tennis racquet to beer sampler . . .

 



Richard turned this old tennis racquet into a beer sampler . . . complete with a bowl for peanuts or pretzels.  We love how this one turned out . . . it is Christmas gift for a friend.

He also made these earlier in the week as a gift for some other friends. 

Tis the season . . .

 

re-purposed croquet ball . . .

We found this croquet ball in an antique store the other day and had the idea to make it into a candle holder.  Richard simply drilled a hole the size to fit a tea light candle . . . and sanded the other side of the ball flat so it would stand up.  I love re-purposing things like this . . . 

recycled packing material

I was in quite a silly mood yesterday at work . . . so when I came upon this strip of packing material - my mood took over and turned it into a Halloween decoration for the office.  Some quick faces drawn with a Sharpie . . . and some raffia.  I like how it turned out.

Happy October!

Magic . . .

 This was on a take out bag from a restaurant where we went to lunch awhile back.  If I remember right Richard pointed it out to me.  He is always pointing out little things that he knows I will like - (I love that!)  I am very passionate about recycling and taking care of the earth . . . I also have this romantic, naive notion about magic . . . so I had to keep this paper bag.  It has been flying around my craft room for awhile and I saw it last night and decided I had to make a paper crane out of it.  If I recycled the bag into a paper crane . . . then I guess that would make it a magic crane!!!  Now I just have to decide what I should do with my magic crane.

" A little magic can take you a long way."

             ~ Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach

love these mushroom boxes . . .

I would not consider myself a hoarder at all -  (although my sons accuse me of being one - because they cannot understand why I keep some of the thing that I do.)  Like these cardboard containers that mushrooms now come in . . . I cannot bring myself to get rid of them for some reason.  (I do put them to use.)  If years from now Luke and Jake clean out my house and find hundreds of these stacked in the garage . . . then they can call me a hoarder.  : )  For now they have to just understand that I think these are great little boxes.

They are great for catching little bits and pieces of stuff to use in my journal. 

Origami cranes made from scraps of papers and envelopes need a place to nest.  (I can just see my son Jake's eyes roll as I am typing this . . . why keep the box? . . . why keep the cranes? . . .)  But this is from a young man who has a Wheaties box on a shelf because it has a picture of a baseball player on it.  One man's trash is another man's treasure - right? 

I also used one of these recyclable containers to start this calendar.  You write an entry for each day . . . then just move the card to the back and then add a new entry for the next year when the date rolls around again.  If you look close you can see that the entry for yesterday reads . . . Richard in a car accident on his way home from work.   Life is like that sometimes . . . (the truck seems to be in worse shape than Richard - although his back is hurting him this morning.)   Just happy it wasn't more serious.  And happy about my little recyclable boxes . . . hmm - what else can I use them for?

t-shirt to bag

Don't be Trashy . . . Recycle!

I couldn't think of a better t-shirt to turn into a bag.  These are so simple to make and so much better to use than plastic bags when you go to the store.  A simple project for a quiet Sunday.  It is still over 100 outside and as much as I love summer and don't really mind our hot weather - today I feel like being inside, watching movies, and doing some simple projects.