that’s still not an excuse to go out and buy it. Be creative and make something your own.

http://www.designsponge.com/2011/04/we-like-it-wild-recycled-fixture-planters.html

http://www.modishblog.com/modish/2010/06/pretty-for-under-twenty.html

There are some planters like this, but I was referring to old light sconces. I saw an awesome example of this, but then I lost it. Kind of like this, but with this

http://blog.build.com/lighting/wall-sconces-under-100 . It’s hard to explain because all of these elements were together that just made it perfect, but oh, well.

So, anyway, I clearly went a little overboard, and while these are not all new ideas, I do hope it got your wheels turning and I think it’s also safe to say that I may have a sickness and may need to be locked up. Don’t worry though, the world is your oyster, so be inspired.

Want more ideas? Check out my DIY page.

Book Lamp

Things you need:

7 or so books- I got mind from a thrift store. They had plenty of selection. It can be as short or as tall as you like so get as many or as little as you want.

Lamp kit-I got mine from lowe’s, but you could probably get a used lamp from the thrift store and take the kit out. I got a Portfolio three-way kit. I don’t know what kind you’ll find, but it should look similar to the first picture below. I didn’t know what the heck I was doing when I started this project, so I asked a store associate to help. If you’re similar waters, don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Nipple- The lamp part above doesn’t have them.The second picture is what they look like.

Drill and 3/8 drill bit

Screws and electric screw driver

Three way lamp kit

Nipple

Step 1- Gather a selection of books that you want to use. I tried to get a variety of thicknesses and sizes of books, so that no two were the same. I got mine from a thrift store. They had so many beautiful books there, but I tried to use books that were messed up in some way; they were still beautiful to me. After you get your books, drill a hole in the middle. I planned to do a rather unorganized set up, so I didn’t measure. Also the covers and pages tend to move around, so if you end up having to pull out the drill make sure you put in the same way. Otherwise you’ll have a crooked hole. With a box knife, cut the back cover of the book wide enough to fit the cord of your lamp. Put your second book on the bottom then drill two screws in the bottom to hold the books together and to keep it sturdy.

Thread the cord through the hole you drilled. Add your next book. Situate it like you want and then screw a screw into the top of the book near the corners. During this part the pages will want to come up and if you’re not careful you’ll be able to see the screw and you’ll have a bunch of gaps. You’ll probably need a partner or a very heavy object to keep the pages from separating. Repeat at each level. At the top book lift the cover and drill to screws underneath the cover.

Thread the nipple on the cord and then push into the top hole on your pile of books. Put the rest of your lamp kit on the wire. Mine went together like the picture, but if yours isn’t like mine then there should be a picture on the back.

This what it looks like all put together.

At the end of your cord cut off the rubber part of the two separated ends, so that the copper wires are exposed. The hot wire is the smooth cord and it goes around the brass screw. Wrap the wires around the part under the head and then twist the screw so that it holds the wire. The ground wire is smooth and it goes with the silver screw. If you have any questions or have different parts the internet should be able to help you.

After your lamp kit is together pull the cord out of the bottom of the cords so that the lamp kit fits tightly on top. Then your finished.

Want more ideas? Check out my DIY page.