Texas Recycles Day 2008

November 15th is America Recycles Day which, in conjunction with state programs like Texas Recycles Day, has helped millions of Americans increase their recycling efforts. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage you to look at the materials you discard resourcefully. Here are a couple of ideas:
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- Try using some of yesterdays newspapers to make your own handmade paper.

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- Use leftover wine corks to make a trivet. Cork is a great barrier between scorching hot pots and your tabletop. One super simple way is to arrange the corks side by side vertically and tighten an O-ring, from your local hardware store, around them. Here is another way.

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- That old pair of jeans, with a couple of holes, where it is not particularly fashionable to have a hole, can be given a whole new life as a skirt, denim bag or organizer. For ideas check out this article at Suite101.com.

It is not entirely uncommon that I repurpose items myself. For example, when my husband asked me to come up with idea for votive candles for My Place, I took the empty wine bottles they were discarding at the end of each night at turned them into something they could use.

And you don't think I let the lip of the bottle go to waste did you?

The pendent of this necklace was made using the glass from the lip of one of those bottles. Strung together with quartz, rose quartz, sterling silver and glass beads it becomes a fun piece of jewelery. I love to wear it. I have yet to have anyone figure out what it is.

You can also see A Rough Night on the Mosel an earlier piece which used recycled glass for at least thirty percent of its' materials.