Movember: Mustaches Fundraiser For Cancer

This isn't really about going green, but it has everything to do with humanity and so I'm posting it on all my blogs.

My husband is taking part of Movember, where men grow their mustaches for the month of November in order to raise money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LIVESTRONG). My husband is part of Team Mo Bicless.

If you can't afford to give yourself, you can join the team to help support and to help raise money for the cause. You do not have to grow a mustache to be part of the team, so ladies you can join too as a MO Sista "A woman who loves a mustache".

After losing my father to cancer, I've heard so many people's stories that I don't believe there's anyone who hasn't been affected by cancer.

I am selling sets of mustache magnets and stickers here. A portion will go towards the charity.

Re-purposed Round Up

These little coin purses are made from milk cartons. You can get the tutorial at Cut Out + Keep.





Make a wrist support pillow out of an old shirt sleeve (from Kelly Georgette)


Elephant Purses made from old sweaters. There are actually quite a few examples of these floating around. I think they're awesome. I love bags and my son is really into elephants so he'd probably love if I made myself one of these.

Monica Wants It has some great makeovers, starting with some pretty gaudy stuff and making it chic. This is just one of them:



Monica Wants it also has a tutorial on making some folder holders out of Priority Post office boxes (left)

I did a similar thing years ago with cereal boxes for my scrapbooking stickers and things (right). Sorry, I probably should have straightened them a bit. I'm usually more organized but I've been crafting a lot and you know how it goes.

Eco chic by Matilda Lee

I've read a few times now about Matilda Lee´s book, Eco chic - the savvy shopper´s guide to ethical fashion. I haven't read the book myself, but according to Outsapop, one of the things the book talks about is how a very small percentage of clothing donated to thrift stores is actually sold. Apparently, of the things donated,

less than 8% of all donated clothes actually ended up being resold in charity shops

7% are not even worth being recycled or further donated, so they end up in landfills. And this is just the clothes people bother to donate to charity.

If things continue the way they have for the last ten years, the business of recycling clothes will eventually go OUT OF BUSINESS.

That's a huge deal! I'm afraid I've seen this happen with people I know. Rather than donate items, I'll hear that they've just thrown them away. Oh, that kills me when that happens. There are so many things that can be done with old clothes, even if they're not still wearable.

Of course, with all the great ways to alter clothes now, there's almost nothing you can't wear in some way or another. If you're not into that, then make a quilt, use scraps for crafting, make a stuffed animal for the kids.

My sister made me this quilt from scraps of my father's old striped shirt. My father had passed so this was a very special gift.


There's just no excuse for throwing these things away. Even if you aren't crafty, everyone knows someone who is.

Recycling plastic cards

For Valentine's Day, I decided to go through some old vacation memorabilia for some inspiration and I found a bunch of casino cards from our trip to Vegas. Below is what I decided to do with them:



Of course, keeping and displaying plastic cards isn't always the answer. I know we all have tons of these things, whether they're gift cards, old credit cards, old library cards, membership cards, and the list goes on. Well, as we've seen, you can craft with them. Even if you don't want to keep them in the original form, they can be cut up and used for mosaics.

For those of us, not so inclined, the problem is that most cards are made out of PVC plastic and with the magnetic strip, they are difficult to recycle. However, Earth Works

has developed the first fully-recycled and fully-recyclable PVC sheet material for the printed product market by safely transforming existing PVC into reusable sheet stock.

This is applicable for

gift cards, promotional cards, ID cards, signs, point of purchase displays, membership cards, hotel cardkeys, bookmarks, rulers, hang tags, drivers licenses, circle alculators, playing cards, luggage tags, and specialty advertising.

You can contact them here to find out how to donate your plastic cards, or go to their website here for more info.