We are living in a material world and I am a material girl. Im a consumer, its the culture i was brought up in. I did not invent the internal combustion engine but i take great advantage of it. I grew up with drive-thrus, plastic and PCs and have never really given it a second thought.
That is, until recently.. You know that oil spill that everybody freaked out about? The one that (as far as facebook was concerned) was worse than a planetary collision and nuclear winter, the one that killed every living being on the face of the Earth.. You know, the one nobody talks about anymore? Well since that happened I've really been thinking alot about what I'm leaving behind for my kids and my grand kids.. How much of a consumer I actually am..
I drive a gas guzzler.. I know that, hell I've got two of them but not because i choose too but because i have a growing family and they don't make electric full size SUVs.. There really isn't anything i can do about that but I'm realizing there are alot of things that i can do.. Every little bit helps right?? Reduce, reuse, recycle!! Waste not want not!! I recycle all the paper, plastic and cans that come through this house. I consciously try not to buy things that i don't need.. I wont buy the kids cheapie plastic toys (that cant be recycled) no matter how much they beg just so they can end up broken in my yard tomorrow. Of course that has less to do with being responsible and more to do with i don't want a bunch of broken fucking toys piled in my yard, it looks trashy.. Anyhoo, now I'm on the next step. Reusing. Im completely addicted to these blogs or shows about old stuff that gets turned into something new and useful and amazing instead of ending up in a dump. So here lately I've been really trying to take stock of what i own and instead of buying something new, seeing if i cant re purpose something into what i need..
I thought i would share with you the past few weeks examples..
The first one isn't really anything super or even creative for that matter but a few weeks ago we painted Presley's room and I wanted to get him a new dresser that went more with the look that we were going for..
This is what he had before. Its actually a dresser from when i was a kid and lets just say this thing has been through the war!!
So i sanded it down, painted it, put a clear enamel on it so it would maybe have a chance of surviving Presley and put some new pulls on it and i think it came out looking pretty good for the first thing that I've ever sanded before!!
By the way, sanding totally sucks..
Okay the second one is my little compost bin that I'm super proud of!! Up until now I've just kind of had this heap next to my garden that i piled yard debris, paper and kitchen scraps on and occasionally would stir up with a shovel.. I didn't need much, I'm kind of a crappy gardener but James and I have been overhauling the yard this summer and now we're trying to get it all ready for the winter so maybe, just maybe, it'll look decent by next summer.. Looking decent includes doing something with my pile of decomposing organic matter. Meanwhile, in my garage I've had some old baby gates sitting around.. really i wanted to just throw them away because they were cheapies anyway but they're too big to fit in my garbage can and if its not in the can, they wont pick it up. Yea i never said i wasn't lazy! So i had flash of creative process and came up with this..
It lifts right out of the ground and its the perfect size for what i need..Its probably only going to last until next spring but whatev's.. it works for now..
Okay the last one is carpet, lots of it.. My neighbor across the way (one of the bazillion other people that also owns a Trailblazer) re carpeted his house last week so James walked over and asked if he could have the some of the old stuff and padding to sound proof the garage (don't all people have rock bands living in their garage?) so he gladly gave James some of the bigger pieces that would work for what he needed.. He also happened to give James a few feet of the new carpet that was left over. I saw it and immediately thought about how for the last few weeks Ive been contemplating buying two of those things that sit underneath car seats. They're made to protect the seat itself, if you've got upholstery you'll be okay for a while but if you've got leather (like the Suburban) you need them.. River and Wilson's car seats have been trying to stab holes in the center row of seats for a while now.. Especially River's because i just put his slouchin' behind back in a five point harness and he's a little bit heavier now than he was when he came out of it.. So here we have under car seat protectors via my neighbors new carpet installation!!
Ignore the crayon in the picture, it managed to elude me when i was vacuuming the other day..
I guess necessity is the mother of invention!
The dresser turned out great!
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