Environmental-Friendly Christmas Shopping

It's never too early to start your holiday shopping. When you're on summer vacation and you see something that reminds you of someone, maybe that's a good present for their next birthday or Christmas? One of the best gifts you can give is experiences or your time. If this is not an option, the following are some great ideas.

1. Metal straws - plastic straws are horrible for our environment. If you have people you need small gifts for (i.e. teachers, babysitters, house cleaners, etc), buy metal straws in bulk and split into smaller packages for everyone. If you get them in pouches or cases, even better - they can be kept in purses whenever needed in restaurants or drive-thrus.
2. Homemade napkins - If you have a little time to make gifts, how about a set of homemade napkins? You could pick out a fabric color that matches their decor if you're really motivated. Or buy Christmas fabric so they will have festive holiday napkins. Or, if you want to emphasize enviro-friendly, use fabric scraps you already have around the house. Hem them for clean edges, or cut and wash for rough edges. Fold them and wrap with ribbon. 
3. Shopping bags - if you are like me and have lots, perhaps include this with another gift (or use with a food gift basket).
4. Sew gift bags - This requires a bit of time, but it's the gift that keeps on giving. Bonus points if you use fabric you have on hand. Make variety packs: big, small, rectangle, square, etc. If you're like me and like to buy after Christmas, buy fabric and start making gift bags to give next year.
5. Food - another great way to not give STUFF is to give food. Make a themed gift basket with things they like (i.e. popcorn, bbq, chocolate, coffee, ice cream sundae's)
6. Reusable sandwich bags or wraps - especially families who pack lunches, can use these. I have found wraps tricky to sew, so prefer to buy them. But if you have a good sewing machine, you just need a heavy-duty needle, outer fabric, liner fabric and velcro. Here's one example of sewing instructions: https://www.sisterswhat.com/2019/07/diy-reusable-sandwich-bag-wraps.html
7. Homemade greeting cards - If you have children who love to draw or paint, turn their art into greeting cards. Grandparents love these! I buy large quantities of blank greeting cards and either draw/paint directly on them or glue photographs to the front. Leaving the inside blank makes them more 
8. Homemade heating pad - You can buy millet in bulk and sew a long, rectangle of fabric and fill with millet. This heating pad just requires a minute in the microwave. 

I will keep adding to this list, so check back again later! 

What else can you think of to share with others? Please comment so we can all have even more ideas :)

Reduce Reuse Recycle

Places to Recycle all Kinds of Things

Sneakers - If your sneakers are well and truly busted, you don't want to pawn them off on a new owner. In that case, transport them to a new life as part of a floor surface for other soles to stomp all over. As part of their Reuse-A-Shoe program, Nike has collected more than 28 million pairs of athletic shoes since the 1990s. The footwear giant partners with other companies to turn your destroyed footwear into track surfaces, basketball courts, and playgrounds. To take advantage of this program, you can drop off your old sneakers at a Nike or Converse store with a collection bin. Details: https://www.nike.com/help/a/recycle-shoes

REI usually has a bin in the entry to the store. Call to confirm with your location.


Oral Care Items - Don’t worry, no one is going to put your old toothbrush in their mouth. But a recycling program called TerraCycle, working with the Colgate brand, can transform your old oral-care items—squeezed-out toothpaste tubes, empty floss containers, battered toothbrushes, and all their packaging—into new plastic products.

Once you register online, Terracycle will email you a shipping label. Slap it on a package of your tooth-cleaning leftovers to dispose of them, free of charge. Even though Colgate sponsors the program, you can send in any brand of oral hygiene products. 

What you can recycle in this program
Program accepted waste: Toothpaste tubes and caps, toothbrushes, toothpaste cartons, toothbrush outer packaging, and floss containers.


Please note: Electric toothbrushes, battery toothbrushes, and/or their parts are not recyclable through the program.

*Thanks to Popular Science for these details. You can also recycle eyeglasses, crayons and tennis balls according to their article. 

Spent markers - 15 pounds of dead markers that will NOT end up in landfills or our oceans. Did you know that Crayola has a program called ColorCycle? Crayola ColorCycle will accept all brands of plastic markers, not just Crayola markers. That includes dry erase markers & highlighters. If you collect the dead markers, they’ll send you a free shipping label & you can ship them back to Crayola to be recycled! Link to get started with this program: http://www.crayola.com/colorcycle.aspx. This program is currently in the US & parts of Canada, check website & www.crayola.com/colorcycle/frequently-asked-questions.aspx - FAQ's. Kids get so excited to set up boxes at their schools...know any teachers? These markers were collected in just 3 months at a preschool! Imagine what we could divert from landfills during the whole school year at every school!


Inhalers - More than 46 million people throw away their inhalers every year. This is a huge amount of waste that can be recycled. Call your local pharmacy to see if they recycle them. They will be broken down into plastics and aluminum.

Corks - Wine corks can be recycled and used in a variety of materials including flooring tiles, insulation, automotive parts, and sports equipment. Many Whole Foods markets have placed drop boxes inside their stores for you to dump your collection, so look for one the next time you’re grocery shopping. The organizations ReCORK and SOLE have also teamed up to repurpose your wine tops into soles for shoes and list of all the drop off locations on their site.

Cosmetics - Cosmetic packaging probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when considering recycling, but compacts, tubs, tubes, and other containers can be easily recycled. Various companies have their own programs, including: Lush, M·A·C Cosmetics, Origins and Kiehl’s, to name a few.

Holiday Lights - Send those energy-sucking strands of holiday lights off to HolidayLEDs.com to be recycled and you’ll get a 15-percent-off coupon for anything on their site, so you can get the twinkly LED lights of your dreams. The Christmas Light Recycling Program is open year round.

Juice pouches - Because most are a combination of a plastic polymer and aluminum, these are not recyclable. TerraCycle will donate 2 cents for each Honest Kids, Capri Sun, and Kool-Aid Drink pouch and 1 cent for any other brand you collect. The organization provides free shipping, too. TerraCycle turns them into colorful purses, totes, and pencil cases that are sold at Target and Walgreens stores.

* Credit to https://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/surprising-things-you-can-recycle/ 

Plastic pots from purchased bushes, plants - Call Home Depot or Lowe's near you. Locally, take them to Lafayette Florist.

Sweater Pillows

As I was wandering the aisles of Hobby Lobby during the holiday season, I noticed the adorable throw pillows, some made of sweater material. So cute! When I saw they were $20 or more, I had that old familiar thought, "I should just make my own!"

Yup, the thought that plagues me and sets me up for a basement full of unfinished projects. But not this time! I came up with an even better idea. Why not create holiday pillow covers? Not only are they festive at Christmastime, but they pack away compactly and you have your old familiar pillows again after the holidays. BOOM! I was excited to get this idea into action.

I had my heart set on the cute, red sweater material pillows I'd seen in the store. Next stop, my favorite thrift store - sweater section! I found the biggest sweaters (the more fabric the better) in the most vibrant reds, that wouldn't look thin when stretched. Here is what I came home with, along with the pillows they would soon cover:

Sweaters and my stash of various pillows to be covered

After washing the sweaters (because - thrift store!) I matched up the sweaters and pillows. Time to trim off the sleeves. The sleeves are sitting in my sewing area for future projects - I just can't throw anything away, you never know when you'll need gorgeous, red sweater fabric again!

Sweaters after arms trimmed off.

There are lots of ways to put together pillow covers: velcro, zipper, but I thought the easiest option would be button closure. And white buttons as closures are most definitely the most attractive. If only I could get my sewing machine to cooperate, this step wouldn't have been so complicated. Alas, I got it done by hand and if you don't look too carefully, the sweater pillows look cute. I didn't take into account how stretchy sweaters are, and the buttons come undone easily. If they're just decorative and you don't have kids messing with them, you're golden.

each sweater with my notes and cute white buttons

I am especially proud that I got this project finished before Christmas, to enjoy them for at least a few days. They are now boxed up until next November, when I will get to enjoy a full season with them decorating my couches.

Final Collection of Sweater-Covered Pillows

Final Sweater-covered pillow with accent buttons