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 While some products make it difficult to find a recycled alternative, some are born to be treasure from trash :-)
This Stimulo Cat Feeding and Activity Center is an interactive cat food dish, designed to bring back a little problem solving into the art of finding food... Who knows, it could even help your cat get back on track with keeping the neighbourhood mice in check!
While the feature model appears to be manufactured from plastic, the same thing could readily be made from old tin cans (with the sharp bits filed down) and some paper mache or even some old clay! Save yourself $25 and reuse your kitchen waste to create something fun for your beloved pudski :-)
Stimulo Cat Feeder at Amazon |
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 I've always been fascinated by wearable plant necklaces... And Colleen from etsy (one of my inspiration sources listed below) makes a good point - Why should your plants stay at home?
Today's challenge was to see if these gorgeous necklaces can be made from trash - and I'm very pleased with the result! The materials for this project came from my childhood jewellery box and the camberwell market... As a youngster I'd allowed the box to become a tangled mess and the resultant untangling ended up breaking many of the chains inside. It could be argued that fixing the chains would have been a better use of my time, but it's unlikely I'd consider wearing a barbie necklace these days...
The thimble was a lucky find at the Camberwell market - discovered while browsing broken watch parts - it was buried inside a glass display case full of old fashioned odds and ends. Yes, I agree, this could probably still be used as a thimble, but years of ageing meant your finger came out black, and to be honest, how many people sew by hand these days? (it's sad, but true)...
After a few attempts to attach the chain to the thimble with solder, success! In future drilling a hole in the side of the thimble would probably be a better (and more sustainable!) option. It was a quick project ~ 20 mins after I'd found the materials, and 5 mins of scouting the garden for an appropriate succulent. Improvements for next time? I'd like to find a chain that really was trash!
Read full how to guide here: How to make a living necklace
Inspiration:
http://www.hafsteinnjuliusson.com/growing-jewelry/
http://www.etsy.com/listing/66829497/a-wearable-planter-no-3
http://trendland.net/2010/07/16/terrarium-necklace-by-erica-weiner/ |
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China recycling used condoms as cheap hair bands
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j0DcqENG9L1Z3TnL94DJdaJuhXfA
Still carrying stds!!
Japanese scientist makes meat from poo
http://www.thegreenpages.com.au/Environmental-News/waste_management_burger
ahhh... yum??
Rabbit Amnesty urges Britons to recycle their sex toys
http://www.lovehoney.co.uk/rabbit-amnesty/
Nothing I can say here!
Toilet to Toyota
http://webche.ent.ohiou.edu/eerl/ammoniaelectrolysis/projects/shoecar.htm
http://webche.ent.ohiou.edu/eerl/ammoniaelectrolysis/projects/house.htm
More Japanese research – this one isn’t too bad actually – power your house or car on urine alone!
Office waste into Toilet Paper
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/06/01/new-machine-turns-office-waste-into-toilet-paper-right-in-the-office/
Now this one I would actually buy, except that it takes 1800 sheets of office paper to make 1 toilet roll... Yikes... |
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 The end of summer my favourite time of year. New Years resolutions are still intact, it's light enough to spend the evenings planting vegetables in the garden and chatting to the neighbours, and of course, it's the annual Sustainable Living Festival.
Milk containers have been a feature this year... From the old milk containers hung in trees to combat fruit fly on the Banyule Edible Garden Tour, to the windmills made by the young at heart during an enviro craft workshop and even bird feeders hung out in preparation for the Birds, Binoculars and Botanics tour next weekend, milk containers are being used like never before! And a good thing too. According to the EPA plastic milk jugs never degrade AND they represent the largest volume of plastic headed for landfills.
Until neighbourhood cows become popular again, upcycle your old milk containers with these simple projects:
Bird Feeder
Pretty Planter
Watering Can
Intriguing Vases
Household Containers
Gorgeous Gift Boxes
Party Favours
Pretty Lamps |
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 Hello from Fish Creek! A spontaneous trip to Wilson's Prom has resulted in a spectacular discovery. Ride the Wild Goat - an unassuming exterior - we headed towards it for shelter from the rain and were astounded at the creativity and ingenuity of the pieces inside.
Each piece comes with a short description of exactly where the materials were found and how they were turned into art. This wire in this lamp, for example, came from the Alberton West State park and the Yellow stringy base from the running rail at the Stony Creek race corse.
What I loved most were the functional pieces - serving trays from discarded tin, tables from iron sheets and stools made from abandoned refrigerators. And next time I find a rusty metal lamp shade I will certainly be attempting to craft it into a beautiful coffee table bowl...
Be sure to check out their website - www.ridethewildgoat.com.au. |
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If it's fun, they will come... or so The Fun Theory goes. This fantastic project illustrates how simple it is to change people's behaviour if you can make it fun, from taking the stairs, to driving at the speed limit or even recycling your cans - a bit of creativity is all you need for people to make the switch! Whether or not this behaviour change is long term or wears off after the novelty does is hard to say but it's certainly a step in the right direction and a way to combine essential daily silliness into a longer term happy habit :-)
I know for a fact that I'd never get sick of sitting in this rockin' recycled chair by ahalife - entirely made of horseshoes it's a joy to behold - not to mention exceptionally lucky! On the same theme this stunning supermarket trolley chair by reestore.com is beautifully crafted - though I think it would have been slightly more fun with the wheels left on!
Joie de vivre! And happy crafting :-) |
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 Last Valentine's Day Ganesh and I decided to turn a traditional valentine's day celebration into a memorable outing… Rather than cutting flowers, we visited the beautiful Cranbourne botanical gardens… Rather than boxed chocolate we stopped at the Philip Island Chocolate Factory and watched it being made… And rather than making cards we went jet boating and took photos for our photo wall… It just so happened that it was hard rubbish day in Cranbourne so we ended up with a car full of reclaimed tools, furniture and toys to play with… all in all an excellent day. This year we're forgoing gifts and opting for dinner at an organic, plant-based restaurant in Melbourne (le cru)…
But for those who are looking for a green twist to traditional celebrations, check out these lovely products:
Decorating the Bedroom
Recycled glass candle holder
Lingerie
Reclaimed italian cotton lingerie
Recycled and organic lingerie
Jewellery
Starbucks Jewellery for the Coffee Lover in your life
Camera Lense bracelets
Bike chain bracelet
Flowers
Like 2 Peas in a Pod
Recycled Tyre Vase
Recycled Bottle Vase
Egg shell vase
Newspaper Flowers
Cards
Geeky Recycled Motherboard Card/Magnet
Paper Flower Card - make sure you use scraps!
3D magazine heart
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 Ahh, new year... time to make promises for the year ahead... As I'll be at the Peat's Ridge Sustainable Music Festival this year I've had to think of some goals as I suspect my only goal on New Year's Day will be to successfully find my tent! (Thanks again to The Greenpages for the tickets! Make sure you sign up to their newsletter for a chance to win great green prizes each month)...
Fortunately I've had a chance most of this year to think about what I'd really like to achieve that I believe will make a big difference to the planet. They are, in no particular order:
- Purchase at a minimum 50% recycled fashion - no new items unless I've purchased a secondhand item from an op shop or from a recycled merchant such as 'from Somewhere' pictured in the photo.
- Ride to work at least once per week - since moving to a job that's more than 30km from my home I've slowly given up riding my bike. It's all on roads, it's a bit dangerous and it's just a bit too far to be practical everyday.
- Expand my home water storage - At the moment we have 1x5000 litre tank for the veggies but I'd like to add additional water storage this year for doing the laundry, as well as a grey water system for flushing the toilet.
- Expand my home solar array and add some batteries - we're so close to having no bills at all with our 1kW system - I'd love to go all the way here and be free of the grid for good!
What are your green resolutions this year? |
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Merry Christmas everyone!
I hope you're all enjoying the holiday festivities, food, friends and family. I'm in an excellent mood this morning, eating a decadent breakfast of leftover pudding and cream while reflecting on my efforts to have a green christmas. My first year hosting turned out to be quite a learning experience. Firstly, Christmas will be considered 'ruined' if you only serve tofurkey - no matter how good the recipe! On advice from everyone who attended I did end up serving meat - a free range/organic turkey from Ceres. Their local food connect service also provided all our berries, veggies and the pudding and I can't recommend them highly enough - delicious! We will return to our weekly food box from their program in the New Year.
Decorations consisted of the many solar lights we were gifted last year, and a household full of flowers and green cuttings from the garden as well as bowls of cherries and apricots as our trees are having an excellent crop this year! We have a live pine tree that doesn't particularly like being indoors but can handle it for the few weeks during Christmas... and of course poinsetta brings in the traditional Christmas colours for a more traditional theme. I hand made the bonbons this year out of toilet roll inner tubes (properly disinfected and lined), recycled paper and some party poppers from the party shop... The added advantage is a better quality of jokes!
And gifts were cut back to a minimum with our family kris kringle... We stuck to experience gifts as well - cricket coaching, dinners out, cooking classes and comedy tickets, made much easier with websites like scoopon, jumponit and zizzle (to name but a few)! For friends, baking, vodka infusions, plant cuttings and my secondhand books brought smiles to many faces and I didn't have to step food inside a shopping centre the entire season!
The one thing I couldn't find and ran out of time to make was cloth napkins! We ended up with paper which I deeply regretted... and will double my efforts to learn how to sew this year for the next dinner at our place.
And of course I must give many thanks to my friends who pooled together to scout for chairs in hard rubbish that I was able to clean up and use to seat all our guests!
I've included below some of my favourite recycled crafts of the season:
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I attended the melbourne bikefest this year - an event designed to promote cycling as the norm but containing more bohemian looking riders in tweed than I'd ever seen before! It was an exceptionally photogenic event and there was a quaint craft market with some unique recycled products. While actually riding an old bike may be better for the environment than any of these items, you can't help but marvel at the ingenuity of it all!
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