Old calendars reborn as envelopes

Every year, I get a calendar. In years past, these have been regular store-bought ones. My calendar selections have been eclectic, to say the least: stunning National Geographic-esque naturescapes, pulp-type illustrations, Wallace and Gromit, Salvador Dali, and vintage photos of Canada, to name a few.

More recently, however, my dad started making us all personalized calendars each Christmas from photos taken throughout the year (many of which he scavenges from our Facebook pages). A lot of the pages from these daddy-made calendars have been cropped and now adorn my office walls. But what to do with the more generic store-bought ones? I can never bring myself to toss them in the recycling bin, but I also never seem to use them (evidenced by the fact that some of them are more than 5 years old). They just sit there in our filing cabinet, looking sad and neglected.

So a few weeks ago, I decided enough was enough. The calendars would be put to use. I would, I decided, make envelopes out of them. And sure enough, my living room has become somewhat of an envelope sweatshop. I’ve cranked out more of these puppies in the past few weeks than I care to count. And I still have at least 4 calendars sitting in the cabinet, untouched!

I’ll keep some of the envelopes for myself. But I think I’ll probably give many of them away, since I’m lucky enough to have a few friends who, like me, still appreciate a good handwritten letter. And because the envelopes are made from calendars, they make for convenient little themed bundles of envelopes – it’s perfect!

They’re really nice, but I’m sure Wallace would still prefer cheese

Part of a collection from an old Parks Canada calendar

Not quite as eccentric as the man, to be sure!

Some vintage Canadiana, eh?

What to do with a pile of old t-shirts

I am a sentimental, nostalgic kind of person, which explains why I had managed to collect probably 30 or 40 t-shirts over the course of maybe 15 years. Not being able to bring myself to throw them out (even though I didn’t wear them anymore), I decided to embark on a project that, all told, would last over two years: a t-shirt quilt.

Some seriously questionable fashion choices represented here

Now, let me be clear: this quilt does not represent 2 years’ worth of work. I just really dislike sewing, so it took me that long to pick away at it until it was finally done. The hand sewing was the worst. Ughhhhh, especially with that clear quilter’s thread. If I ever do a project like this again (which is highly unlikely), I will not use clear thread. Nope. Never again.

Look at all that fluorescent! Ahhh, the 90s…good times…

The only thing that’s new in this quilt is the thread (duh) and the interfacing to keep the t-shirts from stretching too much as I worked with them. Everything else is repurposed: the t-shirts (of course), the “batting” (an old flannel blanket), and even the fabric used to bind the edges (strips cut from various shirts and pyjama pants with particular sentimental value).

After I had cut the squares out of the t-shirts, I was left with a massive pile of half shirts. Not wanting to throw them away, I did two things with them: (1) cut a few up into little rags, which we now use rather than paper towels and (2) cut them into strips of “yarn” and crocheted a whack of mats (I think I made 9 in total). We have given quite a few of them away as gifts, but here are the ones that remain:

Eco-friendly, super absorbent, and they feel nice under your feet!

Blue bin Bialetti

Did you know that cities put out these handy dandy little guides to help you figure out what you can recycle and what you can’t? For example: tin can? Give ‘er! Cardboard egg carton? Why not! Stainless steel Bialetti espresso maker? … Wait, what??

Well, it appears that someone in my neighbourhood didn’t get the memo, because this morning while walking the dog I spotted a Bialetti (and a big one at that!) in amidst someone’s recycling. Nothing wrong with it except for a bit of tarnishing on the outside, but with a little elbow grease the thing is good as new!

Now, I have nothing against people wanting to get rid of stuff that they don’t use anymore. But for heaven’s sake, people, do it properly! The first question you should be asking yourself is: “Could someone else use this?” If the answer is yes, find a way to get that item back into circulation (post it on kijiji / craigslist / freecycle, donate it to a thrift store, hold a garage sale, ask your friends if they need it, etc.). But if the item is beyond its useful life, please please please find the appropriate way to dispose of it.

Finally, to the former Bialetti owner in Sandy Hill: I’ve got my eye on your recycling bin. (Also, I could really use a new cast iron skillet *hint hint*)

How it looked straight out of the blue bin. See the tarnishing?

And here’s what a little steel wool can do! All shiny and new!

A good deed, scavenger style

So a few weeks ago we were walking around our neighbourhood when we spied a huge pile of boxes in the driveway beside a foreclosed restaurant. Being the curious scavenger I am and not wanting to miss a potential mother lode, I trotted up the driveway to inspect the pile. There had to be at least 35 or 40 of these boxes (maybe even more!), all sealed with packing tape. Not knowing what was inside, I grabbed one so that we could check it out back at home.

When we opened the box up, we found 36, count ‘em thirty-six, sample-sized deodorants. Well, there was no way we’d ever use that much deodorant, but surely someone could use it, couldn’t they? <Insert mental image of us scratching our heads, asking ourselves “Who could use hundreds and hundreds of mini deodorants?”> That’s when R had the brilliant idea of donating them to a shelter or the food bank.

With a warm fuzzy feeling in my belly, I trekked back to the restaurant and grabbed 8 more boxes while R opened up the rest of the first batch of boxes. That second trip didn’t even begin to put a dent in the pile that was there. Back at home, we opened them and emptied them into some of our reusable shopping bags. And then I went back again, this time with my backpack, 2 bags, and an x-acto knife so I could just open the boxes right there. I think I managed to stuff about 10 boxes of deodorant into the various bags I had brought with me. And there were still so many unopened boxes! Realistically, though, we couldn’t grab any more – we were running out of bags to put them in!

R offered to call some places the next day to see whether they could use this kind of donation. I told her to ask them to bring some boxes to put the deodorants in, otherwise we’d have to part with our shopping bags. She said confidently: “Nah, don’t worry – we’ll find a container or something to put them in.” Friday afternoon, she heard back from the food bank – they were totally interested! They were going to swing by on Monday to pick them up, which gave us 2 days to find some kind of container to put them in.

Saturday morning we took the dog out for his morning walk, and what was sitting beside the recycling bin? A big plastic laundry hamper! In perfect condition! In the end, we filled the hamper, plus 2 big bags – yep, that’s what 650 mini sticks of deodorant looks like!

A dolly in your pocket!

Attention people looking for gift ideas for that special urban scavenger in your life! Call off your search, because Treasure Wheels are here!

They’re a handy little dolly kit that fits in your backpack, perfect for those finds that are too big to carry on your own but too precious to leave unattended while you go fetch more muscle or a vehicle.

Our first big find: the coffee table

One Saturday morning just before Christmas (way back in 2008, I believe), I was staring out our living room window, which overlooks the dumpster. (Scenic, yes. Try not to be jealous.) And what to my wondering eyes should appear? Why, a long, low coffee table and eight tiny reindeer. OK, maybe there were no reindeer. There may have been a raccoon though. Or a cat stalking a mouse. In any case, there was definitely a coffee table, just sitting beside the dumpster.

If I had judged the table solely based on its paint job, I would’ve said it belonged in the trash. The whole thing was painted this hideous green – a kind of “work pant” green. But ignoring the paint and looking only at the shape of the table, you could kind of see that it was probably an older table, made with quality craftsmanship – not just some particle board Ikea thing. In short, it had enough potential to merit investigation. So together R and I hauled it up to our apartment and set it in the bathtub to let some of the caked-on snow melt off.

Once dry, we removed a small patch of paint to see what the wood underneath was like. Verdict: nice! So we proceeded to remove all the paint, always with the fear that there would be some huge flaw underneath. I was convinced a toddler had perhaps taken a magic marker to the tabletop, which would totally explain the need to paint the table (although it wouldn’t explain the unfortunate colour choice). But as we slowly revealed the wood underneath, it became apparent that there was absolutely nothing wrong with it.

And that is how we came to possess our magnificent coffee table in just 5 easy steps: find, dry, strip, varnish, and enjoy! (Tip: if you’re going to work with chemicals like paint stripper, I’d highly recommend doing it in a well ventilated area. A 1-bedroom apartment, especially mid-winter when the windows are closed, is perhaps not the best place to tackle such a project.)

Scrap paper orbs

I subscribe to a healthy list of crafty blogs, which provide me with plenty of inspiration. One project I knew I had to try as soon as I saw it was ReadyMade’s paint chip orbs (which I actually stumbled upon via re-nest). I happened to have a few paint chips lying around, which I used for some of the orbs. But what I had in more plentiful supply was a tonne of old CD liners. You see, about a year ago I moved all my CDs into binders, and while getting rid of the jewel cases was easy (you’d be surprised how many people are looking for empty jewel cases!), I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of the inserts. I mean, CD covers often have such great graphics / art on them. Surely I could find a use for them! And so, a year later, I did. (CD covers were also a good paper choice for this project because they have some weight to them.)

Now, I’m not going to post a full tutorial on this project – you can find that on ReadyMade’s site. But since there’s a bit of a learning curve, I will share with you some of my lessons learned.

1. It’s a lot quicker with a hole punch. The first 4 or 5 orbs I made, I did by hand, painstakingly tracing and cutting the circles one by one. But once I took a trip to the craft store to pick up a big hole punch (found in the scrapbooking section), things went much quicker. I accidentally picked up a punch that was too big (2.5″ diameter), but the second one I bought was perfect (1″ diameter).
2. You’ll need 20 circles per orb. I found that this wasn’t entirely clear in the ReadyMade video, so this is just a heads up.
3. A protractor and/or compass will come in handy. To make the equilateral triangle that fits perfectly inside your circle, you’ll need to conjure up some of your Grade 9 geometry skills. If you’re using a protractor, all you have to do is draw a 60° angle. Place the tip on the outer edge of your circle, then extend the lines til they intersect the other side of your circle. Connect the three points of intersection to form your triangle. If you’re using a compass, set your compass to the radius of your circle cutouts. Draw a circle on a piece of paper. Pick any point on the edge of your circle and label it Point A. Put your compass on Point A and draw an arc that intersects the circle twice. Call these intersection points B and C. Place your compass on B now and draw an arc that intersects the circle to the right of B (call it D). Now put your compass on Point C and draw an arc that intersects to the right of C (call it E). Now join AD, DE, and EA to form the 3 sides of your triangle. (If this was hard to follow, try Googling! There are lots of smart mathies out there ready to help.)
4. Small bulldog paper clips are your friends. Fitting the 2 halves of the orb together can be a pain. I found that if I put them together first using some bulldog paper clips, the whole thing went much more smoothly.

That’s all! I made a whole whack of these this year as Christmas ornaments to give as gifts. They’re unique, green, simple, pretty, and cheap like borscht!

Earth Day Canada: 2010 EcoAction Challenge

For all you repurposers, upcyclers, scavengers, and otherwise crafty and/or eco-minded Canadians out there:

Earth Day Canada is running a contest for environmentally beneficial projects. Submit your how-to instructions and you could win 1 of 12 digital camcorders and cameras.

Can’t wait to see the entries!

What to do with upholstery samples

R found five fabulous upholstery samples at our friendly neighbourhood thrift store and picked them up with the idea that we’d turn them into decorative wall hangings. And we did, at least with four of them. What did we do with the fifth, you ask? We turned it into a fancy schmancy earring hanger!

The earring hanger was actually the first thing we made. All it took was a trip to the art store for a wooden canvas frame and a visit to our neighbours’ to borrow their trusty staple gun. Easy peasy.

The wall hangings were even better because there was actual scavenging involved. Wheeeee! One day, in the dead of winter, I went to toss some garbage in the dumpster, and what was sitting beside the dumpster? Oh yes, it was 6 or 7 canvases! The paintings themselves were hideous – clearly done by a student who thought taking Fine Arts 101 would be a bird course. But that was OK, because all I wanted was the wood frames underneath. I scooped up the best four and took them inside to rip off the canvas (which was promptly returned to the dumpster where it belonged). A few squeezes of the staple gun later and we had a series of four lovely wall hangings that now adorn our bedroom wall.

Be gone, hideous brown vinyl!

Reupholstering furniture is not as easy as those design shows on HGTV would have you believe. Or maybe we’re just dunces. In any case, here’s the story of our first foray into the wonderful world of furniture reupholstery…

One night as I was walking Dexter (in the rain), I saw a set of 4 absolutely hideous chairs sitting in front of one of the neighbouring buildings. When I say hideous, I mean hideous. Well, here, see for yourself:

Lovely, no? But look at the legs. There’s potential there, right? At least that’s what I thought on that dark, rainy night. So I ran back inside, told R about them (even tried to sketch the shape of the legs, quite unsuccessfully), and thankfully managed to convince her that they were worth going out in the rain to take a peek. I completely thought she’d hate them, but no! She loved the legs too! Because we only have a 1-bedroom apartment, we decided to take 2 of the 4 chairs.

And so began the long, frustrating process of re-doing these chairs. Here’s the skinny on how it unfolded:

1. We took apart the chairs — unscrewed the backs and seats from the legs, then removed that beautiful brown vinyl. Thankfully R had the foresight to save the best pieces of vinyl to serve as the pattern for the new coverings.
2. What lurked under that vinyl was scary. The foam was shot – totally moldy. Even the wood had mold growing on it. So we chucked the foam (obviously), but since we don’t have a wood shop out back for occasions such as this (shocking, I know), we had to do what we could to salvage the frame. That involved rubber gloves, bleach, and a little elbow grease.
3. After the freshly washed wood was dry, I painted it. You know, just in case. Fortunately, the previous tenant had left behind some fuchsia paint – terrible wall colour, but fine for wood that’s going to be covered by both foam and fabric.

After all the prep work, we needed to take a trip to the fabric store. We trekked out to Rockland Textiles who, unbeknownst to us, were celebrating some big anniversary that day, so there was plenty of free food to munch on as we browsed the samples. We spent over an hour in the main front room, looking through swatch books. Finally we both fell in love with the same fabric! It was perfect – beautiful, sophisticated yet understated, neutral. Perfect, that is, until we saw the price. I think I nearly choked on the free two-bite brownies I was scarfing down when the helpful salesperson told us it was in the order of hundreds of dollars per yard. Deflated, we kept searching. Book after book. Finally – and I don’t know why we didn’t do this earlier – we said to each other that there must be some sort of warehouse part to the store, you know, the part of the store where the ordinary plebs shop. We wandered away from that front room (away, sadly, from the goodies) and, lo and behold, stumbled into the cheap room, where we eventually found our fabric (for less than $10 a yard, if I recall correctly) and the requisite foam.

After that it was a flurry of scissors, needles, and staple guns. R did most of the pattern-making and sewing, bless her heart, while I wielded the staple gun. In the end, we got it done. They aren’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination — they’re a bit lumpy, the fabric sags here and there — but what an improvement!