There are 7 posts tagged recycle (this is page 1 of 2).
These are created with marshmallows and candy, etc. But, I’d have more fun making them as a toilet roll version. An upcycled version with things from the recycling bin. I’m going to start saving finished toilet paper rolls and other bits and pieces and see what I can come up with. Everyone needs a project.
Plants don’t destroy clothing or furniture, they don’t bite, drool or bark. You don’t need a bag to pick up their poop if you take them on a walk. You don’t need to take plants to the vet.
Plants can smell wonderful. You can eat some of them, if you choose. Plants are green, real living things, and stay right where you put them. You can take day trips, or longer, and not worry about what your plants have done while you were away. Plants recycle carbon dioxide into air you can breathe. Plants are easy to recycle. You can talk to plants in any language.
You don’t need a “green thumb” to be an indoor gardener. Some research into the plants that will grow well in your space, indoors, is important and will help a lot with your success rate. Usually, plants like a sunny, south facing window. If you don’t have a sunny spot look into shade plants, the ones that tend to grow under trees. But, most don’t want all day sun, which isn’t a problem as our planet revolves around the sun and no window I’ve seen has full sun glaring in all day. Some plants like extra water, some very little and watering will depend on the season. Some plants like rich soil and some thrive better in poor dirt (but not dirt from outside for indoor plants – an insect issue).
You can start with a small herb garden in a window. Or, if there is a plant you really like, try it. Look for houseplants, indoor garden plants and container gardens online and see what other people are doing. You might find a local group of indoor gardeners and see what they grow. Even indoors, some plants work better than others depending on your location. Starting in Spring is generally better. Most plants are dormant over winter so don’t set yourself up for discouragement. Plan in winter, plant in spring.
If you want to spend money on your plants, look for pretty, unique, artsy pots to keep them in. Upgrade to something fancy each time you repot your plant or use something you find at the thrift store like an old teapot. Repotting doesn’t have to be messy or troublesome (garden gloves are a good idea for cactus plants) put down newspaper or a plastic bag to collect dirt and the odd bit of root or leaf that goes astray. There are plants which like being potbound/ rootbound (left in the same pot as they grow).
The proclivity humans have towards plants is certainly not unique to the millennial generation: Houseplants are a concept that is believed to have originated in ancient Greece and Rome as early as 500 BC and in China as early as 200 CE. After all, the first imagined paradise on Earth was the Garden of Eden.
A well-cultivated plant can far outlive even our beloved pets, and can propagate more plants and literally grow alongside you and your family. “I think about the plants that are in my childhood home, and most of them are actually older than I am,” Blank reflects. “Plants have a weird connection to time. There’s a plant in my parent’s home that was propagated from my grandparents’ home and that plant has given life to plants in my friends’ homes, and there’s something so magical about that. This is why I find plants so compelling.”
Source – Why are more millennials buying into plant parenthood?
On a side note, the parent thing bothers me. I am never going to be a parent to an animal (non-human) or a plant. I don’t even want to be. Animals are not children, they grow up to be adult animals and it seems really needy to call yourself the parent of an animal that should have the respect of being an adult, a creature capable of managing it’s own life. We make animals/pets dependent, which is not at all the role of a good parent. You could say the same about indoor plants, but, they don’t seem to suffer for it as much as the animals do.
It is a sad thing that we seldom use our phone books any more. At least, not for their intended purpose. With the Internet as a quick source for local information (like business addresses and phone numbers) the phone book has become a large recyclable object. Sometimes an effective doorstop, child booster seat or an especially thick phone book can be added to the wood burning in the fireplace (if you have one).
It’s ironic that once the Internet was booming the phone books started dropping out of the sky. We were getting five different phone books each year at one point. The main one still being from the phone company itself. Then four others from various other sources, all companies who sold their service to local business and then promised great results. Well, who needs that many phone books in one place (one small house in my case). I did recycle all of them – without ever having used them at all.
This brings me to this past week when I was travelling to Sudbury, Ontario with my nephew and his Grandmother (my Mom). We were there for him to tour his university. Zack will be living on site and taking psychology this Fall. Anyway, I’ve been to Sudbury before. There were a couple of places I wanted to see again, like MIC (a Canadian themed restaurant). We stayed three days so I wanted to find more to do and see. Thus the phone book. I looked up all the standard things I look for (secondhand bookstores and coffee shops). Zack looked at the games stores and my Mom looked at garden centres. We each found a few places to explore. So the phone book was put to it’s intended use.
I think it is only in such a case that the phone book is still useful. Yes, we could have found the same information online and we each did have the hardware to do it. I just dislike pulling out the computer when I’m travelling. I like being less digitally inclined and having a small digital sabbatical.
Did you know that businesses can opt out of the Yellow Pages phone directory now? I wonder why they would do that. I can understand not placing a large ad but to at least have the small text ad, to at least be mentioned, still seems like a worthwhile idea. Not everyone is as plugged into the Internet that they rely on it fully and completely. If you have a business which helps people in times of crisis (like a personal trauma or the power going out), you really should have a yellow pages listing.
So goes the legendary phone book. When did you last use it in some way? Whether you found a creative use for it, actually looked up a business or just added it to the recycling – I hope you did not do it without a little thought for the old phone book.
Did Your Grandmother Have Dolls in her Bathroom?
I remember these from my Grandmother’s house, in the bathroom. She knitted her own from patterns that have disappeared along with most of her stuff after her death years ago. I don’t know how to knit (I learned to crochet on my own) but it would have been nice to have some of her old knitting patterns. Sometimes I see interesting or unusual patterns in the thrift store but I don’t buy them. I don’t knit after all.
The History of the Toilet Roll Dolly
There isn’t a lot of history to the dolls. In the 1960’s they began appearing in North America and likely various Common Wealth and European locations too. I can only vouch for those I saw in Canada, mainly Ontario.
I expect the idea came along when there was extra yarn, some time for a new project, maybe a broken doll and the idea was born. Pretty up your bathroom. In the 1960’s there were other home made fashions in the bathroom. I can think of toilet seat covers, something I haven’t seen a big return on with all the vintage and retro ideas. You could co-ordinate your doll’s dress with your pretty toilet seat cover, the bathroom floor rug and anything else already decorating the bathroom. Maybe that was how she really got started. Not only could you add more home made crafts, more colour and keep that broken doll around for a reason but you could … make it all shades of pink matching.
There was likely some idea about modestly hiding that unsightly naked toilet roll too.
Specifications for Making Your Own Toilet Roll Doll Cosie
I have yet to see a vintage pattern for those old toilet roll cover dolls. That’s how I started writing about them today. I’m seeing what I can turn up online.
I can find an endless supply of the little dolls at thrift stores. They are abandoned by children everywhere, so it would be a good way to recycle/ repurpose some of them. You can pick and choose from weird blue hair colour to a weird blue skin colour and the standard human shades of brown colours too.
The only thing that matters about the doll is her height and width. She can’t stand too tall and tip over inside the toilet roll. She also needs to be the right width to fit through the centre of the cardboard roll from about the waist down. Mainly her legs need to be inside the roll as the skirt of her dress covers the toilet paper roll – that leaves her above the roll from the waist up.
Free Toilet Roll Cosie Patterns
Toilet Paper Doll Cover: Crochetnmore.com
Toilet Paper Roll Cover and Kitschy Doily
My Kid Craft: Paper Toilet Roll Doll
The last pattern is an update on the vintage dolls. This one can be made with children, from paper and crayons. Simple and faster for those who don’t want to buy one.
\What do you Call your Toilet Roll Doll?
I guess you could properly call them toilet roll cosies, or toilet roll toppers too. I never found out what my Grandmother actually called hers. I always enjoyed seeing them though. She never made one for me, that I can remember. Maybe she just thought they weren’t really anything special. But, they were.
If you haven’t had enough toilet roll dolls yet…
YouTube – The Toilet Roll Dolls Perform Some Juggling
YouTube – The Toilet Roll Dolls Help Themselves to Chocolate
Regifting isn’t beloved by everyone. But, it makes sense in a world of reusing, recycling, reducing and repurposing. Why not find a new home for a gift that did not suit you? Unless it’s a pretty odd ball gift there is a chance someone will think it is wonderful. Or, you can at least give it to a thrift shop to resell. It’s a shame to just throw away a gift, it should be very bad luck at the very least. It is bad manners and inconsiderate. That’s how I felt when it was my gift that was thrown away.
What do you feel about regifting… why or why not?
Think of one kind of annoying day to day kind of task which irritates you about writing. For me it is just making myself stop all the other hundred little things I could be doing and settle down to start the writing project. Or, I could say the most aggravating thing is having a ton of material/ articles/ drawings I have as inspiration and information but I seldom take the time to organize it so that any of it is actually being used. It is a good idea to have information and inspiration around but at this point I should just dump it all and get rid of the clutter which does really bug me.
What writing related task are you putting off? Is there a way you could accomplish this and get it out of your way? Maybe pay someone to do it, or just give up and recycle it (as with all my paper stashes), or actually focus and buckle down to get it done?
Take the little things that keep you from writing out of your way. Give yourself more room to write?