Halloween Milk Jug Lights

This is a quick and easy way to decorate your lawn or porch or just outside your door. Grab an empty milk jug and using a permanent marker draw a Halloween design or scary face, tuck in some Micro Starry Lights (like these lights on Amazon) and you have a quick lighted Halloween display that you can have inside or outside.

Here are some other ideas to use those LED lights for:

• Haunted LED Tombstone
• Coffee Can Star Light
• Bottle Light

Re-Purpose Idea #7 - How about Over 100 Ideas!!!

Come Follow My "Repurposed/Recycled" Board on Pinterest. I currently have over 100 ideas pinned there and will just keep pinning more! Or just go ahead and follow all of my boards on Pinterest!

Book Review: Don't Throw That Away!

I wanted to share with you this book called Don't Throw That Away!by Lara Bergen. It is a cute board book with lift-the-flaps that will help teach even the youngest resident of the earth about recycling and reusing. It gives ideas of house to reuse a jar, a milk jug, cans, a cardboard box, and clothes. I wasn't asked to review the book, I just wanted to share it with you. In fact, I got the copy I am reviewing from the library which you might want to check out too! But you can buy it on Amazon if you wish.

Re-Purposed Item #4 - Fairy Doors from Recycled Clay

Ok, so maybe it's not so much as a Re-Purposed Item as it is Recycled - recycled clay that is. What exactly is recycled clay? Well, at the Owatonna Art Center they take all the old clay scraps that are leftover or from failed projects and they re-use this clay for their kids classes. My daughter and I recently took a class at the Art Center where we made a fairy house together, each made our own fairy door, and she made a toad house.

 This is the fairy door that my daughter made. She did this pretty much all on her own. She did have a knob on it but it was not attached very well and fell off during drying.

I made this fairy door for my son as I knew he might be a little jealous that she had all these new pottery pieces and he didn't have anything, plus I wanted to made one and my daughter was making her own. I really like how the glaze separated and there is blue shimmery in the veins of the leaf.


Here is a good video about recycling scrap pottery clay.

Thrifty Thursday: Single Sort Recycling

Our recycling program just changed and is now a single sort recycling, which means we put everything in one bin. But what I also found out is that now they are recycling MUCH more, including all plastics labeled 1-5 & 7 as well as a cardboard dairy and juice containers. Since there will be no more yogurt and cottage cheese containers or half & half containers going in to my trash, I should see a decrease in the amount of refuse we put out for the trash guy.

Pay attention to how full your trashcan is, if you are not filling it full it may be time to consider downgrading your service to a smaller can.

Our service offers 3 sizes to residential customers and we are already at the smallest size thanks to the composting and recycling we already do. But with being able to recycle even more and pretty much being a diaper-free household, my trashcan should start to be even more empty.

Wordless Wednesday: Green Sneakers

This pile is what was donated so for after 1 heat out of 19 on the first (of 2) day of the Warrior Dash. So, figure there is 30+ heats (of approximately 500 people in each heat) that possibly would donate their shoes.   I wish I would have been able to see what it looked like on the last day & last heat.

If you would like more information on Green Sneakers, check out their website or FB page.

ReStore by Habitat for Humanity

 My husband and I decided to go check out our area Habitat for Humanity ReStore in search of some items that could be used for the ice fishing house he is building with a buddy. We knew the store has been there for a while, but there just hasn't been any project that warranted a trip here.

There are Habitat ReStores all over the United States and Canada.  There may even be one in other locations not listed, as is the case with the one near us. It's not on the list online, but one does exist and they have the same logo signage that appears on the website.

Here, you can see a row of sinks available for purchase. Things were individually priced and most were items that were donated, but there are new things available.

And you might be surprised by some of the things you find there, like this 4-in-1 crib that converts to a toddler bed, daybed & full-size bed. We bought this.

If there are any family reading this, don't get excited thinking we needed a new crib (since the old one was a drop-side), what we needed was a full-size bed for when we converted my son's bedroom from a nursery to his big boy room in a year. Yes, we do have to store it in the rafters in the garage for a year, but we found a full-size headboard and foot board that was a nice thick wood and appropriate for a growing boy at a very good price.

The items at the ReStore are all donated or are surplus from building projects and the profits go to fund LOCAL Habitat construction. How great is that! You get supplies at discounted prices and the money is used to help local families get in to affordable housing.

Even if you don't have a project you are working on and need supplies, there might be building and decorative fixtures that you have collecting dust that you can donate, which is exactly where we will donate the ceiling fan we plan to replace in my son's room (currently it is a very feminine ceiling fan that he may not appreciate as he gets older.)

One last thing - especially if you are local to me - our ReStore was selling single boxed NIP CFL light bulbs for 75-cents each. What a deal! I have not seen them cheaper.

How to Make a Wine Bottle Gift Bag from A Shirt Sleeve

Isn't this a pretty package? Can you believe I created this out of a discarded dress shirt in about 10 minutes?

The only thing that would make this more simple would be putting it in a gift bag (but then I would have to go out to buy one and dealing with some parking lots would make it less than simple.)


This was literally 2 scissor cuts and 2 straight stitches. And if you don't have a sewing machine, this would not be overwhelming to hand stitch.  


To determine the length you need, lay your bottle on top of the sleeve and cut 3 inches below the bottom.


Next turn your sleeve inside out and press.


Stitch across the bottom leaving a half inch seam. You could stop here if you wanted and turn it right side out.


 Or you could also stitch up the side to  decrease the width of at the bottom of the sleeve. A sleeve is constructed so that the narrowest part and it widens as it approaches the body of the shirt. So, depending on the size/fit of the shirt the width may need to be altered.


Then tie with a ribbon around the neck.


It seriously only took me 10 minutes to cut, press, stitch & tie a ribbon.


And don't stop there! Make another one with the other side, even if you don't need it now. You're on a roll, so make it to use for the next occasion.


I also made a gift bag out of the body of the shirt as well, this required more cutting & stitching. I needed a large & flexible gift bag to accommodate several things that are of various shapes that are not easily wrapped.

Recycle Your Christmas Lights & More at Lowe's

Did you know you should recycle your old Christmas lights that no longer work, or if you are upgrading to LED lights? Lowe's makes it easy with convenient recycling containers at the front of the store.

You might even be able to find other locations that recycle Christmas lights. I know that in the past, one of our local libraries had containers out with signage indicating you could recycle them there.

Today, we brought in 4 strands of old Christmas lights to be recycled and I was happy to see that we were not the first people to drop some off.
And while you are at Lowe's, why not pick up some new LED Christmas lights, they savings on your energy bill can be pretty amazing. Considering that it could cost you only 4 cents to run a strand of LED C7's for a month, compared to $2.70 for a month of running a regular C7 strand. I will blog more about this on Northern Cheapskate in December.

BTW - I was not sponsored by Lowe's or anything for this article; I did not receive any compensation and they are not even aware of the blog post, although if someone from Lowe's does read this I would love to do some reviews for you; our house loves Lowe's.

It is not only Christmas lights that you can recycle at Lowe's, but also rechargeable batteries, cell phones, CFL light bulbs, & plastic bags.

Just as a note, many non-profit organizations collect old cell phones (& printer cartridges) because they can turn them in for money, which allows you to get a tax deduction out of your donation.

I have also noticed that some Wal-Marts also have a place where you can recycle your old plastic grocery bags, that is if you have any left after making a bunch of flower bows for your holiday gift wrapping.

Sign Up for Recyclebank & Earn Free Rewards!

Have you heard of Recyclebank? If not, you will want to know all about it and sign up so that you can win free coupons & discounts.

If you are lucky enough to live in an area that gives you points for recycling, you can accumulate quickly. If not, do not despair because you earn points by purchasing Kashi products, taking pledges, learning about how to Green Your Home, taking a quiz, referring a friend, recycling electronics and more things that come up.

Tomorrow, Recyclebank will be unlocking another room in the "Green Your Home" Challenge. Currently there are 2 rooms unlocked and I earned 70 points just from those and another 40 points from taking the Aveeno pledges. Both these things are still available, plus more.

And because it's Earth Month, they have DISCOUNTED rewards all month. Some of these rewards are high value coupons.

My favorite discounted rewards are:

$1 off a Dagoba Organic Chocolate Bar (30pts)

$2 off any Naked Juice Product (30pts)

$1 off any bottle of Honest Tea (30pts)

$2 off Any Aveeno Product (30pts)

20% off at Uncommon Goods (10pts)

Some other pretty Awesome (regular) rewards are:

$10 off $50 in-store @ Macy's (100pts)

Free McCafe Latte @ McDonalds (100pts)

Free Fruit & Maple Oatmeal @ McDonalds (100pts)

Free Premium Salad w/ Happy Meal Purchase @ McDonalds (100pts)

2 Cans of Fancy Feast Cat Food Coupon (75pts)

Free Spring Water at Holiday Gas Station (30pts)

Free 20oz Coffee @ Holiday Gas Stations (50pts)

Free Bag of Wonderful Pistashios (200pts)

Free Happy Baby Product (200pts)

Free Tree Sapling & Aveeno Samples (200pts)

Free Magazine Subscriptions, a variety of options (115pts)

PLUS....several $10 gift card options at 2500 pts level

Some deals may vary by area.

So, why wait? SIGN UP NOW!

The Recycled Sweater Dress (#167)

Here is a picture of my daughter in the dress I made for by re-purposing a cashmere sweater and wool sweater of mine. You can read more about it on my tip #167.

#161 Make an Alligator Puppet out of Recycled Materials

Here is our take on the alligator puppet that Mom Tried It made. We started with 2 empty mac & cheese containers, some construction paper, glue, a black marker, tape & googly eyes. She made hers a little different, so take a look at hers as well and see if you like how she did hers better. We like googly eyes in our house, so those were a must.

I am a firm believer in not re-creating something that is already done well that currently exists, so please visit her website to see the instructions. But seriously, this is a simple enough project that you can tell how to do it just by looking.

My son loves having his sister try to chomp off his arm. Only a 9 month old would find that hilarious.

#157 Recycled Art Sculpture

This is my daughter's 3D project for her Youth Art entry at the county fair (she & her brother also did some hanging art finger painting with their initials).

We got this idea when we toured a local art center that was featuring art from area students. I can't remember what age the kids were that completed the inspiration pieces (but I think they were 3rd-5th graders). So, I studied it a bit to figure out how we could recreate one of these and here is what I came up with:

* Gather Supplies (small wooden plaque or piece of wood, a wire hanger, an old clean nylon, scissors, zip-tie, wire cutters, drill, liquid starch, paint, paint brushes, newspaper)

* Cut wire hanger on the straight part after it curves for hanging, but before where the twist is

* Drill a hole into the center of the plaque/wood (make sure to match the drill bit to the hanger size)

* Twist hanger into desired shape

* Pull nylon over hanger and trim so that it is not longer than you need

* Dip nylon in liquid starch, squeezing out excess

* Pull nylon over hanger and secure with zip-tie and let dry

* Paint wooden plaque/board/base & let dry

* Stick pointed end of hanger through paper then stick pointed end into base (the newspaper will protect the base while allowing you to paints easily)

* Paint sculpture and let dry, remove newspaper

* Display

My daughter thought her abstract sculpture looked like a dolphin and decided to call it "Princess Dolphin Sculpture".

#4 Recycle

Seriously, recycling doesn't cost you anything (unless you have to transport your recyclables to a drop-off facility) and it can actually save you money. We recycle or reuse as much as possible (even if our pickup doesn't pick up all plastic numbers) and we have our trash cut in half. With half the trash we only need a trash bin half the size and our trash bill ends up being a little more than half the cost than what it once was. And not to mention that you can usually get your recycling bins for free from your city hall.