Repurposing scrapbook layout

 

OK, just fun stuff today.  This is my Effer Dare #73 (if you don’t know about The Dares, click here to go to their website) — Make an entire layout using NO scrapbooking supplies.  As you all know, I save EVERYTHING with the intention of finding a way to reuse or “repurpose”.  This was some serious repurposing.

Items used:

Page from a personalized desk calendar given to me by my sister-in-law

1 paper clip

1 Garfield sticky note

1 envelope, given to us at check-in at the St. Julien Hotel in Boulder (for my birthday) – it held our room key card

2 dark blue ropes — from a J.Crew shopping bag that I’ve been using to hold/transport recycling for the past 6 months.  It finally got a big enough tear in it that I had to recycle it:)

2 flag sticky notes (1 orange, 1 green)

1 Target photo card – actually just the packaging (the top part that allows the card to hang on the display)

1 used plastic gift card – the larger picture of Ripley is mounted to it

2 plastic garden tags

1 price tag from the Sundance store

1 rubber band

2 staples

Tiny pictures from the Target print-out at the end of my orders from the past few weeks

Pencil, ball-point pen, 2 Sharpie markers, glue

Thoughts on Giving Things a Second Thought

I wrote a few weeks back on Giving Things a Second Thought - take 30 seconds to notice your habits, good or bad.  And why not take it a step further and replace a habit with a new, positive, more “greenish” one? 

An example from my own attempts to give it a second thought: 

For as long as I can remember, I’ve used the “heavy duty” setting on our washing machine for towels and whites.  A few weeks back, one of my Green Gal pals mentioned that she runs all of her washes on Cold and has for years.  That gave me pause – Why have I been using hot water for my towels and whites?  And furthermore, why do I need to run our everyday things on warm when I’ve been using cold water for all of our “nicer” clothes? 

The answer:  it’s a habit I formed when I first was taught how to do laundry.  It doesn’t mean it’s right or wrong, it’s just a habit that I haven’t ever thought to examine until now.  So, for the past few weeks I’ve been running most of my wash on cold, and I’ve eliminate all of my hot water cycles.  Are my clothes still getting cleaned?  Yes.  Did this change really take any effort on my part?  No, it just took me a minute to stop and give this habit of mine a second thought.  Did I make a positive impact by making this change?  Yes, I’m using less energy, which is better for the environment and for my pocketbook. 

Here’s a great Second Thought that I heard from another Green Gal: 

After seeing an interview with Leonardo DiCaprio on TV, this Green Gal was compelled to unplug her hairdryer that had remained plugged in indefinitely.  As she told me, she’d never thought about unplugging the dryer and certainly hadn’t left it plugged in with the intention of wasting electricity.  It’s just what she’d always done.  Until she heard ol’ Leo talking about the amount of energy that an unused but plugged-in appliance draws and wastes, she hadn’t given it a second thought.  Now, she makes a habit of unplugging the hairdryer, and any other appliance, when not in use.  Think of all the energy she’s saving!

Do you have any examples of giving things a second thought recently?  If so, please post a comment, and maybe you’ll be the one that makes someone stop and reexamine a habit.

One last funny for you all to enjoy:  Another Green Gal sent me an email this weekend to share a comment from her 3-year-old daughter on “Repurposing Gone Too Far?”

Wanted to share a funny little story with you about repurposing in our home.  Where we live, a lot of the grocery stores give away helium balloons to the kids. Once the balloons have floated down to the floor, I’ll cut the strings off and use them as curling ribbon on gifts.  This morning we were wrapping a gift for a birthday party and Genna said, “Mommy, we haffa go to the grocery store to get a balloon so we can put a ribbon on Ava’s present.”  That’s MY girl, I thought!

Girls’ Weekend

I’ve been playing catch up for the past week after an awesome girls’ weekend in Vail with my two best buds from TX, Stephanie and Deanna (DJ to those of us who have known her since high school).  We were mostly lazy over our 3 day weekend, with two nice dinners out in Vail Village and a bit of walking around.  Other than that, our weekend consisted of HANGING OUT — what a blessing to be able to just sit and gab for an extended period of time.  This was our second annual trip and I’m anxious to book the next one.  Considering how hard it was to come up with a suitable date for the 3 of us THIS time around, we might want to start looking at those calendars…DJ and Steph, how does next May sound?

Here are The 3 Amigas at the covered bridge heading into Vail Village.

There is something completely therapeutic about hanging out with your gal pals.  I highly recommend it!

Over the past week, I’ve tried my best to get caught up on my assignments from Digital Photography 101 from www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com — what a GREAT class that has been.  I’m in week 7 of 10 and I’ve learned tons.  My buddy Carolyn  at the Target photo lab actually commented on my pictures today!  Here is one of my recent favorites of my sometimes-willing subject Ripley…

I’m working on a new page under Recycling and Being Green — it’s called Personal Care Products and it’s a bit of a challenge.  There is some degree of controversy regarding ingredients in the personal care items we all use, so I certainly don’t want to be CONTROVERSIAL (maybe that would be a good One Little Word for next year?).  However, I’ve definitely read some things that worry me enough to switch my products.   Keep an eye out for this page in the upcoming days. 

For those of you Green Guys and Gals, I PROMISE there will be another List (newsletter) going out soon.  It’s just taking me a little longer than planned.  Ahh, the story of my life.  If you aren’t on the Green Guys and Gals List yet and want to sign up, just add a comment at the end of this post and I’ll get you on The List (sounds ominous, doesn’t it?).

Second thoughts — a follow up

Boy, I’ve been bad at this blogging stuff lately…I think I’m doing a few too many things, and not doing any of them very well!  Story of my life.  But I’m trying to remind myself that it is OK to dabble in things — it’s important to remember to ENJOY those things you are dabbling in and to not feel like you have to “conquer all” in each of those realms.  It should be enough to just try your hand at something, learn, enjoy, and move on.  Right?

That said, I’ve been doing all kinds of goofy things for the past year or so, and now I find myself

1. Writing Green Guys and Gals — a periodic newletter for the greenish folks out there.  It is VERY “periodic” right now, as I have not been adhering to any sort of schedule.  That means I send something out anywhere from once a week to once a month.  PERIODIC, at best.  Some days I wonder if I should continue this pursuit, and then I get an email from a reader saying that I’m making a difference (wow, that’s cool if it’s really true!) and then I’m energized again.  I haven’t written a Green G & G for 2 weeks, but I’ve got the topic in my head.  Now I just need to find the time!
2. Working part time as a director of marketing — this has been SPORADIC as of late.  I should be working 40 hours/month and lately it’s been 10…tough for daycare $ but good for the summer months, because it’s allowed me to do a lot more “dabbling”.  I think this should be ramping back up.
3. Scrapbooking! — that gets an exclamation point because it’s something I love and I’ve been doing a lot more of it lately — I’ve even completed an 80-page book for a friend, and now I’m starting on another friend’s book.  Lots of fun, and a possible future professsion…?  We’ll just have to see about that.  I’ve also created a few fun/funky cards lately out of junk mail, old gift bags, and other odds and ends.  Stay tuned for a few of those in future posts.
4. Photography — I love to take pictures, and I have a great camera that does most of the work for me.  Thank goodness, because I don’t know the first thing about the settings, etc.  I’m taking an online digital photography class, which is AWESOME but I haven’t been making the time for my assignments.  I am promising here, in front of all 3 of you readers, that I will turn over a new leaf on this one and start doing my assignments THIS WEEK.  I better, since the class is almost over…yikes.  Where does the time go.  Here’s a picture from one of my class assignments…

OK, totally a train-of-thought entry, if I’ve ever seen one. 

I’m off to pick up my best friends from the airport — girls weekend in Vail!  Hooray!

High School

A little over a year ago, I finished putting together my high school album, and I’ve just finished uploading it.  I hope it gives you a good laugh…

The biggest challenge with this book was working with all of these teeny tiny pictures — I had a tendency to cut pictures into “cute” shapes and stick them in one of those awful magnetic albums, along with construction paper letters and magazine clippings.  I managed to salvage most of the important photos, newspaper articles, and invitations.