Happy Belated Earth Day!

Do most people experience a high level of disorganization after moving? I've been several days behind (at best!) on most everything for the past month, including important things like my dad's birthday (sorry Dad!). I do manage to get the trash and recycling to the curb on the right day so I suppose I should be celebrating my successes, and less stinky stuff around the house is a good thing.

I wanted to share one of my favorite recycling and crafting resources for Earth Day, so if you don't mind turning your calendar back a couple of pages, come on over to Pack Rat with me. I love what they've done with empty cat food tins, and the photos have inspired me to come up with several other fun ideas for cat food candles. Wouldn't these be sweet with a mosaic around the outside?

All Tied Up, a top made from men's neckties, would be a beautiful way to honor the guy in your life while clearing clutter from his closet. My dad has always been a bowtie kind of fellow, so that would pose a challenge, but I think this would be stunning made with an assortment of black and white ties.

Wouldn't you like to be Friends of Pack Rat ?

Go Ahead, Pull My Zipper!

I love discovering new ways to add some bling--although I'm not one to overdo it with accessories, they make terrific stocking stuffers and emergency gifts so I tend to pick up a few here and there throughout the year.

Rosi of Berry Beads makes terrific beaded lanyards to hold ID badges, pretty earrings and other traditional beaded pieces, and these sweet zipper pulls. The best thing is that they would work just as well as backpack or belt loop charms, and anything that has multiple uses gets more of my attention.

Butterfly Bling Zipper Pull Charm


Purple Heart Zipper Pull Charm



http://berrybeads.etsy.com
http://blog.berrybeady.com

We Have Paper Window Shades

My husband and I have such radical difference in tastes when it comes to just about everything. It's so bad that when we were shopping for wedding rings he joked that he should just pick out the ugliest thing in the store and it would probably be my ideal ring. The funny thing is that I had the same thought, only in reverse. We finally picked out very different rings, and even though they don't look a bit alike, we love them.

Trying to pick out window coverings for our new house was even worse, and coupled with the amount of money we've just spent on house-related stuff made it too stressful for me to even try to shop with him. We settled on a temporary solution--inexpensive paper blinds from Redi Shade. They don't look too bad out of the box, they're easily cut to the correct size, they install quickly with an adhesive strip, and at around $6 each you can't beat the price.

I just discovered that Redi Shade has a guide available for customizing your shades, and now I'm really loving them. We can have different shades for holidays, birthdays, seasons--whatever strikes our creative muse. Of course, we won't agree on how (or even if) to decorate the blinds, but since they're so affordable and easy to put up neither one of us will feel stuck with something we don't like.

My New Studio (Before)

Today my husband said, "We really need to get that workshop finished so you can get back to your glass. You just don't look right without the little band-aids on your fingers." He's such a sweetie--and he's right, I don't even feel right without the little band-aids on my fingers. I use the colorful ones, so it's almost like wearing temporary, disposable jewelry.

We're fixing up our garage to be the perfect little studio, but as you can see we have a lot of work yet to do. We've been having a difficult time getting written estimates from electricians. They tend to say things like, "it will cost about (insert random amount of money here), do you want me to put this on our schedule?" Umm, no--if the guy is standing in the middle of the garage while I'm pointing to where the new outlets and the special wiring for the new kiln will go, there should be no guessing about the cost, right?

So next week I try to find an electrician I'm comfortable with, and then a plumber. Then we can put up insulation, and walls. . . .