Making Spirits Bright

Worried about finishing off that holiday shopping list?

Want to help someone in need this holiday season? 

Spend some time with the family and make a wreath?

The good news is you can do all of this in one day!

There are 3 events that you absolutely must mark on your calendar. The best news is that they're all in the same location and at the same time! 

Next Saturday, December 13th, 2014

First, you'll want to bring your holiday shopping list to the 5th Annual Check 'Em Off, Green Holiday Gift Event. With over 60 vendors, you will be able to check everyone off your list in a "green" way here. 

Secondly, if you want to have a part in helping Northwest Battle Buddies get a service dog for a veteran in our local community, you can bring bags of unwanted clothing/textiles to Check 'Em off, Green. (Each bag is worth about $2 to the organization and will get you a raffle ticket!)

For even more holiday cheer, stop by the Christmas at the Fort Festivities. 

What a great way to spend the day! 

Green gifts-what my family got this year

First of all, yes, I know this post is ridiculously late. I hope to some day write for a living (and thus, you can expect regular content updates) but that day is not today. If you think this post is late, you should know I've been sitting on a post since August of this year and I'm thoroughly embarrassed by it, because it's a virtual home tour and the lovely people that let me in to their home were so excited about it. But...I'll get to all of these things eventually!!!

I blog fairly frequently about lessening your environmental impact around the holidays. I wanted to share with you the gifts that my family got this holiday. Everyone got at least one gift from me that had some kind of green "cred." It might have been handmade by me or by someone else or it might have been reused-come from a thrift store. Here they are:

Mom: My mom loves blue. She loves lapis, so gifts for her often are pieces of lapis jewelry. This year, when I was in Spokane on business, I stayed an extra day (had a fabulous day!) and found an artist's cooperative shop. I bought handmade lapis earrings and a blue glass pendant for Mom.

Not-husband: NH and I invested in a new bed this year as our Xmas present to each other. So, we didn't do much else in the way of gifts. I did, however, make him some handwarmers (he's always too cold and me too warm.) out of some of the fleece left over from the scarf I made (see below.)

Brother 1: I found these nerd propaganda posters from a local artist for NH and decided to get my bro one, too. He also works on cars fairly frequently, so I made him a citrus scrub as well.

The carriage that transported us around the
Wade House-a living history site in Wisconsin.

SIL 1: I found green beaded earrings that made me think of L when I was on vacation in August, in Wisconsin at a little local handmade vendor fair. She also got a scented candle that she admired while we were shopping at Check 'Em Off, Green

Brother 2: J got a handmade wooden bottle opener, purchased at Check 'Em Off, Green and some handmade seasoning blends (made by a colleague and I-we made enough for secret santa gifts and some for my bro, too.)

SIL 2: V loves foxes and I often find things for her that are fox themed. (a handmade custom hat from Etsy one year, framed fox prints the next.) Earlier this year, in one of my favorite local thrift shops, I found a fox T-shirt that I thought she might like but it was not her size. I went ahead and bought it anyway and then used a fleece sweatshirt that I gathered at the clothing swap to make the pictured scarf.

cut t-shirt panels. Was trying to decide
white vs. brown fleece.

went with the white fleece in the end.
Finished scarf

Nephew 1: C often asks for video games, so I helped buy a game but also found one of Matt Groening's books for him at a local book shop.

I decided to give the potions some names.

Nephew 2: Since my youngest nephew and niece are a bit younger, I was able to create some things for them. J got a handmade Harry Potter wand (inspired by this, but I decided to use large gauge knitting needles instead of chopsticks-bought them from aforementioned thrift shop) and also made him some "potions" in reused bottles. (I glued the lids shut, so J&L wouldn't have to worry about the bottles ever spilling.) These potions are much more interesting in real life and I was pleasantly surprised by how much J seemed to enjoy them.

J loved this hat when he saw
it at Check 'Em Off, Green

J also got a handmade alien hat made from old sweaters, purchased at Check 'Em Off, Green and some honey sticks from a local beekeeper (he loves those-also purchased at Check 'Em Off, Green.)

The wig in-process

Niece: Earlier in the year, J had received a handmade Rapunzel wig from me (for her birthday) and I also made her a tutu in pink and purple. I also had an extra "potion" on hand for her in pink and it was a good idea, since J&J are thick as thieves and when he was "mixing potions" and "saying spells" on them, she wanted in on the action.














Cousin's kid: I also made hair bows for all the little girls in my life. They were inspired by this post. R got some of these, as did 4 other little girls.

some of my first hair bows (and some
rosettes I made out of scraps)

more hair clips-the pic on the right shows them all ready to go. I used some vellum map material
to cut out tag shapes and then wrote on them with Sharpie.

So, there you have it. I bought some of these items as early as this time last year. I use an iPhone application to keep track of my Xmas list and this helps me save money by not only buying things when I see them but also by buying me time to prepare thrifted items for gift-giving.

I'm very lucky to have a family that not only accepts reused/thrifted gifts, but who also buys them for me. We also use fabric bags in our family to cut down on wrapping paper waste and it's become somewhat of a "thing" to have the bags reused year after year.

Here's hoping you had a fantastic holiday season and you got some fun gifts this year. Anything you're particularly excited about? Leave a little note in the comments-I'd love to hear what you and your family do to save money or reduce waste in the holiday season.

One last waste-less holiday post

I quickly wanted to share this page with you from Resource Recycling. Some of these suggestions might be a little late, but I enjoy their round-up(s) of recycled content products.

In addition, don't miss my two previous posts about wasting less during the holiday season. Even if you've waited this long, some of these gifts can still be purchased/made in time for the 25th.

Waste-less holiday ideas

Did you know waste generation sky rockets around the holidays? We make about 1/4 more waste in these short cold months.

Perhaps you're already down with getting and giving presents that create less waste. After the holiday season, I plan to share some of my ideas with you of what I did this year. (Can't show you now, or the recipients on my list would know what they're getting!) but... I will share with you a whole list of ideas:

From the Natural Resources Defense Council

From World Wildlife Fund

From Changing the Present

Treehugger has their guides broken into type of gift-recipient (geek, foodie, kids, etc.)

Buy carbon offsets from TerraPass

The Daily Green has a great list of lists.

If you're wondering what I'm making this holiday season, my Pinterest board of handmade gift ideas might be a good place to start.

Happy Environmentally Friendly Holidays to you and yours!

-The Reuser

Waste Reduction segments (video)

To see videos of my recent waste reduction segments online, click on the links below:

I recently realized that not everyone has access to Facebook and that's where I was doing an ok job of posting my recent waste reduction segments. So, I decided to add them all here. Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions/suggestions. 

An antique camera in the front lobby of the KPTV studios

November (talking about the then-upcoming Check ‘Em Off, Green event) 

Mark your calendars, now! Check 'Em Off, Green will be December 1st this year.

December (talking about reducing holiday waste associated with gift-giving via buying local, reusing, etc.)

January (talking about waste reduction through swapping unwanted items online) 

We also have been having an issue with extraneous amounts of needles found in the recycling stream, so I did a news segment on that as well. (One note: the # of needle sticks quoted in the segment is incorrect unfortunately (or, fortunately depending on how you look at it) The # of people getting stuck by needles is more like 1 per month.)

Special thanks to KPTV for helping us get out the waste reduction message.

Post-holiday swapping of unwanted items

So, the holidays are over (Hope you had fantastic ones this year!) and I bet you might have received some new games, clothes, books, DVDs? If your home is bursting at the seams like mine, you might be considering what to do with items you no longer want/need/use. Consider swapping them! This Wednesday, I'll be going on the KPTV Good Day Oregon MORE program to talk about swap sites. In preparation for that, I've updated my list of swap sites for you. There's 25 sites on my list-I've made sure they're all active.

Unfortunately, I don't have time to vet them all for you, but you can easily click on whichever ones you think sound interesting and check them out for yourself. I'd recommend looking at the total number of items available, what type of feedback system they have, etc. Also, it's probably a good idea to decide what types of items you'll be swapping most often before picking a swap site or two. I'm a long time member of Goozex and it works great for me to swap my movies and video games, but it would not work for me if the majority of what I had to swap was clothing or kids' items. There are other more appropriate sites for that.

Here's an article with some great common sense tips to keep swapping safe.

So, how about you? Have you ever tried swap sites? What are your favorites? I haven't found any that really dazzle me in terms of handling "all" items. You?

Happy swapping (waste reduction) in 2012!

P.S. My list of swap sites is always available under the Resources link to the right.

Waste less this holiday season

Using these tips/tricks:


For me, the time of year when I buy the most "stuff" is, hands down, the holiday season. I'm sure most of you can probably relate. I remember when I first started really "getting into" waste reduction thinking to myself, "Yeah, but to purchase sustainably around the holiday season is going to be near impossible." Fast forward to this season and I can honestly say that every one of my gifts has some (or a lot of) green cred. Most of my wrapping will also sport that claim. In the spirit of giving, I want to share some tips/tricks that have been helpful to me. (And invite you to share your own in the comments section below.)


You've heard me talk about the waste reduction hierarchy before. We're going to use that hierarchy to look at our gift-giving choices. 


REDUCE:
To reduce is to not buy stuff or make waste in the first place. 

A giraffe relaxes in the sun at Oregon Zoo

• For the person who is impossible to buy for, instead of buying stuff, give money to their favorite charity in their name. Are they an animal lover? Perhaps the Humane Society would be a good choice. If they or a loved one have been affected by an illness, donating to research for a cure is a nice way to say you care about them. 
• One of the best ways to reduce our consumption of "stuff" is to give experiences. Giving a membership to the zoo or OMSI not only eliminates material goods, but encourages families to spend more time together. Or, you could give babysitting for a night to a family with a new baby or offer to take your nephew to a football game. Whatever your family members enjoy, try to find a way to allow them to enjoy that experience.
• If you're looking to reduce packaging or the environmental cost of buying something produced out of your area, Etsy can be a great option. Etsy is an online marketplace of handmade products. Often, these products are made with recycled or reused materials. They also allow vintage items, which fall into the category of reuse.
• Buy durable: The better built a product in the first place, the less likely it will be to break down. If it doesn't break down, you eliminate the need to buy a new one. Often, spending more initially for quality will pay for itself down the line when you still have the product years later. (and you don't have to relearn how to use that new toaster!) When something does break, consider repairing instead of throwing away. For that matter, do you have someone in your life that loves shoes? (I think most of us do....) a gift idea for them would be to find a local cobbler and purchase a gift certificate. Keeping their favorite shoes walking another day will eliminate the resources associated with a new pair.
• When wrapping presents, consider reusing comics or other paper. (and thus reducing the need for new wrapping paper.) With a little sewing skill, you can also create some reusable fabric bags. I'm very surprised by how well my family has taken to this idea. Now, the bags are usually considered a part of the present and they make an appearance the following year. 

REUSE:

When we purchase or gift a reused item, we're automatically cutting the environmental footprint of that item in half. (by eliminating a new item from being manufactured, transported, etc.) The more an item is reused, the lighter the load on our planet's limited resources.

• Give the gift of thrift. Shopping at local thrift stores can be an adventure and can result in significant money savings. If you know someone who is a thrift store junkie, many stores have gift cards. 
• Ebay: Lots of the items on Ebay are actually "new" and the site can also be a great place to find something like that scent that your mom loves but they stopped making or that last glass that completes the set your sister loves, but Uncle Stewart broke last season. 
• Craigslist: What's better than reusing *and* keeping it local. If you're concerned about the safety of Craigslist, there are lots of common sense tips/tricks to avoid being taken advantage of. 
• Swap sites: One of my favorite swap sites is Goozex. You send movies and video games that you're no longer using to other members and receive points based on the value of the sent items. Then, you're able to use those points to get used items from other members. Many swap sites work in this same way and there are lots of different sites out there (for things such as books, clothes, children's items, jewelry, etc.) I have a list (unfortunately, has not been updated in quite some time) of many swap sites. But, if you're wondering if something can be swapped, just do a simple search for an appropriate swap site. If it has value, chances are you'll find a site on which you can swap it.

RECYCLE:

Lastly, recycling is always important. We have two duties as consumers. The first (and most obvious) is to recycle everything that is acceptable in our recycling systems. The second, though, is to close the recycling loop by buying products with recycled content. If no one values recycled content, the market for those products dies and recycling (and all the associated savings in water, energy and pollution) die with them.

• As mentioned earlier, many products on Etsy (or at a local bazaar or artists market) will have recycled content. This keeps these items (that may not have a strong traditional recycling market) out of the landfill. 
• Purchasing recycled content can be tricky, but is not impossible. One company that I think has a strong environmental ethic and has many options for purchasing recycled fibers is Patagonia. They also have a fairly new (launched Black Friday, 2011) intiative in which they encourage all steps of the waste reduction hierarchy. 

So, what about you? What waste reduction ideas have you implemented that you're particularly proud of? What would you like to try next season? What are your concerns about waste reduction in gift giving? What are some barriers that you think have kept you or others from implementing waste reduction techniques around the holidays? 

Do you create recycled art or fashion?

If you live in the Vancouver/Portland metro area and create recycled or reused fashions, accessories or other goods, here are some opportunities you should know about:

Do you create fun recycled goods,

like this lightbulb bud vase?

-- The Earth Day celebration at the Marshall Center is getting bigger and better with each passing year. There are still a few vendor spots left this year. Email 

-- For Earth Day, The Stream Team of Clark Public Utilities will be holding a fashion show and are looking for fun fashion and accessory items to show off. Email 

-- In June, the theme for First Friday in Camas is Recycled Arts/Go Green. They are looking for vendors. Email  

--Perhaps one of the most well-known (and certainly one of the biggest!) events to show and sell your wares is the annual Recycled Arts Festival put on by Clark County Department of Environmental Services. This event is all full for 2011, but there is a waiting list. 

--In November, Vancouver Green Drinks is going to repeat their wildly successful Check 'Em Off, Green event. We are looking for creators of recycled/reused goods and also for local businesses to be part of our "local experiences" booth Email

Waste Reduction Tips for the holidays

I get a weekly "tip" email from Clean Scapes and I particularly liked this one. I couldn't find it online* so I reposted it here. Happy Waste Reduction to you this holiday season!

During the holiday season there are many opportunities to go green. The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that Americans throw away 25% more thrash between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day than any other time of year, which translates into an extra one million tons of waste generated nationwide each week!

What can you do to reduce waste during the holidays?

Give Experiences. Support the local economy by purchasing gift certificates for experiences.  Look no further than local restaurants, museums, sporting events, concert halls, theater shows, and classes for everything from yoga to guitar lessons for a unique and special gift for every interest and age group. Or, give the gift of a shared experience and make a date to do something special together. 

Shop Sustainably. With local and regional holiday craft fairs, it’s easy to support local artists, farmers and merchants. Other ways to shop green include purchasing items made from recycled content or items made from renewable resources, such as bamboo. And when you shop, don’t forget your reusable shopping bags!

Re-Gift! Make it a white (elephant) holiday! The easiest 'shopping' can be done at home. “Re-gift” things that have gone unused or unopened and find these items a new home.

Re-Charge. When you purchase gifts that require batteries, consider purchasing rechargeable batteries and a charger. Each rechargeable battery replaces up to 1,500 single-use batteries.

Give Homemade. Get crafty! Save money this holiday season by making your own gifts and cards. No matter your skill level, the sky is the limit for do-it-yourself projects.

Donate. Instead of a gift, donate to a charity in a frien! d or family member’s name.  Holiday donations are a great way to support local non-profits and help the community.

Reduce Packaging. While shopping for holiday meals, consider buying in bulk, or purchase items with the least amount of packaging.

Bring Your Own. It's easy to reduce waste when you bring your own travel mug to the coffee shop, take your refillable water bottle with you for on-the-go hydration, and stash your reusable shopping and grocery bags in the car to carry your holiday purchases. Reusable bags also make wonderful gift bags, and provide an eco-extra for your special someone.

Around the Table. Before stocking up on single-use plates and cups, save money by using reusable and washable plates, cups, silverware, napkins, table clothes and serving dishes. For larger parties and a festive table, combine resources by borrowing tableware from friends. If you are looking to save money, purchase gently-used durable serviceware at local second-hand retailers.

Holiday Recycling! Encourage your guests to pitch in. Set out and clearly mark your recycling bins, and if you have food scraps collection service, help guests keep food waste out of the garbage by using a collection container for food scraps

*Clean Scapes-if there's a way to view your weekly emails online, please let me know!