Eco friendly at the beach!

This idea for creatively re-using what would otherwise be discarded comes just in time for the summer season. While it may seem like such an obvious use for recyclable containers, I've noticed that every trip to the beach(and living in Florida we are there quite a bit) we are the only family who seems to bring those single use plastic containers along for the trip.

So many eco-friendly solutions do equate to thrift. Why buy lots of plastic beach toys when many of the containers that end up in your recycling bin come in all different shapes and sizes that are perfect for building sand castles? Also useful at the beach are those nylon mesh bags that fruits and vegetables come in. Use them to collect and rinse shells or to gather and rinse all of those smaller beach toys before you leave.

Start saving your yoghurt containers, laundry soap lids and scoops now - just in time for your next trip to the beach.



It's a great way to save both your wallet and the planet!

Bottle cap Magnets

As summer approaches, it's time to find fun, crafty, eco-friendly projects to do at home. My daughter received a craft kit as a birthday present that uses bottle caps to create little mini-scenes. There are all kinds of possibilities for the things you can do with the bottle caps, but today we turned them into the ever useful refrigerator magnets.


Any kind of bottle caps will do -- beer caps, soda caps, or maybe even lids from larger bottles or jugs. Either save them up over time, or ask your neighborhood bar or restaurant if they will save them for you (always a good way to keep the word out about recycling). The craft kit we received came with pre-cut circles of pictures to put into the lids, but we also cut up magazines and box labels to use, and photographs would also be great. Just make a pattern of what size you will need, and then you and your kids can cut out little circles with different scenes for your bottle caps. You can also glue in all kinds of objects to make your bottle caps 3-D. We've used Mardi Gras King Cake babies (it looks like they're bathing in the cap), bits of broken toys and beads, just about anything you can think of. Of course this is a great way to repurpose old magazines, and those bits and pieces of toys and costume jewelry that might be hanging about. If you wish, you can seal your bottle caps with a variety of clear coats that can be found at craft/hobby shops.

After the bottle caps were decorated, we used sticker magnets to easily attach to the backs of the bottle caps. Another possiblity would be to cut up old promotional magnets that you might have laying around and use white craft clue to attach them to the bottle caps. Voilà -- instant fridge magnets!