By Becky Striepe •
June 30, 2009
We use billions of plastic bottles every year, at a huge environmental expense. Sure, you can recycle them and feel a bit better knowing that they’ll be turned into products like Ecospun felt, but recycling requires energy and raw materials and not all plastics can even be recycled.
Why not divert all that plastic from the waste stream entirely by turning those old bottles into something new? Here are ten plastic bottle craft ideas to get you going!
By Julie Finn •
June 27, 2009
This place is not your grandma’s pottery painting studio, I’ll tell you that much.
In Wisconsin for Matt’s grandma’s garage sale, the family and I took a couple of days to recover up in Door County. Along with cheese curds, beaches, and dairy farms, we spent half a day at the Hands on Art Studio in Fish Creek.
Holy cow.
For a lady who loves to dabble in anything DIY, who hates cookie cutter crafting, and who plans to move everyone out to a farm before the eldest baby is more than a decade old (I’m speaking of myself, here), the Hands On Art Studio? Was awesome.
By Becky Striepe •
June 24, 2009
We’re normally into all-ages sorts of crafts, but once in a while a crafty gal has got to cut loose! How about fancying up your next cocktail party with a home-made vodka infusion?
Many store bought “infused” vodkas are full of mystery sweeteners and artificial flavors. Keep all those unwanted chemicals out of your cocktail and get creative at the same time! You can even go for an organic vodka.
This infusion recipe only take a few days, so if you get started today, you’ll be all set for any shindigs this weekend! Here are a basic recipe and a couple of flavor suggestions to get you going:
By Becky Striepe •
June 23, 2009
[Photo by Becky Striepe]
So your garden’s all planted, and your rows are marked. Maybe you’ve got some upside-down tomatoes going, and your compost bin is chugging right along. You’ve probably got quite a few thirsty plants to take care of!
Rainwater collection is controversial in certain parts of the U.S.. If rainwater harvesting is allowed in your area, though, it’s a great way to water your garden without drawing from the municipal water supply!
Store bought rain barrels can run you upwards of $100. Instead of dropping a ton of cash at the garden center, though, you can make your very own! Some restaurants will even give you their used 55 gallon food grade containers for free, which are perfect for making a rain barrel. Ask around…you might just be surprised!
Here’s a great video from HGTV on how to build your own rain barrel, complete with a spigot:
Robert Riley’s XR3 kit car is an amazing three-wheeled plug-in diesel hybrid. The trike gets a jaw dropping 225mpg on combined diesel-electric power and 125mpg when using only the 23hp diesel engine.
And hey, it kinda looks like that Back to the Future car!
Introduced back in June of 2008, the two-passenger car was designed so it can be assembled using readily available parts. Fully constructed, the car weighs in at 1480 pounds and has top speed of 80mph. And while you can only get 40 miles out of its li-ion battery pack, it can be plugged into any standard wall socket.
By Becky Striepe •
May 27, 2009
Rather than toss all those catalogs and offers into the recycle bin, you may as well take advantage of the free craft supplies!
Despite our best efforts to stop marketers from sending us junk mail, the stuff still seems to find its way into our mailbox. We use some of it for things like grocery lists and keeping score when playing Scrabble, but what to do with the rest? Here are some project ideas and junk mail art inspiration.
By Lucille Chi •
May 26, 2009
Pratt was the star of this year’s ICFF Design Schools’ Exhibition with their Design for a Dollar contest. Amazingly, with the design constraint of using a buck or less, the Pratt students invented brilliant eco home ideas (many upcycled from totally discarded items). The competition required students to create designs that include manufacturing costs, transportation, energy, material, labor and waste issues.
Tony Parker Has Built An Electric Bike Made From Junk. He Also Made A Solar And Wind-Powered Charging Station For The Bike.
Tony Parker has built an electric motorbike completely from found junk.
Why? The laid-off worker found himself with a lot of time and just began tinkering around the house.
By Becky Striepe •
May 20, 2009
[Creative Commons photo by gregor_y]
Conventional pesticides are pretty nasty. In Australia, pesticide runoff turned out to be responsible for some terrible fish mutations. Many conventional pesticides are proven carcinogens and groundwater contaminants. Instead of spraying these questionable chemicals, here are a few alternative ways to keep those pests out of the garden!
By Gavin Hudson •
May 17, 2009
This is step 1 in a three step series on Green Shaving. Part 2 covers choosing the razor and part 3 will cover the aftershave.
It’s important to choose the shaving cream well and know how to use it right.
Many people buy canned shaving creams. But those pressurized cans hold surprisingly little cream. They’re also hard to recycle. The final nail in the canned cream coffin is that after using them, you smell like whatever cheap scent comes with the can. Not great if you want to impress your date. You have better options, but first let’s consider how to properly apply shaving cream.
Richard Gryzch has built what he claims is the world’s first fully sun-powered electric motorbike.
A project that has taken him more than two years. In fact, to finance building the bike Cryzch sold his other motorbikes and even a house.
He calls the bike a Solar Flyer. A name inspired by those Radio Flyer wagons.
“Everyone told me I was crazy for doing it,” he said. “But I’m
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