Don’t trash that yet! 10 ways to reuse wine corks

Whew, it’s been a while since I’ve created a post for this series!  Time just got away from me.

With my business focusing on recycled materials, my home has become a veritable recycling center.  I’ve learned to let things go, but my wise hubby knows to always check the value of an item with me before he relegates it to the recycling bin or trash.  I give everything a serious once over before I let it go, but I’m also trying to create balance; last thing I want to be is featured in an episode of Hoarders…ick.

One of the things I’ve been saving for the past 6 months or so have been wine corks.  I’m not a boozer by any means, but I certainly enjoy wine now and then and have collected a small assortment.  My mother has been collecting them for me where she and the fellow imbibers in her peppy senior community drink lots, I mean LOTS of wine daily.  Score.  Problem is, I know they’re useful but I haven’t quite figured out what exactly to do with them, so I set out to do some research and here are my top 10 favorite uses:

1. Use as placeholders – using an exacto knife/razor, cut a slit in the top of the cork and insert placecard for special events (i.e. Thanksgiving dinners, formal parties, weddings, etc.);  you can also etch deeper and wider (on the long side of the cork) and use it to hold business cards
2. Hold sharp objects – I’ve read that many people will use a cork to top off an especially sharp tool/knife/lone razor blade;  you can also use one to stick earrings into
3. Help to balance out furniture – you know when you find one leg of a table or chair that seems like a quarter inch off?  Slice off a piece of cork according to size, glue to the bottom of the leg and consider it fixed
4. Make a corkboard – you can glue corks standing up or lying down to a piece of wood or within a wooden frame to make an authentic and stylish corkboard
   

   From http://www.justcorks.com

5. Prevent scratches – slice pieces of cork and glue to the bottom of coasters, furniture, flowerpots, chairs to prevent scratches to the floors or tabletops; you can also take a small piece of tile and glue cork pieces to the bottom to create a tile trivet
6. Make a trivet – in addition to the tile trivet idea listed above, you can also make a cork-specific trivet – either standing up or lying down by gluing (with hot glue gun) pieces together; or you can slice pieces and sew together in neat patterns like this creative crafter did:
   

   From http://www.designspongeonline.com

7. Helping things float – you can attach a cork to boat keys to help them float in case they go overboard or tie to a bag of mulling spices or bag of tea that you need to soak in a pan of water but don’t want to fully submerge
8. Make a VERY cool bath mat – just look at this!
   

   From http://www.craftynest.com

9. Add flair to your gift wrap – keep your gift wrap natural with kraft paper, twine and a piece of cork added on top (with vines, ivy, greenery as embellisment)
10. Carve to make your own stamps – this requires a steady hand for sure, but for simple shapes and with a very sharp knife, this can be done

I’ve read that you can also make a decorative bottle stopper when attached to crystal door knobs or other funky tops, make cool coffee table tops, etc.  How you utilize your leftover wine corks is really up to your imagination.

Another Etsy seller who recently added my grape envelopes to her “treasury” – a member generated gallery of a small amount of items set around a certain theme – inspired this post.  Her shop is called Corky Crafts and that’s precisely what she works with, and beautifully so.  Please check out her gorgeous wreaths at her site: http://www.corkycrafts.etsy.com

As always, reduce, reuse then recycle!

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One of the things I love about mountain living…

As the snow ramped up today, I looked out the window and found this mom and her two young (the 2nd one was lower down the hill); this is what we call Wilderness TV

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Friday Shop Update: What’s new this week!

Well, I didn’t think I was going to get that much done this week since one of our pugs (Peanut) had to get bilateral knee surgery to the tune of $1,500!  She’s worth every cent in my book but we were hearing that rehabilitation would take months.  Surprisingly, she’s up and hobbling around and doesn’t need as much fussing over as originally thought – she pretty much sleeps all day, so as long as she’s not trying to jump up or down the couch or bed and her sister isn’t being too rough with her, she’s just fine. 

As such, I was able to get more done this week than I planned and business is steady so I’m thrilled!  In usual fashion, here’s my once a week update: 

Gift Wrap accessories - gift tags and gift bows all made with recycled paper and paperboard: 

 

 

Stationery - envelopes and envelopes seals/stickers made from recycled magazines: 

 

Photo cards - mounted on 100% post-consumer recycled content cardstock (these come in sets of 5 or 6): 

Hair pins/hair clips - flowers that were previously floral centerpieces and upcycled into beautiful hair accessories: 

Coffee or Tea Sleeves/Cozies - thrifted and “felted” wool sleeves to protect your hands from super hot or cold to-go beverages: 

This weekend I’ll finally get working on my candles – I was waiting for my natural and organic scents to come in, so I’ll be getting some of those listed next week.  Thanks for checking it out & have a great weekend all! 

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DIY Natural Dog “Chewie” treats

I’m not talking cookies or biscuits here (although those are great too!), but bona fide chicken jerky.  Our dogs go CRAZY for them and they are a simple, healthy and much cheaper alternative to the ones in the store.

For convenience and because I wasn’t quite sure how to go about it, I used to buy most of our dog’s treats at the store.  Now, my pups are my babies, so standard treats just wouldn’t work.  Sorry but those artificially colored, hard-to-pronounce ingredient laden “milk” cookies and franken-bacon treats are just not good enough in my book.  And after the big scare a couple years back with all the chemicals/preservatives/carcinogenic ingredients in dog food, why would you even want to chance it?  Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox here, but let’s just say, I used to buy all natural treats for my dog which = beaucoup bucks.

So in addition to making “cookies” for our dogs, I also make chicken jerky which is uber-easy to make and so much easier on your wallet.  The ones we used to get were about $20/container, which held a pound worth of treats.  Yeah, that’s crazy, but we were suckers!  I got to thinking, “if it’s essentially $20 a pound chicken, why not learn how to make my own?”  This way, I can choose the chicken, ensure there’s no preservatives in the process and make my pups very happy.

I usually wait until our local health food store runs a sale on all-natural boneless/skinless chicken breasts (no preservatives/hormone-free) – which when on deep discount can go down to $2/lb and I stock up my chest freezer.  Yes, we’re going from $20/lb to $2/lb, folks.  I slice up the chicken into long strips, hang them onto oiled metallic skewers and lay perpendicular to the grates in my oven (be sure to line the bottom of oven with foil to prevent the drippings from smoking).  Put oven on to 200 degrees, slide a wooden spoon between the oven door and the oven itself to keep it ajar ever so slightly (to release the moisture, which is necessary for jerky, otherwise you’ll just get cooked chicken which won’t last) and leave ‘em in the oven for 4 hours.

Some may argue that it’s a waste of fuel to keep an oven going for 4 hours, but it helps to warm the house in the evening when the heater would be kicking on anyhow, so I see it as a wash.  Usually our dogs are sitting by the oven by the time they are finished because the smell of cooked chicken permeates the house and they’re hoping I’ll be generous when I pull the treats out of the oven (of course I am! )

I chop these up into 1″ pieces to really make them last a while (and to not add too many calories to their day) and keep in the fridge so they’ll last a couple weeks (I suppose if I dried for even longer, say 6 hours or so, I wouldn’t need to, but I prefer the method I’ve been using for months now).  And that’s it! 

Easy on the wallet, easy on the planet (no packaging and nasty chemicals) and oh-so-joyous for the dogs!

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Friday Shop Update: new this week

It’s been an interesting week – David has been gone on travel and though I thought I’d get a ton done, it just didn’t pan out that way.  So I didn’t craft as much as I would have liked but at least things have been moving along and people have been finding me!

Here are the new things I posted this week (click on any picture to see more pictures of that particular set or to go directly to that listing):

Gift Wrap accessories - gift tags and gift bows all made with recycled paper and paperboard:

Sold - yay!

Sold - Yay!

These puppies are made with recycled coffee bags & vintage buttons

Stationery - envelopes and envelopes seals/stickers made from recycled magazines:

Photo cards - mounted on 100% post-consumer recycled content cardstock (these come in sets of 5 or 6):

 

Hair pins/hair clips - flowers that were previously floral centerpieces and upcycled into beautiful hair accessories:

So that’s it!  Next week is gonna be a tricky week as well…stay tuned for details explaining why…

Have a great weekend everyone!

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Packaging with recycled/reusable materials

As some of you know, I worked in the retail industry for about 8 years.  Luckily it was the natural/organic products industry and most vendors were more “enlightened” than those that sell to mainstream/conventional big box stores.  As such, many (though certainly not all) used reusable/recycled materials in their packaging such as starch “peanuts” instead of styrofoam, shredded paper from their office, even reusable boxes at times.  I always appreciated this but likewise, my heart sank when I saw the eco-sinners of the production world.

Thing is, there are so many materials around us to use when sending packages.  I have nieces that live across the country that I like to send care packages to several  times a year and I also send high-quality vitamins to my parents in lieu of birthday/mother/father’s day gifts so I’ve been using reusable material for years and my packages always landed in good condition.

So here are some tips, to those of you who send packages for personal or business reasons:

1. Save boxes that come to you – most of us purchase items on-line from time to time or buy items at the store that come in boxes.  Save them!  And even if you don’t have a lot of storage, break down the boxes by cutting through the tape and storing them flat.  When I worked in retail and we were stocking product, we could easily fit 30+ boxes in a shopping cart provided we broke them down carefully; just use packaging tape to form back into box shape.  If you use a box that is decorated on the outside – say a box that held a food processor – make sure to cover the outside with reused grocery bags (non-printed size) otherwise the post office may not allow you to ship.  Also remember to remove any previous shipping stickers or mark through heavily with a black permanent marker, per the post office.  Don’t have any boxes?  I recommend going to a small to mid-size store, like a health food store, and ask for boxes.  We gave away boxes away all the time to customers.
2. Save your newspapers & paper bags – well, wishful thinking would expect one to read the news online and use cloth bags at the store to reduce the amount of either of these in your home.  But even I get the Sunday paper (sorry, I like the extras that come with it that aren’t available online) and I faithfully use cloth bags, but every once in a great while I buy more groceries than I had brought bags for and thus will get a paper bag for the remaining.  The important is that I always reuse these guys and they never go in the trash or recycling bin without another stop in the life-cycle.  As such, both newspaper and paper bags are excellent for shipping/wrapping items for shipment.  As you know, they create bulk and their expansion helps to keep things in place.  Certainly you want to use care with items that could potentially have ink rubbed onto them.  I tend to wrap items first, then use the newspaper as cushioning for those pre-wrapped items.
3. Save packaging materials – yes, this can also take up some space, but I really try to hold onto any bubble-wrap/packing peanuts I receive; then again, I’m starting a business so I need more than the average household, but really, a little goes a long way and these are sometimes a better option than newspaper/paper bags for certain items.  I even save the inflated plastic pieces, the kind that look like swimmies (haha, don’t know the correct verbiage) as those are great for lining the bottom/sides/top of the inside of your box when shipping fragile items.  You can also approach a small to mid-size store (once again I recommend a local health food store since they will understand the mission of reusing/recycling/being environmentally sound) and ask them to save you a garbage bag of packing peanuts.  Every store I worked in always had a bag or two ready to go for customers or for the staff to send items back to manufacturers.  If you have a shredder, you can also use your shreds, provided they’re not the cross-cut confetti kind which will create a mess and will likely leave your recipient displeased
4. Use materials around your home/yard – don’t have any of the above items for packaging materials?  There are a lot more options around your home than you think.  Have clean fabric scraps lying around?  Have a clean pillowcase that you’ve been meaning to donate?  (I have a million uses for fabric but know that not everyone is into making DIY wet wipes, handmade dog togs stuffed with scraps, DIY “swiffer” pads or dish rags like I am!)  You can also pop some popcorn (the old-fashioned way without oil/butter!), line boxes with pine needles/pine cones (but take care you’re not shipping something consumable).  I’ve even read that some people will use real peanut shells (unsalted/unproccessed of course) to cushion their items.  Leftover easter basket “grass” – that stuff works too.  Think outside of the box (sorry, pun not intended!).
5. Use scrap paper for shipping label – when you really stop and look around at all the paper around you, it’s unbelievable.  I NEVER buy notepads because I cut envelopes, use the backside of unprinted junk mail, even write on the back of receipts.  However, for shipping labels, I want it to look professional yet use recycled materials.  Therefore, I save all my printed paper and use the unprinted back side to print my shipping labels.  I always check to make sure that there’s no personal information on the backside and the “white paper” that I use in my printer is recycled in the first place.  As long as the underside doesn’t show through on your packing label, you’re all set.  Why use a fresh new sheet of paper when it’s going to get torn up?  I swear, you can make this look professional.
6. Save paperboard for lining envelopes – many of the items I make are small enough to be sent in an envelope, the most popular size being a 6″x9″ envelope.  A bubble mailer will certainly protect things, but uses all virgin material.  Here’s how I’ve found another way to protect my goods – I put in a “liner” from reused paperboard to create rigidity and to protect the items inside.  Now mind you, I’m sending paper goods right now, so they’re certainly not fragile, but if sent alone, the items will create a bump in the envelope and could cause it to get stuck in a postal processing machine.  Lining the envelope with recycled materials make for a smooth/streamlined envelope.  Because I use paperboard in most of my paper crafts, nothing makes its way to the recycling bin.  I save milk cartons, frozen pizza boxes, cereal boxes, etc.  These are light enough yet sturdy to line your envelopes.  Because my business is a green/eco-friendly  business, customers come to expect recycled packaging from me, however, I put a sticker on the liner to avoid any confusion on why there’s a piece of milk carton in their envelope.  It goes without saying to make sure you only include clean paperboard/cartons.  As an aside, many places don’t recycle milk cartons or any paperboard with waxy material so this is a great way to give those cartons a second life.
   

   (the card at the top with the sticker is a cut open/cleaned milk carton)

7. When all else fails, use items made with recycled materials – the envelopes I send out to customers are not “reused” per se (in other words, it’s not an envelope I previously received); sometimes you can reuse those but oftentimes the envelope gets wrecked in the process of trying to reuse (might be good enough for family, not so for customers).  As such I use envelopes that are made with 100% recycled material.  I also use 100% post-consumer recycled cardstock for cards and card envelopes.  Any stickers/labels I use I try to find in thrift stores before buying new.  You can also purchase boxes made with recycled material and I recently heard that the post office is planning to introduce a line of boxes made with recycled content.

I won’t go into all the reasons why you should use recycled materials – you know why.  If you are a business owner and need to ship an item in plastic, I encourage you to use Eco-bags – compostable bags made of plant film.  I also use thrifted twine/ribbon/embroidery floss that I find at the thrift store and make my own gift tags using recycled magazines/calendars/catalog/previously received cards, etc.

By shipping “green” you also save green.  As long as it looks neat and clean, I’ve never had a recipient complain.

If you have additional ideas or suggestions, please leave a comment.  Let’s share ideas!

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What would you do if you had more time?

Time.

This has been the greatest thing gained since leaving the rat race.  Mind you, I still “work” about 7-9 hours a day, making items for my shop, dealing with all the business/admin. tasks that go with a small business, but it’s in the comfort of home – no distractions except for the random pup interruptions, I can stop to load up the washing machine, make lunch while enjoying the view, make the commute from my studio to the kitchen, stay in my PJs, but most of all, the downtime of being home, with my husband and dogs is my favorite thing.  We watch movies a couple nights a week, we have time to read, surf on-line, go for walks, play…

I certainly was not always like this.  In college, people knew me as the girl with the planner (and I honestly didn’t give up that planner until I finally left work this past fall!).  My planner was my life.  I took comfort in having all my events, commitments, dates, meetings scheduled in one spot.  Frankly I was so over-committed that I would never have survived without it.  In grad school, I was not only a student, but I worked a 20-40 hr/week grad assistant position (hours fluctuated depending on time of year/events), was also the RA (Resident Advisor) to about 50-100 students and was on call often to handle middle-of-the-night emergencies.  I literally left at 7 or 8 in the morning and didn’t get home until 9pm and that was just classes/work/commitments/meetings – then on the weekends, I did all my research and writing, roughly 10+ hours each day.  And even with all the stress of that, I felt exhilarated.  I was busy.  I felt important.

They say that people who overschedule are those that seek the adrenaline rush of being busy/stressed.  Others are afraid to slow down because they want the distractions so they don’t have to deal with their thoughts/feelings; the lack of time allows them to avoid thinking about the real issues going on.   These people often feel overwhelmed by an empty day and feel the need to fill it up or be productive.  I admit, it’s a hard habit to break.  Being lazy felt, well, lazy…unproductive…useless…worthless…unimportant.

I’ve come to see the light, thankfully.  In addition to freeing up my time, I’ve also freed up resources.  I’m not spending money like crazy to keep up with the crazy pace of my life.  Sure, sometimes I miss the rush of seeing a lot of things, bearing witness to fun events, feeling like I’m part of a sophisticated society.  But knowing that my husband and dogs get the attention that they deserve and that I have the time to nurture myself as well is worth it all.  Life may be lacking excitement, but it’s replaced by calm, tranquility and peace.  It’s not for everyone, but I urge you to give it a try.

Now I don’t have kids but have seen so many families way over-scheduled at an attempt to “broaden” their kids repertoire, but at what cost?  I found this blog link on another blog I was reading this morning and it speaks to a mother’s decision to quit all her kids commitments and the value of time:

http://childwild.com/2010/03/02/why-i-quit-everything/

I have a lifetime habit of overscheduling myself. It’s hard to hold empty space in my days for play. I keep noticing with surprise that all my days are booked from morning to night with new activities or playdates or commitments. All that free time is gobbled up before I have a chance to spend it.

Except it’s not really free time. There’s a cost to giving it away. It costs me the ease and simplicity the kids and I enjoy when we come across a day with nothing on the calendar. That’s a pretty high price to pay for a swimming lesson.

So you may not be in a position to leave your job and certain activities may bring you pure joy, but if you have every hour scheduled, ask yourself if this is sustainable for you, your relationships and the Earth’s resources.  Could you could drop the non-essentials, can you say “no” more often, can you delegate/share any of those commitments? 

What would you do with more time in your day?

Peanut clearly enjoying her "time"

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Proof that Mother Nature has a sense of humor…

I wanted to make guacamole yesterday and only had 2 avos (usually I use 3 for a recipe), but alas, I figured I’d make a smaller batch.  When I first sliced opened up the first avo, I was deflated to see that the pit was about as big as the fruit itself and there was very little avocado to use.   I thought my plans for guacamole were dashed, figuring that the same would occur with the next avo since they were from the same batch.  I hoped it would be a normal sized pit so I would have something to work with, so imagine my glee when I sliced the second one only to find a baby pit.  The two balanced out, I got a good laugh out of it and we were able to enjoy some zesty guac with dinner.  Mmmm. 

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Friday Shop Update: new this week

Most of the people who have blogs related to their shop do nothing but blog about their items.  As you know, this is not my style.  This is a lifestyle blog, which is about the going-ons in my life which includes my lil’ green business.  As such, to incorporate this business information but not make it overkill, I’ve decided to post every Friday about the new items I’ve listed throughout the week so you can browse all at once or skip altogether.  As mentioned before, if nothing else, this might give you some ideas on how to reuse the items headed into the trash and make them into useful/reusable/upcycled items.

Click on any picture to see more of that particular set or to go directly to that listing…(note that I’m focusing on Easter/Spring/Earth Day themes right now):

Photo cards - mounted on 100% post-consumer recycled content cardstock (these come in sets of 5 or 6):

Gift Wrap accessories - gift tags and gift bows all made with recycled paper and paperboard (these come in sets of 12 or 15):

Stationery - envelopes made from recycled magazines (these come in sets of 5 or 6):

That’s it for now…I plan on crafting my heart out and getting more stuff up.  I’ve made a couple sales already this week (yay!) and just gonna keep at it, especially since Earth Day is right around the corner.

Thanks for stopping by!

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DIY Doughnuts

I’ve mentioned in my quiche post that I’m not one for sweets in the morning.  Give me something cheesy/salty/eggy in the morning and I fare much better (not to mention that the protein holds me over to lunch much better than something sweet and carb-loaded).  David, on the other hand, really enjoys the heavy, sweet pastries known to grace many people’s breakfasts.

Since I’ve been so focused on getting all the intricate details of my shop worked out and spending a lot of time crafting/researching/glued to the computer, I haven’t spent a lot of one-on-one time with him and am trying to find ways to break away from “work” so we can have some couple time.  This morning, I decided to indulge one of his favorites and try my hand at making doughnuts.

Let me be completely honest – I’ve never deep-fried anything.  Visions of a burning house have kept me away from trying to heat up 3 inches of oil in a saucepan upwards of 400 degrees.  But this morning, with a Costco-size bag of baking soda nearby and with a recent purchase of a candy thermometer (which can also be used for frying), I made history in this household.  And you know what, it was so much easier and even tastier than I could have imagined.

The recipe is here, at my favorite cooking site, AllRecipes.com: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Crispy-and-Creamy-Doughnuts/Detail.aspx

Seriously, this is not a difficult recipe at all and sure, while it’s not diet-friendly, it’s good for an every-once-in-a-while treat.  These guys really do taste like Krispy Kreme doughnuts, especially while still warm.  It does take time with the rising of the dough twice, but so worth the wait.  Oh, and I don’t have a biscuit cutter so I use what I have on hand that doesn’t require an additional kitchen-gadget purchase.  For the outer ring of the doughnut, I used a very-well-washed-out tuna can; for the inner hole, I used the mouth of a glass jar that used to hold spices.  Easy, free and environmentally sound.

I made 3 kinds – glazed, chai spice (recipe below), and cinnamon sugar.  This made for 15 donuts, 15 donut holes and the leftover dough I rolled out into long, thin tubes (for lack of a better term, brain misfiring right now!) and will be making cinnamon twists at a later date.  Clearly I should have halved the recipe because I had to put the donut holes/twists back in the fridge (in their dough state) because it’s just too much for us – although David did eat 6 doughnuts in one sitting and when I offered to either give some to the neighbors or keep for later this week, he quickly agreed to the latter!

For the chai- spice, I used the recipe in “Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day” – which is where I get my bread recipe (link to the right) originally published in Mother Earth News.  I had this book on hold for a couple weeks at the library, it finally came in yesterday and I perused it before bed.  In there, they had a recipe for chai-spice doughnuts.  However, their dough requires hours of rising, so I chose to use the “quicker” recipe for the doughnuts from AllRecipes, yet the sugar-coating from the book:

• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ginger
• 1/2 tsp. cardamom
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves

Yum.  Actually all 3 flavors were great, although using the icing provided in the recipe is fantastic and really makes it taste like the authentic glazed doughnut at Krispy Kreme. 

Although I’ve mentioned the famous doughnut shop a few times in this post, I’d be remiss not to include Homer Simpson when speaking of doughnuts.  So in closing, I will honor his famous line which pretty sums up this DIY project:

Mmm, dooooouuughnuts!

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