The EcoChic

I know you want to learn how to make this cute upcycled Christmas Tree from magazines and mail catalogs….

…but you’ll have to visit The Mommy Blogfor complete directions.  I’m a featured guest blogger over there…thanks to the kind invitation from Cinella.  Please visit and leave comments both here and there about your ideas on turning trash into useful Holiday decorations. 

I’ll be featuring more trash to treasure ideas here in the next few days so be sure to subscribe or follow The Eco Chic blog so you don’t miss a single post!

Tonight, after a very hectic day, we finally decorated the tree! 

Tis’ the season for our children to WANT, WANT, WANT!  I struggle each year around this time to remind my 6 year old that it’s not all about presents and Santa.  He had a homework project this week to talk about the holiday that we celebrate (Christmas) and why it’s important to him.  His teacher is including Winter Holidays in her lesson plan and each child gets to contribute with the holiday that they celebrate.  While working on his project I realized that he still doesn’t ‘get it’ with the reason we celebrate Christmas. 

Christmas of course is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ in the Christian religion.  One way that people help celebrate the holiday is with Advent Calendars.  You can find them in most retail stores filled with candy hiding behind little cardboard doors.  The last two years I’ve made our Advent Calendar.  Last year I had a different part of the Christmas Story from the bible to read each day…leading up to the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day.  I really enjoyed that version because in addition to counting down to the big day Big B got to learn a little each day. 

This year I finally broke down and purchased an actual Advent Calendar (I fell in love with one shaped like Mickey Mouse from Disney World) but I still want to make it special.  I just caught up reading some of my favorite blogs and I just had to share these ideas with you all.  One of our family friends is Genie who writes a great family and Christian blog The Blazi Gang had a wonderful idea on how to make the Advent Calendar a little more special.  She decided to make a list of 24 activities for her family to complete like 2) Build a fort and have dinner in it, Make a Christmas craft, and 22) Go downtown and look at lights.  You can see the full list on her blog or you can make up your own list.  I’m going to try to start this tomorrow because I think it’s a fabulous idea to show that giving is not only about giving gifts….but also about giving of yourself and your time. 

Another blog I like to skim each day is the Crafty Crowbecause they collect great craft ideas from around the blogosphere and share them.  They always have great holiday ideas and I found one today from a blog called Maya Made on making an Advent Calendar from toilet tissue tubes.  Last year Maya made a similar Advent Calendar and she had a ticket in each tube with a special activity for the family members. 

So then I decided to search the web for some other Advent Calendar ideas using scraps and trash.  How about these:

Cookie Sheet Advent Calendar

Mini Muffin Tin Advent Calendar

Bottle Cap Advent Calendar Magnets

Recycle Bin Advent Calendar

Altoid Tin Advent Calendar

I could probably search all night but the truth is I don’t have a ton of time to make something new for this year AND Lil’ B just woke up with a horrible hacking cough.  I guess I’ll go snuggle up to her before I drift off to sleep.  What are your family traditions around the holidays?  Do you have an Advent Calendar that is unique…I’d love for you to share it with me.

I think I’m in denial, is Thanksgiving really next week?  Where has 2009 gone?  It was just yesterday that I was on bed rest with Lil’ B unsure of what was going to happen next.  She ended up being born on January 4th, 2009. 

And here we are again, almost a year later!  We now have a toothless little 6 yr old boy and a crawling and clapping (our newest talent) 10 month old girl.  Thanksgiving will be spent with hubbies family and Christmas will be spent with mine.  I really love all the decorations and food and time off of work.  I love trying to find just the right gift for the special people in my life and this year I’m going to try to make it as green as possible. 

This year I have put together a list of my favorite environmentally friendly gift items.  I’m so excited that in addition to the gift guide many of the companies have offered up giveaways and coupons for my readers.  So cuddle up with me and start making your shopping list! 

One part of the gift guide that I’m most excited about is the Homemade for the Holidays section.  I have a great Etsy store that I’m featuring along with some unique ideas to make this season more about Love and People than about Things!  After all, we need to all remember what Christmas is all about…the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ!  We tend to get caught up looking for the perfect gifts that we forget that we can give our time and ourselves for people as well.  But there will be more on that later on! 

Over the next few days you will see the Gift Guide growing larger and larger!  Be sure to subscribe to receive The Eco Chic in your email so you don’t miss a minute of The Eco Chic’s Holiday!

Well Christmas has come and gone!  I am actually quite excited that today was the first trash pick up since then and we only had our average one trash can full.  We only had one bag of wrapping paper trash and the rest of the stuff (packaging) is going to the recycle center in the morning.  I had tried to keep all the wrapping paper and reuse it for my sons craft projects but it was too difficult to take off the tape.  Nevermind the fact that a four year old rips the paper into a million pieces when he opens it. 

I did go shopping the day after and I’m faced with a new dilema…what to do with old ornaments.  I found some great new ornaments that I want to switch to next year but now I have all these old faded, chipped ornaments that need a home.  I’m thinking of giving them to his school so they can use them next year in the classroom.  Other than that I guess my only option is Goodwill.  I refuse to throw them in the trash. 

So how much waste did you have this Christmas?  What could you have done differently to reduce the amount of trash? 

Coming up next…New Years Green Resolutions.  I’m going to make a few resolutions that will help decrease our footprint on this planet. 

I searched online for craft projects using gift wrap that you can save from Christmas (or any other occassion).  www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/papercrafts had some great ideas; I’ll share some of my favorite.

• Use old gift wrap to make one of a kind envelopes.  They provide the template for folding and cutting on their site.
• Origami.  This one is for older kids but origami paper can be quite expensive at the craft stores.  Why not cut your old wrapping paper into squares and follow the directions listed on their site to create some cute origami paper crafts.
• Woven placemats are always an easy projects for the younger kids.  Cut the paper into stips about one inch wide by any desired length (for placemans about 12 inches) and weave the different colored paper together. 
• Pinwheels.  Again another easy project for the younger kids.  And you can always take them outside when you are done and see how pretty they blow in the wind. 

Like I told my son last night; one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.  Have fun.

Wow, I’ve been quiet for several weeks.  I guess it’s time to give you some ideas for reducing and reusing waste during the holidays.  I was packing up some gifts to be mailed the other day and was trying to reduce the cost at the post office.  I reused an old box to pack up the gifts instead of buying a box…if you are like me your garage is full of boxes.  For packing material I used some plastic grocery bags and newspaper that had been put through a paper shredder.  Another thing we did last Christmas was not wrapping the Santa gifts for our son.  It was really cute to see his face when he walked into the room…he didn’t know what to play with first.  Another reason not to wrap presents, you end up assemblying the gifts ahead of time so the kids can play with them immediately instead of waiting for you to assemble. 

How can you reuse during the holidays?  Gift bags…I love them.  I always save my gift bags and reuse them for other gifts.  What can you do with all that gift wrap, ribbons and bows?  Why not save them and donate them to a school.  I know my sons school would love craft supplies; they can use them for collages, they can draw or paint on the backside of the gift wrap, they can make necklaces from the ribbon.  There are so many uses for kids crafts for these items that normally end up in the trash.  So instead of wadding up that gift wrap on Christmas morning; fold it up and give it to a youth center, day care, school or artist. 

What ways can you think to reduce and reuse waste at the Holidays?  Join me tomorrow for another Trashy Thursday for another craft project with holiday waste.   

I won’t have time to post tomorrow since I’ll be enjoying Thanksgiving with my family but I wanted to give you some tips for how to Green your Black Friday shopping!  The first time I experienced Black Friday was several years ago while I was working in the retail industry.  I had to arrive at work at 4:30 in the morning to see hundreds of crazy shoppers looking for the bargins.  After 3 yrs of being behind the counter I decided to actually try this one year…as a shopper.  Everyone is in a good mood first thing in the morning, it’s not until later in the day that all the grumps come out.  Anyways…this year I wanted to give you some ideas on how to buy environmentally responsible gifts for your loved ones. 

1.  Consider buying gifts that are made of renewable resources or made from recycled materials.  For the chef in your family consider a new set of bamboo cutting boards. 
2.  Remember when buying those electronics to look for Energy Star products.
3.  Look for gifts that will get used many times, stay away from disposable gifts and cheap gifts that will break quickly.  What about the gift of nature?  Buy a bird lover a new bird feeder.  Buy the gardener some new garden tools or some seeds for their garden.  Think outside of the box this year.
4.  Give a gift to a State Park, theme park, zoo or aquarium this year.  Not only can they use it over and over again, but in most cases the money is going towards conservation.
5.  Give a gift certificate this year for hard to buy for individuals.  This will eliminate the item from being discarded after the holidays if they don’t like it.

Here are some great links to more ideas for everyone on your list:
www.green.yahoo.com
www.treehugger.com
www.earth911.org

And my personal favorite goes to the people over at www.poopoopaper.com.  That’s right The Great Elephant Poo Poo Paper store has the most environmentally friendly gift of all for the journalist on your list.  You have to read it for yourself…I’m not sure my rendition would do it justice.  I’m considering this as a gift for a good friend of mine who enjoys journaling; I know she can hardly wait for me to give her poo! 

Later in the week, I’m going to give you some ideas on how to wrap these gifts while reducing waste.  Remember last year, how much trash did you throw out the next day?  I hope you have a wonder, safe and GREEN Thanksgiving!  Enjoy your GREEN Friday!  Thanks for reading!

With Thanksgiving approaching this week everyone is talking Christmas!  It’s only 36 days until Christmas and that means people will be putting up their Christmas trees this week.  So what kind of tree do you use, real or fake?  Growing up there wasn’t many times that we actually purchased a real tree.  We had the same fake tree for many, many years.  It’s no surprise that when I grew up and started my family we carried on the same tradition.  For me, it really wasn’t a choice about the environment as it was for ease of care.  However, I may reconsider after visiting the National Christmas Tree Association.  I never realized how bad fake trees were.  For starters 85% of fake trees are made in China and shipped to the U.S., think about all the fuel used to transport these trees to the stores across the country.  Secondly, I had no idea that most fake trees contain lead.  Lead is typically used to make the PVC plastic that the tree is made of.  We have enough concerns over lead with our childrens toys, now it’s in our Christmas trees too.  So how can cutting down a real tree be better than reusing an old one for several years?  Did you know that everytime a tree farm cuts down a tree they replace it with three saplings?  Did you know that most Christmas tree farms are in the U.S and Canada?  Tree farms supports farming, which supports our own countries wealth. 

So what do you do with those old fake Christmas trees when you can’t use them any longer?  I know ours is pushing ten years old and some of the branches are starting to come off.  When the time comes, we will probably donate it to a needy organazation since I’m not real sure if they can be recycled.  At least they will continue to be reused for a while.  But then it will probably end up in a landfill.  And just think of all of those new trees that are pre-lighted.  What happens when people throw those away, not only do they have the tree but now they also have the lights. 

With real trees you can take them to your local recycler.  Most hardware stores (like Home Depot) and most cities and counties have a tree recycling program after the holidays.  Trees can be chipped and used for mulch, they can be used to help stop erosion, or decomposed to put nutrients back into the earth.  Just remember not to throw them out with your household garbage and take them to be recycled. 

Coming up later this week, I will talk about greening your holiday shopping.  From different gifts you can buy to how you wrap your gifts.