My New Green Red Glider

For the past 20  years or so, this wicker loveseat has been the centerpiece of our cozy covered porch that overlooks our large back yard. Please pardon the bad photo--it's the only one I could find at  the moment.

When I bought this loveseat at a garage sale, it was probably already 15 or more years old and had seen a significant amount of wear. I never would have dreamed it would have lasted this long. Although, the past couple of years, I prayed each time someone sat on it that they wouldn't fall through to the floor!

Introducing safe seating, a pop of color and an eco-friendly solution.

This wonderful glider is my Mother's Day gift. But, it was back ordered and just arrived this past week. I'm so excited that it's made of recycled plastics and is guaranteed not to fade. It's so comfy while being environmentally responsible.

It allowed me to change up the look of the porch a bit, but it still coordinates with my sweet yellow quilted chair covers. I moved my Swift Premium box, which some of you may remember was on my front porch and am using it as a coffee table.

The Canada Dry crate will be a handy place to set drink bottles and glasses to keep them from being batted around by our black lab's tail. A vintage ice chest with a soft top pairs nicely with the glider and creates an additional seat for guests, when needed.

The globes hanging from the vintage chandelier in the corner glow in the dark. My little neighbor girls really enjoy them.

I'm looking for a new outdoor rug to tie things together a little better. The old rug has seen better days and now seems too small. Didn't have time for shopping this weekend. Next weekend, perhaps.

Now we're gliding in style.

Make it a great day!

Linking to:

Serenity Saturday

Share It Sunday
Much Ado About Monday
You're Gonna Love It Tuesday
The Scoop

My Newest Hang Up; National Photo Month, Day 16

Recently, my makeshift jewelry hanger collapsed and all my necklaces ended up in a heap on the floor. What a mess!

I laid the mish-mash of chains on the daybed in what we fondly call our "Patriotic Room" and planned to create a new hanger.

At an artisan boutique the following weekend, I came across this eco-friendly hanger made from a birch branch and equipped with rustic nail heads. Perfection!

Now I needed a unique to display the hanger, so I set out to find something at the local craft store. I found a nice burlap square with a black metal hook. Right piece. Wrong finish. Nothing I couldn't fix, though.

I also bought a couple of inexpensive rusty keys that coordinate well with the rusty nail heads on the wood and the wire hanger. And, I decided to use the artwork I recently created for my peat pot project so the hanger would coordinate with the peat pot.

As much as I like the natural look of burlap, I decided to paint it antique white. I like the way it blends with the birch of the jewelry hanger.

The black hook definitely didn't work. I mixed a couple of different brown paints with gel medium and dabbed on a fairly heavy coat. When it dried, it looked pretty close to the rusty, crusty finish on the keys I had purchased.

Finally, using Mod Podge, I added the scrolled crowned bird image I created using three wonderful images from The Graphics Fairy. You can find the individual images I used here, here and here. I printed my creation on medium-weight card stock, tore it into a shape I liked and lightly applied stamping ink to the surface and edges to create an aged look.

The natural jewelry hanger works well with the rustic burlap hook. And, it's great to get my heap of necklaces off the daybed.

Make it a great day!

Linking to:

Thursday Favorite Things
Home and Garden Thursday
Transformation Thursday
Be Inspired
Feature Friday
Brag Monday

Eco Art: Creativity with a Message

Reduce

Reuse

Recycle

Reclaim

Repurpose

Respect

Through one of my favorite web sites, www.earth911.com, I came across this intriguing, yet sobering, project,  Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait.

Source

Seattle-based photographer/artist Chris Jordan describes his collection of art this way:

Running the Numbers looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 32,000 breast augmentation surgeries in the U.S. every month.

This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. Employing themes such as the near versus the far, and the one versus the many, I hope to raise some questions about the roles and responsibilities we each play as individuals in a collective that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.

The above work of art pays homage to Georges Seurat's famous painting, but depicts 400,000 plastic bottle caps, equal to the average number of plastic bottles consumed by Americans every day.

Visit www.chrisjordan.com to zoom in and see the bottle cap detail of this remarkable work of art. Among Jordan's other works you can see are 260,000 car keys, equal to the number of gallons of gasoline burned in U.S. cars every minute and 320,000 light bulbs, equal to the number of kilowatt hours wasted every minute in the United States from inefficient residential electricity usage.

Jordan is right: his art gives raw statistics new meaning. I know I won't be able to view plastic bottles in the same way from this day forward.

I hope you'll take a minute to look at Jordan's remarkable work and to reflect on the sobering story it tells. 

Make it a great day!

Linking to:

Creative Bloggers' Party and Hop

Re: 10 Win-Win Tips for Laundry

Reduce

Reuse

Recycle

Reclaim

Repurpose

Respect

Did you know that whether you do a couple of loads of laundry a week or a dozen, eventually nearly all your laundry products make their way into the world's waterways?

No matter how much you'd like to avoid doing laundry, that just isn't going to happen. So, this week's Re: tips will help you reduce your impact on the waterways whenever you take on that favorite chore. They can even save you a little time and some money.

All images via The Graphics Fairy

• About 80% to 90% of the energy used for washing clothes goes to heating the water. Turn the dial to cold for clothing, which makes up the majority of laundry in most households. Hot is best for bed linens and towels, though.
• Choose the shortest wash cycle possible. Unless you're washing heavily soiled items such as muddy sports uniforms, you don't need to use a long cycle. Saves time and money.
• Don't run the washer until you have a full load. One large load is more energy efficient that two smaller loads. Even the most energy-efficient machines use about 40 gallons of water per load. If you reduce the number of loads you wash by washing larger loads, you save time, water and money.

• Select natural laundry products. A good place to start is to avoid detergents with labels that carry the words "warning," "danger" or "poison." Avoid chlorine bleach and boost your cleaning power by adding a little baking soda or hydrogen peroxide to a natural detergent. Skip the fabric softener and add a 1/2 cup of vinegar to the rinse cycle. Or, make your own laundry detergent. There are many recipes available on-line. Mother Nature Network has some recipes you can try.
• Add only the amount of detergent recommended on the packaging. Your machine runs less efficiently when it contains more bubbles.
• If you live in a humid area of the country, use the highest spin speed to remove as much moisture as possible before transferring laundry to the dryer. This reduces drying time and saves energy.

• Hang your laundry to dry, when possible. You will save energy (therefore, money) and extend the life of your clothing by saving wear-and-tear on the fabric.
• If you must machine dry your laundry, don't over dry. Did you know fabric fibers can become brittle, which results in faster deterioration?
• Clean the dryer filter after each use. Also be sure your outside dryer vent is clean and free from obstructions. These steps will help your dryer work more efficiently and help prevent fire.
• Whenever possible, do back-to-back loads of laundry on one day instead of spreading the loads out over multiple days. This will allow you to take advantage of retained heat from previous loads, reducing your total energy use. You got it--saves you money.

Sorry, I can't help you avoid doing your laundry, but perhaps these tips will encourage you to think a bit differently about how you approach this weekly chore. You must might save a little time, money, energy and water.

Make it a great day!

Linking to:

Creative Bloggers' Party and Hop at Homemaker on a Dime
Manic Monday at Serendipity and Spice
More the Merrier Monday at DIY Home Sweet Home
Cowgirl Up at The Farmhouse Porch

Re: 5 Tips to Add Sparkle and Shine

Hope you all had an eco-friendly Earth Day!

This week, I thought I'd share a few easy tips on how to make your reclaimed and vintage finds sparkle and shine without using harsh chemicals or soaps. These tips are so simple! They all make use of an inexpensive, all-natural and common household staple: distilled white vinegar.

#1--

For that vintage glassware you bring home despite its cloudy appearance, soak a soft cloth in full-strength distilled vinegar and wrap the cloth around the inside and outside of the glass. Let it stand awhile before rinsing clean and drying.

#2--

To remove the unsightly film and some stains from the narrow necks of bottles or vases, fill to the top with undiluted distilled vinegar and let sit overnight. Add a little sand or rice and shake vigorously to loosen more stubborn stains and deposits. Rinse and repeat, if necessary.

#3--

To prevent your glassware treasures from being further  etched by hard water minerals, spray with full-strength distilled vinegar after washing, then rinse with hot water and dry with a soft towel. 

#4--

Remove the tarnish from copper, brass or pewter pieces by making a paste of equal parts distilled vinegar and table salt. Rub it on, remove with a soft, damp rag and polish with a soft cloth.

#5--

Doesn't it just make you nuts when your local thrift store or estate sale vendor uses adhesive labels that leave behind that thick, gummy residue?  Removing that gooey mess is generally very easy if you cover the label with a vinegar-soaked cloth and let it sit overnight. The label should slide right off.

Now, go grab your bottle of vinegar and shine, shine, shine.

Make it a great day!

Linking to:

Your Cozy Home at Cozy Home Scenes
The Cure for the Common Monday
A Little Birdie Told Me at Rook No. 17
Creative Bloggers Party and Hop at Homemaker on a Dime
Share the Love Wednesday at Very Merry Vintage Style
Cowgirl Up at The Farmhouse Porch
Vintage Thingie Thursday at The Coloradolady