Fusible Plastic

Here is what I love and kind of hate about plastic bags. They’re really hard to manage: they take up a lot of room, float around without much encouragement and they’re just annoying, but that makes it fun to deconstruct them and turn them into something else. Fusible plastic, for example.

What you need:

At least 8 bags, but I recommend more in increments of 8- try to get some extra more colorful bags too

Iron

2 long pieces of parchment paper

Of your eight, the majority should be grocery bags or at least the same kind of bag. For my latest run, I used a kitchen bag in the middle because I wasn’t sure how it would compared to others and it still worked out pretty good. That set might have been my best.

Take each bag and fold it down neatly, so all the edges are tucked in. Cut off the seam on the bottom and the handles.

Cut down the side, so you can open it up and lay it flat. Do this with all eight of your bags.

Lay down one sheet of parchment paper and lay down your bags on top. For me, it’s impossible to make all the bags even, but just do the best you can. Make sure if your parchment paper is too short that you’re bags aren’t hanging off the side. Then add your second piece of paper. Also, be prepared for a little bit of a mess because sometimes the ink will melt.

I think the iron does best if it’s set on rayon or the 5 or 6 setting. I would rather you start on too low a setting and work your way up than start too high and ruin the plastic.

The plastic bags can easily get out of line, so the best way to start is melt one end and then work your way over. Once you finish one side, turn it over and work on the other side.

Keep the iron moving constantly. I mean constantly. The plastic tends to shrink and at first I thought I was doing it wrong, but as I kept ironing, I noticed that it was giving the solid feel I was going for. If you can feel the separate layers, you need to keep going.

Before you sew anything, decorate your bag with whatever cute plastic bags you have leftover. These will melt pretty quickly so don’t leave the iron on there for more than a few seconds at a time or you can sew your decorations on. Once I got a method down, I had better luck melting. Mostly I had to work with Wal-Mart bags, but since I hate Wal-Mart,  I did my best to cover up it’s name. For the second time, I just cut the Wal-Mart out and stacked the bags, so the hole wasn’t in the same spot for each bag.

There are tons of things you can do with this fusible plastic. I sewed up the sides, melted  some thing scraps to make handles and made a reusable bag. Because so much of my plastic didn’t turn out the first time, I didn’t have enough to make another one, so we made a pencil pouch.

Fold the bags in half and sew up the sides with right sides together. Then turn the bags inside out.

The material is waterproof and extremely sturdy, so it would make a great beach bag. If you really wanted to. you could sewed it as a lining on a cute bag. These are just the simple things you can do, but there are plenty of awesome ideas that I want to do someday.

Raincoat: Yes, you read that right.

Wallets

Shoes!

Crocheting Plastic Bags

Like I said, I’ve become addicted to crafting with plastic bags. There is just so much you can do with them and they’re such a nuisance, it just fits.

Let me start by saying, I’m a terrible crocheter. If I had been a mother when crocheting was popular, my kids would have probably been beat in the school yard and then left to freeze. Luckily, plastic bags weren’t around back then, so they’d at least have that going for them. And even luckier, I don’t have kids now to put through that experience. The good news is I am getting better. I tried to learn a few months when I wanted to make a rug out of crocheted bags, I still have that unfinished, but then I was inspired by the bag below, which my grandmother made me for my birthday.

It has a pocket and a place to hold your keys.

I’m sure you understand my motivation. It’s amazing. Here is the pattern, if you’d like to make your own. She tried to teach my aunt and I, but I wasn’t catching on very quickly, mostly because the stitches all seem the same and it’s like ‘Make two double stitches. OK, I can do that.’ Fifteen minutes later, “OK, I did two. What, I did all that and I only did one?” That and keeping the tension was difficult. Needless to say I didn’t retain anything I learned that day, so I decided to practice with something else.

I found this video:

Here is Part 2 and Part 3. Watch the video to make sure because what she calls single stitches seem to be something else.

Beautiful, right? This video allowed me to watch the same thing over and over without anyone’s patience being at risk, get the stitches down and practice, practice, practice.

It took me about 8 hours to do what she does in like 20 minutes, but I did finish and that’s what is important.

This flower isn’t great, but I will say it looks better than it does in the pictures. I took a million and it still looks like a hot mess, but it does actually have stuff resembling petals. It took me almost two bags to finish.

Now I’ve learned enough to be able to make some of the bubbles for the bag. Slowly, but surely I guess. And I’ve picked up some crocheting magazines for patterns to do later. There is so much inspiration out there. If you’re not a seasoned crocheter, I would suggest you start with yarn first, make the flowers then make the flowers with the bags, then find something slightly harder then work your way to the bag.

Anyway, have fun, don’t be too hard on yourself and be creative! Feel free to let me know what you’re working on!

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.

Seasoning Mixes DIY

As most people know, health is a gift that just keeps on giving. Giving homemade seasoning mixes, without all the chemicals usually in traditional mixes, is one easy peesy way to do just that.

You can find different versions, but I found these four from the Mountain Rose blog. They also sell the spices and things for all of these mixes.

Taco Mix:

1/4 cup Chili Powder
1/4 cup Cumin Powder
1 tablespoon Garlic powder
1 tablespoon Onion powder
1 teaspoon Oregano leaf (or oregano leaf powder)
1 teaspoon Paprika with 1/4 cup Himalayan salt or sea salt (optional)
1 teaspoon ground Black Pepper

To make: Put all in jar and shake well or mix in a food processor until mixed. Store in an airtight jar for up to six months. Makes approximately 1 cup. To use: sprinkle on ground beef or chicken as you would any store bought taco seasoning. 3 tablespoons is the same as 1 packet of store bought taco seasoning.

Ranch Mix:

1/4 cup dried Parsley leaf
1 Tablespoon Dill leaf
1 tablespoon Garlic Powder
1 tablespoon Onion Powder
1/2 teaspoon Basil leaf (optional)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

To Make: Mix all ingredients together in jar or food processor. To make into Ranch Dressing, mix 1 Tablespoon of this mix with 1/3 cup Homemade Mayonaise or Greek Yogurt and 1/4 cup Coconut Milk.

Chili Mix:

1/2 cup Chili powder
1/4 cup Garlic powder
3 tablespoons Onion powder
1/4 cup Oregano leaf
2 tablespoons Paprika powder
1/4 cup Cumin powder
1 tablespoon Thyme leaf

To Make: mix all ingredients and store in an airtight container. 1/4 cup of mix = 1 package of store bought chili seasoning.

Pumpkin Mix:

1/4 cup Cinnamon powder
1 teaspoon ground Ginger
2 teaspoons Nutmeg powder
2 teaspoons Allspice powder
1/2 teaspoon Clove powder (optional)

To Make: Mix all ingredients and store in airtight container. Use as you would regular pumpkin pie spice. Great in pumpkin cheesecake,  pumpkin pie, spiced pumpkin lattes or coconut flour pumpkin muffins.

To add a little flare, fold a piece of card stock paper or possibly some old Christmas cards in half and staple it on a Ziploc bag. Just make sure you staple above the zip and not below.

Friendly Inspirations

A couple of days ago, my best friend called me and she needed help with her speech paper. She said she had been inspired by my upcycling projects. I’m completely flabbergasted. To know why you’ll have to know a couple of thinks about her and our relationship.

There are a couple of things you should know about my friend.

One- we’re almost polar opposites. As far as similar interests or personalities go, we are really not the same at all. She’s positive and I’m….not. She sees the best in people and I…don’t. She’s a drama major, which should tell you that she’s super outgoing and I am….not. The fact that she’s outgoing and I’m not is where I think we’ve always kind of had our bumpy places. I’m  content with just being and she always has to be busy, to be doing something and it frustrates her when she wasn’t. I thought when we went to our separated colleges that honestly I wouldn’t hear from her much after that. It always frustrated her that I wasn’t more outgoing or something and I figured she would find people who were more like her and that would be the end of that.  But that was 2 or 3 years ago and while we don’t talk a lot, I think we’re better friends because of it. I’ve worked on trying to talk more, but I think she has learned to appreciate our differences more, too.

Two- We both love to read. Not the same books, of course, but still it’s something. We both like, somewhat, the same type of movies. I’m more open-minded about what I read and what I watch. I like more action type stuff and she likes more fantasy type stuff, but it doesn’t kill me to watch it. We both loooove chocolate…and dessert. I think that similarity is what held us together all these years.

Three- She loves it when I write her notes. I have always loved to write, but I never considered it as a career until recently. I would usually try to curb it back to one page, but sometimes it was more. I didn’t write anyone else because no one really appreciated them. Writing sometimes brings a somewhat quirky personality out of me and I don’t think a lot of people appreciate it. At first I thought she didn’t like them or care about them because she never wrote back, but later I learned it was because she didn’t like to write. I didn’t know that because she was always so smart and wrote such good papers. And also because I loved to write with every fiber of being and I couldn’t imagine anyone could not like to write. But she loves my notes and she may be the only person in the world who likes my writing. I would love it if she wrote back, but oh well. I don’t write notes on paper any more. I would if we saw each other every day, but instead I send them on Facebook.

Four- She never judges me because of my negativity or cynicism or strong opinions.  People are always telling me that I shouldn’t think a certain way and that I should think that the world is just a bowl full of sunshine and butterflies. I tried to change the way I thought, but it never did work. Partly because I didn’t see anything wrong with having a different perspective. I saw it as honesty and people didn’t like it because they didn’t want to see it. I haven’t told her the worst of it, but I’ve come pretty close. She doesn’t always agree with me, sometimes she does and sometimes she tells me a different way of looking at it, but she never says that I’m a horrible person because of it. Which is such a relief. I don’t want to feel the way I do, but it is what it is and I can’t or won’t change my perception just because it’s hard to deal with. Sometimes I feel as if I’m a bad person because I won’t accept people’s standards. The world should be better. We should be better. She doesn’t make me feel bad. And at this point when I feel more negativity for humanity than I ever have before, this is what I appreciate about her the most.

Five- I mentioned that she’s an extreme busy body. In high school she was in just about every extracurricular ever, except for sports. She was president or secretary or VP or something of most clubs. In college, I think she narrowed it down to mostly theatre or drama type things. She’s also extremely smart. Like straight A student smart. Sometimes I feel a bit unaccomplished, to say the least.

The other day, she called and asked if I would help her with a persuasive speech. She wanted to do it about…..upcycling. She never reads this blog, she hates news and she usually reads for pleasure, so I never expected her to want to read it. Sometimes I post my crafts on pinterest, so she’s been seeing them. I don’t talk to her that much and when I do it’s rarely about anything to do with this blog because I know she’s not interested, so I had no idea that she would be paying attention. She has always recycled and kind of in the environmental thing even before I was, but she does it because she knows it is the right thing and not because she knows all of the science behind it. Anyway, I definitely wasn’t expecting it, but I gave her some resources. I don’t know if she used them, but it got her started.

I’m mostly astounded because she’s never asked for my help with anything. She’s very independent. But she also asked me to listen to her informative speech about the color run.

She said I inspired her to write about upcycling because of my love for the environment and just because it’s cool. I’ll have you know that I haven’t inspired any one in my whole life, least of all her who is almost perfect in every way. So yes, I’m feeling pretty proud of it.

I hope you have a good day!

Polka Dot Hanging Jewelry Organizer

You need:

A frame- if you want to do the polka dot effect then try to find some thicker frames. Mine are made from baseboards that I found while I was garage saleing. Just for the record, they were not for sale, but I saw them in the dumpster and I asked if I could have them. After an odd look she let me have them. If you’re not lucky enough to happen upon some baseboards then a frame from a thrift store would work or if your handy with wood then you could make your own.

Bottle caps- it will depend on how big your frame is, but I used 18 for my 8 x 10 frame. If you go ask restaurants they’ll usually give you some if they have them. It may take a couple times; persistence is key.

Spray paint-whatever color you want

Sandpaper- the spray paint doesn’t stick very well to the caps unless you sand them first. I’m not sure what kind I used, but it was pretty coarse.

Nails and Hammer- However many you want- I used 20

Hot glue and stapler

A fruit net bag- I’ve seen them used as bags for oranges and other types of fruit.

Magnets-optional

Step 6-Congrats! You now have a functioning jewelry hanger and you can accessorize it however you want.

Step 3- Originally my plan had been to put magnets on the back of the bottle caps and hang the earrings on there, but I didn’t end up finding any magnets and the kind that come on business cards weren’t strong enough. It was kind a bummer. This step is totally optional. Step 4-This step is if you want to hang earrings, but you can also just use the nails too. Size your fruit net bag according to the size of your frame. You can either hot glue or staple it to the back of your frame. The hot glue doesn’t hold it very well, so I suggest stapling it. Step 5- Glue on your bottle caps in whatever pattern you want. Then add the nails in whatever pattern you want.

Step 1- make your frame or buy one. I asked my neighbor to cut the wood and put them together because I’m not handy with wood. Then sandpaper the tops of your bottle caps. Step 2- I’m sorry that I don’t have a picture of this, they seemed to have disappeared. Spray paint the frame whatever color you want. Mine was covered with just a couple of coats and they tried pretty quickly. Then spray paint your bottle caps. This took a little longer to dry and it took several coats. If you don’t let them dry all the way then the paint will scrape and chip off.

Want more ideas? Check out my DIY page.

Inform

I think it’s important to inform, but it seems people take their knowledge for granted.  I look at so many different organizations that are trying to accomplish various things and they seem so frustrated. They look down at people who don’t believe the same things that they do, but I think they never really considered that they might have actually missed a step. And that is just informing people. Granted, not everyone takes that knowledge and actually does something with it, but when my teacher started talking about what could happen to our world if we didn’t start taking action, out of the twenty people who were ‘listening’, at least one person that I know of took action and that was me. Obviously. If you talk to thousands of people, most will probably let your words go in one ear and out the other, but there could actually be a person, two, maybe even three people who are actually listening and motivated enough to do something with it.

In my blog, I try to make it mostly informative.  I try to make the practices that I suggest such as dumpster diving as easy as it could possibly be. I definitely have a lot more work to do, but my goal is break it down so that you have all the tools and all the extra work is taken out of it. For other things, I try to relay my experiences so that you can avoid doing the things that I did that made the process a little bit harder. I try to give you as much information as I can find so you can make an informed decision about the life that want to live.

Solutions, I believe, are equally important. It’s annoying that time after time people give you the problems…the countless problems of everything, but they never give you any solutions. How are you supposed to change something if you don’t know how. Wouldn’t you have already been doing the right thing if you already knew how? It seems to be true for almost every sermon I’ve ever heard. They always point out what is wrong with me, maybe even why I should fix it, but they never tell me how. It gets very frustrating to say the least.

Since becoming informed of what damage people as a whole were doing to the environment was so vital to my coming to realize that I needed to change, I realize that this is probably the case for a lot of people.  In college I’m taking a ‘listening’ class which is almost as dull as it sounds, but after my teacher woke me up from my apathetic slumber, I realized how much other things I had dismissed simply because I didn’t care enough about the topic that they were initially talking about to listen to the rest of whatever they were saying. I had thought I had heard it all before, and nothing had made any difference before so why would it now? I didn’t care about anything, so I missed so many things that are really important things to understand. After that, I really came to understand how important listening is. I think a few people are still missing it in the class. As dull as it and as much as I ‘think’ I know, I make myself listen because I could miss something important.

Since I have come to realize the vitality of informing people, I have started to take steps in doing just that. They’re small, but I have to start somewhere.

Every Friday, my listening class has what’s called ‘literature day’. Everyone gets up reads a piece of literature such as a quote, poem, short short story, etc.  I decided that I would take a day and read some mind blowing statistics that I had found. Some people I know were listening because they gave a verbal response, but I still don’t know whether any body was listening to the point they actually realize that action needs to be taken. I know that in the past when I’ve heard a speech where someone was calling a group to action, I consider it for as long as they’re talking about it and then I leave and I forget all about it. I wish I could figure out why I made that connection when I listened to my teacher. I think it was partly because he gave me a reason to. When I hear most people trying to convince to do something they never give a reason to. They just say, “you should do this” or “you should do that” without ever giving a reason why.  He said, “Environmentalists have predicted that if we don’t change our ways, in x (I don’t remember the exact number) amount of years, the air around us will be so toxic that we will have build huge plexi-glass domes that covers portions of the U.S. We’ll have to figure out how to create our own water, sunlight, air because we have poisoned our environment so much. The only way we’ll be able to travel is through plexi-glass tunnels.” He didn’t say it exactly like that, but I hope you get the point. Whether it’s true or whether it’s just some alarmist doesn’t really matter. The possibility that it could happen is so disgusting to me that I’ll do anything to try and make sure that I am not the reason that it happens.

The other day, I posted a vignette that I wrote for my creative writing class, but since it was too long, I had to shorten it to just my dumpster diving experience.  When we write a three chapter short story then I’ll be bringing back Dixie. My teacher was disappointed that I took Dixie out of the story, but I just couldn’t find a way to do it justice with such a short word allotment. My teacher loved the whole idea behind the story and she didn’t seem off put by the whole dumpster diving thing either. I was pretty excited about that.

My mom is pretty much my biggest fan and she’s taken the dumpster diving idea and run with it. She has a day care and every year she does a ‘Mom’s Night’, a party for the moms of all her kids. They do a craft, a spa type thing, food and all that. This year she did an upcycling theme. She made the same type of crafts that I’ve been posting, she made decorations out of junk mail and other assorted recyclables, and she did a game where she asked a bunch of questions about what the different facts about recycling. Who ever got the most facts right won the game and they got to pick one the crafts that she had made as a prize. My mom said that almost everyone received the idea really well and asked a lot of questions. She has one person in the group that is judgmental about pretty much everything, so you know.  She posted pictures of everything that she had created on her Facebook.  She got a lot of comments and people asking where she got things to make them and how she made them. It was pretty exciting.

So far this is what I’ve been doing to spread the word. It’s not much, but it’s a matter of getting courage. With the success of the mom’s night I’m seeing the possibility of a dumpster diving group coming together in this small town somewhere in the future.

Plastic Spoon Flowers

So, this is first spoon project that I mentioned not too long ago. I tried this project again and it still didn’t turn out quite the way I wanted, but I think it’s because I’m using thicker spoons and not just because I’m completely incompetent. I still think it’s a good DIY, so I’m going to post it and when I get some different spoons then I’m going to post my results.

Things You Need:

Plastic Spoons

Pliers

Lighter

Candle

You’ll need 17 plastic spoons. If you go dumpster diving for these, some good places to go are fast food places or collect them as you get take out. Now, cut the spoon handles into different lengths. Ten spoons for the longest length and it needs to be a little less than an inch. Five spoons for the second longest length which will be about half as long as the first. Then the remaining two spoons just need to have little stubs.

Now it’s time for the melting. This part is pretty fun, but be careful because the spoons will catch on fire. You’ll want a real candle for this and not a little tea light. Using pliers hold the spoons over the flame. It will only take a couple of seconds for the heat starts to take effect. Watch carefully because the heat may burn a hole in the spoon. Move the spoon around the flame so that the heat is even distributed.

The waves that make the spoon look like a petal should form on their own, but if they don’t you can always help them along with the pliers. The plastic is extremely hot so don’t touch use pliers to mold it. The two shortest spoons need the bowl of the spoon to be a little deeper and the sides should be curved so that the sides of the opposing spoons may almost meet. Glue or melt the bottoms together as shown the picture. Bend back the tips.

Now glue the rest of the spoons, from shortest to longest, onto the bottom of the first two. You’ll want to use a spiraling concept so that each petal goes out just a little more.

For this flower, take the tips of the shortest spoons and curl the tips back, make the bowls of spoons deeper and glue one spoon slightly lower than the middle of the bowl. The four middle surrounding spoons should have even deeper bowls than the first two. You want to have big, deep waves on the ‘petals’. The waves and the deep bowls you can obtain by molding it with the pliers.

Bend the handles so towards the inside of the spoon, so that the handle can be flat against the table. Then glue the four spoons with as little space between them and the first two spoons. Then layer the rest of the spoons in a spiraling manner.

Keep laying the petals until all the spoons are used.

Want more ideas? Check out my DIY page.

Creative Writing Assignment

I’m in a creative writing class and we’re working on vignette, a short impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or gives particular insight into a character, an idea, or a setting and sometimes an object short enough to fit vine leaf. Pretty tall order since the only time my brain really actually functions and then my head gets filled with ideas and things that I just need to say. Anyways, I wrote about my first dumpster diving experience and I wrote in the point of view of a spoon that I had rescued. I turned it, nervous as all get out that the teacher would be closed minded and hate the idea. I think I was majorly dehydrated all week long. Anyways, turns out she totally loved it, for reasons that weren’t exactly my intention. She things it’s funny. There are some things she wanted to me change like the length, duh, and she wanted me to take the happy ending and make it where the spoon stays in the trash and it would be like inspiring people to want to save the spoon. What kind of story is that? What’s the point of saving the spoon if they don’t know what to do with it? I don’t know. I told her that the point was to make people see what they could do instead of throwing things away, blah, blah, blah. She said, okay do what you want that’s just what I think. Just now I got an e-mail from her and she said she kept laughing about all day and she kept thinking of alternate endings like being eaten away by chemicals or developing some kind of addiction to chemicals. I kind of see where she was going with it, but I still want people to see what they can do besides throwing things away. I’m trying to decide whether I should be offended about laughing or not. lol, oh well.

So anyways, I’m going to post it on here, you can tell me what you think or not, but I thought I should post it on here before I change anything.

A Repurposed Life

Hello, my name is Dixie and I’m a white plastic spoon. Once I lived with a family of four, but then I outlived my usefulness for them, so they threw me away.  I was separated from my brothers and sisters, but I was rescued from a dumpster by a young girl. She promised to give me a new life with a new purpose. I’ve seen her do it for others, so if I wait, I know someday it will be my turn. I know this is all a little confusing, so I’ll start at the beginning.

About two months ago, I was waiting in a bag on the shelves of a giant store with my hundred siblings. There were thousands of families like ours and we were waiting to be adopted out. A nice young family with a mom and dad, a baby girl and school-aged son came and looked at all of us.

“Hey! Hey! Pick me, pick me,” all of us would cry as people came down our aisle.

My family and I had been waiting for months, but now finally our time was here.

“It’s us. They picked us. We can finally be loved and fulfill our purpose! We can live happily ever after,” we cried in excitement.

Little did we know that our dreams would become our nightmare. We went home with the family and one by one my siblings were picked out, used, but they never came back.

At this time Kayla was in an environmental science class learning about the harmful effects that trash has on the environments.

She asked her mom one day, “Why don’t we recycle?”

“Because it takes up too much space and when we’ve tried it before, it drew bugs,” replied her mom.

“Could we try again? Even if we only do it the winter when there are less bugs, it will be better than nothing,” Kayla replied.

Persuasion was necessary, but finally her mother agreed.  For Kayla, recycling wasn’t enough. She knew she could do better, so she researched ways she could help more and that’s when she learned about upcycling or giving everyday products a new life and purpose. A purse made out of candy wrappers is a great example. Wrappers folded a certain way fold wrapper so they connect together. Then they make a chain. After being sewn together, the wrappers take the shape of a purse.

She started collecting things from her family’s trash, but there wasn’t very much variety, so she researched for other ideas. That’s when she heard about dumpster diving. It was around Christmas when she was researching this idea. Kayla’s great aunt, Chelle, was sitting beside her and kept asking her what she was doing.

“I’m trying to learn how to dumpster dive. I don’t have the project materials to make the different kinds of projects that I want. This may be the solution, but I’m trying to find out when to go, where to go, rules and whatnots,” Kayla replied slightly embarrassed.

“Really? That sounds fun. College dorms are perfect for that. And it’s right around the end the semester, so people are moving out and throwing the things they can’t bring with them,” said Chelle.

The next day Kayla’s mom, dad, great aunt and Kayla went to the dorm dumpsters and did some digging.

She found tons of cans which she recycled, a printer/copier/scanner, some galvanized metal pipes, wood, table legs, a comforter and pillow that she washed and gave to the homeless shelter. The pillowcase had $207 in it. Since she and her mom didn’t feel comfortable in keeping it, they split it up and gave it to five people they knew who could use it. They found some other things too, but those were the most unique.

Upcycling has become Kayla’s passion which she tries to share with others through her blog as she writes about her experiences with dumpster diving and posts tutorials for the projects that she’s made.

Whenever she is asked about why she dumpster dives, Kayla says, “People always say that I’m giving them a repurposed life, but I say that the things I’ve collected have given me a life.”