More Re-purposing - with a purpose!

We are trying something a little different for our teen programming this year. Our age ranges go from high school to 'college age', whatever that means - no longer kids at home, out on their own, navigating school/work/independence. Yeah, "college-age" is just easier to say.

We are trying a series we are calling "life hacks", or "things they haven't taught you but you really wish they would." Our first, in September, will be a program on personal security - self defense, securing your vehicle/apartment, etc. Looking ahead to the gift-giving season, I am planning a program on making gifts that LOOK really cool, but that don't break the budget (even if your budget is, like, $5). To that end, I recently spent $11.87 at a local thrift shop on these items:

and added in this clock:

I bought the clock for $1 at a yard sale many years ago, and it recently started keeping rather erratic time, in spite of new batteries. 

The dome-shaped thing says it is a 'California fruit ripener'. I guess in California they don't have windowsills or paper bags. A little gravel from the turtle tank, some potting soil, and some succulents that needed to be re-potted, and you have:

a miniature greenhouse!

Honestly, that's what I thought it was when I picked it up. I will probably find a nicer tray for underneath, the plate was just handy. If you don't have plants to take cuttings from, buy a packet of seeds for $1 - herbs would be good - and get them started before presenting the gift. Or, if you are out of time, tie a pretty ribbon around the seeds and put them inside the dome with a bag of colored stones from the dollar store and a small bag of potting soil (dollar stores sometimes have that, too!) Great gift for anyone who likes to cook! Big glass jars work well for this kind of thing, too - cake servers - look around the housewares section with an open mind. The gravel or stones for the bottom will help with drainage if there aren't holes in the bottom.

This also could have been a cool spaceship toy with a little bit of fabric and colored paper - but, I really needed to re-pot these plants!

Next to it, of course, is the watering can, with a spider plant started in it. The watering can needs some sort of decoration - a painted message, or flowers if you are artistic. If you aren't, cut pictures out of a magazine and glue them on. Glue a wide ribbon around the bottom or tie some on the handle. Yes, ribbon, I think:

Amanda, didn't you give that scrapbooking ribbon to me when you moved away? Come back for a visit, and you can have the whole planter!

The clock was fun to take apart:

saving the gears for jewelry-making later

I got two gifts out of this one. For the first, I used the frame from the flower picture. I was going to repaint it, but decided I liked it better looking a little weathered. If you need to repaint something, though, don't go buy a whole can of paint - Freecycle is your friend! Everyone has odds and ends of leftover paint sitting around, just ask!

I did this one quickly to give the general idea: clock face in one corner, hand-lettering in the other (or you could print out letters, or use stickers), then pictures of times spent with the kiddos, printed off Facebook:

Superglue the hands to the outside, for a 3D effect:

and you have an "Awwww" gift that will make Mom melt.

I was excited when I realized the empty clock frame would make a great shadow box...and then I couldn't find the main thing I wanted to put in it. I did find where I saved the note...

that Daddy came home to one night. "Call us on Mykela's cell. Don't panic. Your younger daughter shoved a rock up her nose." Turned out it was actually a pinon nut, which I saved, after the very expensive trip to the ER to get it out when tweezers failed, and telling her to blow her nose just resulted in sniffing it up further. I KNOW I saved the nut and put it somewhere safe...when I figure out where that was, this frame will be waiting, and will be sure to give Daddy a laugh every time he looks at it! You can probably think of something less disgusting that will mean something special to somebody on your gift list, and broken clocks are MUCH cheaper than official shadow boxes!

Finally, that wine rack from the first picture was looking pretty grody, but some black spray paint (stolen from the custodian) spiffed it right up:

Now it can hold magazines (a Dad gift! Dads are SO hard!), or earrings. Hang it in your bathroom to put rolled-up towels in - fancy! Put it on its side next to (or inside) the shower for your shampoo, body wash, etc. Stand it back up, fill the holes with mis-matched drinking glasses, and stash pencils, paperclips, etc. in them. Hang it in your kitchen and use it to hold foil, waxed paper, etc. - or (and this is a silly idea) - bottles!

So, five gifts for less than $15.  Don't be calling me cheap, now, or you won't get one!

Opinions needed - and I Know You Have Them!

I have a habit of becoming fixated on one particular item I need, but won't spend a whole lot of money on. Exactly the right flour container, or brown sandals, or what have you. I am too cheap to just buy what I want on line, I have to scour yard sales and thrift shops until (three years later) I find it collecting dust somewhere.

When we changed out the kitchen cabinets, we went from l-shaped to straight, because I couldn't find a corner cabinet that fit. That left me with a spot about two feet wide that needed...something. Something with a small footprint, but negotiable height. Preferable movable. Something I could put...stuff in. That part is negotiable, too. 

With that clear vision in mind, I breezed through all the area thrift shops, finding many beautiful pieces that were just not quite right. On my way to work Saturday I went to a few yard sales, ending at one that sounded promising - retired couple down-sizing to a travel trailer. I didn't see anything small enough, and finally asked the wife. They had a baker's rack that would be perfect. Sold it for $10 just before I arrived. Sigh.

As I was walking back to my car, something that looked like wagon wheels, tucked off to the side, caught my eye.

 I pointed. "Is that for sale, or are you using it to hold your fly swatters?" (Said items scattered across the top.) Turns out the husband was trying to fix a caster with no success, and was frustrated enough to sell it to me for $5.

Obviously, it needs a tiny bit of work, but I have since found the exact tea cart online for hundreds of dollars. Score!

First up is the top, and this is where I need your opinions. It had this 'lovely' sticky laminate, peeling up in the corners, 

with - ugh - particle board underneath:

The bottom tray is the same:

The particle board has become wet and swollen in areas, which is why the surface was peeling off. Obviously, that needs to be replaced, but with what? I keep vacillating between options, and every five minutes I am absolutely positive I have decided something different. Help! Here are the options I see:

1. A thin sheet of laminate

Easiest and cheapest, but it would probably also look that way. 

2. Tile

I'm thinking white, maybe with a little grey, matte finish. Durable and pretty, and I can use grout to fill in any uneven spots. But, would the grout cause the particle board to swell more?

3. Wood 

This has several sub-options (is that a word?) I could cover the whole top with a thin sheet of oak (I considered butcher block, but it is too low to be a practical cutting surface). I could take the trim off (will it come off in one piece?) and replace the middle part, which would also mean replacing the thin sheet of plywood holding it all together underneath. Or, I could toss the whole middle section and start new - which would then mean mitering the edges to fit the leaves when they come up. These last two options would be closest to original, but would also be most labor-intensive, and - hello - kitchen remodeling underway!

So, what do you think? Please tell me what to do, I can no longer think for myself.

Fortunately, the rest of the cart is sanding up nicely,

so I can probably just use either a light stain or a plain, clear varnish when it's all done. Which, you know, should happen in the next couple years.

Repurposing

Do you like strawberries? Do you buy strawberries from the local grocery store? Then, you don't know what a strawberry is. Go find some strawberries grown on a farm where you can pick them yourself, and taste one. I guarantee your eyes will roll back in your head in sheer bliss, and you will never be able to put one of those store-bought ones in your mouth again.

 

Strawberries actually grow really well in my little garden, so much so that, this year, I gave them twice as much space as they have had. They are already blossoming away, promising many sweet berries to come.

 

The problem?

These guys:

 

Roly-Polies. Pillbugs. Sow Bugs. Whatever you call them, they love strawberries just as much as I do. What they don't eat, the chipmunks run off with. I can put netting over them to keep the latter out, but the pillbugs were still getting into my raised beds.

 

Meanwhile, the library replaced the old behemoth CD racks with sleeker, way-more-compact cases, and the old racks went on auction. Nobody seemed to want them, and I was staring at them, trying to think of a possible use, when I realized...three feet off the ground...three long tiers about four inches deep...hey!

 

For a whopping $10, I got all six of these. They fasten together back to back, making a half-circle. Can you picture them, covered in strawberry plants? Daddy jokes that I am being awfully nice to raise them up fpr the deer, so they don't have to bend down to eat them, but there is already a fence in the works. And, he was nice enough to load them into the truck in well-over-80-degree temps today, when he should be recovering from a three-day road trip hauling uncut lumber and a jeep.

 

I wasn't allowed to help load, being in 'a delicate condition', so F. and I pulled all the little felt inserts out. I now have approximately nine thousand pieces of what amounts to a commercial grade carpet, about 6"x8". The librarian in me can't just throw those away, and I'm already trying to think of craft ides. Unsuccessfully so far, but I'll come up with something. (Any ideas???)

 

I love getting something cheap and using it for a project that could have cost me a fortune, otherwise! What have you repurposed lately?



Yard Sale Scores - With Alterations

Sometimes yard saling means looking at things with an open mind. I was happy to find so many crib sheets last week, something I deseperately needed, but three of them were white. I ask you, why do they make white ANYTHING for small children? Ah well, that's why God invented tie-dying.

I picked this treasure chest up at Walmart a few days ago, for a whopping $6. It now holds all our rainy day activities, including two bottles of dye mix.



Mommy did the rubber-banding, and the kids did the squirting. They managed not to get any on themselves.

I, on the other hand...

The purple hand, that is. You know those plastic gloves they give you with the kit? Yeah. Use them.

The finished products were worth it, though:

This is actually more purple than blue...

...and this is a deeper pink than it looks. It was dusk by the time I got around to taking pictures!

Those two were for S.'s bed, which left us with one for L. We used fabric paints for that one, and everyone pitched in.

Such concentration!

We included some of his nicknames:

The Ghostbusters...getting Slimer...of course.

Logan approved!

Then there was the bookshelf we found:



It didn't look like much to start with.
Neither did this library book, once S. mixed it with some coffee:

But, put them together, and:

This black squiggles are a poetry idea I got from Pinterest, and plan to use with the teens this April. Some are thoughtful,

"She understood the need to grow a litter of children to dream, hope, and to be light."

others not so much.

We'll add a few more squiggles and possibly go up the sides, then cover with either varnish or some watered down glue before putting the shelves back in. I already love the way it looks, and I have this sudden urge to cover everything in book pages. You can pick up discarded books at the library for ten cents each (although this one cost me $17...plus a $5 processing fee. Sigh.)

So, who can name the book S. destroyed?

And yes, my hands are still purple.



Repurposed Storage

Minor continuation of the kitchen/hallway redecorating. Our entire entryway/hallway is a narrow, awkward mess. Muddy shoes get kicked off here  - and then kicked all over as people pass through. There isn't room for shelves on the side, though, and this end is the only spot for the litterbox, so I couldn't put some here - until I hit on the idea of hanging crates:

Mom gave me one, and I found the others for $3 and 50 cents at two different thrift shops. They are perched on screws, so I can take them down easily when I need to relight the heater to the right!

The plastic bag holder is a hanging plant basket I bought for 80 cents and repainted. I bent the chain holders to the side and used those to screw it to the wall.

I also found two brown wicker baskets (not pictured) that look like they might have been bicycle baskets. Those will hang on the wall for hats and gloves this winter, after I give the insides a quick coat of water sealer. Those were 50 cents each.

Have I mentioned I'm a cheapskate? :) And don't you 'love' those handy do-it-for-less articles on Yahoo that think a $100 throw rug is a great deal???