Newspaper Baskets

A few weeks ago I was inspired to make a basket out of old newspapers. I got a little carried away, and decided to try to make nesting baskets. It was successful, and I gave the first set to my sister as a birthday gift.

My mom liked them too, so yesterday I made these for her. I worked much faster this time around, because I had a good system. I used some glue to hold the first four strips of paper together. I also glued a strip around the top of each to finish them off nicely. Binder clips are my friends. The Wall Street Journal was my newspaper of choice, but I think any would work. These baskets are surprisingly sturdy, too. There's a tutorial here, if you're interested.

Happy weaving and happy weekend. Enjoy the sun!

Earth Day 2009

Happy Earth Day! I wanted to post about being green, so I took a picture of one of our compact fluorescent light blubs. But that's not actually green, so I also took a picture of one of our plants too (for a lovely burst of color). 

Things aren't too different around here today, because we try to think of every day as Earth Day. We recycle, have re-usable grocery bags, take public transportation and walk when we can, turn out lights in other rooms, wash our clothes in cold water, and we obviously use energy saving light bulbs. We don't have an air conditioner and in the winter our apartment stays pretty warm on its own (but we also use sweatshirts and blankets before we turn up the heat - even though heat is included in our rent). We unplug our cell phone chargers when our phones aren't charging. We use plastic shopping bags as trash can liners and bring extras to the recycling bin at the super market. We use cloth napkins and glass water bottles. You get the idea - we're trying to be aware of our impact. What are you doing to keep the Earth clean?

For more information about recycling, check out this really cool A-Z recycling guide from Real Simple.

I used the digital Polaroid application to awesome-ify today's pictures. Shake it like a polaroid picture, shake shake it!