Labels: being a Home Owner, being Earth Friendly, Daisy Dog, gardening

For my generation, I don't think there is anything more obsolete and "retro" than the cassette tape. Do you remember rewinding?? It makes me smile to myself when I see one of my daughters, who will undoubtedly think of cds & dvds the same way we think of cassettes and video tapes, complaining about their ipods.
Ipods!
Are you kidding me?
What I would have GIVEN for an ipod loaded with everything I wanted to listen to when I was thirteen. I'd have given just about anything... including all of my posters of Johnny Depp and River Phoenix and the Corey's...
*Sigh*
Of course, now when I run across a cassette tape or a VHS video, I am unsure of what the hell to do with it. I think I still have a VCR somewhere... but I know for a fact that there isn't a cassette player anywhere in my house. But I can't just toss Marky-Mark and The Funky Bunch in the trash can I? I mean, besides being a memento of my childhood and the first concert I ever went to, I have issues with throwing perfectly good (albeit perfectly useless) things away.
Some people who have less hoarding issues than I apparently do pull the tape out of their cassettes and VHS tapes and use it in the garden to freak the birds out. There is actually a metallic tape product which one can buy to hang from trees and confuse the pesky birds.
I guess it is a lot less work than building a scarecrow huh?
And since the tape itself is the only part of a cassette or video which isn't recyclable, it seems like a good alternate use which leaves the other parts of the tape ready for your recycling bin.
Over on My Recycled Bags (you remember them from the Plarn post a few days ago right?), she is doing what she does best and crocheting bags from the tape.

Just want to unload them?
I don't blame you... I have two or three boxes of VHS tapes just sitting in my shed, most of which have recorded tv shows on them.
You can freecyle them. Bound to me some people out there still rockin' the old school VCR.
Or you can send them off to be recycled. There was an article in Woman's Day about how.
"To keep them out of landfills, drop them in the mail to Alternative Community Training, a nonprofit Missouri company that provides jobs to people with disabilities.
Workers erase the tapes, reselling the ones that are in good shape and recycling the plastic parts of the rest. They’ve recycled more than 1 million tapes so far. Mail the tapes (at the cheaper USPS media mail rate) to:
ACT
2200 Burlington
Columbia, MO 65202"

Want to buy something made from recycled tapes? The options are endless... you can get coin purses and belt buckles and pretty much anything else that's crossed someone's mind...

Now if you have an ipod nano and dig rocking the retro look, you could get (or make?) yourself one of these little bad-asses.



Do you know about something bad-ass and recycled? Shoot me an email, link's on the right.

Labels: being Earth Friendly, RBATOTD, recycling, shopping

This is totally something I would buy for Amanda.


Made from recycled perspex from a sign makers factory, these super cute bracelets would be the perfect gift for any animal lovin' preteen :)
Don't have a preteen?
You can send it to mine ;)

Do you knwo about something bad-ass and recycled?
Shoot me an email, link's on the right.

Labels: Amanda, being Earth Friendly, Being Mommy, RBATOTD, shopping, stuff I like

I've had babies on the brain.
THANK THE UNIVERSE I DON'T HAVE A UTERUS ANYMORE.
Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou.
Yesterday, my baby-itis was only further fueled by the fact that the lovely Fairy is considering having one. I will WILL it to be a girl.
Universe? Do you hear me?
I WANT ANOTHER BABY GIRL!
Uhm, for Fairy of course.
Not for me.
I have three, goin' on four.
Of course, she was probably just teasing me yesterday with the possibility of having a baby AND buying the house next door.
But if she does, I will so be buying her stuff like this.

Come on!
Little baby fairy shoes made from recycled satin.
Shut up.

Or these (which aren't recycled, which is why they didn't headline this post, but ARE resuable):

How pretty are they? And the seller makes a TON of stuff and uses AMAZING fabrics.

Ok, back to work, Big Boss is here today.
Can't get caught bloggin' at work ;)

Labels: At work, being Earth Friendly, Being Mommy, RBATOTD

In the next week or two, my house will consist of the following inhabitants:
Myself, Amanda Panda, Emo, Trin-Trin, Madame Chicita Puppy, Crush the Turtle, Woodstock the very vane cockatiel, and Peanut the World's Grumpiest Parrot.
At which point, my intentions are to go through every room in my house one by one, all the closets, all the cabinets, under the beds, the shelves... you name it. I want to know exactly where everything is and get rid of a bunch of stuff we don't need.
It's no weekend project people.
It's a SEVERAL weekends project.
And that's cool. Because, in case you haven't noticed, I don't have much of a social life :) And once I'm done going through my house, I will be going through my shed and seeing what the hell lives in my carport.
Now that it is finally going to just be me and my girls and gang of pets we've managed to accumulate, I want to make it our house again. And I want to enjoy all of the hard work that is going to go into not just restructuring the things in our home, but also in restructuring the way we take care of our home as a family (read: chores hehehehe).
So what am I going to want at the end of a long day of cleaning and organizing and restructuring?
Something that could go into one of these recycled newsprint wine bags.

Right?
I'm already dreaming of sangria.
Jiffinner? Fairy? The Cake Lady?
You know you want to come drinks sangria _{and maybe help me reorganize my house on your weekends off} right?
Hehehehe...
Do you know about something bad ass and recycled?
Shoot me an email. Link's on the right.

Labels: Amanda, being a Home Owner, being Earth Friendly, Being Mommy, Emilee, family drama, RBATOTD, recycling, shopping, soul sisters, stuff I like, Triniti

Remember how I told ya'll we were going to be giving Amanda her own room?
Well, I found a bed!
We're picking it up tomorrow.
Check it out :)


It's from IKEA, link is here. Of course, I didn't get it IKEA because THERE ISN'T ONE HERE!!! ARRGHH. But that's ok, because it's used, so we are RECYCLING!
Yay for used furniture!
If I wasn't SO FREAKIN' BROKE right now, I would get Emilee's new bed too because I am finding some GREAT deals. For Em's bed, I am thinking more traditional style wood that I can paint BRIGHT YELLOW! Emilee is so yellow to me.
More thoughts on Em's new room coming soon.

ps. Amanda wants music notes bedding. Help? I can't find any... Just plain black and white :)

Labels: Amanda, being a Home Owner, being Earth Friendly, Being Mommy, Emilee, recycling

Ok, so today, because I feel like you guys are ready to start making that kind of effort, I am giving you the link to the How to Recycle Anything guide.
I have to be honest, lately I've felt more like helping you recycle things you already have rather than pointing you in the direction of where to buy things that other people have recycled into something.
Not that that isn't fabulous.
We LOVE those people.
But, it's much Earth friendlier for you to recycle your own stuff and keep your carbon footprint even smaller by avoiding having your package be one of the ones on the airplane contributing to the fuel being burned off and polluting our planet.
Oh. My. God.
I am such a hippie.
We are mere minutes away from dreadlocks.
Anyway, this link will give you a breakdown of how to recycle a lot of things you may not have known you could. I personally prefer it when I can find links that show all of you how to repurpose your stuff rather than recycle it, but I realize that you can't keep everything you buy forever.
In fact, I am almost ready to start whittling down my insane collection of CRAP to less. I won't be throwing it all out though, I will be putting a BUNCH of stuff up on freecycle.org and repurposing the rest of it.
An Earth friendly purge if you will.
So check it out and see what you could be recycling that you are currently chunking. Then you can bookmark the site for future reference. And if there is another item YOU know how to recycle that isn't on that list, put it in the comments and I'll add it :)
Oh yeah, and in case you didn't know already, if you know about something bad-ass and recycled, shoot me an email and I will post it. Cuz that's just how I roll, yo.

Labels: being Earth Friendly, RBATOTD, recycling

Ok, so I have had babies on the brain... probably because I know a couple of people who are expecting one, a couple of people who have had one and because I am dreaming about them. Jiffinner? Totally had a VERY vivid dream that you had a little baby girl. I was holding her and telling her I was her "aunty" (that's what Fairy's son calls me). She was stunning.
So, with all the baby on the brain, it got me to thinking about some baby/Earth friendly stuff. And then, last night, when I was on Twitter, I saw an ad for reusable training pants for toddlers...
I know right? Twitter? WTF?
I have to be honest here... Rob Thomas, as in Matchbox effing Twenty, has a twitter page. That he updates. Himself. Like with random what he's doing every day stuff. I couldn't resist after I found that out. My ONLY option was to begin stalking him.
Anyway, if you twitter, you can search me... katehopeeden. I'm the one who is stalking Rob Thomas.
Back to the diapers though... in case you didn't know, Dooce just had an adorable baby girl who they name Marlo Iris, which is a super cool name... and as I was looking at her "twit-pics", this ad came up for reusable diapers which got my brain wheels a-spinnin' and led to today's post.
On Natural Violet, there is a step by step guide on how to turn a t-shirt into a reusable diaper.


One of the things I truly regret is that I didn't use cloth diapers with my children. My mother used them with all three of us and I really wish I had used them on all three of my girls instead of dumping a gazilliondy disposable diapers into the landfills.

Do you know about something bad-ass and recycled? Shoot me an email, link's on the right.

Labels: being Earth Friendly, Being Mommy, RBATOTD

Ok, I am a slacker.
Today, instead of posting a bad-ass recycled thing of the day, I got up late, made coffee and pancakes and then got all lathered up with sunscreen and loaded the girls up for a pool party.
We stayed there for three hours until we were thoroughly baked and then we went to the store and bought some grilling goodies and came home and stuffed jalapenos and soaked corn on the cob and then ate ourselves silly.
So today instead of my normal semi-early morning RBATOTD, you're getting a late evening post.
And it isn't even mine.
It's the smarts of Roots and Wings Co. and their reuse genius.
I was sitting here thinking of something outdoorsy and recycled since I was feeling the sunshine and the summertime fun today.
So skip on over and see how you can make your own recycled hummingbird feeders.
And then go outside and play.
Because it's nice out :)

Labels: being Earth Friendly, RBATOTD

Fabric is something I am starting to want to buy more frequently now that I have a house. In my dreams of aspiring to sew things, with my Singer Sewing Machine that I've had for a couple of months and never used and have no idea how to use, I love to choose fabrics for roman shades and pillow covers and even duvet covers for the girls rooms.
About once a month I spend a couple of hours browsing through fabrics online and letting my imagination run away with all of the possibilities of colors and styles and maybe even learning how to turn the sewing machine on.
One of the things I look for when I am out there in cyberspace hunting for the perfect colors and patterns is recycled materials. We know they are out there, you can buy t-shirts made from coke bottles at freaking Wal-Mart and even Woman Atop Her Soapbox is wearing recycled "trousers" in the UK...(and emailing me about it, where are ya'll's emails?? huh? huh?)
So where can you get several yards of earth friendly materials for your roman shades?
The answer is: I don't know.
I've found one etsy shop that sells recycled material that is made with hemp... But it seems to me that if you want something earth friendly in your fabric selections, your best best is organic.
I get kind of skeptical when the fabrics are twenty something dollars a yard though... which makes me think that maybe I should try an actual fabric store and see if it is easier to buy organic at your local store rather than have it shipped in from god knows where...

This weekend hasn't been very good for our RBATOTD stuff has it? More of me bouncing ideas off of ya'll than actually directing you to the Earth Friendly Awesomeness huh?
Well, if you know about something recycled and bad ass, shoot me an email, link's on the right.

Labels: being a Home Owner, being Earth Friendly, RBATOTD, shopping

When I went to Toronto, Lola gave me this book for my birthday and I LOVE it. I was sneaking time to read it while I was still in Toronto. In fact, one blissful morning, I took the book, my laptop and coffee with CREME out onto Lola's porch where I read, uninterrupted for many, many minutes... something that happens rarely in my life.
The book is filled with ideas to make your life more eco-friendly (one a day to be exact) and is written as the author, a self-proclaimed cynic, attempts each one.
One thing that we don't talk about much as we start climbing the Become More Eco-Friendly Mountain is how much it can sometimes suck and how some things may not jive with your day to day life. Even if you really want them to. Because people, once you accept that you are a damaging person who wants to be better, you have guilt whenever you do anything even remotely un-eco-friendly. No one wants to admit that they threw away their coffee grounds because the compost bin was full and it was five in the morning and you were just too tired to mess with it.
Convenience and eco-friendliness don't always go hand in hand.
So it's nice to have someone who admits that it's hard and is still trying to do their part.
The book is hilarious and I love it.
And the author also has a blog (which is how the whole book started) which is equally fun to read. Check out her blog, buy the book, you will not regret it.

Labels: being Earth Friendly, recycling, shopping, stuff I like, What I'm reading

I love shoes.
Love. Them.
It's unnatural really how much I love shoes.
I love boots, heels, sandals, flats, flip flops, platforms, tennis shoes, slip on sneakers...
I love them all.
Unfortunately for me and fortunately for the environment, I've had to cut my ridiculous shoe purchasing down to a minimum since I broke my foot almost two years ago and I still can't wear anything with more than a two inch heel.
Two inch heel? Blech.
Four inch heel? Yummy.
Anyway, I now buy two to four pairs of comfortable New Balance tennis shoes through out the year with at least two pairs of those being retro looking black ones that I can wear to work with dress pants without looking like a total fashion crisis.
Right now, I have these.. not in pink though, in blue.
I really like the pinks ones, may need to order them :)

Focus Kate.
Ok, so my New Balance kicks probably aren't the most eco-friendly shoes... (Mother Nature just smacked my hand and called me a bad, bad environmentalist.) And truthfully, I hadn't ever thought about my shoes being eco-friendly. I mean, they're shoes right? Who thinks about eco-friendly shoes?
Payless, that's who.
They sent me an email the other day about it.
Now normally when I see an email from Payless, I delete it immediately so I am not tempted to go and spend my car payment there. Because I so could. But the subject line read, "New fresh green fashion..."
What Payless? What was that you just said? Something about green shoes??
So I let that email hang out in my inbox rather than sending it directly to deleted items.
This morning, it grabbed my attention and I decided to see what all of this eco-friendly shoe nonsense was about...
"Zoe&Zac was created to democratize green fashion by making it affordable and accesible, and enabling more people to participate in sustainable living. Zoe&Zac products are made from eco-friendly materials such as organic cotton and linen, natural hemp, jute, recycled rubber, and water-based glues. The packaging is eco-smart too, with 100 percent recycled shoe boxes printed with soy based inks."

Shut. the. front. door.
People, THAT is what I am talking about, that is awesome. And sure, lots of people are doing it. BUT, are they doing it for under $30 a pair? I think not.
So you may be thinking that they are beige and canvas-y looking and really, just not cute at all right?
Check it out...





Which just shows you, all of those people NOT making eco-friendly shoes? They could be if they really wanted to. They just don't want to because it will decrease their profits.
Well you know what I say to that?
Thhhbt on your Earth damaging profits.
Thhhbt I say.
Now as if the shoes weren't enough, check out the purses and jewelry...




You can be cute and eco-friendly!
Now that should put a bounce in your step.

Are you already cute and eco-friendly? Shoot me an email and tell me how I can be awesome like you, link's on the right.

Labels: being Earth Friendly, RBATOTD, shopping, stuff I like

Most of you have either via this site or some of you lucky ones have met her in person.


No, you can't have her.


She is pretty fabulous.


And she is seven.


She turned seven over the weekend.


I didn't do a birthday post because I am a bad mother.


A bad, really, really busy mother.


It was the first time we've done a birthday without throwing away any wrapping paper!
Everything was wrapped in reusable bags!
Trin is a budding environmentalist.


Not to mention stunning.
Ok, let's mention it; she's stunning.


Maybe one day, if you are a really good person, you could have a Triniti of your own.


But you can't have mine.
I'm keeping her.
And her crazy wild hair.

Labels: Asperger's, being Earth Friendly, Being Mommy, birthday, recycling, Triniti

So, if you're anything like me, you have wine bottles galore and no idea what to do with them. Which kinda blows since often times those wine bottles were a little sentimental. Someone gave them to you or you picked them up while out doing something memorable and you don't just want to chunk them into your glass recycling bin and let them go.
But having a shitload of empty wine bottles just sitting around might be a little tacky.
So what do you do?

The other day, The Cake Lady left this comment:
I have been straining my brain to come up with ways to recycle the empty wine bottles and wine corks at work. I HATE throwing them away! I have some ideas up my sleeve! PLUS it alleviates the guilt, a little! on this post and got my brain wheels a-spinnin'... and my fingers to a-googlin' and I managed to find some pretty nifty junk out there in Internet Land.
Observe:

First of all, let's tackle the aforementioned problem of not wanting to part with those sentimental bottles after having consumed them. Because we totally know we consume them ;) What good is wine if it stays forever corked and never ingested? No good, I say.
So if you are all about saving the labels and tucking them away as memorabilia to pull out later and admire wistfully, well apparently there is a way to do that without tearing the label up into tiny little pieces. It involves some kind of clear tape, either yours or specially ordered from various websites. If the tape method ain't your thang, you can try the blow-dryer method or the hot water method.
But what are you gonna do with it once you safely remove it from the bottle?

You could always make a wine label scrap book and put a little note on each one mentioning where it came from and when you guzzled it down and which break up that was following and whether you woke up confused or not. I mean, why not right? Nothing like some hard core proof of exactly how many bottles of vino you've consumed in your lifetime right?
Or, if you are particularly creative, which I've mentioned numerous times that I am not, you could turn it into something you could actually use. Like a little coin purse?


Not to knock one of The Creative People, but I'd be much more likely to use this to store some souvenirs from the trip where I got the wine or for a cd or the torn up bits of the pictures of the boy who broke my heart and pushed me into a night of shotgunning wine rather than a coin purse, but whatevs.
And dudes, let me tell you, this chic can make a freaking coin purse from anything!
But I digress.
So for your wine labels? Scrapbook them, frame them, make freaking coin purses out of them.

Let's move on to the corks. Corks are bound to have more uses than the labels did...

Fact: Around 13 billion natural cork stoppers are sold each year! It takes about 300,000 wine corks (100,000 sparkling wine) to reclaim a ton of cork (2,000 pounds).
Yeah.
So what can we do with them?
Well for starters, dropping them off to be recycled hasn't quite picked up anywhere yet except for California BUT you can mail them to TerraCycle and they will recycle them for you! Their website even tells you how much it will cost to send them in. AND they take all kinds of random stuff via snail mail. Yogurt cups, energy bar wrappers, drink pouches, cookie wrappers... check em out.

But you want to repurpose your wine corks huh? The first and probably the most obvious idea is to make a "cork-board".

My aunt saves all of her corks in a big bowl for exactly this reason. Once she gets enough she has her trusty husband whip her up a frame and gets to arranging and then BAM! - corkboard.
Aaaannnnd that was pretty much where the "normal" repurposing of corks ended. You can, and people apparently do glue them to anything. I won't waste your time by posting a whole "How to glue your wine cork to..." list because I don't think ya'll want cabinet doors covered in wine corks or something like this:
Back away from the glue gun people.
Just put it down and slowly back away.

Let's move on shall we?
Because really, it was the wine bottles that got us started on this whole thing right? You can make a ton of stuff from wine bottles.
But here's the thing, much of it involves some pretty hard core crafting abilities, one of those super hero powers I don't yet have.
The first hard core crafting super hero power I don't have involves a kiln to melt your wine bottle so you can "slump it" and make it into a spoon holder for your stove or a tray for some cheese. This looks hard and dangerous. But if you have a kiln and have managed not to burn off an appendage, go for it!


Now say you want to get all crazy up in here and actually cut that wine bottle up and make something rad yo. Well this, even though still pretty dangerous to those of us who've injured ourselves with scissors while opening a box seems to be less for the super hero crafters and maybe a little more for the novice crafters. You can get a glass saw at your local hardware store for less than ten bucks. It seems it takes a little practice to perfect the art of using said saw, but the possibilities then become virtually endless.

If you don't want to mess with the glass cutter, another option is to light a tea candle, and put it on a secure surface. Hold the wine bottle horizontally over the candle so the flame just barely touches the middle of the bottle. Hold the wine bottle's ends with both hands, and slowly rotate the bottle over the flame, as if the flame was cutting around the wine bottle. After about five minutes of this, the wine bottle should have cleanly cut in half. If it hasn't done this after five minutes, run the section under cold water. It will break in half if it hasn't already. The edges are extremely sharp after this process, so use sand paper to smooth out the edges.
You can take the broken pieces and turn them into "sea glass" and make some hanging wind chime-y type things or jewelry or a put it into a jar or whatever people do with sea glass.
If you became wicked good at the cutting part, you could make some pretty cool shit.

You can even make drinking glasses...
There is apparently some MAD sandpapering that must take place after you've cut the glass so you don't slice your mouth open with your new cup. But pretty right? And you can probably etch these or use that etching paint stuff... Dang it, I know I saw the whole frosting/etching of glass the other day but I can't find it right now...

One very cool option for wine bottles, and something you could totally do outside when you have company is turning them into oil burning lamps. Now the kits cost around $15.00 but still, how nice. The Cake Lady emailed that she loved these... and you know, with some online digging around, you may even find someone who could sell you the glass tops cheaper and then do the rest yourself. TCL, who is suddenly starting to feel passionate about the whole Earth Friendly things (one down, two gazillion to go :P) says: "You can actually use old t-shirts (recycle them) to make wicks and then use canola oil I think for the lamp oil. All natural and all recycled! The only thing you need then is the wick holder and it's ceramic."

Want to bring a little more nature inside your office or home or someone else's home? You can turn you old wine bottles into terrariums! Nothing like a plant that virtually takes care of itself.


Ok, one last thing... Say you don't want to do anything with your wine bottle but you do want to keep it instead of throwing it into your glass bin, you can buy candles that are shaped and painted to look like wine corks! How cool is that? You can order the candles and give the bottle back to whomever gave it to you to begin with! I'm trying to convince The Cake Lady to start making these and if she does I will put a link on the sidebar that you can click on to order them :)


So that's it.... or at least it is for me. Do you have another idea that we didn't cover? Post it in the comments!
Live long and prosper recycle! pssst- You can still prosper too!

Labels: being Earth Friendly, recycling