You can find these funky shelving units for free all day long on Craigslist - This Before and After was taken from a Better Homes and Garden article, I found it at Happy Day Vintage.  How cute would this be in an entry way or a nursery!

Since I live in wine country proper, I thought it would be nice to include some wine inspired upcycled projects.  I found these at Upcycle The Art of The R’s.

Cheers!

Most things in my world are line dried and when necessary, 10-minutes-in-the-dryer kind of things.

But, for whatever reason I love to iron cloth napkins -love it.

So for me this is perfect! Found it on a quilters blog, texasfreckles, so you know she knows a little something about ironing!

I’m addicted to these – and I don’t care who knows it.

I love to make them and I love to use them.  I’m forever tearing up my magazines and leaving piles of supplies scattered around my office - and since it’s our home office, my husband can’t get enough of that last part.

Each envelope comes with upcycled stationery and sails nicely though the postal system. 

To view a few sets, check out our ETSY store!

I was in the bank last week doing bank related things when I noticed a small Christmas tree.  It was decorated with white envelopes clipped to the tree with little wooden clothespins; each painted clothespin sported a cute Christmas ornament.  A closer looked revealed each envelope was preaddressed to one of four destinations: Healdsburg Animal Shelter, Healdsburg Senior Center ? Meals on Wheels, Boys & Girls Club of Healdsburg or Healdsburg Food Pantry and already had the appropriate postage using, of course, cute Christmas stamps.

The best part is that each of these organizations will benefit from the extra donations they will receive this Christmas season ? the second best part is that I get to keep the cute clothespin! I now have four.

Evidently there is a woman in our community who upcycles clothespins into donations.

I have no idea who she is, since she doesn?t include a placard on the table to ensure that she receives full credit for this endeavor – But I feel blessed to have the opportunity to participate in her kindness.

Last week when I was visiting my super-awesome-sister, who also happens to be super-awesome-thrifty, she was mid-painting when I noticed she was using a plastic movie case  as a painting palette.  

Pretty Smart.

To see some of her super-awesome-paintings -  check her out here.

We were strolling the grounds of the Real Goods Solar Living Institute located in Hopland, CA this afternoon and eventually wandered into the gift shop.  There are loads of amazing things and among them – a working tin can robot!

It’s best to plan a visit and tour the gift shop, but if not – you can always pick it up here. 

We had such a good time that I am including a link to yelp.com so you can read what other visitors had to say!

Plarn – Have you heard of this stuff?

Evidently last night while I was sleeping there was a plarn revolution.  Yesterday I’d never even heard the word, and today it seems it’s EVERYWHERE!

Plarn (plastic yarn) is made from plastic grocery bags cut into strips then crocheted to create virtually anything – In this case we’re using a grocery bag to create … a grocery bag. 

Check out this link for a tutorial on how to create your own ecofriendly shopping bags.

DYK: It takes 1000 years for a plastic bag to decompose in a landfill?

My sister got me hooked on Swagbucks – “the web’s premier digital dollar!”  Basically, you search using the Swagbucks tool bar instead of Google (or whatever) and every once in awhile they toss a few Swagbucks your way.  Once  you’ve accumulated a bunch, you use them to buy cool stuff.

My plan is to blow all my Swagbucks on Amazon gift cards and post those cards to my Amazon account. Then I’ll order all my Christmas gifts from Amazon.com and Viola! - Free Christmas! 

Another bonus is that while everyone else is rushing around in the rain looking for a parking space, I’ll be doing all my Christmas shopping online… in my PJs… while drinking coffee in my kitchen.  All Is Calm.

Sound Good? Join Me!

At the local recycle center 80 empty water bottles will get you a whopping 4 bucks.

At the Samaritans Purse website that whopping 4 bucks will provide a child with milk for an entire week. 

You Should Do It.