Etsy Artist Creates Magic from Palm Trees

From this....

To this....

An Etsy store owner takes reclaimed palm fronds from trees and creates interesting characters from her imagination. Janet, who is a native of Florida, has been painting palm fronds for approximately 13 years. To relax, she rides her bike around searching for fronds that catch her eye and inspire her to create fun works of art.

She also recycles many different materials to use in her art, including rubber to make the fins and teeth for this particular fish.

If you would like to see more, you can check out her Etsy store at http://www.etsy.com/shop/IntoTheTrees?ref=seller_info

To relax, Janet spends her time riding her bike to find new fronds that inspire her to paint. Not knowing what you'll find is what keeps it exciting for this artist.

Eco Clear Bags

I received a catalog after my order of clear bags and I was thrilled to see Eco Clear Bags. They are also compostable. How cool is that?

I plan on buying them next time. There's a pretty good selection. Thought I would share because I know I have some followers who have Etsy stores and may be interested in ordering these for their items.

http://http//www.clearbags.com/catalog/product/view/id/3069

So excited

Today, I finally took some time for myself and went to Salvation Army then Goodwill. At first, I was bummed because I saw a huge guilded mirror I wanted to paint ivory and hang in my daughter's bedroom. I wanted to make it look shabby chic but it was gone. When will I

ever learn...

I did manage to find two candle sticks that were ceramic and a ceramic plate that matched one of the candle sticks to make a cake plate. I found a recipe tin which I plan on making into a magnet recipe tin. Still had blank recipe cards inside.

Then I found a small hanging white jewelry cabinet that's missing a knob. I plan on painting it hot pink and black. I found the perfect pink jewel knob to match. Will make a cute tween gift. Everything for under $5. I can't wait to get started on these projects. I love going because there are so many things you can repurpose from what people discard. I will post pics as soon as I am done.

A little time, a little ingenuity, and a whole lot of imagination can make something beautiful and useful again. Thrills me every time.

Family Fun Friends of Change Volunteer Contest

For fun I do sweepstakes and I came across this one. If you volunteer to make your community a greener place, you might qualify.

Last year's first prize winner was students from the Clifford School in Redwood City, CA who started a lunchtime recycling program. They obtained a grant to buy bins for collecting plastic and aluminum.

And students in the Jenison Public School in Jenison, MI collected phone books then donated them to a local company who makes ecofriendly cellulose insulation for homes. Imagine what you can do?

For our eighth annual volunteering awards, FamilyFun is partnering with Disney Friends for Change to celebrate all the ways families work to improve their communities. Together with generationOn (the youth division of Points of Light Institute), we'll select four grand-prize winners and ward $5,000 to each winner's favorite charity! Five first-place winners will receive $1,000 for their charity of choice. The entry deadline is November 30.

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Entry form: http://familyfun.go.com/assets/cms/pdf/magazine/2012FFVolunteersEntryFormv2_distributed[1].pdf

Official Rules:http://familyfun.go.com/magazine/friends-for-change-volunteers-contest-official-rules-2012-1023924/

Good Luck!!

Etsy Shop Owner Uses Found Objects to Make Jewelry

Queenginya's store owner began making jewelry from everyday things she found since she was 4 years old.

"What got me interested in opening a shop was buying a giant box of found objects at an estate sale and making all kinds of things for my exchange students. Weird pieces made with spent gun shell casings, buttons, pencil ends, old whistles, crazy stuff...and they loved it."

"As odd as it sounds I let the item 'tell' me what it wants to be. Some things I may have bought years ago and still am waiting for the vision...I bought a baggie of old clip sunglass lenses years ago because the edge was decorative metal. I finally made them into pins and necklaces. You just never know."

The items in Queenginya's store range from buttons, root beer tops, beads from curtains and lampshades, zippers and more. She is inspired more by the items that she finds in garage sales, estate sales and flea markets than things could can find in craft stores. Its the hunt in finding unique items and the challenge of finding a new use that really gets the creativity flowing for this jewelry artist. If you would like to see more items, click on http://www.etsy.com/people/queenginya.

Win win proposition

I'm always tickled when I come across an idea that is a win/win situation for all involved. A lot of organizations recycle cell phones to raise their donations money and that is really great. But I came across this website called http://www.plantmyphone.com/ that has a very unique concept when it comes to recycling cell phones.

Here's how it works:

• You go online and either print a free shipping label or request a free mailer bag to be sent to you.


• Put your phone and mail it back to them. They sell the recycled materials (metals) and the money is used to buy trees that will be planted. You receive an email as to how many trees were planted because of your contribution. I guess some cell phones contain more recyclable materials than others or metals that are worth more.

It's a pretty cool concept especially since people upgrade their cell phones every couple of years and the technology of the phones is constantly changing.

Another use for junk mail

Here's another use for the junk mail. Sometimes, companies include a blank envelope in their mailings. I keep them in a folder to use when I begin to harvest my veggies. I had a good harvest this year with all the rain we had.

When I dry the seeds, I store them in these envelopes and tape it shut. The envelopes get stored in a drawer in my dining room where temps are consistent.

Yesterday, I just dried some cantelope seeds and seeds from an enormous cucumber that my neighbor dropped off. We'll see if I can grow them next year.