The Repurpose & Upcycle thread....

[Hollylane]

Come share your reclaimed, repurposed, and/or upcycled treasures!


Photo credit not given at:http://www.redstickranch.com/2011/05...gardening.html

I thought of creating this thread, because today, I repurposed two Starbuck's coffee bladders into ice bags to use in the cooler that I use to ice the fish I catch.
One of them was unopened and filled with hot Pike Place coffee, and my co-workers were just going to toss it in the trash. I stopped them in the nick of time, and stuck it in the fridge at work. This morning, I poured it into a clean milk jug, poured a container of heavy whipping cream in, and added Stevia and vanilla. I now have some pretty fabulous iced coffee, that will last me a week. Yum!

I am coming out of the junk closet! As a small child, when my single, working mother had little money, my sister and I ate an awful lot of powdered milk and oatmeal, and had few toys that weren't handed down from cousins. By the time I was 6, I was quick to spot "free" things whenever I took our trash to the dumpster at our apartment complex.

One of those treasures was an old beat up spice rack that I picked out of the dumpster when I was about 8 years old. I set my self up in my neighbor's wood shop, sanded it down, repaired it, and carefully applied fresh varnish to it. That spice rack is still in my mother's kitchen, and is still one of her favorite Mother's Day gifts.

Around 9 years old, I built my own desert clubhouse, walling it in under a mesquite tree, with discarded shipping flats. It was filled with trinkets, bobbles, old clocks, and old furniture, and it was my favorite place to hang out with my friends (real and imagined ), or just read a book.

When my mom met my step-father, and we visited his apartment, I remember thinking how awesome he must be, because he had an entire wall unit made of cinder block and reclaimed wood. His furniture had all been picked up at rummage sales, and he had reupholstered the couch and chairs with a mash up of junk fabric he'd found at Goodwill.

My Papa was a train set enthusiast. He would take walks down on the riverfront in Astoria, and would repurpose things he picked up along the shore for his train set. Crushed charcoal became coal, can labels became billboards, popsicle sticks became wood siding, etc...


So, I guess it runs in the family, and we began repurposing and upcycling before it was cool!

For the last few months, I have been wanting to make Obi a dog bed from an old drawer, and now that I have Chessie, I'm looking for an old wooden toddler bed to turn into a bed for him. He's elderly, and I just know he would appreciate something with a mattress! If I can't find one, I'll probably pick up some unpainted used lumber at the Rebuilding center, and make a box frame for a toddler mattress, and then repurpose some old quilts into a mattress cover.