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!

Etsy Trashion Summer Sale & Giveaway!

the Etsy Trashion Team is having a Summer Sale and Giveaway!

... to promote Environmental Awareness!

for just one week... July 20 – 27

just visit the following Etsy shops
to save on fine and funky upcycled goods...
and come win this fabulous prize pack!

http://www.remaker.etsy.com 20% off everything in shop

http://www.loneweever.etsy.com 15% off everything in shop

http://www.rikrak.etsy.com/ 15% off various items in shop

http://www.ecogeneration.etsy.com/ 10% off everything in shop

http://www.alexkeller.etsy.com/ 10% off everything in shop

http://www.auclairdelalune.etsy.com/ 15% off everything in shop

http://www.beachchicken.etsy.com/ 15% off everything in shop

http://www.bellavioletta.etsy.com/ doe doe birds with purchase

http://www.junck.etsy.com/ 10% off everything in shop

http://www.lostandfoundobjects2.etsy.com/ 20% off in shop

http://www.palmfrondartist.etsy.com/ 10% off everything in shop

http://www.foundthings.etsy.com/ 20% off in shop

http://www.eyepopart.etsy.com/ 20% off everything in shop

http://www.westernartglass.etsy.com/ 10% off leaf collection
http://www.candycalamity.etsy.com / little yummies magnet with purchase

...................................


& find other promotions and participating shops @

http://etsytrashion.etsy.com/

AND... To enter the fabulous giveaway...

visit one of the participating shops,
then leave a comment about your fave trashion items on the
trashion blog post for the event on the trashion team blog!
you may make up to five entries.

Or…make purchases in participating shops to receive
additional chances for every $10 you spend!

The prize winner will be randomly selected on July 28th.

it's a great time to support fabulous eco-artists! the Trashion Team on Etsy is a group of artists that create art, jewelry, fashion and home accessories from materials that were leftover, discarded, or found! so wonderful & beautiful, isn't it!
happy discovering!

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!

Recycling in the garden – Part Un

If I weren’t vegetarian I would say that this is a way to kill two birds with one stone (maybe it’s a way to stun two tofurkies with one stone?), but a rain barrel is a great way to both reduce and reuse all at the same time.

Water is a limited resource, particularly this time of year in Central Florida. There are lots of ways to reduce water consumption in the home, but one of the areas that deserves attention and is one of the most wasteful uses of fresh water is irrigation. Aside from choosing native plants for landscaping and reducing the need for irrigation through xeriscaping, rain barrels are very effective tool for catching and storing rainwater to use in the garden, thus reducing the need for city water.

I’m not the handiest of people in a carpentry sense, so I signed up for a class offered by my local county to get help in constructing my rain barrel. It took very little work and materials to construct the one I use. My food grade quality drum is recycled, and the other materials are easy to find at any hardware store. Easy instructions can be found on line (one to check out would be http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/Rainwater-Harvesting-Rain-Barrel-Setup.aspx).


Last year we connected the rain barrel to an extra soaker hose we had, but soon found that we didn’t have the water pressure to make this work well enough to distribute water through the garden. This weekend we upgraded the rain barrel irrigation by connecting damaged hoses (yet another way to recycle/re-use!) with holes drilled every six + inches. This proved to be a terrific project for older kids learning to use tools. We had to figure out how to use the hose repair/attachment kits to connect our damaged hoses and then we had all of those holes to drill.


Project was completed in very little time and is working great. Now all we have to do is wait for it to rain:-)!